A member of All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Senior Special Assistant to ex-Governor Achike Udenwa on Security, Zeek Martins Nnadozie, in this interview with newsmen recently spoke on 2023 Igbo presidency, Governor Hope Uzodimma’s administration and other national issues. News Echo correspondent, Chuma Austin was there.
An average Igbo man believes that all political parties especially the two major ones, APC and PDP should zone the 2023 presidential ticket to the South East. What’s your take on that?
To be honest with you, Igbo presidency is a mirage. I listened to a telephone conversation between a former governor of Nassarawa State and a political heavyweight from South West, who was also a former governor concerning the Igbo presidency. If you hear the venom that came out from their mouths, you will agree with me that it will be a miracle for an Igbo man to become president of Nigeria. You ask yourself, why they should feel so horrible about their fellow countrymen. We are talking about education and intelligence and quality leadership and not oil and gas.
Look at how we excel outside the shores of the country while we are not allowed to exhibit the stuff we are made of here. In this life somebody from this country went to represent us at The Hague and could not answer a simple question. He failed. But he was rewarded with executive elevation. The number of students from the man’s state that wrote JAMB is not even equivalent to the number of students from a community in Imo State. Yet somebody will shamefully tell us that Igbo man cannot be president of Nigeria.
To be honest with you, Igbo
presidency is a mirage. I listened to a
telephone conversation between a
former governor of Nassarawa State
and a political heavyweight from South
West, who was also a former governor
concerning the Igbo presidency. If you
hear the venom that came out from
their mouths, you will agree with me
that it will be a miracle for an Igbo
man to become president of Nigeria.
If an Igbo man cannot be president, let them have it, it will come to a point when the oil will dry up and there will be no free money to share. What we have currently are people ruling Nigeria with little or nothing to show. Let them continue to rule until there is nothing left to be shared. Before 2015, Ahmed Tinubu told us that within six months Muhammadu Buhari would wipe out Boko Haram. But between 2015 and now you can see that Boko Haram has become stronger and added banditry and kidnapping to their activities. All of them are terrorists. Thank God Buhari has been given the opportunity to rule Nigeria, otherwise we would have been bemoaning that we lost a super administrator.
Now we know that Buhari has nothing to offer Nigerians except crisis, hunger and insecurity. I don’t support any group carrying arms in whatever name. Our brothers in the North should go after these terrorists. They know them and where they reside. They should publish their sponsors and stop treating them with kid gloves otherwise these terrorists will overrun the North and they will claim it is “Biafran Boys”. I am even surprised they have not claimed that IPOB is sponsoring Boko Haram and the bandits.
What if the APC and PDP zone the presidency to the South East?
Though I am not a member of the PDP, I can tell you that it is difficult for the party to zone the presidency to the South East. First, as an opposition party that wants to win the presidential election, it will be foolhardy to zone what you don’t have. On the other hand, the APC can do that using the power of incumbency. The APC is the ruling party and can afford to gamble with the presidential ticket, unlike the PDP that is still dreaming of winning at the centre. You saw what happened in the 2019 general elections with the two strong parties, how they fared.
But if we structurally adjust this country a half true federalism, the issue of who becomes president will be minimized. True federalism will give every zone the opportunity to develop at its own pace without any interference from any region that does not want to move forward.
If APC zones the presidency to the south east, who are your likely candidates?
To be honest with you, right now I don’t have anybody in mind. All the politicians we have in the APC are “food is ready” politicians. Look at how they drowned our friend senator Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State; by drafting retired General Azubuike Ihejirika into the party. They want to use him to truncate Orji Uzor Kalu’s presidential ambition. This is the same Ihejirika they used to truncate Ikedi Ohakim’s second term ambition by churning all sorts of lies against Ohakim. May be, somebody must have approached him this time and brainwashed him into believing that he would be considered for the APC ticket. He must have believed it just like Governor Dave Umahi was tricked to believe he’s the right person to represent the Igbo race in the APC. Look at the killings going on in his state. Where are the police and other security agents? For several hours the herdsmen had a field day until there was nobody to kill. The governor of Ebonyi State should hide his face in shame.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo is in crisis. What’s your advice to the present leadership?
Yes, Ohanaeze is in perpetual crisis. Professor George Obiozor should rise to the occasion, no matter how he was elected. At his age, he should know that he has nothing to lose, he has seen it all. The same way I tell my people in the village, if I die now, there is no way I will not be buried with an Igbo cow, as a mark of respect and honour having achieved a lot in life. Prof. Obiozor is almost 90 years old, so I don’t see what he’s afraid of. Ohanaeze should have been at the forefront of condemning the massive killings and destruction of properties in Igbo land.
But the organization has fallen short of speaking for Igbo people. Nobody will take the present leadership of Ohanaeze seriously if it cannot defend the Igbos. In fact, we have messed up our culture. The other group is also making noise with its sponsor Rochas Okorocha. He has no popular support. By bringing division in the Igbo apex organization, he has made himself a cartoon character. I expected him to form another Igbo group with a different name and leave Ohanaeze Ndigbo alone. They cannot continue to pollute the present leadership of Ohanaeze. Igbo people are bigger than any group of people. Just like in government, you cannot continue to interfere with the present government after ruling for eight years. People should know better.
What is your assessment of Hope Uzodinma’s administration, a year after….?
Honestly speaking, there is no government in Imo state that will perform miracles after the administration of Rochas Okorocha. Forget all about the antics of sycophants. When the Supreme Court declared Hope Uzodinma as governor we had no choice than to work with him. In line with his zeal to govern Imo State, he started very well by adopting most of the policies and programmes of Emeka Ihedioha and considering the mountain of problems he inherited from Okorocha’s mismanagement of the state, I give him kudos. He completed most of the roads started by Ihedioha.
People can say whatever they like, whether two kilometre or five kilometre roads, the important thing is that he finished all of them. The quality of the roads is also commendable. But where I have problem with Uzodinma’s administration is in the area of salaries and pensions. It has become a very big problem in Imo State. Imo people are mainly civil servants and many of them are in the civil service. The tendency for them to retire at a particular age becomes imminent and the number of retirees keeps increasing yearly.
There is a need for people to understand what is happening in the state. I remember that Mr. Mark Uchendu, former secretary to the state government to Okorocha did a good job about the issue of pensions and salaries and we thought the issue had been laid to rest. But when Ihedioha came on board, he started the process over again and by the time he was dramatically removed from office, he did not have the opportunity to complete the process. The Uzodinma administration came in and started the process all over again and that gave rise to the present quagmire.
But the people marketing the Uzodinma administration are not explaining all this to the people for a better understanding. I know people who have not received their pensions and gratuities and somebody in the government house is claiming he has paid everybody. It is not fair. That is wrong. It is better to say the truth and all of us will be free. The better thing to say is that some people have been paid, while others are yet to be paid. Hope Uzodinma has a good heart. I have benefitted from his magnanimity. But that does not mean I should support the lie going on in the state concerning salaries and pensions. The revenue has dropped globally but we should explain to the people concerned that the money available is not enough. I urge the government of Hope Uzodinma to pay civil servants, retirees and take care of capital projects.
No matter how much salaries and pensions paid, no government succeeds without a capital project. He has the 3R mantra-reconstruction, reconciliation and recovery, and he has followed the judicial panel of inquiry set by Ihedioha to do the needful. On the issue of recovering assets from the old regime, I praise Uzodinma for the recovery process and Imo people are waiting to know how a sister to Okorocha allegedly acquired 50 plots of land in Owerri alone. We also want to know how a roundabout built by Okorocha in Owerri gulped N1.5billion. We are also waiting for the white paper on illegally acquired properties by the Okorocha administration. Uzodinma has challenged Imo people to monitor his administration and confront him with any illegality.
But many people believe the governor is witch hunting Okorocha over political issues?
No, he’s not witch hunting anybody. Come to think of it, I was witch hunted by Okorocha when he was governor. Remember how he was destroyed by business. Despite court injunctions, he went ahead to do certain obnoxious things in the state. Nigerian judicial system is faulty. Okorocha illegally dissolved local government administration in the state and conducted another one despite court injunctions. For 10 years those local government chairmen were in court, some of them have died. He has no respect for the rule of law. The law of Karma seems to have caught up with him. But that does not change my view about the rule of law. I believe that everything should follow due process.
