Your Excellency, early Sunday morning, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, as winner of the governorship election. How do you react to this, sir?
I feel very happy that Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu won because he is the people’s choice. The fact that he won means that he is wanted by the peoples, so our party the PDP did not make any bad choice in choosing him to stand for us. I feel happy and I know that my happiness radiates throughout the state which is to say that other people in the state are happy, even those who are not members of our party are happy that Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu won because he is a man of the people.
What is your advice to those that contested the governorship against him, especially in the quest to the state to the next level?
Well, this is a game and in this kind of contest, there must be a winner and there must be a loser and a winner has emerged. It is expected that the persons or persons who have lost should join hands with the winner to move the state to the next level. That is what is expected of all of them and this is my advice to all those who contested gallantly and lost to join hands with the eventually winner, the governor-elect to do well because the state belong to all of us. This is my advice to them; they should join hands with Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu and work very hard for the upliftment of Abia State to the next level.
On the 29th of May you will be leaving a plethora of legacies for Abia State. Which particular sector would you want your successor to concentrate on when he assumes office?
Well, there are lots of sectors that will need his attention. First there is the need to maintain the corporate existence of the state, the unity of Abia State is essential. Let him do those things that will make Abia State united, let him run an all inclusive government, a government where every Abian participates and contributes his quota towards the development of the state. Let him also try to improve the economy, ands through the improving of the economy provide jobs for the people, in fact all those things that the people were clamouring for when we campaigned, those things should be an eye opener for him that these are the things that the people want and if he can do those things, I think the sky will remain his limit. The issue of security is also essential and I am emphasizing here that it is very, very essential because it is only with security that development can come, security is the driving force of development, and without security, development will not come so he must look at security clearly and here I am talking about kidnapping and allied crimes, he should be serious about them so that the security of the state will be intact and then he will be free to develop the state.
Some people have expressed the opinion that you installed Ikpeazu and that you installed him so that you can remain the de jure governor, while he becomes de facto. Sir, how do you react to this?
That is not correct, and I don’t have that ambition in the first instance. I didn’t install Dr. Ikpeazu, he is the choice of the people. He emerged through the primary of the PDP, it was done at the Umuahia Township Stadium and everybody saw it. He pulled the highest number of votes to beat every other aspirant, there were aspirants who got one vote, some got two, but he got over 400 votes to emerge as the candidate of the party. He is the choice of the party, so I didn’t install him. And again he has the charisma and possesses the qualities of leadership and that was why the people stood behind him and because of this the party settled for him. And moreover, the party said it was time to break a jinx in this state and that jinx is this issue of somebody from the Ukwa/Ngwa block to be the governor of this state. Since Abia State was created, the people from that side had never been governor and in our own thinking, we said it would be good to get somebody from Ukwa/Ngwa block to be the governor for the first time and the people supported, and we went there and picked Dr. Ikpeazu and today, you can see that it has materialized because that decision brought unity among the Ukwa/Ngwa block especially and they fought doggedly and brought out their votes which now made Dr. Ikpeazu to win. So aside from any other thing, we have broken that jinx of an Ukwa/Ngwa being the governor of Abia State and that is my happiness. So I didn’t install him, nor do I have any wish to manipulate. Why would I want to do that? You can’t manipulate a person who has a PhD, you can’t manipulate a person who has been in governance for a very long time, you can’t manipulate a person who has been with the people and that era of manipulation is gone forever in Abia politics, you cannot do it again, now or ever. The man is old enough, the man is mature enough, the man is intelligent enough to have people who will help him in governance to initiate his own ideas. If you bring ideas he doesn’t like, he will jettison the ideas and take his. So we didn’t install him to manipulate him. Manipulate him for what? I have been governor for eight years. I’m satisfied that I have been governor of Abia State and I’m moving to another level. So I don’t have such interest whether remotely or otherwise, it has never crossed my mind and it will never cross my mind. My interest in Abia today is for Abia to be governed very well, for Abia to move to the next level, so we don’t have any intention of manipulating any person at all, all we want is the best for Abia so that she can catch up with the rest of the states in Nigeria and we see that best in Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu and the overwhelming support and votes he received across the state is also an indication that the people also see him as the best for them.
In the first election of April 11, you were very critical of INEC, what is your assessment in the rerun poll?
They have improved a lot since the last election. You know the first election which was the Presidential election, the card readers were not working, they were non-functional in almost every part of the state, materials for the election got to the units very late, which made the election to start very late. But with time they improved, the card readers started working well, materials got to the units early and the INEC staff, both permanent and adhoc became more efficient. So I must really commend them and say that they have tried, they have improved tremendously and if they retain this process, the next election will be very good.
Was there any time, along the way, that it seemed that the PDP would not win the governorship election? If there was, at what point was this?
No, no, no, no, it never looked dicey to me at any point because I know this is an election. I was very confident that PDP will win come rain, come sunshine. I had that confidence and I still have that confidence because PDP is on ground, PDP has the structure because for you to win an election you must have a structure. It was a question of oiling the structure, reengineering the structure to start functioning again. Unfortunately, people we were contesting the election with, they had no structure, these are people who were just coming from the corporate world, they have not been in politics, but PDP has been on the ground for a very long time, so there was no fear at all we wouldn’t win, I never entertained such fear, I was confident from the onset and that confidence has remained in me till now.
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