Ikpeazu to Tinubu: Breakdown wall of disunity, mistrust

Outgoing Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, speaks on the outcome of the just-concluded general elections and his advice t the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, among other issues. He also debunked the claims by the governor-elect, Alex Otti that he owed salary arrears in the state in this interview on Channels TV Politics Today, monitored by Linus Aleke

In two month time you will be leaving office after eight years, how do you feel?

I feel great relief.

Relief of what?

Relief that I am leaving office and I had to get into other things. I had been on this job for eight years. I cannot remember sleeping earlier than 2am in the past eight years, and no vacation.

Is it that you don’t want to take a vacation or you are not entitled to one as a governor?

I am someone who likes to apply everything in me to the job I do and I don’t regret it anyway. I think the time has come for me to leave and attend to other personal issues.

Is it the defeat that your party suffered during the election that humbled you this way?

No, this has always been my mind-set, whenever I get into any office, the first file I open is the handover file because it will certainly come. I had done eight years, some governors could not do eight years. But I had done eight years and I am still strong and healthy. I operate from what I call my biological … to do other things. I must also remind you that while I was governor, I was able to conclude my book in biochemistry, which was launched a few months ago. That tells you that I can do other things and I want to do my best in other things in my life. Because I have time to move on to the things I need to do within a given period.

It does not look like things went your way, you wanted to be a senator, but you lost the election?

Yes, that was me offering to serve and that is what it is all about and that was why I quickly called the person who was declared, congratulated him, and told him that I was not going to go to court. The reason is that I offered to serve, I thought, I had something I wanted to bring, and I thought that there were gaps I needed to feel. I thought that as governor, my experience will help me to provide the needed representation to my people at the National Assembly. But the outcome did not suggest so, and I quickly moved on.

So your people rejected you?

Yes, because that is what the outcome looks like, but I am one governor who works the street of Aba every day. I walk around Aba and that is a privilege for me as a governor. If you are not accepted in Aba, you will be pelted by the people.

Have you learnt any lesson from the rejection you suffered at the poll, after spending eight years as governor of the state?

What leads to the outcome of an election is a combination of many factors. And I am a very engaging person, I engage my people. If I wanted to run an election, in an area I had run over and over again, I know that the circumstances will not be the same. And those who won elections today had also lost elections at one point or the other in their history. I want some of you to come to a place we are, so, you will see political contestation as one offering himself to serve. For whatever reason it is, if you don’t come with that mind-set, you will make it do-or-die affairs. Some of the issues are contestable, there are still over 108,000 votes in over 120 units that are still there and the result was declared inconclusive and later declared without those results. Imagine that the margin between the first, second, and third was not up to 40,000 votes. So, if someone wanted to contest some of these things, I think a lot of things happened. But whatever it is, I am at peace with myself and I say to my people, it is not entirely my loss, it is a loss for an opportunity to serve. So, I don’t want to take it that it is anything personal.

What do you make of the fact that you lost and people were rejoicing?

Well, here again, as some people were rejoicing, some people were crying. Some of those who are rejoicing may be rejoicing because they have been out of power and they have been pushing to see how they could get there, and for eight years it had not been possible and some of them

lost out in the scheme of things. So, we know how these things work in politics. If you want me to show people who are weeping, you will also see them weeping.

Has the PDP candidate agreed with you not to go to court?

That was my advice, as now a statesman to those who ran for election. Someone took me to court for three and half years and I felt thoroughly distracted because in my first tenure of four years, I was removed twice, the high court removed me and the appeal court removed me. It is on the premise that I am asking the contestants to allow the man who was declared to find time to talk about what he wants to do for our people because he applied for the job, for eight years and now the opportunity has come. Can we give him some space? So, that was my advice and the APC candidate thought otherwise, I think he had gone to court. Unfortunately too, the Labour Party was supposed to be the beneficiary of this my piece of advice is also contesting against the candidates of PDP that won 11 seats in the house of assembly. So that has thrown a spanner in the wheel of progress.

Would your candidate think otherwise because LP decided to challenge PDP parliamentary candidates in court?

Anybody who wants to seek my advice will also get advice that is consistent with the first comment in this regard and that is to see if we can …but I don’t know how to talk to somebody whose house of assembly members is been challenged by the same party you are asking them not to go to court against.

Did you induce the returning officer as alleged?

This is very unfortunate, I had not met that professor, and I am shocked because, in the first place, I think if she is a professor really, she should know that she can’t even manipulate results. Because these are results that could have emanated from polling units, collated at the ward, local government, and brought to her to just add up and announce. I had not met her before, I had not spoken to her. If I had met or spoken to her, she should come to the public and said so. I am shocked that she is making a big noise out of nothing. The only thing is that at some point when I saw the coincidence in their name and traced a little bit of her background, I complained to INEC that this lady was not going to be fair but they assured me that they will be fair to all. So, I am still shocked and what she portrayed in the aftermath of her service in Abia, indicates the fact that she is visibly happy with what she did. Which shows her level of bias in favour of one party.

So you don’t believe she did the right thing?

She had portrayed that she had something at the back of her mind, a mind-set of her own before she came, but for me, that will be it.

Why do you think PDP lost woefully in Abia State?

Well, many factors. My party did not put their acts together, I as a person did not campaign against my presidential candidate. I did not campaign against him because I thought that the presidency should go to the south. But as a party man, immediately we arrived at a candidate, the next thing was what to tell the south. Can we get the national chairman back so that we can have something on the table to campaign with? That did not come, so it become extremely difficult to stand on the podium to begin to campaign against someone like Peter Obi. Our party was weakened and I also lost a candidate and I needed to also talk to a lot of people. At some point also, my calculation politically didn’t come through.

What was your political calculation?

There are two major divides in Abia, the old Aba division and the old Bende division. Old Bende had three or four governorship candidates from different parties, so, we were thinking that votes would be shared. But down in the south, where we come from, especially from Isialangwa down to … after the 25th of February. There was a need for the political leaders to come together to review how much they wanted to produce a governor after me. But I think that the political leaders felt that they did not need that governor as badly as some ordinary people needed the governor of the old Aba division extraction. So, all the political leaders collapsed and decided to move in different directions coupled with the Peter Obi bandwagon effect. It was easy for us to run into that hitches.

But did you expect that Peter Obi’s effect was going to be that huge?

I predicted the Peter Obi effect and I told my party and even volunteered this same opinion that reasonable politicians should not ignore what Peter Obi was doing.

Do you think the Peter Obi phenomenon has a brighter future after the 2023 elections?

It is not for me to determine because what will happen going forward will depend on how Peter Obi manages the ground base of support he has and how he is going to funnel this to an agenda that can eventually materialize in Nigeria which is his business anyway.

Do you regret being part of the G-5 governors?

I think that that was one of the most brilliant positions that I had taken as a politician.

Even with the risk that was associated with it?

If that is the sacrifice for my principled position, that is ok.

Was that in the interest of the people of your state?

That was in the interest of the unity of Nigeria.

Some said the G-5 governors were rebellious to the platform that made them public figures.

Loyalty to one Nigeria, loyalty to united Nigeria is greater than loyalty to a party. If tomorrow, after a southern president, I will be one of those who will say, it is the turn of the north and I will do the same thing.

So, you agree with the election of Bola Tinubu as the president-elect?

To the extent that he is from southern Nigeria. Part of what we need to unite Nigeria had been presented to us. Going forward, how he manages it is also, another conversation.

Was Bola Tinubu part of the arrangement among the G-5 governors?

No.

So you never discussed his matter?

Part of the thing I was doing in G-5 was to open the window of conversation. My late father once told me that for whatever reason you must remain on the negotiation table, we should never leave the table. So, I kept telling my people, can we find a way to find a solution? Since we cannot change the candidate, can we do an internal arrangement to get the national chairman to the south so that people can begin to campaign in the south? For me as a person, my tolerance threshold can take a little bit of arrogance but some people cannot take arrogance, so, it continued.

Where was this arrogance coming from?

We can move on with the campaign without you.

Is that from your presidential candidate?

The mechanics that was driving our party at that time portrayed arrogance. It was not about one person or the other but the mechanics, the organism, portrays this arrogance that we can do this without you.

You also wanted to show that such a narrative would not work I guess?

We did not want to show anybody, but the G-5 was saying that part of the things we need in this country. If I have the privilege of volunteering advice to whoever is the president of this country now, my advice will be, invest your time in unifying Nigeria, invest your time in bringing everybody on board north and south, it is our country. Once you do that we can find the capacity to deal with insecurity. We can find people with the capability to deal with the economy, we can find people to solve all our problems going forward. But the first thing to do is to break down this wall of disunity and mistrust. So, we can hold hands with one another again to say this is our country.

 

What is your perception of Tinubu’s presidency judging from the fact that the G-5 wanted a southern president?

If I want to answer your question directly, I must take a clue from perhaps what he has done before and his relationship with people. I think he has a fair chance but what he makes out of it is also entirely his business. Because he is coming from a place that is a bit weaker than where the incumbent president started in 2015. The incumbent President had enormous goodwill. People gave him, a lot of goodwill and support that he was going to get things right and the hope was there lined up behind him but he could not get these things right. The President-elect, Bola Tinubu is not coming with that much goodwill capital but he can still surprise a lot of pessimists that going forward, he should be given a chance. I listened to your last guest and I love one of the things he said, which is that this country is so huge and important to all of us. That we cannot abandon this country, just because one party wins an election and the other lost. We must find a way to verge up hope from this despondency and match forward, it is about service.

 

Do you regret your alliance with G-5 governors?

Like I said before, after a southern president, I will be one of those who will say, it is the turn of the north.

 

What do you think the G-5 would have done differently?

I think we have sufficient latitude and window, meetings were held within and outside the country. The engagement was made, conversations were held and the bottom line was, can you give members of the south something to campaign with? To enable us to stand on the podium and campaign for our party.

 

All of these did not work, who will you blame it on?

Like I said before, the mechanics, whatever drives the party showed a lot of arrogance. When a man is full of confidence, this is what he gets.

 

Let us narrow our conversation to the governance of Abia state, could you say you have done well as a governor?

Yes, even amid things I think I had not done but the much I had done, I have the confidence to say yes.

 

Why do stakeholders in the state keep saying that your tenure signposts failure in all its ramifications?

Because they have an agenda and that agenda is to de-market me and do everything to make sure that nothing nice is seen. It is a strategy that people use to engage market women and even people on the streets. Some of them are paid N10,000 to buy into the narrative of falsehood. I say this because the things we have done are so visible. If anybody was in Abia in 2015, and he visits Abia today, you can see things for yourself.

 

What can you point to and say that you delivered on the job of governance in Abia state?

The assessment of those who said that I had not performed is skewed and it is coming from the lips of those who are looking for opportunity. Luckily, one of those who had been battling for the past eight years now has an opportunity and we hope that his manifesto and strategy for leading Abia will come to the full but that is not why I am here today. I want to say with respect, that I set out to lead Abia and create a better life through five pillars. And I initiated several enablers to drive that process. These five pillars are known, they are things we do well; trade and commerce, small and medium-scale enterprises, agriculture, education, and oil and gas. Today Abia is the SME capital of Nigeria.

 

Do you have statistics to support that claim?

Statistics from the lip of the Vice President, Osinbajo, because he has visited Abia more than three times to see what we are doing. When we took over governance in Abia in 2015, we looked at the problem of SMEs, power, marketing, and automation and today as I speak, we have enabled geometric power to provide alternative power. There is an Ariaria independent power plant which we did, in collaboration with the federal government in addition to the regular and other sources of power. In terms of automation, we sent thirty shoemakers to China to learn how to do shoes and we have followed up by building a shoe manufacturing company that produces 5000 shoes daily. So, the shoes that are coming out today from Abia are no longer what they use to be.

 

The governor-elect said that you have performed abysmally in your eight years, what will be your response to that harsh criticism?

To support his claim of abysmal performance, he referenced lack of payment of salary, I have 31,000 workers in the Abia workforce and 29,000 of them are up to date as I speak. Pensions and salaries of parastatals which are 2000 are struggling for payment of salaries, their agencies receive subvention, and I don’t pay their salaries. Because they are revenue-generating agencies but I don’t run away from responsibility. The issue of pension had been there perennially for the past 24 years.

 

But you promised to clear it?

Yes, I did as much as I could, this administration has witnessed three recessions. When I can, within three months of my administration, I paid 11 months’ arrears of salaries. Those 11 months, was it accumulated during my tenure? So, if you take up a position as governor, you have accepted to take both liability and asset and I don’t like to complain. I don’t have to talk about what my predecessors did not do in office, because what gave me my job in the first place was that there are things they didn’t do. So, for somebody to come and make a sweeping generalization, that no salary had been paid is a lie.

 

How many months of salaries are you owing presently?

I am not owing any core civil servants in the state a kobo in salary.

 

But earlier you mention 2000 workers?

They belong to the parastatals. Let me give you an example, Abia state transport cooperation, which receives subvention of a certain amount monthly, and also generate revenue from the business they do, which is transport business, should they not pay their drivers’ salary? Why should they not pay their drivers, there is no free launch anywhere. If you run Abia state polytechnic, for instance, you collect school fees from 10,000 students, you collect examination fees, and you collect everything. And I am supposed to give you a subvention of N100 million every month, and you went and hired a professor from Oxford to come and teach the English language and you did not tell me you were hiring a professor and you agreed to pay him $1m, you must find money to pay. I have to give you N100m subvention every month. They don’t pay money into any government coffers, but they are supposed to generate revenue and run their parastatals. Be that as it may, I don’t like to make excuses, I am saying that those in my workforce, I had paid up to date. So, I am doing some reorganization and insisting that you must be able to stand on your fit, I don’t think it is a bad idea.