Why is it difficult for the South-East to produce the president of the country despite several attempts by Igbo politicians?
We have tried our best but this time around, we’ll get it right. We are trying to reach out to other ethnic groups to align with us. If we are to go by numerical strength, I can tell you Igbo people have the numerical strength to rule Nigeria. For instance, in Lagos State, the Igbo are the most populated tribe. This is why I respect President Tinubu. In 2006 during census, the Federal Government downplayed the number because of the issue President Obasanjo had with Tinubu as the governor of Lagos State then, but he organised his own census and came up with 17.8 million total population of Lagos.
Out of this number, Igbo was 9.2 million with 6 million taxable adults. At as then, we were 53 percent of the population of Lagos State. As at 2023, according to INEC records, the total 6.6 million out of which the Igbo has 4.8 million. The record is there. If we want to win over Alausa, we will but we are respecting the law of the land that is why we are putting the indigene at the forefront and we will support him. In every free and fair election, the Igbo people will win. In every state of the federation, after the indigene, the Igbo have the highest number and that was why when they attacked the Igbo in 2023 election, the former DG of NOA visited Eze Ndigbo Lagos to pacify us. The Igbo are the most populated tribe in Nigeria but religion and tribalism is what is killing us as a country. The Igbo intermarried and mingled without any crisis. We contributed to the growth of Lagos State. Our contribution is not less than 75 percent of the economy of Lagos State. They sold their land to us and later come to tell me that we are not land owners. Who owns the land?
To what extent can you say Ohaneze Ndigbo serves as the rallying point and negotiate the interest of the Igbo people?
First of all, Ohaneze Ndigbo was not established as a political group. Prior to its formation, there was the Igbo State Union (ISU) but it was proscribed in 1965. After the civil war, Igbo leaders came together in search of leadership and that gave birth to the formation of Ohaneze Ndigbo in 1975. Then, it was only in Enugu. We only held our meetings in Enugu and returned to our respective destinations. Traditional rulers and eminent Igbo personalities were the handlers of Ohaneze then. But when the NPA and NPP were formed, rather than leave Ohaneze as the umbrella body and the rallying point for the Ndigbo, they decided to introduce politics to the group and crisis erupted. Consequently, it was stepped down. We decided that those that wanted to go into politics should go for politics while Ohaneze continue to exist as the apex socio-cultural group for the Ndigbo.
During the SDP/NRC era, precisely between 1991 and 1992 in Lagos State, an Igbo man won the local government election in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area but they ganged up against him and robbed him of his mandate. The election was nullified on the ground that he didn’t have political spread in Amuwo Odofin therefore a by-election was held and of course, he was rigged out. Out of annoyance, the young man left Lagos for Enugu where he stood for an election and won. This episode in Lagos State rekindled the political consciousness of the Igbo people and later gave birth to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
And has it been able to revive the political consciousness of the Igbo?
Exactly! After what played out in Lagos, I studied the political dynamism of Lagos politics and the way Igbo people were humiliated. So, I went to Ikemba to discuss the need for the Igbo people to have their own party. The North formed the NEPU, NPN, NPP, GNPP and PRP and the Igbo people followed them and became their campaigners. Equally, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo envisioned the Action Group (AG) and later the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and today, the Yoruba people formed the Alliance for Democracy (AD) which was used to negotiate positions in the national politics. It is time we formed a political party that would promote our own ideologies as Igbo people. So, the People’s Democratic Congress (PDC) was birthed. We packaged it and held meetings in Lagos and Enugu in a hotel that was owned by Dr Alex Ekwueme.
At this time, Dr Ekwueme was the chairman of the G34 but when we saw the direction he was heading, Ikemba instructed us to name our party the PDC and Dr Ekwueme turned the G34 to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But being a former Vice President, he was able to get the PDP registered with INEC while we were not registered because of the similarity in the name. Out of annoyance, Ojukwu moved to join the APP while Chekwas Okorie, myself and others tried to join the PDP but then it was too late. So, we decided to join the elite politics of the Ohaneze. While on this, we were advised to change the PDC to UPGA – United Progressives Grand Alliance. You would remember that UPGA was the coalition party that was used to perpetuate Okpara in power when Chief Awolowo was in prison. It had grassroots acceptance and I used Ohaneze offices in the South-West to mobilise and it later became a national party.
On July 28, 2001, we announced UPGA to the world in Enugu and again, INEC couldn’t register us. I met with Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife to tell him about our plight and he gave me a note to the INEC’s National Legal Adviser, Ifeyinwa Obegelu, who later advised that we should change the name of the party. She told us that President Olusegun Obasanjo didn’t want UPGA to be registered because it was proscribed in 1965. It was at this point that we changed the ‘United’ in UPGA to ‘All’ and that was how the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) came into existence.
So, former President Obasanjo’s rejection of UPGA led to its renaming as APGA?
Yes. When we submitted the documents for registration, within two hours, Obasanjo got hint about the change of name. He was alarmed! He insisted on APGA not being registered. So, I went back to Dr Ezeife who directed me to the former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim. Initially, I refused to meet with Senator Anyim because of his hobnobbing with President Obasanjo against the Igbo people but I can tell you that Pius Anyim was the one who facilitated the registration of APGA. He called the INEC chairman, Abel Goubadia, for an update about all the political associations and he told him that only two parties made the requirements. Anyim expressed his interest in one of the political associations and that was how APGA was registered as a political party.
So, since coming on board, at what point did the relevance of APGA start dwindling to just one state and without national appeal?
It’s unfortunate. When APGA was registered, it was to negotiate the interest of the Igbo people but unfortunately, the existing political parties, especially the PDP, made sure that no Igbo elite came into APGA. But when Rochas Okorocha vied for governorship under APGA, we had two states, Imo and Anambra States.
In 2011, when the gang up was so much, I went to Ogbonnaya Onu that there was need for us to form a coalition of parties to chase the PDP out of power. I met with the elites in ACN, LP, APP, APGA and CPC. They saw how lofty the idea of a coalition was. President Muhammadu Buhari was on a lesser hajj then and we were received by the CPC chairman, Tony Momoh. We also met with Chief Bisi Akande who was the chairman of ACN at the time but he asked us to see Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and he welcomed us. I also went to Victor Umeh who pledged to support any move that would advance the cause of the Igbo people.
In 2012, Ogbonnaya, as the chairman of the ANPP, wrote all of them to drop their parties. Instead of coalition which was the original idea, they began to talk about merger and that was how the APC was formed. APGA was part of the merger talk through Rochas Okorocha but he chose to remain in the APC and that was what killed APGA in Imo State. This becomes the ways of our leaders, especially the Igbo elites. They don’t join political parties to build it but APGA continued to hold Anambra State because of the influence and presence of Ikemba. But problem started when they refused to rotate the chairmanship of APGA and allow other states to produce the party chairman, and that adversely affected the party not to grow.
And that led you to the Labour Party?
Yes, I left APGA for the LP a long time ago because of the leadership tussle. I am now in the Labour Party. Many of us are in LP. In Oshodi-Isolo, there is no way you’ll win an election without being in Labour Party. This is like our vineyard. But the ADC is also like our own party because the man, Ralph Nwosu, who founded the party, is my friend. He was in APGA. He was behind structures of APGA in Anambra because he contested for the governorship. He won the primary election but Ikemba told me that in Enugu where he lived, his candidate was Ugo Agbala while he chose Peter Obi as his candidate for Anambra and that was how Nwosu got angry and left APGA to form the ADC. Since then, we have been working together as friends. So, ADC is not a new party. We are looking at adopting the ADC as a coalition party on the ground that we will be accommodated. We join politics not only to make money but to develop the country and ensure that the people enjoy the dividends of democracy and respect the constitution of the party and the country.
Between Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, who would you prefer as the coalition candidate for the ADC?
We are not just going to support any politician that is bent on fulfilling his lifelong ambition of becoming the president. If the idea was just for somebody to be president, we won’t support such. Atiku has been inadvertently making efforts to be president. He is a strong man and a former Vice President of Nigeria but sometimes you’ll have to leave law and follow moral for things to move forward. On Peter Obi, he is not a condition for me to be in any political party. I wasn’t in the Labour Party when he was there but because of the ideas of how the Igbo people were abandoned and rejected, we all rallied round him in 2023.
We were all in the PDP at a time. When leadership came from the West, when Obasanjo was there, all of us rallied round him. Even when his people rejected him and he lost his ward, we voted him into power and he carried the Igbo along. When the leadership went to the North during late President Umar Yar’Adua’s presidency, he carried everybody along but death could not allow him to continue. Then Goodluck Jonathan came in, he did his best to hold the country together until late Buhari, who believed he must rule, came in. He edged Jonathan out and he changed the entire system. Buhari turned it to war.
Our cry of neglect and marginalisation started under late former President Buhari because he did a whole lot of things against the Ndigbo to the extent that we became a dot in the circle. We all rallied round and voted him into power. He begged for only one term but ended up with two tenures. Tinubu would have been the president earlier because he negotiated with six Southwest states but Buhari came with only one state and Ogbonnaya Onu came with three states. Buhari begged and it was concluded that because of his age, he should be allowed to go for one term and at the end of his tenure, he successfully made nonsense of Nigeria.
And has anything changed for the Ndigbo under President Bola Tinubu?
When Tinubu won the election and became the president, we thought he would carry everybody along but he didn’t. In the South East, we have just five ministers as stipulated by the constitution but in the South West, there are nine ministers. Let’s say originally, the South West deserves six and the three portfolios he created himself, at least, he should have spread it. All the choice positions are given to the South West. In Igbo land, there is no federation presence in terms of infrastructure. Almost all South East roads are impassable that travelling becomes difficult. From Enugu to Port Harcourt, the road is nothing to write home about and from Onitsha to Owerri, it’s a pitiable sight. The much talked about Second Niger Bridge has not been completed since Buhari administration. The construction is still ongoing. If we are not marginalised, tell me one federal industry that is located in the East? What we have in Igbo land is the sight of the police and military and checkpoints everywhere.
What’s your assessment of Tinubu’s administration?
I cannot condemn him because it’s just two years and some months in office. He is trying his best to fix the country but he should step up his game. People are crying. He should listen to them. I’ve worked with Tinubu. He is a proponent of democracy. He cannot be president now and abandon it. Our border should be open for prices of food to be reduced. I see no reason the border should be closed and insecurity is on the increase. There is no way we can have it all but let him accommodate others.