USA Igwesi: “But we have to struggle for it because power is not in the fridge, it is in the oven.”
USA Igwesi describes himself as a passive member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) right now but his voice still carries weight in political circles.
Prince Uchenna Sunday A. Igwesi, popularly known as USA Igwesi, was the Majority Leader of Enugu State House of Assembly where he represented Nkanu West State Constituency between 1999 and 2003 on the platform of PDP.
Thereafter, USA Igwesi was elected to represent Nkanu East and West Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives where he was Chairman, House Committee on Banking and Currency.
Though the Enugu State-born politician has been under the political radar since he left the National Assembly, he has, nevertheless, been at the grassroots mobilising support for the idea of a Nigerian president of South East extraction.
A socio-cultural group which he leads – Igbo Unity Forum – was the first to visit former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, at home to convince him to throw his hat in the presidential ring. Anyim heeded the call.
In this exclusive interview with IKECHUKWU AMAECHI in Enugu on the day Anyim, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), formally told South East PDP leaders of his aspiration, Prince USA Igwesi said PDP risks an implosion if it denies the South East its presidential ticket.
Senator Pius Anyim had a consultative meeting in Enugu on January 6 where he formally told South East leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of his intention to run for the presidency in 2023. What is your impression about the meeting?
My impression is that from the crowd, from the quality and quantity of people here, it shows that Igbos want to be President of Nigeria. There is a fundamental crack in the foundation of this country. And that crack needs to be repaired. We believe that Igbos are qualified and have the capacity to provide quality leadership at the federal level and Senator Pius Anyim, given his antecedents, given what he was able to do when he was Senate President and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), we don’t need a necromancer, a soothsayer or a traditional medicine man to convince us that Anyim is suitable for the job.
There is an Igbo socio-cultural group – Igbo Unity Forum – which I led to his house and we asked him to come out and contest the 2023 election. I think we were the first people to do that and he agreed to heed our call.
So, what happened in Enugu on January 6 showed that Igbos are hungry to taste that position. It is long overdue. We believe in rotation because rotation is what you can use to assuage ethnic tensions. Igbos have been crying of marginalisation, they have been crying of neglect and they have been asking if they escorted other ethnic nationalities to the geographical space called Nigeria. They want to be involved.
They are major stakeholders in the Nigerian project and as such, they are angry over their deliberate exclusion from the leadership table. There is a groundswell of resentment and anger in the South East. They want to occupy that position.
But they are not demanding the presidency on the basis of rotation only. No! They want to occupy the position based on the fact that they have sons and daughters who have the capacity to provide leadership at the federal level.
Look at what is going on in Nigeria today. We need an Igbo man to take over so that he can assuage the problems in this country.
So, what I was able to observe in Enugu on January 6 is that Igbos want to be there on merit. Pius Anyim doesn’t believe only in rotation. He believes that there should be rotation quite alright but he also believes that he is qualified for the job and has the capacity to deliver on the job given his antecedents.
Some Nigerians say they are afraid of trusting Igbos with power. Don’t they have a point?
There is no basis for that fear. Nobody should nurse that fear. The truth is that if they give power to Igbos, all these cries of marginalisation, all these Nnamdi Kanu brouhaha will come to an end. An Igbo man being President of Nigeria will douse all the tension.
Let me talk about myself. I don’t want the South East to secede from Nigeria. I want us to be recognised in Nigeria. So, the issue of secession is as a result of non-recognition, the politics of exclusion that has assumed a different dimension since Muhammadu Buhari became president in 2015. They are treating Igbos as if they escorted other ethnic groups to Nigeria.
For them to say that they don’t trust Igbos, then those saying that don’t trust any other person. If they can’t trust Igbos, who then can they trust? If an Igbo man is with you, he is with you. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was a living example before his death.
So, Igbos are strong-willed people who believe in the project called Nigeria. In spite of the fact of their utter neglect and exclusion, in spite of the fact that they are not being carried along, they still believe in that project. So, an Igbo man being president of Nigeria will douse ethnic tensions especially from our side.
How would you rate President Muhammadu Buhari’s stewardship so far?
We are just surviving in Nigeria. No leadership is being provided. A cabal is in power. We have a presidency, but we don’t have a president. I am sorry to say that.
We need a young man, a young person who is strong, whose brain is intact. We need someone who can provide leadership, not a cabal, a small group of people leading this country, giving recourse to Mr President and then coming out to say the President said this. We need a president that will be saying it himself.
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In the past few years, I don’t think Nigeria has gotten it right. Nigeria needs someone who is strong in health to provide leadership for this country.
My conclusion is that President Muhammadu Buhari has failed this country. That is my honest appraisal of his stewardship and we need someone who will come and address the issue of leadership.
What is your greatest fear for Nigeria right now?
My greatest fear is that we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder. Everybody is shouting. All the ethnic nationalities are groaning. Look at the Yoruba, they are shouting. Even the Hausa are shouting that the Fulani have killed them. Everybody is shouting. So, if something tangible is not done, Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder. There may be an implosion.
There is a school of thought that believes the problem of Ndigbo goes beyond having one of their own elected as president. Such people contend that at the regional level, Ndigbo have not been able to elect the quality leadership that can propel the region to greater glory since 1999. Do you agree?
I strongly agree with those who question what Ndigbo have done with leadership at the regional level and allocations they have received since 1999 because I believe that if we want to be president and these people are not forthcoming in giving us that position, then we should look inwards.
I don’t think they are prepared to give us power just for the asking but that should not deter anyone. We have to struggle for it because power is not in the fridge, it is in the oven. You have to go all out and fight for power. Nobody gives you power. You can’t get it on a platter.
But that said, we should have a plan B even while fighting for the presidency. When Bayern wanted to secede from Germany, they were not given the opportunity to do that. So, what they did was that they came back, sat on a table and rejuvenated their economy, resuscitated their health sector, and did everything possible to revamp all the sectors of the economy and today, Bayern, which are the Bavarians, is the cynosure, the centre of attraction in Germany.
The same thing happened in Spain. When the Catalonians wanted to secede, they were not given the opportunity. Yet, they came back and made sure that the place is strong. You cannot talk of Spain without Barcelona. The same thing happened in California when they wanted to secede from the United States of America.
So, when we try all this and it is not possible, because I don’t see them allowing us but we have to fight for it, that is why I said power is not in the fridge, it is in the oven, people have to come out. Look at how hungry Ndigbo are of power at the centre. They want to be there but unlike some other people, an Igbo man who is president will work for the common good because that is how they are wired. An Igbo man’s worldview is global, not ethnic.
But if we try and it is not possible, we can come back and make the South East attractive so that there is nothing you talk about Nigeria without coming to the South East.
It is the duty of South East governors to come together and even support Anyim’s presidential quest because we have been shouting that it is our turn and nobody is coming out. How could anyone have taken us serious if Anyim didn’t raise his hand to be counted?
So, our regional economy has to be resuscitated. What happened in 1963 when we were running regional government is what will help us because when you have a plan A, you must also have a plan B, in case this one doesn’t work, you fall back on the other. .
I think, therefore, that we have to make our place attractive and whose duty is it to do that? The governors – state actors, not non-state actors.
State actors have to come together, bring people like Anyim and other bigwigs from the South East together and think out the way forward for Igbos and even how to pursue this issue of Nigerian President of Igbo extraction. It is not a one-man thing. Look at the quality of crowd in Enugu, which means Ndigbo are desirous of being there.
But they should come out and support this particular project – Anyim project. And we can equally ask others to come out and contest this position so that when we now sit down, we can agree on a particular individual.
What did you and your group see in Anyim that convinced you that he is the right man for the job?
I saw humility in Anyim. I saw sound personality in Anyim. I saw somebody who is accessible. I saw somebody who has the wherewithal to provide quality leadership for Nigeria. I saw a man who does not believe only in rotation. He believes it is the turn of the South East to produce Nigeria’s president but he equally believes that he has the capacity to provide leadership at that level.
So, Anyim has all it takes to be president of Nigeria. If you juxtapose Anyim with the incumbent president, I wonder what you will get. So, Anyim is a far better material to be in Aso Rock. Apart from being Senate President and SGF, he is a good Christian and Nigeria needs God to help realise its potentials.
As a member of PDP, what if the party doesn’t give the South East its presidential ticket?
I think in all honesty that PDP should zone the Presidency to the South East. If they don’t, it is not a threat, but if they don’t, I foresee a mass exodus of the people from the party because South East has been there for the PDP.
When Goodluck Jonathan was the president of this country, Ndigbo gave him and the PDP the highest votes. All the votes we had, we gave it to him and the party. I believe that the South East has helped this country and has helped PDP and now is payback time. PDP should reciprocate by ceding its presidential ticket to the South East. But if they don’t do that, they run the risk of precipitating a crisis.
I have said it before and someone asked if I was threatening the party. No, I am not. But that is the mood of the people now. The All Progressives Congress (APC) is just waiting for the PDP to zone the presidency to the South East, and they will also take their own presidential ticket there.
If the PDP doesn’t do that and the APC does, that will be a big problem for PDP. South East will go for APC because we need to produce the president.
Just look at what happened here today at a very short notice. Look at the crowd that thronged this place just because Anyim has shown interest in the presidency. That is the level of enthusiasm. That is how hungry the people are for the position.
People were suffocating, literally, inside the hall as big as it is. This thing could have been done at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium or Okpara Square. You could have seen many more people because this hall couldn’t contain a fraction of the people who turned up. People were outside and on the streets.
So, that shows the mood of the people of South East on the issue of the presidency of this country.
Are you optimistic there will be free and fair elections in 2023?
With electronic transmission of results, I am hopeful. If the cabal in the presidency allows President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the amended electoral act, there will be free and fair elections because the incidence of snatching ballot boxes and all those ugly trends will no longer be there.
And that is why every segment of this country cried out when the federal lawmakers were dragging their feet on the issue of electronic transmission of results and the lawmakers made a U-turn on the issue.
So, Buhari should also change his mind and sign that document. I thank God he only raised the issue of direct primaries in refusing to sign. If the National Assembly looks at the reason for his objecting to sign and do the needed adjustment and send the bill back to him, there will be no excuse not to sign.
And if he signs the bill into law, there will be free and fair elections in this country.
Do you agree with those who claim that when it comes to politics, Ndigbo are disunited?
I agree. We need a new orientation. Igbos are too independent and fragmental. And that has been our bane. If we are able to come together, I don’t think any other ethnic nationality in this country will be better than us. Our problem is that we don’t believe that somebody is leading us. We don’t believe that somebody is better than us. That is our bane. That is our problem. We need reorientation.
So, it is not only the issue of people coming out to say it is our turn, we need to talk to ourselves, especially our leaders and arrive at a consensus. We are fragmental in nature and that has been our bane even in the precolonial era.
Prince USA Igwesi seems to have gone under the radar politically. What have you been doing?
I have been a passive member of the PDP, passive because I have never contested any other election since I left the National Assembly because you know our style in this place.
We believe in zoning so much and that is why we are equally crying that they should zone the presidency to us.
People believe that if you go to the National Assembly this time, next time, another person should go. It is unlike what obtains in the advanced democracies like the U.S. where a senator will stay for over 40 years in the Senate. Of course that helps in stabilizing the system because once you are there, you develop the capacity for institutional memory, and everything about the institution is on your fingertips.
But again, that is because over there, they go to serve. Here we don’t go for service. We go for money, for personal business and aggrandizement. That is the problem. So, I hope to come back into the arena when it is the will of God. For now, I am a passive member of the party who believes in Igbo cause.