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Thursday, August 7, 2014

How Okorocha corners LG funds –Ararume

Former Senator and now Imo State governorship hopeful in the 2015 poll, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, x-rays the stewardship of the Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, and declares that his government is like pestilence in the state. In this interview with a group of editors in Abuja, including ASSISTANT POLITICS EDITOR, CELESTINE OKAFOR, Ararume expresses the view that there is an urgent need to rescue the state from the current administration, among other issues. Excerpts …

You have again indicated your interest in running for the governorship of Imo State in the 2015 general elections. Why have you not given up on this quest?

My desire to serve my people was based on the love l have for them. And l have always seen Imo as a place that should be better than as it has always been – and because those things that l thought would have been in place in Imo are still not in place. Our people back home have been in search of good governance. We’ve had governors in that state. Since 2007 when some persons who thought that they could play God decided to truncate the desires and wishes of our people, Imo state has not witnessed peace in the sense that nothing has worked in Imo state. The local governments have never functioned in the state. Those who found themselves in positions of governance in Imo state do not know the difference between the state purse and their individual purses. The local governments in Imo functioned last when Achike Udenwa was governor of Imo state. From that time to now that we are discussing, nothing has worked in Imo state. The essence of political parties and the essence of democracy or the whole idea of tiers of government, is to promote good governance and improve the welfare of the people. There are some politicians whose political journey will end at the local government level. Some politicians will aspire to be councillors, others aspire to be council chairmen and supervisors when the local governments are in place. But we haven’t seen these things work. There are also some business people who will do some renovation works in the primary schools, but because nothing has worked at the local level, they will have no form of empowernment. We have a situation where somebody claims that he is a governor of a state and the twenty seven local governments we have in Imo state, the highest so far in the South-East, will have no money to even pay the salaries of their workers because what is given to them from what comes from the federal allocation is nothing to write home about. In Imo State today, a local government gets a statutory allocation of a hundred and twenty or fifty million naira monthly, and the state government gives only five million naira to a council’s sole administrator or care-taker committee chairman. And he or she is made to sign off the balance of the money, indicating that the whole figure was collected by the council. That is what is happening in Imo state now and that’s why nothing has changed. You go to these local councils, things are the same. In fact, the way they are now, some of the local government headquarters are overgrown with weeds. That is really very unacceptable. Some governors, particularly in Imo, will build a road and in a few months, that road will be almost impassable.

You mean the beautifully finished road projects we see on television are substandard?

Go to Imo state and find out the quality of work done. Like l said, it is like that in most states. And the worst thing that is happening in Imo today, is that the man who is there (Governor Rochas Okorocha) does not know any procedure. There is nothing like rule of law to him and he doesn’t believe in it. He doesn’t also believe in due process. A governor who signed the abortion bill and said it was a mistake he put his signature, that he did not read the bill.  It is only in this country that such thing can happen. If it happens in a civilized society, the man will resign that same day. If you go to Imo state today, the primary schools are in a terrible and deplorable state. There is hardly any local government in Imo that does not have a general hospital, but they don’t even qualify to be consulting clinics. In those hospitals today, ordinary medical disposables  like syringes, bandages, plasters, etc can hardly be found there, not to talk of medical doctors. If you go to the Teaching Hospitals that former governor Achike Udenwa built in Orlu, the incumbent governor’s home town, you won’t find doctors there. Some of the equipment Udenwa imported for those Teaching Hospitals are still in their crates. Some of them, like the CitiScans and MRI machines, are now obsolete. It is just to build a structure, fit these equipment and install them and train the relevant personnel in Radiology to man them within or outside the country and they effectively handle those equipment. What the governor in Imo is doing now is to acquire properties that belong to the state government.

In that case, are you presenting yourself for the Imo governorship race in 2015?

To answer you directly, yes. I am running!

How do you intend to wriggle out successfully in the midst of the crowd that has become governorship aspirants, which includes the incumbent deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon. Emeka Ihedioha?

Well, for me, democracy is about the grassroots. It is something from bottom up, it is not from up. Those who don’t get it right are those who impose their wishes or desires on the people. You allow the people to make their choice. They know all of us. We are from the area. The people know us as ordinary citizens. I have been out of the Senate now for almost eight years. I am not a board member of any government establishment. I am simply doing my business. But in doing my business, l still interface with my grassroots and they are the ones who have said to me that things are still the same in the state. No change for the better whatsoever, so l should come and try again to make this better and that they would give me their support. Who am l to say no?

You have been away on a brief sojourn to the defunct opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Don’t you think that, somehow, this factor may affect your chances in PDP?

Well, l do not think so. You see, where is the party’s constitution that says if you are a member of the party and you have left the party and come back, after twelve months, you cannot contest any election? You don’t need to seek any waiver. And from the time l left the party because of the injustice that l suffered, the party chapter in my state, led by the founding fathers of the party and the pioneer chairman, Chief  l. D Nworga, came to talk to me about my return to the party. President Goodluck Jonathan also spoke to me about the need for me to come back, because you can’t build a house and leave the house you have built. So, l came back to the party and registered in my ward. That was the time Mr. President came to receive us. It is over one year now. So, l don’t even need a waiver. And even if l need a waiver, the President and the party have said it that in Imo state, because l don’t know the arrangement in other state, all those who came back, will be given automatic waiver. So there is no challenge as to when l came back to the party. For me, l don’t even need automatic waiver because l had come long before the visit of the President.

There is one major challenge that some observers have foreseen, that may create a lot of acrimony in the Imo state governorship election come 2015. And that is that the elders and leaders of the party, like you, are usually embroiled in bitter acrimony such that it is usually difficult to create a rapproachment. Is the situation likely to be different this time?

I think that it is a good thing to do. It is one thing l will honestly like to happen. And l am sure the leaders of the party in Imo are beginning to think that way. I am aware that the PDP leaders in Imo are meeting now. And the whole essence of the meeting is to see how the party can be brought together. The truth of the matter is this: We (PDP) is a party in opposition, as far as l am concerned. And every one of us knows and appreciates his competences and capacity. And the party in opposition in Imo state can be doing zoning. You look for your best to win the election because when you are in government, there are things that you have. There are some structures that will help you to win election. For instance, if you are government, you have your commissioners, your personal assistants and the local government chairmen, supervisors and board members, and even traditional rulers. You can summon them and tell each and every one of them to go to their local governments and make sure that our party wins. It is a structure. But when you are not in government, you don’t have these things. All you need to do is to look for your best. A man that has structures on his own and who other leaders in Imo will trust. It is not just winning the primaries. If it is winning the primaries, you won’t have the capacity to win the main election. And if you win the main election, the question is: will you provide the good governance they are looking for? Are you going to be a man who will say l believe in the rule of law, in due process? Will you be a man who will be procedural that somethings have to go the right way? Will you be a man who will see the leaders of Imo state and accord them the respect that they need? Will you be the man that will allow the local governments to have their funds and develop that level of government? So that is why when everybody comes out and claims that they are popular or this or that, that is where the party, both at the local area and at the center, will play a role. And if the party tries and fails, both the constitution of the country and that of the party allows you to aspire to work towards realizing your aspiration. All the party will do, is to say since we have tried and failed, let the party primary process be transparent without any impediments and you will congratulate whoever that wins in that transparent process. But if there were deliberate attempts to put hurdles in your way, you will not accept the outcome. This is what has caused problems in the past. Those who emerged candidates of the party at that time didn’t even go through the party primaries. Some of them were sleeping in their homes and hotel rooms that day. Some of them even travelled. Some of them were in their farms and they were called to come and be governor. And today, you can see what some of those people were doing because if you want to be governor, you would have thought about it.

Considering your experiences in the 2007 governorship election in which you were stopped by your party even when you won the primary, have you actually forgiven those who did that to you?

Well, you know in that 2007 election, it wasn’t the party (PDP) that stopped me. I had my governorship primary. The first one was cancelled. The second one was held and l won. The party didn’t stop me. We had processes, expression of interest and screening. Of course, the party can always stop you. You will not even be allowed to get the stage of going for the primaries. So the PDP as a party didn’t stop me. It was an individual that stopped me. And at time, Chief Ojo Maduekwe was asked to come and talk to me to go back to the Senate. I said no. I had somebody from my place that l supported and he also won his primary to go to the Senate and he was already campaigning. How do you now submit my name to INEC when l didn’t even contest for the primary? It’s not done! So it wasn’t my party that stopped me. The party submitted my name to INEC and l was told to come and go to the Senate. Why? For what reason? And then l had to challenge it, especially when somebody, one Engr Charles Ugwu, who scored only about three votes in the governorship primaries, was brought in to take my place, l said no. You know, the then president, Olusegun Obasanjo, then felt that l challenged him. No, l didn’t challenge him. What would l have told my children, that l won my primary and allowed somebody to take it away, just like that? I said if you have something against me that you feel was sufficient to stop me, then bring it. That was why l went to court. And l went from High Court to the Supreme Court and l won. President Olusegun Obasanjo then came to Imo and said that Imo state PDP does not have a candidate for the election. Inspite of  that, l won that  election of April 14, 2007. The Electoral Officers were recalled midway. And when the election was rescheduled on April 28, 2007, l again won. By 12 noon, all the Electoral Officers were recalled. But that is history now. I don’t hold it against anybody. Even though l was not the governor, l got some satisfaction, that l was able to challenge those said l shouldn’t go. And l went up to the Supreme Court. Up till now, whoever played any negative role against me that time, l’ve forgiven and moved forward since that time. I’ve had occasion of seeing the former president (Obasanjo) once in the church when our leader, Chief Tony Anenih, celebrated his 80th Birthday anniversary. As l was walking out, Obasanjo was behind me and l turned and greeted him. He is our former President, so l still give him his respect. I have nothing against him. And l am sure that if he is given another opportunity, he will do things a little bit differently. Over time, he would have seen that one or two mistakes he made wouldn’t have been made.

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