Osita Okechukwu is a chieftain of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) and currently the Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON). He spoke with Kassim Omomia and Andy Asemota on his party, the APC, the 2023 Presidency and his stewardship at VON. Excerpts:

What are your views on the APC membership registration and revalidation exercise? Is the exercise necessary and what does the party plan to achieve with it?

My little understanding of political party administration for over forty years in liberal democracy posits that revalidation and continuous registration of membership are both valid exercises. It is neither unconstitutional nor undemocratic, for Section 9(4) of the APC’s Constitution expressly states that, ‘A register shall be compiled and maintained at the ward level:

It provided that the party shall update its members’ records every six months and remit updated copies to the appropriate secretariat.’ Accordingly, I think His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) has valid reasons to embark on revalidation and registration of members of our great party.

So many party chieftains, including the interim past chairmen, Chief Bisi Akande and immediate past chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, have kicked against the exercise, describing it as unnecessary. Do you support their positions?

One cannot decipher why, as the reasons they stated lacked merit. In fact, the CECPC is upholding our great party’s constitution; therefore, one is at a loss how in unison our revered pioneer chairman, Pa Bisi Akande, our national leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and our last former chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, are opposed to this noble exercise.

One will be happy to know their main reasons, in fullness of time, albeit the exercise is not unconstitutional.

Otherwise, I am stunned that Asiwaju, one of the main pillars of the merger of APC in 2013, who took it upon himself to finance a National Data Membership Register at Lagos, will frown at this noble exercise. One recalls how the Asiwaju project was demolished by the then desperate Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s led Federal Government.

PDP then did all manner of shenanigans to stop the registration of APC. When the ignoble attempts failed and they learnt that Asiwaju constructed a data base and was mobilizing membership nationwide, they quickly simulated the Department of State Security Service to demolish the centre. They covertly cried wolf, where none existed. This damage is what Governor Buni and others are trying to redress.

Do you have any other valid reason to support the exercise?

Do not forget the unprecedented move in and move out, jumbo-jumbo and topsy-turvy, which have become the metaphor of party politics in Nigeria. Is it not pragmatic to know the exact membership database of our great party? For the avoidance of doubt, is revalidation and registration not more beneficial to Comrade Oshiomhole, given the ‘scatter-scatter’ in Edo State politics in the last one year?

Finally, I am one of those who are interested in accurate membership data for effective electoral planning. In some electoral wards, you have more than 1,000 registered members, and when election comes and after voting, our party scored less than 300 votes, is it not good to close this kind of gap? It is my candid view that this is one of the valid reasons for revalidation and registration.

The APC is seen as a party without ideology and objective, but a merger just to remove Jonathan and the PDP and bring in President Muhammadu Buhari, how true is that?

I have heard this narrative before, especially coming from the opposition elements. It is blatantly fake news. Fake news in the sense that a Federal Government which launched the Anchor Borrowers Programme, which I dubbed Buhari’s Agrarian Revolution – invested unprecedented billions of Naira in reviving agriculture at all strata cannot be said to be deficit in ideology.

We are progressives, people-oriented and masses-prone in our policies and programmes. For the avoidance of doubt, the Anchor Borrowers Programme supports subsistence or small-scale farmers in clearing their land, supplies farmers high yield seedlings, supplies fertilizers, engages agric-extension workers that advise farmers and engage off-takers that buy crops from farmers. They have invested in rice, cassava, wheat, sorghum, and livestock and fisheries, among others.

Alongside the plan to diversification of our mono-economy, President Buhari has touched the local farmers towards graduating them into commercial farmers, and commercial farmers into large scale farmers. He has expended over N2 trillion as bailout funds to states for salaries and pensions.

The bailout funds are targeted along the Social Investment Programme to change the social conditions of the masses.

What happened is that, with the fall of Communism in 1989, a lot of people thought ideology died with the collapse of communism…

Perhaps it is this lack of ideology and objective that is affecting the Buhari’s administration, making it difficult to govern and fulfil promises made to Nigerians since 2015 when the government took over?

There are two basic issues which, up to date, affect the performance of Mr. President’s administration, contrary to your reference to lack of ideology. One is the drastic fall of oil prices, a product which sold at the average of $100 from 1999 to 2015. It was sold below $60 till date. The distortion of our policies and programmes because of paucity of funds is unimaginable and outstanding.

Secondly, with our return to democracy, some of us thought that there will be reversal of the nebulous economic policy of yore that government has no business in business, especially the IMF and World Bank’s Structural Adjustment Programme, which as an economic policy, stripped majority of people their linkage to the economy.

Most state-owned enterprises were auctioned in less-than-transparent manner. Our electricity economic sub-structure was one of the greatest casualties. One of the outcomes was uncoordinated youth restlessness in the Niger Delta, South East, South West and the introduction of Sharia State in the North.

We thus inherited gross unemployment due to the planlessness and squandermania of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).

One is always depressed when I recall how easily people forget that there was a time when the people were distanced from their patrimony, scholarship, and other safety not withdrawn and the Sharia State idea was floated in the North, yet the PDP-led Federal Government then glossed over it, saying that it would fizzle out. Little did they think deeply that such idea, according to Karl Marx, is opium of idle hands.

They did not fashion out an idea on how best to fix our dilapidated infrastructures or Social Investment Programme. Bereft of idea on how best to engage our idle youths and own our economy today, it become an albatross, even to repair our refineries or build new ones. Hence, our scarce foreign exchange was expended on importation of refined petroleum products.

How will you rate the APC government led by President Buhari since 2015?

With the background trajectory highlighted above, one must differ with those who mark Buhari’s administration low, for failing within six years to fix an economy which was raped for two decades. One will regard our government as a transitional government between the crass liberal economic programme of the survival of the fittest and caring government of primitive economy.

Nigerians are of the opinion that the APC government has failed. How do you react to that viz a viz insecurity and bad economy, such that the Buhari administration witnessed recession for the second time running?

My brother, it depends on which side of the divide you are. Are you one of those who believe that there is some magic wand during drastic fall in oil prices post-2015, decayed infrastructure and hopelessness? Or some of us who agree that there is some downside like exclusivity of our government, but sincerely believe that President Buhari has done well in the prevailing circumstances?

If you were Buhari’s security adviser, what would you recommend on the alleged Fulani herdsmen notoriety —kidnapping, raping, destroying farmers crops, et cetera?

One, will mobilize all material forces, even borrow to establish ranches, as agreed by the Nigeria Economic Council – National Livestock Transformation Programme. With cattle, goat, sheep, pigs’ ranches across the length and breadth of the country, any cattle openly grazing would be arrested. Even if you do not ranch all at a time, it minimizes the menace and shows the people that government means business.

On the prospects of APC: Do you see APC imploding in 2023 when President Buhari finishes his second term?

APC will bounce back in 2023 strongly. It will recover lost states like Bauchi, and may not lose any. Despite the outcry and seemingly haplessness, we are going to bounce back. The Mai M Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), at the rate they are going in reconciliation, is very encouraging. Their recruitment is marvellous. Before they finish registration and revalidation, it will be new APC.

The question one normally poses when the doomsayers come with their trademark, that APC will implode, is – where are those politicians who intend to leave our great party going? Where are they going, PDP or Labour? The hardest task to embark on in liberal democracy is to construct a Third Force. It is difficult; it took over a decade to package APC. Ask those of us who picked and carried the blocks.

What is wrong with the party, especially from the days of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole till now, that it is run by a caretaker committee led by the governor of Yobe State? It is perceived by some party members that the Buni-led caretaker committee is trying to transmute into the central working committee?

Let us leave my friend, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole alone, as the sages admonished us. Let us let the sleeping dog to lie. We had bashed him enough for his transgressions; maybe he has learnt some lessons.

Then why will the Bu ni-led committee not begin and end with organizing the long-awaited convention, instead of attempting to extend their timeframe and now conducting registration/revalidation?

As one said earlier, I doff my hat for His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni and co. It is not easy to pick the pieces of broken enamelware. From all indications, they will not extend again, as after the registration, the next item is congresses and convention. Please, give them the benefit of time. As Thomas Paine said, whatever reason will not address, time will address it.

Can you compare the tenure of Chief John Oyegun, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and maybe the current caretaker committee?

Please permit me to rescue myself from this question, as no two individuals are same. One is a thoroughbred professional technocrat, and one is a thoroughbred professional labour leader. They came from different backgrounds.

What were Oshiomhole’s problems, or rather, why was he removed from office, because you were one of his greatest critics?

I was one of his greatest non-paid advisers and not his critic. We were good friends in the hey days of defence of our patrimony title, when they hiked fuel prices at will. Then I represented the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) in the Labour agitation for inclusion of Nigerians in the affairs of their own country. We bemoaned an economic model which in the fullness of time produced the richest African, and at the same time produced World Poverty Capital; what a paradox?

Where did Oshiomhole that was most sought after by the party suddenly miss the point? Or was he used and dumped?

One will advise you to wait till when Comrade Adams will do his memoirs. Then he will be in a better position to tell his values and vision and whether he was betrayed and who is the betrayer. Until then, we may overshoot. All I know is that it is better not to be narcissistic, for narcissism buried many leaders who could have changed the events of history by their values or vision.

From day one in 1999, the premium was placed on equity, good conscience, and natural justice. For the avoidance of doubt, one of the rules before the 1998 local council elections was that the aspirant from the zone which produced more local governments would become the candidate of the party.

This was more pronounced in the PDP. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who became the PDP candidate lost woefully in the South-West. Therefore, the South-East should benefit from the Falae/Obasanjo 1999 and Yar’Adua/Buhari models of 2007. This will create a sense of belonging, end the civil war, and most importantly, consign Nnamdi Kalu and his captives to the dust bin of history.

Most PDP governors in the South-East are said to be planning to decamp to APC, to position for the presidency, David Umahi, for instance. Do they stand the chance of been considered, even if others join him?

We are, in fact, expecting more governors from the South-East and other prominent Igbos in the great Zik of Africa traditional alliance. On the choice, my candid appeal to other Nigerians is to pick whomsoever they prefer among the array of qualified Ndigbo. I am not particular, I do not mind their girlfriend or their boyfriend. When Obasanjo was chosen, he was not the most beautiful. Presidential contest, some pundits had said, is like a beauty contest. If you investigate the crowd, you may locate more beautiful girls, but they were not enlisted for the contest.

The South West is laying claim to the 2023 presidency with the hope of backing Ahmed Tinubu because they claim they supported Buhari’s North in 2015 and 2019, and they expect their gesture to be reciprocated in 2023. Between the South-West and South-East, which zone should be favoured?

Without sounding like a broken record, if equity, good conscience and natural justice are at play, it is the turn of Ndigbo. I will be an idiot to say that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not qualified to bid for the presidency. I am talking about the unity of the country, national loyalty, and sense of belonging for the most patriotic tribe, who lives and invests in all the nooks and crannies of our dear country.

I am a witness who knows the immense contribution of Asiwaju to the construction of APC. I belonged to ‘The Buhari Organisation’ and later, the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, with a leader with the Midas 10-12 million vote-bank, demonstrated in 2003, 2007, 2011 presidential elections; but could not win until Asiwaju and other patriots built the bridge across the Niger in 2013. Asiwaju is eminently qualified, but like the Muslim-Muslim ticket denied him the Vice President’s slot, other stumbling blocks like equity in rotation convention may erupt. Time will tell.

What is your view on the resolution of the Senate calling on President Buhari to declare a state of emergency on insecurity in the country?

Final solution to the insecurity in the land cannot be located, until we look backwards, Introspect, and find ways to connect our people back to our patrimony. In other words, the material conditions which awarded Nigeria the ignoble medal of World Poverty Capital should be addressed.

The last time we all joined the National Assembly in calling for the sack of the service chiefs. Now, they have been sacked and the crass insecurity has neither abated nor stymied. Rather, it is now hydra-headed. Let us think deep, think like one family, and engage all capable hands, not just emergency. If you ask the National Assembly, for instance, to donate one-quarters of their perks, can they willingly do it?

There are speculations in some quarters that you are nursing a governorship or senatorial ambition in 2023. What are the chances of APC in your senatorial district and state?

I belong to the APC; whichever office the leadership assigns to me, I will willingly accept. The only one out of the way is that of governorship. In Enugu State where I come from, there is rotation convention, and I come from Enugu West Senatorial District. It is not the turn of my zone. It will go to East after the North which is in power now. Therefore, count that one out. I am surprised you did not consider me for President. Is it because I am poor?

Can you shed light on your stewardship as Chief Executive of VON?

It will be uncharitable for one to mark himself; however, one can only say that despite paucity of funds, one had been able to add in upgrading the multi-media status of Voice of Nigeria. We thought it could be reasonable to look for our audience, some of whom in different time zones of the globe, have abandoned transistor radio and its component: The Short-Wave radio. We are today in www.von.gov.ng, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, et cetera, and on Smartphone apps – Simple Radio, Radio Garden and TuneIn Radio.

On encouragement and support, it could not have been possible for me to acquire a new Corporate Headquarters for Voice of Nigeria at Wuse II, Abuja, without Mr. President’s uncommon support, the fruit of his anti-graft war. Same is applicable to four new digital studio, which Central Bank of Nigeria acquired, and the approval in principle of Visual Radio by NNPC via their corporate social responsibility.

What are some of your key challenges and where do you see the organization by 2023?

More funding, for by law, we do not generate funds either by adverts or documentaries.