Elder statesman, Chief Mike Ahamba, SAN, has said Igbo elders must engage in conversations with the young people to stem the tide of insecurity in the South-East.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, Chief Ahamba, a former associate of President Buhari, also said the failure of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is the best campaign tool for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to win the 2023 presidential election.
The PDP is planning to make open its process of choosing a presidential candidate, ignoring the rotation of power between the North and the South. What is your position on this?
Once there is no legal position on an issue, those involved will take rational decisions on it when it comes before them. It is alternate and not rotate. In Nigeria we use words without caring about the meanings. It is alternating, not rotating. However, whether it is alternating or rotating, the South has a case favourably, but if in that situation, those who have had a bite want to have another bite before those who have never had any bite, then that is fishing in troubled waters. The argument from Atiku camp based on rotation among zones has merit. But equity has always favoured South-East, but it appears that there has been some elements of tribulation in all the political parties because of what has happened here so far. But I don’t want to pre-empt anything. Let us wait until the parties make their announcement.
You talked about what has happened ‘here’ so far. If it is insecurity occasioned by IPOB, is it not happening in other areas?
The only one that talks about secession is the one happening in the South-East; the others are security situations within the country. None of the bandits has said that he wants a different country. That is the difference.
Not even Boko Haram that wanted to carve out 12 states?
They wanted to occupy the place; they didn’t want to sever it from Nigeria. There is a secessionist move in the South-East, but all those bombings in the North are just by criminals trying to overrun the country as it is. There are not the same.
Some say it is this type of arrangement that is unjust that fuels the agitation for secession
Since there is injustice and there is inequity, you don’t weaken your position by creating additional problems.
So why is PDP afraid of rotation?
Rotation must have more than two points for it to be rotating. The other word is alternating, if you are talking of North and South. The important thing about it is that those who have not had a chance should be given a chance if they produce a proper candidate. I don’t see that belonging to any part of Nigeria is a basic qualification for the competence of anybody. Number one, we must have a person of competence in character to be able to run this country better than it has been run so far. If in the process we now take somebody who has no character, then we worsen our situation. Many things are involved. The issue of rotating presidency is not contained in our constitution. This one is just a public outcry of desire for it to be. Whether rotating or alternating, I don’t see why the West would be looking for a chance now, and then South-South also looking for a chance now.
The South-East has always supported PDP. In the event that the PDP ticket eludes them, how do you think they can be appeased?
I wouldn’t know. It is when the candidate comes out that we know from the followership the candidate will draw from the masses. Let the party declare that we have agreed on this zoning formula, this is where the candidate will come from and then the area to which they have given it will get their best candidate to come and contest, but let nobody think that he can drive any wedge into anybody’s throat; it doesn’t work that way. When you are fighting for political power, you seek it, you beg for it, because it is a common public property. You don’t say, you must give it to me. That becomes undemocratic.
There are about four PDP aspirants from the South-East. Can the party leaders ask some to step down for someone?
It is bound to happen when that situation arises. We will know how to deal with the situation if it arises. We are not fools here.
Does your party have something to convince Nigerians that they want to return to power?
Of course! The failure of the APC is the best campaign for the PDP, whoever they may present. The party has failed security wise, failed economy wise, failed academics wise, failed in every sphere of life openly. The change they brought was negative. They promised change; actually they brought change but all the change was negative. That is a good platform for PDP unless they don’t manage their campaigns well; but we will return to power in 2023.
But in the South-East, APC has enough to campaign unlike the PDP that ruled for 16 years without any signature project in the zone?
What does APC have in the South-East?
Some have pointed at the Second Niger Bridge
Which they started building? When somebody has built something to 75 per cent and the person who completed the 25 per cent now claims that he built it. They are a party of falsehood, they will claim it. Let them complete first but they didn’t start it. The PDP started it but couldn’t complete it. That is why government is a continuum; you shouldn’t expect a government to complete everything it started. You start a work and it can be completed by your successor. If APC by the grace of God completes the bridge, they cannot claim to have done it alone; those who conjectured it, those who drew the design have a claim too to it. It is true that it is taking so long to complete it, but the person that completed it cannot claim the glory alone. All those who contributed to it must also claim glory from it, particularly the person who initiated it.
Some have also said the Enugu-Umuahia Expressway has been done by the APC.
Did they start it? By next year they will be eight years. If they complete what was there, they have just completed it after eight years. Why should they blame the other for not completing it in their own eight years?
Can you point at any PDP project in the South-East?
Everything that was done from 1999 was initiated by the PDP even if it was not completed. That is true. You complete Second Niger Bridge and make it impassable because of criminals all around the place. Have you given us a bridge? The sky is not safe, road is not safe, water is not safe, even the bush path is not safe. The purpose of government is security of lives and property. Here they scored zero. You can’t ignore that one and talk about any other thing. Even those who are going for the opening ceremony, how are we sure they would get there and go back home safely? The bottom line is safety of lives and property. This party called APC has failed woefully on those points and that is the purpose of government.
The president is your friend even though both of you belong to different parties. Haven’t you had the opportunity of advising him?
Yes, he was my friend when we were in the same party, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). I’m sorry, he has not given me any opportunity to talk to him. He knows that I’m a very straightforward and sincere man. I would tell him why his regime has failed. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity of a direct conversation or even telephone conversation with him. He remains my friend outside politics.
So politics separated you?
It has not separated us. The difference is that he plays politics with a different team and I’m playing with a different team. They are carrying out different principles like not caring about security. I’m in my party that cares about security.
At what point did you fall apart?
We didn’t fall apart. It was in 2010, a long time ago, 12 years now, so there is nothing he is doing now that has anything to do with me. Instead, everything he is doing now has nothing to do with what I thought he was going to do or what we were planning to do together. That is the point.
Would you say he was misled by people around him?
I think I have told you this before that his biggest problems are those surrounding him. There are too many selfish people around him. Most of them were the persons with me and I know they were selfish. Surrounded by better human beings, Buhari would have done much better than this, but the bucks stop on his table; so he can’t escape it, he has to be blamed. Those who surround him are the problem.
Do you think the efforts by Anambra State governor, Prof Soludo to stop the Monday sit-at- home will succeed?
Let us wait till next Monday. I like the courage of Soludo in trying to stop this matter. Somebody has to stand and tell these young people that what they are doing is anti Igbo and not pro Igbo. When they started it, I said they were creating a situation they could not control, that people would hijack it and they have done so. I stand with Soludo to take steps to end it in one way or the other. It is an anti Igbo project. The federal government has allowed it to continue because it is ourselves destroying ourselves. The federal government is trying to say that if you know it is bad, stop it; if it is good for you, continue. I can’t blame them for doing that. In Owerri, if you come to Control Post, and you want to go to Onitsha and start driving straight, will you get to Onitsha with what is happening? Those who want to achieve something are moving towards the wrong lane and they can’t get what they want in that manner. If you want Igbo land to be self-sufficient, the first thing you can do for it is to give it a peaceful atmosphere; that is what the Igbo man needs. You don’t bring calamity and crisis into Igbo land and you say you are talking for the region. It is not true.
The Igbo want a peaceful atmosphere to operate, and anybody who denies them this, is not their friend or their brother. Our elders have forgotten one thing. Any society in which the youths frighten the elders into silence on an issue, the state for tragedy is set and that is what we are gradually stepping into in the South-East. We better stand up and talk with these young people. We have seen more years than they have seen; we know more than they do know. Today, the young man thinks that being young is a qualification; it is not a qualification. What qualifies you is what you do with your youth now that you are a youth. I can see some of them about 40 years old say we can’t do anything; the elders don’t want us to go. I was a Chief Whip at 32 in the House of Assembly. Go and do what you want to do; show yourself. The Igbo man says if a child washes his hands well he eats with the elders.
You can’t eliminate the elders if you are doing anything. If you do it, you are making a mistake because you can’t buy experience from the market. No matter how rich you are you can’t buy experience from the market. So, if our elders continue to pamper some of these people and those they created, they can’t control again because they don’t have the machinery to do so, then we are in trouble. I only pray that God will be merciful unto us and people like Soludo can make them stop what they are doing. What they are doing is not in our favour; it doesn’t help us. Businesses are flying away from the South-East, which is not favourable to us. You can have a good case, but your presentation of it can make it bad. I’m not saying that they have no good point to complain about; I’m only quarrelling with the method, which is contrary to the interest of the people they want to protect.
In spite of what Gov Soludo and the elders have been saying and doing, insecurity has persisted. What do you think should be done?
I don’t know again what can be done. The governors should set up security on those days of sit-at-home and guard the people under them; they should find protection for their people on those days. If the governors want to stop the sporadic killings all over the place, they should have security presence or go to federal government to find security presence on those days, otherwise nobody will come out and risk his life.
But do we have enough army / police for this in the South-East?
What can we do? Do we follow Gov El-Rufai’s idea on the use of mercenaries? We are in trouble. When the thing started, in my previous interviews, I said this thing would go out of control because they don’t have the facility to control what they have started and an Igbo man would be worse for it. When I raised this, some said they must do something to show they were angry. You don’t kill yourself to show you are not happy. Now the thing has gone out of control; nobody knows what to do again.