Whenever he speaks, his choice of words and delivery bring back memories of his late father, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the iconic Igbo leader. That was the candour All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) House of Representatives candidate for Nnewi Federal Constituency, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu Jnr, brought to bear as he speaks with Senior correspondent, OKEY MADUFORO, on his aspiration, recent memorial service for departed Biafran soldiers and men, as well as his father’s last wish to the Igbo nation.
List of candidates from other political parties, especially the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
When you are coming out for a contest of this nature, you should know that you are coming out to battle every opponent. Once the party gives you the ticket as its candidate, you just prepare for the task ahead; you do not pay too much attention to who is contesting. Of course, we have political parties and candidates; we have strong parties and strong candidates. You know that the PDP is not a party to be taken lightly. Obviously, in the Nigerian context, an incumbent, for instance, is taken seriously. Even if he has not performed well, he still remains a strong force. This is somebody who has been there for four years and he must have touched some people at some level and possibly has had time to get himself ready for the next election. The list is out now and what we know in APGA is that the usual game plan of having multiple candidates will not be allowed to fly this time in PDP. We are going to insist that those on the list of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are those that will contest, and those whose names are not in the list would not be allowed to campaign, let alone participate in the main election. As far as we are concerned, if you are not on the list, there is no reason for you to be campaigning or having any billboards; you have no business putting posters up, branding private cars around or campaigning in any way or in any shape or form. The law backs this position and we are going to make sure that nobody who is not in that list is going to come out.
Set for a legal battle if that happens
Certainly, APGA, in fact, had already set precaution notice a long time ago, in case there was anything like that. This is an unfair practice; it is not fair in a contest for you to have three sets of people or two campaigns and get votes and then they all get compiled. What it means to us is that you are campaigning and contesting against three people. That obviously is not something that is fair.
Carrying along opponents that contested with you in the primaries
I do not know how many of them that will work for me. The idea is to make sure that they do not work against you. I can tell you this; two days after the primaries, I reached out to everybody and I have spoken to all of them. I sent text messages first. I gave them two days so that people could cool down from the events of the primaries. I have spoken to all of them and some have shown interest in participating. Some have become friends. There were five of them and there may be one or two that had not worked out as we wanted, but such is life. The governor (Willie Obiano) and the national chairman (Victor Umeh) have also reached out to them, especially the governor. He reached and called out to them, and the essence is this; we are all one party. APGA says, be your brother and sister’s keeper. So, if you contest and it did not end up in your favour, you should remember that the party should be supreme and we should all join hands to deliver the party. If there are accommodations that are needed to be made, those can happen at the level of the candidates and aspirants and also at the higher level, and all those discussion and arrangements would be made.
Bringing experience as commissioner and local government chairman to bear at the National Assembly
All these things have challenges in their own ways. When I was commissioner, I had not occupied such a position before. Before then, I was Senior Special Assistant. You learn as you go and you learn from those around you. If you are keen or interested in something, if you will do your best and if you have right experiences in life, you can adapt to new situations. If you are a people-person and a consensus-builder, or if you have the intelligence, you can usually get to do the learning which would be a lot easier. I was once a commissioner, once a sole administrator and now, by the grace of God, going to be a National Assembly member. When I get there, by the grace of God, I think I will do better in every step of the way. I think I will perform better as a National Assembly member.
Manifesto for Nnewi Federal constituency
When you go out at that level to the National Assembly, you are there to represent your constituency. You have to look at your constituency and talk to your constituents and know what they want. If you look at my constituency, of the three local government areas, Nnewi North is certainly by far more developed in terms of infrastructure. But for this to have proper growth, one has to know that the surrounding environment should also grow.
I need to look at Nnewi South and Ekwusigo local government areas, and we need to allow them come to per with Nnewi North, so that they can gain in road development and other infrastructure. This will help decongest Nnewi North and also create room for expansion. If you concentrate only on one local government area and the other two are not growing at the same rate, then all the local government areas will suffer. So as a Federal constituency, we can see growth and I believe to start from that two. In Nnewi North, we need an ultra-modern park. I have been talking about that for a long time. I shall try to get the federal government and attract foreign funds into Nnewi to give us that. The governor is already doing a lot in terms of security.
This area needs family-friendly facilities now that we have security. Apart from the Shoprite (shopping mall) that is coming up, if we can build that park and have green areas where families can take their children to, if we can have movie theatres and if we can do something to improve night life and increase ability to generate funds and fight that the power sub-stations come on line, so that the industries would have the power to allow them reduce cost in production of goods and services, we would have touched lives. We shall also fix the agricultural sector, so that we can diversify in all facets of food production. If you do that, we now look at human infrastructure, and that has to do with what we can do with youths in my federal constituency; what type of opportunities are we going to give them? We are not talking about schemes that they cannot manage, so that they end up in further debt.
The oil industries have come on stream and we even can set up oil servicing firms and manufacture products for the oil companies until we become full-fledged in that area. We can be the market where they come to buy spare parts for their industries and maybe the resources area where they can buy the expertise to run the systems they have there. If you come there with the idea that you are going to reach out to people irrespective of political divide and area alliances that will allow you negotiate and build consensus, then you can get your bills passed. I don’t want to be somebody that sits there and be sleeping or my seat is empty; I want to be somebody that is moving motions and getting my bills passed into law. I also want to be somebody who is present here and visiting home.
Ecological challenges in Nnewi Federal Constituency
I am aware of that fact and I am careful so that I do not go too far. It is easy to say: I will do this and that, but you need to get there and appraise what is on the ground. There is a need and we need to address, but I wouldn’t want to say how to address it now. We need to know what the cost is and how much that is involved. All I know is that whatever funds that are due for my constituency, I will bring them here so that we can avail ourselves of them and provide them for the ecological problems.
How do you feel stepping into your father’s shoes politically?
I think the idea is not trying to be like him. Those are mighty shoes to fill and I don’t know if there are people that could fill them. The idea is to do your best in your own area, and as you grow, people can make comparisons. What I know is that I have the strength of character, the experience and the intelligence. I have the will and the stamina. I believe that given the opportunity, I will make my mark and my people will see that I am truly the right man for the job.
Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s grave as pilgrimage centre for APGA chieftains
Yes, you know that in our culture, men such as my father only go away on a journey. So, we believe that he is still around somewhere. In any case, it is a mark of respect for him. It is something that says that we appreciate all that he did for us, and certainly now that we look around, we see the value that he brought to us and we understand the sacrifices that he made for Ndigbo. I think that is why we give him that honour as a party and as Ndigbo. So we always reference things back to him to say that ‘this is what your children have achieved and this is what your children are aspiring to. So come and bless us from the other side’. I think it is a wonderful thing. This is what you don’t always see in Igbo land. So it is something that I am very proud of.
Representing Ojukwu at the memorial of the late Biafran soldiers
It was a very emotional day for me. I tried to hold back tears. It was very emotional for me to sit there. I was very much aware of the implication of literally sitting in his seat. He should have been sitting there. I was truly representing him. The people who came and paid condolences were not to me, but to him.
I thought of all the years since after the war and all experiences that I had with him and those he had with some other people. Truly, that was his last wish. The other one was more of a political statement to Anambra people; re-electing Peter Obi for second term. His last wish was for the war heroes to be honoured. I was happy to be part of it. We are extremely grateful that we have Governor Willie Obiano who is a man. Really, others would be scared and afraid to take that step. He had the audacity to take it. This is a day I will not forget. On that day, we saw the old soldiers such as Joe Achuzie, Emma Nwobosi, Ben Gbulie and Emma Udeaja. It was a wonderful day.
The political statement was because Obi was having issues with our campaign. So he had to come up with something to make him win and it worked. There are things that go beyond politics. You would expect that he would have been there, regardless of which party that is in power. This is an Igbo thing and a human thing. A lot of us may not have been alive if those men did not fight that war for us. This is including myself and himself (Obi). I would have expected that this was a time they should rise to the occasion. I don’t think it was a party affair. You saw Alex Ekwueme, Arthur Eze and others there. They are not members of APGA.
