Founding National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie, bared his mind to LAWRENCE  NJOKU on several issues including the country’s independence, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s absence at the recently held United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the 2027 general election, electoral reforms among others. Excerpts:

Some Nigerians were not happy that President Bola Tinubu was missing from the recently held United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Do you think they were right in doing so?

I think they were right. It is really very sad that the President has been missing in action in practically all the UNGA meetings that have taken place since he became president. There is a record that he attended once.  But this is the fourth one that he did not attend. This is his fourth year in office. So, if he attended once, it means others were not attending.

The Tinubu we all know would seize every opportunity to shine in a public outing like UNGA; but to avoid going there leaves much to be desired and lends credence to certain allegations trailing his activities before he became president. It is unfortunate. If he had attended, it would have been an opportunity for several side meetings with leaders of countries, institutions and business conglomerates that would have loved to have meetings with the Nigerian leader. I find it very scandalous and unacceptable. It is not a good thing for us. It gives a wrong impression about us.

Immunity is guaranteed to delegations of government to attend the UNGA in New York. Even Iran that is in direct combat with America led a delegation to UNGA and they were there to present their situation to the world leaders. So, even if the President has committed anything that is unpardonable, the UNGA provides him the security and immunity to go and present Nigeria’s matters there and come back safely.

If he had attended, it would have impacted positively on Nigeria. There are many conglomerates, business organisations, heads of states and nations who would have seized the opportunity to ask a few questions about Nigeria. Those side meetings are very critical in attracting investment to Nigeria or in marketing Nigeria positively by the President himself. Knowing the way countries run, any country that wants to get into a serious business relationship with Nigeria will not be talking to the Vice President, knowing that the Vice President is only but a spare tire.

INEC raised concerns recently about the AI threat to 2027 elections? What is your view on the issue?

This should not worry a body like the INEC if they are serious about doing their job. Perhaps, they are giving us advance notice that the results could be manipulated and they would say they had earlier warned about it. The public has always believed that INEC would not be independent and would not conduct free and fair elections next year. Otherwise, what the parties such as the ADC and NDC said they would do including pro-democracy groups like Yiaga Africa among others, is to set up the technology to transmit their own polling unit results to the IReV and INEC is expected to do the same so that when what nearly happened at Osun State happens anywhere, INEC cannot give excuse that there was a glitch. If there are four different bodies doing the same thing in polling units, then we will have a level of credibility. So, INEC may have realised that with this development, they may not have that freedom to announce anything and that is why they are raising the alarm.

The Osun election has proved to anyone in Nigeria that the people can assist the INEC to do its job properly because when transmission of results was halted for hours, the people raised alarm and the pressure was so much that INEC had to resume transmission. When transmission resumed, there was nothing more they could do to manipulate the election and over 30 governors that invaded the state sneaked out of Osun in the midnight, knowing that the game was up. If they couldn’t achieve what they wanted to do in one state, is it in 2027 when all the governors will be in their various states without any external assistance that they would be able to overwhelm the wishes of the people?

So, this fear is what I suspect could have made INEC to start giving this type of early warning to Nigerians. I believe that Nigerians are ready for INEC and it would be in their interest to do the proper thing to safeguard their image and reputation or do the wrong thing and face the wrath of an angry nation. This country is already restive because of the manner our leaders have taken us for a ride. The country is sitting on a keg of gunpowder and any person who will do anything to arouse the anger of the average Nigerians will be held responsible for what follows.

What I am saying is that this INEC has given Nigerians cause to worry and they have not done anything to reassure Nigerians that they are ready. But Nigerians will not allow them to take them for a ride; that is what I know. The ball is in their court. We are dealing with people who are exceedingly angry. A hungry man is an angry man and an angry man is an irrational man. So, when they get angry based on this type of provocation, they might react negatively. Our prayer is that Nigeria should survive 2027, but I don’t see a situation where somebody will want to be desperate for power even when the country is burning.

Sixty-six years after Independence, what can you make of the journey so far?

It is a chequered journey. The only thing I can say is that we have witnessed about 26 years of uninterrupted democracy.

But we have not made any reasonable progress in terms of development, infrastructure and in managing our diversity. We have deviated so badly. There is nothing to be proud of. We have expected successive governments to improve on these factors that I have mentioned; instead they have allowed those indices of development to continue to deteriorate. The governments don’t even care. For instance, the All Progressives Congress (APC) government has been there since they took over from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but things have gotten worse. We have not done well at all. All the countries that we were better than have overtaken us. Everything about us is on the low side as a result of poor leadership and corruption.

Are you saying that the reforms and all the policies we have had including the present ones have not paid off?

Our reforms have not helped the country and this is the challenge of the present government.  The challenge of the government in power is to tell us what they have done with the mandate they got in nearly four years at the moment that will make an average Nigerian vote for them. I have not seen them tell us what they have done with the four years. The opposition parties are mentioning everyday what they would do differently and deriving from what the government in power is doing badly. They come up with policies that they are prepared not to implement. The most difficult thing for any politician to do at the moment is to defend the APC government. We are citizens and we know what is going on; but the election will be an opportunity to ask them to continue or be booted out.

Let me add that this country is so divided along the lines of ethnicity and religion. I have been saying this since last year, that irrespective of the manifesto that the candidates in the 2027 elections would be throwing around, the 2027 elections would likely be characterised by ethnic and religious sentiments and that has already begun. It is already dominating the campaigns and conversations, both in the social media, churches and mosques.

What could be responsible for this level of division?

It is as a result of poor management of our diversity. It is the failure to see Nigeria as a single entity; a situation where anyone that comes to power will face either his people or his religion. Buhari came in and believed that it was a Fulani government and the present government has continued on the same trajectory. A religious leader in Kaduna said recently that the country belongs to the Muslim and that anybody that does not agree with Muslim-Muslim ticket should leave Nigeria and nobody cared to call him to order.  Some are insisting that someone should be president based on where he comes from; another group is saying this candidate cannot be president because he is from a part of the country. Since the campaign started, where have you seen rallies? Some governors have announced humongous charges to prevent people from putting campaign billboards in their states and this is to discourage people from promoting their candidates. Nobody is calling them to order.

For those who were not born during my own time, Chief Awolowo used helicopters to spread his posters all through the country. The billboard strategy is dead on arrival. But this is what the state governments have chosen to do as if that is what will determine Nigeria’s attitude to the elections. Things have deteriorated.

Talking about the politics of ethnicity and religion, there seems to be a contrast in Igboland, where certain politicians are opposing the presidential candidate of the NDC, Peter Obi. What do you have to say about this?

Those people are simply scared of the possibility of Obi winning the presidency in the Southeast as he did in 2023. In 2023, Tinubu scored 5.3 per cent votes. Atiku had 1.3 per cent of the votes. Kwakwanso had 0.4 per cent votes. Go and check this at the INEC record. So, these people know that if they don’t go after Obi, they may not be able to retain the offices they are holding at the moment.

The one that surprises me is the man at Awka – Governor Soludo. As the founder of APGA, I get worried that it is an APGA governor that is leading this campaign of calumny against another product of APGA. Obi is a product of APGA.  I find him a very vindictive character. You know he has not forgiven Obi and Victor Umeh for his disqualification in 2003 to run for the governorship ticket of the APGA. Umeh’s leadership at a time disqualified Soludo from running for the APGA ticket. Soludo told me at a time that if he was allowed to contest the primary and the result was written against him, it would have been more tolerable than to disqualify him as if he had committed some kind of criminal offence. He was so bitter about it. He told me that even his international friends were calling him to ask him what he had committed to earn disqualification, coming as a former governor of the Central Bank and a former governorship candidate of the ruling PDP and then a small party disqualified him from running. So, that animosity is still there and he believes that if Obi was there as governor when this happened to him, that Obi must have approved the disgrace. This is what he is fighting in addition to whatever he thinks Tinubu can do for him.

But I want to use this opportunity to warn him that he should be mindful of the 2027 elections.

If Anambra people vote the way they voted in 2023 at that level and deliver the House of Assembly to NDC, Soludo may not complete his second tenure which will be one year in March next year and  by then this election would have taken place. Suppose the people of Anambra take the anger on him and deliver the state Assembly to the NDC, how will Soludo have a comfortable three years in office? He is not thinking about that. I am sorry for him. He is not behaving like a professor that should be intellectual.

But the result of the 2027 elections will show whether those criticising Obi in Igboland have earned the leadership quality that can influence Igbo attitude to elections. Leadership is earned. It is not by appointment or holding public office. Let us see how it turns out at the polls.