Senator Emma Nwaka is the chairman of the Abia State chapter
of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview with James Ume,
he sheds light on Orji Kalu’s ‘return’ to the party, the achievements
of the Governor T A Orji-led administration in the state. Nwaka
specifically declared that the former governor of the state is parading a
fake membership card.
Please take us inside your chairmanship journey so far.
Thank you very much. I came in at a time that the major stakeholders
of the party were like working at cross purposes. They needed a
leadership that was acceptable to everyone. When my name cropped up, I
found general acceptance from General Ike Nwachukwu, Governor Theodore
Orji, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, Senator Abaribe, among others. Since I
came on board, my major concern has been to make sure that I do not let
them down. My major concern was how to bring everybody together, and
give them assurance that I will be fair-minded in dealing with every
person. My mantra is establishing a level playing field for everybody.
To a large extent, we have succeeded in doing that. One thing the
leadership here has done is to gain the confidence of every person. If
at the end of the day, one loses out in a political contest, it is not
that the party shows favour to any person. Here we do not emphasise
money which is what has been causing problems in many political parties.
I am not into money politics because I’m contented. One thing that is
important in life is to respect oneself if one wants others to respect
one. That is one of the things helping us here.
As the PDP chairman, how have you been able to insulate the governor and the government from the regular politicking?
I did not insulate anyone. We have a wonderful man as the governor of
Abia State. In the PDP hierarchy, even at the national level, there is
the President as the leader of the party. There is also the chairman of
the party who runs the party’s administration on the day-to-day basis.
We need the cooperation of the governor. In this state, we have a
governor who is disposed to working with every person. Although he is
doing his last term, he works like a man who wants to do another term.
The political heavyweights in Abia are pleased with him. We have
realised that for the party to replicate its giant strides in the 2015
general elections, we need to maintain the momentum. What is working for
us here is that we have a governor who has respect for all and sundry.
He is not into this divide-and-rule thing. In some states, the bone of
contention is who will succeed who. But here, the governor is
maintaining an open mind. I see a situation whereby the person who
succeeds the governor is the person whom various interests want. For
sure, we want the best for Abia State. We don’t want charlatans here
anymore. We don’t want somebody who will make Abia State a pariah state,
which is what it was under Governor Orji Uzor Kalu. We don’t also want a
governor who spends half of his time abusing everybody in Nigeria. Orji
Kalu then would abuse Obasanjo in the morning, in the evening he would
abuse another person.
In another morning, he would invite traditional rulers to plead on
his behalf. That is the time a governor ought to use to attract projects
to his state. Under this leadership, we enjoy a situation where the
state is working in harmony with the federal government. A proof of this
is the fact that people from Abia State are occupying very important
positions in the federal government. It wasn’t so under Governor Kalu.
For your information, I’m a close pal of Governor Kalu. In 2003 when he
wanted to run for second term, (I’m from Isukwuato) we needed to embark
on a campaign tour to the area. I told him there was nothing to show in
Isukwuato as to the successes of the government for four years. He asked
me what could be done. I told him of a road, which is so dear to our
people. The road is Nunya road. When he came to campaign, there was
nothing to commission. So the day he came to campaign was the day he
did the ground breaking ceremony for that road. But, under Governor T.A.
Orji, there is no local government that has no state government
presence.
Can we say that you joined Governor Kalu to deceive your people?
No. He was the chief executive, I was just complaining.
Did Governor Kalu complete that project?
Governor Kalu eventually did not complete that project. It is
Governor TA Orji who finished the project. His failures made me leave
him. I’m a lawyer and had to go back to my private practice.
Former Governor Kalu left the PDP and formed another party.
Along the line he wants to come back to the PDP. What is your stance?
What is new that he is bringing to the party? He couldn’t run his
party. He ran it aground. He had Imo and Abia states sometime, and lost
both within the first term. Doesn’t it tell you something about Kalu?
Orji Kalu is not a good politician, but a good business man, perhaps. I
will ask him to concentrate on his business. He has ran a party, won two
states; instead of maintaining the tempo, he is now running back to the
party he left. And all he has to show for his failures is celebrating
that he has been accepted into the PDP.
Has he been accepted?
Who said so? It tells you something about his person. We are becoming
very wary of him. The fears expressed by some elders of the party are
now justified. In fact, God has a way of doing His things. Sometime ago,
the PDP chairmen of Igbere Ward A (Orji’s ward) and Ward B, returned
the wards register of the party to the LG party chairman and said they
had resigned from the PDP. Subsequently Orji Kalu invited them for a
meeting; that was on the 10th of January; only for us to hear that on
the 17th or thereabouts that the same people who resigned their
membership of the party have readmitted Orji Uzo Kalu into the party.
They are no longer members of the party. On what capacity did they do
that? As the state chairman of the party, I issue out cards to registerd
members. In every ward, we assign unique numbers to every ward,
accordingly. The card Orji Uzo Kalu is parading doesn’t fall into the
register we gave to Igbere Ward A, not even Igbere Ward B. He granted an
interview in the Sun where he quoted his number. Our book of ‘life’ in
the state PDP is the membership register. Any person can carry a card,
but if your name is not in the register, you are not part of us. In sum,
Orji Uzor Kalu is not a member of our party. In fact, if you know him,
he won’t like to end his politics in Igbere wards A and B. One day, he
will come to me and I will ask him where he got the card he is parading.
From the picture you painted, a crime has been committed already. How did he get the card?
See the interview he granted the Sun, you will see the number he
quoted. Check our register whether you can find the number he quoted.
The local government chairman where Orji Uzo Kalu comes from was at my
recent press conference. He brought out the register, and you discover
that the number doesn’t fall into that category. People print naira and
dollars; he could have done same.
Why don’t you want Orji Uzor Kalu back to the party? Is that not an infringement on his freedom of association?
Freedom of association is not the same thing as imposition. When you
look at the party’s constitution, it says the ward executive can even
refuse any person membership of the party based on what they know about
the person. The stakeholders of the party in Abia State say from what
they know about Orji Kalu, if he comes in, there will be trouble. And
there is already trouble. You can see him abusing the state governor.
That’s a man who wants to be a member. He is already saying the state
governor will come for social justice and all that. He also says he
wants to reclaim the party, instead of leaving it to ‘madmen’. Who are
you calling madmen? The bifurcation in the party all this while was
because of Orji Uzor Kalu.
Reasonable men like Tony Ukasanya, Ojo Maduekwe, Onyema Ugochukwu and
many more said they couldn’t work under this person. We started knowing
them as Abuja politicians. Then he had a free hand here. Abia paid
dearly for it. Take a tour of Abia State and look for any iconic
landmark that Orji Uzor Kalu left behind. He had eight years and it is
just now that we are building the state secretariat and a conference
centre; we are now doing those basic things that we require to show that
we are a state. When the minister for information said he was coming,
we were very happy because we had much to display. The minister couldn’t
even see one quarter of what we are doing in Abia State. Within two
years of TA Orji under the PDP, he has done much. I do not bother him as
state’s party chairman. I do not say there is money, let’s share. We
know that the only way I can move this party forward and redo what I did
in 2011 is for him to work for the people. Then I can boast of what he
did and ask the electorate to give us another chance; and that we shall
improve on what he has done. This is unlike before when the issue was
always ‘bring and let’s share’. Things have changed. We now consult. It
is no more a situation where mother and child will sit down somewhere
and take a decision, and say that is the decision of the party. We just
had a meeting with all the stakeholders to brainstorm. Here I disburse
money through vouchers. We have a bank account. To audit the account is
the easiest thing to do. We have a picture of how the party funds are
expended. That is why we have peace here. I don’t interfere with the
state funds. Ask anybody. That is how I run my family.
What are the activities you are lining up for proper electioneering, which will soon start?
We are not talking about the election yet. Our focus is to deliver
the democracy dividends to the people. With that, it will be very easy
for us to replicate our performance in the 2011 general elections. Right
now, we want to embark on the tour of the LGAs to see their strength
and know how we can make them better.
Give us a highlight of most of the projects handled by the current administration in the state?
This administration will be two years in May 2013. If you look at TA
Orji’s achievements under these years, compared to the eight years we
had under Governor Kalu, we have so much to celebrate. Under the PPA, he
didn’t do anything. They won’t allow him. He accepted it. These days,
you don’t become anything here because you are taken to one shrine or
the other. The governor assesses whoever is qualified for a position and
gives to the person. You don’t pay allegiance. One thing about bribery
is that once you collect money from someone, you become the person’s
slave. You can’t caution the person even when he is going wrong. It
doesn’t happen anymore in Abia State. We have a situation now where all
the leagues in the state sit down and iron out issues. It is not a
family monopoly anymore.
It is an achievement. Again there is security. Governor TA Orji has
been celebrated all over the world for what he did to achieve security
in Abia State. Otherwise no one would have been here. The chief of army
staff commended the governor recently on his strides. Again the governor
is accessible to any security man all the time. That is why we have
peace. Hitherto contractors don’t go to site because of kidnappers. It
is now over. When people will celebrate TA Orji is after he has left
office. He has given Umuahia a facelift. Umuahia was looking like a
local government headquarters before. Plans are underway to get Shoprite
here. People often go to the old Umuahia and say nothing has happened
in Abia. They refuse to go to the area where we have the Central Bank of
Nigeria to see the secretariat we are doing. It is called Ogwurube
Layout. This is just two years under the PDP government. This is also
seen in every local government. Before now, because the governor was
quarrelling with the hierarchy in Abuja, we didn’t have a representative
in the Niger Delta Development Commission, but now we have. It is
attracting a lot of projects to this area because we belong to the NDDC.
Hitherto about 42 oil wells belonging to Abia State were given to
Rivers State. Today the wells are back in Abia state column.
Under TA Orji, we have tranquillity returned to the state.
Tell us the wrought this government inherited from the previous
administration?
We had a state of insecurity and a pariah status where people feared
to say they were from Abia State. Today, every person feels proud to say
they are from Abia. In appointments at the national level, it is a
different ball game. Under Orji Kalu, it was hard to get the military
here to restore peace. Also the shakers and movers of society now sit
under one umbrella to plan the way forward for the state. Like it is
said, two heads are better than one.
Do you foresee the return of Orji Kalu to the PDP?
If he wants to come back, it should not be through the window. Again
what is he going to add to the party? But this is a man who found a
party and couldn’t run it. It died in his hands. His party won two
states and lost them. He ran for a senatorial seat and lost it. In his
recent interview in the Sun, he is abusing everybody. He assumes he has
the magic wand. His aspiration is to become the president of Nigeria.
Some day he will say he is out of politics; another time he is running
in his village to rejoin a party he had left. If he has a card, its
validity ends in Igbere.
What is your relationship with the national leadership of the party?
It is very cordial. As their point man here, I have not failed them.
Ask Olisa Metu. I went to the Senate at 32 under Babangida. I trust my
capacity to lead the state chapter of the party. And that I have been
doing so very well and they are proud of our achievements in the state.
We have many political sub-camps in Abia State. The real
politicking will soon start. Do you think these camps won’t conflict
under your leadership?
I look up to God for everything I do. I do not have any fear. We are
dealing with responsible people in Abia. I look forward to having
consensus candidates. It may not be very perfect.
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