2023: Why southeast should produce next president, by Ndu

The President of Peoples Movement for a New Nigeria (PMNN), Alhaji Yahaya Ndu spoke to ADAMU ABUH on why South East should produce next president, claiming that challenges facing the country cannot be solved by any individual presidential candidate but by all Nigerians.

What is your opinion about the clamour for power shift to the South?

I support power shift hundred percent, but I don’t understand or support what some people term power shift to the South. What I understand and support is power shift to the Southeast for a thousand reasons including equity, fairness and justice. Usman Dan Fodio warned that: “Society can live with unbelief but it cannot live with injustice.”

If we do the summary of how each geopolitical zone has produced president or military head of state since 1960 you will discover that by 2023, power would have changed hands 15 times and North West has ruled for six times (22 years or 34 per cent). North Central has ruled for three times (18 years or 28 percent). South West, three times (12 years or 19 per cent). South South, six years or 9 per cent. North East, 6 years (9 per cent) and Southeast has ruled only for six months or 1 per cent.
North West, North Central and South West are overfed, South South and North East are moderately fed, while the South East is grossly underfed and marginalised. They should get the next slot.
If other regions have managed Nigeria for 99 per cent of our 63 years of existence and the country is still beset with poverty, corruption, weak economy, nepotism and terrorism, it is time to try the South East. Fortunately, the South East has an abundance of leadership talent. By the way, I am a Muslim and my prayer is to live and die as a true Muslim. The Quran frowns on injustice at any level.
Now the South East have been restless for many years now, arising from the fact that many youths of the zone are angry because of marginalisation and injustice the zone has been suffering since 1970. Now those who are saying power shift to the South let them answer me, if southwest has not enjoyed more than its fair share of power. What kind of justice is that? Some candidates from the North say their mission is to unite Nigeria. Honestly, I find that most strange. Do they not realise that their aspiration is a serious act of further disunity of Nigeria. If they are serious about uniting the nation they should all work for and support power shift to the Southeast and nothing else.

Do you have a preferred presidential candidate and what are your reasons?
I am thinking of the four leading candidates and in my personal opinion, which I am entitled to, even though I recognise that I may be wrong, I am addressing my mind to Atiku Abubakar, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso. To be honest with you, Obi is not in any way my ideal presidential candidate but when compared to Atiku, Tinubu and Kwankwaso in the present day Nigeria where the Southeast is boiling and burning because of insecurity occasioned by extreme marginalization, I say without fear of contradiction that if I had a thousand times to vote, I will give all votes for Obi.
But permit me to add that my reason for rooting for Obi is not because he has answers to all challenges facing Nigeria. As a matter of fact, I don’t think that any of us has answer but that all of us have the answer. In other words, in my opinion, only a mass participatory and all inclusive governance machinery can take Nigeria out of the woods. My reason for opting to vote for Obi is to give the Southeast a sense of belonging in Nigeria. South-easterners are not slaves for goodness sake.
Secondly, at this time when the unity of Nigeria is so challenged, we must realise that of all the people of Nigeria, absolutely no group is as spread all over the country as the South-easterners. They are in a way the cement holding the country together.

Thirdly, no group in Nigeria has demonstrated love and patriotism for Nigeria more than the South easterners and no group believe in Nigeria more than the people of the Southeast. You find them in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria and wherever you find them you see them investing all they have where they reside.
I see power shift to the Southeast not as an end but as a part of the journey of our time. And by the way, let me include one quality of the people of the Southeast in particular, and the Igbo people in general, which our country needs so much at this point in time. That is communality and spirit of democracy that is all-inclusive. The political tradition of the Igbo, which they invented and bequeathed to the world, is the very concept of democracy. Nigeria needs this practice more than anything else to solve problems suffocating and strangulating us. Nigeria needs a person of Southeast extraction as President at this time but the task of fixing Nigeria is one for the whole country.
Let me add that we Nigerians are still suffering from military rule hangover. We have not really realised that we are supposed to be running a democracy, all the defects not withstanding, we are fixated on the presidency as if it contains all the answers to our problems.
Finally, on this point let me say that the popularity of Obi among Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora is not because most people believe that he is a miracle worker but they want a radical change from the status quo. In fact, many see him as part of the problem. He is also popular because most Nigerians realise that Nigeria has been unfair to the Southeast and are expressing their desire for equity, fairness and justice. He is seen today as the ambassador of the Southeast. One thing we must remember is that Nigeria, the giant of Africa is being looked upon to lead the African continent and the black race out of poverty, disease and suffering.

What’s your assessment of the quality of debate among presidential candidates?

As far as I am concerned, the quality of debate among those jostling for the presidency is absolute rubbish. It is as if we do not realise that this country is in serious danger and that the number one challenge confronting the nation is insecurity. I have not seen or heard of any serious debate among the candidates on the details of their plans to deal with insecurity. As a matter of fact, one of the candidates was reported to have said that even if a gun was pointed to his head that he would not reveal his plans for dealing with insecurity.
Too much attention is being focused on the economy but to my mind without taming insecurity we can never get the economy right, which is why our Constitution states that security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.

Do you have confidence in INEC to deliver free and fair polls in 2023?
I am definitely not one of those who believe this INEC is interested in conducting free and fair election. Is this not the same INEC that did nothing for a political party that openly asked all aspiring presidential candidates in its fold to pay a whopping one hundred million naira before they can vie for ticket under its platform.

Is this not the same INEC that kept quiet and did not see anything wrong when presidential aspirants were allegedly sharing thousands of dollars to delegates to secure their votes in the primaries?

Is this not the same INEC that is keeping quiet right now when some presidential candidates are moving around the country sharing millions all over the country? But if Nigerians are committed to free and fair elections, INEC will have no alternative than to conduct a free and fair election. The question should be, are Nigerians interested in free and fair elections. Another question should be, is free and fair elections possible in a situation where poverty and insecurity is sweeping the whole country? I don’t think that the answer is in the affirmative.

What’s your take on the controversy surrounding the establishment of state police?

I support it one hundred per cent. As a matter of fact, the manifesto of the African Renaissance Party (ARP), which I founded and led stipulated that we wanted state police, as well as local government police. I even support community police, as well as zonal police. The federal, zonal, state, local government and community police should and can work perfectly harmoniously. The power of community police should end where that of the local government police begins. The power of local government police should end where that of state police begins. The power of state police should end where that of the zonal police begins and that of zonal police should end where the federal police begins. I see no contradiction or recipe for conflict in this. The point I want to make here is that, though most Nigerians are calling for state police including the state governors and blaming the presidency for not bringing it about, the truth is that going by the 1999 Constitution, the governors in agreement with the President and the Inspector General of police are empowered to effect thorough changes in the police as they deem fit. But rather than meeting and doing what they can while waiting for the ideal situation they prefer to do nothing than blaming the President. I did not realise this until Mr Femi Falana (SAN) pointed it out to me.

How do we address problems of money in party politics in Nigeria?

First of all we should look at the nature, character, programmes, manifestos and modus operandi of our political parties since we say we are practicing a multiparty democracy.
Wikipedia defines “a political party as an organisation that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country’s elections.” It says further that, “it is common for the members of a political party to hold similar ideas about politics and parties may promote specific ideological or policy goals.” When I look at the parties, one party stands out among them. That is the African Democratic Congress (ADC) founded by Chief Ralph Nwosu. Let me say that to the best of my knowledge, I was the first person in this country to found a political party with Africa in its name – African Renaissance Party (ARP), which I led and which was registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2002 and deregistered exactly after ten years in 2012. The ARP is therefore in a sense the father or at least senior brother to all political parties in Nigeria that have Africa in their names, such as ADC, Africa Action Congress (AAC) and so on. The relationship between ARP and ADC did not start today. As a matter of fact in 2007 when Professor Wole Soyinka as chairman of the Board of Trustees of ARP endorsed Professor Pat Utomi, the then Presidential candidate of ADC, no member of ARP faulted that endorsement. That endorsement was entirely based on principles, as there was serious affinity in the ideologies of both parties. Since deregistration of ARP in 2012 we have always seen ADC as our alternative platform.
It therefore pains some of us when we read on the pages of newspapers, accusations against the person of the founder of ADC by people whom we never heard their names in connection with that party until the nomination for presidential candidate a few months ago. I hear them saying that Chief Nwosu has been chairman of the party since inception and so on and so forth. Well, I have not read the constitution of ADC and therefore not privy to the stipulations pertaining to the party’s national chairmanship but all I would like to point out is that the position of a national chairman of a political party is like that of a principal of a school. If you want to maintain certain standards in a school you do not change the principal every four years and so on. In many parts of the world where politics of principles are played, party officials sometimes even stay on for decades just like many principals of schools that are serious about standards do.
The African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa has been in existence for more than eighty years before it came to power, but here we are in a hurry about everything. So, to address your question as we strive for our political parties to be ideologically based, we must not place unnecessary impediments on their way if we are serious about addressing problems associated with money politics in the country.
The second thing I would like to say on this is that we must find a way to make sure that there is full and total probity and accountability among political office holders. Every political office holder from councilor to the President, including the governors, senators should be subjected to round the clock probity and accountability. Every kobo in their account must be fully accounted for or forfeited to government. Another issue is that we must make sure that the pay, plus all allowances of all government officials should not be more than that of an average lecturer in our public universities.

The first thing is that we must realise that there are powers within and outside Nigeria that do not wish us well and we must find ways to overcome their antagonisms and roadblocks. To do this, we must give every Nigerian a sense of belonging so, we can all proudly beat out chest as Nigerians .The Maxim that united we stand and divided we fall is very germane here. Check for instance, now that we are crying that so many of our doctors and nurses are leaving the country for greener pastures abroad, we are witnessing the UK openly enticing our teachers to also abandon our country for their own. For those who thought that colonialism and imperialism were things of the past, this is a wake up call.