Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo is a former governor of Enugu State. In this interview, he speaks on the decision of some South East leaders to support President Bola Tinubu’s second term bid and why the people of the zone will always support the presidential ambition of Mr Peter Obi and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

It looks like leaders of thought and political elites in the South-East have also joined this one-party APC dominance bandwagon, with their coming together and saying the South-East is for President Bola Tinubu. Why are these leaders disowning their own son; former Governor Peter Obi?

I want to say that every politician has a reason for his action. I will not attempt to hold brief for any of our politicians in the South-East, who wishes to support the President’s re-election.

We in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) want to engage the current president of Nigeria and his party on issues, on their policies, on the efficacy of their execution of their policies and promises to the Nigerian people, and put this side by side with the candidates that we are supporting, Peter Obi, and the solutions he’s putting on the table for Nigerians to make a choice. As you can see, the declaration of important politicians in the South-East for the APC is not restricted to the South-East.

It’s all over Nigeria and many of us in this country are wondering what the attraction is for our governors, who are leaving their parties for the APC. We don’t see the justification in the organisation of the party APC. We don’t see it in the performance of the central government, which is run by the APC.

And people are wondering why we should be drifting to a one-party state, not based on ideology, not based on the performance of that party, but many cases, unexplained reasons, reasons that have not convinced the Nigerian people or even people in their various states why their governors have moved. But as I said, it is the inalienable right of the governors to move.

Whether what they tell us are the reasons for their moving or there are other compelling reasons why they moved. Until they say so, we cannot begin to take them up on those.

But I can tell you something; in the South-East, our people have learnt to follow their conscience when it comes to voting in a general election. You will recall that in the immediate past election in 2023, Peter Obi single-handedly blazing the trail like John the Baptist crying in the wilderness was able to convince the Nigerian people that he had something that can change the status quo that we are enjoying under the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari at the time.

Many Nigerians believe that at the end of the day, he convinced more Nigerians and scored more votes in that election, but he was not declared the winner. And we have, after the court processes, accepted the results as declared. But what I want to emphasize is that in the South-East, we had sitting governors who could not deliver their states and those who even contested to go to the Senate, could not win because of the Tsunami of the Obidient Movement at that time.

Today, that Tsunami is more likely to sweep more viciously for the simple fact that our people and people all over Nigeria are living in poverty that is increasing in exponential proportion. They’re living in hunger. They’re suffering massive unemployment.

What impact do you think this shifting of allegiance to align with the federal will make. Is it impossible that it will have an impact and as the Obi factor of 2023, and does it still have the same impact and the same euphoria that it carried just three years ago?

There are two reasons I will give you. Let me start from Enugu State where I come from. APC has not been a popular party in our state. PDP was.

And before the 2023 election, PDP had won all the councillorship elections in our state since the party was formed, all the local government chairmanship election, all the state Assembly elections, all the House of Representatives elections, all the senatorial elections, all the governorship elections, and has cast majority votes for every presidential candidate of PDP in Nigeria. That was how powerful PDP was in Enugu State. But in 2023, APC had a candidate for the governorship in our state.

The candidate scored 14,000 votes in the entire state. That was how unpopular the party was. And it was not helped by the Obidient Tsunami that even swept the PDP in the state. I can tell you what you found on the streets at that time is even stronger today. People cannot find justification why important politicians are declaring for APC. If they can, they will join freely and happily.

But in spite of what appears like the APC is now a behemoth, unchallengeable, with federal might, with incumbency in third world politics, people are still anxious to do what they have to do to salvage their country, to have a better life for themselves and their children, and for posterity of Nigeria.

Do these leaders that put themselves together and say they are speaking for the people of the South-East, saying they are endorsing President Tinubu, represent the hopes, aspirations, and yearnings of the people of the zone?

Let me emphasize again and again. Any governor that is doing well in the South-East, and we usually single out Enugu State Governor, Peter Mba, and Alex Oti of Abia State, under normal circumstances and in a free and fair election, will normally get a second term. That is what you get by doing well. And if you don’t do well, you are voted out. So, the governors that are doing well, we believe they may have a second chance.

But when it comes to the presidential election, I doubt that those people that will vote in their governor that is doing well, will vote an APC presidential candidates because when it comes to that, these our leaders are not speaking the mind of our people. I can tell you that for certain. It is information you can gather on the streets, in the marketplace, anywhere you go.

That is the natural feeling of the people. Unfortunately, since APC was formed, it has never taken root in the South-East. It has been seen as the government or the party that singles out the South-East for oppression. Eight years of Buhari was quite difficult for our people. And the two and a half years of Tinubu is even more difficult for our people.

So, naturally, they don’t gravitate towards APC. Our leaders may go there for reasons personal to them. But I can tell you they’re not speaking for the general public. Some people believe that no matter how great plans are, as long as the new electoral laws and electoral reforms are not put in place, the 2027 elections might even be worse than the 2023 elections.

What’s your take on that? It is a matter for all of us to put pressure on the National Assembly to make sure that the electoral reforms that will come out in the new bill meet our expectations, and that in its implementation, we open our eyes and defend our votes according to the constitution and electoral laws. Nobody is going to come to do it for us from outer space.

It is we Nigerians, who can make sure that this happens. And this is what has happened in other climes where dictators have been uprooted and where oppressive governments have been changed. So, if we are saying that we are living under extreme hardship under this administration, all hands must be on deck to make sure we have a better government come 2027.