by OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOLOJU
Senator Annie Okonkwo is the chairman of Committee 21 (C21), a pressure group fighting for the rights of South-East. In this interview with OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOLOJU, he speaks on the quest by Ndigbo to produce the president in 2015 and other issues.
Excerpts:
You were known to be a staunch member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but recently, you defected to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). What informed your decision?
First of all, if you are in this country, you would know what has been happening in the PDP. But to answer your question directly, the need to protect our collective interest informed the decision to move to a platform where our collective interest would be adequately protected. In the PDP today, you will realise that the Igbo do not even occupy the fourth or even fifth position in the arrangement and that is not acceptable to a lot of us.
We also have a lot of other challenges. We believe that the Igbo man is not occupying his rightful place in this country; we are not even anywhere and people are not even thinking about this. Despite our commitment to the Nigerian state, despite that the Igbo is the only tribe you can find living everywhere in this country; after the majority tribe in any state, the second largest population are the Igbo. But people are now taking us for granted.
So, we decided to reposition the Igbo nation in the country called Nigeria and this informed the berthing of the Committee 21 (C21), a socio-political and economic organisation, which is now a vehicle we intend to use to actualise our dreams and vision. We have to look at the social, political and economic situation of the Igbo man in the Nigerian polity, in terms of our state and our economic situation. The C21 has been able to look at the situation on ground and we felt that the political imbalance must be redressed and the C21 adopted APGA as the platform to achieve our political dreams, because we don’t want to move into where we are not recognised or reckoned with.
In 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan would have completed his first term and some Igbo leaders in Anambra State have endorsed him for a second term. Don’t you think this would affect the desire of the Igbo to take a shot at the presidency in 2015?
I think the situation is very clear. Jonathan is the president of Nigeria under the PDP platform. If the PDP chooses to adopt him for 2015, what is our own business with that? But what we are saying is that Ndigbo want to field their own candidate for the presidency come 2015 and we are soliciting for the support of the other zones to realise this dream and we are going to field our own candidate under the APGA platform. The national chairman of the APGA has already mentioned this and that is exactly what we are saying. So, if anybody is in the PDP and endorses Jonathan, he is on his own; he is not for the Igbo. I can tell you categorically that those people are not speaking for the Igbo. I can tell you that the Igbo would be more united in 2015 and they are more determined to achieve the Igbo presidency in 2015 and they believe that they would be given the opportunity.
But there is this fear that the Igbo presidency project may not be realised under APGA given the scope and spread of the party. It is believed that the Igbo would have a better chance under the PDP.
I disagree with that. Look at it this way; many Igbo people have tried to attain that level under the PDP, but what became of it? Dr. Alex Ekwueme tried it in 1999 when he was the founding chairman of the PDP and when he was supposedly the best candidate, they sabotaged him. What happened then is still fresh in our memories and this time around, our people do not want to take chances.
We have also realised that to make any headway, we need to consult with the other zones and other political parties to make sure that we get it right this time around. Our best chance is 2015, especially with the way the country is today. There is no question of anybody not getting the opportunity, but we have realised the opportunity and we are pleading with the other zones to support the Igbo quest for the presidency in 2015.
There has always been the problem of unity among Ndigbo when it comes to political alignment, as the people have always failed to speak with one voice. How do you intend to deal with this problem?
We appreciate that fact and we know that it is a problem and that is why we are kick-starting with the C21, which is like a vehicle that is going to be used and which is being used today to unite all the political groups in Igbo land, because this quest for the presidency by Ndigbo is the project of all the political groups in Igbo land; and for us to achieve this vision, we need to carry everybody along.
But we also recognise that in everything one does in life, there are always saboteurs, who would want to throw spanners in the works, but the truth of the matter is that we have already put in place mechanisms and strategies to take care of those saboteurs and when the time comes, we will take care of them. We are not going to reveal our strategies on the pages of the newspapers; we have realised that there may be a lot of people who would work to scuttle our aspiration amongst our people, but we are ready to make sure that at the appropriate time, we would stop those people from continuing their trade.
In view of the ongoing constitutional amendment, what is your take on the creation of an additional state in the South-East and revenue sharing?
We are of the belief today that if states are not created in other zones, the South-East deserves an additional state. But we have also come to the realisation that as the question of state creation comes to the front burner, other zones are also agitating for their own states. What exactly are we talking about? We are talking about imbalance. We are talking of imbalance of the states, imbalance of local governments, because these are bases on which revenue allocations are made. In the state creation process by the military, the Igbo were completely marginalised. When we talk of constitutional amendment, it is clear that we cannot continue the way we have been going. Today, we are talking of Boko Haram, yesterday, it was militancy, nobody knows what it would be next.
So, for equity and justice, let us return to regionalism. Let the allocation be shared according to the zones and let the zones now share according to the number of states and local governments in each zone. In that situation, any zone that want to have nine states would be free to do that; any zone that want to create 1,000 local governments can do so, as long as each zone has equal share of the allocation from the federation.
But a situation where deliberately, some zones are cheated in the creation of states and local governments, where we are not having equality of states and local governments is not accepted. We are making it very clear and boldly that in the process of constitutional amendment, these are issues to be looked at critically.
The Northern governors are agitating for a review of the present revenue formula because it does not favour the North while the South-South is agitating for an increase in the derivation. As a former lawmaker, how do you strike a balance in these agitations?
The issue is that if we want to practice true federalism, we should practice it to the latter. Today, the emphasis is on oil, tomorrow it could be agriculture, it may be coal in another time; but, unfortunately, we have put too much emphasis on oil and these are things that create problems, especially among the Northern states, with the believe that revenue must be shared equally.
But we must come to a time when we must practice true federalism and the people would be taxed according to what they produce and if possible, let each zone or each state control what they produce and don’t be surprised that some states can go into tourism as their main source of revenue, rather than this total dependence on oil and prepare their states and make so much money from tourism, even more than states that have oil.
In a state like California in the United States of America, revenue from tourism alone is over $70 billion every year. So, it is not just oil; there are other sources that are yet to be tapped in this country. If our leaders can start thinking with vision, they can find out ways of generating revenues outside oil that we all depended on. I support the practice of true federalism.
What is your take on the clamour for a sovereign national conference, engendered by the present spate of violence perpetuated by Boko Haram and other sundry security challenges across the country, considering that the National Assembly is kicking against it?
As far as I am concerned, it will be difficult for the National Assembly to accede to the convocation of a sovereign national conference. But the truth of the matter is that if you look at Nigeria today, it is better for us to sit down and decide on how we move forward and the terms of our continuous living together as a nation. Don’t forget like I said earlier, today, we are battling with Boko Haram, tomorrow it could be the turn of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and we are yet to get out of the militancy in the Niger Delta, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) is agitating in the South-East and there are other groups like the Bakassi and the rest.
From your own point of view and given the fact that next week, Nigeria would be celebrating 52 years of nationhood; would you say that as a nation, we are where we are supposed to be?
It all depends on the angle from which an individual looks at it. But honestly, the truth of the matter, which everybody would agree with, is that the country is not moving forward the way it is supposed to be. The high rate of insecurity is there; the high rate of corruption is there, poverty is endemic, the infrastructure is not there, the integrity of the nation is dwindling by the day, so as a country, we are not moving forward.
I think there is supposed to be more and proper orientation of the people. The way things are going, if these issues are not properly addressed, it would not augur well for anybody. I strongly believe that something must be done to start addressing the situation of this country.
You were the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment in the last Senate, what were you able to do about the erosion scourge devastating the South- East?
Erosion is one of the major challenges we have in this country, not only in the South-East, in view of the global climate change. We found it very challenging when we were in the Senate and what we did then was to put erosion issues on the front burner and the Federal Government then declared the South-East erosion disaster area, but the truth of the matter is that nothing much has been done about this scourge. We have not seen any improvement; rather the situation is getting worse by the day.
What we are now trying to do is to float a non-governmental organisation (NGO), where we can access funds from other developed countries, to combat the erosion menace; because we believe that probably, the government alone would not be able to tackle the erosion problem in this country alone. But honestly, the erosion situation in the South-East is frightening and mind you, if something is not done quickly, in few years time, there may be no state left standing in the South-East. The way things are today, year in year out, many houses are being submerged by the erosion scourge in the South-East and flooding too is taking its own toil, so something must be urgently done to arrest the situation before it completely gets out of hand.
You earlier mentioned the high level of corruption in the country. What do you think is the panacea to this recurring decimal, as it seems the government is not doing enough to fight this cankerworm?
The major problem in this area is the problem of orientation. Today, people can go to Ghana and invest because in Nigeria, from the gateman to the topmost person in any organisation, are corrupt and unfortunately for us in Nigeria, a lot of Nigerians have taken corruption as a way of life. So, we must return to re-inventing our values, especially family values of the old days.
You can see that within a short time, Ghanaians were able to change their country. For corruption to be adequately tackled, there must be re-orientation. It is not about building infrastructure, neither is it about improving power, because if we build all the infrastructure and power and our people lack the proper orientation, we would be retrogressing rather than progressing. So, the leadership of this country must try as much as possible to avoid celebrating corruption.
What we have today is that you see people involved in corruption one way or another on the pages of newspapers and on television being celebrated and honoured with different awards here and there, dining and wining with the president , which is not good for the image of the country and our development as a nation. To discourage people from corrupt tendencies and acts, those found to be involved in corrupt practices and acts must not only been punished severely, but must be seen to be so punished for their crime.
There are speculations that you are angling for Anambra State governorship in 2014.
First of all, my focus right now is to try and see how we can position the Igbo nation in the entity called Nigeria. As the president of C21, the responsibility lies on my head to reposition APGA to the level where our interest is adequately accommodated. For me, I have not decided exactly what my next line of action is politically and of course you will agree with me that whatever next step I will be taking in my political career would require a lot of consultations with different strata of our people.
I am a politician and I am still playing politics and by God’s grace, I will continue to be an active player in the political firmament, so whatever would be my next political step, I think my constituency should be the one to decide. There is no political office that I cannot handle, as a senator, because once a senator, always a senator forever. In whatever capacity my people require my service; I will always be ready to make myself available.
Do you think that APGA can win Anambra State governorship come 2014?
By the grace of God, definitely. APGA is now stronger than it used to be. There is no other political party that can win Anambra State.
How would you assess President Goodluck Jonathan in almost 18 months of his first tenure?
From my own point of view, I think President Jonathan has a lot of good intentions and plans for this country but the greatest challenge is the execution of these lofty intentions, especially on the part of the people working with him. He made a lot of promises and it is just one and a half years and I wouldn’t want to assess him within the short time he has been in office.
But we can see that the intentions are there, but what is lacking is the implementation. So, we believe we should give the president another one year before we can make far-reaching assessment of his governance, to see what he could do for this country and see a change in the situation of this country. As of now, there is nothing to celebrate as the situation is not favourable.
What is the relationship between APGA and other opposition political parties in terms of forging an alliance to confront the PDP in 2015?
APGA is in good relationship with other opposition parties and I think that the possibility of an alliance for 2015 is very high. We don’t have any issue with forming alliances, as long as the other parties share the vision we have. It is just that for now, we are coming out strongly, with high determination to pursue and achieve our vision. We don’t have any problem forming alliance with any party that would help us achieve our aim, but our focus is to effect a change in the way the country is being run.
