Abia Speaker Reveals How Alex Otti May Meet 70% Of Abians’ Expectations | READ DETAILS
The Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Rt Honourable Engineer Chinedum Orji speaks to Emenike Iroegbu on the emergence of Dr Alex Otti who defeated his party to clinch the governorship position of the state. He speaks on the high expectations of Abians on Otti and also his purported impeachment saga.
Please note that this interview was conducted before May 29 inauguration.
Sir the7th Assembly under your leadership had actually been peaceful in the last four years; what eroded the peace and harmony which led to your impeachment?
Purported impeachment, you mean? We came to the House of Assembly determined with my colleagues to make a difference and no matter what transpired, I believe that most of us tried our best to live up to the mandate given to us by the electorate, most of them did very well in their various constituencies, but the issue of interference and those that feel that they are closer to the Governor; to the executive than myself began to play out, but a lot of propaganda; a lot of blackmail became the order of the day, and I feel that at that point of where the peace and tranquillity of the house started eroding.
There are allegations that the ‘purported impeachment’ as you called it, was sponsored. Do you have any idea who did and what transpired?
I think personal interests have a lot to do with what transpired during this period. Like I said, personal interests by groups, few individuals that felt that they were close to the governor of the state, played a major role to what Abians saw.
To me, it was a show of shame. One of his (Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s) aides by name Erondu Junior wanted the rules of the House to be amended. In one of our rules as contained in our rule book; only a ranking member will aspire for the position of a presiding officer, unless the new members decides to suspend that rule of the House. So you cannot because you’re acting like an assistant governor, decide that I’m your stumbling block to becoming the speaker of the 8th Assembly, you now decide that since I refused for that rule to be amended that a lot of propaganda should be spilled against my person.
I don’t believe that it is my responsibility to determine for the next governor of the state who his Speaker, or how he intends to go about the inauguration of the 8th Assembly. As far as I’m concerned, my tenure ends by June 10. Whatever happens after that is not my business.
Secondly, these same people will always create the impression that I want to impeach the governor of the state. And I continue asking that question, if I impeach the governor of the state, will I be governor? No. So, If I impeach the governor, of what benefit is it to me? And these are the stories that has characterised my tenure as Speaker of the House of Assembly and this as I’ve told you is the reason this same aide now recruited some of my colleagues to give the impression that I’m not loyal to the governor.
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Do you have any evidence for this?
When you have a deputy speaker that takes directives from an aide to the governor; that records the executive session proceedings to forward to them; in that recording everybody that says whatever they say, is recorded.
When you come to Executive Session, you have four phones, one is on permanent recording and everything that anybody says is transmitted to him; what do you say to that? Or when you have one of my brothers around here whom I won’t like to mention his name make it a lifelong obsession to be above me; somebody that never played a role in the making of this government; somebody that didn’t know how he emerged as a governor trying all he could to blackmail me before them, what do you say to that? So when we look at the charade that they did, the House was adjourned and the former Deputy Speaker, without the consent of the Speaker, reconvened outside the premises of the legislative arm of government in a government guest house on a dining table with the offer of monetary inducement. What other evidence do you need?
Let them show us from the list; we are 24 in number, let us prove it here how they are 16. I’ll like us to prove it, how are they 16?
They have showcased signatures of House members who signed as regards to the said impeachment. Now, they said they are 16, based on that number; that means you have a lesser number of people on your side, can you dispute that?
The Chief Whip of the house, Honourable Kelechi Onuzurike did he sign? Honourable Stanley Nwabuisi, did he sign?
There’s a signature of his there.
Did you see the statement that he brought out the next day? Did you read the statement? So what does that tell you? He took permission from me to travel to Canada to see his family, so how could he have signed the letter from Canada?
Did you see the signature of Hon. Alan Nnamdi Nwachukwu there?
For you to have an impeachment of Speaker, those that are against the Speaker must show body presence and say that they own that signature, not telling us that you have 16 signatures. And I have just mentioned three on this side. You know how many we are. So how many have you reduced it to? I am not competing with them, or their numbers, all I’m telling you is that at the end of the day, when you verify the signatures that are signed, they’re not more than nine, let them prove that they are more than nine, then we’ll start talking.
The former Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly, Accused you of being high handed, pocketing them and withholding his security vote for nine months, could you clarify that?
I do not want to be rude to an honourable member. And I do not want to engage him, because he must operate at a certain intellectual level, academic level to engage me. Since he is lacking in those two, I do not want to engage him. As far as I’m concerned, the issue of security vote is at the discretion of the Speaker. I decide who I would give it to. If you’re hobnobbing with someone that has assumed the position of an assistant governor in the state, and wants to pocket everybody; wants to pocket the Office of the Deputy Governor; if not for the discipline and the respect that the SSG gives himself, he will also pocket the office of the Secretary to the Government. You have pocketed all the commissioners, all the local government chairmen, you decide what happens in JAAC, and you equally now want to extend it to the House of Assembly, and my Deputy Speaker now aligned himself with such a person. I don’t think I’m a fool to tolerate such a character.
Somebody that his duty is to record what I and other members say at the executive session and report verbatim to his master, and if his master was the governor direct, I will not bother. But being subservient to a mere aide to the governor, is something that I cannot tolerate any longer. And that is the reason that I decided to channel that aspect of the money to other meaningful use.
It is not his right; it is my right to give. So I’m not here to deny it. Even though he’s claiming that it’s nine months, it’s falsehood. For six months, I withheld it and I used it to do other meaningful things, because you cannot empower your enemy; he made himself my enemy. Why are other members of the House not complaining? Why are the other principal officers not complaining? Has any other principal officer come out to tell you that the entitlement that is due to them from the Speaker’s security vote does not get to them? Why is it only him that is complaining? The paper I have here, which you can only see on camera, because I told you I will not expose my colleagues, shows you that at any point in time that one of our allowances, (we have legitimate allowances in the house), you will see that one of them is the same amount that is given to ranking members, every person that is here gets the same amount that the speaker gets, and his name is there; he is getting those monies, the only money that he is not getting is the security vote, which I feel that he’s not entitled to.
But he said he is entitled to it?
He is not entitled to it. Because it is the same thing with the governor’s security vote, the governor can decide not to give you anything, there is nothing you can do about it. He is not entitled to it.
So it’s not a constitutional right?
No.
The security vote is at your discretion?
It is at my discretion, I decide whatever I do with it and I’m asking you to ask the other members of the House of Assembly; our principal officers; ask them if their security vote does not get to them, from the majority leader, to the minority whip.
Mr. Speaker you’ve talked over and over of this aide of the governor who is allegedly pocketing almost every angle of government, is it not your duty to check-mate these activities as the leader of the House of Assembly with other members?
I am the Speaker of the House, I’m not oblivious of my antecedents and what some actions that I will take may or may not generate. I have seen so much interference. Like I said, this interview is specifically based on to talk about the House of Assembly. I’m not here to talk about the governor, as far as I’m concerned, excluding this so called Assistant governors, the man (Governor Okezie Ikpeazu) is quite a humble person and he knows the role I played, and it is that role that I played which I have not bragged about that has made him to have equal level of respect for me.
For me, I promised him in 2015 that I will not be a stumbling block to his government; I have always given a good advice. My own father may not have done all that is expected of him as a governor, I do not also expect this out-going governor to do all that had been expected of him. I don’t also expect that the expectations of Abians in the incoming governor (Dr Alex Otti) will be met 70% by him, unless he is a magician. But what a leader needs are people that are selfless, that can tell you that the grassroots is complaining, because the governor cannot be at two places at the same time.
If somebody that supported the governor in 2015 is doing a ceremony; Is bereaved or is doing something in Bende or Isuikwato, it is your responsibility as an aide to remind him of that person’s role and of the need for him to visit, if there are some promises that the governor made, it is also your responsibility to remind him. Like I said, because of our scarcity of funds, there is no governor that can do all that is expected of him. I’ll give you an example, when the NBA decided to do their strike, which they have the right to in Aba, the members of the House, including one of the ring leaders of this purported charade, happens to be a former speaker, was the one that convinced me and convinced the other colleagues that there is need for us to go to Aba and quell that impending protest.
He did give that advice; I won’t because we are having issues discredit him; unlike them I’m too civil, he gave it out of passion, that the governor was not around, and we as a House decided that we will go. We entered our bus and left Umuahia by two o’clock to go to Aba to meet with NBA first to plead with them not to do that which they wanted to do.
After meeting the NBA people at high court, one of them that is now with them in this their charade, suggested that we visit some of those sites the members agreed and we visited them, we didn’t say anything against the governor when we came back, but the level of propaganda, blackmail that we were subjected to because of that visit was unbelievable. Let me tell you something, if our finances with respect to IGR are not vigorously pursued; there is no miracle any governor will do if the IGR of the state is not tackled head on
. What I asked the governor when they blackmailed me before him was “governor, what will be my gain, going to Aba to discredit you? Is it not myself that I’m discrediting?” because people will ask me a question that if your father had done that road, then Okezie would have done another one. Government is a continuum, I won’t stay here and claim that my father did every road in Aba or did everything that Aba people wanted or even Umuahia people. But like I said, government is a continuum; that was when he knew that I have no ulterior motives to embarrass him. Why would I embarrass him? He’s a governor in PDP; I’m the speaker in PDP, why would I embarrass him? But these people that have surrounded him have never seen anything good in me to report to him.
Why would they not want to work with you effectively? What are the reasons for undermining you?
It is because I don’t like their style that Abians are used to. The governor comes here; he tries as much as he can to do as many projects as he can. Two, the governor tries as much as he can to carry the youths and the stakeholders along. No matter what anybody says in this state, you don’t group all stakeholders as not being relevant, it’s not done anywhere. If they’re not relevant, in the scheme of things in this state, why did we fail election? Why did we not see any stakeholder coming out of their polling unit and at the collation centres from Ukwa East to Isuikwuato? Why did they lock themselves up during the election? It’s because of these people.
And they know that I’ve been against their system of shutting reasonable people away from the governor and that is why when I see the governor, I will tell him my mind and because I tell the governor my mind, it will be interpreted that maybe this one is not loyal or whatever, you cannot tell the governor the news or what he wants to hear, it’s not possible. Like I told you, I’m always very careful when I talk about the present governor, because my father has sat on that seat. And as far as I’m concerned, nobody is perfect. You need reasonable, dedicated people around the governor to help him to succeed; to remind him of things that he has forgotten, and that is where the problem lies.
Sir, you have been in the Abia State House of Assembly for the past eight years. What has been your high point in terms of serving the people in your constituency?
You know that if it’s about provision of infrastructure, you’re in Umuahia, if you’re to rate me, I’m sure of the pass mark that you’ll give to me in terms of provision of infrastructure, which is not my core area of responsibility, but I have at least reasonably done well within my constituency, and when I became Speaker, I extended it to the entire nine clans plus Urban 10 clans of Ikwuano/Umuahia federal constituency.
I do not like to blow my own trumpet, my constituency is a very difficult constituency with a lot of urban non-indigene population, and because people like us have been around, you need to continually work hard to warm your way and your person into the hearts of people. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve done reasonably well in that regard.
With respect to the constituency, if you check the number of votes garnered, you’ll agree with me that apart from the manipulations and rigging that occurred in Umuahia south and the Urban constituency, the result in the last election would have been a different matter, everybody was shocked that it went that way, but I know what happened in Umuahia south, I know what happened in urban constituency and some other areas, so when it comes to the area of provision of infrastructure, no politician scores himself but I will say I’ve done reasonably well to meet the expectations of my constituency.
You lost your bid to represent Umuahia/Ikwuano Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives to the candidate of the labour party. Would you say you’re one of the victims of what has been tagged Obi-wave?
Well, the Obi-wave was a phenomenon, our people; the Igbos rightly felt that we have a good candidate to represent them as president, so PDP was swimming against the tides of the Obi-wave. Yes, we had a defect in our election, as people felt that even in the first election that the ballot papers given to them were…. but even at that, I want you to take a look at the result that I had, and compare with others and also, look closely at the areas of infractions that I’ve told you, then you put one and one together. I wouldn’t be kind to myself if I say that Obi wave didn’t contribute, but it wasn’t the factor that led to not winning on the general level. Other factors which I’ll like to keep to me played a role in it.
So what is the future of the PDP in the state, having lost the Governorship seat for the first time in twenty-four years?
The future of the PDP in the state is that they need to bounce back, go back to the drawing board seriously, do some re-strategy, re-organization, bring in faces that the people like, rebuild and re-launch. That’s all I can say.
So what about the stakeholders? You’ve been saying stakeholders in PDP have failed, so I would like to know more about them.
I want to ask you a question, is it all the stakeholders that failed? Go and check the result of some of the stakeholders and see whether all of them failed. There are still some stakeholders, even those that are not recognized that passed. I don’t believe that somebody that has stayed thirty, twenty-five years in politics and all of a sudden, you’ll tell me that the person is no more relevant. It’s not possible. Did you empower him to be relevant? Abia has a lot of these stakeholders, but less attention was paid to the upcoming stakeholders within the ages of 35, 40 and 45. And, that was where we made the mistake because those within that age bracket have people that they control also; they are mainly lawyers, doctors, businessmen outside the state. But they have influence in their local governments and communities. So what happened during the election was that, those people came back and people listened to them, they convinced them otherwise. Meanwhile, the original stakeholders in the state were just looking at the events.
Mr Speaker, there are some rumours that you have intentions to leave the party, do you have any intentions to leave the PDP?
No comment!
How does a speaker emerge in the house? What is the possibility of a rule book being suspended on the first day of appearance in the house?
Let me use my own emergence as example. I emerged unopposed because my colleagues supported me; there was no challenge, no opposition. If there are nominations, let’s say two or three other persons then it will be voted; we have 24 members in that house of assembly, they will vote. If there are two contending people or three, the members will vote, and they will vote by the process as determined by the rule book which will be implemented by the clerk of the House. If there are no nominations, then you emerge unopposed but if there are other people that will be nominated by members; I could nominate somebody, the leader of the House can nominate; So if you have the three members, they’ll put it to vote and the speaker will emerge, and it was the same process that the Deputy Speaker will also emerge. And don’t forget that if you have a sitting governor of another political party, he will not fold his hands and not play the politics that others are supposed to play. He plays the same politics. And if he does the playing of that politics, it also plays a role, but like I said, it is the members that are very key in determining who emerges because they are the people that vote. And that’s why I told people that, one; the members, two; the governor, three; stakeholders. Why? Because, most of the members that emerged, emerged through the process of help from the stakeholders.
Those people will call them and say this is the person we want you to vote for. The governor will also say, members of the party, this is who I want you to vote for. It is politics. Then the members will look at the contenders and say this is the person we want to vote for. Look at what is happening at the national assembly, the politics has already started. People are campaigning for the position, it’s politics. You don’t say it’s only members, you’re saying some influential people will not play a role in who emerges as the senate president, speaker of the federal house of representative? It’s not possible. You won’t say that the incoming president of Nigeria will not play a role in calling members of his party and telling them that this is what he wants to do? No. it is after that and everybody’s position has been assigned through the voting by the members and the party tenders in or writes for the position of a leader, deputy leader and all the rest that they will now assume their independence and start. That is how a speaker is made.
So there cannot be a suspension of the rule, except the House have been inaugurated and a Speaker emerges?
No, once the members come on that day, and have fully administered their oath of office, because on that day, I will not be there, my tenure would have elapsed, so on that day, the Clerk of the House becomes the Speaker extemporal. As he has administered the oath to the members, they will decide if they need to suspend the rule. That is why I kept on telling these assistant governors that want to be Speaker that you don’t need to put fire in the Abia State House of Assembly because you want to become speaker of the 8th Assembly, it is your colleagues when they administer that oath of allegiance and all the rest on that day that will decide to suspend the rule of the House to do what they want to do. You don’t need to do it now because I will not allow it as long as I’m Speaker. I will not; we better leave that decision to be taken by the incoming 8th House of Assembly members, I will not dictate that for them.
In the incoming House of Assembly, obviously we have multi parties; what would be your advice to them if the state would have to move forward successfully?
The People have spoken, whether we like it or not. Even though there are areas of breach of electoral guidelines, which the normal processes, anybody that feels aggrieved can go to the courts. But for now, we are not going to castigate anybody because somebody lost election, no. On the 10th of June, or any other day that the proclamation will be sent to the governor and approved that the new House will be inaugurated, the members from the various political parties will be sworn in and the jostling for the position of Speaker will start. I don’t want to talk about that because it’s not my area of jurisdiction anymore. That area is left for the 24 new members. That’s their decision to make, not mine.
My advice would be that this State needs to move forward. When PDP had been winning elections, the other parties would go to court, and after winning them in court, they would go and become opposition to PDP, unfortunately, we now find ourselves being the opposition, but I prefer constructive criticism, not destructive one that we’ve been experiencing. Not tomorrow people instead of telling the governor elect, that will soon be governor, please you have not done this and that, you have not done this road for us, you will start picking on his children, his wife and his personal life, it’s not fair, as far as I’m concerned.
The House of Assembly will play a major role in helping any government here to succeed. Anybody that tells you that a state cannot borrow money to do project is telling you lies; anybody that tells you that House of Assembly is just a rubber stamp, is telling you lies. You can engage in constructive criticism of government to get what you want so that the state can move forward. We will not because we lost election, then we decide to truncate the transition, lately people are claiming that they are laying landmines, I don’t believe that this governor is laying landmines, he’s just exercising his powers as a governor. From now till the 29th of May, he is the governor of the state. Any decision he takes now can be reversed by the in-coming governor if he wants, so why are people bothering themselves. If the man likes now, he can appoint one thousand SAs tomorrow by 29th May, at 4pm BCA will be busy with numerous assignments, statements and whatever. And there’s nothing anybody can do about it so for now he can go ahead with whatever decision that he wants to take.
As you are bowing out of government, what will you be doing to keep yourself busy?
I will be engaging in politics here, nobody can chase me away. No matter the envy, propaganda, the back-biting, I cannot run away, this state is my state. I am not perfect, even the criticisms, that I’ve gone through have made me a better person to work harder. I appreciate when people criticize me constructively. It has made me become a better person.
I’m not usually a media friendly person so there are a lot of misconceptions about me and I do nothing to correct it. Only by those that come to me. I may not say that I’ve satisfied everybody, but every person that has come across me but I know that I’ve tried my best to accommodate as many as possible. I know that in the cause of my political career, I might have inherited a lot of enemies; I might have also made some for myself. That is politics for you.
But I have also learnt a lot of valuable lessons in the area of trust, in the area of empowerment, there are people that will die for you politically but they don’t make noise but there are those that will come and make noise from here to Sapele and tell you how they’re going to do this and that for you, but at the slightest opportunity they will betray you. And one day, those people that are silently supporting you will get pissed off, that you abandoned them, which is normal in politics. I have done some apologies to those that feel hurt. I don’t want anybody to look at this election as a do or die affair. Change is inevitable but if you feel shortchanged, you go to court. If you feel that your mandate was stolen, if you feel that there are other external factors that led to somebody’s “defeat,” you approach the court. If you prove your case, fine. But it’s not something that we’ll start setting the state on fire because of ambition.
After all, in 2015, I would have been Speaker, but I decided that it is not necessary because as from 2015, I told them I was not coming there to become Speaker from 2015 to 2019. Immediately I won my re-election in 2019, I approached the governor that I would like to become Speaker, and I went there unopposed. Since then, I’ve tried my best to satisfy my constituents, I may not have done all that they expected, but I do not expect the level of betrayal some of them had to engage because of paltry sum of money. That is why if you decide to fight me in such a very dangerous manner, to stain my reputation with impeachment, I have every reason to fight back to stain theirs also, it’s one one.
