Kalu Has Returned Abia To Mainstream Politics – Nwankwo

Comrade Ugochukwu Nwankwo is the Secretary General of Nigeria Youth Council (NYC) Abia State chapter. He speaks in his interview with STANLEY IHEDIGBO on governance in the state, the recent defection of former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu to All Progressive Congress (APC) and what it portends for Abia politics

What is your assessment to the present administration in Abia State?

People like us worked for the emergence of the present government in the state. Personally, I conveyed the forum of Abia State youth stakeholders that worked for Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, the current governor of the state. We saw him as a rising star because he gave us different stories about his life; that he got his PhD at age of 30, that he is from a humble background and has a godly wife. We trusted him and even spent our money to see that he won the governorship election.

But it was long that he derailed from everything we believed about him and what we are experiencing now is not what we foresaw about him. If I personally foresee it, I would not have spent my time and money for such government that has brought hardship to the people of the state.

For Abians, the governor has failed in his two years in office because a state like Abia should not be talking of nonpayment of salaries of civil servants for months. There were funds that came to the state purse that would offset salary issues, so that the administration will face pressing needs in the state, but the governor refused to make use of such funds to offset workers’ salaries.

The state has benefited from Mr. President’s magnanimity through the bailout fund and now we are beneficiaries of the recent Paris Club refund, which Abia State got N10.5 billion. These are windfall that was not budgeted for and should be used to cushion the effect of the backlog of salaries.

I don’t see any reason why people will work for months in the state and their wages would not be paid, and in some cases husbands and wives are civil servants in the state and only God knows how they are surviving.

The state recently conducted local government election in which the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won all seats. What is your take on the election?

We should not go there because some of people in PDP know that there was no local council election in the state. If the PDP’s primaries were a sham, then you will imagine what would have happened in the so called local council election. If the ruling party could not conduct a simple primary election, how can it conduct fair and free poll in the state.

What do you make of the recent defection of former Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)?

We are all students of history, and people seem to forget things so fast in this state. Some time ago, the governor I served under, Mr. Theodore Orji moved Abia State people from the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), even the great Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu came to Abia State to receive the governor to his party. But the former governor again moved from APGA to PDP and told us that he is moving Abia back to mainstream politics and national government.

Then, it was PDP, everybody in the state hailed Theodore Orji, but today APC is the party at the centre; is it not worthy for somebody to take Abia people to mainstream politics? If taking Abia people to national politics is a feat to be achieved, then the great leader in our state, Dr. Uzor Orji Kalu, has achieved it.

So, you are convinced that Kalu will take his numerous supporters and other Abians along despite PDP’s strong rooting in the state?

Those who want to go to APC with him are already there, so some people who are condemning his movement are on their own. If they want to stay in the PDP, he is not forcing anybody to go to APC with him and everybody will not be in one political party in the state.

Today, all the federal roads that were abandoned under the PDP-led federal government in Abia State are being done by President Muhammad Bahuri. Go to Imo, Akwa Ibom and other states, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is busy constructing roads and other infrastructure, but there is no any serious presence of NDDC in Abia State.

The question Abia people should ask is: What are our senators and House of Representatives members doing about NDDC’s abandonment of the state? We are an oil producing state, which made us a member of the NDDC, so the development that is going on in other states should be replicated in our state too. So, Kalu’s going to APC is a welcome development to the state, and Abians should celebrate it.

The legal tussle over the Abia State governorship is still lingering at the Supreme Court. What do you make of this development? Is it not a distraction to the governor?

The case between Dr. Uche Ogah and Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu is in God’s hand, and I don’t think He will allow Abians to continue suffer. We have lost faith in the administration and we believe that God will deliver us from the administration of Okezie Ikpeazu.

-NewTelegraph