PDP needs to cleanse the land before aspiring for any Political Position in Anambra –Ifeatu Obiokoye

Special Adviser to Governor of Anambra State on Political Matters, Ifeatu Obiokoye, speaks on the coming Anambra governorship election, chances of the ruling All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, among other issues.

 Excerpts

 *What would you consider as major achievements of the Obiano government in the past 7 years?* 

In the past seven years, before this present security breakdown, Anambra was a very safe state. We had Christmases and other festivities without any incidents of crime or violence. Despite what we experience presently, Anambra is still relatively safe, as there have not been any incident of bank robbery in the state.  It was part of efforts to bring sound security in Anambra that Obiano launched Operation Kpochapu I, as soon as he assumed office as governor. After about two years, he launched Operation Kpochapu II. This helped the state in its drive to create a socially stable economy. It also helped the state in attracting foreign investments into Anambra. That explained why in less than one year of the inception the Obiano administration, the state became a hub for investments. In Anambra State, we could fine people coming in to invest in the areas people never invested before - the area of agriculture. For instance, if you looked at the area of rice production, before this government, Anambra used to produce about 85,000 metric tons of rice. As of today, the state has been able to hit about 430,000 metric tons in rice production, and the state is also targeting 520,000 metric tons of rice production before this administration winds up. Anybody in Anambra State, who is still buying foreign rice is definitely wasting his money, because, Anambra has so many species of locally developed rice. We also encourage private farmers like Willow Farms. It is one of the biggest farms in the Southeast. All these are something that has never existed.

Again, the Anambra State Passenger and Cargo Airport is another achievement of this government. It is tied to the big decision of making the state main destination for businesses. This government saw that our people are well traveled. We travel to Indonesia, China and other parts of the world in order to sustain our businesses. Anambra people bring in goods from a port in Lagos, plus the cost of haulage and that of moving goods all the way from Lagos to the Southeast, with over 60 checkpoints of police and army. So, that is the biggest advantage we shall gain from having the airport. The biggest day in the life of the Obiano administration will be the day an aircraft will leave China and land in the Passenger and Cargo Airport in Umueri. Officially, we hope to commission the airport before the end of July. We have done a successful test-run, and the whole world has seen that the airport is of international standard. That airport, beyond bringing passengers, is more of commercial venture that will complement the Onitsha Main Market and other major markets in the state. This airport will also open up Anambra to a lot of foreign interests.

The governor also made great impart in the area of road construction. Works are halted at some sites because; a construction company which is deeply involved in the roads construction is also deeply involved in the construction of the airport. Now that the work is easing off, the contractors will definitely go back to sites. Obiano’s government might not have done popular roads; but lots of roads were done in rural areas. For instance, there are people in this state that have never seen tarred roads. In the vision of this administration, it started developing these areas that had never in their lives seen tarred roads. These are agrarian communities.

 

 *Aspirants and party faithful in APGA are not happy about the alleged endorsement of Soludo by Obiano?* 

Willie Obiano is the governor of Anambra State, and the national leader of APGA. He is the person to provide logistics to prosecute election for the party. It is the governor that is going to lead the campaign, and lead the party to victory. Any serious minded aspirant for this governorship election under APGA would have, before declaring his interest; find out the direction the governor is going. That is not to say that APGA is not going to have credible primary. But during the primary, all the machineries of the state government will be put in favour of the governor’s favoured aspirant. The process will be clean and credible, and the process will be free and fair. But one thing they should know is that any aspirant, who is not favoured, will not have the capacity to defeat the machinery of the state government. So, each time I hear them singing free and fair election, I tell them yes, there will be free and fair primary. It will not only be free and fair; it will also be credible; but one clear thing is that those other aspirants cannot defeat the machineries of this government.

 

 *What happens if aspirants and their supporters decamp to another party after the APGA primaries?* 

As a party, APGA will make efforts to mend fences after the primary election; none of those internal squabbles will be allowed to stop us from producing Obiano’s successor. We shall field the best candidate in the field. You can see the level of interest other parties are have in Soludo, because, they know he is the big masquerade of the coming election.

 

 *There are gossips that APGA wants to give its ticket to a member of the House of Representatives, Ifeanyi Muomah, for the coming governorship election. What is your opinion?* 

That is a fallacy; it is completely unfounded. The young man, Muomah, is not even in the race; talk more of replacing him for Soludo. Recently, when Governor Obiano visited the Anambra airport with some traders in the state, I personally told the traders that Gov. Obiano had an anointed candidate in the person of Prof. Soludo; not issue of body language anymore. So, anything contrary to this is a fallacy.

 

 *National chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Oye, and the anointed candidate of the party for the November 6 election in Anambra, Prof. Charles Soludo, are both engaged by President Buhari under the APC government. What does that tell about APGA as a party?* 

If we be sincere, we should understand that there is a great difference between the All Progressive Congress, APC, President Buhari and the Federal Government of Nigeria. Before now, Obiano’s government had sustained a robust relationship with the federal government of Nigeria; not the APC. APC is different from the federal government. Obiano’s predecessor, Obi, did the same under the PDP led federal government of President Goodluck Jonathan. All these are for the good of the Anambra people - that the state might sustain a good relationship with the center. In the case of Oye and Soludo, sometimes, Mr. President may find credible person in another political party, who he would want to do credible professional assignment for his government. That is what Prof. Soludo is doing with Buhari’s government.  That assignment is a big credit to APGA as a political party. So, Soludo is on the assignment of the federal government of Nigeria, not APC assignment.

 

 *A lot of people discredit the present Anambra government for allegedly obtaining loans to run his government; while it was said his successor, Obi, did not borrow to run his own government.* 

Anybody saying that Obi did not borrow was not aware of what happened. The person’s statistics is not correct. I was part of Peter Obi’s government, and I can tell you authoritatively that there are some commitments that the previous government entered into which made this government to borrow in order to actualize that commitment; though, it is not our duty to vilify the previous administration. Again, during Obi’s government, the budget was built on about N127 per barrel of crude oil; but today, the story is different. Sometimes, under this administration, budgets are built on about N60 or N40 per barrel. So, how could one compare the resources at the disposal of these administrations at different times? *Infact PDP has to attone for there sins in Anambra before they can aspire to rule Anambra.* Again, Obiano undertakes big projects like the International Airport, International Conference Center, Awka Stadium, and so on. They are all capital intensive, and they are all built without getting loan facilities.