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Anambra crisis: Ngige holds the key to
peace- Hon Oranezi
Hon Harry Oranezi is the deputy chairman, House Committee on
Health, he is, for now, the spokesman of the Chris Uba group in the current
political crisis in Anambra State. He believed that Governor Ngige holds the key
to peace in the state. He spoke to COSMAS EKPUNOBI. Excerpts:
A presidential committee headed by
Governor Sam Egwu has been set up to restore peace in Anambra State after the
last mayhem, do you have confidence in that committee.
That committee was set up by President
Obasanjo through the advice of the security council, I have a lot of respect for
the office of the president and the security, council of the country and so I
have implicit confidence on that committee. But the issue now is the
personalities and characters involved for Governor Egwu, he is one of the decent
governors we have in the South East so also Chief Chris Uba, a young man you can
trust because he believes so much in agreement and respect for any agreement. So
any decision reached at the committee I am sure Chief Uba would respect it. But
for Governor Christ Ngige, ever since I know him he has never respected any
agrement. So this could be likened to the Owerri peace accord. People have
refused to ask questions as to what happened to the Owerri peace accord. It is
not a question of having confidence in the committee, but the issue is the
principal actors respecting whatever agreement that might be reached at the end
of it all.
How do you think the failure of that
Owerri peace accord was entirely the fault of the governor.
You need to know what were contained in
the Oweri peace accord before you can know who actually reneged or breached the
agreement. What is happening in the state is a very unfortunate and like Chief
Peter Obi asked, (is Anambra cursed or are we the cause). I think we are the
cause and the state was not cursed. Anambra State is well endowed with both
human and material resources. Talk about the best brain in the Igbo nation, we
have people in commerce and captains of industry.
But the system has a way of throwing up
mediocre, a situation where people are nominated for certain positions without
asking question about the character of the persons. We don’t ask such question,
if not people like Dr. Ngige ordinarily would not have been in such a position
today, knowing his antecedence.
Ahead of the committee’s decision, as a
stakeholder how would you think an enduring peace can be restored in the state.
The mistake has been made in throwing up
Dr. Ngige as a governor and I think what we should do is to assist him. Only if
he will allow that. The best way to achieve an enduring peace in the state is
for the governor who is the one enjoying and fuelling the crisis to carry
everybody along in the state. I am always sad when people shout Chris Uba each
time there is crisis in the state without knowing what triggered off the
problem, or at least the genesis of it.
The governor of a state is the father of
that state. The bulk stops at his table. In Anambra the bulk is being passed to
somebody else.
So I think the governor should carry
everybody along especially the local government chairmanship candidates of the
PDP in the state.
His refusal to carry these people along is
the root of the problem and these are people who contributed immensely to his
own governorship election. Each of them contributed N500,000 and two mini buses
for Dr. Ngige’s election and they worked tirelessly to deliver their individual
local government area. Dr. Ngige has now realised that these people are core
loyalists to Chief Chris Uba and so he want to deny them their rights as party
candidates for the council election.
Sadly he also sent his private security
outfit, the "Bakassi boys to attack people who were attending the flag campaign
for the council election in the state. So he is the problem in the state. The
truth of the matter is that governor Ngige does not want to conduct the council
election, simply because he is enjoying the council funds and such thing would
stop the moment he conduct the election and the chairmen take charge of the
funds. He does not want to hold this election because of the council’s funds he
has been enjoying.
Are you saying that there would be no
peace unless the PDP candidates for the council election are allowed to
participate in the December polls.
You heard it from the candidates
themselves on a television programme two days ago. They are insisting that there
is no going back on their position as the PDP flag bearers for the council
election. The governor is a PDP candidate delivered by PDP and that the governor
was the assistant national secretary when their primary was conducted and he
signed on every page of the result sheets. These documents are there for people
to see and these candidates are saying that no going back until they get their
due right and recognition, as the party flag bearers for council polls.
The national leadership of the PDP had
written to the governor, and the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission
(ANSIEC) the same issue, reaffirming these candidates at the party, flag
bearers. The best solution is for the governor to carry everybody along and if I
were him I will just allow them to have their way and I will still remain the
governor of the state and if the council chairman does not want to give him his
loyalty I know how to go about it instead of creating crisis. Some of us who
know him may not be surprise because he is a man that was not in talking terms
with his father for thirteen years.
I said it earlier, that before we give
anybody any position of authority, in Anambra we should ask questions about that
person’s character.
Are you saying that those questions were
not asked before he was made governor.
I don’t think these questions were really
asked, but in the course of throwing him up the questions and answers came out
and I remember that most of these National Assembly members that are following
him around were the same people that insisted that governor Ngige must go.
Somebody like Celestine Ughanze and Senator Emma Anosike fought tirelessly to
remove Dr. Ngige even after he had emerged as governor elect. That is very
unfortunate, because this is double standard. So I don’t know what is wrong with
our value system. Something is wrong as far as I am concerned. The value system
has been eroded so much so that everything is business and 419 in Anambra State
so we need to get back to the drawing board so that we can tell ourselves the
basis truth. Dr. Nwabueze Ngige should respect the candidacy of those PDP
members for council election in the state.
Chief Chris Uba who was said to be central
in the political problem in the state was alleged to have put up some demand,
including nomination of certain persons for commissionership how do you feel
about this development.
I don’t know any of such demand. The only
thing I know is that for Chief Uba to have bank rolled governor Ngige’s election
from the nomination to election proper then the two of them must have had an
understanding and so if that is what you call demand so be it.
Would you think it is ripe for Chief Uba
to reopen such understanding or agreement he may have had with Dr. Ngige.
Why not, I want to give an instance here,
if you borrow money from a bank to import certain goods and probably the custom
siezed such goods, does it mean that you will not pay the bank. You will
certainly pay back and so Dr. Ngige had entered any agreement with Chief Uba, he
should go back to it. This is what we are talking about. It is a matter of
honour. The governor should be an epitome of honour.
And at an individual basis for instance if
one wants to borrow money from you and you told him that he was going to repay
such loan at 35 per cent interest, it is left for such person to say no he can’t
pay at that rate. If he knows the agreement he has entered with Chief Uba all is
a different ball game in the present matter and he should go and honour it. The
present crisis is completely out of it The only Chief Uba’s name came in was
that the governor was claiming that those candidate are Uba loyalists so I don’t
see how he is involved in the crisis. The problem is that Dr. Ngige has refused
to carry everybody along and he holds the key to peace in the state. Even the
man (Dr. Fred Odua) the governor has been using to cause crisis is a man who has
not resigned his membership of AD and he is today the PDP coordinator in the
state. The question is that if there is any thing like cordinator in PDP.
Governor Ngige had alleged threat to his
life as a stakeholder in the state are you not worried.
This kind of alarm had been raised many
times. I want to say here today that Anambra people value life and we have
interpersonal relationship that nobody had ever thought killing anybody, because
if what happned in Anambra State had happned in any other state a lot of people
would have died. So that is Ngige’s usual way of slapping one and crying. He has
this antics. Because he is still basking on the euphoria of July 10 and so he
can say anything in order to attract unnecessary sympathy from the people. He
would always want people to believe him. Dr. Ngige is even the person that is
planning to eliminate some people because I over heard a member of the National
Assembly telling him that he should kill one or two person so that others can
run. Imagine a situation where party supporters with PDP flags were going to
Awka he sent the Bakassi boys to open fire at them.
Is he saying that he had not heard that
two or three people were killed. So you see he has a way of slapping and at the
same time be crying.
From your honest assessment would you say
that the governor is not on ground.
Definitely he is not on ground, even the
market women at Onitsha know this and they are not in support of the governor
because this is a man who came into office and less than one year he had built
shops because their only business is to collect money from the businessmen.
Don’t forget that Governor Ngige resigned three good times, he resigned as the
governorship candidate, he resigned as governor elect and he resigned as
governor. Just one character resigning three times. So people are not
particularly happy with him, and in terms of party politics he does not have
followers.
The core politicians in the state know
that this man contributed nothing to his emergence as governor. He signed this
agreement, he volunteered to go to Okija shrine and he even went to a Reverend
gentleman who prayed for him. Because he shouted that Chief Uba asked that he
should give him N3 billion, a lot of people decided to listen to him, because a
typical Anambra man once you mentioned money he will jump up.
Would you rule out that the last mayhem
was sponsored
I will not rule out that because from all
indications, the crisis was sponsored. For instance the revelation during the
crisis by a PDP chieftain Chief Dan Ulasi who said that the governor planned to
burn one or two public buildings in the state a month to the election so that
the election can be postponed indefinitely. Chief Ulasi who used who used to be
Ngige’s close friend warned him that hoodlum will cash on this to unleash havoc
on the people. That could be the reason why Bakassi people were persistently in
shouting people during the mayhem.
The hoodlum hijacked the situation and the
first thing the deputy governor did was to write the names of people who are
close friends to Chief Uba as suspects so that the public will start looking
from that perspective.
What is the general situation today in the
state.
As far I am concerned, there are fears
among politicians, the common populace are going their normal business because
to them the right is among politicians.
With the security advice to send more troops in the state
there is hope. But for now there is tension.
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