In this interview, a founding member of the All Progressives Congress and a former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu argues why opposition parties’ renewed move for a merger ahead of 2027 will not bear fruit, why implementation of the 2014 national conference report may not suit the needs of present-day Nigeria, the South East and Nnamdi Kanu and other national issues. Excerpts:
Opposition parties in Nigeria are mooting the idea of forging another merger to challenge the APC in 2027, what do you think are the prospects?
I earnestly believe that the merger of opposition political parties is a tonic to the health of our multi-party democracy. But a cursory glance at the choreography and trajectory of the major opposition political parties gazetted the lack of cohesion, absence of deep-rooted altruism, ethno religious bogey and presence of a big elephant in their room. With these negatives it is difficult to merge disparate and ambitious tendencies; for possession of some of the major variables is inimical to constructing a winnable coalition.
For when you have one or two big elephants who fancy their ethno-religious bargaining chip and insist that he must carry the banner of the party or nothing less, even at the expense of trampling on extant laws and conventions, then it’s no brainer to talk sincerely of coalition or to talk of victory. Truly one does not see the optics of their centre of cohesion gathering muster, and you cannot conspire without cohesion, therefore it is dead on arrival.
Why do you think that the merger talks are dead on arrival?
Outside lack of cohesion and the presence of big elephants, they are basking on the populist sentiments that the excruciating socio-economic hardship of hunger, multidimensional poverty and insecurity in the land will continue till the 2027 general elections. I don’t share this view with them, as Mr President’s economic policy has already secured the buy-in of the international community; all that is left is for him to curb corruption, and waste and domesticate the policy to the benefit of the greatest number of Nigerians.
“Despite the excruciating socio-economic hardship, I think President Tinubu is courageous, bold and focused. He decided from day one to chart neo-liberal policy to transform our country into a prosperous nation”
Your party, the APC itself is the product of a merger between five political parties of diverse ideologies whose common motive then was to oust the People’s Democratic Party, how come you believe another merger of opposition parties is not possible?
Please get me right, I’m not saying that the merger of opposition political parties is impossible. Capital No. What I’m saying is that they may not succeed in constructing a coalition, because of the absence of cohesion and altruism, plus ethno-religious bogey. These ingredients are beacons of the much-cherished doctrine of internal democracy. Without which extreme candidates will emerge from the multitude of political parties, instead of one acceptable candidate with name recognition.
Going by your analysis you seem to be alluding that there were no big elephants in the merger room of the APC from 2013 to 2014 before the election of that year. How come your merger succeeded amid big elephants in your room like Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Rochas Okorocha, and Chibuike Amaechi among others?
It is a long story about how we contained the big ego of the big elephants you highlighted. Suffice to give the credit to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, he seemed to have played the game of a marathoner. He suppressed or postponed his ambition to be president and waited for a more auspicious time – hence Emilokan. He stood behind Buhari both in the presidential primary in Lagos and the main presidential election in 2015 and 2019.
Are you glorifying Tinubu because he is now Mr. President, what of the other big elephants who supported Buhari like Amaechi?
Far from it, I’m not a sycophant or food-is-ready politician, I manage jealousy of my integrity and adhere to the best of my Christian principles. Don’t forget that in December 2021, I issued a press statement pleading with Asiwaju not to run, that as kingmaker he should choose a candidate from the South East, whose turn I argued it is. The next morning his men replied to me that the kingmaker wanted to be king, you can fact-check this on Google. The truth is that ab initio the merger was truly between Buhari’s defunct Congress for Progressive Change and Tinubu’s defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, others joined along the line. Some came from PDP after we merged and got INEC’s registration on July 31, 2013.
Note that on our arrival at Chief Tom Ikimi’s house at Rivers Close Maitama, on February 5, 2013, we told the ACN’s delegates when they told us that ANPP’s delegates were in the other hall, that our terms of reference limited us to negotiate only with them and not the ANPP or any other.
It took strenuous negotiations back and forth before our Board of Trustees chaired by Buhari and prominent members like Alhaji Sule Hama, Mike Ahamba, SAN, Buba Galadina, Tony Momoh and others agreed to accommodate these other parties.
What are your impressions of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration these last 10 months?
Despite the excruciating socio-economic hardship, I think President Tinubu is courageous, bold and focused. He decided from day one to chart neo-liberal policy to transform our country into a prosperous nation. The hardship to me is the sequel to the removal of the fuel subsidy and harmonisation of the foreign exchange regime.
You are not a known adherent of neoliberalism; how come you are now extolling the virtues of neoliberalism?
You are very correct, I belong to the spectrum of left of centre, a subscriber to the idea that government has the business in servicing our welfare contrary to neo-liberalism tenets. One is among those who benefited from welfarism in both Teachers Training College and University of Nigeria Nsukka.
Accordingly, I’m one of those who opposed in 1986 the IMF/World Bank Structural Adjustment Programme, also known as Washington Consensus. We joined the Collectives, a group of scholars comprised among others Professors, Bode Onimole, Claude Ake, Ikenna Nzimiro, Okwudiba Nnoli, Bala Usman, Patrick Wilmort, Edwin Madunagu, Eskor Toyo, and others to oppose the SAP adopted by President Ibrahim Babaginda.
Is it turn around or volte face or abandonment and betrayal of your leftist camp?
I’m still opposed to neo-liberalism because when you examine the advantages and disadvantages you are bound to score the disadvantages higher.
The minus is high when you note that 95 per cent of all State-Owned Enterprises privatised failed woefully. Is it the electricity chain, Aluminum Smelter Company, Nigeria Airways, Nigeria Shipping Line, and NICON Insurance? Those that succeeded were healthy SOEs that, going by Washington Consensus parameters, could have been privatised like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and Niger Dock to mention a few.
Are you backing neo-liberalism now because of stomach Infrastructure?
No, as I said before, I belong to the stoicism school of thought, which invariably posits that we must have the wisdom to change what we can and accept what we cannot change. The matter is that as poor as I am, I’m a contented person, a pragmatist and a party man.
President Tinubu is today not only a member of my great party but an ultimate leader; therefore, one thinks he means well for our dear countrymen. And there’s the Ibo adage which posits that when a philosophy subsists for over a decade it becomes the norm and if not stopped becomes the tradition.
The neo-liberal philosophy has lasted for over three decades in Nigeria and despite its minuses has been subsisting as a pragmatist, I’m aware that my options are limited. The only option left is for me to support Mr. President, especially when the international community has endorsed his neo-liberal policies.
This means that foreign direct investment will follow; only what he needs to do urgently is to domesticate the policy to the benefit of the greatest number of Nigerians.
There has been increased pressure on President Tinubu to restructure Nigeria, in fact, Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, asked him to forget re-election and rather restructure Nigeria, and Chief Emeka Anyaoku asked him to adopt the 2014 Confab Report, what are your thoughts?
I agree with our elder statesmen, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Emeka Anyaoku and a host of others that our dear country needs restructuring for change is the only constant element in the universe. There is a need for devolution of powers from the centre to sub-nationals.
Anyaoku even made it simpler by calling for the adoption of the 2014 Constitutional Conference Report. They argue that the adoption of the report is the most seamless way of making a new constitution; however, some of us disagree with the elder statesmen that the report is one size fits all.
Do you agree that the adoption of the 2014 Confab Report will save time and money and achieve the same goal?
President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2014 Constitutional Conference Report, contrary to the assumption that many think is not one-size-fits-all.
For instance, it is a victim of our impunity fault lines, as it failed to garner the majority votes for the delegates to adopt a region like in 1978/79, 1988/89, 1995/6, and 2005/6 constitutional amendment attempts failed. What we got was the tail of the cow which we banded as geopolitical zones. That’s why we use the geopolitical zones of South West, North West, South South, North Central, South East and North East as conventions, not in our law books.
The 2014 Confab ended up recommending more than 50 states against the agitation for regional governments like we had in the First Republic constitution. Though it has some fine items in our quest for the devolution of powers to sub-national units, it is not one-size-fits-all.
Their agitation is that President Tinubu should give them a new constitution whether the 2014 Confab Report or a new one entirely. Where do we go from here?
President Tinubu, though an advocate of devolution of powers, going by the rigid process of amendment embedded in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has no powers to unilaterally adopt any report or make any alteration.
Yes, Adebanjo, Anyaoku and their clan may simply categorise the National and State Assemblies as rubber stamps, and therefore assume that it will be easy for Tinubu to rail-road them into the adoption of the report or make a new constitution, this is a tedious tall order.
It is sheer fancy to take it for granted that the Senator Godswill Akpabio-led National Assembly is at the beck and call of Mr. President, as rubber stamp, and that all the President needs is to nudge them. However, that is when it concerns routine appointment approvals and sundry stomach infrastructure items, not when it touches on the critical structure of our federalism.
Let us not forget that the Dutch Disease, arising from our over-dependence on oil has made all of us lazy, predatory and unproductive. And like in every human endeavour when you have manna falling from heaven, you will resist with your last blood any attempt to change the status quo.
Senegal just inaugurated a new President, what is your assessment of the process and outcome of their presidential election viz-a-viz the February 25, 2023 presidential election in Nigeria?
Senegal has long been hailed as a model of democracy in our region, indeed a democratic standard bearer. It has never been struck by military coup malaise and among this cadre; it stands out sharply in the main barometers of measuring true democracy, not flawed ones like in Nigeria.
What do you mean by the barometers of measuring democracy?
Simple, democracy where free, fair and peaceful election that has been guaranteed election after election, where political participation is huge and where the institutions of democracy like the judiciary are held in trust.
Bassirau Faye in his acceptance speech after he was declared president-elect admonished France to stop meddling in and interfering in the affairs of its former colonies, what do you make of that?
Faye’s speech falls into the mood of the moment for a candidate who just came out from detention less than 20 days before the election. He responded to the populist votes which brought him to power.
What do you mean by the populist votes which brought him to power?
My submission is not meant to be an insult; I’m just saying that the Senegalese electorate, like the ones in our clime, votes against gross unemployment, crass inequality and palpable insecurity. He added the old colonial master antagonism by rebuking France, indeed saying during the campaign that he would dump CFA Franc, their national currency.
On the issue of CFA, he should tread with caution for there are some gains in France helping to stabilize their currency. He should not fall into the trap of a young man who fought his mother’s man friend for his temerity to befriend the mother. Yes, it is annoying, but as a grown-up man, you should move on and close that chapter. For one is always amused that decades after our ‘colonial masters’ departed, we still throw the blame game as if they made us corrupt and incompetent.
President Tinubu is the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, what should he do to strengthen unity among ECOWAS countries?
Mr. President is gradually acting as big brother with unruly younger brothers, far from the spur-of-the-moment initial decision of ECOWAS. Gradually Mr. President will cuddle his brothers in the diplomatic realism General Yakubu Gowon adopted during the formation of the regional bloc.
Different stakeholders have urged President Tinubu to explore a political solution that would see to the release of Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB leader, what do you say to that?
I am 100 per cent in league with Mr. President exploring a political solution to resolve the Nnamdi Kanu matter.
Do you think Kanu’s release will curb insecurity in the South East?
To a certain extent, because I don’t think his incarceration has anything to do with bandits who have become a menace with incessant kidnappings in parts of the South East.
My advice to people of the South East is to draw the curtains and emulate the Germans and the Japanese, who have closed the World War II Chapter behind them, moved on and embraced the Americans who were hitherto their traducers.
They didn’t allow the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings or the reduction of German cities to rubble to dampen their vision. Today, Germany and Japan have reclaimed their eminent positions as regional powers. Ndigbo are more or less over-grudging over yesterday, forgetting that yesterday is gone.
“Ndigbo are more or less over-grudging over yesterday, forgetting that yesterday is gone”
South East seems to be the crying baby of the APC with the poorest scorecard in the 2023 presidential election and very poor rewards in appointments, what’s the solution?
I weep each time I remember with nostalgia that today the South East is the weeping geopolitical zone despite the great hope we raised when Buhari won the 2015 presidential election. President Buhari’s victory attracted heavyweights from the PDP to our great party. We jubilated and welcomed them with open hands.
Paradoxically today it seemed that what we thought was a good bounty turned out to have contributed immensely to our poor performance in the 2023 presidential election.
Two governors defected to the APC, how do you mean that what you thought was a great bounty contributed to APC’s poor performance in the 2023 presidential election?
Look at our 2019 and 2023 presidential elections and judge whether our leader is performing to the optimum or not. In 2019 APC scored 85,058 in Abia against 8,914 in 2023, in Anambra, it scored 33,298 in 2019, against 5,111 in 2023, Ebonyi was 42,402 against 90,726 in 2019, Enugu, 4,772 in 2023 against 54,423 in 2019 and Imo State 66,406 in 2023 against 140,463 in 2019.
What do you suggest the APC do ahead of 2027 to attract more vote share?
My appeal to President Tinubu as the leader of the party is to direct the National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to set up a committee to scrutinize the affairs of APC in the South East, especially Abia, Anambra and Enugu States unless the geopolitical zone is not part of his calculus for 2027 presidential election. The majority of APC members in the South East are alienated and in a state of despair and despondency, emanating from the absence of internal democracy which marred the last state congresses.
