If I Had Gone To Court Against Nwifuru, Nwifuru Wouldn’t Have Been There As A Governor-LP Guber Candidate

 

Comrade Chief Splendour Okwu-Eze is the Ebonyi State Labour Party(LP) governorship candidate for the 2027 general election. In this interview with Panafric Reporters, Alex Odeh, in Abakaliki, the LP governorship candidate recounted his experience in the political landscape tracing back to 2019 when he contested with the then governor David Umahi and later against the incumbent, Nwifuru Francis in 2023, but withdrew from prosecuting the matter in court because if he had done that, the election would have been nullified, following the substitution of his name in INEC portal with Architect Edward Okereke by the Labour Party(LP).

 

He said his reason for contesting the 2023 election is that the incumbent governor Nwifuru Francis, he thought would address the needs of Ebonyi people, has failed to address their plights , ranging from unemployment, industrialisation, security and improper waste management, returning Ebonyi State as one of the dirtiest states in Nigeria. Excerpts:

 

Can we meet you and as well tell us your experiences so far since you declared interest to contest Ebonyi State governorship election under Labour Party(LP)

My name is Comrade Chief Splendour Okwu-Eze, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Ebonyi State. Well, first of all, I will start by saying that my aspiration to become the governor of Ebonyi State did not just start today.

It started way back in 2019 when I contested against the incumbent then, Engineer Chief David Nweze Umahi. I saw that the government as of then was not actually taking good care of the needs of the people. As of then, I saw double taxation, as of then I saw molestation, harassment, and that was what actually prepared me to contest against the incumbent then.

Then also, I equally saw that the infrastructural development that was meant to cut across the 13 local governments down to the rural areas for the benefit of the rural dwellers were all centred in the urban. I now know that our people needed this infrastructure in the rural areas and they also needed mechanised agriculture. They equally needed electricity and good roads.

So that was what I thought was missing in 2019 and I decided to throw my weight in the ring. So the 2019 came and went the way it went. INEC announced the incumbent then as the winner of the 2019 election.

Based on your burning desire to ensure that Ebonyi people get the best of governance, what other steps did you take to actualize your governorship ambition?

So for me, I went back to re-strategise and come up with a better plan. In 2023, I came out to contest under the Labour Party. When they saw that I have come out again, it became a very big threat to all of them and they started to look for a way to scuttle my ambition to the point that after INEC had announced me as the winner of the primary, one man from APC known as Architect Edward Okereke, contested the primary election under the APC and failed woefully.

Instead of him to maintain and follow the constitution of the land, he decided to jump ring and then approached the former national chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure and the rest of them at the national level. They now conspired and forged my signature, went to INEC and removed my name from the portal with a fake withdrawal letter that I have withdrawn from the race, that I am incapacitated to go on with the race. And as God may have it, one of the staff in INEC called my attention to that.

And I told him that I’ve never resigned and I didn’t write any letter. So with that, I was invited over to Abuja. I ran to Abuja and discovered that there was a fake withdrawal letter written on my behalf without my consent.

That was what necessitated me approaching the Federal High Court, Abakaliki, here. The matter started. To the glory of God Almighty, I won them in Federal High Court, Abakaliki, and the court maintained that I have not withdrawn from the race and my mandate was given to me with an enrolment order, a consequential order that INEC should remove Edward Okereke’s name as an imposter and then put back my name as the candidate of the party.

What was the reaction of Architect Edward Okereke. Did he fight back or accepted to back out of the race?

So Edward Okereke and Julius Abure, as at then were not satisfied with the ruling of the court, they went to Court of Appeal, you know, and challenged the judgement of the lower court. The matter started all over again. So as God may have it, I defeated them again in Court of Appeal and they were still not satisfied. They went to Supreme Court. I also went there. To the glory of God Almighty, I defeated them again.

How did you feel with the entire development?

All these things they were doing was to distract me from contesting the election because they know that the Ebonyi people love me so much because of what I have been able to put on ground. You know in Ebonyi State, I am one of the persons that brought Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria, IPAC, in Ebonyi State, where I was elected as the secretary. Then Onyekachi Nwebonyi, who is now the senator representing Ebonyi North, was elected as the chairman.

I served Ebonyi State, you know, with the level of integrity one can show in politics. So with that, I was re-elected as the publicity secretary of the same Inter-Party Advisory Council. IPAC sent me to NIPSS, if you know NIPSS, you know, it is Institute of Strategic Studies, you know, the NIPSS is concentrated on training leaders across Nigeria and beyond Nigeria.

So I was trained in NIPSS under the authority of the Commission and I have my certificate to that effect, so that is what has actually, you know, built up my political desire to use what I have acquired as a human being to better the lives of Ebonyi people.

What was your experiences during this period like?

You know, of course, moving from Federal High Court to the Supreme Court, it actually distracted me, I didn’t have much time to even talk to my people, you know. So the election came again in 2023 and went the way it went, because I actually did not have enough time to even campaign because of that distraction.

So it was a ploy to distract me, definitely. So the 2023 has come and gone, now we are approaching 2027 and my people now came together and said, no, you must still go and represent us, because we have tested your leadership qualities, we are comfortable with your leadership style, we want you to go there, you will make a whole lot of difference. And then narrowing it down to what we have in Ebonyi State leadership today, yes, of course, in 2023, after the whole thing, after they brought Edon’s name as against the judgement of the Supreme Court, so many people met me that I should sue to cancel the election.

You are now contesting against the incumbent governor, Nwifuru Francis, are you saying you are unsatisfied with his administration?

You know, before the emergence of Chief Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, I had already prayed to God that we needed a change, we need a young man to be in the helm of affairs, so that this issue of unemployment rate in Ebonyi State could be reduced, and that if a young man comes up to become the governor of Ebonyi State, that I will not be so much eager to throw my weight in the court, trying to challenge the victory. So that was why I didn’t go to court.

What gave you the conviction that Nwifuru wouldn’t have been the governor if you had gone to court?

 

Ordinarily, if I had gone to court against Nwifuru, Nwifuru would not have been there as a governor, because what happened in 2023 was clear disobedience of the Supreme Court judgement, because Architect Edward Okereke was not the flag-bearer of Labour Party, that I was the flag-bearer of Labour Party.

So it was enough to disqualify Edward Okereke . Yes, because even after the election, Architect Edward Okereke’s name was still, you know, left in the portal of INEC. If I had gone to court, because I have the CTC, I went to INEC, I demanded for the CTC of the name they uploaded, lo and behold, it was still Edward Okereke, which was enough reason for me to go to court and challenge the election and demand for a fresh election to be conducted. But because of the vow I took before God Almighty, that if a young man becomes a governor, I will not disrupt the government, I will not go to court. That was what made me not to go to court.

Are you now regretting that you didn’t go court to challenge Nwifuru and why?

But honestly speaking, I had expected that Chief Ogbonna Nwifuru, being a young man that is saddled with the responsibility of governance, that he would have faced governance squarely, make sure that he does not listen to all these old wicked politicians in the state, because they wouldn’t want him to perform.

I told him, I said they wouldn’t want you to outwork them, they will always want to remain the person that is glorified. That is how it is. But, you know, bringing in, bringing back all these old politicians again to surround him made me to say, yes, that Ebonyi state that is governed by a young man is supposed to, you know, improve in so many areas.

Can you mention areas where the Nwifuru’s administration has not been able to deliver effectively?

When you look at Ebonyi , honestly speaking, go around, drive around Ebonyi state, you will see that the Ministry of Environment is good at not working. Just go around, you will see the state is littered by dirts all over. We expect a young man who is in government as a governor to be every time on the streets to know what the people want.

If you drive from here to Orokeonuoha, you will see that the dirts there are not evacuated. Go down to Kpirikpiri there, they are not evacuated. Even when I drove down to Afikpo Road, I saw everywhere littered with dirts.

So I looked at it, I said, no, we need more to this, more of the cleanliness in the state. Away from that, I looked at Vanco. If you look at Vanco, straight down to Nibo, Mechanic Village and all that, this place used to be a very economic, vibrant area in Ebonyi state.

So the government of the day that have not created a substitute to that area to make sure that Ebonyi people have food on their table went all out to start demolishing the little economic structures we have in the state in the name of building flyover and tunnel. So my question is, do we really need this tunnel in Ebonyi state? I’ve been in Abuja for so many years and I have not seen all this kind of tunnel that is destroying people’s livelihood or means of making their living.

We don’t need to be destroying economic areas in the name of building tunnels. So I completely disagree, even till tomorrow, with that tunnel that is happening in Vanco. And if you look at that tunnel, I was there yesterday, it doesn’t look as if you give the present government an additional three years that they are going to complete it.

Are you saying thet the Vanco project will not be completed under the present administration?

Every government should make sure that there are no abandoned projects because this governance is tenured. Once you come in, you already know that you have four years and at most eight years to conclude whatever you have. So any project you are embarking upon, you should make sure that you at least complete it before your tenure expires.

So this is what we saw, even in Sam Egwu’s regime, where they said they were building international trade centre. And until today, if you go there, you see it’s lying there without functioning and Ebonyi state resources is tied down. Look at the type of money that is stuck in there. And this money is something that if it is channelled towards something more productive, Ebonyi people will be happy.

What do you think you will do different if you emerge the governor of Ebonyi State come 2027?

We need to industrialise this town. Our people are not working. You will see a graduate driving a Keke napep, a graduate driving an Okada in Ebonyi state. That is not a welcome development. So we need, if not for any other reason, we need to establish industries in this town.

What will you do to change this ugly situation?

Well, thank you so much. It is very, very simple. If I become the governor of Ebonyi state come 2027, my first point of duty will be to move around the world to see what they have and how best to replicate it in Ebonyi state.

When you talk about industry, when you talk about industry like in China, you will see if you go to China, you will see that every household has one product they can boast of. That is what the family produces, every household. Then that has also reduced the rate of unemployment there.

And you know that China has a very vast population. If all of them were dependent on the government, how would they have been coping up? So that is what I want to be replicated in Ebonyi. If I become the governor come 2027, my first point of duty will be to industrialise the town. If you come to Ebonyi , you will see that we don’t produce anything. Everything is dependent on importation. That has to stop.

If you go to Afikpo now, for instance, that river you are seeing at Afikpo has a link even to Abia. And if you go to Abia, you see economic activities. You see people, you know, that are into serious business. If that connectivity is done, you will see that Ebonyi State will have a very serious economic impact and people will begin to go into production, and other businesses. And let me also tell you that we have so many mineral resources in Ebonyi. We have zinc, we have lead, you name it.

The government can, you know, tap into these mineral resources, convert it to the betterment of the state. Like when I visited one quarry site when you are going to Akpoha, you know, I saw quarry sites there and I made inquiry, I said, OK, this site, how long have this site been here? And they told me that it has been over 80 years or thereabouts. The other one said they have been there for more than 25 years.

And I said, OK, now that this quarry is being excavated here and then sold out to other states that are building roads, what are we benefiting from the product we sell outside the state? What’s the benefit? Nothing, no benefit at all. And these companies you are seeing, they are the ones supplying materials to other states that develop their states. These materials can be used to develop our roads.

Why are we not covering our stomach, our belly? We are then protecting the belly of other people. So for me, if I become a governor, I will use the materials we have in the ground here to develop our state, our state first, before I give out to another state. I must see that our state is benefiting from what God has given us before we talk about other states.

What about unemployment?

So another area one can look at is this level of unemployment. How do you cover it? How do you reduce it? You can only reduce it by the industrialising the town. Any factory you bring into a state cannot employ anything less than 1,500 to 500 persons.

By that, you are reducing unemployment. This idea of building hotels, building filling stations, how many persons can a hotel employ? How many persons can a filling station employ? So we need skills. We need skills.

I will make sure that I bring a skill acquisition programme for the youths to key into learning a skill. So there are so many things I will bring into Ebonyi state. But this is just to name a few.

So are you saying the governor has not done much in terms of good governance?

Well, the truth is this. There is no right-thinking human being that will come up and say an elected governor has not done anything. No, if you say that, you will not be speaking truth . But the truth is that the ones the governor has done, to me, is not much as I expected.

He has done some, but the ones he has not done outweigh the ones he has done. Like for now, I can proudly tell you that we are yet to see any completed project commissioned in the state for more than three years now. We are running closer to four years, which means one full-blown calendar of governance has winded up.

So by now, we should be seeing projects commissioned, completed and commissioned. We are yet to see them. Then secondly, sir, if you drive around Orokonuha, Amike-Aba, all these neighbouring communities, we don’t see good roads.

We don’t see good roads. We had expected, particularly myself, had expected to see that the urban road network is extended so that the development can expand. You see, let me tell you, if you don’t have, if you don’t develop or concentrate in developing rural areas, you will see people migrating from the rural areas to urban. But if you develop the rural areas, you will see it will reduce this quest for urban migration.

Are you satisfied with the cost of house rent in Ebonyi State?

If you can tell yourself the truth, you will see that the cost of livelihood in Abakliki is very high. Talk about house rent. You see, for you to get a comfortable three-bedroom flat in Abakliki now, you should be budgeting one million or thereabout. But if you decentralise your development to rural areas, those of them who live very close can be applying from their rural area to urban, whatever they want to do, after doing it, they go back to their place. But because their place is not developed, they run down to Abakliki, and then that has made so many things to go high.

Like I told some journalists last week that if I become a governor, the first thing I would look at, too, is to look into the high billing of this EDDC . In a poor state, if you go to other areas, you will see prepared metre. People are charged according to what they consume.

You can’t come here and be giving us estimated billing. A family of four living in a two-bedroom flat, you’ll be giving that family 60,000, 50,000. How much do they earn? Take, for instance, a civil servant whose salary is 30,000, and you are giving the person only NEPA bill, you are giving the person 15,000.

What about the school, the school fees of the children? What about other needs? If you come to Abakliki now, a bag of pure water is sold for 700 Naira, 600 Naira. How will family cope? So, this issue of scarcity of water in Abakliki, to be precise, must come to an end during my governance. I will make sure that I do everything humanly possible to reticulate water in the state so that whoever that is in Abakliki will have water at his or her doorstep at a reduced cost.

This is what is making the people of Ebonyi State to be very impoverished. Because you can’t tell me that a civil servant will come and pay house rent, a two-bedroom flat here, he will pay 600,000 for a year, then he will be buying water, 700,00 a bag. By the time you multiply a bag, because some families will finish this one bag just in a day, then multiply 700 Naira into seven days, that make up one week.

Multiply it by four weeks, you know that a whole lot is going out. So for me, there are so many areas I will make sure that my government covers when I come to government or if I am elected to govern the state. This is just a little tip of the iceberg that I’ve given to you.

There are so many things I’ve lined up for Ebonyi people. When you talk about security, do you know that when you don’t have a job, you begin to think of evil? They say that, and an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. When a man, a full-blown man, who is capable of taking care of his family, taking care of his siblings and all that, he’s not seeing it, he begins to think the other way around.

And also, let me also say this, we must not all belong to politics before we can achieve it. When you make the environment favourable, everybody’s employed, everybody’s working, taking home some salaries that make them smile home, I’m telling you, the rate of crime will be reduced.

And then, to wrap it up, I will also make sure that I bring equipment, electronic equipment that can at least monitor the coming in and going out of people into the state, because not everybody enters the state with good intention. And I will also make sure that our youth, who are ready to work, are employed to work, to fish out, because like I told someone, I said, I must make sure that community policing is returned in Ebonyi, because those people who are in communities, they know the people who come in and the people who go out. With this, the issue of insecurity, community clashes, will be reduced. Thank you.