By David Onimisi Lawani
The governorship aspirant in the Anambra gubernatorial election under the All Progressives Congress, APC, George Muoghalu has noted that the only way the party can sweep the poll is for it to embrace consensus as a way to bring everyone on board the train.
Muoghalu made this assertion in a briefing after submitting his nomination forms back to the party at the national secretariat in Abuja saying Anambra people have tried all the political parties except the APC APC saying that he is fully prepared to lead the party to victory when given the ticket.
He said further that he came to return the form that he collected from the party. ” We are awaiting the primary and if by the grace of God, I emerge victorious in the primary, we will still be waiting for the election November 6, 2021, all by his grace.
“As I said earlier when I was talking to the National Secretary, I said winning Anambra State Governorship election will require the consensus of the political elites across party lines, so for the party to win the election, we have to generate this consensus and we have to do that only with a candidate that is generally acceptable.
“The election of November 6 will not be a tea party. It is going to be a strong contest. Every party will come to the election with their best with the desire to win. So I have offered myself to my people of Anambra state.
“I am coming to the business with experience, with knowledge, with capacity, with integrity, with courage and determination to win the election. So I want to once again say thank you to all of you who accepted to be with me at this time.
” If I must be honest with you, I will wish there is consensus and that consensus will be me but the truth about it is that, I know a good number has collected forms and I know a good number has returned their forms but that is not to say that there is still no room for discussion.
He added that ” people will look at the possibility of working together but the important thing here is that as I always said every person is qualified to be governor. So I respect that belief as we go along. Since Consensus is not the option is either direct primary or indirect. Consensus, since it is part of the option available to us, I don’t see why we cannot exploit it because the important thing is we remain united as a political party.
“We remain together because if we are together the likelihood of being stronger is there. So that the door is not shut. I am sure that we could still exploit that option. So I am sure of the possibility of ourselves coming together to exploit the option of consensus”, he stated.
On the question of if he is not worried about the security situation in his zone and what message does he have to the relevant security agencies in the country in creating enabling environment for the election processes to be hitch-free?
He said: ” To be honest with you, I feel worried. I feel concerned, like any critical stakeholder in Nigeria’s project. I feel worried especially as it concerns my zone in the southeast because the people that are killed are people’s children. Some of them are people’s husbands.
They are people, brothers. As for me, nothing is worth shedding any blood. It cannot be explained, it cannot be justified and one thing again I don’t know whether people realize that most of the infrastructure has been destroyed today.
“To rebuild them, we must put our hands in taxpayers money because if a police station is burned down and correctional center is burned down; it must certainly rebuild and in some instances, it may interest you to know from the southeast where I come from some of this structures were built by Community efforts, some of these police stations and community Halls were built by community efforts because I remember when the SARS protest took place in my community, for example, the divisional police station was burnt down.
“It was we, the people that are raising money to rebuild it. It is a case of cutting our nose to spite our face. So that is the challenge we face. It is a very sad situation if you look at history every disagreement, every quarrel every war has never ended on a battlefield it usually ends on the negotiating table and the question I keep asking why do we have to war first before join doing? Why can’t we jump that aspect of the worrying, that aspect of the fighting, that aspect of disagreements, and go straight to the negotiating table and then negotiate our issues?
“We are talking about human beings we are talking about people’s beliefs there is no way you can aggregate everybody’s feelings and ambition and put it into a corner, it is not possible. So there must be room for disagreement we must make that room and also for us to deal with it, there must a provision For us to sit down and negotiate. so for me, I believe that there is a need for us to keep talking about whatsoever issue that may arrive.
He reiterated the fact that are many platforms that can be taken advantage of noting that the national assembly has elected members that represent all the zones. ” Can’t we use that platform? There are inter state union, local government unions, there is town unions everywhere. These are kinds of platforms that are used in the past and we can still use them again. The traditional institutions are all available, so there are platforms we can use to talk, there are a lot of issues that create great concern.
“People said we are having this insecurity because we are having unemployment, yes I agree but is killing ourselves is the solution for unemployment? The answer is no. Like I always said the government cannot employ everybody. This fact must be established rather what government should do is to create enabling environment for the private sector to grow because it is the private sector that employs but when the private sector is collapse we have the unemployment challenge and again when I was talking, I was talking to some people about graduates are unemployable, though they are graduate.
“So Why can’t we look at our curriculum to make some adjustments, what has happened to the trade centers, why can’t we create an opportunity? when they graduate they become employers of labor because if they own a craft and learn a trade the job they are going to do is waiting for them.
“So we must look at our agricultural sector, I must commend the efforts that have been made in the investment on the agricultural sector because that alone if properly harness, it can employ many people as possible$, he said.
Speaking further, the governorship aspirant said the APC-led government at the federal has done well on the issue of insecurity, economy, and corruption stressing that Nigerians must in their determination ensure the present administration succeed.
According to him: “Making an assessment of the administration, take it first from where it start. As at 2014 -2015, President Buhari was elected president of this country, yes, I agree with you. We campaigned on those three issues.
As at the time we were campaigning, 14 local governments had already been annexed with the Caliphate flag flying there. As at the time Buhari was campaigning in this country. But it appears we are quick to forget. There is no iota of Nigeria been controlled by anybody else other than the Nigerian government.
I agree with you that we have not gotten to our desired destination. It is a work in progress. Even America has security challenges. Even the civilized society. The countries we are copying today have security challenges. A few days back, Israel was battling it with Palestinians. So there are things that come up on daily but as they come you address them. The important thing here is that, is government committed to the fight. The answer is yes. What is the moral of our fighting forces? I think we must lay emphasis on congratulating these men and women that are sacrificing their lives for us.
“The only way we can appreciate them is by appreciating them and not condemning them. So I am convinced and confident boldly saying that on that score the President has done well. Yes, but that doesn’t mean we have reached the desired destination. The president himself acknowledged that. That is a work in progress. But in preparing any work, the important thing is, your eyes are on the ball? Where are you focused? Where are you determined to be by this time tomorrow? Once you streamline and mark that out, you may get to your destination. It may be slow but the important thing is that you will get there.
On the issue of corruption, “I don’t need anybody to tell you the man’s scorecard. Nigerians have today a president whose antecedents for corruption are available for anybody to see. And he came with that determination. I agree there was a weakness in the system even before he came. Because we almost find ourselves in a situation where we have strong individuals against strong institutions. And that is a very big challenge.
“If you notice, the president’s emphasis was building strong institutions. Because if we have strong institutions no matter how strong the individual he will be subsumed. So if the structure is put in place, there is every guarantee that whatever you put will stand. So the emphasis of government in that regard is to build a very strong institutional structure. So that we can be in a situation where there are strong institutions against strong individuals.
“Let me also take you to this point it is no more business as usual. Unlike before. Nobody takes government money now with impunity like before. They must look at their back to see if anybody is watching. It is not like before. And there are mechanisms that are being put in place to check excess. The TSA, and EFCC. These are programs that are working and we see them working. So he has done so very well in the fight against corruption. But don’t forget corruption will fight back. And we are having cases like that.
“Our attitude as a people in the fight against corruption must change. We should stop supporting corrupt individuals in our communities. We should stop celebrating them. There was one social media something, a clip, that someone shown to me where they were asking a young boy, about 7 years old. He was coming back from school and in a uniform. And somebody was asking him what he will be when grows up and the boy responded that he will like to be a Yahoo boy.
“I wanted to laugh but when I sat back, he was a course for great concern. That a little boy at that age what he wants to be when he grows up is a Yahoo boy. What message is that? It means the process has collapsed completely. I thought he will say he wants to be a Doctor, Engineer, and pilot, or whatever. But he wants to be a Yahoo boy because we celebrate the wrong things. We the adults whom they copy we should celebrate them. We are also involved in celebrating them. So why won’t the boy want to be like one of us?
So it is a major challenge.
On the economy, he noted: ” Yes, we have not gotten to where the government will like to be. The truth is that we must not forget that by the time the president took over this leadership of this country oil was as low as twenty-something dollars to a barrel. And you and I know that oil is the mainstay of this economy. Sights should not be lost of the fact that we have a situation where a lot has to be done but the resources available are limited. This resource is such that Nigeria is not in control of the market. It is a situation where whatever happens in the international community is influences the situation on the ground. And that challenge is there. So whatever happens to affect us. The government realizes this.
“Let me also emphasize that I don’t speak for the government. I speak for myself. The government realizing this challenge is there. It started laying emphasis on diversifying the economy. Today we are talking about agriculture m. Prior to this time, we were importing rice but I am sure nobody is talking about the importation of rice now. We are almost approaching self-sufficiency in rice production. So we have that challenge. So the government is doing well in trying to diversify the economy. If you look it again, the government is doing well in investment infrastructure and development because we have had an infrastructural decay for quite a long while.
He said he engaged some people in an argument when they were saying what have they gained for the southeast since joining the APC.
“There was a time in this country when the Chairman of a House committee on works was an Igbo man. A deputy Senate President was a man. The deputy speaker was an Igbo man. The minister of Finance and Economic was an Igbo lady. Secretary to the government was an Igbo. Yet no one kilometer of the road was tarred in the southeast. And now you are asking why an Anambra man won’t trust APC.
“The second Niger bridge, they did flag off for four times, every election year, we flag it off. Every election year, we set up canopies and flag them off until Buhari came and it stopped. And actual construction started. Today, we are being told of the handover day of the first quarter of 2022. You can go there and go and see what is happening there. As we speak, Enugu-Onitsha road is being addressed. Enugu-Portharcourt is being addressed. A new contract has been awarded between Umahia and Ikot-Ekpene. Same thing ABA-Ikot-Ekpene.
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” Why won’t they support us? And when people keep saying APC is not popular in Anambra, in the 2017, election we came second. We beat PDP in that election. So what happened? Is it demons that voted for us? The same Anambra people are there. When you marry two husbands, ask women they will tell you. You will be in a position to compare which one is better.
” Like I keep saying it. Anambra people have married two husbands. And the third one is waiting which is APC. And we are asking them to marry us this time so that they will be in a position to compare the first, second, and this husband that is coming. Because we are coming with a commitment, determination to change the narrative”, he said.
