By Petrus Obi
As far as Professor ABC Nwosu, former minister, Chief Electoral Officer and Secretary of the National Electoral Committee (NEC) of the Ohaneze Ndi Igbo General Elections 2017 is concerned, the recent election held by the Igbo apex body cannot be faulted.
For him, the return of the governors is also laudable just as he praised the calibre of persons elected to run the affairs of the Igbo body for the next four years. He speaks on various issues
Some are of the view that Ohaneze Ndi Igbo has been hijacked by some governors of the South East states. What do you think this portends for the Igbo nation?
Ohaneze Ndi Igbo has not been hijacked by the governors. What happened yesterday during the election was what we have been looking for and have not had for a long time. The governors only showed healthy interest in Ohaneze so that it will not be in conflict with the people without compromising the independence of Ohaneze and without making the governors not to make decisions as representatives of the people. Because of the way the President General has emerged, no rational being will say that Nwodo was the candidate of the governor but the candidate of Enugu people just like the way Governor Ugwuanyi was the candidate of Enugu people and got elected. The same process of zoning and consensus of Enugu people that produced the governor, with the best of my knowledge, also produced the President-General of Ohaneze. When it is zoned, the people call a meeting to choose who will go for them. The National Election Committee (NEC) applied Ohaneze’s constitution and five people bought the form at half a million naira.
One of them dropped because he did not show up for the screening and elections even though he bought the form. It would be wrong for people who lost in the election to claim that it was hijacked and I will challenge them anywhere. What does it portend for the Igbo nation? Ohaneze should be seen as the Board of Trustees in the conscience of the Igbo nation while the governors are the implementers of the wishes and directions that the Igbo nation wishes to go. Ohaneze cannot implement anything. So they lose nothing by having a buy-in with the governors. What is expected now is for Ohaneze to have a clear vision and it can be rest assured that the governors of the Igbo nation irrespective of their political affiliations know where politics ends and the interests of Ndi Igbo begin. I am alarmed to hear that the 17 elected members sworn in yesterday(January 11) comprised of governors’ candidates. The certificate of return for example included DIG Hilary Opara, and if anybody wanted him not to emerge, he would not have emerged. And if he finally emerged no matter what, it shows that he had a free hand during the process. From Anambra State for the first time in Ohaneze, you have a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) as legal adviser and you have a former Deputy Governor as Deputy Vice President who is an established surgeon. You saw the keenness and the quality of the delegation from Delta and Rivers that are not core Igbo states. The contest for the Secretary-General from Rivers was a very keen contest. Yes, I helped in persuading a candidate to step down because he is in the employ of the Federal Government. How can he protect the interest of the Federal Government and the Igbo nation when the two are in conflict? There will surely be a conflict of interest and that was why. He remains my friend and I give him all the compliments because he said to me “Sir, if you ask me not to contest, I will not contest”. At the screening, (which I was a member of), he was asked if what Ohaneze wants to do comes in conflict with that of the Federal Government and could lead to his sack, how will he handle it? And I said that he should not answer it, he should not. To me, it is a very serious question. So, I just wanted you to know that there is no hijack, that’s all. He cannot protect the interest of the Igbo people because he works for the Federal Government.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently visited Enugu State during the South East economic and security summit canvassing for Igbo unity. What do you make out of that visit?
I served President Obasanjo and I hold him in high esteem. But he should not come here to prescribe to us what we should do. I have never seen Dr Alex Ekwueme or anybody going to the West to tell the Yoruba nation what to do. Let us remember that it was Achebe who said that it was their aim to convert the Igbo people and geography into a fiefdom that made him reject the national honors that was given to him by the Federal Government and I stand with Achebe on that. I will always go with Professor Achebe’s stand. And if you recall, I didn’t attend the summit, because if you look at the programmes, I was the Chairman of a session. I can never be part of an event that was facilitated from outside Igbo land. Never!
One major issue which has been consistently raised is our inability to speak with one voice. Do you think that this impression will be corrected with the election of the present Ohaneze leadership?
Those who know John Nnia Nwodo and all those elected yesterday(January 11) should have nothing but optimism that Ndigbo have got it right.
What do you think will be their direction?
It will be presumptuous of me to say this because I know Nnia Nwodo very well. Ndi Igbo can’t be more right in choosing him. Achebe once told us that why he does not talk much at meetings was that if others are saying the right thing and going in the directions they should go, why should he say anything? It is only when they are going wrong that he will say why don’t we try it this way or that way. We have had long association with him to know that he is the right candidate. Yesterday, he promised that he would run a consultative administration with the Igbo before taking any action. We wish him well and pray that all he consults will give him the right advice. He is qualified to lead Ndi Igbo in character, learning, pedigree and birth.
The elections have come and gone, you were the secretary of electoral committee and the Chief Electoral Officer and you were very pivotal during the election process, what was the major challenge you faced before and during the elections?
We faced financial challenges to fund and move the organization forward. We decided to raise funds through the sale of forms for the President-General at N500, 000 and other contestants paid. The Enugu candidates for President-General paid a total of N2.5 million and it helped in procuring electoral materials, securing the place and other logistics. It was a challenge which was never seen like this before. That was the major challenge. It was peaceful and nobody disrupted it and was rancour-free and it was like this in all the places we monitored during the state elections. The delegates from the states are those that were meant to come and as you can see from the screening and accreditation, there was no fighting and I have the list of all the delegates. All those that monitored the states gave their reports. The monitoring teams in different states are people of high integrity. The state’s accommodation was taken care of from these budgets. There was full accounting. The elections were run largely from that because we are not in a position to do appropriation because you cannot appropriate what you do not have. Col. Achuzia gave full account of Anambra, I gave full account for Enugu, and Onuoha gave full account for Abia and that was it. And because of this enthusiasm, the state delegation and welfare were being taken care of by their state Ohaneze.
We heard that Allison Madueke and Richard Ozobu are considering legal action…
I have not heard anything of such, but it is within the right of Madueke to take legal action where he thinks his rights have been infringed upon. I heard that he had audience with his state governor when he felt that the whole process was not going as planned and they had a lengthy discussion. I am not privileged to know what the discussion was all about. He was former governor of old Anambra State. He is Vice Admiral, equivalent to Major General and he is entitled to any constitutional step he may wish to pursue his position. We also set criteria in the election process. We did not exclude him from the process. He bought the form and paid. We left screening open long after the time has ended to leave him with the window to come for screening. The same thing applies to Richard Ozobu. I don’t want to infringe on a person’s right. He can seek redress. But he was also in the hall throughout the election from the beginning to the end. I saw him; he was sitting in the front row. My answer is that anybody is free to seek redress.
Source: Sun
