Immediate past Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Chinedum Orji has given reasons why the North will still support President Bola Tinubu’s reelection in 2027. He also cautioned the Igbo that the surest way for the South East to produce the President of Nigeria shortly is to negotiate and partner with President Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Hon Orji, who spoke with the Managing Director|Editor in-Chief of the Sun Publishing Limited, ONUOHA UKEH and PAULINUS AIDOGHIE in Abuja, said through negotiation with other ethnic groups in the country, the Igbo will assume the presidency.

The former Speaker, who recently shifted political camp from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC, spoke about his sojourn in the Abia State House of Assembly, his politics, and life in general.

Recently, you left the PDP and joined the APC; what informed this change of political party?

You know that life is dynamic. I changed my political party after much reflection and projection into the future. I am in politics for the good of my people in particular and Nigeria in general. I will be anywhere I feel would help me achieve this objective.

Coming from the East, I know that there is every need for us to be in national politics and national government to attract more dividends of democracy to our people. I feel that joining APC and working with other like minds are the right things to do.

How has life been out of the office?

Life has been good. There is no difference between my life when I was in government and now. In fact, when I was in government, I knew that a time would come when I would be out of government and I conditioned my life to it.

As Speaker, I was not living in the Speaker’s lodge. I lived in my own house. Most of the cars I was using were personal cars. Now, out of government, I do not miss anything. The only difference I can identify is that I have more time for myself and my family. I am no longer under the pressure of government. I am no longer under pressure of office or whatever. I am not missing anything. It has been a very relaxing period.

Looking at your life in politics and the years you spent as Speaker, are there things you did that if you had another opportunity, you would have done better?

I believe that I did my best when I was a lawmaker, and when I was a Speaker. For one, I didn’t see the position of Speaker as an instrument to be confrontational to the Executive and, in the process, constitute a cog in the wheel of progress. I saw it as a position whereby you work in tandem with the Executive for good governance and the benefit of the people.

However, I felt that we could have done better in oversight functions. I tried my best in that direction but was misunderstood. Looking back now, I believe that there should have been more oversight functions, but without being antagonistic.

What will you say was your greatest achievement as a lawmaker and Speaker in Abia State?

When I became Speaker, I set out to make sure that the environment where we worked was enhanced. I had the cooperation of some of my colleagues, and we renovated the House of Assembly complex to give it the stature it deserved. If you visit the Abia State House of Assembly complex today, you will be proud that an engineer was once a Speaker there.

As Speaker, I led an Assembly that made good laws for good governance in Abia State. The laws are there for posterity. I remember one of the bills that I sponsored – the Girl-Child Inheritance Law – that abolished the deprivation of female children from inheriting or having any share in their father’s estate.

What is the Abia State of your dream?

Abia State is prided as God’s Own state. It is not by accident that the state is regarded as such. It is not also by accident that Abia State is number one when all 36 states in Nigeria are listed. My dream Abia is a state that would be number one in everything – governance, infrastructure, conduct, investment, etc.

Abia State of my dream is a place where constructive criticism, instead of destructive criticism, is entrenched. Constructive criticism helps those in government to make amendments but destructive criticism kills morale and brings about so much bad blood.

I also want Abia State, where those in government would take advice even from unusual quarters and not behave as if they know everything. When I was Speaker, I took the advice of Chief Tony Ukasanya for me to see the need to renovate the Assembly Complex. It was good advice that came at the right time, with good intentions. I heeded it, and the result was good. When those in government consider good advice, things will work out well.

What informed the good relationship between the Executive and legislature in Abia when you were Speaker? Was it a case of compromise or by design?

The three arms of government are the executive, Legislature, and Judiciary. These arms of government have their distinct functions but they work together to ensure good governance and welfare of the people. We at the Assembly understood this and played our role in this regard.

As I said earlier, I don’t believe that the job of the Speaker is to be confrontational to a governor. The Assembly is there to help the executive, not to fight it. My duty and that of my colleagues at that time were to make laws, approve budgets, carry out oversight functions, et cetera, for the smooth functioning of government and the welfare of the people.

States where the Assembly and the governor, nay Executive engage in a battle of supremacy make no progress. Tell me any state where there was a cat-and-mouse relationship between the Executive and Legislature that made progress. Where such happens, you only see ego at play. Ego fights do not bring about progress.

The House of Assembly is usually rancorous. Speakers and the leader are sacked at will. But during your tenure as Speaker, there was no such thing. How did you manage to make this possible?

From experience, I know that what brings about contention in the Assembly are misunderstandings and suspicion. A Speaker has to be open and transparent. You can’t succeed as Speaker if you are greedy and if you are not a team player. There are two ways to remove a Speaker. The first one is a gang-up of members. The second is contention with the governor.

Kindly note that where a Speaker carries his colleagues along and gives them the respect they deserve and their due, there won’t be issues. Also, when a Speaker concentrates on his constitutional duties and allows the governor to also perform his duties, there won’t be any problem.

So, any place you hear that the Speaker is removed or so, just check out the relationship the Speaker has with his colleagues. Is he carrying them along? Is he being transparent?

Within the time I served as Speaker, my colleagues and I were on good terms. There was nothing I did that I didn’t inform them about or carry them along. Therefore, the issue of impeachment or so did not arise.

In a newspaper interview when you were 50, you said that you were a man greatly misunderstood. Has people’s perception of you changed?

Yes, the perception has shifted. The best thing that happened to me was to contest the election and serve the people. This has helped to make people see me for what I am and not for what others say of me.

Before going into politics and government, people had a wrong impression of me, occasioned by wrong perception and bad politics. You know that in politics, the practice is to give a dog a bad name to hang it. My father was governor; so it was easy for political opponents and those who wanted to cause disharmony to tag me for their selfish gain.

I will give you an example. There was a time that it was rumored that I went to a supermarket and chased out everybody in that place and even slapped a soldier. It was said that soldiers came and descended on me, and I was flown to India for treatment owing to injuries I sustained from the beating by soldiers. That story went far and viral, to the extent that I went to the house of a bank CEO, and the wife asked me questions regarding that. That was when I knew the damage that fake news caused me.

The truth is that the story was fake. Nothing like that happened. If you beat up a soldier, the military won’t keep quiet. At that time, did the military say it happened? Certainly not. How people concocted that story, I don’t know.

I would admit that the fake news was circulated when I didn’t care about what people said about me. Therefore, I didn’t make any effort to correct the impression. But when the wife of the bank CEO confronted me, I realized that I should not have kept quiet.

You could recall that even when my father was governor, they went to town and said that I would go to my father’s office and point a gun at his head and tell him to sign cheques for me or do my bidding or I would shoot. There was nothing like that. In fact, I cannot imagine such an act, let alone execute it. Those who know the respect I have for my father would tell you I could not have done that. My father is a man who exudes respect. He is my father. After God, he is the next person. Also, those who know the workings of government would know that nobody would enter a governor’s office with a gun. The security personnel around him would not allow such.

When my father was governor, I tried to distance myself from the government. Throughout his stay as a governor, I only visited him in his office once. I only went to his office once.

What happened on that occasion that you visited?

There was a very serious issue that had to do with the political party. I called and called and called, but he could not take my call. I needed him to know so that he could make a decision. So, I had to go there. When I went, I briefed him and left. Nobody would ever tell you that I was a regular visitor to his office. I st