Okezie Ikpeazu is among the five governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who have issues with their party in the aftermath of the primary election which produced former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate ahead of the 2023 polls. They were supporters of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State who placed second in the primary election but have since demanded the resignation of party Chair Iyorchia Ayu for allegedly helping Atiku to pick the presidential ticket. In this interview, Ikpeazu speaks on the happenings in the PDP, the secessionist agitation of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB) and the ongoing trial of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, for treason, insecurity in the South-East and how he has been able to secure Abia among other issues in the polity. Excerpts:

Let us start from the fact that you and a few PDP governors were not at the launch of Atiku Campaign. What happened? Is it an extension of the ongoing battle between you and your presidential candidate?

There is no battle between the presidential candidate and me. He is my presidential candidate. I don’t have any other candidate but, at times, when one gets to a certain point in life, and a vehicle is put down for a journey, every kid will jump at that offer. But as a matured man questions will be asked about the destination of the vehicle. That is the question I am asking. I am a South-Easterner. I am an Igbo man. We have been faithful apologists of the PDP since 1999 and needed to ask a question. The greatest need of Nigerians today is inclusiveness.

Can we be sensitive to the feelings of other people? Can I be guaranteed a country where a criminal in Sokoto is a criminal in Abia and a criminal Abia is a criminal in Zamfara? Can I be guaranteed a country where my son will be not brutalized because his name is Okolie? Can I be allowed into a meeting out of respect for my capacity to make contributions in that meeting and not necessarily because I am here but because of where I come from? There was a time in this country when the quota system was the order of the day; even in admission, because if we take candidates on merit, some sections of this country may not have candidates and everybody agreed to it so that our brothers and sisters can catch up with us.

When did we jettison that consideration? The other name for hypocrisy is double-standard and these questions were being asked quietly and politely before some characters escalated to the national platform. I was not in Abuja because I went overseas for a United Nations meeting held in New York and I just came back, which is why I couldn’t attend the launch. But going forward, if those questions are not answered, we will limp into the bus and see how it goes but I thank God for the courage to ask those questions for and on behalf of Nnamdi and I will end this particular question with a proverb about a chicken that found itself in the claws of a kite and the chicken continued to shout and it said “I am shouting not because the kite will leave me but let heaven and earth hear my voice.”

It is said that a group of governors like you, Seyi Makinde, Ortom, Wike, and Ugwuanyi are opposed to the candidacy either because of Wike’s loss or the quest for southern President. Was that the reason all the five governors boycotted the launch? Was it planned that the five of you were not there?

It will be very childish for me not to attend our party activities because Wike lost. I granted an interview on the floor of the Convention that night and I told Wike before the Convention that we should be hopeful and prayerful so that we could win, “but if we don’t win, are we still going to remain in PDP” and his answer was positive that we will remain in PDP; that if another person wins, we will go with the person. However, in trying to make our party strong and give us a narrative with which to market the party from this part of the country, people would always ask me questions as a leader in the party what is the way forward and what’s in it for us? If that question is posed, I don’t know what I will say or have we gotten to the point where nobody says anything again?

This is why I needed to satisfy my conscience that I have these questions. It is not about Wike and we are not against his Excellency, Waziri Adamawa. The problem is beyond Waziri. It is about dredging up the courage to speak the right words and this is also part of what is bedeviling Nigeria. I have said that if I were in the shoe of President Buhari, I will engage Citizen Nnamdi Kanu. Engaging him does not belittle our President. He is our citizen, and there may be things that Nnamdi Kanu is not seeing because he is not sitting on the presidential chair. Then, you enlighten him, there could also be things that he is hearing because he is closer to the grassroots which the President doesn’t know and he would educate him. This is what leadership is all about but if you say I would not sit and listen to anything, democracy gives opportunities to be heard.

What have been your greatest challenges as a governor in the past seven and a half years?

I want to start by thanking God, first, for giving me the opportunity to serve, and also thank Abia people for finding me worthy in a state of five million people to be their leader since 2015. If I summarise the seven years in a few words, I would say it has been the most eventful with its ups and downs. The greatest challenge was communicating my vision first to my team and secondly to the people. I always tell a story of a locomotive engine that is running at high speed without the coaches. It might arrive its destination in a good time but with no passengers or goods.

Leadership in the 21^st century requires that one must communicate his/her vision in a way that your team will be able to replicate and drive it and also speak to the people so that they can be receptive to your vision and support you in any way they can. On the first flank, there is a choice as a governor to choose your team such as commissioners, aides, and structure of the political components but you have little or no choice about civil service, which is the bulwark of public service in general. At times, a governor might have a civil service that is stereotyped or focused on old ways, not receptive to change, not willing to run at one’s speed, and not willing to embrace 21^st century paradigms of development like digitalization and computerization.

It impacts everything negatively from revenue collection systems and there are problems inherent in the system orchestrated by Labour’s stance and unionization. One is really handicapped if one is a democrat. Apart from the checks and balances that the judiciary and legislatures would provide, it is also a big bottleneck with bureaucracy and protocol, driving the vision, and we don’t have all the time. So, I experienced a lot of frustration in that regard and we had to devise a way to go round that. What we did was to create an Abia Economic Advancement Team, which is my backroom and they have the mandate to turn my vision into a work plan and to adapt it to local dynamics to make sure it functions and to also support me in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation if there is a lagging and unwilling arm of the system.

So, that was how we got around but it can be quite frustrating. Again, politicians misread or deliberately misread one’s intention and politicize everything, they even politicize the misfortune of the citizens. When one begins to show empathy, there are people who hype it, and others are condemning it. The third major one is that we came at a time when finances weren’t steady. We have gone through three recessions in this country. We are just surviving the third one in which we came out technically broke. The global economy is getting worse and it was negatively impacted by COVID-19 and more recently, the Russia-Ukraine war. Also, the problem of crude oil theft puts us in a place where we can’t take full advantage of scarcity occasioned by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

So, we are in a place where many problems, conflicts, and diseases from Ebola to COVID-19 to Monkeypox in a milieu that one cannot guarantee allocations, in which they fluctuate at times, with wide degrees of reduction. At times, one can receive N2billion less than what was received the previous month. So, it doesn’t make for proper planning, makes it difficult for budgeting and projection but we thank God that we are in a place where we can at least, have one or two things to point out and to say we didn’t completely waste our time these past seven years.

One of your projects, the Osisioma Flyover, which you inaugurated recently, is a very beautiful initiative that you started and completed. Looking back into the past seven years, what are the other things you did that when you look back, you can say you have done well?

Incidentally, Osisioma Flyover ranks 6^th among the things I would want to be remembered for. When I speak about legacy, I speak about the peace and stability that we enjoy in Abia. Abia is today like the oasis in a desert, that is the middle of conflict. Abia has remained relatively politically stable. It has also remained comparatively safer than other states security-wise. I give God the glory for that and I want to say that this is one state that, in the past seven years, we have not had a case of bank robbery.

What’s the secret of that? I wonder about the stability of Abia when it comes to security issues in the South-East and all over the country. For instance, in Lagos, it is one of the things former Governor Babatunde Fashola was given credit for. During his tenure, there was no armed robbery. How did you try to stem the armed robbery incidents?

First, I want to give God the glory because as a Christian, security is of the Lord. I also want to thank my people. Abia people are very vigilant because we connected with them, and we receive benefits of actionable intelligence. We are also blessed with proactive security agencies and we created a synergy. In most cases, there is always inter-agency rivalry. As a leader, at a time like this, the first one must tackle is make sure that there is no inter-agency rivalry. Once inter-agency rivalry can be nipped in the bud and you let all the agencies know that they have roles to play in the structure that makes up the security architecture, then one would have done more 40 to 50 per cent of what needs to done. Beyond that, we track in a very serious manner all the miscreants that come to our knowledge and we have a digital platform in the Government House that gives us satellite images of every inch of the state. We have a robust military specification communication system that links all the DPOs to the Commissioner of Police and those on patrol. We have powerful radio wavelength that gives us real-time information. We also deployed a group of people we called ‘Gatekeepers’ into the various communities.

They are watching, vigilant and giving us actionable information on movement of people, so that we can nip them in the bud whenever that happens. We also have a very enviable record in terms of tracking and apprehending criminals, whenever there is a breach.

In fact, we are prepared with all the resources in our means to make sure we bring criminals to book. It is the assurance that you will be caught that deters criminals from committing the next crime. We work hard. We don’t close criminal files. We continue to work on it and, at some point, I introduced a Crime Prevention and Record-Keeping Programme which I call CPARP. What it means is that we change the crime diary from writing on boards to providing computers in the various police stations, so that we can share the bio-data, photograph, age, pictures, colour of the eye, facial marks, address and telephone numbers of criminals. We also take the parents’ bio-data and village, so that by the time we put it on the platform, all the DPOs within the police formation are linked together and then linked to the CP.

What this means is that if there is a criminal in Obioma Ngwa Local Government Area, the DPO in Osisioma recognizes the criminal and if the criminal is on the run, something happens and the criminal is within the vicinity, the DPO puts the criminal’s name. If he goes with a fake name, he puts either the height, colour of the eye or facial mark. Criminals on that record that have similar features will appear and face recognition can be done. Criminals move from one location to the other bearing different names. They can even change their identities but this time around, we decided to put all of this information into the computer. Our police officers were trained.

It Is a combination of all kinds of things but, most importantly, in Abia, what we do in our security class meeting is proper to diagnose the archeology of crime. We have to understand the type of crime and the intention or motive behind it, so that we can follow up and see a pattern. If crimes are not diagnosed and profiled, one may likely make mistakes. Proper diagnosis is key. Many people in my position find it difficult to do proper diagnosis. They copy and paste what is happening in other societies. There are no societies that are the same. One should first diagnose your location. Abia is surrounded by seven states. We check the status of the borders in these seven states; what is happening in these seven states around the border cities? If there is a breach in Omuoma (which is border in Port Harcourt to Osisioma LGA), then Osisioma LG will be in trouble, if there is a breach in Etche, some local government areas in Abia will be in trouble.

So, we keep an eye on what is happening along those communities also. It is a complex thing but we have been able to work it out. We also have devices for conflict resolution. So, we preempt criminal tendencies, we preempt things that can create breaches like the Hausa-Fulani herdsmen-farmer conflict, we have conflict resolution committee at the local government level, making the local government Chairman as the head, the DPO is also involved, DSS, Miyetti Allah and head of traditional council rulers are also involved in the meeting. If any conflict arises, they sit and talk about it, do what needs to be done before it escalates. If people don’t discuss their misunderstanding, it degenerates to something that becomes very difficult to handle. It is a robust multi-faceted strategy and it Is working for us.

You talked about Osisioma Flyover being the 6^th-ranked project. What are the others?

We just discussed security, which is very dear to me. The next one is our support for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises which, with the support for Abians in the shoe, bag and leather work sector, has been unprecedented. There is Abia SME Bank which provides funding at the micro level even for traders that sell on the table on the streets. So, funding is critical. We have also been involved in aggressive marketing for Made-in-Aba, and Made-in-Nigeria products. We have mounted Trade Fairs in Abuja and even in New York. We have been with them to Egypt, South Africa and China, and we did capacity-building by sending 30 young people to learn how to make shoes.

A fallout of that, we imported the equipment for shoe-making and established the first automated shoe factory in history of Nigeria. So, the standard of products in terms of shoe-making has improved and we have started exporting shoes in large quantities and making shoes for the military and police. We are bringing our second factory, which is the garment factory. I understand that the first garment equipment container among the five containers has arrived. I am very sure that, by December, we will be commencing the garment factory. We have been strategic about industry establishment, garment and leather works is the main thing for us here in Abia.

I will also want to be remembered for collaborating with the Federal Government to provide Araria Independent Power Plant and, most importantly, on a better and wider scale, the Geometric Power, which we supported Geometrics to provide. What this means is that Abia will be the first state to enjoy uninterrupted power supply sometime soon and we have been working hard to make sure that it happens because I know what power will do. If power is unlocked, the potential of the people will be unleashed and, for me, that is very critical. My intervention in the SMEs is what has put smiles on the faces of our people and that is what has created the new millionaires and hope for the people of Abia. It is far more important than the Osisioma Flyover.

Though the flyover is also important, what I am saying is that flyover is just an enabler. The pillar is the SMEs, which we have given great impetus to and they will not forget the man who took an ordinary shoemaker to China to learn how to make shoes. I also want to be remembered for building over 650 new classroom blocks…redefining infrastructure and, among them, four modern schools we have followed up with tweaking the curriculum and method of teaching. We have effectively transited into digital teaching. So, we have smart boxes that can teach over 125 subjects which are used in our modern schools in Abia. I have good examples I can use to say this is about a typical modern school should be. Many people talked about the poor standard of private schools without showing a good example of what a modern school should be.

I have also been able to remodel four technical schools in Aba, Ohafia and Umuahia. We have consistently embraced the school feeding programme from Primary One to Six and it has effectively reversed enrolment in public schools from private schools. It is important that access to functional education is key because if schools are available and not affordable, access becomes an issue. But here in Abia, we are saying private schools are okay but public schools have to be better. We have more trained teachers, world-class infrastructure. I don’t think any private school has the facilities we have in terms of smart boxes for teaching. The only thing we need is to escalate it and make sure it is not only in modern schools but in all public schools. I think that is heavy.

I will also want to be remembered for our vision on Enyimba Economic City. It is something close to Silverbullet because our population is increasing geometrically and that is also part of why we have security problems in Nigeria. If we are unable to provide jobs in a geometric trend that will match the increasing population, we will have a big problem on our hand very soon and the only answer to it is a project like Enyimba Economic City, which promises to provide over 650, 000 jobs in 30 years. This will literally suck all the youth population and get them busy one way or other. It will also provide an opportunity to have a manufacturing platform in Africa that will be compared with what it is happening in China. This is indeed the very essence of our participation in the Continental Free Trade in Nigeria. It is the very audacious project and I am proud to be associated of it.

How far has it gone?

It has gone very far. It is a trans-generational project. It is not a project that can be concluded with a snap of fingers. We have arrived at a place where we can talk about the financial closure. Afreximbank is leading other international funding agencies to close the deal. I am sure due diligence is being done. We have taken over concession for the A4 Road along Port Harcourt Expressway. Enyimba Economic City will effectively link that road and do another spine road aligning from that, that will connect the state from the South-East to the South-South, so that one can be Enyimba Economic City in one and a half hours from any part of South-East and South-South states. It is going to be huge. I am believing God it will be shovel-ready between December 2022 and January 2023, once finances have been closed. The result will start showing between six months to one year, but great and life-changing projects are usually trans-generational. They are not quick fixes. The important thing is the power of the vision that cannot be compared and I am happy I am associated with it.

Are you not worried about the tendencies of successors not to continue with such visions?

Yes, I have also tried to move away from that line of thought which has become the bane of our political intervention in Nigeria. I inherited about six to seven projects from my predecessor and I am proud to say that I have completed three and I am going to complete the Government House project which I inherited. We have a tradition in Abia of not allowing the people’s funds to be wasted on abandoned projects. If my predecessor embarked on some projects and they are life-changing projects, why I won’t I embrace it and conclude it? After all, it is our money that is being tied down. On a very serious note, we have Enyimba Economic City beyond the sentiments and nuances of whosoever comes after me because there is a law provision that protects Enyimba Economic City as an entity that is capable of self-governance within Abia. This is so because we needed to give comfort to the private sector entities that are investing. It is a PPP project, driven by the private sector but protected by our laws. It is not likely we are going to abandon it. It is a strong vision that will sell itself. So, I am very confident about the project.

In many other states someone like you comes in and succeeds another person, a war will ensue between the predecessor and successor. How have you been managing your predecessor in office?

Anywhere there is peace, even in a family, there must be a compromise. Luckily, I am a man that is devoid of ego because of my training. I am a very sophisticated person. I understand signs and times. My predecessor has also been a gentleman. He understands that there has been to be one key in the plug at a time; that Abia State has one governor, which is me. In return, I accord him his respect as an elder statesman. I seek his advice whenever I need and I also urge him to call my attention when he doesn’t understand what I am doing but largely, we build sufficient confidence that he is sure that I will act in the best interest of the state and not necessarily to undermine him. If there are things I do during the course of work that he is averse to, he would also see my view that it is for the overall interest of the state. I was confronted with his question recently and my response was that my predecessor understands me and he looks out for me, he is an elder statesman and I am grateful that he provided his platform and opportunity for me to serve. I really don’t have any problem with him.

That leads to the question of support for your own successor. Your predecessor seems far detached from your decision…

He has not told me about his preference for another person…

Many people in your party are not happy about that decision…

Which decision?

Your choice of your preferred successor…

You said many…

One of them is the man that left PDP, Senator Abaribe, to contest the senate with you…

No. His reason for leaving is that he wanted to be governor, and we are from the same local government. How do we conceive that it takes 84 years in a state of 17 local governments for every local government to produce a governor? How does one justify eight years by 17 that? This is the bane of politics and politicians in Nigeria. When they don’t get what they want, there is no ideology and morality behind it. I don’t understand what it is. Somebody whose house is a 5minutes walk away from my house? I think we need to get to that point where we will be more sensitive to issues concerning politics.

Another thorny issue is that your would-be successor is from the same area as you…

No, I am from Abia South; he is from Abia Central. Abia Central has about six local government areas, three local government areas are in Umuahia, which is Old Bende, and the other three are in Old Aba. From the Abia Charter of Equity, Orji Uzor Kalu , who is from Bende Local Government handed over the next local government which is in Umuahia North, though in Abia Central, the same Old Bende. If it was a crime, it was committed long before now. So, equity dictates that if I am returning to Abia North, it has to also stay in the three Ngwa Local Government Areas in the Central and then proceed from there. In fact, a friend of mine, who is also one of the critics of the projects of Chief Ogbonna, asked me a question when Governor T. A. Orji was running to be governor, and we were talking about it and he said to me that in Igbo tradition, that if one lifts a load from the head, he puts it on the shoulder as it is going down and my question to him now is that if one is carrying something from the ground, one will first put it on the knee and take it up there using the same analogy that he used. With Uchenna Ikonne’s emergence, it has provided an opportunity for equity. Old Bende would have done, Orji Uzor’s and T. A Orji’s 16 years, Old Aba division would have done Ikpeazu’s eight years and Ikonne’s eight years, which makes up for 16years. If it goes to Abia North, we don’t mind if it will come to Umuahia again before it comes to the South. It is a recipe for peace and stability.

Going to the Senate after serving eight years as governor, one would wonder if you are not tired. Why do you want to go to the Senate?

Let me say this. I am tired of being a governor but certainly not tired of responding to impulses from my people. If it is the wish of my people that I represent them in the Senate, so be it but after my stint in the Senate because of age, I will contemplate retirement from politics but if my people feel I am still young enough and also have something to offer, especially in the area of the fact that all that you see in Aba today is done under my watch. If you delete my intervention from Aba, in fact, Abia South and some parts of Abia Central will be left a void, formless and shapeless. But of all things you have seen, we have done so far, they are by efforts of the state government.

There is no Federal Government presence in Abia South. They think they need somebody who has the capacity to create and attract Federal Government’s attention to Abia South. They want us to continue along the line of supporting us as the SME capital of Nigeria. We need to give Aba Manufacturers a global perspective, and we need to give the Federal Government impetus to use us as the arrowhead in the Continental Free Trade Agreement, where we rightly belong. We are not contending with anybody as the largest producer of crude oil, neither are we contending with anybody as the largest producer of rice but we are the best manufacturers of shoes in Africa and the best manufacturer of garments and wears in Africa. So, we need to give a national voice to all of these that we have been doing. If I could create an SME bank as a governor, I could do more on capacity building. I could even establish two industries around Aba, then I understand what the problems are and I can speak about them.

I can mount strong advocacy in that direction and get things done. I have also done so much in terms of support for trade and commerce and my people think that I will be able to ask questions in the area of why Custom Officers raid warehouses in Aba and after going through the rigours in the Wharf, harassment along Benin-Ore Expressway and getting to the warehouse in Aba. It is just like somebody coming into your pot of soup and lifting the wing of chicken and asking you where is the birth certificate of this chicken? So, we think that there is something that is not right about how the rest of Nigerians perceive our people in this our genuine calling as traders and small-scale manufacturers, which is just our God-given talent. God doesn’t give one everything but the much he has given, we are asking that we need to protect. My people also think that I am in a position to mount strong advocacy in that direction. I am in a position to drive this transition leveraging on Federal Government impetus to do that.

Why was it difficult to do that as a governor?

As a leader of the subnational government, I have my job cut out for me. I couldn’t do everything. It’s important but that is not to say that nothing is being done in that direction. We have two to three ICT hubs that recently exported somebody that is valued at $1million. The person is residing in the UK now. The person came up with an app for a payment platform but we think we can do more. We have over 350 boys in one of those hubs and this ICT initiative has been recognized by Ford Foundation and we won many times through the Platform and by the grace of God, Ford Foundation put Abia State on CNN for several weeks where Made-in-Aba products and ICT exploits were promoted.

We have done quite a lot. We just signed off to transform the digital library at Umuahia into an IT hub for young people to idealize, create and innovate. So, we have created the fundamentals. So, we have done this much as a subnational government. The real thing is the Federal Government and we think there is a missing link and my people felt I can do the needful by bridging this gap. Again. If you recall all the major issues we have today, be it Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway, or Ikot Ekpene… these are Federal Government roads because I have suffered a lot trying to do these things without a refund from the Federal Government and I have done several Federal government roads. The time has come for the man who understands where the shoe pinches to lead out in the next four years at that level to speak for his people.

Incidentally, the man you are contesting with was known for his outspokenness, and vociferousness on issues affecting the Igbo on the floor of the Senate. That gave him a heroic status among the Igbo as the voice of the voiceless. I mean, you have a formidable opponent to contend with. How do you see that panning out?

Going forward, I think our people are asking questions about the work he has done. If you go to Ike Ekweremadu’s local government, I don’t think there is any track road that is not better and no one will say Ekweremadu is a complete pushover in the Senate, either judged by his ability to play the politics of the Senate and position himself and he rose to become the Senate President, or by advocacy for Enugu or Igbo people as it were. In addition to all of these, people could see what he has done. I have a lot of respect and regard for my elder brother, distinguished Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and most of us learnt politics watching him. Nobody remains an apprentice forever. At times, experience is very important but if combined youthfulness and energy is unbeatable.

You mentioned some difficulties you faced, the issues of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, three economic recessions, and the rest of it. How would you situate the kind of governance we have had at the federal level since 2015 when you assumed office? Could we have done better if we had a different approach to governance?

Everybody is miffed and shocked at the kind of leadership we have experienced at the hands of the APC since 2015. The main reason why many people are shocked is that government is judged based on promises and manifestos they made and President Buhari is not particularly new to presidential orchestration. Perhaps, he is the most prepared at the time having tried several times and experienced leadership at that level as a military ruler. So, we thought he has the levers of power at his fingertips and he could pull them but it is shocking that the value of the dollar to naira is N730 as at present, which has never happened before and it is on a free fall and the resolution of issues like ASUU strike appears as if we are implementing Boko Haram by default, which is we don’t want western education.

The rate of Inflation is uncontrollable, and then people are being paid N30,000 and they don’t want to see criminals. Graduates won’t get jobs and now they won’t also graduate. Even the simplest of things, the only thing I see happening is sharing of loots. Is that government? They would collect money from London and share it. How does that represent sophisticated thinking? The answers are clear to this particular question and the greatest disservice to our nation is the disunity and the rate of mutual suspicion brought in by the government that today one could be stoned in one part of the country for posting your views on social media and nothing will happen. Some cities are cut off from other cities and in all of these, they still post statistics on agriculture. Where are the farmers? On which farm are the farmers?

Having said all these, why do you think the APC should be confident about winning the 2023 elections?

What gives a party or candidate hope about what he or she will do in an election is a combination of two things. The first one is what he is able to do and his opponent is unable to do it. So, if those that are contending with APC become indolent, they say justice does not favor indolence.

Finally, the South-East is not speaking about Peter Obi. Is it about party politics or about the brightest chance the Igbo have to make an impact and possibly win the presidency?

I don’t know what you mean by the South-East…

I mean leaders…

Leaders of a geopolitical zone cannot be synonymous with the geopolitical zone. Most politicians speak from a selfish reason and it is about how it satisfies what they perceive but if any leader in the South-East wants, to be frank, he will say Peter Obi is a narrative that is resonating and I believe strongly that God still interferes in the affairs of men. Secondly, I also believe strongly that a mango will fall when it is ripe and it is time. Nobody knows whether it is time and season now or not but whosoever will emerge as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should know there is a Goliath confronting that David. If the person is unable to dredge up the courage to kill that Goliath, then you are not the David. There is no way we can run away from it.

Can you explain that?

What I mean is that today for the candidate of PDP, his Goliath is to dredge up the courage to demonstrate your capacity for inclusiveness and nation-building. It is a big-time Goliath. For Peter Obi, dredge up the courage to speak Nigerianness into the seeming South-East Agenda. For Bola Tinubu, the Goliath is to create a 360 degree departure from what has brought us to this path in the past seven years. (Sunday Vanguard)

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