By Agatha Emeadi

 

 

All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship candidate in Imo State, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, has explained why he merged the preferred candidate of the party.

According to him, the party chose him as he has the structure and capacity to win the Imo governorship election.

Also responding to a statement credited to the former governor of the state, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, that he (Araraume) does not have the capacity to govern the state, he described the former governor as a rejected candidate by the Imo people.

The APGA candidate said that Imo people have a fair knowledge of what they want and who they want as their next governor.

He said that now that Ohakim has ended up in an unknown party, it is not for him to talk or decide for the Imo citizens; but for God who is the ultimate giver of power.  Araraume spoke in his Ishievu hometown, Okigwe, Imo State, in an interview. Excerpts:

 

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What is the particular gap you want to fill in Imo State, assuming you win the governorship election in 2019?

 Imo State needs everything because one cannot pinpoint a particular thing done now in the state. Look at the road infrastructure, they are not motorable, there is no good healthcare delivery system existing in Imo State. Imo people are in dire need of good health care; be it primary healthcare, which the Federal Government is involved in, but again, states cannot leave such exclusively for the Federal Government. States will have to be involved whether it is secondary healthcare like general hospitals or teaching hospitals. The only existing one is so dilapidated. The governor said that he is building 27 general hospitals, and some of them are below 50 per cent completion. These hospitals need equipment and home-based medical personnel, which they do not have presently. In the last 12 years, I do not think Imo State has engaged any single medical doctor and that is alarming. Then, of course, we will look at areas of local government administration, which has totally collapsed, civil service is one institution no one jokes with, but civil servants in Imo State are hopeless because they do not get their salaries; they are not even allowed to work, retirees in the state do not get their gratuity and pension as well. So, the situation is very bad. Looking at education, which the governor said is free, it lacks quality. People are yearning for quality education, which will be given to them free if we come into power in 2019. These are things that our people are yearning for. You cannot state exactly what has been achieved, it is a situation where nothing was achieved. It is like a deprived and abandoned child at a junction.

 

Can you throw light on this rumour that you came into APGA and within two weeks you got the party ticket and became the flag bearer?

It is not how long you have been in a party; it is the belief that the party members have in me. Every party member wants to win election, therefore, even if I walk into a party and you are identified as someone with the capacity to win election, because winning election means I  have my personal structure, there are sympathizers across the party line, and I have the ‘Destiny Organization’, the most formidable organization privately structured and sustained in Imo State. We have the APGA structure; and there are people across the party line. Don’t forget that I was the pioneer state chairperson in Imo in 1998. APP structure is what we have now as APC. I have that structure and the members of the party know that they have a strong formidable candidate in me who can match any other aspirant. It is in my capacity to win election and that capacity also means that people have confidence that if I am voted in the general election, I will have the capacity to deliver. As Imo people have suffered denials, abuse on their psyche, and dilapidation of infrastructure. They are, therefore, searching for someone that they believe will work and rescue them. That they have found in me as I won the primaries. In 2007, Muktar Shagari, former Minister of Water Resources, contested election, even won the primaries and PDP felt they had a better candidate in Wamakko who was then the deputy governor to Attahiru Bafarawa. Wamakko was encouraged to contest while Murktar Shagari was made to step down and Wamakko won the election. He is still relevant to the politics of Sokoto State. It does not matter whether you have been there or not. We have seen it work out in other places where people will be in their house and political parties will approach them to pick tickets. I believe that was what happened in the number of days I spent in APGA before I won the ticket.

 

Imo State is indebted and the civil service has become moribund, how will you bring back the vibrancy in civil service?

In the case of indebtedness, whether it is local or foreign, when the party wins election by the grace of God, we will look at the actual debt profile of Imo State. All that will be verified when God brings us into office. Committees will be set up to verify some of these things.