Chief Chekwas Okorie is the pioneer National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Convener of the Igbo Agenda Dialogue (IAD). In this interview with FELIX NWANERI, he speaks on political developments ahead of the 2027 general election and the Igbo struggle in Nigeria, among other issues

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, was recently convicted for treason and jailed for life. What do you make of his trial and conviction?

Immediately upon the verdict of Hon. Justice Omotosho’s judgment sentencing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to a life imprisonment I expressed my sadness and disappointment. I was clear on the ground that the trial and judgment were fundamentally flawed. The extraordinary rendition of Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya was akin to state sponsored terrorism which in itself is a criminal act.

Any trial predicated on a criminal act is flawed from its foundation. In spite of the informed advice and intervention of well-meaning Nigerians to President Bola Tinubu to invoke his special presidential dispensation to enter a nolle prosequi in the matter, the government adamantly proceeded with it and eventually delivered a scripted judgment.

Many Igbo leaders, including those who hold prominent positions in the APC government, have been painstakingly appealing to highly incensed and angry Ndigbo, especially the youth, to remain calm in the hope that President Tinubu will rise to the moment and calm the tension among Ndigbo in Nigeria and in the diaspora by the prompt intervention of granting Nnamdi Kanu freedom.

Unfortunately, we received the shocking news that he has been sent to a Sokoto prison with the clear intention to keep him out of easy access by his family, friends and sympathizers. Many world leaders are calling out the Nigerian government on this travesty of justice even as the global rating of Nigeria’s human rights profile is at an all-time low. It is not late in the day for President Tinubu to grant Nnamdi Kanu freedom.

Those who are urging him to act differently will be the first to disown him when things get out of hand. So, I earnestly urge and appeal to the Igbo community in Sokoto State to immediately rise to the Igbo spirit of ‘onye aghala nwanne ya’ (be your brother’s keeper) that we are known for. They should quickly organise to provide our son all the necessary succour and comfort the Nigerian authorities will allow. In view of his health condition, he should be provided the meals prescribed by his doctors. He must not be lonely during his visiting days.

Are you saying that Ndigbo should continue to support someone, who has been blamed for the security situation in their area?

Nnamdi Kanu is the symbol of the Igbo dilemma in Nigeria. He is carrying the Igbo cross at this time. But I appeal to our angry youths in the name of God not to fall for the script of believing that our dilemma is from within. We must not turn the sword or the barrel of the gun against ourselves.

This time calls for Igbo unity, wisdom and prayers. Igbo people in the 13 states, where they are indigenous and in the other 23 states and the Federal Capital Territory, have been facing existential challenges and problems since the end of the Nigeria/Biafra war in 1970.

We have survived, thrived, multiplied and prospered only by the special grace of God and our doggedness, resilience and never-say-die spirit. Millions of our people were compelled by excruciating circumstances to seek more conducive environments abroad for greener pastures, including education and acquisition of skills to improve their well-being and provide for their families and relations back in the homeland.

On the flip side, this near exodus of fleeing Igbo people from Nigeria has resulted in making the record that there are Igbo settlements in every one of the 196 countries on the world map. Similarly, the Igbo people in the diaspora contribute to approximately 75 per cent of Nigeria’s huge foreign exchange remittances year in year out.

Sadly, Ndigbo appear to have surrendered and lost confidence in their citizenship of Nigeria. Overwhelming majority of our people refuse to participate in the country’s democratic process. The resultant apathy is largely responsible for the poor leadership recruitment we experience at the national, state and local government levels in every election cycle in Nigeria. This has further exacerbated our already precarious situation.

But I am of the firm belief that we can reverse our unacceptable situation without firing a shot. We are unarguably the ethnic nationality with the largest population and widest geographical spread in Nigeria. We have the most enviable network of associations, unions, groups in Nigeria and the diaspora. We are like a sleeping giant that only needs to awaken from its self-induced slumber to resume its place of pride in the country.

How can this ‘sleeping giant’ wake from this self-induced slumber?

The Igbo Agenda Dialogue (IAD) that was inaugurated in August 2025 as a non-partisan socio-political platform is planned to be a coalition of all the associations, organisations and unions to constitute a powerful non-partisan Igbo political grid. So, the IAD plans to host the first ever Igbo political summit in the first quarter of 2026.

The key highlight of the summit will be the unveiling of the first Igbo Charter after the famous Ahiara Declaration. So, I urge all patriotic Igbo men and women, youth associations, unions and institutions to support the IAD by all lawful means possible to deliver on the noble objective of reawakening the Igbo political consciousness.

Many Nigerians are angry over the present situation and the only opportunity they have to express that anger in practical terms is the election

We have the capacity to redraw the Nigerian political map by simply taking our destiny in our own hands. We have no excuse to be irrelevant or beggarly in our common patrimony called Nigeria. A resurgent Igbo beyond where our founding fathers left it is possible in our time. A unified and proactive political action in the 2027 general election will draw both local and international attention to the Igbo nation. The time is now or never .

Many believe that Mr. Peter Obi has a key role to play in the Igbo political emancipation that your group is championing. Do you see him contesting the 2027 presidential election given that he is yet to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which has repeatedly asked key stakeholders of the opposition coalition to resign from their various parties and join the party?

I don’t see Obi contesting the 2027 presidential election on the platform of the ADC. We have seen a coalition of two or more parties in the past but I doubt if Obi will contest the presidential primary election of the ADC or even fly the flag of the party in the main election.

I say this because when Senator David Mark became the national chairman of the party, immediately after their first National Working Committee (NWC) meeting and even before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recognized his leadership, they arrived at a decision that zoning of the presidential ticket is completely out of consideration. They said that the ADC presidential ticket is open to all aspirants irrespective of the section of the country they come from, and that whoever wins will fly their flag. They only assured members of the party of a free and fair primary election.

They did not mince words about that. But recently, Obi made a statement that is quite revealing. He said that he is still in Labour Party but believes in the coalition. He, however, added that the ADC has not clarified the issue of zoning. If I read that statement correctly, he was simply saying that there is an unwritten zoning arrangement which Nigeria has been observing and since the presidency is in the South, it should remain in the region till 2031.

He didn’t put it the way I am putting it but that is my understanding of his statement but what his statement implies is that it would be wrong for him to be part of any arrangement that will deny the South eight years of presidency as enjoyed by the North under President Muhammadu Buhari. Obi has said that he will only do four years if elected in 2027. He also said in another conversation that after the age of 70, he may not run again because he doesn’t believe that old people should remain in the arena forever.

In other words, he is saying to everybody that it is now or never. And if ADC is not going to consider the South in respect to the conventional zoning arrangement, it is possible that he will look for another platform because he has consistently made it clear that he will contest the 2027 presidency but ADC as presently constituted is not conducive for him. He would be easily knocked out at the primary election if the ticket is not zoned to him directly.

I am not even talking about the South because the issue of delegates puts him in a disadvantaged position if they are to be selected based on equality of local governments. The North-East where Atiku comes from will be coming to the convention with delegates from 188 local governments, while the South-East, which is Obi’s geopolitical zone would be going to the same convention with delegates from 95 local governments.

Are you saying the Obi doesn’t stand any chance of clinching the ADC ticket despite his political profile?

Obi stands no chance of clinching the ADC presidential ticket no matter his political profile. That was what former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, a south easterner like him suffered at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary in 1998 as delegates from the North decided to give the ticket to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

This will repeat itself and I believe that Obi is old enough to understand it. However, I believe that there will be another three-horse presidential election race in 2027 as witnessed in 2023. Atiku is most likely to be the ADC presidential candidate as he doesn’t seem to have any serious challenger.

Of course, President Bola Tinubu has kick-started his own campaign even when INEC is yet to blow the whistle. So, the 2027 presidency will be an epic battle as I see Tinubu, Atiku and Obi locking horns again.

When you say Obi is going to run in 2027; under which platform will he do that because as it stands, Labour Party is off his hands?

Let me put it this way. When Obi ran under Labour Party in the 2023 elections, nobody saw the party as a platform of relevance and that was even very close to the election, and most of the candidates who ran for other positions on the platform of Labour Party were people who could be described as unprepared but a majority of them got elected into office leveraging the Obidient Movement. Now, there is plenty of time. I don’t want to start mentioning parties but I can tell you that Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), which by name and content is not much different from Labour Party, is there.

Interestingly, the party is not rocked by crisis like most other parties. In fact, it is one of the most stable political parties around. Also, the Labour Party governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, has used that same Zenith Labour Party to secure control of 16 out of the 17 local government areas in the state given the party’s victory in the recent council elections in state.

That Zenith Labour Party is in the wings waiting. There are one or two other parties that would be ready to welcome Obi if he wishes to join them. However, the fact that he has not made up his mind up till now is not too good by my own calculation because things are moving very fast.

If the President, in spite of knowing what the Electoral Act says, has kickstarted his campaign by what they did recently at Eagle Square. By giving out vehicles to the 774 local government areas of Nigeria and the logistics he made available, it simply means that he believes that the earlier the better, and if not to intimidate others, but to cover the ground well in advance ahead of others.

Apparently, President Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), took the opposition by surprise but surprise is the name of the game although we still have a long way to go given the fact that in politics 24 hours is a long time. The PDP is still battling with its internal crisis, so it doesn’t hold much attraction to anybody but whether Obi will get a party to run with is not a difficult task.

The only issue is that he cannot wait for too long. This time, unlike when he was more or less the sole candidate of Labour Party, he needs credible and serious-minded candidates for all the elective positions, right from the Houses of Assembly to the Senate, so that he will not be the only one campaigning for himself.

So, the earlier he makes up his mind the better form him as those who believe in the kind of leadership he will provide can align with the party of his choice. It has happened before. If you recall, many people rode on the back of late President Buhari to become politically prominent.

How about the option of Obi pairing Atiku as vice-presidential candidate; do you see that working out?

It will be a winning combination if you ask me but Obi has made such inroad at the national level. Like I said last time when Governor Charles Soludo was picking on him, I said the Anambra governor should leave Obi alone because he has graduated from local politics to the premier league of Nigerian politics, which is the national level. So, it may be difficult for Obi to play the role of a running mate, which he played some years ago, when he ran with Atiku.

But because the issue of political followership and loyalty is not something that is cast on iron, the person supporting you today may turn to your greatest adversary tomorrow because of disappointment.

There are people in Obi’s camp who are saying that they will stop supporting him if he aligns with people or a political party that will not bring anything new to Nigeria. You know that every presidential candidate must have a political base, so it will be disastrous for anyone not to calculate well before making a move.

In the case of Atiku, any wrong alignment may cost him the support of his Hausa/ Fulani political base. Obi will also suffer the same if he aligns wrongly because some his core supporters are saying that they will use the same strength they are using to support him to equally oppose him if he makes a wrong move, politically. The same thing will happen to President Tinubu, who, in my view, has mismanaged the opportunity to build a united country.

Rather than fostering unity, the President has deepened our diversity, so he really needs to win 80 per cent of votes in the South-West for him to stand a chance of getting re-elected because he has centred all political patronage and gains in one out of the six geopolitical zones of the country. And if you look at the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu didn’t do too well in the South. He only won four states in the South-West, losing Lagos and Osun to Obi and Atiku, respectively, while in the South-South, he won only Rivers State.

Our people appear to have surrendered and lost confidence in their citizenship of Nigeria… But I am of the firm belief that we can reverse our unacceptable situation without firing a shot

Obi, on his part, won 11 out of the 17 states of the South. So, rather than try to make amends, consolidate some areas and try to penetrate into areas he did badly, the President has practically narrowed down his area of interest to one geopolitical zone. I don’t know what is informing his own strategy; whether the distribution of 774 buses and SUVs will do the magic for him.

But I believe that Obi is conscious of the fact that he cannot leave his core political base and consider the speculation that pairing with Atiku will make him vice president of Nigeria. Obi’s intention is to be president, and failing to be president in the next political dispensation, he may no longer run for that office as he would be over 70 by 2031.

Is it not clear that the political base you made reference to is no longer what it was in 2023 given the defections that seem to have altered the political equation ahead of the 2027 elections?

Honestly, I am not impressed one bit by the defections that have occurred recently in the South-East and other southern states. Let me not say all of them but about 80 per cent of the defectors are people who already have liabilities on their shoulders, so everybody knows the reason for those defections.

But look at it this way: In 2023 and for the first time in Nigeria, six serving governors lost their respective bids to go the Senate. Going to the Senate for governors after serving eight years used to be a walk-over for them as the Senate has turned to a retirement chamber but six of them lost out.

This is because there was some semblance of credible election in terms of transmission of results real time and people getting more aggrieved over the situation in the country due to actions of those in power and there is no other opportunity they have to express their grievances except through elections. So, for all those who have defected; watch out what will happen to them in the next elections.

And I will give you one very simple example that everybody should reflect on. In the same 2023 elections, the vice presidential candidate of the PDP, Ifeanyi Okowa, was a serving governor but he couldn’t deliver Delta State to his party at the time. Obi not only defeated both Atiku and Tinubu in Delta, but some people leveraged his support base in the state to get elected into the National Assembly on the platform of Labour Party.

So, those who have defected are people with immense political liability by my assessment and I don’t believe that they defected with the people and the result will show that they are like generals without troops when the 2027 elections come.

Some people are saying there should be electoral reforms before the 2027 elections; where do you stand on this?

There is immense need for further electoral reforms because we’ve been having these reforms up to the point that we are now talking about transmission of election results and all that and the National Assembly has given the indication that it is ready. They’ve held all the necessary public hearings, starting with the INEC Bill that introduced several areas for amendment and the public memoranda for all of that.

Then they have promised that the new electoral law will be available by end of December but I don’t see the possibility of that happening. However, if they are not able to make further amendments because of their complicity, the one that was used for the 2023 elections can still serve its purpose.

The important thing is for the electorate to be conscious, be vigilant and monitor their votes. As I said, the 2027 general election is really going to be very tough because the people have many reasons to go out there to vote. Many Nigerians are angry over the present situation and the only opportunity they have to express that anger in practical terms is the election. I don’t see Nigerians sitting back at home and allow the same people who have made their lives miserable to continue in office without expressing their anger.

What do you make of the twists and turns over the clamour for the creation of an additional state for the South-East, especially the demand that the proposed Anioma State be ceded to the zone when created? By my understanding, most people want the proposed Anioma State to be created. But if you create Anioma State and fail to cede it to the SouthEast to take the number of states in the zone to six, it will give the SouthSouth seven states, which the rest of the zones will not accept.

So, the insistence by some of their traditional rulers that the proposed Anioma State should remain in the South-South when created, is a subtle way of saying that they don’t want the state to be created. If you create Anioma State and cede it to the South-East, it will give the zone six states and the SouthSouth, South-West, North Central and North-East will still have six states each, leaving only the North-West with seven states. That will ensure more balance and I don’t see any disadvantage that Anioma people will suffer for belonging to the South-East.

If you go to the Anioma part of Delta State, you will massive investments going on there by people from the South-East, who have seen the place as a very conducive place for investment. They have not allowed the river boundary to divide people who are of the same ethnic nationality. Another aspect that many of the young ones don’t understand is that before Midwest Region was created out of the Western Region is that Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his party, the Action Group, vehemently opposed the agitation.

But Chief Dennis Osadebey, who was a chieftain of the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) and vice president of the party as the deputy national chairman of the party was called then, in collaboration with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was the leader of the NCNC had gone into coalition with the ruling Northern Peoples Congress (NPC).

It was the coalition that led to the support for the creation of Midwest Region as the NCNC and NPC voted for in favour of a plebiscite, which some people will refer to as a referendum today, and ensured that the plebiscite succeeded. If there was no such collaboration, the Midwest Region would not have been created. I don’t know how many young ones today will remember that type of collaboration.

And for this Anioma to be created, the people of the SouthEast have to sacrifice their numerous agitations such as Adada State, Aba State and Etiti State, among others to just have one state call Anioma, so that they will not say we are divided. So, it is unfortunate that one or two traditional rulers from the area are saying that instead of having Anioma State that would be ceded to the South-East, they prefer to remain in Delta State and the South-South.

Secondly and which is actually more important; the constitution makes it practically impossible for a civilian government to create a new state because of the stringent conditions injected into the constitution by the military regime that imposed the constitution on Nigerians. That is why no administration since 1999 has been able to create a new state despite the perennial agitation for more states. Those obstacles are still there, so I don’t see the possibility of the Tinubu administration creating Anioma State not to talk of where it would be ceded to.