From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Chief Godswill Uche Nwanoruo (Oparaukwu), is Abia State Commissioner for Transportation. In this interview, he spoke glowingly about the state governor, Okezie Ikpeazu and his achievements including the recently commissioned Osisioma flyover.
He equally spoke about the impending titanic battle between Ikpeazu and Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe over the Abia South senatorial district seat.
Gov Okezie Ikpeazu wants to go to the Senate in 2023, do you think he will serve his people better being a lawmaker?
Yes he will. The governor today has succeeded in making sure that made in Aba goods are known throughout the world. By that, everybody knows there is a city called Aba and that the people are into manufacturing. The governor has succeeded in sending some of our youths to China and other places to go and learn modern ways of doing some of these things. So, the governor going to the Senate will help Abia.
With the governor at the Senate, national presence will be felt in the state and International investors will also come in and all what not. His presence at the national assembly will make sure that made in Aba goods will not be forgotten. We need somebody in the national assembly who will make laws that will affect made in Aba goods positively. Ikpeazu is the best person to go and represent our people there.
Some people believe the Senate has become a sleeping ground for ex-governors, will Ikpeazu’s case be different?
No, no, no, not for someone like Okezie Ikpeazu. Going to the Senate would not mean he will be going there to sleep. Ikpeazu will always make sure that the name Abia State will be heard internationally.
Gov Ikpeazu has picked a successor and someone from your local government, Nnanna Nwafor who is also running on another platform. What’s your view on that?
I’m a PDP member to the core; in fact, I’m a founding member of the PDP right from 1999. I would say that I was the youngest to be part of the formation of the party called the PDP. So, that my brother and friend is contesting for the office of the governor, and he is from my local government, what we are talking about is party. I am a PDP member, I cannot be in PDP and be supporting another person. Nwafor was with us in PDP; he left the party because he didn’t clinch that position as our flag-bearer and he went out and joined YPP.
I must say that YPP is not in Abia. Prof Uche Ikonne is the person to beat and you know that PDP owns Abia and Abia is PDP. So, we are going to make sure we support Ikonne to be the next governor of the state. He is our flag bearer, he is our candidate.
Are you optimistic that Ikonne will win?
Yes, Ikonne will win even in Osisioma where Nwafor comes from, PDP will win. The YPP flag-bearer has no place in Osisioma Ngwa. The problem is this, Osisioma Ngwa as a people cannot make Nwafor governor. He will need to move out to the other 16 local government areas to get supporters that will vote for him. In our own local government, we wouldn’t want a situation where 16 LGAs will vote for PDP and Osisioma Ngwa will say because our son is vying for the governorship seat, let us vote for him and by tomorrow, the local government will be marginalised for refusing to vote the ruling party.
Don’t you think the people may want to vote for their son believing they will be better off if he wins?
Yes, some people will be saying that but for some of us that are politically mature today, we need to put one and one together. Like what I have just said, if Osisioma Ngwa is voting for Nwafor, what of Umunneochi, Arochukwu and other local governments, is he going to win there? You need to put some of these things into consideration. If he is going to win in these LGAs, we can say okay, let’s join them. But we have 17 LGAs and not only Osisioma Ngwa as the only one in Abia State.
You talked about Ikpeazu going to the Senate, but we have someone who has been there, in the person of Enyinnaya Abaribe, who wants to go back. Do you think it will be easy for Ikpeazu to dislodge him?
If we are talking about the person that will represent Abia South in the Senate today, with what our people have seen, Enyinnaya Abaribe is not a match to Okezie Ikpeazu. For the good 16 years Abaribe has been there, let him come out and tell the people of Abia South what he has done, what he has attracted from the Federal Government for his constituents.
The things Ikpeazu did in Abia South today, will speak for him. What Ikpeazu will say during his campaign is, ‘I did this, I did that’, so, let Abaribe come and tell the people what he did for them.
If you’re representing a people as a senator, it’s not your family business; you must do something for the people, attract Federal Government projects, not going there to fight the government at the centre and say you are defending our people, no. People like Pius Anyim, Ike Ekweremadu were there with him, look at what they did for their people. But look at Abia South, the only oil producing senatorial district in the state, has nothing to show for it.
Abaribe is a member of Senate Committee on NDDC, tell me how many roads he has attracted for our people. Let’s know the Federal Government projects he attracted for our people; nothing, so, what’s he going there to do again? To go there and be fighting the Federal Government? No, we need somebody that has the capacity to do something for the people.
Here in Aba, we need a representative that will go there and bring the federal presence here. With what Gov Ikpeazu did, supporting Geometric Power to come back, we really need the Federal Government to in fact, live in Aba to support manufacturing companies.
Were you surprised that Abaribe left PDP to contest the Senate seat against Ikpeazu on another platform?
I wasn’t surprised, in the last two elections, the governor was instrumental to making sure that Abaribe contested because he wanted someone in the same party with him to be there and we were talking about ranking senator, that was why we made sure we pushed Abaribe back to the Senate. Just imagine, somebody that was given the Minority Leader position, tell me what he did with that position; he didn’t do anything. And because of his selfishness, this man is my governor’s brother, from the same Local Government Area, he now came back to say he will be governor. Because he was not allowed, nobody supported him, he then left the party. He then changed his mind to say he wants to go back to the Senate. Now, he went to APGA and dropped that exalted position as a Minority Leader. Imagine, Aba South, Abia State and our people lost out. That’s to tell you how selfish someone could be. So, how would you convince your people that you still want to go back to the Senate?
Some people are of the view that it could only be just and fair for an Ukwa man to be allowed to go to the Senate since an Ngwa man has been there for 16 unbroken years, don’t you think so?
We have six Local Governments that make up Abia South, it’s not only Ukwa. In our party today, for the first time, the Ukwa man is having that position as chairman of PDP. Mr Asiforo Okere from Ukwa East is the chairman of PDP. We know some of these positions they are having, we share our things. The Ukwa PDP person is not complaining that Ikpeazu is going to the Senate because I didn’t see any of them that contested that Senate seat with him. Ikpeazu got the ticket unopposed, therefore we will not force anybody from that area to come and contest.
In the other parties too, I think APC is having someone from Aba North, YPP is also having someone here and Abaribe who is from APGA, is also from Obingwa. So, why didn’t these other parties field somebody from Ukwa?
What do you make out of Senator Abaribe contesting the Senate seat against Ikpeazu?
It was in July last year that I called Abaribe and also sent a text to him and told him that if he wanted to be unpopular in Nigeria, let him not come to Abia to contest for governorship, that somebody like him will be good for the presidency. With what was happening, the PDP, even the other parties were looking for presidential candidates from Southern Nigeria, especially the South East. Had it been Abaribe stayed back in PDP, he should have been the vice presidential candidate of the party, not Ifeanyi Okowa.
But because of greed and selfishness, he relinquished that position and in the process, lost the opportunity. Is he the only person from Ukwa/Ngwa zone to represent our people as governor?
He came, contested and because it seems he will not win, he left the party and picked some of the other aspirants and started making trouble at the national Secretariat. When he saw he was not going to succeed, he left for APGA. I’m not surprised that he left.
There is this assertion in the opposition circle that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has not achieved a lot but with the commissioning of the Osisioma flyover, will it still be fair to say so?
So many people may say certain things against what the governor is doing in the state but I must tell you that those people saying that, let me say they are enemies of Abia State because if they are not, how can they be saying that? Before even the commissioning of the flyover, the governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has recorded 150 completed roads, just to make sure that we have good roads to ensure we have ease of transportation in the state. I wonder how anybody who knows Abia very well before 2015, will be saying that.
This is the first flyover in Abia State, how…?
Since the creation of Abia State, in fact, since our people came out to see ourselves as people from the East Central state, Imo State and now Abia State, we’ve not got one flyover in this state. I thank God the flyover is sited in my own place, Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area.
Not only sited in your Local Government, the flyover was started some years back, but commissioned during your tenure as Commissioner for Transportation. How does it feel?
Yes, I feel great that the governor built this flyover in my place and commissioned it during my tenure as Commissioner for Transportation in Abia State. So, it’s somebody like me from where this flyover is sited and I happen to be the Commissioner for Transportation.
Some people are of the view that the money spent on the flyover, should have been spent on internal roads in the state. Do you agree with that?
No, no no, let me tell you, before now, if we want to tell ourselves the truth, before you can gain access into Aba, the Enyimba city from Umuahia, Port Harcourt or Owerri, you would spend about three hours before you can connect to the city centre. But today, it can’t take you two or three minutes for you to get into the town. So, somebody telling me he should have used that money to build internal roads, while we have not succeeded in decongesting the Osisioma Ngwa Junction, is not being fair anyway. What the governor has done there is perfect.
From what you have reeled out as the governor’s achievements in office, do you think he is being underrated?
I think you are right because many of us here don’t know …
What’s your advice to Abians especially as Christmas is fast approaching?
I will urge them to continue to pray for the governor so that he will continue to pilot the affairs of the state till May 29, 2023 when his tenure will be over. He has gone this far because of their prayers and I will advise them to continue. As for my Ministry, we will continue to preach for peace and advise the motoring public to be careful on our roads, particularly as the Christmas period is fast approaching. I wish Abians good luck as we move into the period of the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Quote: “somebody that was given the Minority Leader position, tell me what he did with that position; he didn’t do anything. And because of his selfishness, this man is my governor’s brother, from the same Local Government Area, he now came back to say he will be governor”