2007: Igbo Presidency Not Feasible -Odunna
Pioneer National Secretary of the All Peoples Party (APP) now All Nigeria's Peoples Party Dr. Josiah Odunna in this interview with Chuks Okocha, bares his mind on several national issues including the call for Igbo Presidency, the agitation for sovereign national confrence, and why he decamped from the party he co-founded
You were a member of the National Constitutional Conference. People are calling for convocation of a Sovereign National the Conference. What is your view about this?
I have spoken to the press severally on this, the last place I had something to do with Sovereign National Conference was in 1999 when we were constituted as members of the presidential committee on the review of 1999 Constitution. We came with the issue of National Conference. I don't want the word Sovereign National Conference because there is a government in power, there is a parliament in place, but I agree that Nigerians need to talk together because those who feel that they are the doyen, they are the nation, they are Nigeria, feel they are not in parliament, they have sent their delegates into the parliament, but that their delegates can't speak their mind. We need to ask Ohanaeze, send your best, we need to ask Afenifere, send your best, we need to ask Arewa, send your best, we need to ask Ijaws, send your best, we need to ask the Middle-Belt, other nationalities in Nigeria, we need to ask these people to send their best and they need to sit together and say this is our nation Nigeria, we want to live in it, how do we minimise ethnic strife? How do we minimise killings? How do we minimise cantankerous approach to issues? How do we stand for one government? I support national conference where people would go and talk together, call it talk shop, no, eventually, something will emerge, but I will not use the word sovereign because there is a sovereign government in Nigeria and there is a parliament.
If there is a sovereign government in Nigeria and you are advocating for a National Conference, what will be the role of the National Conference?
I think I have said it before, well, let me repeat myself; a national conference would bring in the doyen of ethnic nationalities, who are not in the parliament. Who feel that those in the parliament will not be speaking for them, that they are to determine what Nigeria will look like. When they meet, whatever is the decision will be passed on to the government and parliament for enactment and I am sure those people are part of Nigeria, they will not let Nigeria down.
Let me take you to the issue of Igbo presidency in 2007. Some of your people from the South-east are advocating that power should come to the South-east this time around, that there is need for an Igbo president. How would you react to this?
You know it is not possible to have Igbo President in 2007, why would I just jump the gun to make the noise because it is necessary to make it. We did it last time, we did it in 1999, in 1998 we brought out the best brains at that time, Ekwueme came out, Iwuanyanwu came out, Arthur Nzeribe came out, other big names in Igboland came out, we couldn't get it. We came again mid-way, when the constitution says the present president can re-contest, we now said no, let the president stay with four years for the Yorubas, Igbos will have it now, my dear, we did not have it. Ekwueme our own man came out and his people flogged him, we did not have it, so the Igbos don't have the ingredient of producing the President in 2007. Why? The constitution, I was a member of the National Constitutional Conference in 1994/95. That constitution was not promulgated, but the fact of that constitution remains with us in the polity today and I want to be specific, there the decision was taken to create zones, the government in power then created three zones, there, the decision was taken to rotate the presidency, I was a member of the power sharing committee and I was a member of the 31-man committee headed by Dr. Olu Saraki that debated on where the presidency should be, whether it will be rotational or not, and we approved rotational presidency. That presidency should go round the six zones, then it was implemented, but the subsequent constitution was silent on it, but then, party constitutions have carried it, PDP has now said after eight years in the South, it should go to the North. That is reasonable, that is most reasonable and for anybody in the South-east to shout about it now, such a person only wants to be recognised. I don't think it is reasonable. We cannot. But after 2007, I am sure after that time, nobody will deny us that position. But I want you to know something, the National Assembly is the problem of the nation, the National Assembly is in the sixth year now. There is need to amend the constitution, Mr. President set up a committee for the amendment of the constitution, that committee was close to one year, but the National Assembly set its own committee to go around again ,then tour the nation, up till today they have not settled the issue of rotation of power in Nigeria, and that is what is causing us all these crisis, all the strife, all the killings. If they had amended the constitution and created one term for Mr. President, but they are considering themselves, they want to be there for eight years, those who can, want to be there for eignt years and by the time their time is up, another group will come who wants to remain there for eight years, when do we amend the constitution? We cannot be selfish forever in the affairs of Nigeria, at one time, at one point, just as Mr. President is taking the bull by the horn in taking very tough decisions, the parliament must go along with him too and take the bull by the horn and take tough decisions and one of the toughest decisions they will be remembered for is putting away itself and determining how long can elected executive be in office. Remember in America, a Senator can be there for 50 years, if his constituency continues to elect him, but Mr. President can be there only for eight years maximum. Why can't we have something like that for Nigeria if they are going to say let it be two terms, okay so be it. If they will say let it be one term of six years, so be it. One term of five years, so be it. But let us have something. Conclude it and people will rest their nerves and play politics without rancour. This is my position.
What made you to leave the party you formed as the first National Secretary to join PDP?
Well, you know we formed the party that we thought was very, very strong and much stronger than PDP at that time, but at the advent of General Obasanjo, the present head of government, things changed. We started seeing and hearing all generals declaring for PDP and people thought that is where the money will be, that these generals have resources to run any election, we started losing membership. But more to that, the issue of AD, alliance with AD, AD that only had few thousands votes at the Local Government Elections and our party that had eleven million votes, so to say, at that time, we had to merge, and we had to align and when we aligned with AD, a much smaller party took precedence over APP by producing the flag bearer, this really demoralised our membership and you know how many people we lost. We had 17 presidential aspirants, we virtually lost all of them and Dr. Olusola Saraki, who was kind of bankrolling the party at that time was so badly treated himself.
You know at that time, we had Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, he left for PDP and I was there. The kind of the governors who were then in charge of the party, nine governors, did not see the need for any name associated with Iwanyanwu to be at the helm of affairs. I resigned on the day of convention. After leaving the party, they came up with the issue of UNDP. UNDP alliance with APP, we went into this, UNDP didn't buy it properly, so there was a split there and when there was a split there, the leadership, whatever remained of ANPP definitely could not do much. The leadership that emerged in ANPP, after we had left the scene could no longer carry the party and carry the followership we generated. I went back home to Imo state to play home politics and when I was there, of course I could not hide myself, I was made the leader of the party and chairman of the elections committee. I resigned from it, I resigned my membership because you know I had built an image in the nation, I was highly believed or rated as a believable human being, an honest human being, a diligent human being, a consistent human being, a loyal follower, these were my attributes and I cherished it, when I call people for meeting and when I address them, they believed me, whatever I said and I never deceived my followers, I never told lies.
I resigned and didn't declare for any party, I went to the village, but definitely it made a shift in peoples movement and I have no regret for it, this was why I left that party.
The general impression is that you are a man without ideology and that you are a man who can move from any party because of money, and that you left ANPP because there was no money and you went to PDP to look for money. Would you react to this?
Well, one would say that Nigeria politics is without ideology at any rate. Action Group came on with ideology, Action Group did not go too far, the few that remained there with ideology are playing it now in the existing parties. So it is wrong to say I have no ideology, I believe I am a progressive politician, I am a dynamic politician, I invest on their real value, not on the surface value and I looked at things. I joined PDP not immediately, I spent 3 months, before I joined PDP and I joined PDP not to make money. I did not see anybody. Till today, I have not even met with the governor of the state and I want you to cross check this, I have not met with the governor of the state, but I have remained a card carrying member and I am at the background. I have not come there to hassle for position in order to reach a height where I will make money, that is not the issue. The issue is PDP is the government of Nigeria and for us to move this country forward, we should back the government. When you see that the government is doing its best, is transforming this country, we may not like it because it is hard, it is difficult, it bites, but with time, maybe after our days, after our time, Nigeria will be much better for it. That is what we are doing and I support it and because I support it, I associate myself with it.
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