Mr. Godwin Chukwunenye Ezeemo is one of the leading aspirants for the governorship ticket of the All Progressives’ Congress, APC, in Anambra State. The Umuchu-born industrialist had an interactive session with newsmen in Abuja a few days to the sudden imposition of Senator Chris Ngige as its candidate. MIKE ODIAKOSE reports that Ezeemo insist that APC does not begin and end with Ngige in Anambra state and a free and fair primaries will determine the choice of the members of the party in Anambra State. Excerpts:
Your party, APC, met for the first time after its registration and discussed about the upcoming Anambra gubernatorial election. As one of the contestants, are you optimistic?
At the moment, the decision they have taken is to give everybody a level playing ground, running a free and fair primary for all the aspirants. I am very happy with this arrangement. Being a party that is formed to compete favourably with other parties, APC towing this line shows clearly that they have internal democracy. So, they are doing a different thing from PDP in the last 12 years.
There is this view by most people that APC does not exist in Igbo land, why do you choose to run under that platform and what are your chances?
APC is a national party and they have got all it takes to win elections in any part of Nigeria. The choice of APC like I have said before now, my original party which is ACN melted into APC, making me automatically an APC member. My party by every standard has got what it takes to win election in any part of the country. I choose ACN then which is APC now, because it was the only single party that had coercion, peace among them, unlike other parties who were fragmented by whatever reason. ACN/APC was just a party that had the coercion I needed. Then, not being here for a very long time, I decided to come into a party that was not so strong in my area that is Anambra State. I had to come to help build it to have a strong base.
APC is synonymous with Chris Ngige in Anambra State; do you think you can upstage Ngige in a primary contest?
Chris Ngige is not synonymous with APC. APC is APC, Chris Ngige is an aspirant and we have a whole lot of other aspirants. May be because he has had a chance of running a couple of elections under ACN whereby he is being known, though some of the elections he couldn’t win them, that doesn’t make him synonymous with APC.
APC, being a new party today as you can see has got couple of at least some aspirants who have got what it takes to take APC to an enviable height within the state.
So far, how many of you are aspiring under APC platform in Anambra?
At the moment, I am sure of four persons, my humble self, Chris Ngige, Anie Okonkwo and one Captain Hajas. Hajas is coming from CPC; Anie Okonkwo from APGA legacy, Chris Ngige and myself from ACN.
Anie Okonkwo is the Deputy National Chairman South, and there is this possibility that he may use his position to upstage the rest of you in the contest, do you nurse this fear?
I do not nurse the fear. Anie Okonkwo is the National Deputy Chairman South, that is right and has indicated his interest to run. But definitely, he has to relinquish his position and all of us will run on a plain ground. So I am not afraid of that, we are not afraid of that. Everybody will have a fair chance.
Are you a good party man?
I am
Committed?
Absolutely
If you lose out at the primaries will you stay in the party to work for it?
All I am saying here is that if the party agrees to that, we have to make it free and fair for everybody. A level playing ground must be provided for everybody. Once this is done, I will stick with the party and embrace whoever that wins it. But if it is not free and fair, then I won’t tell you what is going to happen. In short when we get to that bridge we will cross it.
Let’s go a little outside the party?
Go ahead
You were in Europe before now, what really attracted you to politics because some have said that politics is a dirty game?
Let me answer the last one before going to the first one, because the first one will take us sometime. We will go a little bit into history. Politics is not a dirty game. It is the only thing that brings development in every nation. If it is a dirty game, it will not be associated with progress made in the various western worlds. I want to debunk that, it is our people that try to make it a dirty game. What made me to venture into politicking are enormous. I lived in Lagos from 1986 to 1993 and from 1993 till date my family is still in UK.
I got to United Kingdom in 1993 owing to June 12, brouhaha. I left the shores of this country during the heat of the annulled election, when everybody was leaving to their respective home of origin. What I saw in UK were so good. Everything was organised and things were done in a special way. All the basic amenities and infrastructures are all in place. I don’t have to run an endowment of my own to give myself amenities. So everything was just at my door step. Above all security is superb. I told myself there is no need of going back to Nigeria. After 10 years of sojourn in UK coupled with heavy feeling of nostalgia and love for my people and humanity, I decided to come and reciprocate what I have seen and enjoyed in UK for the betterment of Anambrarians. I have my businesses running fine, so my desire to join politics is to render service to my people.
Of all the states in Igbo land and by extension the whole Nigeria, Anambra seems to be the place where the monetization politics is at the peak, do you have the kind of money to prosecute this guber project and if you don’t, are you worried by this trend?
The point you have made seems to be a common knowledge to everyone that knows Anambra politics. But we are moving away from that trend. I am contesting for governorship position for 2014. I am not spending fortune. I am speaking to people and they are receptive, they are getting it clear and understanding that they have had it in the past 12 years and where has it taken them to? Nowhere, they are now ready to make a change. I know they are prepared. If you have the money, you share it to them; they will take it away from you and use to better their lives. At the end, they will vote according to their conscience. If you think is the money that will give you the votes in Anambra, you will be disappointed at the end of the day. Although in politics, you must spend money, but not sharing money to buy peoples’ conscience. On my own part, last year, I organised a proactive conference with the theme “rediscovering lost Igbo values”. It was conference on value reorientation to avail the good people of Anambra the opportunity of being spoken to by erudite professors and well-informed people regarding the implication of money politics. It ran for a whole five working days and was attended by people from all works of life. Ranging from people in the Motor Park, market women, clergy, union leaders, students, youth, civil society groups, faith based organisations, and teachers.
If elected, what are your plans towards the development of the Anambra State?
As a change agent, I have a couple of things to do. Anambra is faced with insecurity which is a very big problem. This has greatly encouraged capital flight and people are leaving Anambra in drove which is not healthy for our development.
And some people are being kidnapped
Yes, because of insecurity. Agriculture which supposed to be the mainstay of the economy is nonexistence. Agriculture is hindered due to lack of power. Let me take on this because of time. Electricity is something I am very interested in. I have been to various independent power plants. I got interacted with professionals which has enabled me to develop my own power roadmap for Anambra State. I also have my contacts abroad and based on these efforts, I know there will be light at the end of the tunnel if a state government actually wants to get into it. I also know that a state or individual are also protected in generating their own power. This is a very important area.
Although, previous administrations have neglected it, because it is a project that is capital intensive, but I will assure you that as soon as we get power working properly everything will fall in place. I will mechanize agriculture which will create jobs for our teaming youths. I am a farmer too. I have the capacity to raise up to 50, 000 birds within eight to 10 weeks. The equipments procured are still in the warehouse just because of epileptic power supply.
In education, the money meant for security vote will be used to give free and qualitative education at all levels.