I am running for Anambra governorship because I know what is good for my people – Muoghalu
George Muoghalu is the National Auditor of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Muoghalu recently declared his intention to contest in the forthcoming Anambra State gubernatorial election. Speaking to selected newsmen in Abuja, the APC chieftain spoke on why he wants to rule the state, restructuring and secession among other issues. TOM OKPE was there.
******You recently threw your hat into the ring to contest the coming Anambra State governorship election, Why?
The fact that I am running for the governorship position of my state is not new to some of you, but I still feel there is a need for me to invite you together and tell you formerly and to ask for your support and assistance. There is just no way I can do this alone without the prayers and support of my friends.
Let me now formerly announce to you that I am into the governorship race of my state, Anambra. In a matter of weeks, I am confident that the primaries will come because I know that in every election, there is a primary to choose a candidate that will represent the party in the election. I want you to know that the moment it is time, I will throw myself in.
I want to run this election because I am confident that I have something to offer. I have been into this terrain once.
I ran for the governorship position in 2003 under ANPP. I am one of those who believe strongly that power belongs to God and He gives it as He pleases at His own time. For me it is not a matter of do or die, nor life and death. I made a strong attempt, I had a good show despite all the challenges, I came out stronger.
I hope all of you knew what happened in Anambra State in 2003, for me, I allowed the history of the past, but have learnt more lessons, I have gathered the experience of the past and I have made myself available again to serve my people.
I am confident that I have something to offer and with all conviction by the grace of God I have the opportunity, I will justify the confidence reposed in me by my people. So, I have come to you my friends to ask for your support, encouragement and prayers, for on my own I can do absolutely nothing, but by the grace of God and your support, the journey may be far, but I am confident that I will get to the desired destination.
******What are those things you feel are not properly done in Anambra State that you want to correct and how confident are you on the mandate seeing what happened in Osun State to the APC a forth night ago in the state senatorial election; also in Agriculture, how do you think you will turn the tide in view of the economic diversification from Oil to obtain Forex for your state and the country in general?
I tried to use an analogy to explain the situation in Anambra State, when you come into a vacuum very dark, if you come in with a candle, there will be light if you bring in a bulb, there will be an improvement on the candle light; if you bring in flood light, you have created a brighter atmosphere that looks like the day light, that is exactly the situation in Anambra State. From what some people see, it is a candle light because I believe that the potentials of Anambra State is much in this country ; it is clear . We need to create an enabling environment for our sectors, build on our potentials and try to change the narratives. For me there is quite a lot to be done in Anambra State in terms of governance, infrastructural development, expanding our agricultural base to address our basement issues. There is quite a lot to be done and that is why I am taking time to clean up the manifestoes so that we can get what to sell to the people. There are issues that have to do with the power sector, industrial base, development of our infrastructure and our agriculture even education. We must have to look at education very critically because of much emphasis on certificates today; people obtain certificates which they cannot defend. We must change the narratives; we must change the education curricular, we must target a situation where same people will have the capacity to employ people that are not employable.
Our infrastructure is totally decayed, never mind what you see on the television, there are quite a lot to be done, we must have to change the narrative. Anambra in a very short while because of our capacity, our untapped potentials and the state if well managed should be the point where every state will look unto.
On confidence and what happened in Osun State, I keep telling people, let me emphasise it again, for every election, apart from the party each candidate presented has a role to play in every election. For APC as a party, we are acceptable in the state. When you are looking at APC as a political party, you look at the individual that represents the party. For me, I know I have a credible record that Anambra people can trust.
Today, I am seen as a credible politician as one who is consistence who will say something and stand by it, and whenever I enter into anything, I do everything humanly possible to keep to those things which I plead for. So, it is about the person and not the party. When you join the credibility of the person and that of the party, then you have a candidate that can be liked by the people, but if you choose the wrong candidate, it becomes a lame issue, but when you have a rightful candidate, you have a less issue that the people can rely on and put their trust and confidence in and that is what I stand for.
On Agriculture, I agree with that in this era of diversification, there is no way we can continue depending on the federal allocation, it does not make political sense and not even economic sense. Nigeria today is a one economic country controlled by external forces. We do not determine the price of oil.
If the external forces force down the price of oil, it affects our economy and if everyone is dependent on oil as its source of revenue for the state, this idea of every end of the month they rush to Abuja to share money and distribute, I do not think it makes sense. We use rice as a staple food, yes, Anambra has the potential to grow rice to feed, I will not say 100 percent of the nation, but a reasonable impact, so we need to expand that base. We need to talk not only about production but how we can export our produced rice and how do we do these, we must try to industrialise the sector that as they produce, they can buy them.
We must introduce a commodity market situation so that we can encourage local market production, but when the commissions are not there, there is the likelihood that it will not work. We need to get the private sector involved; we must create an enabling environment for the private sector to come in and what to do is to address some basic issues; Infrastructure and the cost of capital. These are the areas that the government has a strong role to play that we will have rice exportation as a means of foreign exchange. We must create an environment that will employ our young graduates. I think that agriculture is a way to go
*****Some groups in the South-East are still agitating for Biafra and that the election will not hold, are you not worried by this development?
The issue of not wanting Biafra or election will hold or not, I think it is addressed by Ohaneze Ndigbo who has made the position clear in the situation. What message are we sending by these claims? For me there will be election and ohaneze Ndigbo and other stakeholders have come out to say election must hold in the South East and we are going to implement that. I am sure the Federal Government has the capacity to organise the election and will protect lives and properties in the state.
******The APC has set up a committee on the Anambra State election, can you tell us more about that and the issue of zoning in the state; also how possible is it for you to match other contenders like Chris Ngige, Andy Ubah and other forces that are emerging?
The APC South-East leadership set up that committee to look at how to run the Anambra State election and to interface with all the aspirants with a view to making sure that we have a common relationship and understanding that is not a do or die affairs and to maintain a relationship that is beyond election. So far, so good, we have met with them and others have been invited; we also met together and I think they are sincere and are committed.
They all wish that we will win the Anambra election and they took the assignment given to them as a serious one. I wish them well and I want to assure everyone that with every support required, the committee will succeed in its assignment.
The issue of zoning, we have tried to address this issue many years. First Anambra State leadership has never liked zoning in the state. I happen to be a leader that has been around in the political sphere that can be identified when it comes to politics in the state. Somebody asked me this question, does the north has to do two terms? I said why? Did the South do two terms? Mbadinuju did one term and he is from the South. After four years, he was not allowed to do second term and the position was given to our brother and leader in the state, Senator Chris Ngige.
Thereafter from Ngige to Peter Obi; between Ngige and Peter Obi, they did almost twelve years and it left the Central now to the North. By November 18th, the North must have done four years. If you must talk about equity, justices and fairness, it should return to the south for them to complete their term, then it goes back to North because if it goes back to south within these 8 years it goes back to north and they do another 8 years, it will still be the same position of the south and at that point we can now agree on the position on zoning to commence. You know you cannot shift the goalpost at the middle of the game.
If we must talk about zoning we should have started from day one and the south should have been compensated by allowing them to finish their 8 years. Since the south was not allowed to finish its 8 years and it comes to the north, by November 18th, it will come to the same level with the south and if that is the case, it is either south or north and if it has to be taken in terms of first come, first serve, it should go to the south to complete before the north completes. That brings it to the fact that we never had any zonal agreement in Anambra State, but I have no problem with it. That we start it, we have to start it, and we have to do it with equity, fairness and justices. An adage says it is not good not to find a mad man in a village, but should not be from his family so I ask; from whose family should the mad man come from and it will be good since we need a mad man in the community. That is the situation we have found ourselves so, by the time we finish this election, I am sure this issue of zoning will be finally resolved and at that point, we will now hold a meeting to agree to absorb zoning as a principle, to me I see nothing wrong in that.
On the issue of other aspirants, I am not aware that Senator Chris Ngige is contesting the position because he has not told us; I am not aware.
Elections are not about you and I, it is about the people of Anambra State and when it is about the individual and his capacity, his credibility and character and his ability to serve. These are the things that should concern us. If you talk about war- chest, I don’t know which one. One thing I know is that, if I am not ready for this election, I will not come to run. That is the truth; I will not start what I cannot complete. I value my name and integrity so much and I do not gamble with it. It is the Anambra people who will decide who will rule them at the appropriate time. They will speak at the primary and the general election and comments made will be respected.
*****What are your plans for the youths when you become governor of Anambra State to enable them deviate from drug peddling and what is your position of Igbo presidency?
The point is that in looking at every scenario, we must first identify the compartmentalisation. When you say youths, are we looking at the employable youths or the unemployable youths, are we looking at youths who have gone to school and do not have jobs or the ones who do not go to school and does not want to go and not ready to be employed? We must be able to categorise these so that we do not run into trouble. When you say youths, you must separate the serious minded ones from the unserious minded ones, because in addressing the challenges, you must look at them critically.
As a government, we must look at our youths because it is our tomorrow. We must look at our graduates, the unemployed youths and look at how to engage them and get them involved. The fact that the Federal Government has stipulated programs to address these, we must look at expanding our operational base to private partners as government alone cannot address the issue of unemployment.
Government must target to empower the private sector to make them strong enough and expand it so that they can accommodate our esteem youths and population of graduates. Like the question Tom asked, our agricultural sector has the capacity if properly designed, focused and expanded, it has the capacity to employ a great number of graduates and unemployed youths. Some of these youths can be properly guided and trained in Arts and be able to employ themselves after school. We also as a government will recreate an avenue on how to start something for them, provide them with access to capital as some of them have good initiatives, but no access to capital and that is enough frustration. These are openings we must create, an enabling environment for youths empowerment. If we address the issue of road infrastructure and others and put them in place, you will see that the private sector will expand and that will determine the people to be employed which will make the development easy and put into practice what they have learnt.
We must give reorientation to our youths; it’s not all about money, we must change the vision, directives, get involved even in our homes. We must look at our education curricular so that those in schools will be taught like in the past to live the life that is expected of them.
On the issue of Igbo presidency, Why not? By the time the presidency leaves the North after 8 years, what it would have meant is that every zone in this country has produced the president of Nigeria without the South-East. That is what we leaders from the South-East should be thinking towards now to work out how it should be as we are looking at a president of Nigeria of Igbo extraction. For us to achieve that we need to talk to the Northerner, Southerner and every Nigerian to see it from our perspective, then it will be easy for us. If we can be talking about that, I don’t think it makes any political sense if we are talking about secession alongside; the two are two straight lines that can never meet.
******How do you intend handling the power of incumbency to actualise your dream and how do you think you will carry the people along knowing the versatility of the state?
Incumbency has been demystified; I don’t think we should be talking about incumbency anymore because it is sufficiently demystified. In Ekiti an incumbent governor lost election, in Ondo, and the country generally an incumbent president lost election so why do you think the incumbent in Anambra will be an exception. It’s about the candidate, it’s about the message; the campaign trend today is no more I will for any incumbent governor or president, it is about I have. Any incumbent that tells you I will when re-elected, that person has no message.
Every incumbent should be saying, I did that, I said this and I delivered. This is the only way you can consider the person not I will; we are through with incumbency. We are going to the field, come to the field and set your report card, Anambra people think that you have done well they continue with you, if they are dissatisfied with you, they stop you.
On the issue of restructuring, everybody is talking about restructure I want to draw one straight line, I can bet you and I am sure you know that the good numbers of people who are talking about restructuring are not even able to see between restructuring and secession. A lot of people today see restructuring as secession and secession restructuring. You can decide to restructure this country through economic status, you can restructure politically and administratively or otherwise. It can be done in many ways but a lot of people see restructuring to mean secession and that is not true. Secession is different, it is back-sliding this country and we don’t want that, we want a united Nigeria built on equity and fairness and that is what a lot of people want.
A lot of people are shouting for restructuring out of frustration because they want things done the way it will be fair to them and if it does not work that way, the will say restructure. If you ask, what you want them to restructure they will say divide the country. It is a question of lack of education; I believe and I want to emphasize that we have a nation and the important thing is that everyone must have to adhere to these and if we think things are not been done right, bring those things on board so that they can be addressed, there is a special platform that can be used. The national Assembly is there, if there are issues of contention, there is the Federal executive council where every state is represented, you have the political parties where every interest is equally represented; these are enabling platform that we can exploit to be able to address the issues confronting us but many people do not know what we want. We must not expect things out of the blues so we must get our issues right before we continue.
