•It’s easier if ruling party fields Buhari
Former governor of Anambra State and PDP stalwart, Achike Udenwa has boasted that the Peoples Democratic Party will bring an end to the APC administration headed by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. He said the feat will be easier for PDP if APC decides to field Buhari for a second term. He spoke further on this and more in this interview by VINCENT KALU.
What is your view on the state of the nation?
The nation is going through a very tough time; you have security issues, economic issues, and political issues. Generally, the country is in a very bad shape. It requires some of us to join hands to see how to rescue it.
You said Nigeria is in a bad shape, how then do you fix it?
It is even at this period that issues confronting Nigeria are in the front burner. This is the best time for us to do restructuring. I was a member of the 2014 National Conference, where we took very far reaching decisions on how to restructure this country. It is still the best instead of plunging ourselves into civil war. Let us restructure, make the centre a bit weaker and the states or whatever we believe will be the federating units a bit stronger so that many things are transferred downstairs, so that each federating unit will now identify its peculiar problems and tackle them effectively because the biggest problem we have is over centralization. You find out that in trying to formulate, for example, educational policy, you want to take into consideration the educational needs of every part of this country and by the time you try to articulate them, you come out with a policy that will not solve the problems of the different geographical locations.
If we are able to devolve powers downstairs, then each region identifies its problem and looks for ways to solve it. For example, educationally, the problem in the Southeast is not the same problem in the Northeast.
For instance, in the Southeast you have many children who are going to school, but you don’t have enough facilities for them, while in the Northeast, you create the possibilities, but you don’t have enough children to go to school. These are two different problems, which the regions can tackle.
The same thing in the economic issues. You talk about oil in the Niger Delta, while in the North you have a lot of solid minerals, lot of land for agriculture. Everybody should be able to face his own problems squarely. If we have to restructure, this is the time. If we want Nigeria to remain one and strong nation, this is the time to restructure.
There seems to be discordant tunes about restructuring. Some say they don’t know what restructuring means, while others say they want to return to the regions, some others insist on the 2014 confab report. Where do we draw the balance?
It is unfortunate for the President to say that the confab report will not see the light of day. This was a report drawn up by a cross section of this country. Everybody was represented geographically, economically, religiously, traditionally, and every sort of people were in that Confab drawn from different strata of the society, and they came out with those recommendations.
I’m not saying those recommendations are all perfect, but even where they are not perfect, we can set up a smaller committee made up of people also from different backgrounds to look into the report and see how we can adapt it to solve our problems.
In the conclusion of that report, you have those issues that require administrative action; there are also those issues that require laws by the National Assembly, and there are those issues that require a complete change in the constitution. We tackled those problems as they were and came out with something that can be good for every part of this country.
The major problem we have is fear. A lot of people have unfounded fear.
Yes, we agreed that the oil money is there for all of us to share, but we must realize that the oil money will gradually go, as we are seeing where the world economy is going. In the next 20 years, oil will become less important.
I can tell you, the North that has the biggest fear over restructuring would the greatest beneficiary of restructuring. Agriculturally, they can feed the entire nation and we don’t need to import food, and if they harness their agriculture potential, the entire country would depend on them.
Look at the solid minerals, go to Sokoto, Zamfara, Nasarawa, Plateau and Kogi states, they have lots of solid minerals – gold, diamond, lead etc, in future they would be ahead.
We in the Southeast, are even the least in terms of natural resources, though we have the man power and the human capital which we can build on, but in terms of natural endowment, we don’t have so much, we are peripheral oil producers – Imo, Abia and Anambra.
The fears we are having about restructuring are not there, it is for us to face restructuring with much sincerity, and the country will be a lot better for it; the country will be better managed, even the corruption we are fighting will be better managed.
You have a situation at the federal level where several billions of Naira are disappearing from all sorts of avenues. If we restructure, the federating units will be able to manage their resources better. That is the right way to go.
That is what Aburi Accord was about. It was all about restructuring. Imagine, if we had implemented Aburi at the time the agreement was reached in 1967, we would have not gone to war, and the Nigerian economy would have been one of the strongest.
The scramble at the national level where everybody wants his kinsman to be the president of the country won’t be there. It is because of the abundance of wastage at the centre that is why the heat is so much.
If we restructure, we would be a lot better. What is restructuring?
We are talking of devolution of powers; we are talking of resource control, we are talking of fiscal federalism, if we can take care of these issues you find out that Nigeria will be much better.
What should Nigerians expect in 2019?
Many factors will determine 2019, including the topic we just discussed now – restructuring, the economy. Politically, no party is sure that it is going to win because All Progressives Congress (APC) that is in power has not done well. The party came in on a populist mandate. They came in promising change, as they said people were suffering, and they promised to turn around their lives and they carried the day.
Alas, we have seen the party in the last two years and some months, that the APC has done nothing, instead, the situation has worsened. The exchange rate that was between N190 and N200 to a dollar, is now about N370. The recession set in.
If anybody is telling you that we are out of recession, it is not true. That we pretend to be out of recession is because the price of oil has moved up a little bit and the quantity we are selling has also moved up. We have not come out of recession. What is our GDP? In terms of productivity, what have we done, have we started producing more agricultural goods, have we started looking at our solid minerals, have we started manufacturing as we should do, has power improved? These are issues that are going to determine 2019.
The basic issues are still there, and they have not been tackled. So, if anybody is telling you that we are out of recession, it is not true.
You can only be out of recession when you increase your local production, when you decrease your food import and import of finished goods, you improve your power and your industries are working, then you would be out of recession, and not when the price of oil has increased and the quantity of oil you are selling has increased then you say you are out of recession. Tomorrow the price of oil can go down. It is volatile. It is not something you can bank on, and it is not within your control.
You said no party is sure of winning the 2019 presidential election; the PDP is beating its chest that it would take back power, while APC is accusing the opposition party of plunging Nigeria into this mess, what is your stand on this?
PDP didn’t plunge the nation into this economic crisis. The Jonathan administration wasn’t perfect, it was still managing the economy the best way it could. The economy became so bad after the APC came into power. The economy plunged following the utterances of the President. At a time, Buhari said Nigerians were all corrupt. When you made that type of statement, you scared foreign investors and they all left.
How many Nigerians knew that a lot of foreign financial institutions were investing in the Nigeria Stock Exchange? Many Nigerians didn’t know this.
A lot of investors from outside came in because our shares were relatively cheap when you convert them to foreign exchange; it was lucrative and has better returns, and so they went in and bought a lot of shares in the stock exchange and buoyed up the economy. But when you started saying that all Nigerians were corrupt, they left and withdrew their money. That was part of the collapse of the economy.
If the present trend continues where PDP is trying to put its house completely in order, then it will give APC a run for its money. APC cannot win, Nigerians have seen their deceit and they are disappointed.
The North that voted overwhelmingly for APC, go there now, the suffering is so much, and a lot of them are saying it openly that they regretted voting the party.
Look at the Southwest that also voted APC, elder statesman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo said the region was deceived to vote for the party. There is nothing good that has come out of APC; it is disenchantment all over the country.
One of the things that ignited the crisis in the country is when Mr. President talked about those who gave him 97 per cent and those who gave him five per cent. A politician doesn’t say that. When you contest an election as a politician, not everybody would vote for you. You know exactly those who voted for you and those who didn’t vote for you, but you carry everybody along. You cannot make such a public statement about those with 97 per cent and those with five per cent, and you see it implemented everyday. These are the things that have plunged the APC government into the mess they are carrying Nigeria into.
What should be the position of the Igbo for 2019?
They should be resolute. They supported PDP in 2015, and they should still support the party in 2019 because APC will never have any good programme for them. We have seen it.
In fact, one would have expected that the APC would say, we didn’t do very well in Igbo land, let us show them that we care for them.
Instead of doing that, what they are doing is to further punish the Igbo for not voting for them. It is politically wrong for them to be punishing the region for not voting g for them. The Igbo should continue to support PDP, and I’m sure with the in road PDP is making in the North because of the failure of the ruling party, the opposition party will carry the day.
The president of Igbo extraction the region has been clamouring for, can it come from PDP in 2019?
No, it can never be from PDP in 2019. The realities on the ground cannot support that. If we restructure Nigeria properly, we will not bother where the president comes from. That should be the goal we should be pursuing rather than talking about president of Igbo extraction.
If we restructure Nigeria properly, where the president comes from doesn’t matter.
I’m not looking up to it, I’m looking up to restructuring, I’m looking up to true federalism, I’m looking up to the time when it is not an issue where the president comes from.
I’m looking at a time every federating unit in this country will bend down to look at the resources available to it, how to exploit them and make them a success and to exploit the human resources available to it.
Go to USA, all the states are not equal, but their federalism works. They have passed that stage of where the president comes from, and we would also get to the stage of not minding where the president comes from.
Zoning promotes mediocrity, but we have been managing it because of our peculiar circumstances, but by the time we restructure and true federalism starts working, nobody will care where the president comes from, but everybody will care who is coming out as the president, what type of person is he, what is his background and pedigree, what are his capabilities. That is what we should be looking at and we should pass that stage of Igbo presidency in future. Let us restructure and restructure well.
This issue of marginalization that the Igbo put on the front burner, how do you think it should be addressed?
I have already told you about the 97 per cent and the five per cent. The Igbo belong to the five per cent and that is why they have been badly marginalised. We see it in appointments and in project execution, Igbo have suffered.
Yes, we have been marginalized, but the solution is not calling for secession. The Igbo need Nigeria and Nigeria needs the Igbo. We should not secede but keep on fighting for a restructured Nigeria.
The Igbo thrive better outside than they thrive at home, about 70 per cent of money spent in Igbo land comes from the diaspora, both foreign and Nigeria diaspora. Igbo live well in the North, West, South and everywhere in Nigeria. It is from these places that the money comes from. We have a lot to gain in one Nigeria; a restructured Nigeria. One Nigeria where citizenship means citizenship; one Nigeria where you can live anywhere, and have the rights of the place where you live.
Let us not secede; I appreciate the fact that the marginalization is telling very hard on us, especially the youths. This is what is giving rise to the call for secession.
If Nigeria as it is today, you secede, there will be a lot bad blood whereby Biafrans can’t go into Nigeria, and Nigerians can’t come into Biafra. We don’t need all that.
The concept of Biafra in 1967 is not the same with Biafra of today. Where are the people from South- south? All the South-south people except Edo and Delta were in Biafra then.
So, where are they now? They can’t go to Biafra with you and they have said it openly. So you and who are going into Biafra. What is the administrative arrangement you are making for Biafra? So, lets forget everything about secession, and tailor our arguments on proper restructuring of Nigeria. If we do it, we will all see a better Nigeria, where everybody will be working hard to make it. We will do away with all these federal character, trying to balance this and trying to balance that. You will be in charge of your place.
Look at the long list of the Exclusive List. At the Confab, we brought it down to very few items.
You painted a picture of Igbo marginalization under APC, but it is argued that in the 16 years of PDP, Igbo were marginalized, given the state of federal roads in the region
People felt that Jonathan favoured the Igbo by appointing this and appointing that- Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Minister of Finance, etc. The issue of infrastructure was not put in place, but the issue of marginalization was over emphasized in the present government.
The only way out is to have true federalism, Igbo can take care of their roads. Why should we wait on the federal government to come and fix our roads? Under a restructured nation, federating units can take care of their roads and their priority.
Whether APC or PDP, let us put our house in order by restructuring. We have seen what happened during the time of the regions, there was competition among them. The East had palm oil, palm kernel; the North, groundnut and cotton and the West, cocoa.
Let us get back to that. Those states, which think that they are so weak that they can’t stand without oil money, it is a lie. A lot of them have mineral resources they can exploit, give them ten years after restructuring, you will begin to see how some of these states would be richer than oil producing states. The issue of marginalization will be taken care of if we restructure. Nobody is going to be a loser if we restructure.
Some people want Buhari to go for second term, what is your view?
We will support him to become APC candidate. That will be good for us and makes our work easier. Let him emerge as APC presidential candidate.
Being realistic, you will see that people calling for Buhari to run for second term is out of selfishness.
They want again to ride on the back of Buhari to run and win their own elections. That is what it is all about. How can you, this is a man whose health has been bad, we thank God that he has been able to recover appreciably. If he manages to drag on to the end of the term, you want him to come for another four years? Are you being realistic? If that is what APC has chosen, it is good for us. But even with that they still can’t stand us.
Are you happy the way Imo State is, ten years after you left office?
I have refrained from commenting on the state. I cry when I see Imo. Thank God we are approaching the end of it all. In 2015, I went to the 27 local governments of the state, and implored them not to give Governor Rochas Okorocha a second term, that if they did, that would be the end of it all, as he was not going to do anything for them. They said I didn’t want them to enjoy free education. Today, the people are crying, and because of this, they are already campaigning for us.
Let’s manage the governor, it’s almost coming to an end.