APC can’t ignore Igbo – Ben Obi

Sen. Ben Obi is an astute pol­itician who has been in pol­itics for decades now. Apart

from being a former Sena­tor, he has held many key leadership positions in government.

He is the Special Adviser to the Pres­ident on Inter-Party Affairs. Sen. Obi spoke  in Onit­sha, Anambra State on many issues in­cluding the position of the Igbo in the incoming All Progressives Congress (APC) administration. Excerpts:

What is the position of the Igbo in the incoming administration. Do you think they have lost out in the political equation at the fed­eral level?

The Igbo nation can not lose out in the political equation in Nigeria due to the strategic position it occupies in the de­velopment of Nigeria.

Igbo nation remains a major ethnic group in this country, hence no polit­ical party, organisation or association can deliberately ignore their presence. There are some prominent sons and daughters of Igbo extraction in the APC whose presence cannot be ignored. It is, therefore, my belief that rather than undermine the Igbo, the APC will seek their involvement and participation in the Federal Government.

Why are you so convinced about your position on this matter?

The Federal Republic of Nigeria pro­vides for a federal character reflection which, therefore, guarantees that the Igbo cannot lose out.

Some people believe that the President did not do all that he could have done in relation to the election, that he virtually ruined the chances of his party, the PDP. What is your comment on that?

I commend President Jonathan for conceding defeat and congratulating Gen. Buhari even before the collation of results was completed in spite of some obvious lapses. He did that in the interest of the nation. I know that issues such as failure of the card reader and other elec­toral malpractices were enough for the President to reject the result, but he de­cided to play the role of a man of peace and his characteristic statesmanship and congratulated the President-elect. Pres­ident Jonathan, did not want to renege on the peace accord he entered into in Abuja before the National Security Ad­viser and myself as the Special Adviser On Inter–Party Affairs in Abuja for a non–violent election.

The former United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan and the for­mer Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku were key figures in the accord.

We must, however, note that there is no perfect election anywhere in the world not even in US which is often be­ing tagged as the home of democracy. In our own case here, there were several cases of electoral malpractices which would have been a good ground for the President to lay complaints about, par­ticularly as it affected his immediate family which we all witnessed in the morning of the election of 28 March. In Otueke polling booths, the card readers failed woefully.

The PDP initially objected the use of card readers. Why did the party eventually allow the use of the technology?

The PDP foresaw the problem which the card reader would pose to the elec­tion and objected to its use in this year’s election but INEC insisted on using it and at the end, the problems manifested and adversely affected the election.

The PDP said it was re-strate­gising in order to bounce back to power in 2019, do you foresee the possibility of PDP clinging power in 2019?

There is the need to re-organise the PDP so that the party can bounce back to national leadership in 2019.

How would you assess the per­formance of Anambra State gov­ernment under Chief Willie Obia­no?

I commend the Anambra State gover­nor, Chief Willie Obiano for the good work he has done in the state in the past one year. He has done a lot of work in the state and I want to encourage him to continue.

I am convinced that the governor is doing well. He is just one year in of­fice and he has been doing very well. He has done a lot of work.

What advice do you have for the Igbo?

I will advise the Igbo to be peaceful and to support the President-elect in order to enable him to achieve greatly. I will advise them to respect the indi­genes of the areas they reside in across the nation and to be bold enough to re­sist any act of injustice, oppression or violation of their human rights.

The Sun