Tinubu has done more for the North than Buhari —Chekwas Okorie

Tinubu has done more for the North than Buhari —Chekwas Okorie

Chief Chekwas Okorie is a chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance ( APGA). In this exclusive interview by TAIWO AMODU, he dismisses the claim of marginalisation of the North being bandied by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and eminent citizens from the region. Excerpts:

2027 is barely two years and governance appears to have taken the backstage for political campaigns. What is your optics for Tinubu?

Well, 2027 has started early, unfortunately. And I know that it is going to cause some distractions because the president will be busy trying to take steps to protect himself, to remain in office. But what I  am seeing indicates that the battle will be an epic one. It isn’t going to be an easy one, the normal way it goes easy for incumbents. It isn’t going to be that easy for him because the North has said they gave him X number of votes and the expectations weren’t being met and, not just that,  they are complaining of being marginalized. They have taken steps to block his chances of getting anything near what he got before from the North.

We all know how campaigns go in the North. You know that religion and ethnicity play major roles in the way the North votes during elections. Campaigns are done in the mosques and other religious centres and those campaigns appeal to the hearts of those who vote. The  elite in the south hardly come out to vote and that’s why you have the types of numbers that come out in the North. Once the election comes,  they are made to believe that it is a religious obligation that they come out and vote. And so you see them— old people, young people , sometimes underage queueing to vote— whether it is raining or not. And because of the ways things have gone now, if you dare not announce  the results at polling units, you create anarchy, because of the sensitisation of the people .

Now the economy is so bad and we believe that the president is doing his utmost best to get this economy back on stream. But naturally because of the damage done, the recovery can’t be done overnight. And I don’t think in the next two years, things would be turned around so much as to convince or ought to convince the man on the street that it isn’t  President Tinubu and his government that is responsible for their predicament. So, I don’t know what motivation that will make the average voter who has been brainwashed to believe that his situation has been caused by the government to go and ask that same government to continue in office. So, that’s the challenge that is facing the president. He has to think outside the box to look at where these numbers are. They are not only in the North-West.  There are numbers everywhere.  I give you an example. In 2011, the South East alone gave  [former President Goodluck] Jonathan seven million votes and I know why. In 2023, not minding whatever anybody will say that Peter Obi was supported by Igbo people, he had 1.8 million votes, not up to one-third of what Jonathan had. Yet, anybody outside will say Igbo people voted for Peter Obi; he had 88 per cent of the total votes cast. That means his people didn’t vote and I know why too.

I have been involved in Igbo-related issues for about 49 years. The Ohanaeze you see today was started in 1976 and I  was a young undergraduate. I  am the only surviving person in the 1976 class that founded Ohanaeze; others have died. In Nigeria, the second largest population after the indigenous population is Igbo. If you add that votes in the South-East, it is a major political bloc that can’t be ignored but you don’t tap into it. You don’t get it by simply campaigning on the street. The way others go to the mosques, our own, you don’t go to the mosques. We have our own ways of reaching out to these enormous numbers. Look at the last election, Tinubu won five states in the South out of 17 states. Four in South-West and one in South-South, Rivers state. Vice-president Atiku Abubakar won Osun; Peter Obi won 10. So, if the president did not  control  the South in 2023…

I think the 2027 general election is going to be North versus South, considering the gale of defection of governors from the region. What do you think?

Yes, it is going to be North-South divide; but if Peter Obi is flying a presidential flag, South will divide their votes. Forget about other inconsequential aspirants. In the North, whatever Kwankwaso will do is limited to Kano. They seem to be coalescing and galvanizing around Atiku. If anybody hasn’t seen that, the person isn’t looking. In ADC,  anybody outside of Atiku that isn’t from the North that wants to run for President will fail at the nomination. They will do free and fair primary, but Atiku will win.

You don’t see Peter Obi picking the ticket of ADC?

No. He doesn’t stand a chance

How do you mean sir?

I have said it publicly, he can’t win. He isn’t Alex Ekwueme and he can’t measure up to the late Ekwueme’s profile. No Igbo man can win a delegates election at the national level. It is very simple. The delegates at national convention is on the basis of equality of local government.  North -West alone has 188 local governments! South-East has 95. Just take those two states now, even if 95 per cent of delegates from South-East goes to that convention, how will they deliver Peter Obi?

Invariably, what you are saying is that he doesn’t stand a chance in ADC?

No, he doesn’t.  There is no way he can win the nomination unless the ADC does the unthinkable,  but listening to David Mark, even yesterday,  he said everything will be done transparently at the national convention. Of course, the preferred candidate will emerge at that convention.  How did Ekwueme lose? The northern delegates decided that he won’t win and it was their votes that delivered President [OLusegun] Obasanjo. So Peter would never have made the impact he made in 2023 if he didn’t go to a political party where he was a sole candidate and the only way he can make another impact is if he is able to go to a party where he is the sole candidate and he becomes a presidential candidate.  If he allows himself to be lured into any particular arrangement in which delegates will come …

But from what we are seeing, he is likely to move into ADC…

Don’t worry about that. He is going into ADC to make demands that he knows can’t be met. His major demand inside ADC… (I  am not talking about the one he is saying outside). Is that ADC should zone to South-East and zone to him. How can they do that?

But he hasn’t said that publicly. How did you know?

I am saying that will be his demand, even his people are saying it publicly.  They are saying ADC has to zone to Peter Obi if they want to win. They want it zoned to him, not South-East.

The looming gang-up against Tinubu, according to the North, is because the region has been sidelined despite delivering the votes. There are also those who accused the North of a wrong sense of entitlement, that Tinubu has taken care of the region more than other zones. What is your take?

I believe Tinubu has done more for the North than Buhari did for them.

How do you mean?

In terms of physical infrastructure, landmark road infrastructure, and in terms of appointments too, they aren’t lagging behind in appointments. But what the North is saying is that in terms of budget allocation,  that they aren’t getting enough to do things in the North. I think they are just looking for an excuse, giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it. They have everything! If we had one quarter in the South-East of what the North has, we won’t be complaining.  So, what do they not really have? They have left the area of appointments when they knew that they can’t make a case out of it and moved into budget allocation. What about the huge amount of money that governors receive, of course, like every other governor?  They should start querying their governors about how they are using all that enormous amount of federal allocations.

So, I think it is about giving Tinubu a bad name in order to have reasons to mobilise against him. It is expected and I don’t think Tinubu will be surprised based on his experience.  So it isn’t about what he didn’t do for them. It is just that they want power to return to the North and I do believe that though they aren’t saying it.  Part of what they have in mind is that anybody but Tinubu.

But how do you reconcile their agitation with the strong reservations in the South that he is pandering too much to the North?

That’s why I said he has done more than what Buhari did for them. All the major projects that Buhari started in the North that he couldn’t complete, he is continuing with them. Take the AKK gas pipeline, it is nearing completion now taking gas from Ajaokuta to Kano. Take the issue of solid minerals, that is now being given federal attention and most of the revenue generated from there would go to them. In fact, they are the ones having resource control in terms of solid minerals development going on there. A lot of attention is being paid to the North, but that’s not what they want . Their primary business is politics and when you get them out of the seat of government for a period of four years,  they feel like a fish out of water, especially their political leaders. It isn’t for me to advise them to try other means of development, especially educating their large but uneducated population. Every now and then the young population in the North is taking into criminality because it has no education and they aren’t doing anything about it. It isn’t something Tinubu can solve for them. None of their numerous presidents was able to solve it. It has to be solved by the states.

Finally, will the coalition of the South against the North secure second term for Tinubu, considering the gale of defections of governors and lawmakers from PDP to APC? Some have said it wasn’t borne out of conviction but a bullying process?

I don’t think so. It won’t help him, but I don’t think he is bullying anybody. The people that are moving into APC, especially the elected ones, are doing so for their own protection. 

They know what they are doing and they believe the ruling party will give them that protection. But it is unfortunate if he is looking at those kinds of persons,  meaning that he is holding the South. It isn’t true because those are the people who have already hurt the people and they will use free and fair elections to pay them back . You see,  the average person from Yoruba to Calabar, they are far more enlightened and they ask more questions and that’s what goes with education— asking questions! And when they aren’t getting the right answers, they will react their own way. The only thing that has put a doubt to that is manipulation of results and it won’t happen easily this time. So relying on people who are coming with liabilities into APC won’t be the way to capture southern votes. If it is a period when rigging was rampant and easy, you can say those governors will use their machinery to write results but it isn’t going to be easy like that. 

Even the 2023 elections, so many governors lost out. Most of them wanted to go to Senate. The present Minister of Budget, Atiku Bagudu who was governor in Kebbi lost election to come to the Senate.  In Abia State, Ikpeazu was governor; he was a senatorial candidate. He lost. In Enugu, Ifeanyi Ugwanyi  was governor; he lost senatorial election. In Cross Rivers, Ben Ayade lost. These are governors who wanted to retire to the Senate, it was because things have changed, the people voted against them. Before, it was automatic to move from governorship to Senate. These are the people APC  is celebrating that they are joining them . They are grappling with immense liabilities; they can’t convince the people. Okowa was a serving governors in Delta at the time he was Atiku’s running mate. How many votes did Atiku get from Delta State? Peter Obi won there.