Abia APC chairman speaks on President Buhari and Governor Ikpeazu's 100days in Office

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Abia State party chairman, Hon. Donatus Nwankpa in an interview granted to journalists in Abia State speaks about the 100 days in office of President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Okezie Victor Ikpeazu and among other party issues. 

The excerpt; President Muhammadu Buhari just marked 100 days in office. What is your assessment about the administration?

The first thing that any leadership has to do is to restore the confidences of the people. President Buhari’s administration has given the people confidences that the leadership has the capacity to respond to their needs.

Secondly, the world is now a global village. So, there is the need to integrate Nigeria into the mainstream of international politics and to bring Nigeria at par with comity of developed, advanced and responsible nations of the world. And if you watch the reception accorded to Mr. President in the United, France and so many other countries, you will see that Nigeria has reclaim its pride of among the comity nations and today, call your people anywhere in this country, they will tell you that the respect, integrity and prestige of Nigerian citizenry has come back to take its rightful position.

The President has shown his commitment to the rule of law. If you watch every tribunal, there has not been any interference on what they are doing as I speak to you now. Look at Imo State for example; a lot of case involving APC has been going on. Look at Abia as, there has not been any tall order from anywhere, maybe as ‘Oga’ directed. So this has shown that this government is discipline.

Look at the anti-corruption war that we are fighting, people have taken governance as license for squandering money and scavenging, but the present government has said no, that this is not what governance is all about. It is about trust, people surrendering their sovereignty and personal interest for the government to manage their affairs because they have confidence that you will give them something better. For long, the confidence the people have in governance have seriously being undermined and have been taken for granted. You will see a situation where one man will have twenty cars, take about one trillion naira from the national coffers; money that will change the lives and living conditions of our people and in most cases they will resort to plea bargain to return part of the money that they looted which doesn’t belong to him.

We are proud to say that what other leaders of the country could not do in many years, Mr. President has done it in just 100 days of his administration in office; petrol now sell at N87 and it is in every filling station. That is why we are saying that Mr. President has brought this country in the limelight again.

Look at the military and how they are tackling insurgency. Today, boko haram is seeking for dialogue and it is no longer the other way because the President has not just fought the war on the pages of newspapers, he has shown operational capacity, military intelligence capacity and the Presidential Will to bring the country to stability.

You can see the way things are going, remember that this is a mess of many years and so, it is not what that is going to be corrected in a day or 100 days. 100days cannot correct the misrule and maladministration of over 20years of this nation. But what we are saying is that the president has shown focus, a vector pro-approach. He is not a scalar, he has direction and we are really comfortable that today, somebody has known that history has beckoned on him to restore back the dignity and to redirect the ship of Nigeria towards progress and that is why we are saying that the 100days in office is not a wasted period.

What is your reaction about the anti-corruption war of the President which has been described in some quarters as being selective?

The first thing that you defined is what is selective? What is selective is that the anti-corruption war is not done without documentation. The anti-corruption is not frivolous or a fairy tale. If you bring document, people must originate something because the presidency is not writing petition against anybody. What we are asking is that if you have any fact even against Mr. President or anyone that you are very sure it can prove beyond every reasonable doubt that a corrupt practice has taken place, bring it. After all, the Senate President is today being investigated for allegedly committing an offence. Is he not of APC? Has Mr. President said no to it because he is of the APC and the senate President and it should not be talked about? Mr. President has allowed the rule of law to take place.

Let me ask those of them who said that the President is being selective to give us any substantial evidence against anybody and because he is of the APC or political accolades of Mr. President, the case has been swept under the carpet. I think those things are escapee approach to a well known issue that is on ground to discourage or cause some distraction in the process of bringing Nigeria to sanity.

What will you make out of the Buhari administration’s fight and approach against terrorism and insurgency?

Mr. President has not been timid about his fight against insurgency; he has shown determination. Insurgency is a threat to national unity. It has taken innocent lives, it has undermined the economy, integrity and corporate existence of the federal Republic of Nigeria and the President has shown that he is President for all and for that, he has shown resolve, commitment and one that knows what to do at times like this he has to put his experience in the military into action.

Though the President has made public why he chose members of his kitchen cabinet or rather, domestic staff but the dust is yet to settle in the southeast who believed that they would have gotten one of their own in the list. Do you toe the line of Mr. President? the most important thing that the constitution state clearly is that every state must have a member of the national executive council and we have 36 states of the federation, when Mr. President appoints his ministers and my state didn’t get, I will now know whether Mr. President is being fair to me or not.

But when you come to what you call kitchen cabinet, who do send to your kitchen to get you food? You don’t politicize the person who serves you food and tea because I am taking your description of those appointments as kitchen cabinet. You know that kitchen is the stomach of a man and the stomach is determines by what you fed it with and for that, I am not going to talk about on how he appointed or how he didn’t appoint them, that is why all those people that he has appointed are not entitled to be screened by the National Assembly. Remember that unnatural situation calls for unnatural solution. This is a period where we have war against insurgency, an attempt to balkanize and brutalize Nigerians through terrorism. And for that, whatever it takes to bring them down, even if it means one family producing those people, this is what Nigeria needs at this point in time. Remember that Ex-President Ebele Goodluck Jonathan used Anyim Pius Anyim from Ebonyi State, Yar’ Adua started with Babagana Kingibe and later to Mahmud Yayale Ahmed. When Shagari was the president of the country he used Shehu Musa. These things are more or less, personal relationship. People are trying to see the office of the SGF as if it is an alternate Presidency, it doesn’t happen. The office of the SGF is for the chief servant and the chief writer of the president. You don’t appoint my chief of staff, my secretary, PA (personal Assistance) and my Press Secretary. There some positions that has to do with being personal and what I am telling you is from a wider political perspective and from the constitution provision.

APC for the first time is coming into government and what they want to do is to achieve result, to bring a change and that change could be attitudinal, changes of perception and maybe there has been this conservative perception the zoning formula and that has not give us the required transformative changes. Let us for once give Mr. President some benefits of doubt.

Will you say it has been so good for the state, Abia in this 100days in office?

One of the problems that we have with the constitution is that it doesn’t make provisions for all litigations to be finished before the swearing in of officers in the state and national. That will do a lot of good thing for us. When a governor is still facing the tribunal, there is serious distraction whether we like it or not. We must say the truth. Secondly, just like Mr. President have been open to let the Nigerian public know that some people stole money and that there is no money to work and he is doing some things to make some people to refund what they have so that we can work. You know from the history of where the governor of Abia State is coming from, he has not been courageous enough to tell us this is what my predecessor left in the office for me. This predecessor that was still appointing people even the night to his leaving office as the governor of the state, he has left a lot of thing that a 100days cannot clean and this is continuity. Continuity of conservatism, Continuity of rigma-rolling and that is why the present governor of Abia (Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu) has not defined his identity. Whether you like it or not, you can’t say this is the identity of the governor of Abia State. He is still living in the past because most of his cabinet members were already there before he came in as the governor of the state and most of them were those whom he was asked to use. Until Mr. Governor appoints his own commissioners and his men, then we can start seeing something that we can comment about.

Look at the road construction, if you watch some of the roads that he is engaging on, you will see the zeal. But does that zeal transform to intellectualism and approach? The zeal is making him take too many roles and you know when a soldier takes so many fronts at a time, invariably, there is going to be crisis and the zeal he has, might not be commensurate with the resources he has at his disposal. So, in that case, what we are praying for is for people to give him a little time, and then we can definitely access him. But for now, the governor has not separated himself from the past. He has not defined his identity. He has not shown us whether he is going to be different from the past.

From the way you are talking and the way the party has being quiet after the case involving the governorship candidate of the party was strike out by the election petition tribunal, it seems that the insinuation that the party (APC) are romancing each other is true?

Listen to me, we (APC) is above infantile criticism and radicalism. APC is a matured party; look at the kind of president that we produced. We didn’t produce a rookie and infantile juvenile to be the President of this country and the idiosyncrasies of the leadership at the top defines the real character of those behind. Let us not for the purposes of politics lose being realistic. A child must learn to crawl before it start running. What we are saying is that the governor of Abia has to show his own personal identity. He is still living in the past and how does that show that we are compromising, but we are only trying to show that there is still the need to give a chance to prove whether he has the capacity to govern the state. I have not become a chairman to engage in infantile radicalism. What is important today in Abia is what the masses will benefit from the state and national level.

So, APC is not in any romance with anybody or any party. But what we are saying is that we need to allow the governor some time, but like I said earlier, the Governor should come out and tell us (Abians) what he has (funds), this is where is going, this is what I need and this is where he is coming from.

A group, Save Abia Initiative for change wrote a petition to the EFCC to probe the immediate governor of the state. Do you subscribe to their agitation?

APC is not against any attempt to look into any form of embezzlement, fraud, misconduct, misappropriation on present and past administration, we subscribed to that. The most important thinmg is that people should not be speculative so that the security agencies could be assisted by having facts and having provable evidence and then, it will now be left to the EFCC and if they feel to do it, APC will now come out to speak against it. We must clean ourselves from the past and change our position of feeding on the national treasury.

What do you make out of the outburst between Osita Okechukwu and Rochas Okorocha, Imo State Governor?

Osita Okechukwu is not the spokesman of the APC in the southeast zone. He is one of those that we will continue to look at as people who are not in line with the realities of the moment. The realities of the moment is that any southeasterner in APC that said that Rochas didn’t contribute to the success of APC in the southeast and this country is only being mischievous, irresponsible and economical with the truth. When Okorocha started this battle that we should integrate ourselves with the change, a lot of people saw him as a sellout. They saw him as not only as a pariah, but also as a deviant and today, they are busy complaining. Rochas after losing out from the President, he started his governorship campaign and was at the same time sponsoring rallies within the southeast. Were Abians, Anambrarians, Enugu and Ebonyi people going to vote for him? We only saw the write up attributed to Osita Okechukwu as one of the mischievous, misguided and manipulated write-ups because we believe that some people somewhere; may be not APC members want to use them to gain chief popularity. Today, everyone want to join APC, everybody wants to identify with the party. It was Okorocha, Nyerere, Osita Izunaso, Chris Ngige, Hon. Donatus Nwakpa, Prince Paul Ikonne, George Moghalu, Emma Enukwu, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Ikechi Emenike, Acho Obioma, Stanley Ohajuruka were among the people that stood their grounds.

Just like this write-up in the Independent National Newspaper where one of the chairmen purportedly said that Idika Kalu Idika was one of the party members before primaries. Could somebody of that stature have joined this part without the state knowing or without it being media hype? Did you hear about his name here? Can somebody of that stature can jump from the wall and the kitchen. Strongly believe that the chairman never and to an extent, I believe that he was misquoted. Kalu Idika kalu cannot join the party from behind. It means that we are trying to undermine him or even question his integrity as a person and if such a thing happens, we will set a committee to investigate how he became a member from the backdoor. Nkechi Nwaogu followed the due process and today she is a member of the party; she entered from the ward to the LGA and it was done open. Then look at the status of KLalu Idika Kalu. So, what I am trying to say is that, some of this people and system are system that are making Osita to speak what they are speaking for; people who were not bonafide members of the party.

I still believe that Osita Okechukwu didn’t say that but if he has said that Okorocha didn’t contribute the success of Mr. President’s victory in the just concluded election, I would say that he was not a member of the APC because there is no bonafide member of the APC that could say that about Owelle Rochas Okorocha. Why did the federal government descend on him in the first instance?

Judging from the position of your party that there was no election in Abia, many people were surprise that you (APC) couldn’t further your case after it was struck out at the tribunal?

There were attempts by the party and the candidate to restore back the case. You are aware that electoral matter is a highly technical matter and there were a lot of technical loopholes and I as speak to you (journalists), we are still studying the situation as it affects both the party and our legal counsel on this matter. Some of you should know me. I was a former member House of the House for 8years. I was a commissioner, I was an adviser to the governor and for me to have advised a governor means that there is something in my brain to offer. So, to the glory of God today, the party has made me state chairman. I attended a very good school where I was the senior prefect and headed Student Union in this country and I lectured Political and Defence Studies in NDA (Nigeria Defence Academy) briefly. With the experience that I have garnered within all these period has made me to be more knowledgeable. I can’t scavenge on things and can’t in so many frivolities. We are not just talking of today. We are redoing and restructuring a lot of things for tomorrow and we shouldn’t be parochial.

And let me tell you one thing about cases; there are a lot of things that have to do with documentation, who are avails you with documentation, INEC and there are situations that a lot of things that you need to present and that is the reason why I said that election matters are highly technical, but the lay man might not understand it. I don’t think that the panel said that we are not serious. The thing the panel said is that, the legal department came late and that is one of the grounds to which you can strike out the case on technicalities because there were some internal bickering among our legal team, but that is not what I want to go into now. I was not the lawyer and we do not discuss our legal counsels in the open.

 After the announcement of the Presidential election result, we have witnessed defection of people from other parties to your party. What impact has that have on the party in the state?

Every party must reposition for 2019. Why they must reposition for 2019 is that it is an open race and we must also reposition in case there are changes. One thing that you should know is that we are not against people joining the party, but APC is also interested in opposition. We want people to remain in their party to provide formidable, responsible and positive opposition to APC at whatever level that we are. We are not afraid of opposition because the opposition will help us to do better than the previous administration. Nobody is joining APC based on threat; they are individual decisions because for some time, some people did not understand APC and now that they are understanding it, they are coming in. any moment from now, a group led my Chief Tony Ukasoanya will soon be joining openly to the party. That is why when I was responding to this issue of Idika Kalu, it is not that he is not welcome to the party, he will be an asset but we do not want some people to trivialize him. We do not want some to demystify him and undermine his personality as if he is doing something sinister or doesn’t have a procedural approach; this is a person that has headed both the finance and economic planning in this country. So he is not the kind of fish that you will eat without feeling the bone. So, in that regards, for those who are joining us, we welcome them. We are only asking them to follow the proper channel and procedure so that their joining will not be seen as if that we have something sinister against them and one thing that you have to know is that APC in Abia is positioned, well organized for tomorrow. Whether people join us or stay in the opposition, we are ready to play our role to provide a better government for Abia.

The PDP is claiming that most of the things APC is doing now is what they started during the Jonathan’s administration.

No government comes in isolation, government is a continuum. You see, we don’t want the PDP to die of frustration. So, that is why when they claim some things, we will allow them to enjoy the euphoria of their dream. But we (APC) are talking about realistic transformation agenda. PDP were talking about Transformation Agenda while they were busy running a circle show. They were busy making Nigerians poorer, growing a few rich. They were busy destroying the economic fabrics of this country. They busy institutionalizing dishonesty and let me tell you APC or myself will not bring ourselves to the level of the PDP publicity Secretary who engages in journalistic scavenging instead of talking about realistic things, he is busy junketing one comment or the other. How many of them can be like Lai Mohammed? They trying to learn how to play the role of the opposition and let me tell you one thing about the PDP are not good students.

That is why they are trying to learn how to be in opposition and in trying to learn how to be in the opposition, every day they keep falling and getting injured. We just pray that they will provide us with formidable, positive and responsible opposition so that this government will do better. Because the more they keep scavenging and showing infantile reactions, the more they live the government to continue to laugh at them.