Nemesis has caught up with PDP

Chinweoke Mbadinuju was elected governor of Anambra state in April 1999. A fall-out between Mbadinuju and his political godfather crippled the machinery of government in the state. He later fell out with another power broker in the state, Chris Uba.

He claimed that he was excluded from the governorship contest in 2003 despite winning the PDP primaries because Uba and President Olusegun Obasanjo opposed his candidature. In his place, Dr. Chris Ngige ran for the PDP but was beaten by the candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).

He recently defected from PDP to All Progressives Congress in this dispensation. In this interview, he talked about the place of Ndigbo in the new regime. Excerpts.

Due to the way Ndigbo voted during the last election, many are thinking they will play no fiddle in the new government. What is your take on this?

Ans: It is not gainsaying, and apparently that the position of Ndigbo in today’s political calculation is highly pathetic. Igbo have not had it worse than this, from the time of Zik, to Okpara, to Ojukwu and a few others. It has been like from fire to frying pan.

But it is entirely not the fault of Ndigbo. It was circumstantial. For whosoever loses war goes on the receiving end which is where the Igbo now are on the receiving end apart from Zik whom the British awarded the office of ceremonial Governor of Nigeria and this was the highest political office an Igbo ever held. Even when Chief Alex Ekwueme became Vice President under Alhaji Shehu Shagari, still the  Vice Presidency was without political powers except the much Shagari assigned to him.

Anyway, the constitution could grant a VP power like Chairmanship of Economic Council, but Dr. Ekwueme will know whether such power was good or ephemeral.

So since the end of the civil war subsequent leaders did not see it good to integrate the Igbo into the mainstream, Abacha did not, Obasanjo did not, including Mallam Ya’radua, and Jonathan. All they did was to pick up one Igbo man or woman and give them little, and parading them as Igbo leaders.

Now I know that political power is not given, it is taken. Igbos must learn to earn power and to exercise it. For now it is not easy to know how President Muhammadu Buhari will pattern his methods. He was a former Soldier and former Head of State. He knows his onion, and within this short time he won the Presidential election, he is showing capacity to lead Nigeria into prosperity. Nigeria will surely prosper, Nigeria will surely assist President Buhari to end corruption; build up security around our people; employ the unemployed; build power and energy; reduce cost of governance; he will handle the electoral reform or confab as occasion warrants.

Whether we are Igbos or Nigerians, we must all embrace the Buhari’s concept of “change” for Nigeria. If Nigerians, and indeed the PDP, had allowed Chief Ogbulafo and Dr. Nwodo to go on with their job of being Chairman of the Party (PDP) there would have been no collapse of the party which had wanted to rule for 64 years but stopped at 16 years. When some friends ask if I really defected to PDP which I helped to nurture, I told them I did not defect rather PDP defected.

Chinweoke Mbadinuju

At the end of the day we must all embrace the concept of “change” as said earlier, not just “change”, but “positive change”. Nigerians will see that the hunger for food and drinks are not that alone, but we must deal with physical hunger; spiritual hunger; monetized hunger’ waste and wastages; and life of ostentation.

Furthermore whether Igbo or not, all Nigerians must help Buhari to be ready to deal with: poverty, injustice, corruption, stealing and change of attitude.

Nigerians must abhor: avarice, inordinate ambition, political ostentation, assassinations, greed, cheating, false witnesses and robbery. With this done, Nigeria will be heaven on earth as we stand to support Buhari to accomplish his purpose, and his policies.

You said earlier that political power is not given, but taken. Since the South-East was poor in voting for Buhari, why do you still expect Buhari to grant Igbo many appointments?

The Igbo people are not asking Muhammadu Buhari for many appointments. It is enough that the South-East people knew or ought to know the adage that “He whose bread I eat his song I will sing”. So since the South-East did not vote for Buhari, it means that Igbo cannot complain if Buhari did not grant them appointments commensurate with other Zones which got more and who worked harder and got more offers.

This is a lesson for all politicians generally, not just Igbos, should learn to be fair to all people. I believe that by the next election, the Igbos must have corrected themselves and begin to play the game of politics with fairness and equity. But clearly Buhari will not leave the South-East empty handed. He will give them their fair share.

The former PDP National Chairman Mu’azu just resigned while Anenih the BOT Chairman also stepped down. How do you read the happenings in your former PDP?

What is happening today in PDP is nothing but nemesis. PDP has destroyed many of its members right from its inception at the Jos Convention when the rightful National Chairman was suddenly changed in the night with all light in the stadium in darkness while bags of money were thrown to groups for sharing the bags of money. Suddenly a candidate emerged who did not even win his ward was declared winner. That was stealing, or corruption at the highest level. If those at the highest level and by impunity closed their eyes and refused to follow the rules and regulations of the Party (PDP) who else will not steal and sell corruption into families, in schools, in industries, at the highest of the Party apparatus even at the highest point of party leadership. Who then can be saved?

In my State, Anambra, Abuja supervised the elections which failed and there have been four governors in the State until the supreme Court ruled that two of those man-made governors were fake, still they parade themselves as governors till today. If this is not impunity, tell me what it is? Till today I remain the only legitimate governor of Anambra State. But their god-father made sure that I wouldn’t do 2nd term in office. The big Oga from Abuja appointed his crony to conduct the PDP primaries in Anambra and although I won the primaries three times, the then Nigerian President or the PDP President insisted that I would never do my second term despite the “gentleman’s agreement” to allow the PDP governors move ahead to 2nd term. I was the only exception.

Till today most of the States cannot curb insecurity until the Federal Government gave them a helping hand. With allocation of at times N200 million a month, with N583million salary of workers, I still won a national competition here in Abuja and was declared among the 36 states that I came first with a gold cup for Anambra State. Nobody has done that yet the PDP Federal Government put me into detention for 3 months waiting to assassinate me because I did a good job as governor of my state. It is in PDP that Presidents aspire to rule more than 2 terms, some 3 terms, others ten (10) years outside what our constitution stipulates.

So why will PDP not disintegrate? The Party was built on false-hood and it shouldn’t have lived up to 16 years they claim. Indeed, the collapse of PDP was long overdue. I therefore cannot weep for PDP for the nemesis that over-took them. Whoever tries to rebuild the fallen PDP will be doing so against the will of God and it can be more disastrous. The best thing for PDP is to get it buried and be forgotten. The good people in the Party should think of where next to run to, but it should not include resuscitation of PDP as party. They are nest of killers as Wole Soyinka once said.

How are you sure that APC will not do to you what PDP did?

I don’t know for sure what APC will do to me. But the test of the pudding shall be in the eating. I have said at several fora how Muhammadu Buhari did not hesitate to come to my book launch at the Yar’ Adua Centre and how he stayed long till the program ended. He was Chairman of the occasion and he spoke glowingly on the effort I made to save Anambra state from killers and usurpers.

I don’t think there is going to be a better and more humane person like Buhari. He mixes up with the humble and he is easily accessible. This Nigerian President shall turn the country upside down for good and set an example that Nigerians will emulate. The people and colleagues I met in APC arenice. It will be good to have good friends.

Do you think there will be a time when Igbo people and the North can team up to win Presidential election in the country?

We know that “good soup na money makam”. Before the civil war the North and the Igbo have been good friends and if you go to the North you see millions of Igbo and other Southerners who live comfortable in places in th North like Kano, Maiduguri, Sokoto, Jos, Niger where Zik and Emeka Ojukwu were born.

It is politics that separated Igbo and Hausa/Fulani, otherwise both have lived at peace with each other. It is on record that a Mallam from the North was Mayor of Enugu and Zik who lived in the South-west was not discriminated against him and indeed Zik was so popular that he won enough seats to form a government in the Western region. It was short lived but it was good history.

It is noteworthy that whenever a Northerner and a South- Easterner pair up their government has been stable for example, that of Shehu Shagari and Alex Ekwueme. What was done then can be duplicated or replicated again.

It was the civil war that spoilt the good relationships between them not only Igbo and the North, but also of North and South. Nigerians can still resuscitate the good old days when Nigerian people live as brothers and sisters, built houses and got acclimatized wherever they lived.

Good politics under Buhari will further enhance the neighbor to neighbor approach that will bridge any gap of good relationship. It is not God that will unite our people in understanding each other. This is the job Nigerians will do by themselves and it shall be well for all Nigerians.

It is true that there are so many ethnic groups competing among themselves for preservation, but good education will help in ceiling the gaps created by politics and politicians many years past. Today we still can re-capture the Nigerian factor if we work hard for it and one day we will see the North calling the Igbo “my brothers”.