Carl Azudibia ran for the House of Representatives in 2003 and Senate (Owerri, Imo State) in 2007 on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). In this interview with Assistant politics Editor, DANIEL KANU, he shares his views on critical political issues relating to President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership, the Biafra challenge, among others.
How would you assess President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership so far?
For me, it’s so far so good. You know issues involving a large country like Nigeria are myriad, and given the background of where we are coming from, realistically, it’s not going to be easy. Anybody thinking that it is going to be easy for now is self-delusion. Those who want to tell you the truth would tell you that governance is not a tea party. There are so many contending issues in contemporary times about governance, and these issues are not what you can deal with overnight. Don’t expect Buhari to tackle the problems overnight; he is not a magician. Forget about the campaign promises and all the flowery things that were said during campaigns. There is always a wide difference between campaign and governance; that is, when you confront the issues. I am sure that government at the moment is seeing the reality on the ground and they are dealing with it gradually. Buhari is not doing badly.
Most Nigerians seem to be groaning, as things appear not to be going well, especially the economy. Are you satisfied with the situation on the ground?
The groaning that we are witnessing comes from the background of campaign promises that were made by the All Progressive Congress (APC). In the heat of the campaign, so many promises were made. If you look at the situation on the ground today, you would notice that this is not the first time we are passing through this phase and Nigerians survived it and moved forward. I am sure we will also overcome this. The only difference is that a lot of hype created before the elections was not taken into consideration. It is not as if the issues we are handling now are extraordinary. Take these issues one after the other and nobody should expect magic.
But why do we make so much promises that are unfulfilled here, unlike in most other countries that leadership match promises with action?
I do not always want to compare Nigeria with other developed countries because their variables are not the same. The factors on the ground, the issues, the challenges we grapple with in developing countries like Nigeria are different from what we witness in the United States and other developed nations. The mindset of the people is different. In places like the U.S., nobody will talk about religion, tribe or state of origin; they look at you on what you can do, what you can contribute and you are recruited. In places like Nigeria, a lot of things come into play; even your best intentions here will be attacked because of religious interest or one mundane interest, and people will hold on to it jealously. In the U.S., you can set a target, say in three months this and this can be achieved based on factors on the ground. The institutions are working independently and that gives you reliable data to make accurate predictions to run your government. But that is not so here.
Is the South East really marginalised in Buhari’s government as the people claim?
The Igbo are marginalised since after the war and there is no disputation on that. We are saying that there are lots of factors making the zone not to move forward as it is supposed to, given its capacity to make things happen. I read Junaid Mohammed talking about old Kano State being bigger than the old East Central State. Today, East Central State has five states while Kano has two. But what he failed to realise is that in Kano that he is talking about, we have more than five million Ndigbo resident there whose population can form a state in Kano. The most difficult or annoying thing is that those millions of Ndigbo in Kano don’t go to school or look for jobs as Kano indigenes, despite that 70 or 80 per cent of them were born and raised there. They also come back home to compete with my brothers’ children who are in the East for the same slot in the civil service, in the police, military, etc. So, why are we not marginalised? The structure does not contain our population, our existence. So the Igbo must continue to cry for marginalisation until some of these critical issues are addressed until Nigeria is restructured; either you give us more states and more local governments or you simply remove the constitutional requirement of ‘state of origin’ and ‘local government of origin’ and change it to ‘state of residence’ and ‘local government of residence’. This will enable each person compete from where he lives or where he or she is born.
Are you really worried on the turn the struggle for the realisation of Biafra is taking?
The issue of Biafra is a touchy one. But the truth must be told. We cannot use a 1966 binoculars to view a 2015 problem. Though I subscribe and I still advise this government that Biafra agitators cannot be treated as expendables, I don’t support the approach MASSOB (Movement for Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra) and IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) are using. I don’t support that there should be a separate nation called Biafra. The challenges we are facing in Nigeria are surmountable, if only we can go back to the drawing board and come out with a solution. The solution cannot be Biafra every time. We cannot be behaving like rain-beaten chicken. Every time we cry. Small push, we talk about Biafra. No. Biafra is a beautiful idea, an Eldorado; but we can sit down and work out the modality that will free us from the challenges that we are facing in Nigeria without necessarily being in another country. The idea is jaded and not progressive. But it is not when they want to protest, you shoot at them. You must dialogue with them and know the challenges the people are facing that are making them to think of moving out of Nigeria. There is infrastructural decay in the South East. There is institutional decay, and when you talk about unemployment in Nigeria, it is worst in the South East. There is no federal government presence that generates job in the South East. So when people are faced with these economic realities, they will begin to agitate, and if anybody gives them this Eldorado called Biafra, they will quickly buy into it. Government must address the issue of infrastructural decay in the South East; that is where to start. But Buhari must look into the Biafra agitation; it was how Boko Haram started but was ignored until it became the monster it is today.
So what strategy do you think should be used to address Biafra struggle?
We must have a culture of holding our leaders accountable in the South East. When you look at the entire Nigeria set-up, it is in the South East that leaders get away with anything. We hear stories of people who were given road contracts and they abandoned them and nothing was done to them. It is in the South East that governors, local government chairmen are like tin gods; nobody holds them accountable. That is where to start. I prefer a situation where this number of people that came out to agitate for Biafra will come out this December and ask governors in the South East what they are doing with the allocations for the zone. They must ask members of the Houses of Assembly and National Assembly what they are doing towards development of the region. People get into government in the South East and get away with anything. It is the first challenge for us to tackle: holding leaders accountable. There are things we blame the federal government for, but what about the state and local governments?
How can you assess the performance of your state governor, Rochas Okorocha?
I cannot say exactly or assess the situation because I am not there. But from the feelers I am getting, Imolites are beginning to complain over the situation on the ground. So it means that government has to sit up to regain the confidence of the people in order to move the state forward. I think the government is capable, if they can put their act in order.