Oshiomhole lacks patience and tactical wisdom required to manage APC kind of crisis -Anike

Charles Anike, is National President, Eastern Union, in this interview with PATRICK OKHUE, he speaks on the state of the nation, election of former Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole as the new chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) among other issues.

With the conclusion of the APC National Convention and the emergence of Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman, what can you say is the future of the party?
It was commendable that the leadership of the APC was able to stage manage the charade they called National Convention. The so called National Convention has finally let the cat out of the bag.

The long awaited disintegration and of course the end of the party is confirmed with the exit of the Reformed APC. The APC has not done anything differently from what we see in other parties.

It was indeed an excise in futility because it clearly exposed the APC more as a party without internal democracy and you can notice court suits here and there.

But let me go straight to answer your question, the APC have no future because the man Adams Oshiomhole lack the patience and tactical wisdom required to manage fragile situations. He is a man like Buhari, believes he know it all.

And the APC we must remember is congregate of die-hard and over ambitious individuals. People that lacked and still lacking the spirit of sportsmanship, so the disgraceful outings of the party come 2019 shall mark its final end.

The emergence of Adams Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the party is the final straw because he seriously lacks capacity to manage crisis, you can hear him now spitting fire instead of mending fences. He is a man that does not believe in fair play and the required political ethics of compromise.

An international watch group has labeled Nigeria as a country with the highest growth rate of poor people, overtaking India in the process, what is your view on this?
The situation we find ourselves presently is very unfortunate; considering that under the previous administration, Nigeria ranked the biggest and the fastest growing economy in Africa and with Aliko Dangote as the richest man in the whole continent of Africa.

But just in a space of three years or so, Nigeria overtook India as the poverty capital of the world. You can imagine from the fastest growing economy to the highest growth rate of poor people, what a shame?

From the onset, we saw that the present government was not ready to work, when it chose blame-game and excuses. Any responsible government will continue to adjust and employ many hands, but not this Buhari government.

No matter how much the people are crying of hardship, and insecurity, the government has remained adamant and unperturbed.

Nigeria is one of the countries in the world that is so blessed with abundant human resources, but this government will never give opportunity for the citizens to proffer solutions to the challenges.

It is a government that is soaked and drenched with ethnic and religious bias. A government that rely basically on lying and propaganda, the government that is very impotent, lack foresight and very slow to take decisions.

The Federal Government has said they will distribute the recently recovered Abacha loot to the poorest Nigerians, what is your take on this?
We have heard this over and over, so we want actions and not empty promises. When they start the distribution, we know the parameter by which they are using to determine the poorest Nigerians so to say.

We believe it is another 2019 campaign gimmicks, but Nigerians are getting wiser by the day. How can they be talking of distributing five thousand naira when the agents of this government are stealing the money, and other relief materials sent to those in IDP Camps?

What can be worse than stealing from the very poor? And why is it that any government that come to power since this Forth Republic would always talk about Abacha loot, because Gen. Abacha died.

Using that to score cheap political points? What about Abdulsalam Abubakar’s loots, Obasanjo’s loot? Jonathan’s loots? Tinubu’s loots? Fashola’s Loots?,

Rotimi Ameachi’s loots and even Buhari’s loots? Please they should spare us all those nonsense, because we are sick and tired of all that. What we are interested in is that as they are looting; let them develop infrastructure for us to continue our struggle for survival.

The security situation in the country has taken a new dimension, that on the average at least ten people are killed on daily basis and nothing seem to be done to assure Nigerians that the situation can be controlled, do you have suggestions as to what can be done?
Talking about the security situation in the country, the truth is that killing will continue unabated until the leaders see reason to do the right thing.

As far as we are concerned, Nigeria as a nation is under a curse and that is the reason the killing will continue. While we join the rest of the world to condemn the killings by the evil Fulani Herdsmen, Boko Haram and other forms of killings going on across the country, we demand that Nigeria should make restitution to Ndigbo.

About three millions Igbo were killed between 1966 to 1970 in a genocide and up till now, nobody talks about it or sees reason why restitution should be made and reparation paid.

As long as we continue to pretend and sit on that sin, we shall not know peace. There was no justification or what so ever for those killings that took place before, during and even after the civil war.

Yes because most recently President Buhari ordered a military operation in the South East, tagged ‘Operation python dance’ and through this many innocent citizens were killed by the Nigerian Army, simply because a group of young people are protesting the marginalisation of Ndigbo in the present government.

During those protests, nobody was reported killed or even attacked, yet the President declared them a terrorist group and ordered that they should be killed.

Today, we have worst situation on ground, his kinsmen (Fulani herdsmen) are attacking, killing and burning villages in some parts of the North Central and the North East, and this same President has maintained silence over these evils. Well our points however is that what goes round turns round; because an injustice to one is an injustice to all.

Since there is no justifiable reason for the Boko Haram’s atrocities in the North East and the present Fulani Herdsmen havoc in the Middle Belt, so also there was no Justifiable reason or whatsoever, for the genocidal war declared against the Igbo and even the present day discriminations, intimidation and harassment of Ndigbo across the Country. However, if we keep pretending and continue to harden our hearts, these killings will continue unabated.

Amnesty International came out with an alarming report that the recent killings in Plateau State lasted for as long as seven hours, do you think this is an indication of security comprised?
Of course, do you still need to be told that? There was even a report from one that escaped the killers, that after that long hours of killing operations by the killer herdsmen, they informed each other that security agents are about to arrive, and no sooner that they left the security agents actually appeared. The truth is that our security in this recent time have been seriously politicised.

Calls for the security architecture to be overhauled have been on, what is your take on this?
The truth is that the security agents are made up of men and women from the same Nigeria society, so the same Nigeria blood flowing in their vein, therefore the only remedy to all our problems is true repentance which can only be possible by this restitution and reparation we are calling for.

Otherwise no matter what you overhaul, the sabotage will continue because there is a curse on our land and the men that committed the evil are moving freely unrepented. Some innocent bloods are crying out for vengeance and God is angry believe it or not. This is why everybody knows the problems, but nobody seem to have any solution.

Any comment on the advertised cloning and sale of Permanent Voter’s Card on internet?
As far as we are concerned, this present INEC cannot be trusted, otherwise why can’t they device different strategies to counter any form of fraudulent plots?

If we truly and sincerely believe that the June 12, 1993 Presidential election was the freest and fairest as we claim, why can’t this INEC adopt the option A4 method? The only thing you change is something that does not work well.

If the option A4 worked well then, why can’t we continue with it? Why can’t this INEC adopt it and then make some improvement on it? Since the card reader and its attendant networking challenges has become our nightmare; always subject to controversies. Anyway we don’t even have faith in this INEC, since it is clear that the piper is dictating the tune ever since.

Quote
The APC have no future because the man Adams Oshiomhole lack the patience and tactical wisdom required to manage fragile situations. He is a man like Buhari, believes he know it all. And the APC we must remember is congregate of die-hard and over ambitious individuals. People that lacked and still lacking the spirit of sportsmanship, so the disgraceful outings of the party come 2019 shall mark its final end. The emergence of Adams Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the party is the final straw because he seriously lacks capacity to manage crisis