…Says governors wronged him
From Emmanuel Uzor, Abakaliki
Senator Sam Egwu is representing Ebonyi North zone and was the first civilian governor of Ebonyi State. He governed the state between 1999 and 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The former Minister for Education was recently in his elements and spoke in this interview on various issues including some problems confronting the nation and the crisis in his party, PDP.
Mr. President has asked for emergency powers to tackle the economy and there have been some disagreements on the President’s request. What is your take on that?
I don’t know much about the President’s proposal; the little I read about it is power on vehement on the issue of procurement and as former Minister of Education, I am aware that the process of procurement takes lot of time. There is no reason why in trying to embark on project, you spend three months trying to process it, you must go through a number of processes and at the end of the day, the project is suffering. So, that aspect has to be fixed and when the President approaches the National Assembly on the emergency powers to tackle this, I will support him because I like to look at things objectively. Another serious issue confronting this nation at present is Niger-Delta Militancy; blowing of pipelines and all that. But it appears that the federal government is not handling the matter very well by addressing their demands. If you are to advise the federal government, what kind of solution will you proffer to the government?
I will proffer a solution enunciated and imported by late President Yar’Adua; engage them, listen to them and try to address those issues that needed to be addressed. It is unfortunate in this country that almost every part of the country wants to make trouble because they believed that the moment they make trouble, government will listen to them. It is almost becoming an accepted norm; if you don’t make trouble, nobody will listen to you. But I believe that for every crisis, problem or agitation, you should look at the situation and know the problem. If you are a father, you have children and when one of them becomes too stubborn, don’t dismiss him; just call and say, oh boy what is the problem? Let me hear you out and if you are able to convince him to listen to you, you will have a better idea of his/her problem or agitation. As a President, he should be able to weigh the two sides; listen and know where to apply force.
Talking about your party, PDP, the party is passing through trying moment. There is serious crisis and the two parties battling for supremacy have gone to court. What is the current situation of the party?
The situation in the party is really unfortunate. Actually, I am not at the centre of what is happening in our great party, PDP. The PDP is driven more by governors and if you have watched what has happened, Sheriff was approached by the governors of PDP to become the chairman of the party and along the line, he was replaced.
For me, I felt that while you may blame Sheriff on the leadership crisis for refusing to give way when people who brought him asked him to give way, you have to also check if he was properly approached; was that issue of dropping him done in a way that looks dignified? So, that is the issue. He has his reason why he is dragging and people will approach it differently. For me, the way I will approach it may be different from the way he will approach it.
So, the leadership crisis has gone to the level of ego, level of status ego where one is saying why do you treat me like this? I have been a governor; I have been a Senator why do you want to push me aside like this? The crisis is very unfortunate and I hope we will come out of it. In as much as the governors are the leaders at the states level, they should be able to do more consultations before they take decisions on the party. I don’t belong to Ali Modu Sheriff faction but I believe that he was not treated well and I also felt that the governors who are the main drivers of this party did not do consultations before making him chairman. I will want a situation where the governors will do more consultations; they should listen to the elders of the party. Yes, the governors are the leaders of the party but there are people in the party who have good ideas like the members of the BOT and other elders and these are people that are well respected. The bottom line of my argument is that PDP has come to stay and it is difficult to push it aside by any party. It was difficult to defeat the party by the opposition even when they came together. Opposition defeated PDP in the last general election not because some parties came together but because of Buhari which it presented as its candidate. APC won because of Buhari’s past antecedents and his person as an individual but it is worthy to note that Nigerians have not experienced any change promised by the APC.
So, should the governors continue dictating the pace in the PDP?
He who pays the piper, dictates the tune. The governors have all it takes financially to distribute patronages; political patronage, contract and what have you. People enter parties to produce governors who distribute these patronages. Even members of BOT are appointed, courtesy of the governors and that is the truth of the matter. So, everything revolves around them but like I said before, it is for the governors to recognize that even though they are governors, there are leaders of the party who have been there before them, there are people who are very experienced in their states and the governors must make sure they carry them along. We have elders; the BOT, there should be that consultation. You don’t just use because you are a governor and take decision unilaterally because it does not augur well with the country. I know that in advanced countries, party structure is supreme and it is the party that determines the executive, the party can discipline the executive no matter your level but here it doesn’t happen.
So many people are calling for the formation of a new party following the lingering crisis in the PDP. In fact, there has been this rumor that some leaders of the party who are seeing that the crisis may not be resolved are meeting both in the country and abroad to fine tune plans for the formation of a new party. Do you share the same view that a new party should be formed?
Some people are of the view that a new party should be formed because of the lingering crisis. But one thing I believe is that in as much as
I know that forming a new party may be a good option because the situation we have found ourselves in our party may be difficult to come out of it in the near future, the formation may not be the best option. Let me tell you, this agitation for the formation of a new party is not only in the PDP, it is also in the APC where some leaders are not happy the way they are treated. They are also clamouring for that, that they want a new party where those who are aggrieved in PDP and those who are aggrieved in APC will come together.
So, a lot of formulations, a lot of theories are going on but some PDP states like Ebonyi and others, if you form another party, it will be difficult to convince the masses. PDP has been in government in Ebonyi state for 17 years and you need to convince the villagers here that there is another party. PDP has become a religion here and that is why it will be difficult to convince people and many people will be angry for going into another. For stability of party and democracy, I don’t think it
is the best approach. It may be expedient now because of the situation. Look at European countries like America, they don’t form parties anyhow. If you are in opposition in those countries, you remain there for many years until you see reason to form or go to another party. Ours is forming parties anyhow.
Would you say the same thing on Pro-Biafra agitators, MASSOB, IPOB and BIM?
Most of these agitators didn’t fight the war. I was a young man when the Biafra war broke out. I just finished my primary school and was about to enter secondary school when the war started. Incidentally, my father being an ex-service man took us to the hinterland. We lost some prominent personalities during the Civil war; they went to the Biafra war and never came back. I lost a very good friend, Christopher Ozor to the war. Also, a man who is a soldier and who could have married my elder sister went to the war and never came back till today.
These Biafra agitators may have their reason and listening to them does not mean granting their request; you have to dialogue with them which most of us are doing. You need to integrate and pacify them. And let me say this; a Nation is not created anyhow; there are processes involved in state creation. Actually, most of us in this country believe that Nigeria needs to be restructured. Restructuring does not mean we are going to break up; restructuring does not mean that we are no longer going to love ourselves. In fact, I would want a situation where Nigeria will remain one so that at the end of the day, we will all benefit especially the Igbo. There is no part of this country that you will not see an Igbo man. If this country breaks, it becomes non-indigenes problem particularly in the North and when that happens, what do you think that will become their problem? How do you think all of them will come back successfully to Igboland? Nigeria is a country that we all need to build and let me tell you, every country has its own problem and the ability to solve it will make them stronger and united. But everybody including the government in power should not regard anyone who does not belong to their party as enemies because there are some people who have good ideas and intentions for this country. You have to carry them along and that is my own philosophy. I don’t belong to this government; I am a PDP person but I also wish the government succeeds and anything that I need to do to support them, I will do it.
But as a PDP man, I want my party to takeover in the next general election. Now they have won, we should all support them but they themselves that are being supported should not look at the opposition as people who want them to fail because without opposition, there can be no true democracy.
The economic recession is really affecting the nation. How did we get to this level and what is the way out of the quagmire?
What we are seeing now is a result of our recklessness and our activities before now in terms of economic management. I can blame the government and part of the blame also goes to the people. We are not producing as a country; we depend on imported goods and it has become a practice that anything that is not imported or foreign is not regarded. That started because we have oil. Manufacturers started losing when the costs of their goods became higher than the imported ones.
It got to a point where we now depended on our foreign reserve because we cannot import with naira, we can’t import with our currency; you must change it into foreign currency. The cost of oil also went down, so these are cumulative effects to the extent that we can no longer produce and get the money we were getting before and what we are getting when it is depleted. It is really unfortunate.
The government has a part to play in this economic recession. I know they met a very terrible situation on ground but they must do something urgently. The past administration was able to manage the situation but if you are managing and not doing something tangible to fix it, a time will come when it will collapse and even if a new government comes in, it will find it difficult to be able to adjust. This is the situation and I sympathize with the government on the situation we have found ourselves and that is caused by some activities of government and our own individual lifestyles. We want good things to start coming to us immediately without working for it; even fresh graduates are not ready to work but they want quick money.