27 August 2008
interview
Lagos — Former National Auditor of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and now an opposition leader in Enugu state, Mr Ray Nnaji, talks with our South East Bureau Chief, Chukwudi Achife on the political situation in the state particularly his camp's relationship with Governor Sullivan Chime.
The recent Court of Appeal decision upholding the election of Governor Sullivan Chime, must have dealt a mortal blow to the plans of the opposition in the state. As one of its leaders, would you say you have given up or are we to expect other things to come up?
Of course we were disappointed with the verdict of the Court of Appeal. It was something we never expected and you may say it has forced us to go into what may appear to be the cooler but actually it has made room for us to re-strategize. It is not as if we have given up knowing that 2011 is just around the corner. It may look far away but it is not actually so because this government has only a year and some months before the next campaigns start. By the first quarter of next year, we will start our movement and by 2011, we will take over the government whether Governor Chime likes it or not unless he is prepared to address the issues that led to the conflict with us in the first place. So far he has not shown any willingness to move in that direction so it will be war. As for our structure, it is still very much intact but there's no point dissipating energy unnecessarily when the race is far from over or when the test is still far away. This government seems to be avoiding elections because the governor knows he cannot face us at the polls, but there is nowhere for him to hide.
Your party, the Peoples Democratic Party ({PDP) has given full recognition to the Chief Vita Abba -led executive of the party in the state but from your utterances, it is obvious that you are still laying claims to the Chairmanship of the party in the state, so what is informing this stance of yours?
The Chairmanship and the structure of the PDP in Enugu state is a matter that before the Federal High Court, in suit No FHC/EN/CS/83/2008. Incidentally, all the defendants in that suit including the Independent National Electoral Commission, National Chairman of PDP PrinceVincent Ogbulafor and Chief Vita Abba are yet to take any steps in the matter till date believing that whatever they have done has the stamp of the national leadership of the party against the rule of law. We are however confident that we will secure victory in the courts, we have our facts, we have the recognition and certificate of return given to us long before Ogbulafor came on board and then arranged for Chief Jim Nwobodo to start acting out a script written in the Enugu government house. Nwobodo (as chairman of the South East Action Committee of the PDP) acted with clear bias against anyone associated with former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani whom he hates and for him, such a person must be knocked down. But one thing he must know is that even if Nnamani had helped some of us, we don't owe him absolute loyalty, we can still make our own choices. We are playing party politics and nobody should punish us for the sins of another. If he has anything against Nnamani, he should not visit it on the executive of the party led by my humble self.
Do you have access to the state secretariat of the party?
No I don't, not that I cannot take the secretariat if I want but we don't want a situation where there will be bloodshed. We have decided that since we are in court, we should do nothing about it until we have secured the victory we are so sure of. That brings me to the issue of the relocation of the party secretariat to the governor's private residence. It is unconstitutional, it has never happened in any state and it is illegal for anyone to combine leadership of government with leadership of the party. The location of the party secretariat in the governor's private residence does not augur well for the party for it is a clear abuse of party politics. President Yar'adua recently advised party members to draw a line between party and government. He wants the party chairman at all levels to be the leader of the party and not the leader of government. So, someone trying to make the party leadership a rubberstamp will not help the party and it will not help democracy.
You keep talking about how confident you are at securing victory in the courts, what informs this confidence?
Apart from the incontrovertible evidence we have to prove that we are the duly elected executive of the PDP in Enugu state, INEC recently came out to say that there were no congresses in ten states including Enugu . I believe it was Mrs. Regina Omro Gouge, the Deputy Director Political Monitoring and Liaison, who said that and she even said that INEC has written to the leadership of the party asking for dates for the conduct of the congresses. Even though we are opposed to any one pronouncing on a matter that is still in court especially when that person is a party in the suit, that statement from INEC has made nonsense of whatever Ogbulafor must have done in recognizing the wrong executives. In our own case we want all the parties to come to court and prove their case.
When say that your group, the 'Ebeano' family in the PDP is still formidable, we wonder how that could be when virtually all elected office holders in the state from councilors through state to the National Assembly are in Governor Chime's camp. From where then does the group draw its strength?
There is no doubt that the ebeano structure is still very formidable. Even though that so many people who were produced by the structure had ditched it, it still remains strong. The structure is today, being financed solely by its founder Senator Chimaroke Nnamani even though he is no longer governor and he cannot pretend he can match the resources of government. It is important to know that so many people in the structure are not in government. They have been sustaining themselves and the fact they appear not to be active does not mean that the structure has collapsed. There is nothing at stake now. We are simply waiting for the right time to make our move of course you know that without the ebeano structure, you cannot be talking about opposition in the state and in the next dispensation, it is going to be Governor Chime versus the ebeano family. Chime's camp is already a closed shop because only Chime can emerge from it but in ebeano, we have so many options and I am sure, some people in Chime's camp today will join our camp in order to improve their chances of emerging the gubernatorial candidate. It is dangerous for us not to have an alternative in any society because that sole leader is likely to abuse his position. Ebeano's existence is keeping Chime in check.
Going beyond your political differences with Governor Chime, as a political leader in Enugu state, what would be your honest assessment of the governor's performance in office so far?
I must have to tell you that he has actually done well especially in the area of road construction and welfare of workers and refuse disposal but I believe that all his achievements were because of the pressure we put on him. We are actually helping him run the government well because ordinarily, he would not have been doing well. Even now, I am sure you will agree that activities have slowed down since the Court of Appeal judgment and he now looks as if he is confused. I believe that those who assisted him have hijacked his administration and unfortunately we have heard that the debt profile of the state is so high because he spent a lot on the struggle which he would avoided if he had not muscled his friends out of the way after they had helped him become governor, but very soon we will back in the trenches.
You did mention that your war with the governor will end if he addresses some issues that led to the conflict in the first place. Are you saying that you are ready to reconcile with the Governor?
Of course we are. What we expect him to do as a father is to find a way of reconciling everybody. We are still one family not minding that it was his divide and rule tactics that caused the problem in the first place. If he wants peace to reign, he must look for reconciliation, he must bury his pride and reconcile with Senator Nnamani who happened to be his best friend before they fell out. I know that people who are profiting from the current situation would be urging him not do so but he will show himself to be a wise leader if he chooses the path of peace over that of war.
It is commonly believed that what may hold back any such reconciliation initiative is the fear that Senator Nnamani would want to dictate to the Governor and make life difficult for him, if he does not do his bidding. When he was governor, Nnamani himself rejected moves to reconcile him with Chief Jim Nwobodo perhaps for similar reasons. The question is why would someone bring close someone who would want to hurt him?
My simple answer is that it is not true that Senator Nnamani would wish to dictate to anybody; he has been governor for eight years and he would have known the limits of his own powers outside the government house. Again, it is wrong to compare what happened between Nwobodo and Nnamani and what is happening between Nnamani and Chime. The effects may be the same, that is to say, that someone turned his back on another person who had helped him become governor but the circumstances that led to it were not the same. Nnamani had a stronger case against Nwobodo than Chime has against Nnamani. But I am saying that we are ready for reconciliation but not the kangaroo reconciliation of the Nwobodo committee. Nwobodo does not even qualify to be a peacemaker because he also goes about causing trouble. When he attacked Nnamani recently, I replied and said that he has nobody but himself to blame for his travails under the administration of the former Governor. If he is accusing Nnamani of being an ingrate then he is also an ingrate because he was the first person to show ingratitude when he started maltreating myself and other prominent politicians from the Enugu East Senatorial zone after we had helped him secure victory over former Senate President Chief Ken Nnamani in the 1999 senatorial elections. Immediately after he was elected, he started maltreating some former local government chairmen like myself, Hon Chijioke Edeoga, Hon Gilbert Nnaji, Prince (now Ambassador) Goddy Agbo and Hon. Charles Ayalaogu and relegated us to the background after we helped him secure his victory. Whatever anyone of us got later was through his personal struggle. Whatever happened to Nwobodo under the Nnamani administration can be regarded as law of karma because he received the measure he was giving to others. Meanwhile the fight between them was avoidable because we begged Nwobodo not to attack Nnamani but he refused to listen to us. I am also disappointed that Nwobodo would continue attacking Nnamani after he had publicly declared that he had forgiven the former Governor for any offence against him during his tenure and this clearly gives him out as insincere and untrustworthy.
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