Hon. Alexander Ikwechegh represents Aba North and South Federal Constituency of Abia State in the House of Representatives on the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

In this interview with CHUKWU DAVID, he takes a look at President Bola Tinubu-led government in the last two years, the security situation in the South East and the way out

The APC-led Federal Government is two years in office. As a member of the opposition party and as a representative of the people, what is your objective assessment of President Bola Tinubu’s performance within this period?

Well, as you know, when this government took over, dollar was at over N700. Today, dollar is at N1,620. So, if that’s an achievement, you should tell me.

We know how much fuel was sold for in the past. We know what it is being sold now. I mean, I appreciate the removal of subsidy but I just feel that something could have been created to cushion effects of that removal.

Anybody who says there’s no hunger in the land will be telling a big lie. People are suffering. People are struggling. To eat is a problem. To feed families is a problem. But in terms of infrastructure, the government is really doing well.

I would give it to them. You can see how Abuja looks. This is where we are all stationed. So, I’ll start by talking about Abuja. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has done absolutely well. Some people argue that he’s overbearing, but I think he has brought a lot of value to this government.

He is not a sycophant. A major problem that we have in this country is sycophancy; you know, ineptitude on the part of individuals, who have been appointed to assist whoever it is at the helm of affairs. Sycophancy has literally become a norm. But it seems the FCT minister is doing well. Abuja is rapidly developing. Recently, he brought his budget.

He came here to the parliament to defend his budget. Like I’ve always complained, most agencies and ministries that come here for appropriation, they always tend to have high recurrent expenditure and then low capital expenditure. So, it has been a problem because when you spend on recurrent, these are invisible projects that you do not see and we’re still where we are.

Which sectors of the economy do want government to invest more to enable the country witness appreciable development?

We should invest more on infrastructure, education, power and security. These are the things that help to propel development. So, when you keep talking about salaries, fuel, servicing of this, servicing of that; at the end of the day, it is all about impress, estacodes, traveling abroad for this and that while the country remains in a derelict state.

That puts us in a very precarious situation. If you check the poverty index, you can see that we aren’t doing so well. The truth is that if you’re working, you don’t need to advertise that you’re working. You don’t need to praise yourself. People will praise you.

No matter what they say about Nyesom Wike, he is working. No matter what they say about the governor of Enugu State, Mr. Peter Mbah, he is working. No matter what they want to say about the governor of Abia State, Alex Oti, the man is on fire. So, the truth is when these things are contagious, when you are working, people will see that you’re working.

I think it’s too early to begin to play politics. Naturally, if you’re doing well… the people will say this man is working, we want him to come back

You wouldn’t require a soothsayer. It doesn’t require deep intuition to extrapolate what somebody’s doing. So, for me, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has done well in some areas and they haven’t done well in some areas. Again, the President is far more experienced than me politically and I don’t believe any president will want to fail. But sometimes the king must have a council of men that surrounds him.

The ability of that king to identify within his council, those who are not protecting or representing the image of that king or carrying out that overall objective of that kingdom, you know, judiciously and credibly, then the king should be able to find a way to sideline that individual that isn’t doing well within his council. We have seen the level of insecurity that has confronted us in Borno State. The governor of Borno, Babagana Zulum, has complained bitterly about the security situation in the state.

This is something that is literally happening in almost every section of the country. In the South-East, it’s not entirely safe in Anambra, Ebonyi and Imo states. These are places that you can’t really move around freely. It has affected business activities in the region. It’s bad. Every Monday, we still don’t go to work. Children don’t go to school; banks don’t work.

What do you think is the solution to the insecurity in the SouthEast?

The solution to the problem, we all believe, is the release of Nnamdi Kanu. This is a big problem within the South-East, where I come from.

Then if you go to the South-South, you just recently heard about some northerners who were killed in Edo State. I think, we need to really pay attention to some of these challenges. The National Security Adviser (NSA) needs to pay attention to these challenges.

The President is not a military man but he should be able to exert his authority by having these people go out there and do the job that they have been assigned to do.

If you are not capable of doing it, then you should resign because people are dying every day. It’s as if it is an open secret. Nobody wants to talk about it but this is happening.

The primary responsibility of the government is to ensure that there is protection of lives and property. Government is actually a transactional engagement where the citizens are supposed to be loyal to the government, loyal to the rules that have been enshrined in the constitution, while government is supposed to provide infrastructure, security and basic amenities.

Looking at the worsening state of insecurity in the country, don’t you think that it has gotten to a point where the country should seek external assistance?

The country has the capacity to tackle the security challenges; the missing link is the political will. I can beat my chest because I am here. Before I got here, I was a businessman. You see, in business, we don’t really care how we look. We don’t care how we are perceived. We roll up our sleeves and we get to work.

Part of the consequences that come with not rolling up your sleeves is that you won’t make money. And when you don’t make money, you won’t compete. When you don’t compete, you’re out of the market. But in politics, people seem to be complacent. People have responsibilities to carry out and they just don’t carry them out.

They are rather more concerned with making good speeches, sounding believable, and not actually getting the actual job done; not getting the actual job for which you have been elected or appointed done. Look at us here talking about Wike; look at us here talking about the Minister for Interior, we’re also here talking about the Minister for Works.

These are people that are making the President look good: the Minister for Interior, the Minister of Works, the Minister for FCT, the Minister for Health. We have a Minister for Education but our children are still sitting on the floor learning. I never experienced that in the 80s. We have an IG of Police, we have people in the military, we have people in the Navy, yet people are busy doing bunkering every day and stealing our oil.

Are we supposed to blame President Tinubu for the ineptitude of the people in the Navy not doing their job to make sure that there isn’t oil theft?

Are we supposed to blame the President for the fact that our boys in the Sambisa Forest, fighting terrorists, are not receiving what they are supposed to receive as allowance. Are we supposed to blame the President because their firepower is not as sophisticated as that of the Boko Haram?

If we cannot blame the President for the failures of his appointees, in which areas do we blame him?

We can blame the President for not coming out to inspire these people; for not visiting Borno to truly show that he’s committed to fight against insurgency. We can blame the President for not visiting our hospitals. Look at our national hospital in Abuja.

There are hospitals in Uyo that are more sophisticated, more effective than that one in Abuja. We can blame the President in some areas.

We can fault him in some areas but we can’t fault him in every area. However, this is only two years in the life of the administration and it is only right that we give him some time. I think, I would say the government has performed averagely well.

What do you think should be done to strengthen the economy?

In terms of really strengthening our economy, a lot of work needs to be done. It still shocks me; I mean, this thing is not rocket science. If we have constant electricity, manufacturing would just naturally pick up.

In 2025, I don’t understand why we’re still talking about power. If we are to get foreigners, then let’s bring the Chinese. They know what to do here and we’ll have steady electricity.

So, I think the APC government has a lot cut out for them. I think it’s too early to begin to play politics. Naturally, if you’re doing well, channel the energy, I mean political energy, towards governance. Let us work for the people. The people will say this man is working, we want him to come back. We want him to keep performing.

He’s already doing the work. He’s on the path. If you go to Abia State now, nobody is arguing about electricity, people are saying that the governor should do 24 years because he’s working.

You don’t need to overstretch yourself politically if you’re performing. Part of the reasons why subconsciously, you think you have to exert your authority politically, is because you know somewhere, somehow, there is deficiency in delivery.

The country is gradually drifting to a one-party state, looking at how members of the opposition are defecting to the ruling party almost on a daily basis. Is this healthy for our democracy?

It’s not healthy for our democracy. Well, it’s a tricky situation. First of all, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a party that I know very well. PDP is a party that can be considered to be a formidable opposition party with structures everywhere in the country that should have been able to rival APC.

Remember that APC was formed out of PDP. So, we have a preponderance of PDP members, who eventually moved into APC. So, you have a lot of moles in the PDP. These people are literally sabotaging the PDP because they are PDP and APC. You can see that Wike is also PDP and APC.

We actually don’t know where he belongs. His state is a PDP state. He’s an FCT minister. He attends PDP engagements. In fact, he attends PDP stakeholders’ meetings. He also attends APC, maybe quietly. So, it’s a confusing situation for the opposition.

And they’ve not been able, like I said, people don’t want to do the work. People just want to come out looking as if they are doing the work. So, I’ve ruled out PDP from the number of parties that are considered to be opposition. My party, APGA, is a party that always tend to identify with the centre. When Peter Obi was there as governor of Anambra State under APGA, he identified with Goodluck Jonathan.

When Willie Obiano was there as governor under APGA, he also worked with President Muhammadu Buhari. Today, our Governor Charles Soludo has reiterated that all progressives need to come together and embrace the concept of progressivism. However, that position is his own personal position. For some of us, we have a few things that we believe the President needs to do for us.

He needs to listen to us. Like, you know, the release of Nnamdi Kanu will really help, especially to bring peace in the South-East. A lot of people have died! When Nnamdi Kanu was free, people were not being killed the way they are being killed now. Just that alone should at least make the President to release him. Our people are dying.

They are being killed every day because there are people that now engage in illegality, violence, terrorism in the guise of this IPOB business. So, we want the President to listen to our cry and help us to release this man. In terms of infrastructure, I still say that the President has done well. He seems to understand that without infrastructure, this country cannot move forward. So, I like to be as objective as possible.

The President inherited a country that wasn’t working. To some degree, things have gotten better. In terms of infrastructure, we’re doing better. In terms of cost of items in the market, we haven’t done so well. And it doesn’t seem as if there’s an end in sight to be able to economically and technically tackle some this problem.