‘I Was Programmed to Fail’

Theodore Ahamefule Orji, governor, Abia State

– Theodore Ahamefule Orji, governor, Abia State
By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
He sat in his office relaxed. Wearing his signature dress – a traditional attire, with a red cap and a black shoe to match, Governor Theodore Ahamefule Orji looked a contented man. He is. And he was expectant too. He should.
About three months ago, the governor was a harassed man. He was the governor, but he didn’t seem to be in charge. In his words, he had constraints. He was in bondage, he insisted and so was the state. Harassed by his predecessor who founded his former party, People’s Progressive Alliance (PPA), denied suddenly by his party, working with a deputy he couldn’t trust, a deputy who never hid his interest in contesting against his boss in the 2011governorship election, and not knowing what his political future will be, he could be described, then, as the most uncomfortable governor in Nigeria. Governor Orji was not only denied by his party, he was publicly rebuked, and given an order to shape up, or ship out. He couldn’t understand it. But as he now reckons, it was God making a way for him. Literarily pushed against the wall, with disgrace from his party staring at him, he pulled the rug off their plans by resigning his membership of the party, and joined the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). That movement opened his eyes. The scales fell off. He saw himself born anew. And he liked what he saw. Suddenly, he was released from the bondage most people saw before him. And so was the state too, in his words. Freedom, sweet freedom. But that brought another angle to his political future. The once rejected stone had suddenly become the cornerstone of a foundation. He became a political bride. The PDP, the self proclaimed biggest party in Africa, saw his potentials, and gave him hot pursuit. They wooed him with everything they had. They made promises. He was the PDP’s missing rib, the party national chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, proclaimed. In agreement with his people, Orji caved in. If his entrance to APGA pulled off the rug from under the feet of the PPA, his decamping to the PDP was a super coup.
On Saturday, August 28, when the seat of the Federal Government literarily moved to Umuahia to received him, Orji was emotional. Looking at the crowd, led by President Goodluck Jonathan, it was unbelievable to him. Within two months, he has moved from a politician struggling to find his feet, to one who sits atop, calling the shots. He has called the bluff of Orji Kalu of the PPA, and kicked out his deputy, Chris Akomas. In his words, Akomas betrayed him. He told this magazine that even though Akomas was imposed on him, he trusted him – against advice from some people – and gave him freedom most deputy governors would never think of. “He travelled the world, while we did all the job here,” he said. Yet, he never minded, until, he said, Akomas became a threat to his re-election in 2011. He told The Source in an emotional voice that his greatest mistake was taking Akomas as his deputy. He found him greedy and ambitious. And he wondered. Painfully speaking to The Source, he found it quite difficult to discuss those who dined with him, but suddenly became his persecutors. He paid glowing tributes to Abia people and his new deputy, Chief Eric Acho Nwakanma who he described as a loyal friend who would never betray him. His wife, Mercy Udochi Orji, he told The Source, is his rock who gives him joy. In the following pages, Governor Orji talks about his travails, his challenges, and the bright future before him – and Abia. Enjoy.
Your Excellency, let us start by congratulating you on your tenure so far, and your survival instincts. How has it been these past few weeks?
It has not been easy these past weeks of my political career – except for that time that we were in court. This was another period that I was in difficulty. First was to take a decision to move from PPA to APGA, and then within that same period, another strong decision to move from APGA to PDP. It is not an easy thing, but I’m happy that God gave me the courage, and God gave me the guidance to take these decisions in consonance with the yearnings of my people. I believe that any decision that I take is in tandem with what the people want. So I’m comfortable with any decision that I take as far as it has the backing of my people.
Why did you move to APGA in the first place, or did you not discuss with your people before you moved to APGA?
I did discuss with them before I moved. I was in PPA but why I left the PPA was because of the undemocratic processes that are happening in that party. And when I left, I consulted with my people who said I should go to APGA. I went to APGA, and as I was in APGA, PDP came wooing me, and I also went back to my people and told them, look at what I’m seeing.
And that was your party initially?
Yes, of course, that was my party initially. We were all in PDP before we left. I said this is the situation I find myself, and they said, ‘look, it is now time for us to go into the mainstream of politics'. That Abia state has suffered for a long time due to opposition. For eight years, and these other years that I have been at the helm of affairs, that is about 11 years. Now we have been in opposition, and we have not gotten the things that we are supposed to get to develop our state because we have been in opposition. Opposition has not benefited us, and what we want is something that will benefit our people. That is why I am here, to improve the living standards of our people, to improve the structural standards of Abia state, to improve everything in Abia. I consulted them, and they said look, go to PDP, that is the party that is in power, that is the party that if you belong, you get those things that are required, that is the party that you stay also and you have a voice in what is happening in Nigeria. I consulted widely and then I finally decided that it is the right thing to do.
You had a lot of opponents in the PDP. What is their reaction now?
Well, I have been amazed and surprised at their reactions. I was thinking they will be the people that will block me from coming into the PDP. But surprisingly, these are the people who are championing my coming into PDP. I asked them why the sudden change? They said, look we have not been fighting you. You are a good man, we don’t have any problem with you. As far as T.A. Orji is concerned, we don’t have any problem with you. We have been fighting those that are behind you, those that said they made you.
Those are the people we have been fighting, and we cannot fight them directly, we have to fight them through you. But now that I have extricated myself, and the whole of Abia state, now that we are out of bondage, they don’t have any other alternative than to support me. They now know that I mean well for the whole of Abia state, and they will have to support the person who means well, and I am the person. That’s why they have rallied themselves round me saying they don’t want any opposition again, this is the man they want; this is the man who will take them to the Promised Land, this is the man who will take Abia to the next level; this is the man who has the people at heart, this is the man who is not interested in what himself or his family will get, but interested in the welfare of the people. Therefore, they are interested in my moving ahead with Abia. I think that’s why they are supporting me.
Most surprising was the statement by Chief Onyema Ugochukwu. How did you feel when you read what he said about you?
Well, I felt happy. Chief Onyema Ugochukwu is not a bad person. Even when we were in different parties, he had been saying it constantly that he had no problem with T.A. He was rather fighting the institution that T.A belonged to. That’s what he has been saying, that he has no personal problems with me. And since I came out of that institution, he has aligned with me, and he is telling every person they should support me, that he will support me, and that he has dropped his ambition of being a governor because the reason he wanted to be a governor was to liberate Abia. And now that I have done it, there is no point for him to be struggling with me, his brother. He will now give me support as an elder brother to go ahead.
You seem to have massive grassroots support. When you were incarcerated, you made history as the first Governor to be voted into office while in detention.
You see, this is a reputation I have taken time to build over the years from where I had worked. Recall that I was Administrative Secretary of INEC in Abia and Enugu states, and when I was Administrative Secretary of INEC, I comported myself very well. Among these politicians that you see today, none of them will say that I took rash decisions against him, but I did the right thing and they were pleased with me. So they recorded it, all of them, all politicians of repute. I took no kobo from anyone of them. From there, when I became Chief of Staff, that was when I touched the masses because they were coming to me. I was the channel though which they could see the governor, the then governor. Most of the times, I would do those things for which they wanted to see the governor for them because it was difficult to see the governor. So I was looking after those of them that could see me. I touched their lives, I was paying school fees without people knowing, I was giving scholarship to people without people knowing, hospital bills, some N20,000, N30,000 and I will pay.
Most of these things I did, I have forgotten. Some of them later came back and reminded me, see, have you forgotten, you paid my school fees the other time, you paid my daughter's school fees, you paid my son’s school fees, you paid my hospital bills, you sent me to Jerusalem. I didn’t know they were waiting for pay back time. And pay back time was when I came out to contest for the election, they came to pay back what I did for them. They said this is the man. If this man could look after us when he was not governor, if he is governor, he would do better. That was when I built the goodwill which is carrying me on, not only Abians alone, even from far and wide, they were coming. That was what I was doing, that was how I cultivated that habit that is carrying me today, that goodwill that is carrying me today.
When you were in detention, did you ever think that you would become governor?
You see, when I was in detention, I was very confident that I would be governor because of what I told you. Detention elicited sympathy on the part of the people who knew that I didn’t do anything, I didn’t commit any offence. They knew why I went there. So, they said, this man who didn’t do anything and you are keeping him here, denying him bail when the offence is a bailable offence. Keeping me, they knew was to deny me the opportunity of being governor. So it drew sympathy, and my people were agitated, and they said even if I died in detention, they would vote for me. And that was what they did. I made history as the first Governor in Nigeria to be elected while in detention.
What was your worst experience in prison?
My worst experience was denying me my freedom. I’m used to freedom, freedom of movement, freedom of association, mixing with my people. Removing me from my people was the worst experience that I had. I have never gone to police, or police barracks before in my life. That EFCC experience was my first experience, and I saw myself behind bars, but eventually God showed the light and I came out.
You have gone back to the same party as your predecessor in office. How do feel about that?
He has not been accepted into the party. If you are very current – I believe you are – his local government has not accepted him and the party has not accepted him. It’s a known fact.
You had a difficult first tenure because of problems here and there, court cases, forces that allegedly put you in office. What is your promise now to Abia people?
I promise Abia people that we have a new dawn, that better things are going to come. Good things are ahead which we are going to experience because what we are running now is government of the people, for the people, by the people. I believe in that. It is going to be a participatory government, and when it is a participatory government, things will move very, very well. When it is a government of unity, things will move very well. And when you look around now, you see that Abia is united. All those forces, for the first time in the history of this state, name them, all the people you can think, the who-is-who in Abia, are all behind me now. So, with that type of force, and with God behind us also, we are going to move Abia to the next level.
So what were the challenges of governance before the move from PPA to APGA and now to PDP?
If you talk of challenges, I know where you are going to. You see, I had that challenge, a difficult challenge of not being myself because people were even surprised that, ah, is it still the T.A Orji that we know? So I had the challenge of when you want to take a decision, a decision you think is right for you to take, a decision you know is good for your people, but you have to consult. You have to start consulting, and when you consult, contrary opinion may come in. Not that you are consulting the generality of the people, you are consulting few individuals. So I had that constraint summarily of not being myself.
Were there things you didn’t quite accomplish that you felt you ought to have accomplished at that time?
A lot of things because of constraints. When someone has constraints in pursuing projects, constrains in making policies, constraints in implementing policies, constraints in all, you cannot work well.
But surprisingly, these individuals claimed they never interferred in anything you were doing.
What do you want me to say? What I have told you is that I had constraints. I had constraints.
Before you got queried in your former party, did you ever have the feeling you were being pushed out?
Of course. It was a planned deal that I will never go for a second term. I don’t know why, I asked my people because the situation and circumstances I was seeing around me showed that, even the utterances that were coming out from the people. I was not programmed for a second term and everybody was going for a second term in office. And those who were governors before me went for second term, why shouldn’t I go for a second term? And the thing that annoyed me was that the party, the people I expected to project me, even if I am attacked, were the people exposing me, disgracing me, telling the world about me negatively, and distancing themselves from me. The party is supposed to protect their own. Those who claim that I belong to them should also protect me, even when I do bad, they should protect me and bring me in and tell me this is where you have done wrong. But this time around what they did was to distance themselves, and pretend they are the best and push T.A Orji to the wall as a person who is bad, as a person who should not be associated with.
Well, I knew it would fail because they projected me wrongly. They didn’t project the real T.A Orji. Already the people knew me. The people they were telling about me know me very well because they ask questions. So when you tell them negative things about me, they know it’s you that is telling them, that is responsible for that. They were doubtful. That’s why immediately they did that, PDP came en masse. If I was what they projected me to be, a mega party will not come to say, please come, we want you in our party, This is the same party that rejected those who were projecting me as being bad.
The question of security in Abia state, what have you done about it. That was one of the things the PPA had against you.
Yes, I was shocked that such a factor was raised because you know that security is in the hands of the Police. And I have been partnering with the Police in Abia state to ensure there is adequate security in this state. The Police confirmed that. I have been doing my best, and will continue doing my best because it’s one of the priorities the government should have, to make sure there is 100 per cent security in Abia state. But I was programmed to fail. I was programmed to fail in Abia state. But God forbid!!! I have gone out of that programme. So they were talking about security, is it only in Abia state that there is insecurity. There is insecurity in many states but mine was escalated. I have supported the Police in every which way: Patrol vans, logistics, communication equipment.
Please that is for you to find out. Anything that happens in Abia, the next moment it is in the internet. It is front page news in certain newspapers. At a stage I had to complain bitterly to the owners of these papers. At times they are fictitious stories. They just place it on front page, somebody kidnapped, this and that on the streets of Abia state. I call the Correspondent and complain, and he will say this was not what he wrote. He wrote another thing before he sent it, and another thing appeared on the page of the newspaper, painting Abia state black. You tell the world that Abia state is insecure and the governor has failed. The people are deliberately doing this to tarnish my image. The way they see insecurity in Abia state is not how it is. Correspondents have been coming to Abia state and going. Dignitaries have been coming to Abia state. There is no person that has come to Abia state to stay and is kidnapped. People who are passing the Express road have been kidnapped. Express road is not owned by Abia state. It’s Federal road. Port Harcourt-Enugu Road is owned by the Federal Government, that is where the kidnappings happens, at the Ukwa axis. So, it is not the picture they paint about Abia state in terms of security, that is not how Abia state is. Because of that our people in Lagos and Abuja are frightened. They don’t come home. Some of them, when they come, some of these people who are doing these things trail them and harass them so they don’t come back again, and they will go and start spreading the news that there is insecurity in Abia, yet people are living there.
What’s your advice to those Abians that are scared?
My advice to them is that they can never be scared for ever. Where you are living is not your home. If you are living in Lagos, Lagos is not Abia. Abia is your base. You have to come home. Come and help. You don’t have to be comfortable in Lagos or Abuja, your mother is in Abia, your brother is in Abia. You have to come and contribute, to come and help to make sure we fight this insecurity so that your parents will be safe and when you come home you will be safe. Some want to build houses here, but when the kidnappers harass them they run away. Why not help us to fight those who don’t want your progress. My advice to them is that Abia is not as insecure as they think. It is not worse then any other state. Even in the North it is happening. It’s everywhere. It’s not peculiar to Abia, so no one should term Abia as a state that is known for kidnapping. Kidnapping is everywhere. It’s a national issue which the Federal Government is now fighting.
When the four journalists were kidnapped, how did you feel?
I felt too bad, I felt very bad. The first time I heard it, I was in Lagos. I had to rush home. I came here, interacted with the Commissioner of Police, the IGP, we put our heads together and we started looking for them. We made contacts everywhere. I went back again to attend a meeting in Abuja. I was in Abuja and I heard they had been released. I had to come back to see them. Within that period, I felt extremely bad because you see, those journalists were trailed from Akwa Ibom. They were actually passing through Abia and they (kidnappers) felt Ukpakiri was the convenient place for them to operate, and after which they ran away.
Another thing the PPA querried was the situation in Aba.
Any situation that was bad was caused by them. Now, let me cite example with sanitation. Before I came on board, the issue of refuse was nothing to write home about. Remember, there was a time El-Rufai castigated this state about refuse disposal and said the state was unable to manage its refuse, and he wrote us off. But today the situation is not the same, we are managing the refuse very, very well. I think Aba is cleaner now than it used to be. That is one point. The second point is about the roads. The roads that I’m repairing which are many, some of them were not stone-based so they were easily washed away. What we are doing now is to repair them with stone base. We are building roads that are stronger, roads that can stand the test of time, roads that can last at least 10 years because I told the contractors that they have to give me guarantee. So if you guarantee me 10 years, the next person who will come and take over from me will not build such road, but another one that has never been built. Aba-Owerri Road in Aba has been a nightmare, not today. Even at a stage, Julius Berger had to come, but six months after, it collapsed. But today, I have built it. Vehicles are passing through that road. So if that had been built strongly, I won’t be wasting money there now, I will be building another road. Port Harcourt Road, federal road, vehicles were not passing. Go and ask Aba people, weeds had taken over the road. It was not being used at all. But today, go and see it, vehicles are using it. But the internal roads, I am taking it one after the other. Faulks Road, that leads into the Ariaria market, it was impassible. If it was a strong road, it would have lasted at least five years but I have rebuilt it. Eze Ikonne who lives at Faulks Road, he used to run away from his palace every rainy season. He is there now. I built the road for him, and yet his son wants to be governor, but he couldn’t build the road for his father when he was Commissioner for Works. The father used to go on exile every rainy season. Those are instances in Aba before and after.
They equally talked about salaries?
Go and ask the teachers. I am not owing any person. Even by the time they asked me that, I had cleared the arrears. They were acting out of ignorance. They were acting with a pre-conceived motive of finding a way to give a dog a bad name. By the time they gave me that querry, I had cleared all salaries. I wasn’t owing teachers. As of now, I’m not owing teachers. Afterall, during the last dispensation, there was a time people were owed here. Look around in the entire federation, there are people who are owed salaries, but it is the way you manage it. My own becomes a different thing altogether. Just because I’m owing salaries, am I deliberately owing salaries? Nobody does that. I was a civil servant, I should pay salaries. For civil servants, I have never owed them since I came here, and remember that I did promote every person to the next grade level, and I have been paying. They don’t consider that. Those people who are saying you are owing salaries never promoted them as compensation, as redeeming the promise they made during campaign. I made that promise and I fulfilled the promise. Those people who are shouting he is owing salaries didn’t promote teachers as compensation to say yes you have done very well. They didn’t promote workers to encourage them, but I did it, and they are shouting you have not paid salaries, yet they owed when they were here.
The former Abia State Deputy Governor made a lot of allegations against you.
I don’t like talking about people, I like facing the future. But he made serious allegation. What I have to say is that it’s unfortunate that I took that man as my deputy. It is one of the greatest mistakes that I made, and moreover, I want to inform you that that decision wasn’t mine. It wasn’t solely mine. If I was allowed to choose a deputy, I would not have chosen him. So that was the first mistake that I made, and that was why I told you that I was programmed to fail. The deputy that is talking nonsense now was not chosen by me.
You can go to Obingwa and find out how many times the deputy governor slept in his village when he was deputy governor. He was not sleeping in his village, he was either sleeping in Umuahia or Port Harcourt or sleeping in Abuja or going overseas. He was one of the deputy governors that was given the greatest latitude. And I was warned when I was giving him this freedom. People told me, look you don’t know this man, but I trusted him and he betrayed that confidence, and the people are now telling me, I told you about this man, we know him.
He’s a sycophant. He will come to you and pretend. You have not seen the real Akomas, and it is now that I’m seeing the real Akomas. All he is saying is false. This is a deputy governor that I will allow to go and represent me in the Council of States meeting. This is a deputy governor that I will allow to represent me where some governors don’t allow their deputies to near, and I allowed him freedom. He was going everywhere. He’s the most travelled deputy governor. He was going everywhere. He goes to Canada at will, goes to US at will, goes to UK at will, himself and his wife, yet I wasn’t bothered. I will stay here and do the job and he will be gallivanting, a deputy governor.
And the State government was sponsoring all those trips?
Exactly, yes we were sponsoring the trips for him, that is how he said he’s being owed money. I want him to come and explain to me.
He said he is being owed about N400 million?
What did he do to get N400 million? Is that how to spend government money?
Was he not getting his salary?
He was getting his salary, all the allowances he was getting. He should come and tell the world how he is owed. He was getting all his entitlements, but he has to come and show us a paper of his entitlements, what he’s entitled to.
Was he ever querried by a junior person, the Deputy Chief of Staff? He made an allegation that the Deputy Chief of Staff was authorised by you to query him.
Don’t mind him. You see, they all have phobia for the Deputy Chief of Staff because he knows what they know, and you see how God works. I didn’t post the deputy Chief of Staff to the deputy governor’s office. I was advised to post the Deputy Chief of Staff to that place for purposes known to the person who advised me. And that was what I did, and it’s working well for me now because the man knows what all of them know, that’s why they are afraid of him. The man never querried him. How can a Deputy Chief of Staff query a deputy governor? It is impossible and never done. That is why you see that this man is just fabricating stories to curry sympathy which he can never get because they know him for what he is.
The story is that you bribed members of the House of Assembly to sack him.
We have separation of powers. The House of Assembly is doing their constitutional job. I never met any of them. Go and ask the Speaker or any of them if I ever meet with them? They know what he’s been doing. They know his excesses, and they said this is the time for them to clip his wings, and the thing just fell smoothly.
And he said that you didn’t tell him when you were leaving PPA
Already, he had pitched his camp somewhere. He wanted to run as a governor against me under PPA. I asked him severally but he denied. I have evidence to show him that he wanted my seat, and any person who wants your seat when it is not time, you have to fight the person.
When asked about his ambition, he didn’t even say it is dependent on the party, but the party structure because in the PPA we have PPA as the party, and Reality as a structure.
Okay, that’s the structure he was referring to?
Yes, we have PPA as a Party. We have Reality as structure. He was referring to Reality not PPA, and it was the main factor. Reality determines what happens in the PPA.
What made you pick the Deputy Governor that you picked now knowing that he was deputy governor before?
This one has had closer relationship with me, and since he was able to withstand, because I knew his travails within the period he was deputy governor and after he was deputy governor, since he was able to be loyal after these hindrances, he cannot be disloyal to me who had been his friend all along. I knew him right from the time I was in INEC when he was contesting for the House of Assembly constituency of his Local Government, that was when I knew him. The other deputy governor that was impeached, I knew him here when I came into this government, during the last dispensation. But the present deputy governor I knew him in INEC. It has been a long relationship and he knows that very well. I am assuring you that he will ever be loyal, and that is what we need here - somebody who is loyal, who believes in you, and you believe in the person. If I give him the lattitude that I gave the impeached deputy governor, this man will ever be grateful to me. But the impeached deputy governor is an ungrateful person. If you make him a court messenger, he will like to be a policeman. You make him a policeman, he will like to be a General in the Army. You make him a General in the Army, he will like to sack the President and be the President, that is what he is.
In terms of infrastructural development, how much have you provided for the state?
In housing, there’s one estate we are building. That one is in duplexes. I want to complete it as quickly as possible so that the president will come and commission it. There’s another one we are doing at Amuba. That one is completed. We are fencing the place right now. There’s another one at Osisioma which started long ago. We are trying to untie the legal implications in that place before we can invest money there. But these two are free of encumberances and they will be commissioned very soon.
In terms of Health, Agriculture…?
Yes, there is hospital. We are building a specialist hospital and diagnostic centre. They are fitting the equipment right now and it’s one of the projects the President will commission when he comes to commission projects in Abia this week, one in Umuahia, one in Aba that is a state of the art diagnostic centre equivalent to the one in Lagos. If you go there you will see it. That is what we are transforming this place into. So, in terms of health also, in partnership with Federal Government MDG’s, we’ve been able to build 165 equipped Health Centres in Abia state. We have a free medical scheme which will go from village to village giving drugs and medication to people. My wife also is doing her own programme, bringing in people that are HIV-positive, cancer patients and eye patients, they come regularly. She’s also building a skills acquisition centre, mighty edifice which she will soon open and call on the wife of the president to come and commission.
I have been wishing to ask this question. From when you were detained, to your campaigns, how much support has she given you?
Thank you for asking such question. You see, it is the time you know the woman who loves you. Don’t mind about the men and women that say they love their husbands and wives. It is either when the husband or wife is in trouble that you know who has you at heart, and that was the time this woman showed that she loves me. You know what it means for your husband or wife to be away from you for three months, not that you have hope of seeing tomorrow. It was sudden, and you don’t know when she or he will come back. It’s like somebody who has died because you are not sure what will happen to him there. But this woman within this period was steadfast. She was on with the campaign.
Really! She led the campaign?
Yes, she was on with the campaign. She was going from ward to ward, local government to local government. People saw her campaigning for her husband. Thereafter, she relocated to Lagos, left everything she was doing – her business, left everything and came to Lagos, at least to have a feeling that she was close to where I was staying. And she was there going up and down from one prayer house to another, from one contact to another just to make sure that her husband was released. There are few women who would do that. So, I value that, I appreciate that. She is a wife worth having, she gives me joy.