In this interview with Assistant Editor, Onyedi Ojiabor, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, former governor of Abia State and former National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) before the party merged with the All Progressives Congress (APC), x-rayed the June 21 Ekiti State governorship election and returned a verdict of a skewed and slanted poll. He also reveals how the APC was able to pull through its merger and its national convention. He did not leave out the Igbo question in APC. Excerpts
What is your perception of the way things are going on in the country?
Nigeria is a great nation and God blessed the country enormously in both human and material resources. Nigeria has a very important role to play, particularly in Africa and also in the world. If there had not been a country like Nigeria, I’m sure that Africa would have called for a nation like Nigeria. But we have not developed at the pace that we should. The great potential in Nigeria has not been realised. Currently, we have various problems but what worries many people like me is that many of these problems are self inflicted and can be avoided. Right now we are a nation that imports almost everything. We have all the raw materials, we have the human resource to convert these raw materials into products and goods that we need but we are not doing it.
Most of these issues you raised are blamed on the leadership of the country. Most Nigerians believe that Nigerian leaders have failed the country. Do you share this sentiment?
Definitely, this is why we are concerned; those of us who are in opposition, who hold current executive leadership positions. We are saying that we, as a nation, we have tried one political party for a period of time, now at the federal level we’ve tried the ruling party for 15 years; by May of next year, it will be 15 years. If these problems are there, as a nation why don’t we try another political party?
You were the National Chairman of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) which fused with other parties to form the All Progressives Congress (APC). Not many Nigerians gave the parties the benefit of the doubt that the merger would work. Leaders of major opposition parties pulled through a successful merger. How did it happen?
Yes, you are right, not many Nigerians believed the merger would work. Actually at the time they were feeling that way, some of us didn’t feel bad because we knew that for political parties that control governments to come together, give up their identities, assuming a new name, motto, logo, it is not easy. It has not happened before in Nigeria and it has never happened even any where in Africa and it has happened rarely in the world. So, those who were skeptical, those who thought that it could not happen, yes nobody could really blame them. But those of us who wanted it knew what we were doing because we know that that was the only way our country can develop at the rate we want it. You know that if you have smaller opposition political parties, it will be extremely difficult to defeat a political party that, take for example, the ruling party that controls 28 out of 36 states of the federation. But by coming together, you will now build a new opposition party, strong enough to defeat the ruling party. As at today, we are controlling 16 states, the ruling party is controlling 18 states. You can see that the difference is substantially narrowed now. We also felt that the only way those in government can really put in their best is if they know that if they don’t do so they can be voted out. If they believe that no matter what they do they will always win, they will go to sleep. So, by give and take we were able to come together and it is good for our country to do so.
What about the insinuation that APC is a party of strange bed fellows?
Certainly it is not true. You find that the progressive credential is in the APC. This is a party that is very committed to having a new and a modern Nigeria. Coming together for them didn’t really pose a problem. Even with the ruling party there were people who had progressive credentials and obviously they will not fit very well in the ruling party. It will be like oil in water. So they came to us. So we have shown that the parties that came together were driven by love of the country. They desire to make our country truly great. That is the very strong driving force for our coming together, the desire to make our country truly great.
Some party men and women were not happy with the outcome of the National Convention of APC. What is the party doing to ensure that aggrieved members do not carry their anger too far.
APC is now a very big party. The party is controlling two of the most populous states in the country, Lagos and Kano States. So in terms of even registered voters, you find that we have majority of the registered voters. So it is a very large party and it is very difficult to organise a convention and you won’t have ripple effects. You are likely to see certain persons who may be dissatisfied. But the important thing is that the party has taken it upon itself to do all it can to make sure that, one, you find grievances, two, you get those grievances resolved. The process of ensuring harmony in the party is ongoing. We believe and hope that in the end, the party will get everybody on board.
Considering your pedigree, many people, thought that you will go for the chairmanship of APC. What really happened that you didn’t take a shot at the party’s chairmanship?
No, the position of national chairman of our party was zoned to the South-South geo-political zone and I am from the South-East. So it won’t be nice for somebody like myself who believes in party discipline to go outside that zoning. It will not be proper.
How will you explain the much talked about Igbo question in APC. Some believe that people of Igbo extraction are not really in APC. Is there any problem?
No, Igbo are in APC. Imo State, for instance, out of the five South Eastern states is the most populous. APC is controlling Imo State. Igbo are in APC but we are not satisfied with what we have and we are working very hard to attract more people not just in the South-East but across the country into the fold of the party. I must also say that Igbo, by our nature, we travel a lot and we reside in places outside our indigenous home. So you should not limit Igbo in APC to only those who reside in the South-East. We have Igbo everywhere in the country. We are working very hard, those of us who are in APC, to attract more members. And there are quite a number of people who have expressed interest. We are working, it is a gradual process. Don’t forget that APC is just about one year old even though it is made up of old political parties that are now defunct but it is a new party. It will take some time but we are working.
As one of the leaders of APC are you satisfied with the positions assigned the South-East in the party?
Right now we just completed the national convention and the convention was designed to elect officers of the party as zoned to the six geo-political zones of the country. Other things will also follow and I believe that the South-East will always get its due. APC is going to do well in the South-East. It is true that the incumbent governor of Imo State won election on the platform of APGA, he is doing extremely very well in the state. The governor has improved substantially the infrastructure base in the state.
The unexpected happened in Ekiti State on June 21 when the Independent National Electoral Commission declared the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Ayo Fayose, winner in the governorship election against the candidate of the ruling APC in the state. In your view what went wrong?
As a party we will be meeting to look at what happened in Ekiti State on June 21. We will draw a lesson that we will be learning from what happened in Ekiti State. And I think the nation also, including the ruling party, has some lessons to learn from Ekiti.
We will not allow what happened in Ekiti to affect the party in future elections. I’m sure you know that even though that election was said to be transparent and credible, certain actions that took place before and during the election question whether that election was truly free and fair.
For example, the final campaign which took place two days to the election, I was a victim. We traveled by air from Abuja to Ekiti, through Akure (Ondo State). We landed and went to Ado Ekiti through Akure. When we wanted to come back we couldn’t, the plane was there. We had to go back to Ado Ekiti and travelled all through the night by road to Abuja. Even the governor of Imo State, Chief Rochas Okorocha, had to travel by road to Owerri (Imo State).
You know a situation where a serving governor was not even allowed to enter Ekiti, he was stopped at the boundary of Ondo and Ekiti. These are acts of harassment which you can also classify as intimidation. Certain actions like that question whether an election under such an environment can truly be called free. When at the eve of an election and also on the day of election you start arresting leaders of a major political party like APC, arresting and detaining them, you wonder whether such election can be considered free.
An election can be credible, an election can be transparent but an election that is credible and transparent may also not be free. We believe that the Federal Government also learnt a lot of lessons from Ekiti to ensure that future elections are truly free. People should not be intimidated, people should not be harassed because a situation where serving governors cannot move freely in any part of the country is a very serious problem.
So also the ruling party I believe ought to learn a lesson from what happened in Ekiti because in 2011 there were serving governors who ran for re-election like in Imo, in Nasarawa, in Zamfara , in Oyo. They were defeated but they didn’t concede defeat. They didn’t congratulate those who won and these were all of the ruling party. But look at what the APC has done now, the Ekiti State governor yet may have been defeated , has already congratulated the man who won and told him look we will work together for the good of the state, to bring peace and remove violence.
I think that the ruling party ought to learn this and everybody should be aware that election can go either way. So if you are in government today you can be out of government tomorrow. So the ruling party should not rejoice too much, they should also be getting ready to be in opposition because this is a possibility. It is important that we learn lessons because if we say that everything went on well, next time the same level of intimidation or even more, that will be very unfortunate.
The APC has gone through the hurdle of merging and came out successful. The party again succeeded in organising its national convention. Skeptics are now focusing on the presidential flag bearer of the party. How is the party working to ensure that there would be no rancour in choosing its presidential hopeful?
The national convention that will elect our presidential candidate will most likely come in November. But I just want to say something, you see, at every stage our people have been skeptical, the party will not be registered; it was registered, during the membership registration exercise, people said it will not work; it worked, the national convention to elect officers of the party will collapse, it succeeded. So I believe that so long as the party continues to be fair in whatever we do, so long we would continue in give and take, and so definitely we will be able to pick our presidential candidate and then come out to offer Nigerians the alternative to what the PDP has failed to offer.
Former Edo State Governor, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun emerged national chairman of APC. You were governor of Abia State when he was Edo State governor. Do you think the party made the right choice for a man who can carry the weight of the party?
Yes, very well, he will, yes he will. Both of us were colleagues. While I was governor in Abia, he was governor of Edo State. There were 30 states then, I was the first Nigerian to be chairman of conference of Nigerian governors. So that gave me an opportunity to interact very closely with governors. You know when you are chairman, you get to know people more than every other person. We worked very closely together when I was the national chairman of ANPP in carrying out functions of the party. I believe he has the capacity to move the APC to greater height. He has the drive and also the capacity to do what is best for our party.
