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Ogah: Lobby’ll guarantee presidency for S’East

Hon. Chinedu Ogah is the member representing Ikwo/Ezza South Federal Constituency of Ebonyi State in the House of Representatives. In this interview with UCHENNA INYA, he speaks on the clamour for a president of Igbo extraction, chances of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 general election and President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, among other issues

 

What is your impression on the agitation for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2023?

 

I want our people to understand that it is not about Igbo presidency, it is about the president of the country. I am supporting a south eastern person to be president and we are begging that the position should be zoned to the South this time around. When it is zoned to the South; the region will meet to zone it to where it has not gone to before.

 

So, it is not about Igbo presidency because we don’t have an Igbo president in the constitution. What we have is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

 

So, we should lobby other zones in order to have the South-East produce the next president because the five eastern states cannot win the position without the support of the other zones. We should be appealing to other states and zones to give the five eastern states a chance to produce the president of Nigeria and not an Igbo president.

 

When you project Igbo presidency to the North, they will say that what they are looking for is Igbo presidency and not the president of the country. They will then sabotage us. We should be talking about capable hands and if it is zoned to the South-East because we have capable hands that we can project for the position.

 

But for now, it is our duty to lobby that let the position be zoned to South and from South, we start lobbying that let it be zoned to South- East.

 

How would you access the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari?

Achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari are superb; he has done well in all the six geopolitical zones. In Agriculture, he has done perfectly well.

 

He has also done well in infrastructure. In human empowerment, he is the first president in the country to release social interventions funds, which is the highest since the inception of democracy in the country and he gives it to people at will, he gives it to the people he doesn’t even know as long as they are qualified to benefit from the intervention funds.

 

When you come to the South-East; despite that the President is a northerner, the zone has something to show under President Muhammadu Buhari than when Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was the president. We were hearing about construction of the 2nd Nigeria Bridge and reading it on the pages of newspapers but it is now a reality.

 

 

There is ongoing reconstruction of Onitsha-Enugu expressway, reconstruction of Enugu/Port- Harcourt road. We have seen that he has included the South- East in railway construction.

 

It is under President Buhari that the Enugu Airport is having a new look. The people of South-East, who were given appointments in his administration, should replicate what he is doing. They should do this in their various places. They should empower people and provide job opportunities.

 

It is only under his administration that you can see a lot of people employed in many agencies and parastatals. It was not like that before now and that is what we need in this country. What we owe him is total support and prayers. We get all our demands when we channel them properly, it is not by violence, it is not by force.

 

What is your assessment of Nigeria at 61?

 

Nigeria has done well to surmount all the challenges confronting it as a nation but we have to work more on the security of this country. There is much sabotage in the security system and it is happening because we have fake representatives.

 

We have people, who were not elected by the people; we have people who were elected in hotels. A situation, where a councilor or a council chairman, a village head cannot go to his village to control his people in the rural area is pure sabotage and unacceptable.

 

We should not be blaming security agents and the President of this country; we should allow people to freely elect their leaders. We need to allow the people to elect whoever they want. Have you seen how Borno is very volatile but you see the kind of ovation they give President Buhari each time he visits the state.

 

That is to show that Borno people voted for him. If he was not elected by them, they would have stoned him. The security system of this country calls for adoption of the direct primary option, where you allow the people to elect who they want.

 

Ebonyi State is 25, how do you see its journey so far?

 

We have enough to celebrate; the legacies of our governor, Engr. Dave Umahi speak for themselves. The problem we have in this is state is that so many of our leaders are fake and selfish. We have many praise singers.

 

Our governor has done well but I am advising him to look more on the health sector. He has done well in all ramifications and he has lifted embargo on employment to balance his performance.

 

When you talk about infrastructure, he is a grandmaster in that aspect. When people were speaking against the N10 billion he sought from the Federal Government to complete the ongoing construction of the International Airport he embarked on, I laughed because they are supposed to clap for the governor because it is an assistance he has secured from the Federal Government. What if he got a loan? But this one is a grant and assistance for the completion of the airport.

 

Some people have accused the governor of embarking on white elephant projects. What is your take on that?

 

That was the same thing they said during the administration of Chief Martin Elechi. When he embarked on the mega water scheme projects, they said he embarked on a white elephant project, when he was constructing bridges in all parts of the state, the same people said so.

 

The governor has critics because he is doing well, if he is not doing well, he will not have critics. But one thing is that he had remained focus and delivering democracy dividends to the people of the state. He is not distracted by what those critics are saying. It is when he completes his tenure that we will appreciate what he has done in this state.

 

How many times have those people changed their vehicle tyres because of bad roads? They are plying on good roads constructed by the governor.

 

The governor has reduced crime; no more burglary, kidnapping, armed robbery because of good security network. A lot of people have indicated interest to contest for the APC national chairmanship position.

 

What are those qualities you will like the person, who should be elected to possess? When the time comes, we will speak on that. The guideline for the national chairmanship position has not come out and I cannot speak on the issue until the guideline comes out. We have the constitution of the party and I cannot go against it

 

What are the chances of APC in Ebonyi State come 2023?

 

I laugh at people mentioning the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Let people stop making mockery of themselves. Most people who are in PDP don’t even have membership cards; they don’t even vote during elections.

 

APC is in charge in Ebonyi State and we are going to win all the polling units in the state in 2023.

 

Mark what I said; power belongs to the people and they will cast their votes to who they like and APC will make sure that they give tickets to people, who can win elections for the party, people who are the masses choice and not people whose election results will be written in a hotel.

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