Hon Uzoma Nkem Abonta, is a
three-term national legislator on the platform of the PDP; representing
Ukwa-east/West Federal Constituency of Abia State. In this interview, he
emphasised the need for President Muhammadu Buhari to publish the hand over
notes from former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, saying such would
properly guide Nigerians in comparing governance outcomes between Buhari’s
government and that of Jonathan. He spoke to Tony Egbulefu
Some observers have put PDP’s
loss of the presidency down to its decision to field former President Jonathan.
Is that how you see it too?
Jonathan did not emerge in the
election, not that he lost. In his humility and all what not, he said, “I will
go” and he left. A lot of factors, contributed to Jonathan not being
re-elected, one of which I’ll take to be the hand of God so that Nigeria may be
preserved. Two, the activities of the PDP within PDP did not help matters.
Those people who won elections in the APC, are they not PDP members? Are some
of them not people denied tickets in PDP and they went to APC and won?
Therefore, lack of intra-party democracy and high-handedness in the PDP helped
APC. The problem in PDP was the gain of APC. When I hear that PDP ran this
country for 16 years and messed it up, I laugh because some of the people
saying it spent eight years if not more in the PDP. Nigerian politicians would
always chase the ambulance; they would follow where the goodies are. But I make
bold to tell you that APC will not bring any change if PDP is not watching
them.
How do you think the South-east
and the South-south would fare in terms of appointment from President Buhari,
given the fact that the two zones did not vote for him?
The South-east and the
South-south may not have given the president plenty of votes, but in terms of
appointment, President Buhari may be guided and must be guided by the federal
character principle. Be that as it may, we know he would reward party
loyalists; we know he may reward those who worked for him, and be compelled to
give the very juicy positions to his key men, more so to guarantee his success
and avoid sabotage. But he cannot leave out these zones in appointments. The
West that gave him plenty of votes has also gotten nothing. The appointments he
made with the service chiefs, he told us well ahead that they were made based
on their records. And I want to agree with him partially though. If you look at
the hierarchy of soldiers, for every 20 Northern generals, you may get one
Easterner who may also be a junior officer. Things are tilted to that side
until there is a balance in the recruitment process based on equality of
states. We can pretend to excuse the president on that until he makes further
appointments. If he now wants to appointment professors, we expect that the
North would be disadvantaged.
Your party, the PDP says the
president’s anti-corruption war is only directed at its members. How does the
president’s anti-corruption war, particularly the arrests come across to you?
We are all supportive of the
anti-corruption crusade from the president. He must start somewhere. Mr
President himself has also said that if there is any APC person that is
corrupt, such a person will not go free. We are watching. By the time he makes
the list of corrupt people he got from abroad open, we will ask why is he after
A and not B, and where they belong to. Those he is chasing now, we are also
told, have cases to answer. I don’t think Buhari is a magician. I am not
holding forte for him. I am a PDP member but he can only know who is corrupt or
not based on reports given to him. He has said, “I won’t go beyond Goodluck.”
Not going beyond Goodluck is probably to take a chunk he can finish. If doing
Goodluck would lead to doing beyond Goodluck, he should do it.
Is there any particular area you
would wish the president to touch with his anti-corruption crusade?
First of all the oil theft and
the mismanagement of the oil fund cannot be traced anything less than 10 years
back. Under Goodluck, we even had an oil minister, there was a president that
was also an oil minister. That is why I make bold to ask that the handover
notes be published. So that we can know where he is starting from and where he
will stop. If Obasanjo’s handover notes had been published, we would have known
what he gave to Yar’Adua and Goodluck. The sensitive areas that bother on
national security can be kept out, but the other aspects, let us know. Oil
theft is a huge open scandal that surpasses Jonathan and he said he would open
it and has opened it, so will he stop at Jonathan?
The APC spokesman, Lai Mohammed
has said that what Buhari has achieved so far has surpassed what Jonathan did
in four years. What do you see as Buhari’s major achievements so far?
There was one debate I watched on
Channels TV between Lai Mohammed and one civil society person on this claim
recently. He man humbled Lai Mohammed. He made him realise that he was talking
what was not based on facts. How can you say Buhari’s two months’ achievement
surpass somebody’s six years? I am not about to judge Buhari, I am only praying
for him. Like Tinubu said, he needs 100 days of honeymoon. He needs three
months to settle down, to put things together and chart a course. Anyone
judging him now doesn’t wish him well. He may be slow, but steady. He should
not be too slow. How can Lai Mohammed say, the refineries are working under
Buhari? That man asked him, how many turn-around maintenance contracts have
your government signed to be able to revive the refineries. I also know that
there is no turn-around maintenance that would last less than two months. Has
Buhari even spent three months in office? Someone builds a storey building,
roofs it, puts the glasses and all what not and another person just painted and
opened the door for tenants to come in; who built the house? If we see the
handover notes, we will see whether it touched on the refineries and what were
Jonathan’s achievements and failures. But what I know is that the fear of
Buhari is beginning to restructure things. The fear of Buhari with the
anti-corruption crusade is making evil (civil) servants to behave normal. If
you say Buhari has improved the power supply, the GENCOS and DISCOS have not
added any other new contract or injected more funds into their operations, because
they still have no funds.
Government at all levels is
crying of lack of funds and empty treasury. What’s your outlook on this claim?
This is why we should know what
and what was handed over. Even those who got money say they got empty treasury,
yet they are spending money. Where did they get the money they are spending?
Did they borrow? But I know that all is not well with the governors, given the
way they are crying. Thank God for the bail out. Even the Federal Government
also needs a bail out. As I speak to you right now, we are in the third
quarter, and there are still no releases for capital projects.
Coming home to your state, how
would you assess the actions of your state governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu so far?
The new governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu
has got a lot of problems on his hands. I was in Abia few Sundays ago,
precisely at Etche Road and Ulasi Road. That area is terrible. Aba should be
declared a disaster area. Aba got into this rot more than 20 years ago, Okezie
cannot do any magic in few months, not even in four years. Some people cannot
even afford to allow their dogs live in those areas. Even with jeeps, people
can’t move there. I went for a church programme, I could see the church but I
couldn’t go near, even with jeep. Okezie needs support. We will rally around
him to see how he can fix Aba. He should ask for national help. Aba is still
suffering the aftermath of the Nigerian civil war. That’s my conclusion. All
the holes dug by bombs and all what not, some of them are yet to be fixed. They
should go and look at Aba very well in the spirit of reconciliation,
reconstruction and rehabilitation and the Federal government should have a role
to play in fixing Aba. Aba is too much for a state government to fix. Nobody
should expect Okezie to do magic.
Is the general meltdown in Aba,
not an indictment on the PDP governments that have held forth in the state for
over 16 years now? What did the successive PDP governments do to redeem Aba?
In as much as I am going to
justify the actions of the PDP governments in Aba in the past 16 years, I will
make bold to ask: what is Abia’s revenue profile? It is an oil producing state;
part of the NDDC states that collect extra 13 per cent derivation from national
oil receipts periodically but based on quantum of production. It is not shared
equally. While some states get N34 billion, some states get N3 billion but the
truth is that there has been a neglect of Aba by previous administrations.
There were no conscious efforts to uplift Aba, and that was why it decayed.
That was why we had to insist that somebody from Aba should rule. If you look
at Umuahia, you see some semblance of development, you go to Igbere (former
Governor Orji Kalu’s home town), even their farm roads are tarred, and you go
to Aba, the commercial centre, no road. The traders had to relocate to Akwa
Ibom, and partly Owerri. Most shops in Uyo today, Eket, and Ikot-Ekpene, are
owned by traders who left Aba.The South-south could not come to Ariaria again
so the traders had to go to them there. Okezie being an Aba boy is addressing
this issue. He insists on commissioning six roads in the first 100 days but he
has problem with the rains; but as we are speaking now, he is doing the
drainages so that water can even flow. You can see some seriousness in him.
Even though he has not told us that he met empty treasury, his body language
also denotes empty treasury. He is going for N30 billion loan right now. For
him to have the courage to demolish, he wants to work. If Aba is lifted, Abia
will compete with Lagos and the IGR will be much.
Credit: Leadership
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