Abia 2023 [Very Hot]Full Interview: Ginger Onwusibe Is Distracting Gov Ikpeazu – Chijioke Chukwu Fires |WATCH VIDEO

The Abia State House of Assembly minority leader and House Member representing Bende North State Constituency, Honorable Chijioke Chukwu has replied his colleague and Honorable Member representing Isialangwa North State Constituency, Honorable Ginger Onwusibe on an interview recently granted to All Facts Newspaper.

In a media interaction that held yesterday with cross section of journalist and broadcasted live by All Facts Newspaper online Television platform, Honorable Chijioke Chukwu described the statements made by Honorable Ginger Onwusibe as baseless and also said that the 2023 agenda is aimed at distracting Abians from the main issues facing the state.

Recall that the interview granted Honorable Ginger Onwusibe by All Facts Newspaper went viral with numerous reactions from different sections of Abia State. With some people agreeing with the honorable member and others disagreeing.

READ FULL INTERVIEW WITH HONORABLE CHIJIOKE CHUKWU BELOW;

Opening Statements of Chijioke Chukwu:

I wouldn’t have bothered to reply Honorable Ginger Onuwsibe but you know that there are times when silence is not golden, and those times, if you don’t adduce a superior argument to buttress or bring to front burner, misconceptions, half truth and outright lies being peddled by some politicians, some people would misinterpret your silence to be admission of facts.

I read the interview anchored by the MD of ALL FACTS NEWSPAPER Emenike Iroegbu which he granted to Honorable Ginger Onwusibe, many of us are aware that his Excellency Governor Okezie Ikpeazu is just two years in the life of his second tenure. What i think would have concerned Abians more is how to place demand, effective demand on the executive, on the legislator, to deliver proper democratic dividends. But it surprises me that election that is still two years away, that there are strong agitations by various interest groups, various senatorial districts and local governments to occupy the position of the governor.

Recently, stakeholders and politicians of Abia north origin equally met and made similar agitation. The agitation is only a follow up to the struggle and the current agitations being made by other sections of the state. And I asked myself, is it that the governor has finished his administration? Is his administration whining down? Or the citizens have lost faith in the administration of the state and that is why, ahead of time, they are making this agitations. And those are the issues i want to address.

For me most of the statements credited to honourable Ginger Onwusibe is not only uncharitable but I think it is meant to distract the governor and the PDP led administration from delivering dividends of democracy to the people. That is one aspect of it.

The second aspect is that this agitation is an indictment on governor Okezie Ikpeazu administration and admission of failure by the PDP led government so they are looking for a way to distract Abians from the real issue of governance and placing demand on the administrations so that their focus will be shifted on who becomes the next governor while salaries are being owed; teachers are not being paid, the governor has not delivered optimally on infrastructure while other governments like Rivers are building 13 million dollar cassava plants to boost agriculture, Akwa Ibom is building state of the art and the best ammonal plants for fertilizer production we are here talking about 2023 and that is why Abia north which I come from that has the rightful place to demand for governorship come 2023 has also risen to say that it is our turn to produce the governor.

Permit me to say that the recent political outburst from our brothers from the so called Umunneato axis of Abia central senatorial district, and the most recent one like I told you being that of ginger onwusibe. In that interview was distorted and I want to quote from one of the lines he said; I want to quote , he said; “ the present senatorial position (Abia central) is supposed to come to Isialangwa north precisely because Osisioma has taken their shot, Umuahia south has taken their shot Isialangwa south has taken their shot, Umuahia north is presently on the position, so it is supposed to rotate to Isialangwa north now, but as a fair person, this is my personal opinion”.

Thank God he said that its his personal opinion. The opinion of Ginger Onwusibe do not reflect the position of majority of Abia politicians across political divide, across senatorial districts. He was talking about old Bende and old Aba division. I want to tell you that his admission that the political divide of Abia is divided along the old Bende people and Aba axis is not true. The original political divide for Abia state , when Abia was created, is Afikpo division, old Bende division, Isukwuato division and the Aba division. Fortunate enough, the Afikpo division has being ceded to Ebonyi state, the old Okigwe division comprises of Umunneochi local government, Isukwuato local governments and our brothers in the Okigwe axis of Imo state. Then you have the Aba division, if we are to be fair, assuming we don’t want to go along the senatorial district line, yes, Isukwuato is old Bende by cultural affinity not by political divide.

By political and geographical divide, they belong to the Okigwe division and so if we are to go by the original concept of how Abia was created and how it was envisaged that administration should rotate round, with Afikpo division out, it would have been natural for a sane thinking person, somebody who does not want to introduce confusion to the polity to say; yes old Bende have taken their side where is the Okigwe division of the axis?

That recent political development has jettisoned the old divison line of geographical administration of our political structure giving life to the senatorial districts and so an old Bende man of Abia north extraction, had the opportunity given to him in 1999 through Orji Uzor Kalu to administer the state and it moved to Abia central. It does not matter whether the person is of old Bende or of Ngwa extraction. Once we come to a senatorial district like we know that its the right of Abia north to produce the next governor, whether the person comes from old Bende of Bende extraction or old Okigwe division of Bende extraction, it does not matter.

The most important thing is that he must come from Abia north and if he comes to central, it is the business to struggle either to produce an Abia central man of Ngwa extraction or of old Bende extraction and in all these political permutations , where do we leave to Ukwa man?

So I think submissions made by honourable Ginger Onwusibe is self saddled, selfish and he is just looking for cheap popularity. He is my colleague, I know where he stands in all positions, what he canvasses in the morning is not what he canvasses in the evening. In the morning, he is canvassing for a governor of Umunneato extraction, in the evening, he is consulting his colleagues, House of Assembly members, that we should assist for one of us in the House of Assembly to be made governor.

So how do you take such a man serious? And the old Bende man you are seeing them castigate in their political submissions is there any Ngwa man that is anything today in the state that was not made by an old Bende man? tell me that person including Ginger Onwusibe from the time he was councillor under governor Orji Uzor Kalu and after Governor Orji Uzor Kalu, anything he has been till today was made possible by an Abia central politician of old Bende extraction. So its a mark of ingratitude for him to turn around to start campaigning against people that have supported him, supported our brothers, our kids and kin from both Ngwa and Ukwa extraction to be where they are today.

And I tell you, that is a very bobby trap for the governor, governor Okezie Ikpeazu because left for an Ngwa man, his Excellency governor Okezie Ikpeazu, will not be governor today. His ascending that throne, he owes it to people of old Bende because if am not mistaken, I don’t think there is anybody that contributed more in terms of material, human and financial resources that was deployed to foist His Excellency governor Okezie Ikpeazu on Abians than people of old Bende. And he arrogantly said if you give governorship ticket to an Abia north man that who will do the voting.

The music they are playing today, the old Bende people taught them. I assure them that if they bring 80,000 votes from Obingwa, 2023 will be different. It will not be what happened in 2015, it will not be what happened in 2019 because our brothers of old Bende were used to hold some of us down so that whatever that was voted during the election was what was counted and my APC brothers of Ngwa extraction, majority of them compromised the party and the party candidate in 2019 to ensure that governor Okezie Ikpeazu return back as governor.

Most of APC political leaders compromised their positions its an open secret that they worked with PDP while our PDP brothers in Abia north held us down. Now Abia north has come together, if they think that they have divided old Bende along political divide to make them enemies, 2023 will be different. The hand that scattered Israel will bring back Israel ahead of 2023 and we are ready to negotiate because am very very happy he said he will consult , we are consulting. Its no threat, we are consulting, we will reach out , we will come together and if he thinks that Aba north and south federal constituency bye election is a pointer to what will happen in 2023, they are dead wrong. I want to tell them that no senatorial district in this state can single handedly produce a governor. At least they will not be able to meet the 25% geographical zone required to produce a governor. No senatorial district can meet it. So we must consult ourselves rightly not to divide the state the more. I think what Abians would want to know now, what Abians are yearning for, is that effective demands should be made on His Excellency governor Okezie Ikpeazu to deliver democratic dividends to Abians.

Other states are not talking about salary payments, they are talking about critical infrastructure that will not only jump start the economy, but take the youths out of crime.

Please I want to appeal to PDP led government, to stop distracting Abians, to caution inordinate, ambitious politicians like Ginger Onwusibe from heating up the polity. If its the time for politics we will start. It is time to place demand even on the house of Assembly to ask the right questions, to do the right things.

Questions from Journalist:

The kind of music we are hearing from the south is kind of very strange to you. What do you think will happen if they continue to beat this same music?

Abians will be the ultimate losers because it is too early to start the music. Emphasis will be on who succeeds governor Okezie Ikpeazu and not what has governor Okezie Ikpeazu done for Abians who elected him. Money will be deployed to early campaign to struggle for political power. And so when it starts like that, Abians will no longer have the mindset to ask what rightfully belong to them. And that is what they want to achieve. What they want to achieve is to give the impression that campaigns has started so governance is no longer necessary because the failure of the state government has not given them anything to campaign with, has not given them the opportunity to tell Abians what they have done to improve the well being of Abia citizens. So its a political strategy. Check the narratives, let emphasis be on campaign and no longer on governance. so Abians should not be fooled.

As a critical stakeholder in APC, what is the position of the party regarding 2023 governorship?

Well you know in politics its an open contest, nobody emerges by his own personal will. Nobody is given power even if its councillor. You come with your own argument, I come with my own argument. There is horse trading, and I know my party as it is presently constituted, will not make the mistake of taking governorship away from Abia north. That will spell doom for the party. It will be dead on arrival. If they do it, I don’t mind my position, I will work against the party. I am ready to leave the party for the sake of the interest of my own people. My people has said it is their turn to produce a governor, if a clock is going clock wise, will it get to 6 o’clock and begin to go anti clock wise? It cannot. If the clock starts going anti clock wise, its faulty. You take it to a repairer, to repair it to go the right way it should go. It should go from Abia north from where it started to abia central, and to Abia south again. We are not against that. Abia north has always cooperated with all the senatorial zones. Why we started agitating and looking for alternative platform to contest election was because we were not getting a fair deal from the PDP government. They got power through the instrumentality of the old Bende arrangement. It was an old Bende arrangement that transferred power to Abia south go and look at it critically. When the battle and struggle was on, Abia north people were contesting, but an old Bende man personally deployed his personal financial resources and produced the governor of Ngwa extraction. So its a time to reciprocate what the old Bende man has done and in reciprocating I am not against Abia north looking at equity and fairness, possibly looking at the old Okigwe division. But if the old Okigwe division does not give us a very competent candidate, a very sellable candidate that can win the election because it is about marketability, we look across other local governments provided its from Abia north.

Last time your party fielded a candidate from Abia north Dr Samson Ogah and supposing Governor Okezie Ikpeazu had won that election, what led to that decision to field a candidate from Abia north in 2019?

Abians were not getting the best dividends and so we wanted a change but still, our brothers from both Abia north and Abia central felt that it will be a disservice to Abia north. People will look at us as if we are not trust worthy. So those of us that held a different opinion that if we continue to leave government administration to the hand of PDP as at that day, the state will collapse, and the state is almost collapsing if not for the intervention of president Muhammadu Buhari through Paris Club Refund, through different social intervention activities by now the state wont be paying salary and even with all these interventions, are salaries being paid as at when due? Are you feeling the impact of this administration in Abia north? It was because of the marginalization of the old Bende man by this administration that led to that agitation for us to field in a candidate. And our brothers from old Bende extraction; Abia north and Abia south , still said no let us give them the opportunity to finish their turn and that was what you saw that happened in 2015.

Was there really an agreement, between the north and the south as regards to this argument?

Our traditional rulers, who are the custodians of our culture and elder statesmen of Abia north have reliably and I have no reason to doubt them, that they consulted with their colleagues from Abia south and Abia central and they agreed that after governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration from Abia south, power will return to Abia north. And we are hinging our argument on if you had such an agreement, traditional rulers, custodians of our culture and our political elders, why don’t we the youths and the politicians abide by that agreement, why must we jettison it? It is that agreement that compelled them to appeal to young politicians of Abia north extraction to support governor Okezie Ikpeazu for the second time and that was what we saw happen in Ohafia.

What you saw happen in Bende is that its not possible for a former governor of Abia state who delivered democratic dividends that is unquantifiable till date in the story of Abia state to loose a senatorial election. We are beneficiaries of that bad governing effect of following Orji Uzor Kalu.

Should Abians be looking at senatorial division or be looking out for someone capable of changing the history of Abia state?

In all the states of the federation, you can hardly find any state that has not hedged their governorship candidates along senatorial districts. Abia will not be an exception. Its like that in Enugu, its like that in Ebonyi, its like that in Cross Rivers and so many other states you can think of. The only exception can possibly be Rivers. Its like that in Delta and there is no senatorial district you will go to in Abia today you will not find at least 100 people that are competent intellectually, morally, to be elected governor. Its not possible. So let us take it to that senatorial district that its their right to produce governor and let the citizens from that senatorial level who are citizens of Abia state, narrow down the people they feel has the pre requisite qualification, the exposure, the intellectual competence and exposure to administer the state well. That is just what we are looking for, nothing more. Am not saying the person must come from Bende, if he comes from Isuikwuato, good. If the person comes from Umunneochi, very well; if he comes from Arochukwu, Ohafia, or even Bende, he should be Abia North.

Paris club n22b refund: what is your perception concerning these controversies?

As a member of that adhoc committee, it will be very difficult for me to give my own perception because am expected to be fair to all. So i will advise you to wait until we do our job. We are starting today. Let me assure Abians that this is one committee that we cannot afford to fail. Because a lot of expositions have been made but we cannot say this is exactly what transpired. We need documents to justify some of these assertions. So it will be too early for me to say this is my perception about the consultants, the release and utilization of the Paris Club Fund. But i want to assure Abians that in that committee, there is nothing to fear. All of us are from the opposition, nobody is afraid of getting a return ticket to come for a second term and its an opportunity for us to show Abians that there is hope in the House of Assembly.