Charles Obioha Ogbonnaya is the former Deputy Chief of Staff to ex-Abia governor, Senator T.A. Orji and former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs during Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s first tenure.

During the 2023 electioneering, he was the Abia State coordinator, Atiku Presidential Campaign Organization (APCO).

In this interview, he spoke about his former principal, Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar, saying that he would not have made a good president if he had won last year’s presidential election.

He equally spoke about Abia politics, PDP and other issues. Excerpts:

You sounded prophetic in 2023 when you said if the leadership of Abia PDP did not zone the guber seat back to Abia North zone, the party will lose the election and it happened?

I want to say that I am not a prophet, but continuously, people call me prophet, but I’m not a prophet. I saw what was coming, I knew if time was not taken, that would be the end of PDP, I said so. In fact, the first person I spoke with was the party chairman, Dr Asiforo Okereke. I went to his office to congratulate him and told him that he has to do everything humanly possible to handle the party very well, otherwise the party will die in his hands. He laughed at me. I told him no, I really meant what I was saying because I know the hawks around, I recalled that (former governor) Okezie Ikpeazu told someone that God helped and not the party chairman that made him become governor of Abia State. I like doing things the right way, some people say I am a hardliner, I don’t know what it means by being a hardliner when you insist that the correct thing is done. For the transition of governorship in 2015, former Governor T.A. Orji invited some prominent people of Abia and luckily I was there, and constituted a committee, that committee was headed by Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, the deputy chairman was Augustine Alaribe of Isiala Ngwa South and the secretary was Okezie Ugboaja from Obingwa. In that meeting, every local government in the state was represented. It was there agreed that power be moved to Abia South and that was how Okezie Ikpeazu became a governor. By the time the governorship was to go back to Abia North, the former governor and his brothers, in fact, they call themselves Ukwa/Ngwa League, refused, not even withstanding the covenant they reached with Abia North stakeholders at Isuikwuato, at Eze Ezo Ukandu’s palace. They entered into agreement, poured libation that power will shift back to Abia North after the turn of Abia South. For them to turn around and said the governorship will no longer go to Abia North, it will remain in Ngwa land, it was an aberration, it was madness for people to even nurse that kind of ambition, I told them. I was in my house, when former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu called me one day, I went with my wife, he told me his aim. The other thing he told me that infuriated me that day, he called me Evulogu and asked me this question, ‘Tell me or show me one man in Abia North that can be made governor’. I was mad, I said Okezie my brother, is it you that is saying this thing? So, in all the Abia North, we don’t have anybody that could be governor? I asked him why he was saying those things. I told him that for me as a person, that I know how much you had in your account before you became governor. That I raised the first money. This man, Harbert Wigwe that died, was the man that gave us the first N100 million, not knowing who Okezie Ikpeazu was, he didn’t know Ikpeazu, but he was the man who invested that money. So, I told him that, but he insisted, and what would I do? The governor insisting and his brothers, they called themselves Ukwalangwa this, Ukwalangwa that, I told them it will not work. I told him it will not work, that nothing will make an Ngwa man be governor in this state, unless it returns back to your zone, that’s the only time Ngwa man will again be governor. That it is the turn of Abia North and Abia North man must be governor. I didn’t know I was prophesying, but I meant it because I saw the way things were going. The truth about the whole thing is that those that produced the governorship in 1999, should be the people to produce it, which is Abia North.

What does the present scenario portend for PDP in Abia State?

The People’s Democratic Party in Abia is dead and in the mortuary. Those of them in Abuja are not helping matters. What am I going to say than to tell the acting National Chairman of the party to come and perform the burial ceremony of PDP in Abia. Have you looked at the way people are moving out of PDP? They are leaving in droves, what else is remaining of PDP in Abia? The almighty PDP cannot win a councillorship election in Abia again.

I’m surprised you are saying this even when you’re there…?

(Cuts in) No, no, no, I’m not there. In December 2023, I called my friends, I went to church and told them I was stepping aside from partisan politics. My people said they are the ones to decide whether I will be stepping aside or not. The Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu came to me the other time and said the same thing. Changing my mind does not mean I will be going back to PDP. I can’t go back to PDP, nobody is there again in Abia.

Okere, the party chairman is there?

What is he doing? The Igbo say “onye amaghi nga eliri ozu n’abo ya n’ukwu.” Ikpeazu refused to ask questions to know where the head of PDP is, and that’s why he contributed in killing PDP, let him wake it up, let’s see.

Are you saying the former governor killed PDP in Abia?

What are you saying? Is it me that killed PDP? Ikpeazu murdered PDP, he murdered PDP with those band of sycophants that were following him around.

Is there no solution for PDP in Abia to rise up again?

How can, which solution? No, no, no, how can you bring the party back to life, are you Jesus that raised the dead? The truth is that here in Abia, PDP is dead. The funny thing is that those in Abuja don’t care, they have personal interests, scores to settle, that’s why they are struggling for the soul of PDP in Abuja, they don’t know the soul of PDP is in the 36 states. Now that the PDP is dead in Abia, can PDP Abuja come here and win any election? Let me tell you something, I was a foundation member of PDP in 1998, even true I never made financial contributions, but there were some other areas where I contributed. When you have bad leadership, the next thing you will have is collapse. We offered advice, all of them refused to listen, instead they called some of us names. About some weeks back, they came to my house, asking me to come and help rebuild PDP and I laughed. From where will I start from? By that time they came, PDP was in coma, now that the PDP is dead, it’s in the mortuary, what are you calling me to come and do? And how am I going to do it? I’m not Jesus, PDP is dead in Abia and will not win any single election in Abia in the next election.

You were the state coordinator of Atiku Presidential Campaign Organization in 2023, your leaving PDP means you’re not going to support him if he decides to contest again in 2027?

I will not support Atiku, how can I support him? I would no longer support him that’s what it means. Let me tell you something, on my own, because of the kind of person I am, after the 2023 presidential election, I wrote my report and in fact, my contemporary in Abuja, I told him Atiku will not make a good president, even if he had won that election, he wouldn’t have made a good president. This is so because you don’t have someone who is running for the office of the president and you give out money to people that are coordinating you in the 36 states, at the end of the day, you did not call to asked them, ‘how did you spent the money I gave to you’? What happened? Reappraise what happened, you have never failed in Abia before, why did you fail this time?

If you knew Atiku would not make a good president, why did you support him, why were you his state coordinator?

No, no, no, you cannot know the taste of any soup until you taste it. I have been following Atiku for a very long time, from the days of PDM, before we joined SDP, PDP, I have been following him. He is a man I love because of he way he make people, I’m a builder myself and when I see fellow builders, I appreciate them, that’s what I see in him. But going back, I have been saying it that Tinubu is a better politician than any other living politician in Nigeria.

Why did you say so?

I say so because before the NADECO days, he established a political structure, he nurtured that structure before he became governor and up till today, the structure is still in the going and strong. The next person that would have done that would have been Orji Uzor Kalu, he is a fine politician, but something went wrong along the line. Tinubu is still with those politicians he was with as governor in 1999.

Don’t you think that what is going for Tinubu that is not there for Kalu has to do with people’s culture? The Igbo don’t believe anybody should be king over them?

That is one of our undoings, I believe in stooping and conquering. The Igbo say, ‘daa n’ala rie nka’, maybe because they all have money, they don’t have respect for anybody, such is not life, we have seen where that is leading us to. For me, I went for some political tutelage, first was in the house of Prince B.B. Apugo, where I served him for four years and then I left his house and went to the late Chief Arthur Nzeribe’s house, I served him for two years, I came out and went to Orji Uzor Kalu’s structure where I was for three years. That is how politics is, you have to be groomed. There is no half measure to loyalty in politics and that’s what the Igbo of today are lacking. In Yoruba land, loyalty is a culture and that I must tell is working greatly for Tinubu.

Don’t you think Ohanaeze has much to do in bringing this cohesion among the Igbo?

How would Ohanaeze do that with its present structure? I have told them to give back Ohanaeze to the owners, they refused. Let me tell you the truth, the owners of Ohanaeze are the autonomous communities in Igbo land. They are the people that should be able to election who should represent them. Decisions in Ohanaeze have to come from down to up and not from up to down. How many of those big men in Ohanaeze attend meetings in their communities? That’s the problem.

You classified Tinubu as a good politician, how would you rate him as a president? Nigerians are suffering under his presidency.

I find it difficult to criticize anybody, senator, governor, president, all what not. The problem we have in Nigeria is structural problem. The 1999 constitution is doing us more harm than good. If not for that, Tinubu has no right to wake up in the morning and say pump price of petrol will be N2,000, he doesn’t have such powers. All these things should be based on prevailing market prices. Haven said that, yes things are difficult, but it is not difficult only in Nigeria, it is difficult everywhere, I agree with people who said priorities are not set properly.

When you say priorities are not set right, this comes to mind, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway. Does Nigeria need that at the moment?

We should remove sentiment, I give Tinubu thumps up for that. If we want the economy of the country to blossom, that road is very, very important. I’m also happy when they said there is also a rail line going the same way. Let me tell you something, I was in a place in Piacinzar, Italy, that was where I lived. One beautiful morning, I saw some German boys and two Nigerians, they came with two cars. When we met we introduced ourselves and they said they were coming from Germany. I asked them from Germany by road? How did you do that? They told me there’s a road from Germany to Austria and from Austria to Genova and to Torino, down to Milan, then to Piacinzar. Have you seen it? So, it is easy to drive from Germany to Italy to Poland. So, what is happening now with the Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway was the same thing that happened when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo started the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, it was opposed. People are hungry, yes, but let’s have that road, it’s a big project.

How would a country without any functioning refinery embark on a road project that runs into trillions of naira?

I cannot be a president and see the refineries lying unproductive. I think we have a Minister of Petroleum, I cannot be a Minister of Petroleum and the refineries are not working. Look at Dave Umahi, what he is doing, I’m proud of him because he understands what he is doing. As far as I am concerned, he is the only minister performing in this country today. He is challenging the white men, those who think they are Engineers, he is challenging them in the country. I pray that that road will be completed on time.

The administration of Dr Alex Otti is days off one year, how do you access it?

I will give Governor Alex Otti six scores over 10 because he has started well despite the fact he is not behaving like a democrat. Some of his actions are so undemocratic. This project (politics) is for democrats, but Otti is not behaving like one. For instance, go to Abia House of Assembly and see what is happening. The House members could be anything, but on their own. Let them ask me why, they are just like Special Assistants to the governor, they are not on their own. If you have House of Assembly members that are standing on their feet, you should know, they are not standing on their feet, they do the biddings of the governor, whatever he wants, that’s what they will do. Come to the executive arm, only two Commissioners are doing well. I commend the Commisioner for Works, he is doing excellently well, maybe because of his experience, coming out from FERMA, he is facing the problems of the people well, In that area, Otti is doing marvellously well. And then the Commissioner for Sports, he is also doing very well. The other Commissioners are not doing well, maybe because they are doing what the governor wants. Again, my brother Otti is carrying a very wrong notion about Abia politicians that he can go to the United States of America and smear the image of Abia politicians, degrading and calling them criminals and thieves. And these are people that staked their necks to make you governor. Generalizing that politicians in Abia are all thieves is unbecoming of a governor. That’s not the way to go because if you cross a bridge and decides to destroy it, won’t you come back? If I were the governor of the state and I sit down see people leaving an opposition party to another opposition party, not coming to my own party, then I will ask myself questions, what is happening? I will need to sit down and think about it. Labour Party of all parties, nobody is going there, its because of the leadership. You don’t carry this animosity against people, they came from PDP, they came from APC, while you were once with them.

I don’t think in US, the governor generalized his accusation of politicians, but was specific on those indicted by the forensic audit probe?

Well, I am just talking about what I heard; the bad egg politicians in Abia I heard, that’s what I’m talking about. By the way, haven’t you heard they accused me of stealing government land? I appeared before their Probe Panel with my documents and since then, I have not heard from them again, I’m waiting for them. What I’m saying is that it is wrong to generate that all Abia politicians are thieves.

Although 2027 is still far, but since politicians begin early to plan, what do we expect?

Otti is doing well, but the only albatross will be antagonizing his fellow politicians. He may have the base, the common man on the street, he may have them, that’s correct. But all I know about politics, the man who casts the vote in Nigeria, is not the problem, the problem is the man that counts the vote. (Sunday Sun)

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