George Moghalu is a former Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority and a governorship aspirant on the platform of Labour Party in Anambra State. In this interview, he speaks about his chances of emerging as the Labour Party’s candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State in November, this year. Excerpts:
Having traversed the entire Anambra seeking for votes to be the candidate of LP, the simple question in most people’s mind is, what are your chances?
It is a simple question that requires a simple answer. My chances are very bright. I can repeat it a thousand and million times and my chances are very bright. You asked again, what about the threats from the other political parties, especially the state ruling party, APGA and the APC, but let me say that I have not even started looking at the strength of the other parties yet. I am not bothered about what is happening in other parties. I am rather concerned about what is happening in my party, the LP, because every election has two stages, primary and the main. For now, we are concerned with the primary.
We are concerned about being the candidate of my party. There is this Igbo proverb which says that one must first struggle to get the land before they start struggling for the mat because if you don’t get the land first, there will be a problem of where to put the mat. The emphasis now is on intra party, convincing the party members to place their confidence in me and sending me on the assignment. If, after April 5 and pleasing God, I emerged the candidate, then I will now start thinking about what is happening in other political parties.
What do you tell those thinking that as a new entrant into the party, you are planning to reap where you did not sow?
It is not about reaping where I did not sow. The truth is, yes, I am a new entrant into LP, but I am not a new entrant in the political space as it affects Anambra State and in fact, the nation at large. I have remained consistently a political player from 1990 to date. So, you can’t expect me to be an unknown quantity.
For now, it’s not about reaping where one did not sow; it ought not to be in the consideration at all. The party also needs politicians of my stature to be able to run the election. I have been around. It is about me and the platform, and that is what we are working on. It will be a very wrong assumption for anybody to say that I am trying to reap where I did not sow.
The leadership of your party has assured the aspirants of a level playing ground, do you think they are playing politics?
So far, I have every confidence in the leadership of the party of being able to deliver on their promise, because the best thing that can happen to any political party going into any political contestation is to ensure a free, fair, credible primary process so that at the end of the day, everybody will be happy. Like I have always said, there is no difficulty in calling the winner to congratulate the person once you feel that the process is free and fair.
Are the aspirants talking to each other for a possible consensus or alliance?
I am not aware of any of such, but what I know is that there is a personal relationship between the aspirants. For me, I see it as a family affair because there is only one person who will represent the party. Granted that we are all entitled, empowered by law, to seek the office once you feel qualified, but at the end, it is thrown back to members of the party who will vote during the indirect primary. It will become a matter of the delegates choosing whoever they think can present their interest better.
What do you think gives you an edge over other aspirants?
It is not in my place to start determining the edge. I would rather ask you to make inquiries by asking questions, but by the time delegates emerge, you also ask them questions, and they will tell you where they are standing to enable you form an opinion.
There is this fear against the indirect mode of primary because of the cash and carry nature associated with it; don’t you see it as a ploy by the party to give the ticket to the highest bidder?
I don’t really see it as such, particularly in LP where I am contesting today, because the delegates that will emerge will come out through a direct process. It means that they are representing the interest of a people, locality, local government, ward, and things like that. I don’t see it as that.
Do you really think LP is on the ground in Anambra?
There is no iota of truth that Peter Obi will leave the party or has pulled out members of Obidient Movement from the party. It is not true. I usually don’t like commenting on speculations, because there is no fact to back them, but as for this one, I can tell you it is not true. The Obi that I know will announce it if he wants to leave the party. He will make it public. So, people are just speculating.
I don’t also see anything wrong in his visiting the governor of Bauchi State. They are both national leaders. Before he became the presidential candidate of LP, he was a two time governor of Anambra State, and he visited a second term governor of Bauchi State and the chairman of the Governor’s forum of a major political party like the PDP.
What is wrong with that? They are consulting because Obi has ambition to be president of Nigeria, so he is moving around to also consult with those he can work with. As for the visibility of LP in Anambra, I can tell you that the party is very much on ground.
We can test the strength of a political party when the campaign starts and when the election takes place. In fact, since politics is very local, the party is still occupying many elective offices. Out of the three senators, LP has two; it also has seven out of the 11 House of Representatives members and more than 10 in the State House of Assembly.
Does that not show you enough reason that LP is clearly on ground, coupled with the fact that its 2023 presidential candidate is from Anambra State. Some of us aspiring to fly on the flag of the party have our followers that we have kept from our days as the National Secretary of APP and ANPP, down to when I became the National Vice Chairman, to when I became the National Auditor till now that I am running for governor. Don’t also forget that I have tried to be the governor under APC.
What will you say are your fears as you approach the primary and main election?
I don’t have any fear, to be honest with you, because if you are looking at fear from the general perspective, the only concern I have for the main election is the insecurity in the state. I also wish that INEC lives up to its responsibility as the umpire. They owe it as a duty to give us a credible election. It provides them an opportunity to redeem their image.
It provides an opportunity to cancel out all the negative comments with regards to their performance. So, to be honest with you, I actually don’t have any fear.
I have said it repeatedly that power belongs to God and He gives to whoever He pleases at his own time. God’s will must be done and that is why I get worried when we, the politicians make pronouncements like I must do this. I must do that. We have had cases where people declare what they will do on Monday, but could not wake up after Sunday.
So, the moment you play God, be ready to face the consequences.
“For now, it’s not about reaping where one did not sow; it ought not to be in the consideration at all. The party also needs politicians of my stature to be able to run the election. I have been around”
What is your impression about high profile Nigerian politicians moving from one party to the other, especially the recent defection of El-rufai to the SDP?
Usually, movements of politicians have remained a problem in Nigerian politics, because most Nigerian politicians see political parties as vehicles for the actualisation of ambition, not necessarily seeing political parties as a platform for ideological development. They rather see it as a vehicle for the actualisation of political ambition. I am not in a good position to give you an honest narrative as regards the issue of movement because my recent defection to LP was my first time of moving from a political platform to another.
I may not be experienced enough to talk about the movement, but there are politicians in this country that have moved from one party to the other over six to 10 times. The moment they disagree with anybody or do not get what they want, they change platforms.
In Britain, we talk about the Conservative and Labour. In the USA, they have the Republican and the Democrats and what they stand for. Any contestant has the conviction of what they believe. It provides them an opportunity and platform to market the ideas and that is why you can be challenged. When a Democrat becomes Republican, it raises eyebrows and questions will be asked. It is unlike here in Nigeria where somebody can be in party A in the morning, party B in the evening, and by the time you think that he has settled in party B, he would have gone to party C. All the movements are just trying to shop where it will favour him.
How much network do you have with the presidency ahead of the governorship election?
I don’t have any network with the presidency. However, my network is connected to God Almighty who holds the ultimate power, who determines what happens to mankind. We can only talk today but none of us can talk about what will happen tomorrow.
In fact, none of us can talk about the next hour let alone tomorrow. There are stakeholders that believe in my candidacy that are providing support for me. As for the determining factor of what will happen about the contest, it is for God and God alone.
What are you going to do differently about the spate of insecurity in the Anambra?
It is a very serious issue and challenge. You are part of the system to know that news about Anambra has always been negative. It is either one person has been killed or kidnapped. It has now become our consistent narrative and that is most unfortunate.
A lot of things can be done better. There is a need for total rejig in discussing the security of our people. I don’t want it politicised because that is the direction everybody is going.
Addressing the issue requires both a kinetic and non-kinetic approach. As you are dealing with the security situation, to what extent have you empowered the security agencies that are working now? To what extent have you invested in information buying, intelligence gathering? To what extent have you invested in developing our local vigilante? They can be documented properly, they can be trained properly. You can develop and equip them to become very important in the security architecture of the state. To what extent have you invested in the lives of the security agents who are working in the state, the police, the army, the NSCDC, and the DSS?
To what extent have you addressed their welfare challenges? Do they have insurance cover? If they die, they die for nothing. There is a way you treat somebody, invest in their welfare, they will see the job as a matter of do or die. They will say that if they die in the process of serving the state, their families won’t suffer. These are necessary. To what extent have they involved the local institutions, the traditional institutions? Let me tell you, everybody knows everybody but investing in intelligence gathering can help solve these challenges. If I may ask again, why did it take us three and a half years to come with a solution, or pretend to come with a solution? Why have we failed to invest properly? You want to address the issue of insecurity and you are bringing used tokunbo vehicles.