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The national chairman of the United Progressives Party (UPP), Chekwas Okorie, in this short interview, told ZEBULON AGOMUO, Editor that it is not likely that Nigerians will vote for President Muhammadu Buhari again on account of alleged poor performance and widespread killings in the country. According to him, the quest for change of leadership is stronger now than it was in 2015 against former president Goodluck Jonathan.
May we know your take on the state of the Nigerian nation at the moment?
Well, the truth is that the state of the nation at the moment is nothing that gives anybody hope or cheer but something that evokes fear of an impending anarchy. This is because of the narrow-minded and sectional attitude of the present leadership. Everything is going wrong. All we see is government’s slow pace in executing projects; a government that is skewed towards one section of the country and religion. It has never been so bad. The country is today more divided along ethnic, religion and regional lines than the time of Lord Luggard. This does not give anybody any sense of patriotism as a citizen. And that is why all hands must be on deck to redeem our country from the brink.
Critics say that the government has been very ineffective, coupled with the massive killings across the country and that it could lose 2019 election on such planks; do you foresee that happening?
As a matter of fact, the average Nigerian will not vote for President Buhari to return to power, by extension the APC as a political party across the country. And they have somehow made political opponents to try to form coalition. And I am sure they are aware of it. So in order to seek to return by all means, they have started hounding political opponents, trying to intimidate and using coercion leading to a kind of gestapo arrangements we see all over the place. But that will not save them.
In 2015, there was this kind of desire for change of leadership and if anybody knew that what was going to come in place of that leadership would be what we are seeing now, I am sure Nigerians would have had a change of mind. I tell you, there is even a stronger desire now for a change of leadership. The truth is that it was only President Muhammadu Buhari that was a sole candidate from the Northern part of the country at that time, whereas Jonathan had other contenders from the south. Even at that the margin between Buhari’s votes and that of Jonathan was not so much, barely 2.5million votes according to INEC result which could have been easily written off had it been that the South East voted enthusiastically, if not that they voted with their back side and many didn’t vote at all because they were angry that President Jonathan took them for granted and they didn’t want to vote for Buhari either. So, it was that apathy so to say that brought Buhari into power. Now, with the minimum of four presidential candidates that are going to be credible coming from the north this time around, out of the four, three of them are going to be Fulani. We are already aware of that. Fulani is not even the majority tribe in Nigeria. There is nothing like Buhari magic here. Now that the Middle Belt has practically joined the south in the quest for restructuring and devolution of power, you can no longer say that that monolithic north still exists. So, Buhari will no longer be a sole candidate from that part of the country. Down south here, as a result of the anger and the feeling of marginalisation by the Buhari administration, election in 2019 is not likely going to follow the pattern it did in 2015. So, I don’t see the possibility of the APC coming back to power in a straight fight even though he still enjoys the advantage of incumbency. But with the coalition arrangement that is being talked about, I don’t see Buhari coming back, at worst, we may have a run-off election as we have been having in some parts of Africa in the recent times. Runoff elections have become something that is in vogue that allow for coalition governments. These coalition governments are usually more stable than this one party thing lording it over everybody.
What are you up to now?
You know I am leading UPP. First of all we have zoned our presidential slot to the South East geo-political zone of the country. Our convention was held on June 29, 2017; having done that we are still hopeful of joining a coalition that will be of benefit to the party and the nation. We have not closed shop to say we are going one way or the other. So, discussions are ongoing. All kinds of permutations are flying here and there. I may not be able to at this point disclose some discussions that have reached advanced stage, buy by end of July entering August when parties will be rolling out their timetable for primary elections, relationships and collaborative efforts will begin to manifest. We are quite receptive to coalition.
Are you looking towards the Obasanjo-midwifed coalition?
We are open to any coalition; the only no-go area is the APC as far as we are concerned. We would surely go into a coalition if we discuss the terms and the prospects look attractive then we would consider it because even the one Obasanjo suggested is not yet a political party, but still looking around; the Agbakoba’s NIM is also not a political party but is still looking for a party to anchor, and we are keenly watching.
