The former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Anambra Chapter, and the Southeast Coordinator of the PDP Campaign Council, Mr Dan Ulasi, in this interview with African Independent Television, monitored by Linus Aleke, said, Igbo governors are working underground to ensure the release of Nnamdi Kanu

Your presidential candidate recently come under fire over his comment that an average northerner does not need Igbo candidate or Yoruba candidate but a Nigerian candidate of northern extraction, what is your take on this?

I was the only one on this platform that challenged those opposing the Labour Party candidate based on his ethnicity. I said that Peter Obi is running to be president of Nigeria but happens to be an Igbo. So, you cannot call him an Igbo president. But before I comment further on this, I will like to refresh our memories with Zik’s lecture. In 1974, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe gave what I call the most consequential lecture on ethnicity in Nigeria. The title of his lecture was, “Using Ethnicity as a Pragmatic Instrument for National Unity”. Nobody should be ashamed of where he is coming from, and he gave a lot of descriptions of what that meant. I don’t know whether Chief Atiku had read that, but there is no way we can make it in this country, the way we are going without building bridges.

There has to be a lot of cross-fertilization of relationships, and that was why, every Christmas then, the Nigerian Prime Minister, Sir, Tafawa Balewa leaves Lagos by road, gets to Nnewi stop at Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s house, the then President, have launch there and then move to Arondizogu where he spent Christmas. He repeated this tradition, every year, for more than five years. Atiku Abubakar was also, doing the same thing. When he was the Vice President under Obasanjo, he will leave the north, travelled down to the east, and stay in Emeka Offor’s house for more than two weeks, and people go there to visit him, that is the relationship, and that is building bridges. When they asked him that question, we could see the beautiful way he started it, that he had been in politics for over thirty years, and even before then, Zik made a comment, and Chief Awolowo, also said that we cannot be a good Nigerian without being good Yoruba, we cannot be good Nigerian without being good Igbo and we cannot be good Nigerian without being good Hausa men. That was one of the greatest speeches he ever made people were challenging him on nationalism and patriotism.

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But he said, no, that his name is Obafemi Awolowo and not Ahmadu Bello and not MI Okpara and that was why all the efforts he made, was in the then Western region and anybody can come and see what he did for his people. He was only asking Nigerians to give him the opportunity, to translate his leadership excellence to the national level. So, when Atiku started answering that question, he said, he had been in politics for over 30 years, and that he had built friendships beyond northern Nigeria and he told the moderator that his question was ethnic bias and therefore, not necessary. That question implies exactly what Buhari is doing today. 80 percent of his appointment is in the North, he should be asking Buhari that kind of question and not Atiku. When he then came to describe what he will do, he said he is a pan Nigerian candidate, and that we don’t need an Igbo candidate, because if he is a pan Nigerian candidate, then he was not a Hausa candidate, that was what he meant. We don’t need a Yoruba candidate, we need a candidate who is of Yoruba origin, we need a candidate who is of Igbo origin, which I said on this platform about six weeks ago when Peter Obi was challenged on ethnicity, I said, and he was a Nigerian candidate of Igbo origin that was it.

If Atiku had tried to play an ethnic card, he knew, he would have the other two major tribes to contend with but incidentally, the three major candidates running, even though I am not removing others in the race, come from the three major ethnic groups. None of them is running because he is an Igbo, but you cannot deny that he is Igbo, you cannot deny that he is Fulani and you cannot deny that he is Yoruba, that was what Awolowo said. As we all know, charity begins at home, and he further said, I am a presidential candidate of Northern origin and so we don’t need an Igbo candidate or a Yoruba candidate because, a few days before then, Tinubu also, gave a lecture in the West, asking the Yoruba nation to vote for him and nobody else. Two days after that former Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe in an interview with Arise TV, said, that there was nothing wrong with what Atiku or Tinubu said.

But I faulted it, Tinubu urged the Yoruba to vote for him Atiku did not ask the north to vote for him. He did not even tell the north what he is going to do for them, he said he is a pan-Nigerian candidate, which means that everything he will do, will be reflective of Nigerian interest. His answer to the question was the first-class answer that people are trying to twist here and there.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo can also invite the presidential candidate to ask what they will do for the southeast if elected, is that out of place?

I will expect that if Ohanaeze organises such meeting, I will expect Peter Obi, he is not the only Igbo candidate, there is Dan Nwanyanwu of Zenith Labour Party, Atiku is not the only presidential candidate from the north, and there is somebody in NNPP who is also waxing strong, you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. We have about four Igbo presidential candidates. We are saying this because Peter is in the limelight. Nobody knows what is going to happen tomorrow, s

I will expect if Ohanaeze calls such a meeting, Peter will not say because I am an Igbo man, I will bring everything to Igbo land. If he says that that will be funny, and nobody will vote for him in another part of the country and that was the trick of what Atiku used. If he makes that singular mistake of saying that he will prioritize projects in the zone, let him go out and see the vote he will get. So, he has to study the underlining problem of every section of this country, some may have had enough and some don’t even have it at all. Like we set up a technical committee which Dopkesi went around, we have itemized the shortcoming of every zone. This is something that a serious candidate who wants to be president will do, it is not about asking what a candidate will do for the north.

Critics have accused Igbo leaders of thought of abandoning their son, Nnamdi Kanu after the Appeal Court Judgement, what do you make of this criticism bearing in mind that you are part of the leader of thought in the South-East?

It depends on the group of leaders you are talking about. You know, a lot of people had met the President on behalf of Nnamdi Kanu, he predicated his answer to each of them on the legal process and that he would not interfere with the legal process. He would allow the legal process to take its course. I was here about two weeks ago and I almost shared tears, and it was the same day that I was talking about Nnamdi Kanu that the appeal Court decided the case.

There was a big celebration at my house. I said, God, I don’t know how much I would have thanked you. But if there are some governors whom you think are not talking publicly, they are working underground. A lot of governors go to the president regularly. You remembered that the governor of Anambra state visited Nnamdi Kanu in prison.

Some people have their style of doing things, if we learn this Fulani way of doing things, it will be better for us. Southeast leaders are happy about the development but they had not come out openly to say that is up to them, I cannot speak for them. In the past four and five years, I had been consistent in my views about Nnamdi Kanu. He represents all the shortcomings that have befallen my people since the end of the civil war.