Accomplished scientist and All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu, is a popular name in Nigeria’s political circle. The leading member of the ruling APC, in this interview with Assistant Editor (North), CHUKS EHIRIM, attributes the current crisis rocking the party to the struggle for future political power.
What are your feelings on your party being engulfed in crisis less than two months after its victory at the polls?
First of all, I am very happy that I took the right decision to support another candidate than former President Goodluck Jonathan. I was part of the formation of the APC. I am happy that I supported (President) Muhammadu Buhari. I sacrificed four months to go round with him, to make sure he won. I am also happy that I went back to Imo State to campaign, to make sure that we delivered Imo, not only to the incumbent governor (Rochas Okorocha) but to Buhari. I am very happy. Above all, I am happy that Buhari won the election with a very wide margin.
What is happening in the APC today is that we are trying to manage our victory. We are weak at managing victory. What exactly this thing is showing is that we are not managing our victory well. But it is a problem we can overcome. Every person who has ever won knows that sometimes managing victory is difficult, depending on the kind of people you are managing. It is very difficult. We have not been in the party for a long time. People are still trying to study each other.
There is also the struggle for future power, which is right because we have just won the Presidency. Let us relax and give the president time to manage the affairs of the country. In other words, though we are victorious, we should be humble victors. We should sit back and allow Mr. President perform. We should not behave in such a way that performance becomes difficult for him because we are trying to entangle him, from one problem to another.
That is not good. I do not like it. It pains me. I wish that this problem could be resolved overnight. When the National Assembly election took place, some radio stations approached me for interview. I told them I was very happy that we had won the victory during the presidential, governorship and senatorial elections, and that we should now manage the victory like gentlemen. After you had won the victory, you must be a gentleman. If you are not a gentleman, you will scatter the whole thing, especially if you are too radical. Some of us are becoming too radical, and that is not good.
Some people are equating what is happening now with what would happen in 2019 and are struggling. If you start this struggle this early, it is going to damage a number of things. Our greatest trophy is APC. APC should not be damaged because of our carelessness, because of our intransigence. We should not be arrogant. If we have won the victory at the National Assembly, let us humbly perform our duties.
There are insinuations at some quarters that this crisis is fuelled by the vaulting ambition of some persons who feel that because of their contributions to the party’s victory, they should be given free hand to decide who gets what. Do you see it from that perspective?
Whatever anybody feels, what does the constitution of Nigeria say? The constitution says the president will select those who will work with him in the Federal Executive Council (FEC). President Buhari is a human being. He is going to listen to guidance and advice. But the final decision is his, not anybody else’s. In other words, those who are advising Buhari are right to do so. Giving that advice should not be a dictation. If you have recommended Mr. A to be the Minister for Education or whatever, it is a recommendation. It is an advice. You cannot hit your hand on the floor and say Buhari must do this or else. If you do that, you are spoiling the party because you are trying to say that whereas the constitution says there is only one President, you also want to make yourself President.
If there are more than one President in the country, it is not going to work. So we must concede something to the incumbent, that, just like in marriage, if I am getting to the age of marriage, there will be a number of ladies that my eyes will be on; but you as my friend can recommend Miss B or Miss C. When you make the recommendation, the final decision is mine. Isn’t it? You are not going to say, if you are my friend, you must marry this. No. You can’t say that because the marriage is my own. I must make the final choice, but you make the recommendation. So I am advising my friends and colleagues in the APC. Most of those who are into one trouble or another were with me in the national executive, on the Board of Trustees (BOT) or in the national caucus. I know them. They are my friends of several years.
My humble advice is, if you have won the victory as we have won, please be humble about it; don’t be arrogant. If you are arrogant, it will spoil everything. Arrogance can even mean that what you won before, you can no longer win it. Suppose the party scatters and we go into individual small parties again, we will have nothing to brag about. So you must preserve the party, the oneness, the unity of the party.
The principal officers at the National Assembly don’t seem to be toeing the line of the party leadership in terms of selecting those to occupy strategic positions as recommended by the party leadership. What is your advice to them?
My advice to them is that they should remember that they come from the party. The party is the platform upon which you have got what you have now. So please listen to the basis of your being there. Bukola Saraki is somebody I have known for a long time. I am very close to the Saraki family. However, I advise Bukola to take it easy. You cannot be victor over your party men. It is the party that made you what you are. So please, remember the party. Whatever decisions you are taking, remember the basis upon which you stand to become Senate President. That basis is the APC, not any other.
Some people are alleging that the APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, collected bribe from some persons at the National Assembly to allow the emergence of the leadership there. Now some people are moving against him in the party; they want him to be removed. What is your take on this?
Oyegun is a man l know very well. Anybody who is accusing Chief Oyegun of taking bribe does not know him. Oyegun cannot take bribe to do anything. Oyegun is a transparently honest human being as much as you take me. He will not take bribe for anything. Oyegun is a bit unlucky because instead of people celebrating the victory he has won, they are trying to run him down. He brought us the victory of the Presidency, the victory of majority of the governors, victory of senators, victory of House of Representatives members. We should celebrate Oyegun.
Any human being in APC should celebrate the man who brought such victories. Talking about removing him is unfortunate. Anybody who is talking of removing him is not being fair to the conscience of Nigerians. Oyegun midwifed everything. A new chairman of a new party not up to two years in the country, being able to run elections without any gossips and all that, being able to pull himself together, being able to work with the presidential candidate and all the other candidates, and everything went well and we won. We should clap for Oyegun.
I am not saying that Oyegun is a perfect human being. There is no perfect human being. Oyegun should enjoy the victory that he has won. He, with all the members of APC, should enjoy that victory. Anybody who wants to remove Oyegun at this time does not mean well for the country. Such a person does not wish the APC well because if you start removing the national chairman after we had won, you don’t want the party to make progress. The party will move from one crisis to another, before we can handle it.
Look at what happened to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I know Oyegun very well. Nobody should talk of changing the chairman at this time. Nobody should.
You have always talked about the completion of your latest research. Could you let us into what the research is all about?
We have kept the secret for many years and that is purposeful because we didn’t want it let out till now. But by the special grace of God, in a short while, it shall be out. Imagnat Dynamics is another way of saving energy. Man needs energy to survive. This is another way of producing energy for your work. It is another way of producing electricity. It can produce electricity for Nigerian use, for 24 hours of the day, seven days in a week, 30 days in a month,12 months in a year non-stop for the next 60 years, and it will cost you nothing because God has given the energy free.
From Imagnat Dynamics, God has given man energy free, from magnet. This comes from magnate. Imagnat Dynamics is a way of arranging the magnets in such a way that they will produce their energy. The energy they produce cannot be finished because it comes from God. And that energy can be used in other areas. It can be used to drive cars, fly plane, drive the train, the motor car and so on and so forth. That is what it means. When Nigeria is struggling with only oil revenue, there are other revenues that God has made available, but we have not explored them. So it is a help to the government of Buhari that under his regime, there is another source of energy. This research is going to reach both the rich and the poor because the difference between the rich and the poor is that the rich has more energy. If energy is free, the poor man can get as much of it as the rich man. So things will begin to ease out. There will be justice, equity and all the things that are good.
