Chief Uchenna Okoli is a chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). In this interview with The Nigerian Xpress, the international business tycoon took a critical look at the security situation in the country and declared that if something very urgent is not done without delay, “no one is safe anymore in Nigeria.” He spoke with Razaq Bamidele.
You predicted that if Professor Charles Soludo was fielded for Anambra governorship election by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), he would win the state for the party. How do you feel now when your prediction has come to pass?
I feel great because I was sure Soludo was the only person that could salvage Anambra State and he is doing so right now. But the problem, as I predicted too, is that people would not give him time to do what he would want to do. And truly, right now, a lot of people are not happy. They want him to perform a miracle overnight. They are to be reminded that Rome was not built in a day. So, he cannot perform a miracle. He met what he never expected when he assumed office.
What do you mean?
Insecurity is the worst challenge he is facing and no meaningful development can occur in Anambra State and even in any country of the world in such a situation. As a matter of fact, with insecurity, nothing tangible could be done. But interestingly, he is tackling it. He is doing a lot of things simultaneously. As he is facing education, he is also facing health, as well as infrastructure and other projects. He is doing a lot, but ironically, you cannot see it now.
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And we have to tell the people that, especially those who are not in the management line because we in the management line understand what is happening now. To us, it is never strange or out of place. But other people expect a miracle, which can never happen.
What advice can you then give the people of the state?
I will advise the people to be patient because to develop a city or town is difficult and not easy, not to talk of a whole state or a country. So, they should give him time to operate and I can assure you, what he is doing now, it will take up to eight or ten years to be properly visible. But within the next two or three years, people will start to see the positive signs of what he is doing now. He is continuing from where the immediate past governor, Obiano, stopped and he is building a more solid foundation than what Obiano did.
Are you disappointed with the way the situation is now in the state?
I am not disappointed with what he is doing right now because the security situation is getting better right now. People have started to move around and hoodlums are being dislodged in the bush. As far as it is now, the security situation is getting better and very soon, we will start to see the manifestation of his efforts.
He is conscious of the fact that the role of infrastructure in the growth and development of any country can never be overemphasised and he is doing just that. I can see things will be better as time goes on.
Are you comfortable with the Monday ‘sit-at-home’ in the South-east?
I was one of the people that condemned the idea at the initial stage. The idea was from those who organised the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, with a view to finding a better life for Biafra. The question then is, if truly you are fighting for a better life for Biafra, a land flowing with milk and honey that people would enjoy to no end, then why are you disturbing and killing the very people you want to protect? Don’t they know that the sit-at-home order is killing the economy of the region?
It has become a situation whereby people are working five days a week instead of six days a week. And you still have to pay them. So, definitely, they are creating disadvantages in the face of competition. I, as a person, if I want to base in Nigeria now, I will never go to Anambra. Why? Because the workforce in Anambra can only work for only five days a week instead of six days in other neighbouring states, towns or in Lagos. So, I would prefer to invest in Lagos.
They are killing the economy and Soludo knows its effect on his people. Right now, the thing has been hijacked by people based on their personal interests rather than the collective interest of the people. And sadly, it appears it would be difficult to stop. However, I am optimistic things will soon get back to normal.
What is your impression of the presidential aspiration of the former Governor of Anambra State, MrPeter Obi?
I wish him the best of luck. He, however, should not govern Nigeria the way and manner he governed Anambra State because there is a big difference between a state and a whole country. There is a world of difference between being a governor and being a president. He must change his style when he eventually becomes the president. I wish him good luck.
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Again, he must not put the people who put us in this mess in power because if we continue to keep them in power, we will never come out of the mess forever. However, considering what we have now, Peter Obi is the best.
Is his platform, Labour Party (LP), sufficiently popular to see him through?
Well, it is not. But as of today, Peter Obi has made it popular. Even with that, he still needs more money than any other candidate to make the party more popular with the grassroots so he can have a formidable structure before the 2023 general election. In addition to that, if the youth of this country are sincere and support Obi, then he has the potential to win the 2023 presidential election and thereby become the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria after President Muhammadu Buhari.
Nevertheless, what would happen is that the moneybags will dislodge and confuse the youth and thereby destroy Peter Obi’s campaign team. Right now, Peter Obi cannot match Abubakar Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in terms of financing the campaign. Even if Tinubu cannot raise all the funds needed, he can get support from other rich people and friends and from states that are under the control of the APC. The same applies to Atiku Abubakar. But, if I may ask, what state can Peter Obi get money from? He will have to count on individuals like us to support him financially. Yes, he has money, but he does not have the kind of money to run for the presidency. I don’t think so, but he can bank on some of us and we will see what will happen.
Why is it that the South-east is not making headway in terms of gunning for the presidency?
Well, we are dealing with people that have more plans. We in the South-east are open-minded and we take Nigeria as our home. But we are dealing with people that believe they own Nigeria. We are dealing with people who don’t like you, people that hate you and are afraid of you because of your success.
So, in this situation, they will be planting discord within us so we don’t trust one another; we cannot believe in one another. So, from there, hatred, mutual suspicion, and jealousy would set in. That is what we are battling with now that is militating against our cohesion! But I know, maybe, our leaders would put their heads together soon and do the needful.
You see, right now, APGA is the real party in Anambra State and there is an inherent danger if we support Labour Party (LP). That may be used as an opportunity to destroy APGA. That is my fear. So, I will need to call on the National Chairman of the APGA to think about what we can do. Obi is becoming popular because we want an Igbo president not because of any other consideration.
The inherent danger, I mean, is in the sense that since a greater percentage of the voters are illiterate, telling them to vote for a particular party during a particular election, they may end up voting for the same party throughout and thereby kill the APGA totally at the end of the day. For example, if the people are asked to vote for APGA senatorial candidate, and Labour for House of Assembly and APC House of Representatives candidate, the electorate may not bother to start searching for the different logos.
Rather, they may just settle for the first symbol they are familiar with and replicate it all through. If that happens, and different party besides APGA dominates the state House of Assembly, tendencies to impeach the APGA governor would be imminent and a puppet installed as governor. That is the implication I am talking about.
Do you believe in the unity of Nigeria?
Of course, I do because that is the best way to go. Nigeria should not divide now. Look at Israel; Israel is suffering now because of their size and number. But Israel is quite different because they started fighting for freedom since they were very young. Now they are patriotic, even more patriotic than Nigeria. They are not like a country where people would destroy the road so that they can waylay the motorists with the aim of extorting money from them. That is crazy. If you divide such a country, they would destroy one another.
What happened in Southern Sudan? Up till date, they are still fighting. So, I urge everybody, irrespective of what has happened, we know that Igbo have been marginalized; we know that they don’t care about the Igbo because they hate the Igbo, but let us not divide this country. It will not do anybody any good, financially, politically, economically and so on. God help us.
Do you have any piece of advice for Soludo to succeed?
He should continue to do what he intends to do to make Anambra better. However, he should be careful because people sometimes detest change being the human beings that they are. An adage says you cannot teach an old dog a new trick. So, if you want to change, don’t do it with fiat. You have to do it in gradual phases. Although I would not have done some things he is doing now the way he is doing it but I know that he knows better.
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The way he handled the issue of the Agberos vis a vis the revenue collection. He stopped them from revenue collection immediately he assumed office. What he did was nice. If I were Soludo, I would not have done that. I would have delayed the operation till six or eight months into my administration. Reason? He needs to settle down and fashion out the modality to do it neatly.
You cannot stop people like that; they can fight back. He should remember he is dealing with illiterate people. He is dealing with crazy people. To those he announced, it is dangerous for them. That is why I feel he should have done it gradually. And it is affecting him now because the revenue being generated is nothing to write home about. And there is no money. But I trust him, with patience and support, within six or eight months, he will be able to turn things around.
In your mind, are you comfortable and confident about the 2023 election?
You just have to see the handwriting on the wall. This is the country that seems punishing the good ones and rewarding the bad ones. Certain things are unimaginable. How can you imagine hoodlums on 40 or 50 bikes go to the heart of the capital city to release prisoners? Don’t we have searchlights? Don’t we have security system? Don’t we see it coming?
And they did not come through the air. They came through the road. Where is our intelligence gathering system? As we are doing, the civilised countries are looking at us; they will not come in to tell us, hello Mr. man, you are doing this or planning that. They would just look at us and be laughing at us. By that, they, may be of the strong conviction that government is aiding and abetting them or maybe the government doesn’t have the capacity to check them.
Either way, they know whether we have the capacity or not. But they have reached the conclusion on whether the government is aiding and abetting them or that the government lacks the capacity to curtail them. If just 40 people could do what they did in Kuje, in the country’s capital city where the president resides, not even in a local government, and nothing happened to them, I am afraid.
Afraid of what; are you insinuating Afghanistan scenario?
I don’t want to say it. But I know it is a good question. So, think it out the answer yourself. If 40 to 50 cyclists could do that in the heart of the country successfully, if they were up to 200, they could do it in the whole of the country successfully. And I think it is high time we started punishing people.
If you are a security personnel, and you are told to man a certain area, and you were sleeping when the area was being raided and you ran away, the punishment for AWOL should be applied in that instance. What happened to the security personnel around that raided prison in Kuje? Are they going to go scot-free? They should be in jail. The Minister of Interior must resign.
He should face charges and be detained. All the security personnel in charge of that raided area should be arrested and asked questions. If we don’t do that, we are in trouble. Let us think about it, how many prison yards have been invaded now? Not one, not two! Are we going to brush this one aside? Reason this thing is happening is that nothing has been happening to the perpetrators since the first and the subsequent ones. And if nothing is done on this one, I am afraid for the safety of our dear President. God forbid bad thing. And in that case, no one is safe anymore in this country.
