2023: South-east must work with other zones

Chief Uche Nwosu was the governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in Imo State in this year’s election in March. The former Chief of Staff to ex-governor Rochas Okorocha in this interview speaks on the 2020 budget proposal, the South-east’s agitation for the presidency in 2023, and the governorship contest, among others. Excerpts: People […]

Chief Uche Nwosu was the governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in Imo State in this year’s election in March. The former Chief of Staff to ex-governor Rochas Okorocha in this interview speaks on the 2020 budget proposal, the South-east’s agitation for the presidency in 2023, and the governorship contest, among others. Excerpts:

People have started agitating, printing posters for 2023, and asking for zoning, what do you think of this?

For me, it’s too early to start that. We have a sitting president and many more years to go. People should just kill this issue of 2023 and allow Mr President to be focused and finish his four years that will end in 2023. For me, it’s not in the best interest of the country for anybody to start talking about 2023 now. The president should be given all the necessary support. Every idea you have that you think it is good for governance for 2023, anybody that has, let him give it to Mr President and let us keep the country moving. When we come close to 2023, we will know where we are going. But for now, every support should go to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Many people are realigning ahead of 2023 as they complain that both the PDP and APC may not be able to give Nigerians the right political direction, do you share that view?

I do not share that idea because Nigeria is a complex country. We have seen such kind of a thing before and it didn’t work out. Apart from the emergence of the APC, I still feel like the ruling party, the APC will at the end of the day, take the day because the structure, there does not look as if anything better than the APC has emerged at the national level.

Would you say you have any regret contesting the Imo State governorship election on the platform of the AA?

There is no regret at all. Like I earlier said in the previous interviews, it was an injustice that moved me to AA. When I won the party’s primaries and I was denied the ticket, which was given to someone who came to the party less than three months going into the primaries. I have no regret because I still have my support for the leadership of the APC and its presidential candidate, President Buhari and also those who joined me to AA, they are very dear to me. Remember that I contested under AA, but we had what we called a perfect alliance with the APC. So, I’m in APC and AA.

When you say you are in both APC and AA, are you planning to return to APC soon?

I’m in court, for now, we are still having a perfect alliance. If by tomorrow I’m declared a winner in the case, I will not see myself as the governor of AA or governor of APC, I will be governor of the entire political parties in Imo State.

The budget, Mr President just presented has been highly criticised by the opposition, and even from APC members, what is your take on the budget of N10.33trn for 2020?

First, before anybody criticises, you just have to take the budget, go through it, not when you just take a window look, you see the ministry of works, you see others and you conclude. In every situation, you have leadership, Mr President never woke up and drew out a budget, that never happened. You know he has a lot of advisers and cabinet members who advise him on the budget and so many things. The budgetary process is not a one-man show, the president has taken his time with his cabinet and made some consultations economically and otherwise for him to come up with that budget. For me, it is a welcome budget and would conclude most of the things that were not concluded in the 2019 budget. You can see that you don’t go and start new projects. This makes me happy with Mr President. You don’t go and say you are constructing another road from Kaduna to Bauchi when the one you started has not been completed. So, most of the things you see in the budget, especially some of the things about the ongoing projects, are in a good direction. You abandon one and start another, it’s not good.  I’m in love with this. But where I have to make some reservations is on the issue of education. There should have been more in education because education is the basis for every country. Like these young people getting involved in different crimes, if education is provided for them, they will not go into those things. I saw something like 40 something billion naira, they should have moved it higher.

And again, the issue of works being handled by Babatunde Fashola, our works budget should have been increased because, take an example, from Abuja to Kaduna, it’s almost 100 and something billion naira and the budget for works is around N200bn. So, when you look at it, you would see that works has smaller money compared to the kind of work they would have done on roads. I think in a subsequent time, Mr President should submit a supplementary budget for works. There is another area I want Mr President to put his eyes, left for me, I would have loved him to directly supervise the office of the Ministry of Youths and Sports. My concern is the youth. If we have enough for the youth, we will not be experiencing all these social media fake news. It is only when the youth are not busy that they will be spending over five hours on social media, typing, sharing and forwarding fake news. If they are busy, they won’t have time for social media. Mr President should also increase the budget for the Ministry of Youths and Sports.

You are from the South-east zone, are you part of those agitating it should produce the president in 2023?

I don’t believe in shouting for the presidency now. Even the South-easterners who are agitating, how far have they gone to reach out to the other zones? You don’t sit in the South-east and ask for the presidency or sit in Anambra or Enugu or Abia or Imo or Ebonyi and say it is our turn.  What is the relationship between the South-east and the North? What is the relationship between South-east and the South-west? What is the relationship between South-east and the South-south? That is what they should be talking about. The issue of 2023 should not even arise now. The best thing is to work with our brothers from other zones so that Mr President can complete his tenure. It depends on how they work with other people from other zones. By doing that, we will see ourselves having one country and as people that are working closely together. For me, I wouldn’t want to venture into the issue of 2023 until Mr President completes his tenure. But for those who are agitating, let me repeat, we need to work with our brothers from other zones. That is why I talked about this issue of hate messages on social media against Muhammadu Buhari. When you go to social media, you will see that 90% of messages you see are hate messages, insults and curses which mainly come from our people. So, it is time for us to say, look, we have to work with other zones. Abusing, calling names will not bring the presidency, they are talking about. We must see ourselves as brothers and sisters to other zones. South East in 2023 must work with other zones. If you look at the political structures since 1999, every zone that had produced the president was conceded to, not necessarily because they worked with other zones. In 1999, the North conceded to the South-west and General Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2007, Obasanjo looked at the North and gave it to Yar’Adua and later Jonathan took over. The same way Mr President emerged when people said okay, it is North’s time. Don’t you think that those making this agitation may believe that the other zones should extend that olive branch to the South-east? That is why I said the South-east should not make so much noise now. Even as it is now, we have a president who has three years plus to stay in office and nothing has come from the Villa that this person has been adopted or this position has been zoned to the South-west or South-east, it’s just rumour. People are just saying that the North says they will not handover power, the South-south says they will take power, South-west says they will take power, North-east says they will take power, this is based on rumours and hearsay. When the time comes, we will know where it is going to. But for now, I think we should just mellow down in the South-east, work for the development of the region and wait for 2023. If we start fighting now, there are lots of things we need to put in place, like the issue of Enugu airport. That is an area I want us to work on before 2023. By the time we move closer to 2023, automatically, God knows the best for the South-east.