Hon (Chief) Modestus Umenzekwe (Onwa Achina) is a businessman, Employer of Labour and a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with CYRIACUS NNAJI in his office in Lagos, he x-rays the inaugural speech of the new Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, and among others, advised him to collaborate with the Federal Government to ensure maximum benefits to Anambra people. Excerpts:
The mood of the nation, the heat is much on the people, poor power supply, general economic conundrum, I don’t know how you see it? Your party is in power, people are complaining, your view in all these.
You make me laugh, these problems have been there all along, and this government has tried a lot to improve on them greatly, power outage, economic problem, hunger, insecurity, they were there ever before the advent of APC-led Federal Government and has improved greatly on those things. So they are not new, and the recent power drop that we are experiencing now, the Minister of Power has addressed the nation and the President, Muhammadu Buhari, has assured us that they are working seriously to improve the situation. You can agree with me that we are getting serious improvement.
Yesterday was the inauguration of Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo as the Governor of Anambra State, but that event was nearly marred by the confrontation between two supposedly frontline women in Anambra, Bianca Ojukwu, wife of the Late Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu, slapped Ebele Obiano, the wife of former Governor, Willie Obiano, your take.
Assuming you take me to court on threat to life, the court will ask you, what did you do that warranted threat to life? So the way you presented it, Bianca slapped Mrs Obiano, what did she do to attract slap? Tell me, what did you hear? I am asking you journalists.
We heard that she got up from her seat to confront Bianca where she was sitting, from the rumour making the rounds, it was alleged that the first Lady taunted Bianca saying why are you in the venue, you have sworn that you will not be attending APGA activities, you thought we were going to lose the election.
Now let me ask you, Bianca, is she a foreigner? Is she not from Anambra State, and above that, our only revered Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, an Igbo idol for that matter, you don’t joke with him. Even in death, even though he died in 2011 or thereabout, if I am not mistaking, till today we still revere him. Besides, it was Ojukwu that established APGA and Ndigbo embraced that party, and it is still Ojukwu’s name that is still going, all those people that ruled Anambra, it is Ojukwu, they were riding on the shoulders of Ojukwu to get vote; that is all. I don’t know the reason the wife should not be respected.
Every Igboman reveres Ojukwu, and the wife must be accorded that recognition and respect. They may disagree with him politically but his person cannot be allowed to be dented and he is more Nigerian than most people that claim that they are Nigerians. This was the reason he joined NPN, a national party when he returned from exile and since then championed the Nigerian project until God called him.
Let me ask you again, if you attend any occasion with your wife, governor for that matter, is it right for your wife to get up from where you are sitting to go to another person’s position to confront that person. Was it proper?
That brings us to the second leg of the question, this first lady’s action, is it her nature and was it part of what Anambarians suffered for eight years?
You see, Anambra is a very peaceful state, what Madam Governor did was an aberration, it is even a slap on Anambra people, her husband, the Igbo nation, it was even an embarrassment to the revered Professor, the new Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, but I thank God that the professor himself was clever enough to apologise for the breach of protocol, that shows humility. I heard him loud and clear and I give him 100% mark, he was able to douse the tension; that is the character of Ndigbo; that shows wisdom, that shows intelligence. I pitied the outgoing governor for such an embarrassment from the wife. It is quite unfortunate, but I appeal to Ndi Anambra to put those things behind us, and move forward.
Similar to it, immediately after the inauguration, the former governor was picked up by the EFCC at MMIA on his way to America, this arrest do you see it as an embarrassment to Anambra people or an indication of the massive plunder under his watch as governor of that state?
Who arrested him?
The EFCC
EFCC was establish for what?
To fight corruption
So why are you asking me question? If EFCC arrest him, it is either they are tracing corruption or alleged corruption; you are asking me, what do you want me to tell you? Do you stop them from doing their job?
What we are trying to find out is, has there been any report of executive financial recklessness allegedly, in Anambra State?
Well it is EFCC that will answer that question. I know that EFCC doesn’t act without tip off formally, so EFCC is in position to answer all these questions.
Do you see the new government pointing accusing fingers at Obiano?
I will be surprised to start now to accuse the new government, how can he be Obiano’s problem when in fact they have just taken over and he has not even told us how much is in the purse of Anambra State, so I don’t see him doing that, and the way the man appears, he is ready to work, he is busy, there are so many problems confronting Anambra state, the expectation is high, he said it in his address, people believe that by the wave of hand every problem will be solved, so the expectation is high. Why must he go now and start chasing the Ex-Governor, it will be diversionary. Irrespective of party affiliation, we are talking about Ndi Anambra, and I am an Anambrarian, so Ndi Anambra are full of expectations from him, so let him concentrate and do the work.
You watched and heard him at the inauguration, was Soludo simply boastful or humble?
Well it depends on what you mean by being boastful, all I can see is that he was reeling out what he is going to do and passing eulogies to past leaders like Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Awolowo, M.I. Opkara, Amini Kano and a host of them. He spoke like a Nigerian, I didn’t see anything boastful but I saw that he was in high spirit, eulogizing Nigerians, eulogizing Anambra people and admitting that we are expecting something more different than what we have been seeing, taking into consideration his academic erudition and accomplishments and what he said he would do, at least he said he would start with Okpoko, so everybody is watching, waiting for Okpoko to be transformed immediately.
Despite human and material resources, in various departments, Anambra still appear like a glorified Local government in terms of infrastructure, now reading through Soludo’s speech, it appears to be lacking in infrastructural roadmap.
As far as I am concerned, in 2010 or 2009 when he first contested for that position, he said he wants to make Anambra the African Dubai Taiwan and we still hold him by that statement, and I don’t think he has deleted it from his memory, so whether it is in the statement or not, I believe that he is going to make Anambra better than it is now.
In his address, he said he has 50-year development plan, even though it is not dissected item by item, what are you expecting?
I have said it, we expect much, seeing is believing, we are waiting for Okpoko, I think he visited that place today, so whether it is dissected or not, since it came out of his mouth let us wait and see, it is still too early to judge him, it is still too early to start assessment at least for the first 100 days let’s see what is going to happen.
He stressed on locally made goods and services in Anambra State, that the government will patronize Anambra goods and services before any other, in what ways do you think that other states can emulate this and what does it portend to the nation’s economy?
You see governance is about service, it is about reaching out to people, it is a very good idea if he is able to achieve that and I believe he has started well, when I looked at the vehicle, Innoson vehicle, that conveyed him, when you look at his attire, I think he has started well. So when a leader starts patronizing the locally made goods, his subjects will key in. In those days we call Fashola the pacesetter because he came to Lagos and improved upon what Asiwaju did, sanitised Lagos, cleaned everywhere, started beautifying Lagos, started destroying illegal structures, shanties to make Lagos look good, and don’t forget that Senator Chris Ngige in 2003 opened the door for good governance in Anambra Sate, don’t forget that, he started that and every other governor coming in is expected to follow suit, so if the programme of Prof. Soludo is to patronize Locally made goods, that is very very wonderful , and I will always encourage him to make sure that it is implemented so that our economy will improve. Once we start doing that other states will emulate us, then by that we now know whether our Naira is going to compete with the dollar and other foreign currencies. So it is a good start provided he has a very good team.
He said he is going to sign an executive order today stopping all revenue collecting contracts in Anambra, what it means is that he is going to introduce new system, it also means, mafias, touts are been shown the door. How do you think he is going to handle the fall outs considering the security challenges in our clime?
You know I am not in APGA, and I don’t have their manifesto, I am only talking as onye Anambra which is my state, where I have the right to talk. However that question is left to him to answer, if he hasn’t got a plan, he would not go that way. What he said is the right thing to do but you must have plan B, or alternative plan to take care of the question you asked me now which I don’t have the privilege information. I believe he has some plans, if he doesn’t have some plans he won’t go into it immediately, but if he hasn’t got some plans, let him retrace, get some plans to checkmate what you are telling me now, otherwise it will be free for all in terms of security.
Infrastructure development is very key in everything and to get it right in Nigeria, it is usually advisable to cooperate with the federal government, what sort of collaboration do you advocate between APGA Government in Anambra and the FG or do you still insist time is ripe for APC to take Anambra?
I told you that very soon APC will take over the entire southeast, but while we are waiting for that I will advise the Anambra State Government to go closer to the FG, listen to them, table their problem before the president, and the president is a listening person, from the way he is moving, he doesn’t discriminate or segregate, so let him, approach the Federal Government, the formal and normal way because we are talking about Nigeria as a whole. President Buhari is the President of all political Parties, all states of the federation, everywhere as far as Nigeria is concerned, therefore, the governor of a state, whether he belongs to the party or not must find a way of keying into the federal government programme in order to benefit what he is supposed to benefit, because APC-led Government is so generous, so open. The school feeding programme introduced by federal government, despite the fact that Obiano was an APGA Governor, but still he was the person handling it in Anambra State and the federal Government didn’t go against it, so likewise let Soludo approach FG as a son, as a subject, as a subordinate to get what he wants the genuine way for Anambra people. And I will love to see, in no distant time, where Buhari is invited to come to Anambra to commission one thing or the other.
Your advice to Anambra people.
My advice is that let Anambra people cooperate with the state and the federal government, to make Anambra a home for all, which it is known for. It is the state that produced the first president of Nigeria, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Emeka Anyaoku, all political eggheads in this country, it is the state that produced Chinua Achebe, Chike Obi, they are many, the state that produce Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, the revered Igbo idol, so let Anambra cooperate with Federal Government and if possible join the national grid, the national party to make Anambra what it should be, more especially now that the President, Muhammadu Buhari, has fulfilled one of his promises to Anambra and Ndigbo by building the Second Niger Bridge. It is a signature project, whether any person likes it or not, hate him, like him, I will say it loud and clear, I give him 100%, he has performed creditably well and that is why Ndigbo will never forget him in a hurry. Go to Nnamdi Azikiwe’s compound, it is fully refurbished, and I have said it times without number, in 2004 when Chika Ofodile was buried, Buhari told Chuma Azikiwe, who was my friend, though an elderly man, if I become the president of Nigeria I will renovate Azikiwe’s compound and I will build the Second Niger Bridge. Today he has fulfilled it. Again when APC were coupling their manifesto, and I quote Senator Chris Ngige, he insisted that Second Niger Bridge must be part of the promises APC include in their manifesto, today, it has paid off. Ngige is very happy, we are very happy. And above all, I want to thank the workaholic minster, I keep talking about him, the silent achiever, though a lawyer, but he is behaving like an Engineer, he doesn’t talk much, he faces his job, send him on any message, he will achieve it, he will deliver. Who am I talking about? His Excellency, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) former Governor of Lagos State, former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, and now Minister of Works and Housing. Buhari used him to deliver his promises to Ndigbo, and Ndigbo must be very very grateful to these two gentlemen, may God bless them.
The hullaballoo surrounding the APC Convention, are the leaders just toying with the convention, why is it an object of litigation, even though the court has vacated some of the…?
Town unions go into litigation, families go into litigation for one thing or the other, political parties, the oppositions, go to APGA, PDP you see series of litigation, why is that of APC a news, why? It is normal; that is politics.
People felt they should show example
You want somebody to start fighting physically? You go to court to complain. The court will decide, in as much we advocate, as brothers, let us reduce the number of court cases, and that is what the president is doing, APC is a family, we can disagree, yes we can exchange harsh words, it happens in every family, we are one, we listened to Buni the other day, we listened to the president, warning, cautioning that those things should stop, and it has stopped. So, that APC went to court is not an issue, but you Journalists want to blow things out of proportion.
