Lagos — Chief Brady Nwosu is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo state.

He was one of the gubernatorial aspirants in the 2007 governorship election. In this interview with BONNY AMADI, he gives an insight into the political developments of the nation, advising that Nigeria should learn useful lessons from the United States of America and South Africa in terms of their democratic systems.

AS a stakeholder in Imo state politics, could you analyse political developments in the State?

The political development is that we have a Governor who is a Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) governor in the name of Chief Ikechi Ohahim who is also a friend to me. Basically, we know that Imo state is a PDP state, but by virtue of what happened in 2007, as God may have it, we have a PPA governor.

In as much as they are still in court, I don't see the court case as being necessary. There is no basis for Araraume to take Ohakim to court because he never contested any election.

How would you rate the performance of the governor in this new political dispensation?

It is just barely a year since the governor assumed office. But he is being distracted by proceedings in the court.

I believe based on his prerogative and understanding of what he sets out to do, he is pursuing a policy that is peoples-oriented that will open up the state as investment haven.

Everything depends on his understanding and what he has done as well as mastery of what he is doing.

How would you assess the performance of the South East governors in this new dispensation?

I know a couple of the South East governors and I cannot say actually what they have on ground in their respective states.

I am from Imo state and have not gone round the other states in the South East to know the level of new developments there. To the best of my knowledge the new papers the governors are doing their best

Do you think that the federal legislators from the South East are representing their zone properly?

They were elected as legislators and their duty is to make laws. We have seen some bills passed by the National Assembly and some of the bills have been endorsed by the president while others are still waiting to be endorsed by the president.

The point is that they are still legislating as members of the National Assembly working to make laws.

However based on what is happening, the fact is that the legislators are very slow. Even if you bring out the bills endorsed by the president and it is not implemented, it is meaningless.

What role do you think the South East legislators will play in actualizing the second Niger bridge?

Constitutionally, they are to legislate and make laws and it is for the executives to ensure that laws are executed by implementing projects.

If they go away from their constitutional areas, they might lobby as representatives from the South East, their fellow members and lobby the executive too.

Because the executive has the constitutional right for implementation, they should insist on the implementation of all projects approved.

What role do you think lobbying played in the recent political developments in the South East and Nigeria?

Lobbying is an invisible fifth estate of democracy because it is the ability to persuade somebody to do or something which is more interested or will benefit the group that is lobbying. They have reason for lobbying.

In American politics, lobbying is allowed. Many Washington DC lawyers, are lobbists. Lobby has to do with your friends, to help those people to get anything they are lobbying for.

In our own case, lobbying is very much internal. Maybe it is not a law yet. But some people use to call it influence peddling. But lobbying has to do with your influence in the election of that person and being friendly to power influences. It also helps the executive in project implementation.

As far as we are concerned and considering the type of democracy we are running, lobbying is the fifth estate of the realm.

What then do you think is responsible for declining influence of some powerful camps lately?

If I can summarise your question properly I think what you are talking about is the influence of God fathers. Godfatherism has been in existence since the beginning of the world. If you are there before me, definitely you will be regarded as god father.

Godfather has been in vogue in every kind of power be it in kingdom, empire, dynasty, be it in communism or democracy.

The only thing is that the name changes at any given time but, you cannot do politics without having a godfather.

There are some people that will call you to go and if you don't have the consent of those people, if you go, you will not succeed.

Take for instance, what happened sometimes in Niger State when the governor of the state was having problems with the godfathers in the state. People like IBB, Kure, Abdulsalami. I looked at him and said maybe the man was out of touch or that he was a civil servant before he was carried to become a governor by Obasanjo.

Well, I saw that and laughed because no body becomes politically relevant without a god father.

Then he was bearing Aliyu Babangida, but right now he is bearing Babangida Aliyu, He realised that the god father is there, the only thing that changes god father is in its application.

In America, the godfathers are called the establishments because you cannot be without a godfather. There are some leaders that must tell you to proceed.

And in the case of Niger state, how do you think you can become a governor without the endorsement of IBB, Abdulsalam Abubakar, and Kure, who was in incumbent governor of the state.

Even if Abdulsalami and IBB say you must go and Kure as an incumbent governor says no, there is nothing you can do about it. That is one of the problems we have in Imo state.

In as much as our governor used to say he doesn't have a godfather, he understood that there is establishments (godfather) in the state.

Definitely, Udenwa is the most powerful man in Imo state and he is the godfather of the present governor. The last time Udenwa celebrated his 60th birthday, Ohakim actually admitted that he couldn't have been there without the forces led by Udenwa, of which I am a member.

What role do you think godfatherism or establishment played in the emergence of the president?

Definitely, when you look at Yar'Adua, you see Obasanjo as the god father, afterall we all knew that he was just placed there by his political godfather.

In the president's speech, he was humbled because, he never waited to become a president, he said that he was planninges to go back to the class room as a teacher, but, was asked to bear the flagship.

He will thank God first, that made Obasanjo to do what he did and definitely we cannot rule out the fact that he will always respect the establishments.

Should we now say that the godfathers dictate the direction of their point men?

You cannot say that they are acting the script of their godfathers, but before they do any major thing, they must seek for their consent. You must call the godfather. This is the way its done. You cannot implement or come up with powerful policies, as chief executive without seeking the advice or consent of the past leaders.

You must tell them, this is what I want to do, this is what I am planning to do. You are not doing this that you are seeking for their advice but you are notifying them of the changes that is coming up in the government.

Based on all these, how then would you rate the performance of the President so far?

The point is that generally, we have relative peace in the country, and he is there to take the credit. In as much as a lot of people claim that everything is slow, that maybe his own style.

If you are to score the president, what will be your score for him?

I may not be in the best position to score the President, because like I told you, nature abhors vacuum. His style may be what he is doing and also based on his own prerogative. The president is doing what he feels is best for the country.

The world is awash with financial meltdown. What impact do you think this will have on our political development?

The point is that we have already started suffering it. The price of oil was estimated to hit $200 per barrel by December this year, but unfortunately the price is plunging down.

When the price started plunging down I know that it is not to our country's benefit for relying solely on revenue from oil.

The leprous hand behind the global financial crisis is the United State of America, because you cannot as President of America, execute two wars in four years and still expect things to remain the same.

You must have problem after executing the wars. The war America waged within these period of time is actually what the entire world is suffering right now.

In as much as that is supposed to be American problems, but being a world power, and based on imperial grand strategy (national security strategy) America cannot suffer such a thing alone.

Even if America is going down, they have to drag the entire world down, and even if they are going up they also have to drag the entire world up to a certain level as not to compete or equate with them. We have already started suffering the financial crisis where a bag of rice is nearly a $100 based on today's exchange rate.

However, our people have not started shouting about it, because Nigerians don't give a damn about anything and more so as we run a cash economy.

If the entire Nigerian economy has been in plastic, I mean credit card borne by debt, only God knows what would have happened in this country, but the point is that we are a cash economy, because most of the payment are on cash on the table.

Having brought American scenario into focus, how then would you see the political developments in that country going by their election this month?

When the primaries started, I can't lie to you, I envisaged Mrs Clinton winning the party ticket. I went to America sometimes ago and I studied political science and power politics and in America. I was thinking based on the political and electoral system of the country.

Based on my own analysis, I envisaged Clinton was going to emerge as the Democratic party's flag bearer. But because of certain things within the establishments, which Bill Clinton was on top of and certain things that happened during the Bush and Kerry election, maybe other leaders of the party was not comfortable with that.

So because of that, and I call it the hands of God were on the side of Obama and Obama emerged. But right now, since Obama emerged and there is all this financial crisis going on. The young man is very steady and he will tell you the problem and how he is going to settle the problem.

So far, so good, the polls have been in his favour, but if eventually at the end of the day America did not elect him, the whole world will ask America why?

Because in this case, if America do not elect Obama right now, America has to tell us why they must be preaching to the world that America is a land of opportunities, land of freedom.

So the thing is clear, you cannot tell us based on what is happening now that Obama is not a good candidate. He may not have 100 per cent of what America needs and nobody has that. John McCain may not have that also, but based on what is happening today and tomorrow, if America did not elect Obama, people like me will ask "what is going on?"

The emergence of Obama as president will further increase the rising trend of America's greatness. There is no way to dislodge Obama and if America does otherwise, that might be the beginning of American decay the fall of America, because nation rises and falls.

Are you looking at it from the African angle as an African?

Not that, but I told you earlier that I first supported Mrs. Clinton, she is not an African, Obama has proved himself. He is younger, McCain has more credentials more than Obama but for today's problem in the country, this young man knows what is the cause of the problem and he has told you how he is going to solve the problems.

What lessons do you think Nigeria will learn from American experience?

The lesson is that we have to find a way to build our own democracy in this country. If we must learn a lesson, it should be from nearby South Africa, where the party supremacy forced the president to resign to my greatest surprise. I saw Mbeki relinquish power as president of South Africa because his party on which platform he came to power, asked him to do so.

Some of his friends who felt they could reverse the situation went to the parliament and by the time they cast votes in the parliament they got only ten votes.

As Nigerians, we must nurture democracy, we must respect the supremacy of the party and the law. Supremacy of the law and the party is the survival of democracy anywhere in the world.

Are you saying that the situation is not the same in Nigeria, especially during the tenure of the former president Olusegun Obasanjo who was everything to the party?

Nigeria hoped so much on Obasanjo but he derailed because of third term instead of focusing on things that will get us out of those problems.

You have been an apostle of the former military president, Gen Ibrahim Babangida (IBB). what is it that endears you to the man?

I left this country very young and when I returned finally to settled down in the country, I didn't just plunge into becoming a politician right away because I got married and have to set up my family, get a home that I will live in before thinking of politics.

However, as a curious person, I conducted a research and discovered that out of all the people that ruled this country the person who is proactive, thinks ahead of time is IBB. I never knew him from Adam and never met him before then. During the time he was a military president, I was overseas. Not only that he was visionary, he implemented all those things for the future of this country, yet they called him bad name.

Several times, I wrote articles about him, I never met him, I didn't wan to see or know him, but I was trying to do the right thing based on my own convenience.

You once said that IBB after stepping aside will rule this country again. what did you mean by that?

This country requires an old hand like IBB to move it forward.

What did IBB forget in the state house?

There is nothing like forgetting anything in the state house, afterall what did Obasanjo forget in the state house? For him to come back , if we are to go by your question, what IBB put in place when he was the military president is what we are still implementing today. So as far as this country is concerned, he is a leader whose political ideology is visionary. Mind you he did not annul June 12 election, but he cancelled the election based on advice of NEC chairman. Humphery Nwosu had said that. He cancelled the election based on the advice by people from South West of Nigeria. He didn't do it against any body.

Before he did that, he told the two presidential candidates, Abiola and Tofa and I believe those people still dwelling on June 12, don't have anything to do.

Maradona as evil genius?

He is not Maradona. Maradona is a footballer from Angentina, also he is not an evil genius, evil cannot make something good that people will love. IBB is a good genius and not an evil genius.

He had told you that he will not volunteer himself to rule this country again, but I am telling you that at this particular time in our lives, God brought him to become head of state and God will definitely make it and he will never resist that.

God will bring him again to move, Nigerians will ask him again to ruleand we are waiting.

What political solution do you think will settle the issue of Niger Delta?

The point is that the problem of Nigeria and of Niger Delta is leadership. like I have said before, when a very powerful leader like IBB steps into governance the problem of Nigeria Delta will stop. He had said that the federal government can make huge amount of money more than what they are making right now, without controlling the resources of Niger Delta 100per cent. For me, it is not ideal coming out with a ministry of Niger Delt because, Niger Delta is part of Nigeria, what we need is beefing up the NDDC.

Are you making Niger Delta ministry when we have ministry of works yet we don't have good roads, we have Ministry of Education, yet education is comatose, we have ministry of health, yet quality health delivery is a far cry. We should be talking about scraping some ministries that are not working instead of establishing new ones.

For the native Americans, the American Indians, there was no ministry to cater for them. The aborigines of Australia never had any ministry to carter for them. Recently, the prime minister of Australia apologised to the aborigines and promised to fully re-integrate them into the society.

What we need in Niger Delta is focused leadership to build up that place and not a marshal plan idea. Mind you, a marshal plan is of destruction and rebuilding. Marshal plans is an idea because the place has be devasted and as a result to build it requires intensive development.

So why are you setting up a ministry for Niger Delta? Remember that the groove of Niger Delta covers the entire southern region. Ondo in South West, the entire South South, South East of Imo, Anambra and Abia states and you want to bring in a minister to cater for Niger Delta?.

The minister will be obsessed with power, he will over run and may undermine the governors of the states in the region. Definitely the executive president will be sharing the country between the North and the South then the minister of Niger Delta will be President General of the Southern Nigeria. So, you might as well take Nigeria to regional situation.

Remember that the budget of some ministries are more than that of some states and you want to make one man, a minister with huge amount of money to take charge of the entire Southern Nigeria?

When Chief Onyema Ugochukwu was the chairman of NDDC, it was reported that his convoy almost stretched to one kilometer, then the convoy of minister for Niger Delta will stretch to more than two kilometers. Do we need that?

You know our people, we are obsessed with power, the minister will over run the state governors and there will be conflict of interest; and remember both the NDDC and the minister of Niger Delta still report to the president.

Bakassi?

Originally, I could not comprehend why a country without firing a single shot will give out its land. But I discovered that one way or the other, our leaders may have benefited in the past. This is not something we can see right now, the issue is that it is gone and it is gone.

Trial of some past leaders by EFCC?

EFCC was designed to hunt for certain people, and the final product of EFCC was Yar'Adua and Jonathan. That is the game and since the two leaders have emerged, EFCC has no spine anymore.

Could you tell us briefly about your self and political philosophy?

I have been around and contested three elections in my political career. I contested for the chairman of Isiala Mbano Local Government Area under the platform of All peoples party (APP), I also contested for senate, Okigwe zone and I was the gubernatorial candidate for Imo state PDP. In fact, I was the first candidate that was heard by the party to run far PDP primary in the last election.

Right now I make contributions in newspapers through writings on national issues. I propagate for leadership through constant reading, persistent writings thinking, regularly participating in political activities. Also political intervention with political leadership and aligning ideological political groups and movements like the IBB political group, movement and thought, and being close to God.