By Ismail Omipidan
Former Aviation minister, Chief Osita Chidoka is seeking the ticket of the United Progressives Party, UPP, ahead of the November 18 governorship election in Anambra state.
He said he was aspiring to govern the state because he represents tomorrow’s solution for the myriad of challenges confronting the state, adding that the election was not a referendum on incumbent Governor Willie Obiano, but a referendum on the future of the state.
Chidoka spoke on others issues.
Beyond the call for a generational power shift, what is Obiano not doing well that you think you can do better for Anambra?
My quest to be governor of Anambra state is not hinged on generational power shift. It is one of the issues but not the main issue. Let me preface this comment with a caveat. The election of November 2017 is not a referendum on Governor Obiano; it is a referendum on our future. I believe very firmly that the governance model of the current governor is good for yesterday’s problems and yesterday’s solutions. But for tomorrow’s solution for the problems that we are going to be confronted with as a people, we need new thinking; we need new strategy, we need to press the reset button.
A typical example is the current approach to infrastructure. The infrastructure that Anambra state is investing in now is infrastructure for the past. For instance, in constructing our roads, we have the golden opportunity to lay fiber optic cables to bring in cheap broadband internet access to ndi-Anambra, but we are not doing that. So if you are building an infrastructure for tomorrow, the road you are constructing should be a multi-purpose enabler that will unlock value for the people.
Take a look at the education system in Anambra; you find out that we are still applying yesterday’s solutions. The government has not been mindful of the quality of education, meaning that the next generation we are building in Anambra has the challenge of being viable people for tomorrow’s world. UBER has changed the way we use taxis. Facebook and WhatsApp have changed the way we communicate and how communities are built. In trading and commerce, the way people transact in goods and services has changed. The issue is that if you don’t build a new generation that is aligned to the new world, if you are building a generation who still come out of schools with old skills, then they will end up being frustrated. So under my watch, all Anambra children must have access to quality education that will prepare them for the future
People may feel more secure in Anambra today because of absence of high profile kidnapping and crime, but the real test of security is: at 7pm in Anambra today, where are you? By 7pm, most people have gone to their homes, so the fear is still there. In our appraisals, we have not been able to link security to economic output. People that have factories in Anambra should be able to run a 24 hour shift. Toyota factory in Japan does not shut down once it is dark, they work 24 hours. My target is to extract value and make Anambra enjoy the dividends of the values that have been put into the state. So what I am offering Anambra state is a paradigm shift; a reset button to reengineer the state for the future, building on the past successes of previous governments in Anambra.
Anambra politics is highly monetised, do you think you have what it takes to take a plunge?
If we leave politics to become the calling of the rich and wealthy, then we will lose the capacity to attract our best and brightest who are usually middle class people. I don’t think a Barack Obama had the money to run for President of the United States of America. The measure of the acceptance of your candidacy is how much money you are able to raise from the people. I am going to crowd source funds, because the people believe in me. If you use your own funding to run an election, the implication is that you are already setting the template to loot the state treasury. So I want to be the first governor of Anambra that goes into the government house as the people’s governor and not a godson of a godfather or any interest group. Anambra state has the chance to elect a people’s governor, in me. The last time we came close to it, was when we elected Peter Obi as governor.
He was a fairly successful businessman, but it wasn’t because of his money that Anambra people voted for him, and you can see in the way he led Anambra. He was not attached to any interest and wasn’t giving state funds to any group. He had the capacity to sit down and plan and he did well for the people. So I think Anambra has another opportunity to elect a people’s governor and not one foisted on them by god-fathers.
From 1999 to 2013, like you have also observed, every governor of Anambra has always had a ‘godfather’ or some group of backers. Who are yours?
I have the backing of God and the backing of the people. Every day, I seek the face of God and continue to interact with the people. I am one of those who insist that you must give everybody equal opportunity, and this has always pitched me against entrenched interests. I have always believed that if there are employment openings, you must allow for merit to drive those that will be employed. I am a product of merit; throughout my education and my job life, I’ve never gotten a job because somebody gave me a note. It has always been by merit. So I want to create a situation in Anambra where the children of the poor and the forgotten have access because of equal opportunity. Once I create that equal opportunity, I would have been true to my calling. I would have set the possibility for Anambra to be a state, which is standing on equity, fairness and justice.
Besides, I have always been a grassroots person; I have responsibility among my people as ndichie. This entails me to be with them and adjudicate and make decisions for the community, so I come face to face with the reality of the people’s problems; the reality of the grinding poverty in the villages. Anambra state averagely has some of the best indices, but below those averages are the true stories of those who have been trapped in poverty and lack of opportunity. So I want to bring about what I call the great escape. I want to break the fence so that there will be an escape. One of the greatest escapes that happened to Igbo people is the advent of the missionaries and education. I want to create another wave of escape. I want our people to escape the lack of opportunities and fairness in Nigeria by breaking the fence and allowing them access to the world of equal opportunity; and the capacity to build and develop ideas that are for tomorrow. I am in touch with the real people and I am taking the message of hope and another opportunity for escape, to them.
You are running against an incumbent, who is in a party that is almost seen like a religious group in the state. What are your chances?
Running against an incumbent is what democracy demands of us. Every incumbent must renew his mandate and he is expected to be confronted by an opposition, so it is for the people to decide. Once we present our manifesto to them and there is a free and fair election, whatever decision the people take should be accepted, just like President Jonathan accepted the decision of Nigerians.
On the case of APGA, that party is really a tragic story. APGA was formed as a party at a time when the Igbo felt left out in the Nigerian political system, under the Obasanjo dispensation. APGA was supposed to be for the South-East what AD and later ACN was for the west and what APP and later CPC was for the north. APGA was to congregate the views of the South-East and explain it to Nigerians and engage the Nigerian state but it turned into an ideologically vacuous organization.
It is the failure of APGA to do this, that led to the rise of separatist views in the South-East. APGA as a party did not engage the government to express the views of the Igbo. In going into alliance with the PDP during President Jonathan’s regime, APGA did not go with clear views on what they wanted out of that union. So with the advent of President Buhari and the wide spread feeling of marginalization from the Igbo, APGA could not respond to aggregate the views of Ndigbo. It is important that we redefine Igbo people within the confines of the Nigerian state, and that is why with the failure of APGA, we have no choice than to go to the UPP.
The UPP is a party that has what it takes now to bring back to the table in Nigeria, the views of the Igbo and to join the alliances and groups that will make it possible for us to achieve a nation where no man is oppressed. I think what the UPP will do for the Igbo, and what I will do as a governor is to restore that Igbo feeling and make Igbo feel like equal stakeholders in the Nigerian project. It will strongly push that Nigeria should be a union of free citizens. Every group should be in Nigeria willingly and happily because Nigeria provides them with the wherewithal to unfold as a people and as individuals. So that is the failure of APGA and that is why the people are ready to reject APGA at the polls.