South-east needs to convince Nigerians to achieve Igbo presidency – Ibediro
Barr. Emma Ibediro is the National Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, he speaks on politics in his party and the clamour for Igbo presidency in 2023, among others. Excerpts:
Daily Trust: During the election, your party lost some critical states to the opposition. Do you think the APC National Working Committee (NWC) can retain power in 2023 considering these huge losses?
Barr. Emma Ibediro: You might be looking at the cup as half empty, but I am looking at the cup as half full. I am looking at the positive side of it. Remember that this is a party that was in power for the past four years and the level of opposition we faced was such that every other party wanted to take over power from us. The fact that they didn’t succeed is a major achievement. Contrary to what you are saying, people are looking for opportunity to advance their course positively or negatively. The fact that the senate president left at a time in the life of this administration is not the making of the working committee because all those arrangements must have been concluded even before the emergence of this working committee because there was nothing the NWC did to make the senate president and the speaker to leave at the time they did. As a matter of fact, we did everything possible to make sure that they didn’t leave. Enough consultations were made and enough contacts were made to make sure that things work out well. Unfortunately, you can do the much you can, but people have the choice to do what they want to do. The fact that we were able to manage their exit is a tremendous achievement of the working committee. But it is not every party that will survive the exit of a sitting senate president and speaker. The fact that we were able to manage it and make sure that the party continued to be in the majority in the senate and the House till the elections came is also a big achievement.
DT: The party primaries was characterised by crisis leading to the loss of a number of seats. Are you not worried about this and how are you using the lesson to advance the future? Barr. Ibediro: Some of these things depend on how you look at them or the interpretations you give to them. You cannot rule out misunderstanding in a big family like the APC. Agreed that during the congresses that brought about the present elected officials, there were bound to be misunderstandings here and there. Contrary to what people believe, the NWC is subject to the National Executive Committee and whatever mode of primaries we choose was approved by the NEC. In our bid to also extend the democratic principles, we wanted the participation of a lot more of our party faithful rather than a select few. When the idea of direct primary primaries came up, we also realised that some states could have their individual peculiarities. So, we gave options to the states and said, depending on what you want in your state and approved by stakeholders of the party in that state, the National Working Committee is willing to approve so that everybody will be fully accommodated. To be fair to Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman, a lot of things have been heaped on his head and he is accused of taking decisions alone. That is not true. If you go through records of our meetings, you will find out that the decision to adopt either direct or indirect primary or consensus as the case may be is the decision of the National Executive Committee of the party and it was to reflect the different peculiarities in the various states. There are states that, no matter what you try to do, due to insecurity or some other reasons, you may not be able to do direct primaries. But it was for the states to determine what they think was favourable to them and we allowed them that space to decide what they wanted to do. No matter how you look at it, whether you do direct or indirect primary, there are issues that will ultimately lead to reconciliation after the elections. Reconciliation is not a one-party thing because it must involve all the individuals concerned. But where some individuals, on their own refused every attempt to reconcile and proceed with whatever action they have chosen, there is nothing you can do. You cannot force them not to go to court if they want to because that will be going against their fundamental right to seek redress. So, there are certain things you cannot do. But we did everything possible to reconcile all warring
parties before the election. But there were some people who decided that whatever we did, they would not agree. Some individuals are like that and what can you do to them? DT: How are you applying the lessons from that era?
Barr. Ibediro: One of the things we learnt is that we have to be more engaging now and let the stakeholders know the values of some of these things. Probably some people felt that they were not adequately educated on the modus operandi of the NWC. So, we are taking time now to let people know that we are not doing this to either favour or offend any individual sensibility. As a matter of fact, we are trying to do the best we can to enable our party move forward and carry more of our party members along as much as we can. These are lessons we have learnt and we believe that each activity in life should be able to teach each individual a lesson. So, we are drawing from the lessons of the last election. We will begin early to sensitise our members by engaging them on how best we can all put our heads together and make sure that we get it right. But remember that you are dealing with human beings.
DT: There has been this debate about Igbo Presidency in 2023 within the APC. What are the chances of the APC giving the Igbos the ticket? Barr. Ibediro: You see, when people talk about Igbo presidency, I have always said that Igbo presidency is not a right, just like Hausa presidency is not a right, Yoruba presidency is not a right. Igbo presidency can only become possible if you work within the party and convince the rest of Nigerians to produce a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction. You have to work within the group you belong. For instance, if I talk about my party, the APC, if you work within the party and every other member of the party, either from North-west, North-east, North-west, or from South-west you will now come to the conclusion that you as an individual can have the confidence of Nigerians to become their president. The fact that you are from South-east or from any other area is neither here or there. So, if the people from the South-east are aspiring to become Nigeria’s president, I think the first thing to do is to work within the party, to get the rest of Nigerians to accept you for that position. It is not a right. That is what I would say.
DT: For political balancing, every other person has said that APC should give the South-east the ticket for 2023. Are you in tune with this?
Barr. Ibediro: I don’t want to be emphatic that it must be an Igbo person. This party is not built on the platform of dictating to people what they want. Remember, if you check the percentage of the population of members of the APC and check the population of Nigerians, you would see that we are even less than five percent. So, we are talking about a president that will be a president of Nigeria, not a president of APC. So, first of all, under whatever platform you want to achieve that aspiration, you have to work to get yourself acceptable to that platform you belong. It is not going to be an automatic award that Nigerians should give South-east ticket for president. What of a situation where the APC gives the ticket automatically to somebody from the South-east and he doesn’t win the main election? Have you considered that? The South-east needs to play good politics, the politics of engagement, the politics of consultation, the politics of getting the other parts of Nigeria involved in their aspirations. But for now, I don’t think we are playing good politics.
DT: The NWC is behind the Next Level plan of the government. How would you explain this Next Level programme to the ordinary Nigerian? Barr. Ibediro: The Next Level thing is not just an invention of the president. It is a party programme and the NWC is deep into it. We believe that Nigerians deserve to be taken to the next level in terms of infrastructure, in terms of the economy, in terms of security and much more. Don’t forget that the president made three cardinal promises and having done what he has done so far, the only thing that can be done is to go beyond what has been done into the next level. I want to assure you that this party will do everything possible to support the presidency to achieve that goal.
The Next Level thing is not just an invention of the president. It is a party programme and the NWC is deep into it. We believe that Nigerians deserve to be taken to the next level in terms of infrastructure, in terms of the economy, in terms of security and much more