APC victory in Ondo Guber election, sign of what will happen in Anambra in 2021, says Umenzekwe

Chief Modestus Umenzekwe (Onwa Achina) is a faithful member and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He is from Anambra State but based in Lagos. A prolific writer and a defender of anything he believes in and a plain politician. In this interview with SUCCESS DAMIAN in his office in Lagos, he spoke on APC under Buhari, achievements and readiness to win Anambra as it just did in Ondo, the burning issue of president of Igbo extraction and other national subjects. Excerpts:

Let’s meet you, your name and what you do

You know me as Modestus Umenzekwe, we are in business and we talk politics, we discuss the affairs of this country, and we have a political leaning, because you must belong somewhere to be talking and that leaning is the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The governorship election in Ondo has come and gone, and the result went the way of APC, now is it indicative that APC is still as strong as it was in 2015?

You can see the signs everywhere and that shows you that APC is stronger, it shows that APC is united, that shows that the standard bearer knows where he is going, that is the president, and his federal executive council, and the rest of them. That shows that the leadership of the party is doing well. Not even the Ondo election, you can see the way people are defecting; all those members are coming back. That means APC is stronger and stronger. And it is a welcomed development. Akeredolu has done well and is still doing well. It is even a sign of what will happen in Anambra in 2021.

The Anambra Guber election is coming up, what are those things APGA has not done well which APC will like to correct?

You know Anambra State has been riding on the shoulders of our big brother, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumekwu Ojukwu, a leader of Ndigbo, but since his demise Anambra has not been the same. The governance is not affecting everybody. For instance, in my own area, as I am talking to you now, you can’t get to my house unless you use caterpillar as private vehicle. It is as bad as that. For the first time in the history of my community, Achina, Aguata Local Government Area, Anambra State, we park our cars kilometers away, either you get Okada or you trek home, imagine that, erosion everywhere, no road; insecurity everywhere. So it is very painful. And my community is APGA. Those of us that are faithful to APC and will remain APC and champion APC are being mocked every time there is an election. But that does not mean we are relenting because I know what I believe in, I believe in the manifesto of APC, I believe in their plan, and we will continue to trudge until we win but thank God that today people have started seeing what is going on, infrastructures going on everywhere, in the east, it is changing the narrative. So APC is using their good work to change the narrative, because I don’t believe in talking too much, but performance; that is what APC is doing.

Can you let us know some of these projects you talk about?

Work is going on simultaneously in every part of the country including the Southeast. If not for anything, you see that 2^nd Niger Bridge, which our dear President Buhari has used a workaholic Minister, a gentleman, Babatunde Raji Fashola to execute, is wonderful, so dear to us, so dear to southeasterners, so dear to Ndigbo, so dear to Anambarians, it is a wonderful project. And come to think of it, Initially Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s residence was left to contest with weeds in the compound, but today APC government, our president, our Fashola has done a lot of work there, go there and see Zik’s compound, you can now say, yes this is the house of the first president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And this is a promise made by Buhari in 2004 when he came for the funeral of his former Attorney General, Chief Offodile, he visited his friend, Chuma Azikiwe, now late, and he made a statement there, if by the grace of Allah I become the president of this country, I will do the 2^nd Niger Bridge and I would build Zik’s Mausoleum and other infrastructure, we were all there. And today he has fulfilled it, and a lot of other things going on.

Look at Onitsha Enugu Express Road, Okikwe Road, Aba /Umuahia/Okikwe Road, and the rest of them. Today we have about 524road projects going on all over the country, and the south east is not left out. We are recognized, w e are accommodated, and that is why we keep thanking APC government, thanking the president, thanking, we are not from the same geo-political zone, Fashola, we are thanking him because he knows what he is doing. A lot of roads are going on, Lagos/Ota/Abeokuta/Ibadan is on; Warri/Benin/ Lokoja/Abuja is on; Kano/Kaduna/Dutse/Niger Boarder is on; Portharcourt/Aba/Umuahia/Okikwe; Otukp/Makurdi; Akwanga/Jos/Bauchi; Maiduguri/Gamboru; Onitsha/Ihiala/Owerri; A3 Junction Umuyo; Kosubosu/Kaagama/Kishi/Illori Road; Enugu/Onitsha Road. Also inland roads in tertiary institutions are benefitting, if you go to Federal University Oye, Ekiti; University of Benin; FUTO in Owerri; UCH Ibadan; University of Maiduguri, Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State, and of course I keep on mentioning the 2^nd Niger Bridge is going on, Federal College of Education Katsina; Federal University Kashua, internal roads are all on. There are bridges that are listed under priority, you have Ibi Bridge in Cross River; Benue linking Plateau and Taraba states, Chanchanji Bridge along Mukari-Takum; you have Taraba State, Ikum Bridge in Cross River State. Then the bridge linking Asaba and Onitsha is of course the biggest project in brdges being constructed in this country by the APC administration, and this bridge is so dear to Ndigbo, South Easters, so dear to Nigerians because Onitsha is the commercial hub of the southeast.

The rehabilitation of Lokoja/Obajana/ Kaba Illorin Road, Kogi in Kogi and Kwara states, Construction of Apapa/Oworoshoki/Ojota Expressway , construction of Bodo/Boney road with a bridge across Opopo  Channel, Rivers State. It is a litany of projects going on and today people are seeing that APC has performed.

In Anambra State the yearning there is that let us have this change now. We have tested PDP, we have tested APGA, so people now want us to test APC, let us now see. Look at Onitsha Port, containers are now coming there, that is the work of APC. I commend Rotimi Amaechi again and I commend my own brother, who is the Managing Director of NIWA, Chief (Dr) George Moghalu. They are all wonderful.

And of course, our leader, Senator Chris Ngige, he is there coordinating everybody, he is a hard negotiator, making sure that we do not disintegrate. He gets to the president, he talks our opinion and look at what he has done in the Labour, all the industrial actions; he has been able to quench them. Though some people would come up with one allegation or the other; that is occupational hazard you face as a leader. So with all these things, I think, we are going to make it in Anambra State.

The public would like to know your opinion on the agitation for a president of Igbo extraction by the year 2023.

I don’t know how conversant you are in reading national papers, publications even though you are a journalist. If you read The Nation of last Sunday October 11, 2020, you would have seen my reaction because I have answered this question several times. That question came to find out the readiness of Ndigbo. I told the young man that the word readiness should not be there because Ndigbo have been ready and have been playing a very big role in the governance of this country. So we are more than ready, ever ready to take up the job. And I believe that it is our turn. Equity demands that, fairness demands that, and thank God, some notable northerners have started talking about it, and I believe our president being whom he is, somebody that believes in fairness, even though he doesn’t talk too much would not go against it, I believe he will support it. In as much as he alone cannot dictate, but his opinion matters a lot, we have played a very big role in the governance of this country. Look at Ekwueme, he played a very big role, Ebitu Ukiwe, King Jaja Nwachukwu, even in the present dispensation. We don’t wish away the Igbo people there in Aso Rock, like Senator Chris Ngige, you don’t wish him away, he is playing a very big role to make sure that this country is stable. Look at Orji Uzor Kalu, they are all there, Ogbonnaya Onu, and the rest of them, Enyinnaya Abaribe, all these people, they are all Igbo people that have played a very big role to make sure that this country stays as one, this country moves forward and if we are not considered in this, it then means what Gowon told us that there is no victor no vanquished, that means it is a fake.

In as much as this is not a do or die affair, because it needs to go into negotiations, into alliance with other geo-political zones like the southwest, we go into alliance, negotiation with them, because I am a plain politician, I don’t like violence, I don’t like bickering and all that, I always like brotherly discussion. So I believe, I am confident that by 2023 an Igbo man will be the president of this country and I want to commend the apex social cultural body of Ndigbo, the Ohanaeze, led by John Nnia Nwodo, how they stood firm to make that bold demand, if they have not achieved anything, but for them to come out to say that an Igbo man should be the president of this country or supposed to be the president of this country by 2023 is an excellent statement. I commend him for that, and I commend his resilience for that, and I want him to go on, and I urge Nigerians, urge the president, the ministers, southwest, south-south, the north east, west, North Central to listen and allow the Igbo man to be the president of this country.

By your stand, are you insinuating that every major political party in Nigeria should field an Igbo man as a candidate in the 2023 presidential election?

Even you interviewing me as an Igbo man can become the president of the country. You see, I am an APC man and I made bold to say that. And I don’t see APC derailing, going the other way round, yes, I am optimistic that credible candidate will come up from APC to take over that job for us to have that continuity we need or desire. But above all anybody can be president, I have said it, even you asking me question, you are qualify to be the president ,if you have the desire.

Still on president of Igbo extraction, we heard that former President, Goodluck Jonathan is being favoured to succeed Buhari thereby representing the slot of Ndigbo come 2023. What is your take?

I am just hearing this thing from you. First of all, I wouldn’t want anybody to rubbish the former president, His Excellency Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, I know him as a fan of democracy, a gentleman, I know him as somebody who is unassuming, he calls A, A, and calls B, B. And I don’t see him being dragged into the mess, and I don’t believe that there is any APC man doing that. You know there is a lot of propaganda going on in the country, using the names of these super party leaders to do one thing or the other; I don’t see Jonathan allowing himself to be dragged into that mess. Coming to the issue of being an Igbo or not, my very good friend, though an elderly person, late Owelle Chuma Azikiwe, he bore the name Bamidele, but that didn’t make him to be a Yoruba man, it didn’t, so we are talking about Igbo man, we are talking about southeast, not South-South, not southwest but southeast. And that is why I said in doing this, we liaise with all the other geo-political zones, south has had their own, southwest, North the same, what we are saying is that let a core Igbo man become the president of the country. So that all these wounds will be healed properly because I am a believer of one Nigeria, we believe in one Nigeria. The war has come and gone, we have forgotten about it. Look at us staying in Lagos, if you go to east you see Hausas there, if you go to North you see Igbos there, all these things we should get behind us for us to move forward. So by the time we start bringing all these small small politics into the system it will be a very big problem. But what I am telling you is that Jonathan the way I see him is a perfect gentleman and is a leader of note, recognized by the whole world and will not allow himself or his name to be dragged into this, we are talking about Igboman, core Igboman being the president of the country and all these tension will die down. I believe so.

Security is not going too well in this country. Do you think APC has done enough to protect the citizens?

You, are you doing too well? You see, security is for all of us, including myself talking. The security challenges we have in this country didn’t start today, it has been there, and past administrations have tried their best, APC came up and is improving on that. The president is worried, everybody is worried, I am personally worried. It is a global thing; it is not only in Nigeria. It is the work of everybody, in as much as the president, ministers or the chief of army staff will be taking the glory, responsibility or the blame; the work is for all of us to help in checkmating all these security challenges. In all it is not a problem you solve one day.

There appears to be hunger in the land as never seen before, what should the government do?

Hunger has been there right from time immemorial, which each administration, since Nigeria started, when the president came on board he said, it is not going to be easy, to repair, I agree with him totally, he himself agrees, it will take time to repair this things. The national Assembly is there, Federal Executive Council is there, the Governors are there. You know that place is like another world, they see better than us; so before I start criticizing certain policies, I must be able to hear very well from them. And that is why we elected them, but the most important thing is we are complaining that there is hunger in the land, there is hardship, ever coming to power he knows, you know the hardship had already started, but I believe that God helping us and we assisting, doing what we supposed to do, will overcome those things.

Do you think the campaign to end SARS is in Order?

The government has listened to the people, and they have ended SARS. It is not a decision they took may be in a day, so if it is not in order they would not take the decision.

Ending SARS and replacing it with SWAT almost immediately, are they in order?

The most important thing is to come up with a very good squad that will take care of crime, whether you call it SARS A, SARS B, or any other name, the most important thing is to take care of violent crimes, then purge, remove the bad eggs in the force, change the narrative, give them proper training, for me as a person, I don’t attach much importance to name, I attach importance to result. I thank the Federal Government for listening to the masses. When Buhari said Inspector General of Police should listen to the masses, and the IG has listened, and in Lagos here our governor has listened, look at what he did the other day, he approached them and address them and assured them, and I want to appeal to all the youths let them play low and allow government, let us see the plan they have, let us lie low now and listen to them, so that we can move forward, because the bad eggs can hijack the intention of the good ones and get things done wrong.