New Telegraph

My desire is to lead Anambra to greatness –Ozigbo

Immediate past President, Group CEO of Transcorp Plc and former banker, Valentine Ozigbo, who’s aspiring to fly the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party in the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State, looks at the numerous leadership challenges facing the black man and talks about his desire to govern his state in this interview with ECHEZONA OKAFO

 

What informed your decision to attempt to become number one citizen of Anambra State?

 

My intention is not to become number one citizen of Anambra State. My driving force and principle is to serve.

 

My desire is to lead Anambra into greatness. I don’t care whether I am the least in the state; my concern is, as governor of the state, to take our state to the next level. I want to use Anambra State to give example of what good governance supposed to be; to use Anambra to demonstrate how we can change the story of a black man.

 

I want to inspire professionals into politics; I want to inspire Igbo people, using Anambra as a starting point; to prove that the energy, wisdom, zeal and other potentials with which God endowed them could be used for good and positive things. I’ve been in discussions where we told the story of black people, where we often wonder if anything is wrong with the blacks.

 

Why are Africans the way they are? Why I use Africa as a case study is that in South Africa, for instance, during the reign of the colonial masters, the country was doing well; but immediately after independence, and the blacks started ruling themselves, everything collapsed.

 

So, we begin to ask the question whether we are cursed or we are the cause. We behave as if to say that we are cursed. So, one begins to ask, is this how God made us to be; to be second class or third class citizens of the world and unable to uplift ourselves?

 

When you want to adduce answers to these questions, you find out that we give a lot of funny excuses as reasons behind our story of woes. See, just to restructure Nigeria, and we are having debates.

 

How stupid are we? Restructuring should be happening on yearly basis. If a particular thing is not working well, we should figure out how to improve them.

 

Summarily, I am into the governorship of Anambra State because, I not comfortable with the status quo. We are actually more blessed than most people that are seemingly better than we are. It is only that we failed to get certain things right.

 

How can we get it right?

 

First among them is the ability to entrench competency in leadership. If we knew how to recruit properly; if we knew how to insist on competence, and make it impossible for the incompetent person to emerge as our leader, just like China, where it is not practicable for incompetent person to emerge as leader. In our own case, most often, we have the most incompetent emerging as our leaders.

 

This is what I can see. We cannot be talking about the Nigerian Civil War. Japan fought the Second World War, and within 10 years, it emerged as one of the largest economies of the world. So, there is absolutely no excuse to give. All that we need to do is to join hands to enthrone competency in all strata of leadership. As Anambra people, it behooves on us    rule the state again. There are things we can do to change the status quo.

 

This is the main reason I am in this race; because, I believe that with competency in leadership across board, the right culture, I will lead Anambra to that glory it has been yearning for.

 

It is believed generally that anybody seeking political position, such as the governorship position, is going there to make money. Do you have a contrary view?

 

It is only true to the extent that we sacrifice competence and integrity on the altar of mediocrity and incompetence. Personally, I am here to change the story for good. I am not into politics to make money.

 

As a matter of fact, I will be a richer person focusing on what I’ve been doing than being in the political office. So, the least in my consideration is money; the next is fame; because, I’ve got all these. Looking at the past governors, I don’t think any of them is richer than me.

 

None is happier than me, and none sleeps better than I do. What inspire me are t h e great things some of them did. During the time of Nnamdi Azikiwe as premiers the South- East was considered as the fastest growing economy.

 

How do we go back to the good old days? That has been my inspiration and driving force; those are my dreams; not money and fame. So, I am not here for money. Majority may be; b u t some are not – and I am one of them.

 

I am here to change the system and to change the story, so that son of nobody can become somebody. In Anambra today, people who throw money about in order to be elected into political offices are most likely going there to make money.

 

They are the least people Abambra electorate would likely entrust power on, because, Anambra people are about the most successful people in the country, so, you cannot cajole them with money.

 

Therefore, Anambra people are not looking for people to lord over them; but people who will synergize with them to improve the face of the state. We are not here for money or for the fame; but for the legacy that we have to entrench.

 

You were honoured by CNN as one of the highest promoters of freestyle football. As you go into governance, what is your blueprint for sports generally?

 

It speaks on the point I made earlier about my fate in the younger generation. I want to leverage in their energies, because, energy is very important. Two ways of leveraging into the energy I am talking about are sports and entertainment. Freestyle football is a summation of both sports and entertainment.

 

In 2017, I was washing something on my phone, when I saw young people juggling with football all over their bodies. I said to myself, I would invest in this, because, our people can do it, and it is a way of getting our boys off the street. I had to research about it on the internet and found out it has been existing in other continents, but nothing to show for it in Africa.

 

A few who were doing it in Africa did it on their own, as they had no platform in Africa. Right there, I called J.J Okocha, met with him and discussed how we can partner   with the world body to promote it in our area. He gave a stringent condition; so, I had to contact Kanu Nwankwo and a number of others.

 

I later contacted the person, who is supposed to be in charge of Freestyle football. I told him I wanted to organise Nigerian championship in 2017. We met in London, signed the contract, and in September, we organised the event. Participants went home with huge prizes.

 

The championship we organised broke world record by all standards, according to the world body. In 2018, we organised African championship with participation of 12 countries. We also extended the record breaking. In 2019, we also organised it with 32 countries participating. In 2020, we could not organise it because of COVID-19.

 

So, CCN recognised us because, on their own, they approached me and said they wanted to showcase what we did because they were remarkable. So, as we go into government in Anambra State, we want to break the grounds; we want to set new records; we wants to harness the potentials of our young ones in sports.

 

So that they will engage themselves actively, entertain themselves doing so, and make money doing so. Anambra will be the entertainment hub. We want to use Anambra to set example of what good governance should be in all spheres of life.

 

Water Corporation in Anambra is almost dead. How do you intend to revise it if elected governor?

 

When I will unveil my manifesto, you will find out that we are devoting much energy in giving safe water supply and good environment to our people.

 

The truth is that you will hardly get a good and healthy urban city without functional water system. It is a big shame that this has eluded us. If elected governor, I will be forming the right partnership to fix the water coporation. So, it will be the focal point of our agenda.

 

At the start, we are going to devote a chunk of our budget to water. We shall also partner with development financial institutions to get it properly done.

 

So, that the resources we don’t have as government will be complemented by the development financial institutions. I am happy that I have what it takes to bring people together to get things done

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