Activities towards the forthcoming general election are reaching feverish pitch with various agitations coming from different organisations for reckoning and weighing in on trends ahead of the poll is a former President of Aka Ikenga, an Igbo socio-cultural group, Chief Goddy Uwazurike. In this interview culled from Saturday Telegraph, he scores the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari low in terms of performance. He also urged Nigerians to consider a president of Igbo extraction as their leader in 2023, saying doing so will assuage the people of the South East after years of marginalization. Excerpt…

Could you kindly give an overview of the current state of the nation?

I want to say that Nigeria is currently on the precipice; which way to go, we don’t know but right now, there is so much confusion in the air on where we are and where we are going. We are in a state of confusion because the government will tell us that we are safer than we were in 2015 yet I can’t go by road from Abuja to Kaduna. I can’t go by rail and I can’t go by air. In the South, most of the roads are really bad and have become favourable to Fulani militia squads. For instance, if you want to go from Lagos to Osun State, I will be on the lookout around Sagamu axis. When I pass Ogere and then Ibadan, I will also be on the lookout. Before getting to the South East, by the time we get to the Benin Bye Pass it’s the same thing before moving to the South East. So, in terms of security, we are in trouble; so we should ask if we are better off than the way we were before the coming of this government. On the economic front, where do we start from? There is a measurement like the plastic container used in measuring garri, I think it was N300 then, today, we are looking at the same measurement at the rate of N2,000. The question now is how well have I fared since the coming of this government? For those who have cars, fuel which they bought for seventy-something Naira then is now sold officially for N162 per litre. We are even told that we should expect some increase. In those days, I knew how much it was to travel by air. That is not possible any more. So, economically, security wise we are in trouble as a people. We now ask, what are we looking forward to? Is it more of the same or a change? More of the same means to continue to do things the way we have always done or to try things that are totally different. As I speak to you now, the schools have been closed because ASUU has been on strike and the minister (of Education) does not care. I am aware that President Buhari signed off some recommendations contained in the government agreement with ASUU but the current minister of education told us that he can’t remember any of the agreements. The prospects for any child in Nigeria’s owned tertiary institutions are very gloomy. That we are in trouble is not a problem but the question is, where do we go from here?

From the way you’ve spoken, it seems you haven’t seen any area where you can score this government pass mark?

I am not in the business of scoring any government but the problem is live and let live. I am asking as a citizen if I can move about freely. Can I drive around freely? Can I travel to any part of the country freely? These are rights that have been given to me by the Constitution. If I start looking at issues from the micro-level, then that is a different thing. I am looking at the sum total of where we are, so that if I am talking of the economy I shouldn’t say because my friends in government gave me contracts and I became a millionaire then, the government is doing well in the economic sector? The answer is no! Even during the (Nigerian Civil) war, some billionaires were made. So people profited so much. As it is today, we are in a state of undeclared war and we don’t know what to do.

You talk about not knowing where to go as a people but elections are scheduled to be held next year, don’t you see it (the election) as an avenue for Nigerians to vote the right person that can solve the numerous problems plaguing the country?

I will rather ask Nigerians to do the needful, which is to get their permanent voter cards if you have not. On election day, make sure you come out and vote according to your conscience; if you want the continuation of what we are having now, go ahead and vote accordingly. If you want a change from what we are doing now, go ahead and vote. I urge everybody to look critically at those coming out to ask for our votes whether as a delegate or not if a politician says I will make you rich without any message. If someone comes out with a clear message of what the problems in the country are and is offering viable solutions, I will vote for that person. That’s who I am, I am a critical person. Let me know what you are offering me. If the economy is in bad shape, how do we move it forward?

No doubt, we have a number of issues confronting us as a nation and we have an array of gladiators coming forward offering to lead the country, have you spotted anyone among them who can do the job the way you would want it done?

Yes! I have spotted two or three of them who can discuss, who have empathy for the people who relate to and can feel our pain. I can see three but the others are more of the same; in other words, dash us some money and they are home and dry. I call them helicopter politicians. They land, dash us some money, do as they like and zoom off while Nigerians suffer continuously. My children who are supposed to be in school are at home and you tell me that you want to continue. Continue what?

Could you name the three politicians that you have spotted?

It is not appropriate to start naming anybody but let me tell you something; when you listen to a man talk, you hear the substance of what he is saying. Governance has nothing to do with wealth; it is a state of mind with the intention of providing services where such are needed. For instance, we have many billionaires across the country, if one of them becomes the president and he surrounds himself with them and he empowers them, there is no service there. Service is needed among the rank and file. Lagos to Ibadan is a major road that both the rich and the poor use. If you invest money there for people to use, then you have provided service. If you give it to some citizens, you have only empowered a fragment of the society.

As the forthcoming elections are approaching, a lot of arguments are in the political space with people calling for the office of the president to be zoned to the South, particularly, the South East. Do you share that thought?

Definitely, I share that view and let me tell you why. Whatever goes around comes around. At the time Nigeria secured her Independence in 1960, the country was divided into three regions that eventually signed for the independence of the country. Right now, we are asking what have the people of the South East done that the office has continued to elude them? When we got Independence, the three regions of the North, the West and East stayed together without any of them looking down on the other. To take the view that they don’t trust the Igbo man for the Presidency is childish and devilish. The Igbo man is the only one to leave his town or village and go to another town. He is the only one who can set up a factory anywhere in Nigeria. An Igbo man has a factory in Lagos and has a large farm in Katsina to feed his tomato plants. All the Igbo man wants is the right environment to be able to fend for himself. There is this Yoruba saying that anywhere you don’t find an Igbo man is a bad community. It is this same ‘can do spirit’ that the Igbos are bringing to governance. Give me my turn, he is not asking for more.

How justifiable is the thinking that the emergence of an Igbo man would lead to the breakup of the country?

I can tell you that it is only the Igbos that are nationalistic among all the ethnic groups in the country. Let’s face it, by the time President Buhari came to power, there was the problem of Boko Haram in the North. Did that stop him from becoming the president? There was even a time when they made him their negotiator. When (former President Olusegun) Obasanjo was seeking the Presidency, there was the problem of the OPC in the South West, did that stop the country from making him the president? Anyone who presents such an argument is being puerile because the Igbo man is the only man who goes out of his region. How can people who have investments in other areas apart from their region seek to break the country up?

As a leading Igbo man, how well have you leveraged on your platform as a former President of pan-Igbo group, Aka Ikenga, to seek understanding of other similar groups across the country to achieve your goal?

As a member of the Southern and Middle-Belt Forum, we have been meeting with other groups and all of us are out with one message that power must shift to the South East. If you listen to the speeches of either Chief Edwin Clarke or Chief Ayo Adebanjo, they are saying the same thing. These are men who have seen it all.

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