Tim Ogwuru is a Labour Party (LP) Chieftain and Spokesperson in the 2019 Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Council. He Spoke exclusively with MYKE UZENDU on how his party will end money politics with the next general election.
Nigeria is a very complex society to govern. Do you think Peter Obi can navigate his way and untie some of the issues that have held down this country?
One thing you cannot take away from Obi is that he believes in himself and he has gathered a lot of experience in the corporate world especially in the banking sector which is also a very complex environment. He towers higher than all the other Presidential candidates in terms of experience and exposure if we are going to be honest and fair to ourselves. He is not a dangerously ambitious man. He is not an aggressive politician. He does not practice the politics of character assassination but presents the issues and tells you how he intends to address each situation, where the money is going to come from and how he will spend it.
The country has not experienced this kind of character before and that is why you see the wave which some people have described as Obidient movement but I call it an avalanche of support coming to Labour party because he declared for Labour party, a platform which Obi is using to aspire for the highest public office in this country.
Some people are of the view that you are supporting Obi because he is from the same South East region like you?
That is arrant nonsense and some of us have passed that level of affiliation, because he is from my region therefore I have to support him. It is silly talk for people to sensationalize and reduce our support for him based on regional affiliation.
When we supported Atiku Abubakar in 2019 why didn’t they call us to order since Kingsley Moghalu (YPP), Obiageli Ezekwesili (ACPN) and other notable Igbos were on the ballot paper. For me, it is people of little mind who are threatened by the popularity and attention he is gaining daily that dress Obi as an Igbo or South East Presidential candidate. That argument is full of emptiness and most people think so.
I call on Nigerians to continue to support him, see where he is coming from and what he intends to do differently because this election is going to be benchmarked on experience, exposure, knowledge, qualification and fitness both physically and mentally.
Getting old is not the issue because people can be old but physically and mentally alert to undertake a task that a younger person may not be able to undertake. Discussing about old age is not something labour party or Obi would want to explore because everyone will definitely get old. But Obi has all the energy to fold his sleeves and get to duty, pay attention to details and go the field whenever his attention is needed, cross check all feedbacks and carryout his own personal investigation on every issue.
Vote buying has been a major challenge during elections and Obi is saying that he will not give money to voters. So how are you going to defeat the two major parties?
Yes money politics is still very much with us but. While the other parties are yet to come to terms with the fact that Nigerian will take their money and vite according to their conscience, what we do at Labour party is to continue to hammer on the dangers of selling your votes. It will take some time to completely wipe away money politics but the journey has started. We are now preaching it everywhere and it will continue to get better until it is completely a thing of the past.
The other parties will be surprised that the electorate will take their money because the money beings to Nigerians and vote massively for labour party.
Don’t you think that the Nigerian political space is too dirty for someone like Obi to meddle into?
In life, if you do not get involved, you have no chance of changing anything. If you don’t get involved in that jungle, how do you change things? How do you begin to push that things should be done differently? If you don’t get involved, if you are not inside, you have no chance of changing anything.
Yes some people may argue that you may not be personally involved to make changes but I am telling you that if you genuinely want to change a particular situation, you must be within so that when you speak, your voice will be heard in a very loud manner.
His involvement is a civic duty, it is about his country, and if you are concerned or worried and want to see things done differently, you must get involved. You cannot leave it for others because it is too dirty, it is so rough, it is a jungle or it is about stomach infrastructure.
But we still have disciplined people, decent people in the country. We still have people who are praying every day for the country and asking God to bring a leader like Obi who will turn things around. It is a question of head hunting them and bringing them together for the good of the country.
I don’t think that he will ever regret the step he has taken so far because if he does not get involved, he may not know how things may turn out. His involved is only a manifestation of the level of passion and concern for this country. Anybody with an iota of decency and knowledge must be concerned about the country especially when you see your it derailing in a dimension that is extremely dangerous.
Atiku Abubakar the PDP Presidential candidate boasted that Obi is going nowhere because 90% of voters in the North are not on social media and don’t know about Obi and his labour party. Are you concerned about this?
Atiku has no statistics to back up his claims but he will be dazed by what is happening in Nigeria today if he thinks that technology is not penetrating to the towns and to the rural communities especially in the North. I can tell you that technology has penetrated everywhere even down to the villages and that tells you how ill-informed he is.
In the villages, they know how to use WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter and all that even when some of us in the urban centres cannot use it. Technology has no boundaries. They may be illiterates, they may not go to school but they know how to answer calls and they will be able to identify Labour party logo on their phone and vote accordingly.
As the flag bearer of a party, he will do everything to downgrade the level of support Obi is enjoying across all strata of the society. Time has come for people to realize that what was obtainable yesterday may not be obtainable today and tomorrow. Some of them are yet to come to terms with that reality. The world changes with technology and if you think that people are not grasping those changes then you are living in a world of illusion.
With the level of insecurity in the country, do you nurse any fear that 2023 election may not hold?
The insecurity in the country right now is very disturbing and we cannot completely ignore that possibility because without security in any society, you cannot do anything. Whoever is thinking along that line cannot be blamed.
The only thing we can do is to continue to pray that there will be an election because first of all you must have a country before you can elect someone to run it.
If the insecurity continues, I am afraid people will be apprehensive on the election day and there will be voter apathy. I am not an insider and I don’t know what those in charge of security are planning but we are hoping that they will be on top of the situation pretty soon because if they are not and it continues to degenerate, then anything can happen and we cannot be seen to be preparing of an election with this level of insecurity.
If Obi wins the next election, what will be the first two things you will advise him to tackle immediately?
Securing, unifying the county and the economy has to be tackled because if you don’t have a strong economy, you can never be able to do those things that you would want to do. Obi is saying that he will move the country from consumption to production and that can only be achieved if there is security.
