Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, in this interview, said he is ready to give an account of his eight years of stewardship as governor. He also spoke on the performance of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the March 18 governorship poll, the controversial election results from Obingwa LGA and his plans after handing over on May 29.
PDP‘s performance in the last elections in the state was very poor, what happened?
Naturally, I would have loved my party to win but the elections have come and gone. The outcome of any election is a combination of many factors. One could be the perception of the electorate and the other, is the technicalities involved in the election. I am proud to say that we didn’t head from the elections to the mortuary. Whether the verdict is a true reflection of the wishes of the people is a matter for another day. I love the fact that history and posterity are always there to judge and put records straight. Be that as it may, I am consoled by the fact that elections for everybody should be seen as a call to serve. If the opportunity does not come at the time you desire, you should find the courage to move forward and see whether the outcome will be better next time.
The PDP has been there for 24 years. As a scientist, I respect the growth curve and there is a point you get to when you will begin to experience diminishing returns. It could come from lots of things; self-confidence or overconfidence. People will begin to think that we have always been winning and we will always win.
This kills the hunger and drives to do the needful in terms of campaign, vote-following and result. It also creates complacency and a laissez faire attitude.
Those who are outside are hungry for victory and when you begin to see that the input is not commensurate with the output the curve flattens and subsequently begins to nosedive.
At that point, you need to do something radical to get back to your position. Again, I think that all hope isn’t lost for my party; we are still the majority in the state House of Assembly. This is a good thing to fall back on, we can rebuild from there. If we have 11 members in the House of Assembly which is the grassroots constituency, what it means is that PDP is still stronger than other parties. If not, why didn’t the other parties get the majority?
Your party still went to court contrary to your appeal in your congratulatory message to the Governor-elect. Did your party consult you before taking the decision to go to court?
My party did not consult me to seek my opinion. I say this because I volunteered my opinion and I spoke like a statesman. I am convinced that those who win elections should be given the opportunity to work because I was at the receiving end of bitter three and half years of litigation. And I don’t want anybody to go through such an experience. What put a spanner in the works is that even the supposed beneficiaries of my advice, the Labour Party, also went to court against the 11 members-elect of my party, who won in the state assembly.
So, I lost my foothold in advising the party not to go to court, they could ask me if I want them to sit by and watch the opponent humiliate them. All of us should be able to offer what we desire. If I desire peace, I should be able to offer peace too. You can’t be looking for peace with a knife and gun and everything in your pocket at the same time.
It doesn’t work that way. Incidentally, I am not the gubernatorial candidate and I am not the party. I still think that the characters that are involved in this; the candidates, both the victor and those who were not lucky, can still talk to one another.
The Returning officer for the election, Prof. Nnenna Otti, made some allegations on her return to her institution about how she was bullied but refused to be intimidated. Who were those that bullied her? What is your reaction to the issues that played out during and after the announcement of the allegations?
I wish I knew those who bullied her. I think she has been making too much noise out of nothing. The returning officer’s duty is essentially to tally results already collated from the wards through the local governments and declare them.
She can’t change the results because she has no right to do that unless she went ahead and did something like that.
But her reactions betrayed the fact that she was overly excited about something. When you come to that kind of position dispassionately, whatever the outcome should not excite you. But the victory dance she participated in and her statements which are akin to confessions have betrayed the fact that she came for a hatchet job. It could be to reject or accept some results.
I want the world to know that she is celebrating what she has no right to do. I have never met her before; I don’t have her telephone number but I am aware that if she came to do the right thing, she has no right to change anything. In fact, she has no right to even reject results because those results were generated from the polling units and wards. Her celebration is unfortunate and unbecoming of somebody who was given that kind of responsibility at that level.
Are you not disturbed by the gifts she has received from some highly placed persons in the state, does this justify your fears that she may have been compromised?
You know that bribes can come before or after the event. If I tell you if you do this or if this is the outcome, this is what you will get, it is an inducement. It is also an incentive to behave in a certain way. So, could this be a fulfilment of a promise that if this is the outcome, this is what will happen? I think it is unprecedented, I don’t know where this has happened in Nigeria before, and it has opened a new vista of inducement during the election. You are my friend, and you are running for an election. I can tell the returning officer to do everything to announce my friend and I will give you something after. And when I keep my promise, it becomes inducement. It is very unfortunate.
During the elections, there are lots of stories that came out of your local government, Obingwa, especially the issue of delayed submission of results and alleged hostage-taking of electoral officers. What is your take on this?
I am not aware of the hostage-taking of any electoral officer in Obingwa LGA. I visited the area, but before I got there, the Commissioner of Police in charge of the elections in Abia South was there; the Police Area Commander for Aba was there.
The DSS was there. And when these high-ranking officers of these agencies go to such places, they do so with a retinue of their men. In fact, there was an armored personnel carrier manned by soldiers stationed at the local government headquarters.
(CDA NEWS)
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