•Asks Anambra voters to disappoint moneybags at Guber poll
•Says collect their money, do the right thing
By Omeiza Ajayi
Chief George Moghalu, a former Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority NIWA, is one of the governorship aspirants in the Labour Party, LP in Anambra State. Ahead of the April 5 primaries of the party, he speaks on several issues afflicting the political space and urged the electorate to collect any money given to them by politicians but ensure that they do the right thing.
Having gone round the state, what are your chances in the election?
It is a simple question that requires a simple answer. My chances are very bright. I can repeat it a thousand and million times that my chances are very bright. You asked again, what about the threats from the other political parties, especially the State ruling party,All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA and the All Progressives Congress, APC, but let me say that I have not started to look at the strength of the other parties yet.
I am not bothered about what is happening in other parties. I am rather concerned about what is happening in my party, the LP, because every election has two stages, primary and the main. For now, we are concerned with the primary.
We are concerned about being the candidate of my party. There is this Igbo proverb which says that one must first struggle to get the land before they start struggling for the mat because if you don’t get the land first, there will be problem of where to put the mat.
The emphasis now is on intra-party, convincing the party members to place their confidence in me and sending me on the assignment. If, after April 5 and pleasing God, I emerged the candidate, then I will now start thinking about what is happening in other political parties.
What do you tell those thinking that as a new entrant into the party you are planning to reap where you did not sow?
It is not about reaping where I did not sow. The truth is, yes, I am a new entrant into LP, but I am not a new entrant in the political space as it affects Anambra State and in fact, the nation at large. I have remained consistently a political player from 1990 to date. So, you can’t expect me to be an unknown quantity.
For now, it is not about reaping where one did not sow; it ought not to be in the consideration at all. The party also needs politicians of my stature to be able to run the election. I have been around. It is about me and the platform, and that is what we are working on. It will be a very wrong assumption for anybody to say that I am trying to reap where I did not sow.
The leadership of your party has assured the aspirants of a level playing ground. Do you think they are playing politics?
Why do you think that they are playing politics with it? So far, I have every confidence in the leadership of the party of being able to deliver on their promise, because the best thing that can happen to any political party going into any political contestation is to ensure a free, fair, credible primary process so that at the end of the day, everybody will be happy. Like I have always said, there is no difficulty in calling the winner to congratulate the person once you feel that the process is free and fair.
Are the aspirants talking to one another for a possible consensus or alliance?
I am not aware of any of such, but what I know is that there is personal relationship among the aspirants. For me, I see it as a family affair because it is only one person who will represent the party.
Granted that we are all entitled, empowered by law, to seek for the office once you feel qualified, but at the end, it is thrown back to members of the party who will vote during the indirect primary. It will become a matter of the delegates choosing whoever they think can represent their interest better.
What gives you an edge over other aspirants?
It is not in my place to start determining the edge. I would rather ask you to make inquiries by asking questions, but by the time delegates emerge, you also ask them questions, and they will tell you where they are standing to enable you form an opinion.
There is this fear against indirect mode of primary because of the cash and carry nature associated with it. Do you see it as a ploy by the party to give the ticket to the highest bidder?
I don’t really see it as such, particularly in LP where I am contesting today, because the delegates who will emerge will come out through a direct process. It means that they are representing the interest of a people, locality, local government, ward, and things like that. I don’t see it as that.
How on ground is LP in Anambra considering the speculations that Peter Obi has pulled out the Obidient Movement from the party?
There is no iota of truth that Peter Obi will leave the party or has pulled out members of Obidient Movement from the party. It is not true. I usually don’t like commenting on speculations because there is no fact to back them, but as for this one, I can tell you it is not true. The Obi that I know will announce it if he wants to leave the party. He will make it public. So, people are just speculating.
I don’t also see anything wrong in his visiting the governor of Bauchi State. They are both national leaders. Before he became the presidential candidate of LP, he was a two term governor of Anambra State, and he visited a second term governor of Bauchi State and the chairman of governor’s forum of a major political party like PDP. What is wrong with that? They are consulting because Obi has ambition to be president of Nigeria, so he is moving round to also consult with those he can work with. As for the visibility of LP in Anambra, I can tell you that the party is very much on ground.
We can test the strength of a political party when the campaign starts and when the election takes place. In fact, since politics is very local, the party is still occupying many elective offices. Out of the three senators, LP has two; it also has seven out of the 11 House of Representatives members and more than 10 in the State House of Assembly.
Does that not show you enough reason that LP is clearly on ground, coupled with the fact that its 2023 presidential candidate is from Anambra State. Some of us aspiring to fly on the flag of the party have our followers that we have kept from our days as the National Secretary of APP and ANPP, down to when I became the National Vice Chairman, to when I became the National Auditor till now that I am running for governor. Don’t also forget that I have tried to be the governor under APC.
What would you say are your fears as you approach the primary and main election?
I don’t have any fear, to be honest with you, because if you are looking at fear from the general perspective, the only concern I have for the main election is the insecurity in the State. I also will wish that INEC lives up to its responsibility as the umpire.
They owe it as a duty to give us a credible election. It provides them an opportunity to redeem their image. It provides an opportunity to cancel out all the negative comments with regards to their performance. So, to be honest with you, I actually don’t have any fear,
I have said it repeatedly that power belongs to God and He gives to whoever He pleases at his own time. God’s will must be done and that is why I get worried when we, the politicians make pronouncements like I must do this, I must do that. We have had cases where people declare what they will do on Monday, but could not wake up after Sunday. So, the moment you play God, be ready to face the consequence.
What is your impression about high profile Nigerian politicians moving from one party to the other, especially the recent defection of El-rufai to the SDP?
Usually, movements of politicians have remained a problem in Nigerian politics, because most Nigerian politicians see political parties as vehicles for the actualization of ambition, not necessarily seeing political parties as a platform for ideological development.
They rather see it as a vehicle for the actualization of their political ambition. I am not in a good position to give you an honest narrative as regards the issue of movement because my recent defection to LP was my first time of moving from a political platform to another.
I may not be experienced enough to talk about the movement, but there are politicians in this country that have moved from one party to the other over six to 10 times. The moment they disagree with anybody or did not get what they want, they change platform.
It is a common thing in this clime and it is worrisome because it does not show development and growth of our political and democratic institution. Political parties should be more than vehicles for the actualization of political power. They should be seen as institutions for the development of political ideology.
In Britain, we talk about the Conservative and Labour. In USA, they have the Republican and the Democrats and what they stand for. Any contestant has the conviction of what they believe. It provides them an opportunity and platform to sell and that is why you can be challenged.
When a Democrat becomes Republican, it raises eyebrows and questions will be asked. It is unlike here in Nigeria where somebody can be in party A in the morning, party B in the evening, and by the time you think that he has settled in party B, he would have gone to party C. All the movements are just trying to shop where it will favour him.
From APC to APGA, most aspirants are laying claims of having a strong network with the Presidency. How much of network do you have with the presidency ahead of the governorship election?
I don’t have any network with the Presidency. However, my network is connected to God Almighty who holds the ultimate power, who determines what happens to mankind. We can only talk today but none of us can talk about what will happen tomorrow.
In fact, none of us can talk about the next hour, let alone tomorrow. There are stakeholders who believe in my candidacy that are providing support for me. As for the determining factor of what will happen about the contest, it is for God and God alone.
What is your take on money politics and vote buying both at primary and main elections?
I am very much worried about money politics. Very worried because we have successfully weaponised poverty and the political class is effectively using it to their advantage. I feel sad about it, but I am going into this race believing strongly that my credibility, and who I am, will sell me. It is not about money.
Let people throw their money. I will encourage the electorate to collect it, because poverty has been weaponized to put the people down so that at every election you give them peanuts and collect their destiny. As far as I am concerned, it is not about mandate. You are collecting their destiny, collecting their future, and exchanging with them peanuts for their destiny. I feel sad about it.
I pray that God will help us in opening the eyes of our people. It is also our duty to improve on our voter education so that people will understand that the vote they have is their power to change the narrative. It is not about the money they will collect because no amount is enough to mortgage their future for four years.
What are you going to do differently about the spate of insecurity in the State?
It is a very serious issue and challenge. You are part of the system to know that news about Anambra have always been negative. It is either one person been killed or kidnapped. It has now become our consistent narrative and that is most unfortunate.
A lot of things can be done better. There is need for total rejig in discussing the security of our people. I don’t want it politicized because that is the direction everybody is going. Addressing the issue requires both kinetic and non-kinetic approach.
As you are dealing with the security situation, to what extent have you empowered the security agencies that are working now? To what extent have you invested in information buying, intelligence gathering? To what extent have you invested in developing our local vigilance teams?
They can be documented properly, they can be trained properly. You can develop and equip them to become very important in the security architecture of the State. To what extent have you invested in the lives of the security agents who are working in the State, the police, the army, the NSCDC, and the DSS?
To what extent have you addressed their welfare challenges? Do they have insurance cover? If they die, they die for nothing. There is a way you treat somebody, invest in their welfare, they will see the job as a matter of do or die. They will say that if they die in the process of serving the State, their families won’t suffer.
These are necessary. To what extent have they involved the local institutions, the traditional institutions? Let me tell you, everybody knows everybody but investing in intelligence gathering can help solve these challenges.
To what extent have they invested in education and enlightenment of the people? To what extent have they invested in empowering the youths, and getting them engaged? It is not about churning them out of the Universities. If they leave university but didn’t get where they can be useful, they will end up becoming monsters.
So, there is quite a lot that can be done and should be done for us to change this. It is not about bringing politics by creating an amorphous security outfit eight months to the election. What happened in the past three and a half years or is it until we finish dying over insecurity.
How can anybody claim that we are exaggerating? When a 75-year old retired Archbishop was kidnapped and kept for one month? Was it also exaggeration that a sitting House of Assembly member was kidnapped, killed and his corpse found over one month after.
Was it also exaggeration when a band of armed gang arrived a burial ceremony at Ihiala and hacked down over seven to nine persons, was it also an exaggeration when a lecturer in Awka was mowed down? I don’t want to appear as if I am playing politics with this.
My concern is that the primary responsibility of government is the protection of lives and property, and anytime that government fails to do that, the government has failed, and there should be no defence for it.
If I may ask again, why did it take us three and a half years to come with a solution, or pretend to come with a solution? Why have we failed to invest properly? You want to address the issue of insecurity and you are bringing used tokunbo vehicles.
How many point agenda do you have to govern Anambra?
I have said that the principal thing is to restore the confidence of the people in their government because everybody has lost faith. People are counting days, and until you restore the confidence of the people in their government, you are wasting your time. For me, that is the principal responsibility, and for you to do that, you must address the needs of the people.
We come from a state that is small in terms of landmass, but we have enormous human capital, enormous in every facet. We have it in abundance in Anambra State. It is only for government to create the enabling environment for the people to develop their State.
So, the responsibility of government is to create the enabling environment, address the fundamental issues, and get the people to feel safe, because you cannot talk about success, bringing investors and investments without addressing insecurity. You can’t even talk about industrial agriculture without addressing insecurity.
The moment a farmer cannot feel safe going to the farm, you are wasting your time, because the potential for agricultural development is enormous and massive. I keep asking myself what has gone wrong? Time was in this country, before the advent of oil, that every region was living independently and progressively on agriculture.
That time it was about oil palm in the South East, groundnut pyramid in the North, cocoa in the South West, and our leaders then invested in agriculture and used it to develop regions. What has gone wrong? Has God left Nigeria? The answer is no.
What are other areas you feel that the incumbent governor has not impressed you?
There are a lot of areas like infrastructure that he has not impressed me. That you have some patches of it like road infrastructure is not enough. That cannot solve the problem. Our hospital system, investments in agriculture and a lot of things need to be done to change the face of the State and to change the narrative. As far as I am concerned, so much needs to be done and the current government has not impressed me at all.
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