Former President of Igbo socio-cultural group, Aka Ikenga, and a delegate to the last National Conference, Chief Goddy Uwazurike has criticized the New Year broadcast of President Muhammadu Buhari. He said the president failed substantially to address the core challenges facing the nation. In this interview with WILLY EYA, he spoke on various issues.
As you go into 2018, a year before the next general elections, what readily comes to your mind?
You know it is always better to start a new year on a positive note because if you have a positive mind, you can move on and think positively. Our new year does not depend on me alone but on a set of circumstances. The primary thing must be the role of the government. If the government says there would be light in my chambers, there would be light. If there is no light, I have to go and buy fuel and start the generator and if there is no fuel, there is little I can do. These are the external factors that determine the outcome of the country. Mr President has spoken but has he given us enough reasons to be optimistic? Personally yes, I am optimistic but realistically, I doubt what is going on.
I am sure you listened to the New Year broadcast of Mr President, how did that come to you and what are your takeaways from it?
Let me be honest with you, Mr President’s speech was nothing to write home about. It was more of a rehash statement whereby people say what they want to say, and it would appear that whether you like it or not, the president has spoken. The president’s speech was a disappointment to me in many areas. Here we are suffering from acute fuel shortage and they accused the oil marketers and called them saboteurs but nothing was said of the gross incompetence of those who manage the supply of petrol in this country. Nothing was said of those who manage the export and import of petrol in this country. It was as if these people did not know that there would be a lot of demand or movements at a certain time in the country. There was nothing like reprimanding all those people who exist only by pushing papers; they think only of themselves and ignoring the people of this country. I was disappointed because Mr President should have given us an overall picture of what to do. If I have money to invest, where would I invest it? I did not hear any encouragement from Mr President. Right now, the economy is down and if you want to know, go round completed houses and see how many ‘to let signs’ and how many with ‘for sale signs’ that you would see. It is then you begin to have an idea, because that is the first indicator that there is a problem. Mr President never looked at the manufacturing arm which is actually the main engine of this economy because it is in the manufacturing sector that they would hire labourers. And the labourers would be able to pay for their one room and the landlord subsequently would be happy to expand. Those who are into supply would also have money to go and buy more and the farmers also would have money in their pockets to continue their work. But Mr President never talked about that. He talked about it globally and actually on nothing. He praised the soldiers and soldiers have always been there but nothing specific. If for instance Mr President had looked at the plight of the workers, remember that those who earn salary were earning N18,000 when he was coming and he promised to increase their salaries but look at the cost of living and so on. Nothing has been done and the cost of living has gone up. What about the ordinary man on the street? What would be his takeaway? Some of them are as informed as we are and they would be asking what did Mr President say. That is the tragedy of the non-communication that we witnessed yesterday. It is a pure lack of communication. All those sycophants and incompetent people who surround him would not tell him the truth. The country is down and that is the truth.
Mr President recently released a list of board appointments including surprisingly, the names of some dead people. What does that tell you of the government of the day?
As far as I can remember, it took only one month for me to conclude that the president was slowing down the pace of doing things in the country. Many of us are suspecting that files lie down on his table endlessly. In this country now, you have the president and the presidency. This is happening first time since 1999. We had Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan as presidents. It is only now that you hear of the presidency. The reaction of the presidency is that, that list of Board appointments was compiled in 2015 and that he only looked at it now. But with all due respect to Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina, they were not telling the truth. You saw the name of Hon Hembe who had just been dismissed by the Supreme Court from the House of Representatives only a couple of months ago; he emerged as a chairman. That means that list was refreshed. We have many ministers, special advisers and assistants, are you saying not one of them could go through that list. Mr President condoled with the family of Senator Okpozo a year ago when he died. So, there is no way they can say that they did not know he was dead. If they had done the needful by asking the chairman of the party in his state, this is the list we have, he would know. Come down to Imo State, you find out that the list submitted by the APC was 100 per cent from the Okigwe Senatorial zone. In a simple language, it was composed by one man in his bedroom and sent out to the presidency. That list is nothing to write home about. Assuming that Mr President is not going back, that means he has only one month and about five months now in office. And the list is coming out now which means that in the next 15 months, these people would do what they should have done in four years. Remember that there are some boards that do not have chairmen. The EFCC for instance has no chairman; it has an acting chairman and there is no provision for that in the constitution. We have a provision for a board and the members must be confirmed by the Senate. It is in the EFCC Act that the chairman must be confirmed by the Senate. That is the first time we are having this kind of lacuna. There are so many other parastatals like that ,that are calling for an urgent action. Let me go back to the speech. In terms of the South East, he said discussions would start soon on the railway line from Port Harcourt to the South East. In the North West, the work would soon be completed; in the South West, it is ongoing. The rail line from Calabar through Ondo State to Lagos, it is actually discussion would soon start. Will soon is all we have. It is not part of this budget and after this budget, the next one is the last budget. So, in terms of the South East, for Mr President, it is discussion would soon start.
What is your take on the $1billion approved for fighting insurgency in the North East zone of the country?
That is completely unconstitutional. This is because that fund is called the Excess Crude Account. In other words, if they sold crude oil for $40 whereas they budgeted $35, that $5 is excess and that is what we have in ECA. It is money that belongs to the nation. The money does not belong to the APC, PDP and it does not belong to the Federal Government. From that we have allocation to the Federal Government as its own share. We have for the states and the local governments. The governors have no right to do what they claimed to have done. So, if they ever allocate $1billion from ECA to North East, it is an unconstitutional acts. They are charging former President Jonathan’s government with a lot of unconstitutional act and a time would come when a future government would also charge Mr President with a lot of unconstitutional acts. All those who keep quiet on this are collaborators.
Looking at the political parties now with particular reference to the two main parties, the APC and the PDP, do you think that they have the right kind of orientation and commitment to take this nation to the next level?
The campaigns have started and the primaries would be held this year. The game is already on. If you watch the nature of the contracts being awarded by some state governors, and if you go through their budgets, you suddenly see all of them talk about contract for this and that. Those are nothing but corruption. You know it is from these contracts that they would take money to go and run for campaigns. Mr President came in on the non-corruptible mantra and so on but before our own very eyes, all the things that the PDP used to do, he is doing it now or even worse. For me, I want more parties that can actually challenge the existing parties to come out. It does not matter whether they win one, one state only. You must not allow the status quo to continue. The two main parties are taking us for a ride and they are not living up to our expectation. So, we want more parties to come out. For all those at the National Assembly, we should look carefully at them. It does not matter how much they are giving you, because giving people money is definitely not an achievement. And Mr President, when he would be going out to campaign, I wonder what he would be telling the people of the South East. He went to the South East recently to Ebonyi and to Anambra during the governorship election; he never inspected any project. Very soon, it would be four years they stopped work on the second Niger bridge. And if you go and check all the budgets, there is nothing there. That bridge is an outdoor work and people can see that no work is going on. Ahead of the 2019 election, what I tell any person from the South East is to be honest to yourself. If you think that Buhari has done very well and deserves re-election, it is your business and if you think he has not done well, it is your business. But for those in the South East, they should be careful who they are voting for in 2019.