2023: WHY I DECLARED FOR PRESIDENCY –ANYIM

Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, former President of the Nigerian Senate and Secretary to the Government of the Federation under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan took the nation by surprise when he announced that he would run for the presidency in 2023. He spoke to STEVE  NWOSU and AKANI ALAKA on his presidential ambition, the arguments for zoning of 2023 presidency to the South, the state of Nigeria and the politics of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party among other issues.

 

With the announcement of your presidential ambition, you have thrown your hat into the ring. Don’t you think it is too early for you to declare as the powers that be may come after you? Are you prepared for that challenge?

Well, this country belongs to all of us and we won’t be afraid of what anybody will do and not step up to do what we are supposed to do. The challenges will certainly come and they will come in different dimensions, but that shouldn’t be the reason for us not to step out. On the issue of being early or not – well, you may be right. But I think that the PDP Convention sparks off the new political season. So, I thought that at the time we came up with our national convention, that the interested people should be able to step up and say we are warming up for the next season. That’s what we have done. So, whatever challenges that come on the way, we will face them.

Your announcement that you will run for the presidency was made the same day the PDP was holding its national convention, is that deliberate?

It was, but that is not the time I started to nurse the aspiration. Sometime early last year, my posters were all over the internet and I issued a press release disclaiming the posters. I said I did not authorize them and that was true because it was too early into the life of the new administration to distract them with campaigns for a new tenure.  So, I think the time I stepped to the plate is due time. It is the appropriate time to declare that intention.

You are also defiant about it, you insist that you will make a bid for the presidential ticket of PDP whether the party decided to zone the position to the Southern part of the country or not?

I’m not sure it is a matter of being defiant. It is a matter of being clear about my decision to run. I wanted to be very clear that I am prepared to run, whatever be the situation. One, if it is for zoning, the only fair thing to do is to zone to the South, and if you like, even South-east. So, anything outside that, concerning zoning, is not fair. I believe that if it is zoned, it favours me. If it is not zoned as other aspirants have declared that it should not be zoned – that it should be left open, that’s okay. I will still run.

You said the fair thing to do is to zone the presidency to the South-east in the 2023 presidential election. Why?

For purposes of equity – we have all recognized the fact of federal character. So, the South-easterners are saying; look, this thing has to go round. We are also part of Nigeria and we should be part of it, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Why do you want to govern Nigeria?

I have followed the political processes in the country. I have played active roles and I believe that most Nigerians know me very well. I believe that with my very deep knowledge of the country, I will be able to run an inclusive government that will build consensus, restore peace, refocus Nigeria and make the country a place that all of us will be proud of. So, I believe that the challenges of today are a matter of leadership and I will provide that leadership. I will give every segment of this country comfort. I will provide a leadership that will understand how to weave our diversities into an asset. I think that management of our diversities is central to the success of the country and I have interacted with various segments of the country. I have participated in running a government that affected every part of the country and I know the needs of our diverse groups and I know how to put them together and do a policy thrust that will build a Nigeria of our dream.

Given what happened at the PDP Convention, the belief is that the governors have successfully captured the party. Do you have their support?

Well, I don’t know what you mean by capture. All I know is that the convention was unique in many ways, to the effect that by the time we got to the venue, we had only two positions that were to be competed for – that is the National Youth Leader and the Deputy National Chairman, South. All others had been resolved by consensus. That’s the benefit of zoning – that was possible because the party offices were zoned. So, people now recline to their respective zones and decide among themselves who to put up. So, I think you should rather look at the advantages of zoning rather than whatever you think could be the reason for the success of the convention. So, if it was with the unity of the governors that we were able to build such consensus, then, it is not that they have hijacked or taken over the party. Whatever generated that consensus is good for the party. So, we should congratulate the governors and give them credit for it.

You want to lead Nigeria, if you are elected now, what do you think is the most pressing problem that you will tackle – the first thing?

Nigerians need to be safe. Our young men and women need to have gainful employment to earn a decent living. We need to reunite the country. The country has never been this divided before. People need to have a stake in the country and have pride in being citizens of Nigeria. These three things for me, are the most critical challenges that must be resolved as a matter of urgency.

How do you go about uniting Nigerians because as you have also acknowledged, Nigerians have never been as divided as they are today? How would you do that?

Well, I will not share in your pessimism, maybe because your idea of Nigeria may not be exactly mine. But I can say that I have been a central player in the affairs of Nigeria in the last two decades and I understand what the challenges are. It is a matter of purposeful leadership and we will have a new direction.

Where do you stand on the issue of restructuring – because some leading Nigerians are even saying that it is futile going to contest the presidency like you are trying to do, without the country being restructured?

Restructuring is understood by different people from their perspectives because, except we were clear on what we mean by restructuring, it will be difficult to pigeonhole what you want to be in my position. And one, if you talk of restructuring, every society restructures – that is the reason why laws are amended to conform to new realities. That’s the reason why adjustments are made. Restructuring for me means that there are new realities. Adjust the system to accommodate them. Take, for instance, the problem of unemployment we are having today. The type of employment you talked about 10 years ago is not the type you will be talking about today. You need to accommodate new realities to capture the mood of the moment. For me, that is restructuring. So, if you take restructuring from this perspective, anybody talking about restructuring is not saying anything new. There is just nothing new. But one thing I agree with is that our population was about 45 million in 1960, but it is now 200 million. We now have many jobless young people. It was not so in the 70s, even in the early 80s. We now have economic challenges contrary to the boom era of the 70s. So, do you think you can continue in the same arrangement without accommodating the new realities? No. But it is not just the way people talk about it. I believe that, yes, circumstances have changed, the society has grown, that we need to work out, by consensus, what works, to capture the new realities. But I don’t see why the political progress of the country should come to a stop because of that. There should rather be a policy – look, we need to capture these realities that have arisen. But it is not that the political process should stop so that you will do this because of that. No, it doesn’t work like that.

It’s like the PDP is in a pole position to take over power in the next general election, but the party seems to be its enemy with the internal wrangling and crises within the party. True, you may have resolved some of that with your last convention, but how ready would you say the PDP is to take over power from the APC?

I know that before the convention, APC believed that it would be the end of PDP, They never believed that PDP would survive that convention. They were very confident that PDP would degenerate into factions from that convention. But they were disappointed. So, I can tell you that if you are talking of readiness, that PDP Convention should give you a sign that the internal wranglings in PDP, that anybody may think about, are not there. The issue is that you now have young men and women in PDP who have risen to the challenge of the moment, are very focused and have resolved that we must get it right because our country is sinking. We must get it right to return to power, and why do I think that we should return to get it right? APC is looking for us now to return. To join the APC. Of course, you know that whenever any PDP member joins them, it is such a celebrated affair for them. Even, the former President (Goodluck Jonathan) that has not joined them, they are mounting pressures on him to come and join them. If I join APC today, they will celebrate it. If the former president, Goodluck Jonathan joins APC today, they will celebrate it to the moon. When my state governor, Dave Umahi, joined them, they celebrated it. When the former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, the spokesman of the last PDP presidential campaign, joined them, they celebrated it and a whole lot of other people. That means they understand that we, the PDP, have what it takes to redeem the country. I don’t even need to say more. But the fact is that APC has now recognized that PDP people are very, very knowledgeable, very, very prepared and in fact, are in a position to redeem the country. So, why shouldn’t we wake up and answer this call from the opposition? APGA recently won the Anambra governorship election. States make up the nation. So, the beating has started and the beating will continue. APC will continue to lose elections because on what basis will they continue to be in power? Why would Nigerians reward them with another mandate in 2023? I am pleased that the APC lost the election, even though the PDP didn’t win. But I am more elated that the APC lost.

But isn’t that a plot to bring vibrant PDP members into the APC and render them useless, so that APC will continue to rule?

Not at all.

The Governor of your own home state, Ebonyi, also defected to APC from PDP. How strong would you say the PDP is in Ebonyi now after he defected?

Well, I don’t really like discussing my governor because my aspiration is not based in Ebonyi. But importantly, my governor defected, I did not defect, the three senators did not defect, five members of the House of Representatives did not defect, no former minister defected. Virtually all the leaders in Ebonyi did not defect. So, for God’s sake, if democracy is a game of numbers, I would simply say my governor moved, but the people did not move.

There seems to be this characteristic shifting of the goal post for the South-east in the bid for the presidency – some are saying the South-east has to negotiate, the problem of insecurity, calls for secession and so on, makes it impossible to ‘reward’ the zone with the presidency. Do you think the other parts of the country are heaping so much on the South-east because of this bid for the presidency?

Nobody dashes leadership. So, the rest of the country would not simply fold their hands, come together and say: “We are waiting for the South-east to come and take presidency”. No. You need to campaign to them, gain their confidence, and gain their comfort. A president from the South-east is not going to be a President for the South-east. He is going to be the president for Nigeria. So, as long as you want to be the president, you have to earn the confidence of other members of the country. And that’s understandable because when you become president, whatever you do affects them. And that is what I’m currently doing. Luckily, I believe, my candidacy is accepted across the country because I am not just waking up from sleep to say I want to be president of Nigeria.

Nigerians across all spectrum know what I stand for. They know what I represent. Coming from my past records in the Senate and as SGF, I think most Nigerians have come to appreciate the kind of leadership I can provide. And I can tell you with every sense of humility that before I became Senate President, the Senate was in trouble and the simple solution I deployed was inclusive administration and the whole place calmed down. Looking back, I am proud to say that I ran a Senate where nobody cared about where you come from or which faith you profess. Whatever was due to you, you got it without any extra effort and everybody had the confidence in us. The consequence was that people focused on their job and we were productive.

So, I don’t think it is a matter of changing the goal post; it is a matter of aspirants from the South-east stepping up to reach out to other parts of the country and even other leaders from the South-east stepping up to reach out to others leaders from the other parts of the country so that they will have the confidence that they are looking forward to a Nigerian president, not a president for the South-east. We must underscore that fact. The president we are looking for is a president of Nigeria, not a president for the South-east.

You don’t agree that the standard the rest of the country set for the South-east to produce the president is unfairly high…

I don’t think we should be worried about what people said and what people did not say because, eventually, the candidates that will contest the election are the candidates put forward by their parties. It is certainly the parties that will bring up the candidates; it is not what somebody says somewhere. And by the time the two major political parties put up their candidates, that’s when the people will have choices to make and the choices will be restricted to those candidates. Take, for instance, the issue of rotation, it is not in the national constitution, but it is in the PDP constitution. So, when the parties have applied their internal mechanisms to throw up a candidate, then, that’s the option that people will have. So, I am not sure you should be worried about somebody setting a standard or not setting a standard. The truth of the matter is that as of today in the PDP where I belong, we have not zoned elective offices, we have zoned party offices and people have been elected or produced by consensus. So, when we get to the bridge, we will still apply the same internal mechanism of the party to arrive at where we are picking our candidate from. So, I am not sure that you should be worried about any standard anybody is setting. But I want to believe that in my party, they are not doing anything unusual.

If the PDP presidential ticket is zoned to the North and you still insist on contesting, wouldn’t that be counted as an anti-party activity?

What would be the basis for that? But that is not the issue. Let the party apply their wisdom. I am from the South-east but because, first, I am a Nigerian politician who has been in government. I understand what the problems are and so can find solutions to them. I’m also home in every part of the country – North, East, West and South. I think for 2023, the focus for Nigerians should be on who can reposition the country and build consensus and heal the wounds because if zoning promotes mediocrity, it will certainly not help the nation. But that is not to say that when you zone, you won’t get competent people from wherever you zone to. The first issue to resolve and agree on is competence, capacity and capability to run an effective government.                       

Some southern members of your party, like Chief Raymond Dokpesi, are saying that if you look at PDP, a Northern presidential candidate has only ruled on the platform of the party for about two years when we have the late Umaru Yar’Adua. They are advocating that the PDP presidential ticket should go to the North…

Let him go and say it to the party. It is the party’s internal mechanisms that will produce candidates and I don’t want to be distracted by what people say on the sidelines. I am a party man and I want to wait on the party to take their decision in their wisdom.

What is your position on the insecurity and agitations in the South-east, especially as it relates to your presidential aspirations?

I have said that no part of Nigeria is safe. So, if nobody should be the president from the South-east because of insecurity, nobody should be the president from the other parts of the country. My emphasis is that the security of lives and property is the responsibility of the government.

So, would you say the Buhari government has failed concerning security?

Your judgment will be as good as mine, whatever you think.

What is your take on this seeming determination of the current government not to allow young people to express themselves, especially as you were part of the Jonathan administration that contended with so many demonstrators, including hoisting a coffin with the president’s name on it?

The questions you are asking, you have answered. In the government I served, we tolerated protests, people were at liberty to protest and they even overdid that. Now, this government has no tolerance for protests, why should I give you an answer for that? Go and ask them now.

READ ALSO: PDP: Zoning or not, I’ll run for President in 2023 – Anyim

 

What are your greatest fears about Nigeria?

Honestly, I don’t have too much fear about Nigeria because I think the problem we have is simply the problem of leadership. Once you get the problem of leadership right, things will turn around. The potentials here are too huge; there is no matter for worry. What we have now are temporary setbacks. I am optimistic because the challenges that Nigeria faces all boil down to leadership. We have had several governments – military and civilian. In this dispensation, we have had Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan and now we have President Buhari. Compare all of them and you will find out that the problem is leadership. Nigeria was not as bad as it is today under Obasanjo. Nigeria was not as bad as it is today under Goodluck (Jonathan). Obasanjo had armed militancy on his hands and he decided to negotiate with them. And where he stopped, President Yar’Adua continued with amnesty. And the problem was resolved to the point that today, even an effort to reignite the insurgency by another group was rebuffed by the same militants. It couldn’t work. Now, the other person has a different approach and the situation is as it is today. So, the problem is leadership and once that leadership is improved upon, then we have little or no problem.

Are Ndigbo now set to speak with one voice and be united over the choice of candidate for president? 

No region or ethnic group in Nigeria has ever spoken with one voice on this matter. And, despite it, they have still gone on to produce a President for Nigeria. The South-east should not be asked for the impossible.

Moreover, as I’ve always maintained, it’s not a region or an ethnic group that brings forth candidates for an election. It is a political party. They use primary elections to weed the aspirants and produce a candidate.

Let’s not transfer that responsibility to the regions or ethnic groups.

If political awareness is so high among the South-east that so many people express interest in being president, that shouldn’t count against the zone and its people.

What is the corruption case against you at the EFCC?    

As of today, I do not have any charge in any court of law for any crime whatsoever. So, if people are throwing mud because they think I’m a formidable opponent, or that I have prospects, there’s not much I can do to stop them.

Yes, I went to the EFCC, but of my own volition. I have no criminal charge, I have no corruption charge whatsoever against me anywhere in the world. And I was not arrested by EFCC.

How do you react to the allegation that you’re positioning for the vice presidency, and not President?

I am going for the presidency and not a vice. I am quite clear about what I want. If I fail to get it, I’ll go back home to my family and business. And I’ll remain the party man I’ve always been.