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MARCH 19, 2007 VOL. 20. NO 23

‘The Abia of My Dream’

**Ikechi Emenike, All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) gubernatorial candidate, Abia State**

–Ikechi Emenike, All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) gubernatorial candidate, Abia State
By Victor Ogene
In your campaign posters, I saw the word “Freedom 2007.” Why the word freedom? Does that presuppose that your people have been in some kind of bondage?
No and yes. No in the sense that I do not mean bondage as in physical chains.
I say yes in the sense that when you are held down by several worldly afflictions, I think it would be somehow right to consider that a free man is really somebody who is free from ignorance, free from basic needs and free to pursue his aspirations. I can assure you that a lot of our people are suffering today. The opportunity open to a graduate of Igboland in 1960, is not the same today and that is why we say we want to free the people from their present afflictions. A lot of people misunderstand it to mean that maybe we are focused on the government of the day. No, we are talking of taking Abia to greater heights. The other word you will hear used frequently is Liberating Abia State. We want to be able to take Abia to greater heights and produce a new, prosperous order in the state
What are you going to put in place to ensure this freedom?
First, we looked at the state and encapsulated what we intend to do. Then, we issued a mission statement which is to try and work hard to create a positive convergence between the vast human and material resources we have in Abia and current technological trends globally. What it means is that, we want to look at Abia, look at what we have on ground, look at the location of the state, look at resources Abia has, look at what opportunities exist, in the international system and take Abia to where it is supposed to be. For example, Ogun State is the closest Yoruba State to the sea, Abia is the closest Igbo state to the sea; Ogun State is pursuing a gateway policy? Why can’t we pursue a gateway policy. It is that gateway policy that has made Ogun State to have more industries than the whole of the South-east. There are more industries in Otta and Agbara than the whole of the South east, viable industries, credible industries because they pursue a gateway policy.
Abia can equally do the same. If you look in terms of institutions, you have building blocks of development. Institutions that must exist in any society to fully develop it. Abia doesn’t have them. Have you pondered to ask why, for example, there was relative even-development among component units of Nigeria in the First Republic. The North developed its own. The West was then being developed by the National Bank. The East was ACB but the head quarter was in Lagos so they now set up ACB in Enugu, which accelerated development in the east. But the whole of South east does not have a single commercial bank headquartered in the region. It is a tragedy for the Igbos who pride themselves to be entrepreneurs, to be fore-sighted in business. So, if you walk into any of the so-called new generation banks in Lagos, and walk into the bank’s branch in the east, you will see two different banks, even in the sitting arrangement. So if you watch, what they do in the east, they are more or less cash-collection centers, they hardly do real banking, real financial business. Until you have institutions that do those things which development agents do, you cannot develop a society. We have had insurance companies in the East in the 70’s and 80’s but all their headquarters are in Lagos. So, if you have 600,000 cars in Abia, for example, which I think is more, then you have 250,000 motorcycles in Abia, 99 per cent of them take third-party insurance, which is like money given to insurance companies which somehow in most societies, they invest in these communities. But all those insurance companies are outside Igboland. So it means all those resources are taken away to another place. That is why I have always told people that every Igbo State, every South eastern State is a net negative transferer of resources. There are more resources going out than is being retained, so if you spend the entire money we have in this country, given the structures in existence now and push it to Aba, Umuahia or indeed, anywhere else in the south east, it will be like the biggest ice in drop.
In every economy, if we must use the analogy of water, it works like a water fountain. We must have blocks that can retain resources, we don’t have it. It goes beyond an individual, it goes beyond who is in power today. It talks more about having the vision. Where should we be in 10 years time, what are those institutions that can help us to do that? You want to go to Benin and you enter a bus going to Atlantic Ocean. Until you make a reverse and come back to the mainland you will never get to Benin. We want to have financial institutions, social institutions, health and educational institutions that can retain our resources. Do you know for example that Igbo language is like a dying language. There are lots of people that live in the east and their children don’t speak Igbo. If you destroy the culture of a human being, you destroy that person. That’s the truth but we don’t know. So we intend to set up those institutions, social, political and economic institutions that should be able to develop our people and we have decided it and we are putting heads together. I assure the people that six months after inauguration, a N25 billion commercial bank will open in Abia State and will have branches in all the 24 House of Assembly constituaences we have in Abia State. We also intend to set up an insurance company not owned by government but the people of Abia State, that will generate resources and also help to develop the state. It will also help in employment. The core of our policy is the youth, everything we want to do, majority of what we intend to do is centred on the youths who are the future leaders of this country and they are living in a state of unease, quite frankly, I get real alarmed at the sheer number of youths who have no opportunities, who have nothing to look up to. You are living in Lagos, go round Lagos and you will see youths who graduated last year, finished NYSC and they have been squating with their parents, but soon after they get jobs. Go to the East, you will find somebody who graduated 10 years ago with no job and there is no hope for a job. You find a lot of mothers, fathers, parents, who have trained their children and they are out of school with no jobs and there is no hope of jobs. When you have a situation where all companies that have the capacity to employ 500 people and above in the state are under lock and key., things won't work well. These acute and huge problems are the challenges we intend to confront. But I can assure you that if God ordains our effort on May 29, people will see a new and different state.
In the course of your last answer, you did say it is not tied to an individual, yet over the years, at least, after the First Republic, we have not been short on policy, but the actual implementation. So the policies as they are, sound very well...
Can I come in here? I always hear people say we have good policies but they are short on implementation. But I always disagree. Any policy that cannot be implemented is bad. I can tell you that. As you are now, you want maybe the best things of life and you look into your pocket and you cannot afford them, are you not just dreaming? So, what you should have is what your pocket can defend, is it not true? It is the same thing you talk about in having good policies. If you check in the First Republic, those people did not come out with huge things to deceive people. They came out with what they could do. I didn’t think Ahmadu Bello, for example, came out and told the people that he was going to set up 20 universities. He said he was going to set up may- be Ahmadu Bello University and he fulfilled this; he said he was going to set up Bank of the North, he went on and set it up. The late Zik, what he did was about the same with University of Nigeria, Nsukka. You ask me how I will set it up, I am telling Abia people that I am going to set up a commercial bank and it will be set up, if you give me time. It will not be owned by the state government. It will be owned by Abia people and how funding will come and how it will be set up, we have already said. I am not one of those people who believe that a policy is good but bad because of implementation, A policy is bad if it cannot be implemented; what is theory? Theory is practice that has passed through the test of time. Is it not the definition?
What people call practice is trial and error. Why don’t we take a theory and implement it. It depends on the passion. Do you want to implement those things. Do you have the character that nobody will derail you. I read Economics in the University and for over 20 years, I have been in the media. You know in the media, you have options. One or two things could have distracted you; people could have diverted you to the other side. But you remained because this is what you want to do and this is what you believe in. I have remained in one thing for over 20 years. This, to me shows the capacity of what one can do. So we should stop emphasising on the fact that a policy can be good but that its implementation is always the problem. Me, I am not one of those people and I don’t believe that.
But the point I wanted to make actually was that since we are in era of party politics, your vision would look okay to you but you have several other people, the Assembly, party stakeholders and all that. How do you carry them along?
In all my rallies and campaigns they are with me, they know that if we are going to win this election, we are winning it based on what we are telling people. They don’t expect me, after telling people that I am going to set up a bank, I am going to build blocks of development, I am going to pursue a gateway policy, we are going to clean up the state, then when I come into government what else will you tell me to do? You were there when we were selling the programme, we are winning the election based on what we are telling the people we will do. So what else will I do but try to meet those aspirations? That is why I am telling Abia people, vote for me, and I will be held accountable to serve you, vote for me and you are empowering a governor, you are electing your own as a governor who is answerable to you. Why will I be answerable to you? We have a covenant that I will create employment for the teeming youths. We are going to do the roads, we are going to provide water, we are going to work on electricity, we are taking the state to the next level. That is the covenant between me and the people. I believe I am even the only person in the state who believes strongly that Abia people are the ones who will take the ultimate decision of who becomes the next governor of the state through their vote. I believe it. And I am going to work and defend it with everything I’ve got. The truth of the matter is not that people are not going to try and do one or two things. But the bottom- line is, you and I know it, that there is no force on earth that can stop an idea whose time has come. Thousands of our youths are living in a state of hopelessness. Ask the people in Abia the quality of support I have, ask them the kind of passion they have for this cause. It is not only me. It is a mass movement, we've been able to take hope, take our fate in our own hands. So the issue is that everybody is being carried along. I don't think there is any person in the state who has disagreed with me in everything I have told them, and every place I have carried the campaign to. I give practical examples. I told them, for instance, that this year the people will celebrate Christmas with Golden Guinea products. It means that I will fix all those things that are not working and ensure they are put to work.
So, will I go to do it and somebody will say I should not do it, when he knows that it was the promise I made to the people during the election. I do not think anybody is going to do that. I know where you may be heading to, that there are a lot of people who may not share this decision of development, they may want to have some selfish things to be taken off. I have come this far such that if I have the capacity to resist some things I consider untoward, I can assure you that my primary responsibility is to the Abia people and I have given them my pledge and repeat it everyday that I will not let them down.
It is said that a dancer does not see his back, how do you rate your chances, hower?
I wish you could ask my opponents this. I wish you could also ask the people who are in Abia this. And I can assure you that a lot of people are in our fold but as I have told them, it is still premature. Many people in our fold are already warming up for celebrations. There is no way this election will be done, except they don’t do election that I will not win. If this election is going to be done by human beings, if votes will be cast, if democracy is a function of numbers and support, I can tell you that which ever way it goes, we will win this election. ANPP is the largest party in Abia State.
I asked the last question advisedly. In 2003, you contested the primary of the PDP for Abia Central and you were said to have won but somehow you did not end up running on that ticket, what happened?
That is why precisely in 2007 I refused to humour the PDP. I refused to even give them an opportunity to toy with my ticket, or toy with any ticket. I decided to go to a party based on justice and equity. The party in which after primaries nobody comes to discuss or tell stories about who has the ticket or not. I decided to contest the primaries in ANPP and I became their candidate, and ever since we have been moving forward. I can assure you, and I guess you know, that misfortune does not follow a man all the time. I see what happened in 2003 as a necessary sacrifice in the process of trying to grow up in this bid to serve our people and I can assure you that 2007 will be different. I don’t think that I am in a position now to win an election and somebody will take it. It is not going to happen.
So you are not afraid of the awesome PDP federal machinery?
PDP awesome machinery may be in Abuja but not in Abia. I can assure you that. Abia State is ANPP. That is the truth. Ask anybody .
Really?
That is the truth.
You talked so much about the youth. Apart from job creation, the industries you have talked about, what are the other things, how do you intend to elevate the Abia youth?
Youths, apart from the immediate need for employment and quality education, which is why we say we are going to pursue educational excellence and revatilise all our schools, you know, you must be able to have programmes to deal with excessive youth energy. That is why we promised them and say within the next 12 months every House of Assembly constituency, 24 of them, will have a youth centre where youths can go and play either table tennis, boxing or football, where they can do real recreation and channel their energy. Because all those places are not in existence, that is why you now find that a lot of youths now spend most of their energy in uncompleted buildings smoking dangerous things. If you engage them, engage all their energy they won’t be engaged in those things any more. I was a youth too. And I benefited from a youth centre. When during holidays we went to a community centre and played table tennis from morning till night, or play badminton or play lawn tennis or do boxing or weight lifting. But these youths don’t have these things. All the open spaces are built -up. So what do you expect them to do? So we intend to create youth centers. That is why our progrmame, if you go to our website – www Emenike for Abia.com– you will see a lot of our intervention in various areas. But I can assure you that youths of Abia are already aware that Emenike presents a platform for them. And all the down- trodden people and not just even youths, the elderly. We intend to pioneer the best social welfare scheme for the elderly, everybody 75 years and above in Abia State will receive N500 stipend every month. To put some money in the pockets of people. People will think, where are you going to get the money to do all these things. Abia State money will not enter there. If I tell you how we are going to set up the insurance company, if I tell you how we are going to set up the bank, Abia State money will not enter there. This social welfare scheme will not cost the State more than N15 million.
And you are putting humanity into life. Even the wild animals, they kill animals and they pray for some people to eat. Even our slogan. We are trying to look at Abia. Apart from our mission statement, we designed development in question format, which is faith plus ideas plus hardwork is equal to development. We have great faith in God, we believe in Abia people, we believe in ourselves to change our lots. And we believe that God did not make a mistake by creating us as Igbo people. And we believe that we have the ideas that can support that faith. We also believe that we have the passion and hardwork. You and I know that faith without work is emptiness. And faith plus handwork without creativity and good ideas also means you can still be running around in circles.
Apart from been a pride of place for all Ndigbo, because apart from Onitsha, Aba is a very well established commercial centre, but it still remains at the peripheral level. What are your plans. Do you have any special development plan for Aba?
I said it very clearly, we want to restore the competitiveness of Aba. Aba was a commercial centre long before Dubai and that is part of our challenge. If you go to Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali ask of the 10 elderly richest men in each of these countries. They will tell you that most of them made money by coming to buy things from Aba. Today, their children go to Dubai. We want to return their children, grand children to Aba. We want to be able to restore the competitiveness of Aba. Then how do we do that? They are still trading in the old ways. The way the, traded in they 60s. In the way they traded in the 60s where you see something in a shop you pick it and go.
There are no warehouses, no modern ways of doing things. There are no access roads. The power supply is epileptic. The most important aspect is you clean up the city. I just gave some people interview and I told them, let’s be sworn- in on May 29, come to Aba June 30 you wouldn’t see those dirt you see there.
Yes, you talked about access roads in Aba. Go to Aba the commercial never centre of Abia, the roads are in a deplorable state. What are you going to do to ensure that they are in good condition?
We will fix all of them. It is very pathetic in the 21st century for somebody wanting to be governor to be talking about roads, water, electricity. These are things that people don’t discuss in other parts of the world. What have we been doing since independence for Christ sake, that we are still talking about this. So it is the same thing that you grow up and find your relations, young ones are not trained and you don’t go and ask why they didn’t train them. You start somewhere and start training those you can train and helping those you can help . Is that not what happened? So that’s what we intend to do, those are the immediate things we intend to tackle. So what I expect to do in four years, I am trying to see how I can pack so me 200 years work in four years and to be able to take the state forward. Quite frankly, it is very unfortunate that in the 21st century we are still talking about roads, there are more creative things one should ordinarily be talking about or adding to existing roads, adding to make better roads or there are new settlement, somebody wants to build an estate somewhere you have to take road to them. You are talking about where people have been living maybe for the past 100 years. The roads are in had shape, those things call for immediate attention, real permanent attention, We are not just talking about roads. I can assure you all those things you see in Aba you will see wealth in them. We are going to beautify them with trees.
Go to more congested cities, go to more congested societies and you be amazed. New York, is it not congested. Do you have people all over the place. You have the population. So that is the basic things we must be able to do. We are going to clean up Aba. Let me tell you, as you entered here did you see dirt? Did you see filth? If you don’t see any in my house, in Umuahia you don’t have any. In your house, I am sure there is no dirt. If in your house in Abia there is no dirt, then where will you find the dirt. If we say people should not dumping refuse on the road and you don’t allow anybody dump refuse on the roads. It is because people are lazy. Some people, will say no and they will come and dump refuse in the night. Who says there cannot be people working shift in the night to make sure no- body dumps these things there. No- body believed that wearing seat belt could catch on in this country, the Federal Road Safety enforced it and everybody is wearing seat belt because you know it is for your interest.
Look at the South east. Look at the quality of foreigners we have in the community. Without even knowing the direction they are going. Once upon a time factories in Aba were run by expatriates, but today they are all gone because if somebody tells you go to Aba you can make 200 per cent profit, you make 200 per cent profit with 400 per cent hassles.
You are in deficit. Is that not true. So people prefer to go to a place where they can make 100 per cent profit and 50 per cent hassles. So at the end of the day you can be in the process of making profit and you will die. So, for we to clean the place and rejuvenate the environment, that’s what we intend to do. Be honest, if you have friend or even you friends from the western part of this country, or even from the north and you say they are visiting you in Igboland and you say you want to take them out, where will you take them Which real monument will you take them to?
There is no museum. There is no recreation. There is absolutely nothing. The one we have in Enugu is rotting away. And if anybody believes anybody is there they can impose a governor, well I wish them luck. But I have to answer my father’s name and I have to satisfy my conscience and I have to follow the rule and inspiration from God and that is the motivation of what I am doing and that is he passion you see coming.
Emenike, you talk with so much passion about these things. What drives you?
As a young man, I have always wanted to contribute to the society maybe that may be the motivation from the course I read. And as an adult, I have always found myself in a situation where everyday I live my life around discussion about how to take the global economy and I am an official publisher of the African Development Bank, only black man who is an accredited publisher of the World Bank, and accredited publisher of the IMF, I publish for international organisations and I attended all the important meetings in the world. We do nothing but talk about development. I have seen the best countries in the world, I have done business in all the six continents in the world. I have seen the best countries and I have seen the worst country. And I feel that many of our problems are man- made that and I can make a difference, and I also feel this is my chance, the only time we have to be able to make a contribution. I feel that God did not make a mistake by creating us in this part of the world. There was a time I used to feel why are we who we are, and I just discovered that it is because some of us stayed on the sidelines and allowed charlatans, and allowed people who think they can lord it over us. Why will somebody, for instance, sit down for example and start marketing or selling the idea that Abuja will anoint a governor for Abia State. Why, is it democracy, are we still talking about democracy? So the votes of people will no longer count? My challenge this year is to make sure that the votes of all those people in Abia State count.
How are you going to ensure that?
By making sure that the people vote, stay and make sure it is counted, and make sure that nobody rigs them out. Fortunately, I am sure that you know that all the results will be announced at the polling booth. The result will not be announced at Abuja. The results will not be at Abuja. As you vote in the polling booth it will be counted in that polling booth and announced. My agents will have it and relate it to me.
So what essentially is your message to Abians as the elections draw near?
My message to Abians is that they should hold firm. They should not allow anybody to dampen their spirit. They should not believe in the fallacy that their votes will not count. They should come out en masse and vote because a change will come, and Abia State will rise again.