Chairman, National Inland Waterways Authority,( NIWA), one of the governorship aspirants fin the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State, George Moghalu says the party will dislodge the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and that Buhari administration social infrastructural drive in the South-East has changed the narrative against the APC in the zone. He spoke with newsmen in Abuja and TAIWO AMODU brings excerpts:
THERE were efforts by a group, Anambra Patriots, to arrive at a consensus candidate ahead your party primary this month . What happened to the project? Are all aspirants going out there into the field to slug it out for the ticket ?
If I must be honest with you, I will wish there is consensus and that consensus will be me but the truth about it is that, I know a good number has collected forms and I know a good number has returned their forms but that is not to say that there is still no room for discussion. In politics, 24 hours is a long time I’m sure that consultations will still take place. People will look at the possibility of working together but the important thing here is that as I always said every person is qualified to be governor so I respect that belief as we go along. Since consensus is not the only option, it is either direct primary, indirect primary or consensus. Since it is part of the option available to us, I don’t see why we cannot exploit because the important thing is we remain united as a political party,  we remain together because if we are together the likelihood of being stronger is there. So that door is not shut I’m sure that we could still exploit that option. The days are quite far, today is the 4th of June the primary is coming up on 26th like we were told which at least allows us to have extra 22 days so I’m sure of the possibility of ourselves coming together to exploit the option of consensus. The election of November 6 will not be a tea party, it is going to be a strong contest. Every party will come to the election with their best with the desire to win so I have offered myself to my people of Anambra State. I’m coming to the business with experience, with knowledge, with capacity, with integrity, with courage and determination to win the election. So I want to once again say thank you to all of you who accepted to be with me at this time.
Are you not worried about the security situation in your zone.. And what message do you have to the relevant security agencies in the country in creating enabling environment for the election processes to be hitch free?
To be honest with you, I feel worried. I feel concerned, like any critical stakeholder in Nigerian project, I feel worried especially as it concerns my zone in the South East because this people that are killed are people’s children some of them are people’s husbands. They are people’s brothers as for me nothing is worth shedding any blood it cannot be explained, it cannot be justified and one thing again I don’t know whether people realise that most of the infrastructure that have been destroyed today to rebuilding them, we must put our hands in tax payers money because if a police station is burnt down and correctional center is burnt down; it must certainly be rebuild and in some instances it may interest you to know from the south east where I come from some of these structures were built by Community efforts, some of these police stations and community Halls were built by community efforts because I remember when the SARS protest took place in my community for example, the divisional police station was burnt down. It was us the people that are raising money to rebuild it. It is a case of cutting our nose to spite our face, so that is the challenge we face.
It is a very sad situation if you look at history, every disagreement, every quarrel, every war has never ended on a battle field; it usually ends on the negotiating table and the question I keep asking why do we have to first resort tobwar like before we jaw jaw? Why can’t we jump that aspect of the fighting, that aspect of disagreements and go straight to the negotiating table and then negotiate our issues.
We are a talking about human beings, we are talking about people beliefs there is no way you can aggregate everybody’s feelings and ambition and put it into a corner, it is not possible. So there must be room for disagreement we must make that room and also for us to deal with it, there must be provision for us to sit down and negotiate. So for me I believe that there is a need for us to keep talking to whatsoever issue that may arrive. There are many platforms that we can take advantage of, the national assembly where we have representatives, elected to represent all the zones. Can’t we use that platform? There are inter state union, local government union, there are town union everywhere. These are the kind of platforms that were used in the past and we can still use them again. The traditional institutions are all available, so there are platforms we can use to talk, when there are a lot of issues that create great concern.
People said we are having this insecurity because we are having unemployment, yes I agree but is killing ourselves the solution for unemployment? The answer is no. Like I always said government cannot employ everybody. This fact must be established ; rather what government should do is to create enabling environment for the private sector to grow because it is the private sector that employs but when the private sector collapsed we have the unemployment challenge and again when I was talking, I was talking to some people about our graduates being unemployable, though they are graduate. So, why can’t we look at our curriculum to make some adjustments, what has happened to the trade centres, why can’t we create an opportunity? When they graduate they become employers of labour because if they own a craft and learn a trade the job they are going to do is waiting for them. So we must look at our agricultural sector, I must commend government for their efforts they have made in the investment in agricultural sector because that alone if properly harnessed, it can employ many people as possible. So I’m worried as any other concerned person but I believe very strongly that everything has a price. We must talk, we must preach to whoever is aggrieved, and we discuss and they send their own cases to the table and we present ours. And we political leaders at all levels, should be able and honest enough to see black and call it black, see white and call it white. What is wrong is wrong what is right is call right what is bad is bad. So we must put to bear our influence we carry in our society, both the unknown gunmen, they are known to some people, they are children from certain homes and they are from our communities, we can engage them.
Six years after, how would you appraise President Muhammadu Buhari, in his fight against corruption, revamping the economy and security?
In making an assessment of the administration, take it first from where it started. As at 2014 -2015, President Buhari was elected president of this country, yes, I agree with you, we campaigned on those three issues: insecurity, economy and corruption. As at the time we were campaigning, 14 local governments had already been annexed with the Caliphate flag flying there. As at the time Buhari was campaigning in this country. But it appears we are quick to forget. There is no iota of Nigeria being controlled by anybody else other than Nigerian government. I agree with you that we have not gotten to our desired destination. It is a work in progress. Even America has security challenges. The countries we are copying today has security challenge. A few days back, Israel was battling it with Palestinians. So, these are things that comes up on daily basis but as they come you address them. The important thing here is that, is government committed to the fight. The answer is yes. What is the morale isof our fighting forces? I think we must lay emphasis in congratulating these men and women that are sacrificing their lives for us.
The only way we can appreciate them is by appreciating them and not condemning them. So I am convinced and confidently saying it that on that score the President has done well. Yes, but that doesn’t mean we have reached the desired destination. The president himself acknowledged that. That is a work in progress. But in preparing any work, the important thing is, your eyes is on the ball? Where are you focused? Where are you determined to be by this time tomorrow? Once you streamline and mark that out, you may get to your destination. It may be slow but the important thing is that you will get there.
On the issue of corruption, I don’t need anybody to tell you the man’s scorecard. Nigerians have today a president whose antecedents for corruption is available for anybody to see. And he came with that determination. I agree there was a weakness in the system even before he came. Because we almost find ourselves in a situation where we have strong individuals against strong institutions. And that is a very big challenge. If you notice, the president emphasis was building strong institutions. Because if we have strong institutions no matter how strong the individual is, he will be subsumed. So if the structure is put in place, there is every guarantee that whatever you put will stand. So the emphasis of government in that regard is to build a very strong institutional structure so that we can be in a situation where there is strong institutions against strong individuals.
Let me also take you to this point it is no more business as usual unlike before. Nobody takes government money now with impunity like before. They must look at their back to see if anybody is watching. It is not like before. And there are mechanisms that are being put in place to check excess. The Treasury Single Account, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. These are programs that are working and we see them working. So he has done so well in the fight against corruption. But don’t forget corruption will fight back. And we are having cases like that.
But the important thing is to remain focus and that is my recommendation. That government should remain focused  because it is about all of us. We must avoid a situation where we separate government from ourselves, except we try to shy away from responsibility. Our attitude as a people in the fight against corruption must change. We should stop supporting corrupt individuals in our communities. We should stop celebrating them. There was one social media clip, that someone showed to me where they were asking a young boy, about 7 years old. He was coming back from school and on a uniform. And somebody was asking him what he will be when he grows up and the boy responded that he will like to be a Yahoo boy.
I wanted to laugh but when I sat back, it  was a cause for a great concern. That a little boy at that age what he wants to be when he grows up is a Yahoo boy. What message is that? It means the process has collapsed completely. I thought he will say he wanted to be a Doctor, Engineer and a pilot or whatever. But he wanted to be a Yahoo boy because we celebrate the wrong things. We the adults whom they copy we should celebrate them. We are also involved in celebrating them. So, why won’t the boy want to be like one of us. It is a major challenge.
When you look at the economy, yes, we have not gotten to where the government will like to be. The truth is that, we must not forget that by the time the president took over the leadership of this country oil was as low as twenty something dollars to a barrel. And you and I know that oil is the mainstay of this economy. Sights should not be lost of the fact that, we have a situation where a lot has to be done but the resources available are limited. This resource is such that Nigeria is not in control of the market. It is a situation where whatever happens in the international community influences the situation on ground. And that challenge is there. So whatever happens affect us. Government realizes this.
Let me also emphasise that I don’t speak for government. I speak for myself. Government realizing this challenge is there. It started laying emphasis on diversifying the economy. Today we are talking about agriculture. Prior to this time, we were importing rice but I am sure nobody is talking about importation of rice now. We are almost approaching self-sufficiency in rice production. So we have that challenge. So government is doing well in trying to diversify the economy. If you look at it again, government is doing well in investment infrastructure and development because we have had an infrastructural decay of quite a long while.
The APC is perceived as a hard-sell in the South East. Do you think you have what it takes to dislodge PDP and APGA in that region?
I engaged some people in an argument when they were saying what have we gained from the southeast. There was a time in this country when the Chairman of a House Committee on Works was an Igbo man. A deputy Senate President was a man. The deputy speaker was an Igbo man. The Minister of Finance and Economy was a Igbo lady. Secretary to Government of the Federation was an Igbo. Yet no one kilometer of road was tarred in the southeast!. And now you are asking why an Anambrarian man won’t trust APC. The second Niger bridge, they did flag off for four times, every election year, we flagged it off. Every election year, we set up canopies and flag it off until Buhari came and it stopped. And actual construction started. Today, we are being told of the hand over day of first quarter of 2022. You can go there and go and see what is happening there. As we speak, Enugu-Onitsha road is being addressed. Enugu-Portharcourt is being addressed. A new contract has been awarded between Umahia and Ikot-Ekpene. Same thing ABA-Ikot-Ekpene.
Why won’t they support us? And when people keep saying APC is not popular in Anambra, in 2017 election, we came second. We beat PDP in that election. So what happened? Is it demons that voted for us? The same Anambra people are there. When you marry two husbands, ask women they will tell you. You will be in a position to compare which one is better. Like I keep saying it, Anambra people have married two husbands. And the third one is waiting which is APC. And we are asking them to marry us this time so that they will be in a position to compare the first, second and this husband that is coming. Because we are coming with a commitment, determination to change the narrative.
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