Onyebuchi Chukwu is a former Minister of Health, former governorship aspirant, and Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu – Alike, Ebonyi State. He spoke to some selected journalists on the upcoming general elections and the strength of the leading presidential candidates. He explained why he is not supporting the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Tinubu, and why Labour Party’s Peter Obi can’t win the election. He also identified the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party as being ahead of others in anti-party politics. BENEDICT NWACHUKWU was there. Excerpts:
Do you believe in a rotational presidency and what is your reaction to the choice of presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress and the People’s Democratic Party?
We want to get to a stage where it does not matter if you want to run at the national or state level, the rotation should not be an issue but we have not gotten to that stage.
That is something that we should work towards, that should have been the principle, we shouldn’t be doing zoning at all. Where we are now, I am a strong believer in zoning because right now, we don’t have a nation. Nations are not built by dreaming and praying, it is by a deliberate effort, you must initiate efforts, you sow it, you cultivate it and you nurture it, these things are not being done. We don’t have a nation today; we have a country. Pending when we will have a nation, I am a strong believer in zoning.
The APC did well to bring it to the South but that was after Bola Ahmed Tinubu went for a broke, and made a make-or-mar statement, it was even like he forced it on them else it wasn’t going to happen.
But if it even goes to the South, it should go to the South East. But the fact that APC did not ensure that it goes to the South East, I am not campaigning against their candidate but I am not campaigning for him. The main reason why I am not campaigning for Tinubu is that for today, it is not his making, we are all growing old, I am over 60 years old myself, and we don’t even know whether we will be senile when we get to 70. People are blessed in different ways, like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he is blessed, despite his age, he is not senile. Unfortunately, Asiwaju Tinubu didn’t get that kind of blessing.
Right now, even as a doctor, I believe that he is not fit to be President and there is no way as a doctor, I will be actively telling Nigerians to vote for him, and God will not forgive me. Because I am a party person, I cannot campaign against him but to be honest, I cannot campaign for him, it should come from the South East and he shouldn’t go for that position.
For the PDP, they messed up that position; they didn’t even consider the South worthy to go for that position. For me that is a no, there is no way I can support the candidate of the PDP.
Then which of the presidential candidates are you supporting?
I am Obident! There are only three presidential candidates out of which the next president is likely to come from. They are the APC, PDP and Labour party. But if we are realistic, so far being a politician, something tells me that it is going to come from either the APC or PDP but the Labour Party is going to make a great impact in this election.
But among the three major candidates, the best person to vote for is Peter Obi. I am hoping that he will win but realistically, if the election is going to take place today, he may not win but there is still time for him and his party to do a lot of work to ensure that he wins.
The notion out there is that Obi does not have the structure to win the next election. Do you share that view?
Forget anything people call structure, there is nothing like structure, it simply
means that you have officials, you have an office, you have a constitution, and you are recognized by INEC, there is nothing like structure.
If there is structure, why do people move from one party to the other? Atiku who is in PDP today was among those who made sure that President Jonathan didn’t get reelected, so what is he now doing in PDP if he believes in structure? He too doesn’t believe that there is anything called structure that is why he can move in and out at any time.
Tomorrow, he may even move to the Labour Party. What is important is whether you are marketable at the grassroots, whether you are known at the grassroots, you have people of influence at the grassroots because the majority of the people who vote depend on influencers, people tell them who to vote for.
Only a few people are convinced, so you need to campaign against those people who need conviction. The people at the grassroots, especially, the women need influencers to convince them to vote for you. means that you have officials, you have an office, you have a constitution, and you are recognized by INEC, there is nothing like structure.
If there is structure, why do people move from one party to the other? Atiku who is in PDP today was among those who made sure that President Jonathan didn’t get reelected, so what is he now doing in PDP if he believes in structure? He too doesn’t believe that there is anything called structure that is why he can move in and out at any time.
Tomorrow, he may even move to the Labour Party. What is important is whether you are marketable at the grassroots, whether you are known at the grassroots, you have people of influence at the grassroots because the majority of the people who vote depend on influencers, people tell them who to vote for.
Only a few people are convinced, so you need to campaign against those people who need conviction. The people at the grassroots, especially, the women need influencers to convince them to vote for you.
Since you believe in the candidate of the Labour Party, will you move into the party to influence his victory?
I don’t have such plans. What I have done for him directly is that I don’t campaign against Peter Obi and if people want to vote for him, I encourage them to vote for him. If I were in the Labour Party, I would be among those following him around, actively campaigning for him but for now, I have not moved from APC. I don’t believe that I should just jump into the fray.
Don’t you think APC will accuse you of being anti-party for supporting another candidate?
Who cares about that? People move from one party to the other. Today, the person who is the leader of my party in my state didn’t even want me to be anywhere near because we were in the PDP. It is anti-party that made him to be my leader in the APC. Given the type of politics we play in Nigeria, it doesn’t really matter so much.
Today PDP is allowing Atiku to be its presidential candidate, who does more anti-party than Atiku? Who made sure PDP lost the presidential election in 2014? So if they can allow the person that did the worst anti-party to be their presidential candidate, then what are we talking about?
How soon are you going to realize your ambition of being the Governor of Ebonyi State?
No, that is why I said that politics is a vocation. Some people say that I am not a politician and I tell them to tell me what politicians do that I don’t do. The only two things that I don’t do is, one I am not violent, I will not go and injure anybody because of politics.
I will not go and kill, I will not even send anybody to do so on my behalf because of politics and if you do it on my behalf and I can get you, I will get you punished. Secondly, I don’t steal. I was a Minister; I am still waiting for people to say that this is where I stole money.
Even though on Radio and TV you see people going to ICPC, telling them to arrest Onyebuchi Chukwu but ICPC, and EFCC have never spoken to me even for one day. Not that there are no petitions but they look at it and feel that there is nothing to go to and ask questions. If there is anything that happened when I was a Minister, then it was without my knowledge. The only ambition I have is for God to keep giving me the opportunity to continue serving people till I die. So if being a governor will fulfill that ambition, I will go for it.
People say, ‘it is my ambition to rule Nigeria’, I am not in that kind of group. I am already over 60 years, so in another five years’ time, if you call me to be governor I will tell you, can I nominate someone else? Certain things are better for certain ages. There are things people can do up to the age of 80 if they still have the cognitive ability and there are things you can do up to the age of 90.
You should assess yourself. If you have one chronic illness that is troubling you or a heart problem that is severe, it is not the time to go into politics. Allow others to go while you can be by the side advising. It is not a do-or-die thing. After another five years, I can go for President but no more governor. There are so many young people we can choose to make the place better for all of us.
