PDP has been rejected by Nigerians – Obi-Okoye

He is the immediate past national Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and a core figure in the administration of Chief Willie Obiano in Anambra State. Chief Ifeatu Obi-Okoye, a lawyer, spoke with Nwanosike Onu, in Awka, the state capital. He says Nigerians have rejected PDP and are not ready to vote the party again. He also talked about the Obiano administration, while advising political gladiators to play according to the rules during the campaigns for the 2019 general elections. Excerpts.

Two Igbo sons are contesting for the presidency, while one is contesting for vice presidency in one of the top political parties. Ndigbo has been clamouring for the presidency for a while now. Are you of the opinion that we should settle for presidency or vice now?

First of all, there are two persons of Igbo extraction involved in the vice presidential race. One is the vice presidential candidate of APGA; he is from Imo State. While the vice presidential candidate of PDP is from Anambra State. So, if it is now a question of our brothers, then Imo people should vote for their brother, while the Anambra people vote for theirs too.

But I don’t think the matter has gone that mundane. Igbo presidency issue is not about today. I think by consensus in all strata of Igbo states and meetings, we should be thinking of 2023 to allow the north complete their tenure. Again, you don’t run for vice president. We are looking at the presidency. Do we prefer to see the opportunity where we have to run for presidency in four years’ time? Or do we prefer a situation where our agitation to run in 2023 is further postponed for another eight years?

These are questions that must come to play. Again, I am worried. I may blame the APC for allowing this new revival of PDP. It is the same PDP that we all agreed ruined us for 16 years. It is the same PDP we all rejected barely four years ago. I don’t think the Nigerian electorate are so gullible to bring back the same PDP that ruined us for 16 years and we rejected them massively four years ago.

We definitely cannot bring them back. Nation building for me is a collective process. Where the present government fails, it lies on all of us to help make sure we have a better situation going forward. We cannot afford to go back to the years of the PDP. While we pray that in four years’ time, the Igbo people we have an opportunity to become the president of Nigeria.

A party with an Igbo man as its vice presidential candidate is accusing the present administration of bad governance. Do you think the present administration has done enough to guarantee them a second term come 2019?

Unfortunately, PDP cannot afford to say that. The question of whether APC has done well or not, cannot come from the mouth of PDP. I always describe both parties as one coin with two faces. It is the same PDP. People like Bukola Saraki left PDP to APC, and now they return back to PDP. We can’t take them serious. It is not about the perception of what is happening in the country. PDP has been rejected. They ruined us for 16 years.

And we cannot revalidate that ruinous situation. We cannot go back to Egypt. What I still believe is that we have a collective interest in changing the fortunes of this country. And changing the fortunes of this country does not include going back to the terrible days of PDP. PDP has been rejected, and we will reject them again. We are only praying that if the younger parties like APGA cannot win the Presidency, we can encourage the present government to continue not going back to PDP.

There are insinuations that Governor Obiano’s performance has dropped since he won second term. What would you say about this?

I must say that this issue specifically concerns roads. I must first address the question of roads before going back to the question of whether His Excellency has been working since he won second term election in 2017 or not. We had a terrible raining season. Unusually stressed. We started having respite in November. We never had a running raining season as we had this year. Recall that we had a long raining season which started in February and lasted till November unlike in previous years.

We hope it has truly gone. Beyond the long raining season, we had these acidic raindrops this year which had devastating effect on roads. His Excellency will take off with a lot of road projects this month. We pray and hope that within November and February next year, we can make up for lots of road challenges. We have been a little out on road construction. But all these were because of the heavy raining season.

But when we are talking about performance, governance is not all about road construction. It is a whole gamut of issues. You will recall that this administration was based on the four pillars of economic development namely, Security, Industrialisation, Agriculture and Education, Trade and Commerce. So, anytime you want to judge Obiano, do so on these platforms. Security first. Has the security network of this state dropped? Have we improved? Are we not doing better than we used to do before?

We have been able to put on more security vehicles on the road. We have given more supports to the army and the police. Today in Anambra, armed robbery and kidnapping are becoming obsolete compared to other states. We have not dropped in our security approach since our re-election in 2017. Rather we re-enhanced, bringing in more sophisticated security gadgets which are more proactive in the sense that we were able to trap these kidnappers even at point of planning.

We brought in equipment from Israel that arrest these people even at point of planning. Security is so important because without it, we cannot attract the level of investments and other developmental strides we had since the beginning of the regime. It is a benchmark for our development. On infrastructure, remember that two weeks ago, the government opened the five -Star International Hotel Golden Tulip in Agulu. The official opening is coming up in November.

That project is going to attract a lot of incomes and a lot of tourist investments to our state. I recalled the day it was opened, the manager said that every weekend from September has been booked till end of Christmas. This will bring in foreign investors for development of the state. In other areas like health sector, we were able to launch Anambra State health Insurance Scheme which I believe that everyone will tap into as it reduces the health bills.

It is so important to the common man in the streets. One of the biggest challenges of every government is employment. In that area, this government has been able to develop a youth empowerment scheme that is giving employments to 10, 000 youths. Government is supporting them to develop their skills in areas like fishery, poultry, and so on. The government has in the last three months developed 10, 000 youths from Anambra.

We are going through a process of enabling them to go out and do their trade. In the Ministry of Lands where there had been challenges before, now forcing people to travel as far as to Delta State to acquire and develop land, we have been able to do revalidation process in Anambra so that it now very clear how titled lands can be secured. And we are also bringing down the fees for searching for your titles.

Then education, barely one month ago, some young girls from here went to the United States and emerged as world champions. Again, a teacher from our state came first in a national competition, while another one came fourth in the same competition. That shows you how much the government has invested into education in terms of providing good academic environment for them all to excel.

If government has not done these, our pupils wouldn’t have been doing well in Common Entrance Examinations. And our students wouldn’t have been doing well in their West African Secondary School Examination (WASSCE) and National Examination Council (NECO) where they usually come first, second or third. By December, a lot of roads would be touched so that we will enjoy Christmas.

All the road projects commenced by this administration will receive attention before February 2019. Our predecessor left 107 road projects which were awarded within a period of one month. This administration had completed 71 of those road projects. That shows you that we are working. But we were constrained by the rain. We hope to complete the 107 road projects that our predecessor commissioned within the period of one month before the end of dry season.

Do you think that Governor Obiano’s administration will be able to pay N30, 000 minimum wage?

There are two things; whether we are capable and whether we are comfortable. Definitely because of our prudence, we never had issue in payment of salary, benefits and so on. Definitely, N30, 000 is going to be a lot of wage bill to the state. We may not be comfortable paying but I can assure you that we won’t have problem of payment. Before now, our governor was going to announce increase in the salary of the state government workers from N18, 000 to N25, 000.

We are already comfortable with that before this N30, 000 came in. We will work out modalities to ensure that additional N5, 000 would be added. We will not have a problem. It only calls for more prudence. It calls for more revenue drive. We are also going to do it in a way and manner it will not affect the interest of the common man. But we have blocked the loopholes in our revenue windows. We have brought in experts to help in raising our revenue from N1. 5b as it is today to N3b.

Lastly, the 2019 general election campaigns have begun. What is your advice to the political gladiators?

Let all gladiators think of Nigeria. Nigeria is on a threshold of disintegration. Whatever party or platform one is running for any position, he should think of the country, think of the future, think of the people of this country more than about your personal ambition. That will be more important to us. And as long as the future of this country remains paramount in the minds of the gladiators, expect a free and fair election.