By Dickson Okafor
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In 2015 Nigerians thought APC would be better than PDP, but now they have lost confidence in the party and are looking up for a new political party that can deliver them from the present hardship they find themselves in 2027. What is your take?
APC has just won the governorship election in Edo State, are they not Nigerians? So, which country are you talking from? Do you think people are frustrated by the ruling party? If it is true that Nigerians have rejected APC, how come they won election in Edo State? You have to answer that. Were they bribed with jollof rice or meat? Didn’t you see a big man in Edo State dancing publicly? Did you not see it? Who has more interest in Edo State than that man? So, who should I listen to more? Somebody was dancing. He was not dancing alone, but dancing with other people.
Doesn’t that pose a danger in 2027 if Nigerians cannot change government through the ballot box considering the level of hunger and hardship the people are going through?
You are talking about political party politics. My competence does include futurology. When the time comes we will see who Nigerians would choose. So, you pray for the good health of President Tinubu, pray for stability in the country and when we reach the bridge, we know how to cross it.
What is the fate of Southeast in 2027 because the region has not produced the President of Nigeria?
The first region that could have produced the Executive President of Nigeria sometime in 1978 was the Southeast. The person who was chosen for that time, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe gave reasons he would not work with the party through which he could have become president. Some of the things we talked about is overstated because people don’t know the facts. The military would have handed over to Azikiwe from the Southeast. It was a done deal. Former President Shehu Shagari would have been his Deputy or the Vice President, but we turned it down. Shagari became president in 1979. Even then Shagari was content being the Vice President and becoming President afterwards. I know that because I attended the meetings. I was then a student at Colliery Comprehensive School, Ngwo, Enugu State in 1979. So, from 1978 to 1979 I was doing politics even though I was a student. Nobody or group came together to say power won’t go to the Southeast. Rather it is how the people of Southeast present our case and if we did not make a better presentation the other regions will ask us if they are owing Igbo. The people of Southeast thrive with or without a political office or appointments. Not being president does not or has not denied the Southeast from doing anything. You cannot say the Southeast can’t do something because we have not become the executive President of Nigeria, that is the problem and that is the truth.
The president recorded victory in the suit at the Supreme Court regarding financial autonomy of local governments. What’s your view on this?
I thank President Tinubu for granting financial autonomy to the local governments. Meanwhile, the appropriation of autonomy will be gradual because it won’t be a one-day thing. It came as a shock to them because there were people who wanted to stop it. Why did they want to stop it? So that they can continue to manage the funds of the local governments no matter how small. Is it good for funds of local government being managed by people from outside the local government? The answer is no. It was not what the constitution contemplated. Why Nigeria’s economy is not as good as it should be, is because the local government is not functioning. If you have 774 functioning local government areas and you give them N1 trillion, if it gets to the state governments, I don’t know the proportion they will give to each of the local governments or much less the rest will disappear. So, if somebody wants to steal public funds, it starts from the local governments hence corruption is in circulation in the third tier of government. If somebody wants to build a market, it is in that local government the market will be built. Or wants to construct a road, it is in that local government that the road will be constructed. People now have self-pride because there are a lot of people who are living outside their local government area because of lack of basic amenities. But if there is development in their councils they can establish something there instead of paying rent in the townships. They will be going to work from their houses, do backyard garden and save the rent. The savings from that rent and amount made from that backyard garden in addition to what they will be doing officially as their work, that is how our economy will improve. It is not by saying if it is in Ghana, if it is in Ivory Coast or Senegal. The people in those countries go to work and live on their farms and there is a level of stability there. Once again, I congratulate the president for carrying out that policy in spite of obstacles. You may not see the benefits now, but come next year the economic indices will start coming in because gradually a lot of people will go back to the farm willingly. You cannot do this and get results unless it is accompanied with steady power supply. What drives people away from their villages is the lack of electricity supply.
