Chekwas Okorie, founder, national chairman and presidential candidate of the United Progressive Party (UPP) in an Exclusive interview with the ngrguardiannews, said that his party would not abandon Southeast for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
What are your projections regarding 2015 voting pattern in the South East; will it be like that of 2011? Continue...
THE voting pattern of 2011, circumstances led to the way the Igbo and the whole country voted. People miscalculate when they refer to the South East using the figures in the zone as representing the Igbo potential political force in Nigeria. Like I tell anybody that cares to listen, the Igbo constitute a minimum of twenty five percent of the voting population of all the states in Nigeria. There is no other ethnic group that comes anywhere close to that kind of spread and number. And the two major factors that would give you political power in our type of democracy are that number and spread.
But in 2011 there was no Igbo candidate running for president. There was no opposition at all. The only party that was there to mold Igbo political agenda, APGA had been hijacked by the leadership Abuja and funded for that purpose. They hijacked it and adopted President Jonathan, thereby making it unavailable for the Igbo to use and ventilate their own political views and position in Nigeria. Ohanaeze the pan Igbo socio-cultural association was completely compromised. They flooded the entire media with advertisement calling on Igbo to support Jonathan. And it was almost like blackmailing every other Igbo person to vote for Jonathan. And so many did not vote, those who voted, voted for Jonathan! And the PDP people in Igboland had a field day; because there was nobody else looking at what they were doing so they returned the result they liked. That was why some states returned maximum number as per registered voters, which is not possible in an election but that was what happened and the type of figures we saw.
So we were made to have all our eggs in the Jonathan basket, that should he fail, we are finished. And since he succeeded, we have gained nothing! So it is a loss situation for the Igbo for the overwhelming support they gave to Jonathan. But this realization has now come and I can claim credit for insisting and sensitizing the relevant segments of our people on the realization that we are strong enough to stand and protect our political identity and be respected again as we were respected before. Now everybody is saying that there must be negotiation. Recently I read a statement from Governor Obiano’s aide, where he quoted his boss saying that the mistake they made was to endorse Jonathan in haste; that Jonathan has done nothing to Igbo people. So I said well they are just waking up to it.
We have stopped Ohanaeze from going to adopt Jonathan as they did before. I went to the World Igbo Congress and halted them from committing mass suicide on behalf of the people. So, today the consciousness is gradually returning to our people. I went to Lagos to hold a town hall meeting; it was a full capacity turn out; their three topmost leaders represented all the 89 Igbo associations in Lagos. And the message was well received. In the next one week, or so, I would also be addressing Igbo in the nineteen northern states at Abuja. So I am carrying this message not just as a UPP agenda, but to get them back to where they should be. And so there is no way 2015 will be like 2011. And what you would expect is that UPP will be a critical factor in the next government that would be formed. Whether it is PDP that would be leading, it would need UPP to form a stable government; if it is APC that is leading, it must need UPP to form stable government. Of course there would be no meeting point between PDP and APC! They are already sworn enemies. We are not enemies to the two and we are the beautiful bride we are supposed to be at this stage of our existence. We are barely two years old; we have immediately graduated from being one of 28 political parties to being one of three! We are going into this election already sure of a bronze medal. So our struggle is to either get gold or silver. We are already on a victory song. Who would have thought like that two years ago when we were just one of the 28 parties? But by some strategic positioning and by occupying a void that was there, that is the Igbo position; that was waiting to be occupied which we have occupied and harnessing, we have jumped from one of 28 to one of three! What can be more encouraging and mind lifting than that?
Your former party APGA keeps naming national leaders one after the other. What is responsible for this notion of parties having national leaders side by side their national chairmen?
And I remember when there was the APGA crisis one of the things they introduced was to win Ojukwu to their side or to keep massaging his ego; they began to call him the leader of the party. There is nothing like that in the APGA constitution. Now they have gone ahead also to call (Governor Willie) Obiano the leader of APGA and Chairman Board of Trustees, even when the constitution of the party says no elected person shall occupy a party office and the BoT is a standing committee that is even subordinated to the chairman of the party.
So it becomes a misnomer to be the leader of the party and also be a chairman of a subordinate committee of that party. The chairman to whom you are leader is in turn your boss. People don’t sit back to look at this funny kind of arrangement. May be, it is for the purposes of raising funds. Those who are in executive positions control budgets and so they now give them the position of de facto leaders so that their ego can feel well massaged to release funds for the party to function. But the law has already solved that problem by making sure that it is only the party that is recognized, the party is supreme! That is what the Nigeria constitution has given us. And if the party is supreme, the chairman of the party is the leader of the party, at the national level, state level, local government and ward levels. And that is the hierarchy of leadership in a political party.
There is unease about the 2015 election as well as concerns that it may be postponed; how do you react to that?
Well, I have heard about these agenda from basically the rumour mills and what some people may refer to as insider sources. And my immediate reaction is that it would be a very dangerous proposition. Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder. The tension in the country is palpable. The anger in many quarters, for several reasons, is strong. The frustration among the people is unimaginable. There is nothing that could cool down the tension more than going to the polls to have a free and fair credible election so that Nigerians should use the opportunity to either support whoever they want to support or vote out who they want to vote out. Once they have expressed their feelings, let it out through the ballot box as already provided in any democratic setting, there would be tension reduced. Provided however that the INEC does not engage itself in any manipulation. Postponing the election will bring not just an ordinary anarchy but it could mark the end of Nigeria. There is a general feeling of alienation by very many sections of this country that are looking for the slightest opportunity to declare their freedom from Nigeria’s stranglehold. But they are still also ready to tarry along if they see hope that their opinions are still respected at the booths.
And since these changes occur every four years according to the law of the land, they are prepared to wait even every four years to make their own changes. It is the only way Nigeria can remain. But if anybody thinks that postponing this election even by twenty four hours outside what the INEC has already published for which people are working towards, the person must be prepared to witness the end of Nigeria as a nation. The army we have today is incapable of holding Nigeria together. All the security forces put together cannot do that because the weapons that have illegally entered this country and in the hands of so many groups; whether militant or terrorist groups or even armed robbers are so many that they can overwhelm the army. Both in terms of number and in terms that they won’t know the right sector to focus the military to attack; everywhere will become a battlefield. And a situation like that is dangerous.
So my advice therefore is that it should never be contemplated. If somebody feels that going to election will make him lose because of what he is seeing on the ground, because he has not done well enough whether at the state level or the level of representation at the senate or even at the presidential level, the person should go and subject himself to the people. If he loses he goes; he would not be the first to lose election just like he would not be the first to win. The country must be preserved to continue.
Are you suggesting that even the insurgency is not enough to warrant a shift?
No. I don’t think so. In fact, the recapture of Mubi recently raises some hope. The driving away of the insurgents at Damaturu where they almost exercised control for a few hours gives hope also that our military is rising to the occasion regarding the activities of the insurgents. And we hope that the forces would intensify their efforts; they have seen that all those pretensions about trying to avoid collateral damage has not impressed anybody but has rather embarrassed the military because in any war situation there must be collateral damage. The situation is a war situation, it is even worse than an ordinary war because secession has almost occurred. Substantial part of Nigerian soil has been excised by the insurgents and renamed caliphate republic. So whether they accept it or not there is a republic inside a republic. And so everything that could be done to recover every inch of Nigeria soil in total warfare is what is demanded and I think that is exactly what we are witnessing, that is making the military now to regain those grounds. So I believe that in the next one month at the rate in which they are going, they would recover most of the areas that are under the control of the insurgents at the moment. INEC has also said that it has prepared itself to conduct election in those places.
Do you not think that there is a serious outside influence trying to jeopardize Nigeria’s sovereignty?
That is true; there is no doubt about that. It is clear as daylight that there is external involvement in the terrorist activities in Nigeria. And I will be surprised if this government with all its intelligent network and bilateral relations with well-established developed countries, is not aware of where the problem is coming from. My real worry is that the government has proved incapable of securing our borders and imposing some kind of blockade to the influx of illegal weapons to the country. In the Biafra-Nigeria war, there was not just a blockade against weapons from coming in, but economic blockade. In fact, they were also bombing market places. Nigerians were bombing schools, we are victims of that and schools closed down in the South East most of us lost three years of academic period because schools were not safe. They did all that to bring Biafra to its knees within thirty months. I am not saying they should go and start bombing schools or market places, but they can do something drastic to clean out that place of insurgents and open at least one or two corridors for those who wish to leave the area come out as refugees temporarily. It is done; those who want to remain would remain whatever they encounter is their own lot. Then when you open the corridor you give a deadline for those wishing to surrender and come out, to come out! Innocent civilians will come out; some of the insurgents who don’t want to encounter the outright onslaught will come out and surrender.
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