There is a marked resurgence in the activities of PPA lately. What are you up to?
My key duty now is spark an internal dialogue among the Igbos, first and foremost. My thinking is that this is crucial to whatever political progress the group must make in the Nigerian state. This dialogue will redefine our strategy to aspire to the highest electoral office in the country.
I want to make sure that I arrange a platform to ensure that this time, the Igbos speak with one voice. So it is not a question of PPA, APGA, PDP or anything. I am not a member of any party right away. I am independent for now, but there are activities going on in the PPA, even you and I can see it. Watch out.
Are you talking about a reorganization that will prepare Ndigbo to gun for presidency in 2015?
As a major ethnic nationality in the Nigerian project, a president of Igbo extraction is a legitimate aspiration and you will agree with me it is overdue by any parameters of natural justice.
Igbo presidency is the most feasible thing to happen in 2015. It is what every Igbo man dreams of, 42 years after the civil war. We would like to see that the war has ended, and that can only happen when justice is done to the Igbo people; when they are allowed to rule their own country. We have never ruled this country since the 70s, whether in military or civilian times.
If you cast back your mind, you will see that we have helped the north to produce the president; we have helped the west to produce president; the South-east voted Jonathan in 2011 and now they should make sacrifice and help us to have that slot.
Ahead of 2015, what sort of re-alignment are we going to see?
The re-alignments are real and we are going to do it. Many people are dissatisfied with what is going on in the south east; many people are dissatisfied with what is going on politically in Nigeria. So there will be re-alignments not only in Igbo land but everywhere in Nigeria because people are disenchanted; they have no food, they have no roads, they are being harassed and so on.
If you go to the south east today, between the Niger Bridge and Aba, you have 200 police check points. The Punch just did an editorial on it; that the Igbos are being extorted about N9 billion every year. This is injustice and that is part of what I have been shouting about and I look like a mad man on the street. This is injustice. Where else will you have police harassment? If you go from Benin to Warri, you drive 24 hours.
But you will hardly drive 24 hours between Onitsha and Aba, why? Now I want the Igbos to be given a sense of belonging; give them a sense of justice and a sense of commitment. We must talk as an ethnic nationality; we must be back as an ethnic nationality to be able to move as an ethnic nationality.
So we are looking at alliances that will bring us together with, mostly with the north and the south west. We want them to trust us for once; we have to be trusted. You cannot continue telling us that the war has ended but we cannot be president of Nigeria. You cannot continue to tell us that the war has ended but out of the six geo-political zones we are the only ones with five states. Igbos are very successful in this country in terms of contribution to the economy of this country in every corner. If you go to everywhere you find them; yes they are making money but they are contributing to economic growth.
You need a platform to achieve the kind of change you are talking about in 2015, but given the machinations in our politics, the incumbent is hardly dislodged. Are you also considering floating a new political party with your allies?
Every card is just possible because our people are disenchanted that after nearly 15 years of the PDP government, they have not got it right. Mind you we formed the PDP so there is possibility that a new big political party will spring up between the Igbos and the northerners.
Already the ACN is there in the south west. I think that in the coming election, people of every ethnic nationality are going to vote for their own and then they will come to the centre to discuss Nigeria. So don’t even think of any big political party. Between APGA, PPA and other political parties in the south east, we must be able to reach some agreement. PDP might not have a stake in our area because people are not happy with the PDP.
Does that mean that you have foreclosed your return to the PDP?
There is possibility that I will not go back to PDP. I don’t know how it will turn out, but there is a high possibility.
One of the most important challenges facing the Ndigbo now is the inability to speak with one voice. And to be able to engage Nigeria, Ndigbo needs an arrow head that can lead the movement; are you looking at that role?
This is why I prefer not to contest election so that I will play that role very well for them. I have gained a lot; I have helped myself a lot as a person; I have been successful in almost everything I do. So I want to be successful in organising Igbo people. As a young man I became the chairman of Borno State water Board in the mid-eighties; I became chairman of Igbo Marketing Company; I became chairman of Cooperative and Commerce Bank; I became member of the House of Representatives and I became governor of Abia State. So when you take those sequences, you will see that I am in a good position to reposition the people of the south east, and the Nigerian people.
You are talking about Igbo presidency and alliance with the north; but the north is also interested in the presidency in 2015. How will you balance the two contending aspirations?
The Igbos and the north will decide what they want to do on a common ground. But it’s not yet time to discuss that. For now, let everybody go and prepare his mother’s kitchen. We as Igbos will go and prepare in our mother’s kitchen; Tinubu and co have prepared their own area; and we expect the north to also prepare their own area.
We will now come to the centre to discuss how to rule Nigeria. So the north will tell us this is their interest and we will tell them this is our interest. If the two interests can come together, matchup and produce something, we will do it. It’s give and take so we must be able settle for the best option.
It’s no longer that we are going to support this man or that man. No, it has to be Igbo interest equals to northern interest and northern interest equals to Igbo interest. So the two interests must compare. I cannot see my Igbo brothers continue to play subservient role.
Given the anger you have expressed with PDP.... (Cuts in)
It’s not about anger; it’s about performance. Mind you, I have never been angry with PDP; I have always been angry with the mode of its leadership.
Ok you have not actually said you have finally closed the door on PDP; what kind of offer will the party make for you to consider returning?
The top echelons of PDP are talking to me but the question is whether the Igbos are willing to follow PDP. I am not going to follow because I want to follow PDP; if in the consensus of most Igbo people is that they want to go with PDP so be it...but I don’t think that majority of the Igbos are thinking like that. The thinking of the Igbos today is to use APGA, PPA etc to get their base energised and then they will come out and take part in whatever that will be discussed at the centre.
But how do you at see the situation if Jonathan would want to take a shot at a second term in 2015?
If the man wants to have a second chance that is his business. Our business is to produce an Igbo candidate who will run.
Is it your position that the country desperately needs a change in 2015?
From where the Igbos are now they need to be president. That is our business. I am not going to say whether the president has done well or not. I have told a newspaper recently, that the President has said give me one more year to judge me, and I am a very good student –a good listener. So I will give him one more year and from the end of this year I will discuss the president. I won’t discuss the president now because I want to discuss him realistically.
Talking about constitution review, one issue that is being played up across the nation is state creation; what is the justifiable thing to do?
The best thing to do is to ensure that every geo political zone has seven states. Those that don’t have seven should go to seven; those that have seven should stop there; those that have six should get one more and the south-east which has five should have two more. If we are reasonable, why do we want to break our country? We have fought a civil war. And a country that fights civil war twice can never be one country; it is there in history.
What’s your take on a single-term presidency?
I advocated a single-term presidency when President Obasanjo was there. I called him and advised that we should have one term of five years for governors and the president. Look at the amount of money that we waste through the electoral process. It is not worth it. Look at Ghana, Benin Republic and even Sierra Leon that just came out of war conducting agreeable election. Why not Nigeria? So the areas that I am looking forward to the National Assembly to amend in the constitution, they are not doing it.
They should also amend the constitution making sitting at the National Assembly to be a part time affair. I expect every member of the National Assembly to earn like N250, 000 a month as sitting allowance so that we will allow people who are ready to work for Nigeria to be there. These are the thing they should do. In fact Nigerians are not addressing the issues. We are spending 25 percent of our national budget on 409 people (National Assembly members) and nobody cares. Which country survives like that?
This is happening while over 160 million are out there suffering. We should start to look at these amendments so that the member of the assembly should only take his sitting allowance and go.
You spoke about policing and the tendency to use the police to rig elections. As former state governor do you think state police is the proper thing to introduce now?
I support state police but the institutions that aid governance are weak. It is just going to be like the local government. State police is good but because we don’t have strong institutions to check these governors and future governors. State police is necessary where we are today because they will abuse it. look at the local government now; they are not functioning. I support creation of state police. But this should come in the future.
You had a strong disagreement with former president OlusegunObasanjo which led to your exit from the PDP. Now that he has left his position as BOT chairman and does not appear to be wielding any power in the party; don’t yoy think the PDP is fairly safe for you now?
II didn’t leave PDP because I wanted to leave. I left the PDP because President Obasabjo was not implementing the agenda we agreed upon. First of all we agreed that he would rule for four years. President Babangida is alive; I drove with him to Otta when he (Obasanjo) came out of prison and we agreed that he would rule for four years.
But from four years he proceeded for second term; from two terms he wanted to be a life president. This was my disagreement with him. I didn’t quarrel with other members of the PDP. I quarrelled with President Obasanjo and he asked them to deregister me and Atiku because we had become threat. All these issues about touching my businesses and everything was because I became a perceived threat to the president for telling him the truth.
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