The All Progressive Grand Alliance House of Representatives
elect for Anambra East and West Federal Constituency, Honourable Peter-Obi
Obiano Madubueze in an interview with Ashiwaju Media on the just concluded
National Assembly election and prospect for Ndigbo in Nigeria Politics.
How would you
described your victory at the just concluded National Assembly election where
PDP dominated the Assembly seats, having only you and one other APGA candidate
in the election?
I owe my victory to the executive governor of Anambra state,
Chief Willie Maduaburochukwu Obiano he is everything that happen to me and I
give God the Glory for that.
How would you
describe the turnout of voters during the election?
The turnout was highly impressive and if we continue like
this, this country would be better for that.
It was widely
reported on the failure of the Independence Electoral Commission (INEC) card
reader performance, how was it in your constituency?
It failed completely and we have to resort to manual voting,
that is what we used and the information got to us very late and I think it
affected whatever that happened in that election negatively, but all the same,
election was held and victory was giving to us. inspite of the fact that PDP
from the top wanted to rig the election and they actually rigged everywhere in
Anambra state, except my constituency and one other neighbouring constituency
that they could not do that.
What was the
contribution of the electorates towards your victory and what role did the
Governor Willie Obiano play in ensuring your victory is sustained?
The governor gave me the ticket, not only that he gave me
the ticket, he supported me in all ramifications of the election and my people
know me, they love me and they accepted my ticket for the house of
representative seat, that is why PDP found it difficult to rig me out, because
they were there massively, they voted and protected their votes.
So what do you say to
them?
I will say thank you! Thank you !! and I promise them very
effective representation, a representation
that they will say, yes they have
somebody in the near future.
Are you aware that
some people are claiming the victory you
claimed you have gotten, do you have any evidence indicating that you are the
authentic candidate of the party for the election?
We have the cleared result by the returning officer of INEC
and is with me, I have never heard anybody who says the victory belong to him
or her, am just hearing it today, somebody mentioned Barrister Edith Ejezie, I
think it’s a complete lie, two days ago, when I went to thank some of my
constituency members, Edith was there and e eat and cracked jokes together,
everything I do, she followed me to do it. She contested primaries with and she
later agreed to my candidacy and she has never opposed it after that.
How would you want
APGA to fair and how prepare is APGA for the next House of Assembly election?
Yes we are ready for the election, in election like this you
would not say you are so ready, you continue planning and planning until the
election date, but I can assure you that Anambra East and West that are under
me, we are going to produce two legislators there.
Given the fact that,
PDP won in most of the seats and APGA lost in the same election, how would you
describe the March 28th National Assembly elections in Anambra ?
In the context of Nigeria, I would say the election was free and fair except in Anmabra state,
where PDP people turn it to business as usual, where they brought in thugs and
Army with police to start beating people, intimidating innocent
electorates, it’s open and everybody
knows that and to me, it’s a very ugly situation.
I don’t ascribe to that thing they announce in favour of PDP
as victory, because I know in the near future, APGA people would get their
mandates back from them, definitely, very soon it will be so.
Can you tell us the
most important issues, confronting your people that you would like to address
as you continue your legislative business?
My people, we don’t have people in government, we don’t have
people in the civil service, I mean senior civil service that will help my people
get job when they finished schooling .
There are a lot of unemployment in my area which I will
tackle head-long., because a lot of young graduates come out and they could not
get job and they turn into crime, so we are going to face that one and apart
from that,a lot of our young men have the desire to give in the university for
what is called solid background of my
people where most of them are peasant farmers they could not get to a university,
this people we should have map out plans to help them too
Apart from that, my area is facing ecological problem with
the hope that one day, Anambra state will get the desired attention from the
federal government which will be getting to my people to help them and already
and you know that we have oil, Anambra state has oil in my constituency and
Kogi people are fighting over that, we will go there and see that the issue is
resolved once and forever, so that they will not start troubling the people doing
it there.
I will also move to see that Anambra state is listed among
the oil producing states of the federation so that our benefit will be coming
in to us, because the Governor is working, he needs to have some money that will enable him execute most of the projects
he has.
We will also look into agriculture, our people are peasant
farmers, we will encourage them to make sure that our agricultural output is
good for consumption and exportation and get revenue to feed themselves and
income for the state government , these
and more are parts of the things my people need.
All the governments that came before neglected my people, its
only APGA government that remembered my people .
Since 1999, PDP government came into being in Anambra, they
could not provide one single thing in my local government, even under Senator
Chris Ngige’s administration they could not do anything in my local government,
when Peter Obi came, that was when we have our first tarred roads and
electricity in my local government
We thank the APGA government and we will try as much as we
can to urge them to continue the good work they are already doing in my local government.
As politician and a legislator, would you subscribed
to some calls to expurgate INEC card reader machines in our electoral system or
what do you think should be done to enable us get it right before the next
elections ?
I think one of the problems we faced in this country is
that, one is saddled with management of a particular institution they will
first of all look out for the money they will get aside what they are expected
to do.
You know the card reader, they use it in many part of the
world and you know that they go to good countries that their technological
know-how is up to date, but you know in Nigeria, China is our best place to go
now, but in China, when you get to china, China would have two or three option and they
will tell you which one to choose according to your money, they don’t maintain
standard, so when they go there, in term of this card readers, I know they
would have subscribed to the one with the lowest cost, below their budget estimate
for the exercise.
I would want a more efficient company to produce the card
reader for the country because it will eliminate rigging, in other words, I
would support the use of card reader,
but it most come from a more
technologically advanced countries that will give us the best card readers
device to use.
Would you say the
political understanding between APGA and PDP to field President Goodluck Jonathan
as the sole candidate in the joint presidential election, misinformed the
electorates to vote massively for PDP against the interest of all APGA
candidates in the March 28th National election?
You know what happened is that my party adopted President
Goodluck Jonathan for some reasons but actually we know that General Mohammadu Buhari
(rtd.) is a more popular candidate and you
know that APC are more stronger this time around but when you look at the
configuration of APC today, you found out that they are almost everywhere .
We know it’s going to be a very tough battle , some of us
would not predict the outcome of the election, I know that my party generally
wanted President Jonathan to rule, now that President Jonathan has lost and has
accepted his faith, I will say thank you
to Almighty God, because God has reasons
for that.
Generally, when you take a look at the country, you will see
that General Buhari’s victory and President Jonathan accepting defeat has
changed a lot of things in the country in a positive way.
I always tell people that Nigeria needs a very strong charactered
person to pilot the affairs of this very great country. President Jonathan is a
very good leader, but the reality on ground does not allow him to rule now, he
can’t rule now, because he is more of a western leader that a complete or an
African man. I give Glory to God for bringing such a man to lead Nigeria in
this dispensation, because President Jonathan helped us to change a lot of
things by accepting this defeat, because Nigeria would be better for it now.
If it’s as usual, President Jonathan will refuse the result
and there would be chaos here and there and he has brought peace to us, I thank
him so much while telling Nigerians to support Buhari to move this country
forward.
What would Ndigbo
expect from the new administration under President elect, GeneraL Muhammadu
Buhari (rtd.)?
If General Buhari (rtd.) actually calls himself president of
a country, he should be fair to every person in the country, irrespective of
where you come from, so I know actually that he has a large heart , he will
lead us.
Ndigbo wants APGA to be , if I tell you in the next
elections, we are going to get more states, one or two states from this south
east so APGA is not afraid, we have been on our own, for almost nine years from now and more people are coming
into APGA, If you check in Abia state, we know that if you call election in the
state and many other south eastern states, APGA will win those states, so we
are not afraid as a party, we will continue to exist and go further .
