Ozo Jeff Nweke is the gubernatorial candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in the forthcoming Anambra State election. He speaks with OKEY MADUFORO on his plans for the state and other issues if elected
You have just commenced your campaign. How has the response been so far?
Well, it has been interesting and the response has been great so far and the campaign has also exposed the feelings of our people about the governance of Anambra State. On that day I saw people battling to get snacks and that tells you the level of poverty among our people. It shows that people are totally disconnected from governance and that explains why I am in the race for the governorship of Anambra State.
Governance is about the people and how you interface with them and it doesn’t stop at making bogus claims about what you are doing or trying to do when you do not know what your people are going through. As for the campaigns we have been reaching out and consulting widely in all the local government areas and Senatorial Districts. At the ward level our canvassers are doing pretty well and the feelers that we are getting indicate that other political parties are jetty about our movement.
You paid the N50 million Campaign Permit even when people complained that it is high?
Well possibly the plan may have been to discourage other parties and their candidates but we showed capacity and paid. Now the stage is set for the mother of all gubernatorial elections in Anambra State and we are taking it as it comes. When others were complaining we were the first callers and we paid and those who may have underestimated us were all disappointed that we are strong in the contest.
It is believed that the incumbent governor is coasting home victoriously. What is your take on that?
That is for the Anambra electorate to decide and not on the internet or on the pages of the newspapers. Those making those submissions must be his party members because we have sixteen political parties and candidates and when you look at the trajectory you will discover that the belief is unfounded.
If the incumbent is coasting to victory, why are 16 candidates in the race? Are they in the race for jamboree or for a picnic? They are contesting to win because they are of the firm view that the incumbent is not the best and that they would govern Anambra State far better than him. When we place our manifestos side by side, you will discover that people like us are more practical and our manifesto has a human face because it is about the people.
You cannot govern a people with figures and projections that cannot salvage the basic challenges of our people. For us in the Action Alliance we are taking about social security and what that means is to make life affordable for our people.
When you have basic health care in place and you have housing, education and social works and most importantly security, then you can take it from there and begin to make projections and permutations. The so-called data that we have today cannot be rightly verified and the database is based on what the man at the helm of affairs has and not what Anambra state has.
When you bring in those things that you see that work in developed countries and try to replicate them in a third world country like Nigeria’ where people are desirous of food security, primary health care, housing it cannot work as you projected. My administration would look at those areas first and tackle them before taking us to Dubai and Taiwan or Silicon Valley.
There has been this campaign that Abuja has taken over the election and that the APC will win?
Nobody believes those campaigns because it doesn’t hold water at all. Abuja is not interested in that and they have never had a hand in the governorship election of Anambra State. Similarly, campaigns were made in the last three gubernatorial elections that APC has spoken and at the end what happened?
When you take a study of Anambra politics and the voting pattern you can agree with me that our people don’t like the party and it would be so strange to hear that the APC won Anambra State. When you look at the primary election of the party and the controversy that it generated you can see that winning cannot be assured.
The party as well as the ruling APGA had no internal democracy in their parties. One person bought form and the form got finished and some aspirants may have been cowed into not purchasing forms and in the case of the APC, someone came into the party and in less than two months he emerged as the candidate of the party amidst controversy and most aspirants dumped the party to become candidates of other political parties. They would surely work against the party and I wonder how Abuja can handle that at the election proper. You cannot come from the outside to decide for Anambra people who would be their governor and that is highly undemocratic as far as the Electoral Act is concerned.
But your party the Action Alliance AA is relatively not much on the ground?
A Political party is not an island unto itself but made up of the people who are the members of the party and the people in AA are Anambra people and they have the right to choose their political party.
You talk about the so-called big parties and I ask where is the PDP today? I learnt that the party has a candidate for this election but the party and the candidate cannot be seen campaigning yet it is a big party. The Action Alliance AA is on ground and we have that capacity that you are talking about.
How about the new ADC Alliance?
They have just started and we are all watching as it unfolds and being a new alliance, they should be more concerned about the Presidential election of 2027 and not that of the November 8th gubernatorial election in Anambra state.
I don’t know how that can affect the Anambra election in November because the party is at its tooting stages and they are still trying to put their house in order. When you talk about coalition you must factor in the masses and what gains would the common Nigerian make through the coalition? If the coalition is for those who are not happy with the political arrangements and not for the people, then something is fundamentally wrong somewhere.
