Why Soludo Should Work With FG – Umenzekwe

Hon. Modestus Umenzekwe is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, he x-rays the inaugural speech of the new governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and advises him to collaborate with the Federal Government in the interest of Anambra people

The mood of the nation is that of despair, poor power supply and economic conundrum, among others. What is your take on the state of the nation given that your party is in power?

These problems have been there all along and this government has tried a lot to improve on them greatly. Power outage, economic problem, hunger and insecurity were there before the advent of APC-led Federal Government but the administration has improved greatly on those things.

The Minister of Power has addressed the nation on the recent power drop and President Muhammadu Buhari has assured us that they are working seriously to improve the situation. So, you will agree with me that we are getting serious improvement.

Prof. Chukwuma Soludo was last week inaugurated as governor of Anambra State, but that event was nearly marred by the confrontation between two supposedly frontline women in Anambra, Bianca Ojukwu, wife of the Late Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu and Ebele Obiano, wife of former Governor Willie Obiano. What do you make of that incident?

Assuming you take me to court over threat to life, the court will ask you, what did you do that warranted threat to life? So, the way you presented it, Bianca slapped Mrs. Obiano but the question is: What did she do to attract that?

Now, let me ask you: Is Bianca a foreigner? Is she not from Anambra State? Besides, she is the wife of our revered Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, an Igbo idol, you don’t joke with him.

Even in death, we still revere him. Besides, it was Ojukwu that established the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Ndigbo embraced the party. All those who ruled Anambra, rode on Ojukwu’s back to get votes, so I don’t know why his wife should not be respected.

Every Igbo man reveres Ojukwu, so the wife must be accorded that recognition and respect. They may disagree with him politically but his person cannot be allowed to be dented and he is more Nigerian than most people, who claim that they are Nigerians.

This was the reason he joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), a national party when he returned from exile and championed the Nigerian project until God called him.

You see, Anambra is a very peaceful state, what Obiano’s wife did was an aberration, it is even a slap on Anambra people, her husband, the Igbo nation and an embarrassment to the revered professor, the new governor of Anambra State, but I thank God that Soludo himself was clever enough to apologise for the breach of protocol.

That shows humility. I heard him loud and clear and I give him 100 per cent mark; he was able to douse the tension; that is the character of Ndigbo. That shows wisdom and intelligence. I pitied the outgoing governor for such an embarrassment from his wife. It was quite unfortunate but I appeal to Ndi Anambra to put those things behind us and move forward.

Immediately after the inauguration, the former governor was picked up by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport on his way to the United States. Do you see it as an embarrassment to Anambra people or an indication of the massive plunder under his watch as governor of that state?

The EFCC was established for what? If the EFCC arrested him, it is either they are tracing corruption or alleged corruption. Do you stop them from doing their job? It is the EFCC that will answer that question. I know that EFCC doesn’t act without tip off.

Do you see the new government pointing accusing fingers at Obiano?

I would be surprised if anyone accuses the new government. How can he be Obiano’s problem when in fact he has just taken over and he has not even told us how much is in the purse of Anambra State? I don’t see him doing that.

The way the man appears, he is ready to work, he is busy, there are so many problems confronting Anambra State, expectation is high and he said it in his address.

People believe that by the wave of hand every problem will be Umenzekwe solved, so the expectation is high. Why must he go now and start chasing the ex-governor, it will be diversionary. Irrespective of party affiliation, we are talking about Ndi Anambra and I am an Anambrarian, so Ndi Anambra are full of expectations from him, so let him concentrate and do the work.

You watched and heard him at the inauguration, was Soludo simply boastful or humble?

It depends on what you mean by being boastful, all I can see is that he was reeling out what he is going to do and passing eulogies to past leaders like Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Awolowo, Dr. M.I. Opkara, Mallam Amini Kano and a host of them. He spoke like a Nigerian,

I didn’t see anything boastful but I saw that he was in high spirit, eulogizing Nigerians, eulogizing Anambra people and admitting that we are expecting something more different than what we have been seeing, taking into consideration his academic erudition and accomplishments and what he said he would do.

At least, he said he would start with Okpoko, so everybody is watching, waiting for Okpoko to be transformed immediately.

Despite human and material resources, Anambra still lack basic infrastructure…

In 2010 or 2009, when he first contested for that position, he said he wants to make Anambra the African Dubai and Taiwan, we still hold him by that statement, and I don’t think he has deleted it from his memory.

So, whether it is in the statement or not, I believe that he is going to make Anambra better than it is now.

In his address, he said there is a 50- year development plan even though it was not dissected item by item; what are you expecting?

I have said it that we expect much but seeing is believing, so we are waiting for Okpoko. Whether the document was dissected or not, let us wait and see. It is still too early to start an assessment, at least for the first 100 days, let’s see what is going to happen.

He stressed on locally made goods and services in Anambra State, that the government will patronize Anambra goods and services before any other, in what ways do you think that other states can emulate this and what does it portend to the nation’s economy?

You see, governance is about service, it is about reaching out to people, it is a very good idea if he is able to achieve that and I believe he has started well. When I looked at the Innoson vehicle that conveyed him, when you look at his attire, I think he has started well. When a leader starts patronizing locally made goods, his subjects will key in.

In those days we called Babatunde Fashola the pacesetter because he came to Lagos and improved upon what Asiwaju Bola Tinubu did; sanitised Lagos, cleaned everywhere, started beautifying Lagos, destroyed illegal structures and shanties to make Lagos look good.

Don’t forget that Senator Chris Ngige in 2003 opened the door for good governance in Anambra Sate. He started that and every other governor coming in is expected to follow suit.

So, if the programme of Prof. Soludo is to patronize locally made goods, that is wonderful and I will always encourage him to make sure that it is implemented, so that our economy will improve.

Once we start doing that other states will emulate us. By that we will now know whether our Naira is going to compete with the dollar and other foreign currencies. So, it is a good start provided he has a very good team.

What sort of collaboration do you advocate between APGA-led government in Anambra and the Federal Government or do you still insist time is ripe for APC to take over Anambra?

I told you that very soon APC will take over the entire South-East but while we are waiting for that, I will advise the Anambra State government to go closer to the Federal Government, table their problems before the president because the President is a listening person. He doesn’t discriminate, so let Soludo approach the Federal Government the formal and normal way because we are talking about Nigeria as a whole.

President Buhari is the president of all political parties, all states of the federation, therefore, the governor of a state, whether he belongs to the party or not must find a way of keying into the programmes of the Federal Government because the APC-led government is generous and open. I will love to see in no distant time that Buhari is invited to Anambra to commission projects.