Dr Eme Okoro is the immediate-past Secretary to State Government, SSG, Abia State, who served in Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s first tenure. In this interview with Ikengaonline, he revealed why the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had a disastrous outing in the just-concluded elections in the state. The elder statesman also told the Governor-Elect, Dr Alex Otti, what he must do first to succeed in office.
Stephen Ukandu reports:
Dr Alex Otti of the Labour Party has just emerged as Abia Governor-elect, thereby ending your party, PDP’s 24 year – rule in the state. Did it come to you as a surprise?
No. Otti’s victory didn’t take me by surprise. I’m a card-carrying member of the PDP but we need a better Abia irrespective of who is leading us. The consensus of the people was to change the narrative, and they have spoken.
Why were you not surprised that your party was dislodged despite the power of incumbency?
A political party is supposed to be an embodiment of like minds, and when you juxtapose it with governance, it means that the preponderance of what you are going to do will favour a greater number of people.
When power emanates from the people it means you must be the voice for the people and not for yourself. You must take into cognisance their needs, wishes and aspirations.
Does it mean your party overlooked all these?
It’s painful to say. I’m an integral part of the administration that is about to leave office. As the inaugural Secretary to the Government, we had dreams and visions that under the watch of a brilliant young man, were supposed to move the state into that generation of new narrative. Much of what we were supposed to do would have been focused on the needs of the people.
What therefore went wrong?
So many things went wrong. No person anywhere in the world should attempt to play God. If you become a Governor, you are not God. If you become a Speaker of a House of Assembly, you are not God. If you become a President of a country, you should not play God because there is only one God who cannot accept another by his side.
PDP lost it somewhere along the line. The things we decided we were going to do were left undone. If you want to be a Leader in this society of many less ignorant people, there is need to stoop lower to conquer. Get down to the grassroots and understand the needs of the people.
We had opportunity to do rapid appraisal. I produced the documentation of the needs of our people from community to community at the early days of this administration.
Were the needs attended to?
It looked like I was stupid. I’m not regretting doing it. My scientific training told me that when you do scientific planning and implement the principles of re-appraisal, and have the political will to implement them, you will smell good.
If you did well as a leader, you won’t need to beg people to re-elect you, they will impose leadership on you. But when you don’t do well, they will kick you out.
Did you not see the explosion of joy reverberating in this town called Umuahia the state capital on Wednesday when Otti was declared Governor-Elect? I was told the same thing happened in Aba and even in the communities where PDP seemed to have won.
If greater number of people rejoiced at the failure of the PDP, the ruling party, it means that our performance was abysmal and a disaster. What happened in Umuahia on Wednesday, created in me an impression that the party I belong to was a disaster. So, we have to return to square one.
We inherited three Senators, seven House of Representatives members and 13 State House of Assembly members. How many do we have left today? We don’t have any single Senator today. We only have one House of Representatives member and about 10 House of Assembly members-elect.
It simply means we have not done well. If you look at the results today, you will simply agree that PDP in Abia is a disaster.
What’s the way forward?
We must do a re-evaluation of ourselves. We need some post assessment of an eighth-year disastrous performance. This is seen in the number of positions we lost despite being in power.
I have always said that power is a monopoly by a clique. So, if the clique is in touch with the ordinary people they will perpetuate power but if they don’t listen to them and begin to play small god, they will lose the support and loyalty of the people.
So, it’s better to listen to the words of a sage who criticises your performance than pander towards the praises of fools.
How will you advise the Governor-Elect, Dr Otti, as he prepares to take over the reins of power in Abia?
First things he should do when he settles down is to appreciate, recognise and honour integrity and prestige on the part of the Returning Officer, the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri, FUTO, Professor Nnenna Oti, who mid-wifed his election. Why do I say so? You can’t impose power on the people. Despite the fact that I told you that power is the monopoly of the clique, the clique should not perpetuate evil.
So, the in-coming Governor should appreciate an Igbo woman who had the honour, the exposure and integrity of standing firm and insisting that the right thing must be done; a woman who stood and insisted that the votes of Abians must count; that accreditation must be based on BVAS machine according to the law.
Your party alleged that the Returning Officer is Dr Otti’s first cousin. Do you believe that?
Even if I’m Stephen Ukandu’s father, and Steve is doing the right thing, what is wrong with that? I have been to the United States of America where the President, John Kennedy, appointed his own brother as the US Attorney General, and no person cared because he was qualified and had the exposure and capacity. So, if Professor Nnenna Oti is from Ngwa or Aro that’s her business but she did the right thing, and deserves applause.
Secondly, Otti should take a long hard look on why Abia is like this. My quick advice will be: Rehabilitate those structures that will re-institutionalise honour and integrity. Through out this struggle, from day one till yesterday, not too many elders of Abia could have the honour and integrity to speak out.
So, I will ask Dr Alex Otti to re-jig elders, rebuild the confidence of Ndi Ichie. If he does so, they will pass on words of wisdom.
Thirdly, every part of this system seems to be decaying – be it infrastructure, health care delivery, education, discipline.
There is no society in the world that can be led by touts. There are too many touts in Abia State Government. Tout is not a question of I have a PhD. You can be a PhD holder and you are a tout because you have left the area of professionalism to be touting for something.
I will also advise Otti to recognise that Abia can be better if we focus on human capacity building and development of our institutions. Let him expose more people to professional competence through training. Let him harness Abia resources to enable us build institutions that will propel those human capacity development.
You are a strong advocate of power shift to Abia North based on Abia Charter of Equity. Can you say that that advocacy was a success with the emergence of Otti?
When I started championing the cause, and I still stand by that till today, I am looking for an opportunity to get somebody who becomes Abia Governor and breaks the barriers through recognising competence across all three senatorial districts. And then, we will no longer bother whether he is coming from Ugheli in Delta or Abeokuta in Kogi.
So, my contention that power should return to Abia North was part of our agreement ab-initio. It doesn’t matter to me if Otti is from Ngwa, Aro or Ozuitem. What matters now is let him govern to the applause of the people.
Look at the number of registered voters and those who actually came out to vote as captured by BVAS. That’s about 30% of voters participated in the elections. Why do we still have voter apathy? This simply tells you that there is big distrust in the land.
So, I’m sorry for Otti because he has a big task – how to satisfy these people that placed high expectations on him. And to satisfy human beings in less developed countries like Nigeria is not an easy thing but small things impress our people. Otti should look at those basic things that should make them happy.
There were allegations that some PDP members and even stakeholders voted against the party’s candidates during the polls. Were you among those that revolted against the party?
No. It’s not a question of whether I was one of them. I didn’t beat about the bush. I said that I would not back my party for doing the wrong thing. I didn’t say it privately but publicly, and even in our caucus meeting.
I’m a card-carrying member of the PDP and I want to follow it until this destruction so that I can look them in the eyes and say:I came along with you people, I voted PDP, and look at what has happened. Even if I didn’t vote for PDP, my vote was insignificant. But my philosophy and lifestyle are not insignificant.
Are you contemplating leaving the PDP any time soon because of what has happened?
No. Membership of a party are people of like minds. Some of these people in other parties today were members of PDP. So, let’s do self evaluation and ask ourselves: what happened to PDP when we used to be PDP?
