Member representing Ideato North & South of Imo State in the Federal House of Representatives, Honorable Ugochinyere Imo Ikenga, in a monitored interview on Channels TV, spoke on Rivers State crises, six years rotation term proposal for future Presidents, reducing cost of governance, among other issues.

With the G60, you have been in the vanguard of promoting good governance, are you up to 60?

I think now we’re more than 60.

Rivers Crisis, courts order and counter order and party intervention in this particular crisis in River State

To be frank with you, this is one of the fearful moments our intra party democracy is going through. And without mincing words, party leadership at the national and state level, have been highly compromised, as it has to do with Rivers. We have a party leadership that has refused to step forward to condemn the key actors who have made the situation very difficult for our party and wants to steal the mandate of the party. We have a party leadership that deliberately despite the alarm that was raised, appointed a caretaker committee for a party in Rivers led by members of APC. If you remember, I raised this issue. They said they were going to step down at the NEC meeting but in the middle of the night, they came up and said they have an ex-parte order which none of us has seen and went ahead and published this before as officers of our party. So, when you ask me, why is it that much is not coming from the PDP. I will ask you which PDP, because the people that are there are not members of PDP and that is why they cannot stand up to defend the interests of our party. We have a party leadership that is unable to know where to draw a line between their personal affiliation with one of the key actors in this whole crisis, which is the FCT minister and the interests of our party. You are even aware that they were supposed to conduct the election to bring a substantive chairman by August. But while we’re sleeping, they have issued another notice that until September, so deliberately, they don’t want the party to move forward. They want to destroy the party. Let me tell you, even today, if you remember, the days of Asiwaju, just from AC to ACN, they led a strong opposition movement, that crystalized to a mega alliance that defeated our party but now you have some of our governors and our party’s national leadership; they don’t even want to mention it with their mouth because they’re so scared. Maybe, the FCT minister will not be happy with them. Normally, governors elected on the platform of opposition party were supposed to have stormed Rivers in solidarity with our party, but they don’t care because they elevate some of their personal affiliation above the interests and survival of the opposition in the country. So, this whole thing to me is a joke, the party is not doing anything, not even saying much on anything in terms of speaking with strong voice, in terms of coming forward to see each other. As a matter of fact, as we are aware, you saw our party going to the low level of filing an application in court to even say that those who have left our party are still members of our party so that they can help them get legitimacy to remove our party in office in Rivers. It’s so painful. These are the same people that have sworn affidavit. They swore affidavit in court that on December 11, 2023, that they have left the Peoples Democratic Party to join APC, but our own party in their own affidavit is saying they have not left so that they can get a court order that will help them to remove Fubara from office. So, this one is a joke and is in low level four position politics in Nigeria; never in the history of opposition politics anywhere in Africa, has a political party abandoned its own vision, abandon its own agenda in pursuit of interest that is personal and cannot help the growth of democracy.

Do you do you think they should take sides with a governor or they should intervene in the issue of the party itself?

Need for an intervention? First of all, you have elected members of your party, 27 of them who got up one morning without any division in your party said they are no longer members of your party and claim that because they are discussions for a merger between NNPP and Labour Party, they have left, that doesn’t amount to division, and then they move into another party. Change all the laws, they were amending laws that will make sure your party does not survive in Rivers including making attempts to impeach your governor. There will be no intervention, the line has been clearly drawn on this particular matter. You have a member of your party, a former governor who has benefited immensely from the party as a local government Chairman, as a chief of staff, as a minister, as a governor, the party almost gave him a platform to reach the heights he’s today, but he decides to walk for the ruling party that doesn’t want your own party to survive and then boldly goes publicly to say that his commitment is to ensure that your political party, the PDP does not come anywhere near winning any presidential election till after 2027. So there cannot be an intervention. They are no longer members of the party. They have declared war on the party. They’re committed to destroying the party. So what you do is to protect what you have. But you are enmeshed with him, you don’t want to even protect your party. You just want the party to be dead. You don’t want the party to move forward so that they can execute their plan, so there’s no need for any intervention because they have clearly said they don’t want the party to win. They don’t want the party to survive beyond 2027, so what are you intervening? I watched it on your TV during their thanksgiving reception in Rivers. They said it clear, so it is now left for the national leadership of the party to say no, this is not what this party was set up to do. Because you’re not aligning with the vision of the party, because you don’t want the party to win the election, which is one of the functions of political party, and because you don’t want the party to be a strong opposition party, give way, but our own political party is even giving them the legal backing and giving them the enabling environment for them to continue the anti- party activities to the extent of filing cases in court to aid them. So, we don’t have a party leadership. We just have people that APC have imposed on us and want to continue to impose on us with the sole aim of ensuring that we don’t go anywhere beyond the place where we are today.

Steps that should be taken to protect your party? What would they be?

First of all, I said our governor needs to stop sleeping. If you watch my statement today, it was very clear, that why do opposition bases in Kano and Rivers under attack. Some of the leaders of our party are drinking champagne with those who want to kill the party; that our goal was was behave like governors of 1999 governors and 2007 and step forward and provide leadership and stop hobnobbing with those who don’t want us to survive, including the leaders of the parties. Speak up, stand up, show solidarity in support of the opposition movement in the country. And as a matter of fact, the national chairman needs to give way for the North Central to assume their rightful position as spelt out in our party constitution so that the process of reforming and rebuilding, reconciling and uniting can commence in the party. And also more importantly, that what needs to be done is that the Federal Government needs to understand that these things that are happening, these people that are claiming to be working for the Federal Government are actually pursuing their political interest and fighting for their political survival, whether in Kano, whether in Rivers, and let’s not have a repeat of the crisis of the 60s and the 1983 where the Federal High Court and the police were used by those who are close to the Federal Government then that led to the collapse of democracy. Let the Federal Government be able to call these people to order because they are only on a mission that is personal; they have nothing to do with the Federal Government.

Some caucuses of PDP in Rivers State are not happy with you apparently. That you are meddling in the affairs of the state that is not yours while your state has issues that needed to be addressed, What’s your response to this?

I don’t want to dignify such things with a response because the authentic Rivers have issued a statement and that is the one led by right Honorable Abiante. He has issued a statement and have disowned that statement. And I think that statement is out there in the public. And if you Google it, you can see that the Rivers House of Representatives Caucus have disowned it and for the fact that they have done that, they have reaffirmed confidence and appreciation for our many years of sacrifice in defence of democracy. That is very consoling and I will not want to dignify anybody that is seeking my attention with a reply on that matter.

Your proposal for six years rotational government

What we’re proposing is very simple. It is a six years single term presidency that will rotate between North and South and also all elections in one day and the reason is very simple. Our electoral process has been so bastardised; the credibility and outcome over the years is difficult for people to believe in because of the desperation of political actors. And when I say that, if we have all election in one day, it will save us costs and also bring all stakeholders together. It means that you know candidates, agents of candidates for the 65 elections that would hold the same day. Everybody will turn out, it will reduce the level with which election materials are being hijacked and ensure massive participation from everybody, there will be vigilance and that will also help in ensuring that once accreditation for instance is done, the first segment of the election, which is maybe the state House of Assembly, that puts a cap on the accreditation and you cannot change the time you begin counting the presidential or governorship election results. That will help us ensure a credible outcome and also we are insisting that there must be adequate punishment for election officials that announce results that are false or that was not electronically transmitted, a seven years jail with option of no fine, and more serious consequences to help discourage them. And then we said that this conversation and money that goes into re-election where it’s costing so much and distracting government, that we can have a six years single term and also in order to deescalate political tension about power rotation and sharing in the country, which also affects governance, that let power constitution rotate between North and South. When it comes to the South, it goes to the geopolitical zones there, when it goes to North, it rotates among the geopolitical zones there. We will reduce costs and reduce this conversation that is distracting us and we focus on development. And in order to ensure the six years uninterrupted development polity, that everything about pre- election matter of who is the right candidate, the rightful party leadership, who won the primary or not should be decided 30 days before the election. And after election, every conversation in Court should be about the outcome of the election, not about pre- election issues and issues about post-election litigations should be decided before swearing in the person into office. So, it doesn’t get into office and start using government money or resources to try to remain in office, by so doing, it means that once you win the election, from the day you’re sworn in, you have six uninterrupted years to govern and at the same time maintaining political stability and removing distractions. And that there should be office of a two vice presidents. The reason is this, to avoid a repeat of what happened during the time of the death of Yar’Adua and Jonathan, that in the case that the president dies or is impeached or removed, the second vice president who is the succession Vice President will be sworn in even if it’s a day to the expiration of their tenure. He should complete what is remaining of that tenure without re- contesting. And in order to reduce the cost of running government, that Vice President will be a minister, so once he is a vice president (succession) for instance, there’ll be no Minister from that state, he would be minister from that state, just like a camp priest waiting to assume office as president in the event of impeachment, incapacitation or removal. With that, we can save cost, we’ll ensure inclusivity of everybody in the political process, clean up the electoral process and move to development issue, which is the most important thing that Nigeria should be discussing.

Do you think that would help us or shouldn’t we be talking about good governance?

These are not all issues affecting Nigeria. But the conversation has to start somewhere in terms of political restructuring and redefining the system of government; you cannot even have conversation about government and development without a credible electoral process without engaging leaders who have the capacity to bring those developments we are looking for. The leadership recruitment process, how people emerge to be leaders, and how they continue to maintain that political power is also important in helping development. Look at what is happening all over the country, development conversation is not much; it is about politics right and centre. We feel that it will bring political stability, inclusion and so on; maybe we can grow past these political distractions and focus on governance and restore the will of the people, and once that will is restored, leaders may start behaving more responsible, very responsible more than that. So, there’s a lot of problems affecting the country but we have to start somewhere for having this conversation. That is why our reform is not just about political reforms. We have economic reforms, social reforms and other reforms. It is about 50 amendment proposals; we just released six; in the coming weeks, we’re going to release the other ones to understand that it is a multi faceted approach to solving our problems. It’s just that our contribution is not like something that must be done the way we want, we just want to bring up a conversation that it is high time we restructured, not just the political leadership level, the economy and so on and so forth to be able to move forward, including issues of local government administration, which you know, if we’re done, will help to engineer and accelerate development in the rural areas and increase economic growth.

What fillers are you getting from the House in respect to this particular piece of legislation you are trying to propose?

Well, we’ve been able to reach a lot of our colleagues and the conversation had been positive and we’re doing this ahead of the second reading, which is critical to the survival of these proposals. And we believe that our colleagues also agree that there is need for us to find a way to get stability in the system. We’re hoping and praying that our colleagues will help us see this through.

Don’t you think it’s time our Constitution is very specific and emphatic about how local government administration should be managed, without prejudice to the case in court. Between the federal government and the states?

We have gone through this before; we even came to the parliament. Previous parliament have made attempts in cleaning the local government system but the problem that was run into is the non -cooperative attitude of the state, House of Assembly who most times are appendage of their governors and even to the extent of this autonomy should have been there since 1999. This 10th assembly is also working in cleaning the local government, there is even a proposal by different people that the election should be conducted by the Federal INEC because people don’t have confidence in what most of the state’s electoral Commission’s are doing that most times they would just wake up and announce one particular party as winners of the election. So yes, without any prejudice to the ongoing amendment proposal by some of my colleagues. Yes, there is conversation and there are proposals on the table to see how we can make it really independent so that all these issues can be resolved because once the local government system is working effectively, it will be a kind of engine room to accelerate economic growth that will solve the Nigerian economy unemployment problems to be solved.

25 years of democracy, one year of President Tinubu’s performance

Democratically, you cannot have a functional democratic system without a parliament. As a matter of fact, the history of parliamentary system from the time of the French Revolution in about 1776 or thereabouts, it has been about people, a platform for the people to engage and be able to ensure that a common wealth is well protected and then their interest is also well protected. Any democracy without parliament is not a democratic system. So 25 years, they have played good roles that were also helpful and at the same time, there are some shortfalls that also needs to be worked upon. And that shortfall was also caused by the electoral system that has not been very effective. We have seen people who may not share those strong commitment to engage democracy to work perfectly well, being elected into parliament in the past. I believe, yes, things have not fared very well, but going forward, things can also improve and one year under the present regime, one of the good things we have enjoyed in the parliament today is unity and stability. Members were able to come together to understand that Nigeria is facing a critical moment and it’s time for joint effort for us to put our individual differences aside. Of course, even if you watch, you have high number of opposition people, but we said okay, let’s constructively criticise but let’s support government to pull out of the challenging economic problems we have to be able to make life better for our people. So in terms of stability, in terms of harmonious working relationship, and in terms of effective legislation, we have done that to enable the government to better lives but there are still a lot that needs to be done.

Cost of governance, when will lawmakers act to reduce this because you have the power to do that?

I have to be honest with you, this conversation has been there before we came and it continues. If you look at House of Representatives Agenda, one of the things we agreed to do in the process of constitution amendments is the reduction of cost of governance. Proposals are on the table and I can assure you that you should give us that confidence and trust that this 10th assembly would do something remarkably in terms of reducing the cost of governance across all levels not just in parliament, but in executive and Judicial arm of government. (Daily Sun)

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