Chief George Moghalu is the National Auditor of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) and a governorship aspirant of the party in Anambra State. In this interview with Taiwo Amodu, he describes the current gale of defection by chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) in South-East to the APC as a blessing, adding that the swell in the ranks of the party would convince the average electorate in the zone that the ruling party is the place to be. Excerpts:
There has been defection of Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) chieftains in South-East to the All Progressives Congress, (APC). Also recently, the Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha hosted a stakeholders meeting. What is your position on development in APC in your zone?
Yes, we are very happy that what we saw some years back, people are beginning to see it now. It is a welcome development and we are very excited. We told our people sometimes back that APC is the way to go. For them, some of us were in the wrong camp but now what we saw some years back, they have seen reason with us and we are very excited. We welcome them with open arm.
A lot of people see their joining APC at this stage as not altruistic, but trying to exploit the opportunity that it is now the ruling party and they want to be in comfort zone, what is your take?
Well, that’s for them to disprove, those who are actually defecting now. That’s a personal question for them to answer because I am not a mind reader, as to know what they are thinking, but I am looking at it strictly from the perspective of our party and the need to expand our frontiers. So, if people decide to come in and are willing to go by the rules, why not? We are very happy and we welcome them. Like I have always said, a political party is like a church and you usually don’t have gatemen at churches. So, you walk in to a church and pray to God. So, if you think it is the way to go and you come, we will be glad to welcome you.
But as to what informed their individual decisions: whether it is selfish, or whether it is opportunistic or whatever, I am not in a position to say. It is them that will be in a position to answer that question.
There are also insinuations that those who have been in the party in those uncertain days aren’t really comfortable with those coming in now when it has become the ruling party. There is the fear that some of you can be supplanted by the big wigs coming in?
You see, loyalty in every situation has its reward—commitment must have reward, dedication must have reward. So, the party itself knows that there are people who took risk, people who were called names; some were called Boko Haram, some were called members of Janjaweed party. There was nothing that we weren’t called but the truth still remains that I am convinced like a lot of us are convinced that the party will reward loyalty at the appropriate time.
In your state, a lot of money bags are joining the party: the likes of Andy Ubah, Ifeanyi Ubah, Emeka Offor, how comfortable are you that you will have to compete with these people for the APC governorship ticket?
But really, for me, I don’t mind whoever is coming. I don’t. To be honest with you, anybody who wants to come can come. We want everybody to be part of the family but like I said, loyalty has a reward, labour has a reward. Do you understand me? When you take a risk to build an institution, it doesn’t look really nice that you come with intention to hijack the structure you didn’t build.
You talked about rewarding loyalty, some of you took the risk to build the party. How comfortable are you with the statement attributed to Rochas Okorocha that with the coming of Ken Nnamani, south-east now has a leader in APC?
No, you see, one thing about leadership, I have said it time and time again, a leader isn’t appointed: you can elect a chairman, you can elect a secretary, you can elect a president, you can elect a governor. A leader evolves from among the people. So, it is your activity, it is who you are, your relationship with people that determines your level of leadership. It isn’t by appointment and I am sure everybody understands it. It may be the governor’s wish, which isn’t wrong, he is entitled to his opinion, but the truth about leadership in the south-east is that naturally leadership evolves from among the people. You don’t appoint a leader. Leadership will always evolve from among the people and we always have leaders in their own right: the Dr Ogbonaya Onus, the Chris Ngiges — people who have earned leadership, there was no day we conducted election to say we elected Dr Onu as leader, or we elected Dr Ngige. as leader, they evolved, I am also a leader by every stretch of imagination, but it has to evolve from amongst the people.
The state of the economy under the APC leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Do you think your party has what it takes to turn around the economy?
I am very confident that the economy will be stabilised and like Mr President said times back that the economic recession is going to be for a short period of time and I very much agree with him. By the time this budget is fully or being implemented, I am hopeful that it is going to address the issue of economic recession. Yes, the dollar cannot be treated in isolation of the entire economic policy, it is part of the entire economic policy and we must also look at what are the causes. How did we get here? Mistakes of the past caused where we are today so we must take time to rebuild the entire substructure so that the structure can be strong so that we can get our economy back on track. The truth is that we were expending our foreign exchange on what wasn’t actually necessary like the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) Governor tried to explain, we were importing the unnecessary, leaving the necessary. Things that weren’t important were being imported and we didn’t invest in infrastructural development and neither did we invest in industrial development. So, most of these things we must produce locally, because if we don’t use the foreign exchange, then there will be pressure on it. It is the demand pressure that is forcing the price to be rising on daily basis but I am certain, I am very confident that it is going to come down, it is going to get to a reasonable level that will stabilise.
The incumbent Anambra governor, Willie Obiano is doing very well and he is still with All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA). How confident are you that the APC can displace the ruling party in Anambra?
Doing well is relative and I have said it repeatedly. In the land of the blinds, one-eyed man becomes the king. You see, you have to look at governance from different perspective. You have to look at governance through all ramifications. Like I have said, people celebrate that they pay salary! Why won’t you pay salary? That’s the basic question. In fact, salary is a primary responsibility. So, when you now take government and look at various compartments of government, I think we will do better as a party.
But what will APC be doing differently from APGA?
Well, we have a party manifesto, the things we are going to add and the things we are bringing on board. Certainly it is going to be different from what we have on the ground. It is about how you get to meeting the expectations of the average Anambrarian, but the truth is that as a party, we shall do better and as an individual, I am confident of my capacity to do better. A lot of things will be done differently.
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