Former member of the National Assembly who represented Anambra East and West Federal Constituency, Chief Chinedu Obidigwe, speaks with OKEY MADUFORO on the 2025 gubernatorial election in Anambra State and the issue of state creation
How has it been since you left the National Assembly?
Well life goes on and I am still in touch with my people and it has not stopped me from continuing with my Aka Oma Foundation which is touching lives of people. That I am out of the Green Chambers doesn’t mean that I have been disconnected from my people. My career in politics is to reach out to our people and it has continued and I cannot be discouraged by not being at the National Assembly.
How would you assess the person that replaced you at the National Assembly?
It is not up to me to make the assessment but the people of Anambra East and West Federal Constituency. Representation is about impacting on the lives of your constituency members and if you are not doing that know it that you have lost out with the people. So, the best thing is to go to those two local government areas and ask them what they have so far benefited from their representative and whatever they tell is what it is. You have to look at basic infrastructures that are needed by the people and all forms of employment and empowerments and the needs of the people.
There has been that clamour for you to return to the National Assembly. What do you think?
Yes, a lot of them have been making that call and we are still studying the situation for now. It is not out of place for people to make their voices heard and there is freedom of speech in the country and they are entitled to their own opinion. However, there is still time to consult and discuss their demands and you do not blame them for clamouring for my return to the National Assembly, because in Igbo land we have a proverb that says when a woman marries two husbands she would choose the one that is better for her. Possibly, they may have made their choice and you cannot challenge them but all the same there is still time for that and we also have to go for primary elections and become candidates before you talk about contesting for the election.
Talking about primary elections, your party, just like other political parties, has concluded the primary elections. What are your views?
Well, I can only talk about my party the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and it was peaceful and Governor Charles Soludo is our candidate and we are good to.
Why is it that only Soludo purchased forms for the primary election and no one else?
Well, you cannot force people to go and buy forms when they are not interested. From my investigation no person came forward to buy forms and the only person that bought form is Governor Soludo and during the primary election, we all voted at the election according to the constitution of the party and the Electoral Act and he emerged as the candidate of our party.
But the emergence of other party candidates must be a threat to APGA?
This is laughable and indeed very funny to say the least. Who are the candidates that can match Governor Soludo? And more so since those primary elections most of the standard bearers of these parties have dumped their party for other parties and some even withdrew from the primary elections of the parties and they are now candidates of other parties. Let me give this analogy because I have been political Adviser to a Governor in Anambra State and I have a political platform that has remained relevant today. When about five aspirants abandon a political party and move out with their supporters, what is left of the party and the candidate? The same aggrieved people would surely work against the party and the candidate and that means that the center cannot hold. So, that is why we as a political party cannot be intimidated or cowed by what is happening in other parties and be informed that while they would be fighting themselves we as APGA would be campaigning vigorously. Come to think of it, what Gov Charles Soludo has done so far is enough campaign for us and what we shall be doing is mere icing on the cake.
We have witnessed lots of defections from other political parties to APGA and it looks like a rented crowd?
No. Come off it. We are not traders or some brand of candidates that would want to contest elections and they will start buying people or buying support from people. We are on ground and those that joined us came on their own volition and there were no inducements. You were there when it happened and you know their reasons for leaving their former party and not because of money. Anambra people are wise and cannot be moved by material things and we as Anambra people are not hungry or beggarly to be bought like goods and a typical Anambra man has his or her integrity to protect hence forget about rented crowd.
There has been that fear of external influence at every governorship election in Anambra State?
Anambra is a unique state that cannot be manipulated by anyone and what our state wants is for us to have good governance. It is anti-people for one to begin to think about influencing an election of this nature and you know that the level of awareness of the Anambra electorates is high. On several occasions we have had cases where it was said that it would happen and at the end of the day the incumbent was returned. Anambra people are tired of all these rumors of war when there is no war and I wish to advise that our people should not allow outsiders to decide our fate at every election.
There have been cases of defection of some governors to the APC and don’t you think that the APC is out to capture every state in the South-East and SouthSouth?
When you look at the entire scenario you would discover that they are not the same hence you cannot make generalizations. You need to ask why they are defecting to the party and the circumstances that led to that. In Anambra State there are no such circumstances and our state is peaceful and calm so there is no need for that. Remember that our Governor is not just any governor but one that has pedigree and is not given to this brand of politics.
Why would he join them and what may be his reasons for that?
Well, there is no point talking about it because these are the kind of story that we would always have at all time.
There has been a demand for more states to be crested in the South East and about five proposed states are on the floor of the National Assembly?
First of all, equity is equality and it is only fair and just that the South-East gets at least two more states for us to have that balance. A lot of people have been coming with all manner of names or call it proposals but I urge the House Committee on state creation to be mindful of the last state creation in the South East and then fashion out the areas that the new states shall come from.
Again, I urge my colleagues at the National Assembly to be dispassionate about this because the South-East have not been properly favoured in the creation of states in Nigeria. We have the least number of states, least number of Local Government Areas, least number of seats at the states and National Assembly hence we deserve like I said before two more states in the South East. For our people such as the Ohaneze Ndigbo and the South-East Governor’s Forum and the caucus of the South-East at the Federal House of Representatives and Senate we should come home and talk to ourselves about it and try as much as possible to be fair and not to begin to look at how the two new states would favor a certain people.
The essence of state creation is fir us to bring down development to the South East and our people would have the opportunity to send more people to the National Assembly to discuss what would favour us collectively as a people and not to say that this people are from this area so they cannot have another state because there is strength in numbers. Let us have the two states first and when we come home; we talk as one family about the power sharing and this issue has been the bane of the Igbo people. I do not care where the two more states would come from but let us show fairness in the choice of the two states and also consider which states in the South East that have not been affected in the creation of states in the past and also have two new capital cities created and added to the ones we have now.
The Blue Sea economy is what is trending now in the old Eastern Region. What are your imputes?
Yes, that brings us to the issue of the forgotten Sea Port in the East which is in Ose Akwa in Ihiala Local Government area. That Sea Port had been useful and beneficial to the entire South- East and SouthSouth but it has been abandoned and it is close to the Atlantic Ocean when compared with that of Lagos. That is the Blue Sea economy and I salute President Ahmed Bola Tinubu for the setting up of the South-East Development Commission headed by our brother, Mark Okoye, and it is expected that the Commission should find a way to factor that Sea Port into its development plan. I know that most governors in the area have kick started the process and Governor Soludo had always been on the vanguard of that. We will not be asking for too much if the Federal government comes into this picture because it would also decongest our other Ports and expand the tentacles of socioeconomic development in the country. The National Assembly should also do the same by our people coming together to pursue this noble objective for the good of our people.
