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Why Ndigbo should produce president in 2023, by Nnachi

Dr. Onuoha Nnachi is a founding member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State and a senatorial aspirant of the party during the 2019 general election. In this interview, he speaks on the quest by the people of the South-East to produce Nigeria’s president in 2023 and Governor Dave Umahi’s defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) among other issues, UCHENNA INYA reports

What do you make of Governor Dave Umahi’s recent dumping of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling party at the national level – All Progressives Congress (APC)?

Yes, the governor left our party and joined the APC but as politicians, who are well connected to our people at the grassroots as well as great mobilizers, we have told our supporters where we stand and what we believe in. We don’t believe in eating from our mum’s pot and breaking the pot; that pot must be preserved and the pot is the PDP. For those who have decided to break the pot or abandon the pot, history will surely judge them and we believe in history and posterity. We have no other things to think about other than tomorrow exists. As a human being, when you do things, be conscious that tomorrow exists. As far as your heart tells you this, you will always be judgemental in whatever you do.

You are a close ally of the governor; why didn’t you defect with him?

It was his personal aspiration to move to APC; I am in love with PDP. As a matter of fact, I was in the room, where the party was formed in Ebonyi State in 1998. I remembered those who were also there; people like Okeagu Ogada, people like Udo Orji Okoro. In as much as I was very young at that time but I was in that room and I knew how the Chairman and the Secretary were selected and from that day till today, I have never changed other than to be a member of PDP because the party believes in the fundamentals of life. Nobody is perfect but we work towards perfection and PDP has been on that track towards that perfection. As a nation, we’ve had the option to see the APC and we can tell ourselves the truth. The simple truth is that there is no alternative to PDP in this country. If for any reason there is the need for a better alternative, definitely, I am a human being and I will be very glad to associate myself with success and good.

Governor Umahi said he defected to the APC because of the injustice PDP meted to the people of the South-East. What is your take on that?

He left the PDP because of his personal aspiration and personal aspiration can drive anybody to any point. So, it is personal aspiration, if he wanted and he feels that he wants to carry everybody, he needed that time to convince everybody. Nobody chased him away, he left for personal aspiration and I respect that. There is nothing wrong about it. We are all human beings, so we are free to choose our aspiration and this is our aspiration. I wish the Governor good luck in his aspiration, he is a friend. Party differences do not in any way negate friendship. I could still pick up my phone and call him and say ‘bros how far; how you dey?’ It doesn’t take anything but party differences must be respected and kept the way they are.

Ndigbo are clamouring to produce the country’s next president in 2023 but some people are of the view that the dream a president of Igbo extraction is not likely to materialize given the discordant tunes among the people of the South-East. What do you make of this assumption?

The quest for a president of Igbo extraction is unarguable a clamour by all right-minded individuals from the South- East geopolitical zone but the presidency is negotiated across various regions. It is how well we pull as a force and begin to make arguments, it is not a fight. You make an argument and give your reasons and if those reasons are acceptable, it will just come naturally. So, all we need to do is to prove why we want it; we have to establish it. The South- West proved their clamour for power in 1999 through the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO); through all the agitations; all they suffered from June 12, 1993 as they had a son who won the presidential election, which was, however, annulled by the military. That argument was sustained by the region and the region took that argument to all other regions of the country and everybody gave in. So, what are our reasons? We should be able to cast the reasons and they are enormous. Since the war ended, are they telling us that we are still second fiddles? If they are not telling us that, then give us a chance. It is an argument and you take it to the various blocs and convince them and they will say you know what, these people that we left with 20 pounds after the war, they have been able to grow the economy. You left them with 20 pounds and those that have billions lost it; if they can grow this economy to this point where they control the commerce, they can equally grow the economy of this country. So, can we give them a chance? It is an argument and I believe in such argument, not a very naïve, unprogressive abuse of people and all that, which makes you little before others. I have been on different platforms to speak about this, I believe in my principle. If the man that was left with 20 pounds can grow it to be billions, I see no reason why you cannot trust the economy in that person’s hand. Some were opportuned not to experience such economic situation and we left our nation in their hands. But rather than grow the economy, they squandered it.

Do you think PDP will give Ndigbo the opportunity to produce its presidential candidate for the 2023 election?

When the party gets to that bridge, it will surely cross it. It is a negotiable point.

What is PDP’s future in Ebonyi State without Governor Umahi?

We have not lost the state as far as I am concerned; we have not lost anything. The voting strength of the state still remains the strength of PDP; it is unshaken, it is unbeatable. On election day, no matter how powerful you are as governor or president, you will remain in your ward and local government. The ward will speak and we believe on that. In the last gubernatorial election, the people of my ward gave over 95 per cent of their votes to the PDP. I don’t want to talk about the entire Afikpo South Local Government. That is the voice of the ward and the ward will still speak when the time comes.

Some people and groups in the South-East say they will rather support the clamour for Biafra rather than the quest for a president of Igbo extraction in 2023; where do you stand on this?

For me, Biafra is an ideology and ideology has no boundary. If you really believe in Biafra, let’s create what I will describe as ‘Biafran economy.’ If our brothers and sisters stop siting their industries across other parts of the country and bring them to the South-East, we have created a ‘Biafran economy.’ Political Biafra has boundary but ‘Biafran economy’ has no boundary.

Recently, there were killings in some parts of the state. What do you think is responsible for that?

It’s a presidential issue; the President has failed the country on insecurity. I will keep saying that we have no president. I have counted seven executive orders issued by the President that have failed and security is part of it. It is a complete failure from the presidency; it is not a state issue because we know what causes insecurity. The economy factor causes insecurity. By February last year, the valuable of our naira to a dollar was N360, meaning that if I have N360 million, you can afford a million dollar. Today, to afford a million dollar, you need N480 million. You cannot survive on this type of economic situation. Our monetary policies have failed; our fiscal policies have failed because we put the wrong people in the right places.

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