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Goodluck Jonathan Photo: Sun News Publishing |
According to him, while the president told the nation that he has not made up his mind about whether or not to contest the 2011 presidential election, his ministers and special advisers have started campaigning for him. He revealed that the campaign office of the president is located near the NTA headquarters and it is functioning. He asked why the president did not deem it fit to stop those campaigning for him if he is not interested.
Perhaps, what irked Ezugwu most is that should Jonathan contest the presidential election and win, he would jeopardize the chances of an Igbo president in 2015. According to him, the zoning formula implies that an Igbo would emerge president of Nigeria in 2015.
Ezugwu posited that what affects the PDP is will affect the political landscape of Nigeria adding that the idea of zoning in the party is a common knowledge which nobody can change at the last minute in a bid to appease some individuals.
He also took on the governors from the South East who were quoted as saying that the area is not interested in the presidency or the vice presidency in 2011 saying that they made the comment in order to secure the ticket of their party for second term.
He speaks on other issues.
It believed that president Jonathan would declare his intention to contest the 2011 presidential election in September this year. What do you say to that?
Jonathan as a citizen of this country has the right to contest for presidency and declare at any time he pleases.
But the point is that we have to consider the way he came into office and became the president. In term of the economy of this country today, I don’t think that considering the way he became president, I don’t think that contesting for the presidency is the most important to him. If I were in his shoes, I would have used this opportunity to make sure that a credible election is held in 2011.
What we see now is a charade. He has all this while pretended that he has not made up his mind on whether to contest or not. But at the same time, people are using a lot of government apparatus to campaign for him. They use government machineries to campaign for him directly or indirectly. People are not saying anything about it.
We all know that those in government –especially ministers and special assistants are already campaigning for him.
How can you prove this?
You are a Nigerian and I am a Nigerian. There is no doubt about it. We cannot be talking about whether or not he is contesting when we know there is somewhere near NTA headquarters in Abuja which the Goodluck Jonathan campaign organization has rented. He may deny that he is not the one behind it or fuelling it but I am telling you that if he is not interested, he would have stopped it. He would have asked them to stop.
To me, what should be paramount today in his mind is how to improve the economy of the country and to ensure a credible election in 2011.Look; all the industries in this country are going to Ghana. This is the kind of thing that President Goodluck Jonathan should make his priority. Rather, he is trying to play on the intelligence of Nigerians that he is not running when we see people who are sycophants saying they are supporting him or they are not supporting him. He cannot deny that he knows people are campaigning for him.
When Save Nigeria Group (SNG) and the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) fought for him to become the president, we did so for the sake of the constitution to be respected by Nigerians. What we see today is not what we thought or expected.
Therefore, those oppose to him to him are entitled to their opinion. The Northern leaders now crying have their reasons for doing so. We all know there was zoning in PDP. It was zoning that brought Obasanjo. As secretary of CNPP, I know that for a fact. The PDP cannot come up today to deny that because they want to favour somebody. When you want to do such thing, then please do it right. All they want is one favour or the other.
Do you think Jonathan contesting can affect the chances of the Ndigbo in 2015?
Yes. If there is zoning and we know the political parties in Nigeria are so badly mortgaged that we refer to PDP when we talk of politics in Nigeria today. If anything has to be done right in this country, the PDP will have to get it right. As long as there is no internal democracy in PDP where people lie a lot, things would go wrong.
The PDP cannot wake up overnight and jettison zoning that brought people like Obasasnjo for eight years. Just because somebody is the president of the country, they feel that they can tall Nigerians that zoning was never in existence. They can’t convince anybody that zoning was because of Abiola’s incarceration and the annulment of the June 12 1993 election. They have to the world the truth.
So, if the North is crying and the Ndigbo are crying, they are justified because automatically, it would be the turn of Ndigbo by 2015.The PDP cannot shortchange us.
Some governors called themselves leaders and woke up overnight and started talking rubbish by telling the people that the South East is not ready to be president. They are on their own. They are all looking for second term in office. That is why there is no development in the states. This is the time the Ndigbo has been badly shortchanged in terms of appointment.
If there is anything for the Ndigbo, let them put it on the table and let us talk about it. If anybody tells you that an Igbo man is not going to contest or run for VP in 2011, know that that person must be a fool. I call them idiots.
You are from Enugu and people from your zone said they have adopted the governor for a second term in office.
I am from Enugu State, and precisely Enugu north senatorial zone where I ran for the senate. I said several times that if you are adopting anybody; tell us what he has done.
Tell us the criteria to make you say we adopt him. Do some people think they can wake up overnight and say we adopt somebody?
Even if t5he PDP adopted him, definitely there must be contest for the office of governor. The chairman of the PDP today comes from that zone. I know the present chairman of the PDP has integrity. What he has said so far is that the best should be for the PDP. He is insisting on internal democracy in PDP.
So, do you relate well with the chairman of PDP?
Yes. He not only comes from my senatorial zone but we have a long family relationship from my grandfather to my father. A month ago, I had the golden jubilee of the marriage of my father and the PDP chairman was there, I respect him as a person, I respect him as chairman of PDP. I respect his integrity. He has said the era of ‘Ghana must go” is over in PDP.
I have told him that he cannot attend the CNPP meetings; he should send somebody to represent him. CNPP is not an opposition party. It is an umbrella for every registered party in this country. From what I know about him, he will certainly send somebody to our meeting.
What was the idea the meeting of Human rights activists meeting in the East?
About three weeks ago, the coalition of human rights pro democracy activists from the South East had a summit in Enugu and notable names like Olisa Agbakoba, Ben Azuagwu and the chairman of CLO came. Why? We discovered that you might be flying high outside but people in your own area don’t know you.
You have to start being good in your area before you go outside. If you look at it, you discover that most us fought for democracy in this country. Most of them went into detention and came out and they are still fighting on a daily basis. They now feel that where they come from, the South East has nothing to write home about. There is no government that comes into being that most of them are not involved in terms of activism.
There is no security of life in the South East. It is the only place where you find that a PhD degree holder has no job for years. When it comes to political appointments at the national level, they are shortchanged.
Recently Agbakoba was to be INEC chairman .We fought Maurice Iwu because we thought what he did was not right. Iwu was from the South East. But they denied us the chance to replace him. Although Jega is part of us in the pro democracy struggle, but we are talking of zonal issues. I am happy that decisions taken at the summit is what those who met with the president recently presented to him.
How do you rate the performance of president Jonathan so far?
We have not seen anything to commend him. He can no longer claim that he has no power to perform. Today, he is the president. If he is sincere, it will not take him all the time in the world to put things in place. He has not done it right in the area of corruption, power, employment, education, health or any major aspects of the country’s need. Those asking him to continue in office are saying so because they feel that is the quickest way to get to power. That is why they are all clamouring for him to continue.
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