Senator (Dr) Chris Nwabueze Ngige does not require any introduction. Having served variously as the President of the Aka Ikenga an Igbo intelligentsia group and President, Alor Development Union, Dr Ngige was elected Governor of Anambra State in 2003, succeeding his party man Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju, of PDP. His tenure was however truncated by the Court of Appeal in March 2006. He is remembered for his 34 months of transformational projects in infrastructure, public service/pension administration, security and water supply.
For two years now, Ngige an accomplished medical doctor has been represent Anambra Central works even harder in the Senate through legislative reforms on National Health Insurance Scheme, with co-members of the Senate Committee on Health .As Vice Chairman, Power Committee of the Senate he lead the initiative to recover 22 stolen barges for Alaoji power station adding 1000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid. The two are part of the seven Senate committees he serves in.
History records Ngige as liberating Anambra State from a set of power-racketeers enjoying the cover of Obasanjo’s Aso Rock, exposing the financial profile of the state, and resisting attempts to be muscled into paying political jobbers at the expense of the state- his predecessor’s undoing.
Is Ngige in Anambra 2014 race? Yes is now the answer. But why: ‘I was only able to implement 20 percent of my blueprint for Anambra State. The administration after me has done seven percent, which means that 73 percent of that blueprint, is still relevant to today’s needs Ngige declares pointedly
The bearded one, unarguably one of the busiest legislators in the Seventh National Assembly spoke to ADA BOSA in Awka.
The Excerpts:
Your new mega party, All Progressive Congress (APC) has just been registered by INEC. How do you feel?
I feel like a mother who has just delivered a new baby would feel. I am happy. When the baby emerges the birth pangs recede into dull memory. We worked hard. We felt the pain. Some people did not wish us to succeed, but we did and over time all of that will blow over.
So how was this baby conceived?
Well you know that before 2011 presidential elections we in ACN tried to go into an alliance with the Congress for Progressive change (CPC) for the 2011 Presidential Elections, nut that discussion was not fruitful for many reasons, and each party had to contest separately. However, in January this year we received a letter from CPC proposing a merger with ACN. We took the letter to the National Executive Committee, deliberated on it and gave an approval in principle. Subsequently, there was a joint meeting and the parties agreed to set up committees to work out the modalities of the merger. So ACN set up a 21-member committee in which Achike Udenwa and I represented the South East. The CPC set up their own committee and the ANPP expressed interest in joining and we received them with open arms, believing that the more we are, the merrier.
Why was there a sort of controversy on APGA involvement in the merger?
The decision to dissolve into another group is a major decision and sometimes even in united organisations it could create divided opinions. Yet APGA had an on-going crisis before the merger talks began. Despite the strength of CAN IN the South East which was largely acknowledged, we needed to be stronger in the wake of the APC merger talks, so I approached APGA through Rochas Okorocha,and other parties in the South East. Governor Okorocha showed brilliance and total grasp of the issues, and said he was for anything that would ensure that Ndigbo are not left out, because once there were two strong parties, many others will operate outside the loop. I now challenged him to carry the consultation further within the rank of APGA. If I was thinking of my self, I would have preferred to be there alone so that whatever is meant for the South East would come to me. You will agree that we have seen a lot of that kind of politics, even till date in the South East. But no! We in the South East have a lot at stake nationally and time is not in our favour.
So what happened ?
Okorocha assured after wide consultations that he was coming into the merger with everyone who believes in it and all those who do not agree could make their choice’ it came to me like a giant leap forward for Ndigbo who are not favoured by calculations in the PDP,or any other party for that matter. So, I moved a motion in the Central Merger Committee headed by Chief Tom Ikimi, where I was representing the South East to include APGA in the merger and was supported by Chief Segun Osoba (Former Governor of Ogun state). I was however opposed on the grounds that APGA was in crisis, and I said APGA was not the only party in crisis. I illustrated with CPC –you know it is an off-shoot of ANPP, formed because Buhari did not like the way things were going in ANPP at the time. Yet even within the CPC, there was a splinter group led by Senator Hanga. Other parties also had pockets of crises. My motion sailed through, so APGA sent a 20-man delegation, and joined the discussion. For experience, I asked Annie Okonkwo to lead the delegation.
When it was time to consider names we agreed on the letter ‘A’ because three of the four parties, ACN,ANPP,CPC and APGA has ‘A’. We agreed on ‘P ‘because three of the parties also had it in their acronym. Then we also agreed on C because two of the parties have in their acronym and CPC has double ration of it. So we agreed to use APC as our acronym. We named the new mega party All Progressive Congress (APC) and announced it on February 6. The rest of the story you know.
So what was going on in the backroom of the Central Merger Committee when other ‘APCs’ started springing up?
I still have some friends in the PDP where I was a foundation member and Assistant National Secretary. I jocularly told some of them that their strategy of trying to block our name was infantile because if you block APC we could take up any other name and I did not see them succeeding in blocking all. So I advised them to apply that time on some fruitful strategies. But even then, we were not going to relinquish the name because it is our intellectual property. It is part of the APC legacy for Nigeria that each individual or group should creatively come up with their brain children and secure their rights to them. So we chose to defend that APC copyright so to say. And we are grateful that Nigerians appreciated and gave us the needed moral support. It is something that APC will like to carry to government starting from Anambra 2014.
What roles did you play and what positions did you man in the course of the merger?
Like I said, I was in the National Steering Committee. I was also elected the Chairman of the Steering committee for the South East with responsibility to midwife the effective fusing of the structures of all parties in the merger within the South East. Dr.Ogbonnaya Onu of ANPP was elected the Chairman of the South East Elders Forum at the same time. In the Steering committee ,we toured all formations of the legacy parties (parties joining with 100 % structures) in the area of capturing and working out a framework for the harmonisation of assets of component parties and affiliations across the five states in the South East. My committee carried out an inspection of offices, facilities, assets and registers across these states, and worked out the blueprint for fusing them, which has been marshalled and will become operational soon.
What in a nutshell shall Anambra people and Nigeria expect from an APC government in Anambra State and Nigeria respectively?
It is a very important question, because, we said we are coming together to capture power from the PDP, and some conveniently interpreted it to mean that when we capture power, our job is done. Nothing can be farther from the truth, as our manifestoes have clearly spelt out. Everyone in Nigeria, except some PDP members agrees on the need for change of government in Abuja because the PDP has not helped us grow the polity and the economy in the last 14 years.
We are yet to grow in democracy from civil rule. It is clear that the PDP administration is not providing jobs and when I talk of jobs, I am not saying that everyone should come and become a civil servant because the government wants to give jobs, or line up for hand-outs. When we say that government is the biggest employer of labour, we mean that government uses the policies, actions and programmes to provide opportunities, so that the thriving private and informal sectors can provide jobs.
For instance, we enjoyed good governance in the east when, our industries gave us good jobs and ranked the Government of Eastern Nigeria as the fastest growing economy under Dr. Michael Okpara in the sixties. That government was a product of the kind of actions we are taking today under APC. That alliance was called United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA). It encompassed the NCNC, Action Group, The Middle Belt Congress and Northern Elements Progressive Union. Compare with the APC mega party, and you will see that the ideology is consistent.
Now, 83 percent of the industries in the South East for example are now unfortunately dead. Talk about Golden Guinea Breweries, Niger Cement Company (NIGERCEM) , Nkalagu, Iron and Steel firms, paint industries, Umuahia Ceramics. Even recently, you have ANNAMCO as well as the expansive paint industry, just to mention a few, all in distress. If you come home to Anambra, State, there is an abandoned rice mill in Omor, Ayamelum LGA, and that industry is enough to feed the South East if revived and managed well, but that has not happened in seven years and running.
If you have a government at the centre that emplaces the right policies that enable these industries to be revived and the jobs to be reclaimed, then government has created jobs. And that is exactly what we are not getting at the moment. What we find more is governors rushing to Abuja to get and allocations, take up appointments ,or or curry favour from the government at the centre, when they can actually harness a lot of resources at their home and be self-sustained.
So there is no gainsaying it that we need change. But that change must start from Anambra State on November 16 (2013).
How do you rate the followership in Nigeria in terms of being able to grasp the policy content of government?
People need to question leaders the more. We have legislators in the National and State Assemblies, but many are not doing the type of town hall meetings we are doing in our constituencies. Many do not receive and maintain contact with the weakest elements in their society and apply themselves to their issues. Rather, they create cordons around themselves becoming inaccessible to those they serve. The same applies to many in the executive. The idea for us to intervene on the reforms in the National Health Insurance Policy to take better care of those who cannot fly out abroad to take care of their health, yet need good health, informed all the time, energy and resources we are now putting in the legislative review of the National Health Insurance Policy .And health care will never be the same again.
But the inspiration to do that was received from followership because I took steps to create an avenue to listen to the people I represent and they in turn raised their issues with me,asking questions that put us on our feet. We need more of that. It is like a long distance race and I particularly want to thank Anambra citizens for their patience, tolerance and steadfastness, particularly in the past seven and half years. Having steadily travelled with their heads up till this time, it is easy to get to their target, which is in sight. We are getting right there.
What is your motivation to join this year’s governorship race?
I Recently I wrote the National Assembly to intimate my colleagues with my intention to go and complete the assignment I started for Anambra because my people have been clamouring for me to do so , to the point where if unheeded it could also impede the strides I am equally making for them in the Senate.
I wrote down the things I wanted to do for Anambra State before I came to power in 2003, and by the time I left, using a total allocation of N69 billion in 34 months. Yet after implementing only 20 percent which Ndi Anambra People appreciate so much, I had to bow out. Now the government of the day in Anambra State with a bigger resource base of approximately N2 trillion, has added another seven percent progress. Using the blueprint I have as a yard stick and my reckoning is that 73 percent, as at today is yet to be done and are still relevant to the needs of the state and are being done in other states who we suggested this to. So who will do them?
The second one is that since coming to the Senate, I have done a lot of work for my constituency, in power, where we had to recover 23 containers full of equipment for our National Independent Power Projects (NIPP) that were seized and re-deployed them back to their original purpose in Alaoji Power station and other power stations which makes the nation boast of additional 1000 megawatts approximately. In health, I already said,we are currently reviewing the National Health Policy in the Senate so that it can work, as it has never, because the ordinary people in this blessed country should be able to get good healthcare without going abroad, which they cannot afford anyway. I co-sponsored the Anti-Gay Bill which has now become an Act of the National Aassembly.My feedback mechanism from eight constituency offices, one in each of the seven LGA s that make up my Senatorial constituency and one central office co-ordinating them have proved very useful in getting what people clearly need and taking it to the Senate.
Before now, no one had done this. I attracted many constituency projects in my area of coverage and influenced their execution in record time. And as God willed,I virtually represented three Senatorial constituencies in the Senate at some point and in 2012 and 2013 federal budgets single-handedly appropriated money into the budgets for the three senatorial constituencies in Anambra State because if you recall, at some point, I was the only senator from Anambra State in the Senate. Issues around the other senatorial seats were unresolved. Yet, representing Anambra Central, I did not allow Anambra North and Anambra South zones to suffer as result. I covered them appropriately by appropriating for the zones in budget and constituency projects.
Then of course we have the Constitution Review Committee where again, I represent the whole of Anambra State with all the consultations. Yet I find that each time I discuss my progress in the Senate with stakeholders in the state, all that I hear is ‘Yes, you are doing very well in the Senate, and we appreciate it. But what we need you to come and complete what you started in Anambra State as governor’.
And this kind of overshadows the current, equally important strides. I am not talking about one person or a few people. I am saying virtually everybody old, young, rich, modest, male, female. Name it! When I come out of Senate chambers and switch on my phone I get texts along that line-‘we saw your contributions today’s on television, but we need you back as governor’. One thing you cannot miss from all of this is that for Anambra State, there is still a lot of work to be done and, more importantly, there is the need to retain leadership in the right hands, so that the state does not lose focus from the foundation we have built.So, given the bond of love that fate has created between me and my beloved Ndi Anambra, if my people say as they have done that the result of hardwork is more work, I will heed their call.
These are motivations to come back in 2014 and do even better than we have seen. We shall try when we come to the saddle to complete the blueprint in terms of land transportation- roads and add water and air. The riverine communities can use a lot of water transportation and we shall organise it. Anambra State houses most of the most travelled persons in the worlds. We shall make an Anambra Airport real, God-willing by December 2014. We shall reorganise education, make it free up to secondary school level and emphasize skill acquisition so that people can be gainfully employed in diverse crafts from that level. The rice production in Omor, Ayamelum LGA when revived can feed the South East. We will explore than and positively impact other areas of agriculture. We would create one of the best healthcare platforms as we were already laying foundation for before 2006.
Thank you for your time
D ee me!
