From Chidi Nnadi, Enugu
Imo State All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain and member of the five-man committee that came to Enugu State for the registration and revalidation of party members, Prince Azu Uwandu, has said that the exercise afforded the Igbo the opportunity to join the ruling party and to make their voice heard on national issues.
Uwandu, who inn a chat with Oriental News during the exercise in Enugu, stressed that, with the registration of prominent Igbo politicians, the 2019 elections would be a different ball game in the region.
He also commented on the agitation for Biafra by the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), saying that every Igbo man is a Biafran at heart and, if the Igbo are given their due in the Nigerian state, their agitation for Biafra would cease naturally. Excerpt:
You are in Enugu for the registration and revalidation of members of the APC in the South-East, what informed the decision to embark on this exercise?
There was a little problem with the previous registration in the South-East, so, along the line, it was suggested that we do a re-registration for the South-East, that is why we are here. The registration is going on well and there is a lot of enlightenment for the South-East to be captured in the national APC data.
Reports said that the membership database for the South-East crashed, which was why this exercise was specifically for the South-East, how true was the claim?
You know the sensitive nature of all these new technologies, so anything is possible, we were told there was a virus that made our data for the South-East to crash, so we had to start afresh.
Have you people taken measures to ensure that the database does not crash again after this exercise?
Yes, immediately after this exercise what was got would be sent to the national APC database in Abuja.
This is the fourth day of the exercise, what is your experience like, are the people coming out to register?
This exercise is a call for the Igbo to come out so that they will be part of the government at the centre because we are talking of marginalisation; how can we be part of it if we are not participating? You cannot be outside and you are saying that you are being marginalised. It is when you are inside that your voice will be heard and you will participate fully and say your mind. So, based on that, your colleagues in the APC from the North and South-West, all of them will listen to your case. We are trying our best, that is why enlightenment is going on for people to come out. We are appealing to the Igbo to come out. Our people have to join the party that has almost all the North and South-West in it, these have the majority of their people in the APC, so we have to join them to get our due because it is when you are close to a person that you will perceive the smell of his mouth. You can’t be staying far away and be shouting that nobody is taking care of you. It is when you are in there that you will argue it out. What we want in the South-East is our own seaport. We want the River Niger and Oguta Lake to be dredged to join international waters so that the goods produced here will be exported directly from Oguta and Onitsha; there will be movement of goods through the waterways from Onitsha and Oguta to the North and, secondly, rail movement is not in the East. We need rail interconnectivity so that the goods manufactured in Aba will be transported directly to the South-West and the North and from the North, the cows and other goods will be transported to the East directly and the iron ore from Ajaokuta will be transported directly to the East because we need it for the production of goods. President Muhammadu Buhari said that they are looking into the Ajaokuta steel (mill). It is a key thing, so the President is trying.
We have seen recently the likes of Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, Chief Jim Nwobodo and Chief Ken Nnamani joining your party,. What is this attraction pulling top Igbo politicians to the APC?
A man of the caliber of former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, joining the APC will tell you that the Igbo now know what they are doing. They are joining the APC. You can see that it cuts across the whole states of the South-East. Already Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, former Governor Jim Nwobodo, Senator Ken Nnamani and a whole lot of others have joined us because they want to be at the centre and for their voice to be heard. We are happy that they have come on board to add to the leaders we already have in the South-East like Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Dr. Chris Ngige and Senator Osita Izunazo, among others.
In the last presidential election, Buhari said that the South-East gave him only 5 per cent votes; do you see this changing in 2019 with the entrance of these top politicians?
Of course. It is not only top politicians who are joining the APC in Igboland, we also have some business moguls who are also joining the party in Igboland; most of these Igbo want to come in to contribute their own quota so that the North and South-West will take them seriously. So, in 2019 APC will receive massive votes from Igboland.
By May this year it will be two years of Buhari’s administration; what can you say he has done for the Igbo, bearing in mind that the Igbo complained he did not carry them along when he made his first appointments?
As far as President Buhari is concerned he is recognising the South-East. We should respect issues. You know, like he said it, he got only 5 per cent votes in the 2015 presidential election as our people then were pro-Jonathan, but I think whatever attitude the President may have had about that is changing now. If you remember, all the time Buhari was contesting elections he had always used an Igbo man as his running mate, so he felt bad that the people had not embraced him. But today, he has thrown away all that and started to embrace the Igbo again, he is putting his searchlight back to the South-East, where he originally tried to have his link, and right now there is no going back on it. Already, he has given instructions on the second Niger Bridge, all the South-East federal roads; works have commenced on all of them. And there is this pressure from the South-East people that he should recognise them and make amends, which I believe he is now doing and will continue to do more.
How do you feel that, under the Buhari administration, Igbo youths, under the aegis of MASSOB and IPOB, are still complaining of marginalisation, which Ohanaeze has tacitly supported?
What I can tell you and which is the truth is that an average Igbo man is Biafran at heart. From Ekwueme to Ken Nnamani to Jim Nwobodo to Orji Kalu, to all the leaders in Igbo land, all of them are Biafran at heart. So, the issue of Biafran agitation, of course, if you go to the North, you have the Arewa youths who are agitating, making sure that the voice of the North is heard. If you go to the South-West, you see the OPC, who are agitating to make sure that everything the Yoruba want, they get. So, we also have our own IPOB and MASSOB. So, to that extent there is nothing wrong in that; that is complete democracy. Like we are in APC, I have been in the APC since 2014, but I am pro-Biafra at heart in terms of democracy and trying to get what is due to us as Igbo. So, it is for any government in power to listen to us, that is our own way of shouting when we are left out. We need to say that we are one of the tripods of the nation. So, even when we are in APC, we are still Igbo. So, most of the demands that the pro-Biafra groups are making are genuine, their fight is genuine more so when they are not armed, you don’t see them carry any gun. So, I am pleading with the President to caution the security operatives to stop shooting when these pro-Biafra groups are carrying out peaceful demonstrations. They should be left alone because the moment you start arresting and shooting them it goes international and puts the nation in bad light. He should try and listen to them and look at their demands. I am happy that even northern elite are now calling on the President to listen to these people.
There is also the clamour for an Igbo President, when will that be?
After the North, we feel that the country should be united to give it to us in 2023. We should allow the North to finish their eight years. The South-West did their eight years and the North came up again to do their eight years, we should support them so that, in 2023, they, in turn, in unity, will support us because we cannot get this without the support of the North and the South-West.
But the IPOB and MASSOB are asking for a sovereign state of Biafra?
There is a way to go about this thing. The moment there is peaceful coexistence; that leadership at the centre will rotate on the tripod of the North, West and East, there won’t be any agitation; agitation will die down naturally. I know when once it comes to the East, the Igbo will industrialise the nation and agitation will stop, you won’t hear about it again because there will be jobs to employ the youths who are now idle. Remember that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, but once there is industrial revolution there won’t be any agitation. Like I told you that I am pro-Biafra at heart, the moment there are jobs and industries all over the place, there won’t be 100 per cent agitation for full Biafra, people will be engaged in various businesses and think less of agitation for anything anymore.