As a respected Igbo leader and politician, Chief Chekwas Okorie has cut his teeth in national politics. Okorie, a founder of two political parties, presidential candidate and party chairman, spoke with Senior Correspondent OFFOR ONUKWUWE, and expressed his views on the current-Biafra agitators. He also reveals how he founded the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), United Peoples Party (UPP) and gave the reasons why Ndigbo deserve better than what they are getting in Nigeria. Excerpts:
As the founder of APGA, do you think the party would have played key roles in addressing the issues raised by pro-Biafra agitators?
If APGA, as a political party, founded in 2002 by me, and formed by many people, including non Igbo, had been allowed to grow along its well-defined ideological inclination, these agitations we have today wouldn’t be. That party was founded to give the Igbo man a political voice, to be effective in Nigeria’s democratic dispensation. That was why the very first policy statement of the party was to zone the presidential ticket for the 2003 election to South East. That was what Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu benefited from, otherwise he would never have run for president in his lifetime in this country. No party would have given him. There were only six parties at that time.
If APGA was not destroyed, by this time, by the people who were supposed to build it, there is no state in Nigeria today that you will not have had at least, one House of Representatives member that is Igbo. At least, we have about two now in Lagos State. We could have more in Lagos and other states. There is no state in Nigeria where you will not have at least one senator, who is Igbo or a non-indigene of that state that Igbo will support with their own people so that the democracy in that state will be broadened by non-indigenes wining and going to the centre.
So, the type of National Assembly we have today would have been a much more balanced National Assembly, in which certain bills will have easy passage to make Nigeria a better place. Nnamdi Kanu for instance, I appointed him along with other executives, the first executive of APGA in the United Kingdom. He was chairman of that executive, in our UK branch. That was in 2002, the year APGA was founded. Nnamdi Kanu was already six months in APGA by that time, before Ikemba Ojukwu joined the party in December of that year.
Why then are some people saying that Dim Ojukwu founded APGA?
Its sheer mischief by people who want to rewrite history. There are millions of Nigerians, not just Igbo, who knew that I was going house to house with the idea of a party. APGA was actually my third attempt. My first attempt to found a political party that will have this type of orientation was in 1996, Peoples’ Democratic Congress (PDC). It was not registered.
In 1998, I made a second attempt. In fact, in that 1998 attempt, Ralph Uwazurike was a member of the protem executive. I took him to Kaduna, to meet Col Umar Kangiwa (rtd), he is still alive today, with another person, Chief Dike. I led them. That was the first time Ralph Uwazurike went to any part of the north in his life.
Then, that party was not registered. It was the same PDC, with the same motto: ‘Be Your Brother’s Keeper’. These records are with the INEC. If you go to INEC now, you will see Ralph Uwazurike’s name there as legal adviser, protem. By 1999, he had taken off with MASSOB.
By 2001, we resumed the third attempt, and came up with APGA; the same motto again was retained. As a matter of fact, the Igbo Ezue Cultural Association that I founded, had the same motto. Nzuko Imo, of which I was the president-general, also had the motto: ‘Be Your Brother’s Keeper’.
You will see my signature in all of these. The flag of APGA, I designed on my table. There was no committee to design the flag. The symbol of APGA, I borrowed from the defunct NCNC, the cock. There was no committee for designing the symbol. When I was making this effort, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, whom I followed loyally, even told me: ‘Chekwas, this is one of those your dreams that will not work’, because of the stringent conditions then, to form a party.
When it worked, I returned to Enugu with the certificate. I was well received at Enugu Airport. Many journalists covered it; many of them are still alive. I went straight to Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu’s house. I didn’t go to my house before I presented the certificate to him. He gave me a bear hug, and it was one of four times I saw him shed tears. He went upstairs and handed over a carton of Moet as a gift.
I took the certificate also to the president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo at that time, with a large crowd the same day. That was Justice Eze Ezeobu, he is still alive. He brought a giant bottle of champagne and poured half of it on my legs in appreciation. He made an emotional statement that if he died that day, he will tell Dr. Okpara and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe what he saw. Very moving speech.
Then I took it to the entire Ohaneze Ndigbo General Assembly. The Ohaneze meeting I went to took place in Delta State, on 20th June, 2002, one week after receiving the certificate. Ohaneze proposed to give me the title of ‘Ogbatulu Enyi 1’, right there. The next meeting that held at Abakaliki, I was now conferred the ‘Ogbatulu Enyi Ndi Igbo’ title, as a result of founding the party. I remain the only Igbo, dead or alive that Ohaneze, as a national body ever conferred with a title. It’s on record.
When I did my 50th birthday at Ngwo Park, Victor Umeh was there, and now promoting this bastardization of history. That was the first place Ikemba raised my hand and told the whole audience in 2003, that if Igbo people looked around and do not see him, that they should follow me. I shed tears because I was not expecting such a weighty statement. Many around me joined me in crying.
After that occasion, Ikemba has made that statement seven times- at his 70th birthday at Dan Anyiam stadium, President Buhari was present, Balarabe Musa was present and the place was filled to the brim.
The photograph is there, they are in video. Ikemba called President Buhari, who stood on his left side, and called me, and I stood on his right. Three of us cut his 70th birthday cake, at Dan Anyiam stadium. When he was giving his vote of thanks, he called me out, gave me his elephant tusk, and said to Igbo people in English so that others will understand, ‘if you look around and you do not find me, this is whom you should follow’.
From that moment, some of Buhari’s close associates, for example, Alhaji Buba Galadimma called me the ‘heir apparent’. Ask Ralph Uwazurike, for several years he called me ‘Eze Igbo Obere’. Ask him, he can’t deny it, even though many people will
try to deny a lot of things that are truth.
At Brixton Academy in London, with Nnamdi Kanu as chairman of the party, Ikemba made the same statement. Nnamdi Kanu has even repeated the same in an interview he granted Sun Newspapers. He said it at Nkwo Nnewi; he said it at the Royal Palace Hotel; he said it at Holy Trinity, Onitsha- many people were there. These are rallies, but the good thing is that leadership is earned, it’s not by anointing. Somebody doesn’t just crown you leader.
All I have been doing, you see my humble title- ‘Oje Ozi Ndi Igbo’, that’s what I bear. Whoever knows that I am ‘Ogbatulu Enyi Ndi Igbo’, given by the highest Igbo body?
But I prefer the messenger title, which is more in conformity with my messenger title. So those who try to rewrite history, their own history will be rewritten, and their parents will be denied them.
We have been wondering why IPOB and MASSOB protesters are getting killed by security forces, even though they are unarmed?
It is a worrisome situation that our people have had to contend with all over the country. It’s not only in the South East. But it’s always Igbo that is the victim, whether in Igbo land or outside. Everybody knows that MASSOB, IPOB and all the groups agitating for separate state of Biafra, are non-violent, and they have been so for a number of years.
But in spite of their being non-violent, these attacks, violent attacks coming from armed security agents, whose brief is to maintain law and order, where there is breach, are the ones killing and gunning down these people.
Peaceful demonstration is guaranteed, not only by the Nigerian constitution, but by the international convention on human rights, to which Nigeria is signatory. I keep cautioning, that there is a thin line between non-violence and violence. It will take a little more provocation to cross the line.
If the line is crossed, I can bet you that the security agencies, all of them put together, will not be able to contain the instability that will occur, because it will now be armed people facing other armed people. It will now be war without any defining sector, and it will not be like the Biafra-Nigeria war, where you know the sectors and gave them sectors and numbers.
But here, what is facing us is war akin to Boko Haram, but this promises to be worse than that. I have told people that if 90 percent of Boko Haram members are illiterates, the reverse is the case in the case of these agitators, it is 90 percent literates, most of them are graduates.
So, there is so much such people can do with their hands and heads, beyond what they can do with weapons. That’s why many of us are worried, that this thing is not allowed to degenerate. I do not know which aspect of rules of engagement that authorizes a soldier or policeman, or whosoever security agent in Nigeria to fire and kill non-violent demonstrators.
It’s disturbing, and there is a limit to which elders like us can continue to prevail on the youths to endure. We have passed through that age, and know that at certain age, we decided to be young men. So, you don’t blame them that, at some point in time, people like us are no more able to hold them back.
I say this because, clearly, the northern elders and their religious leaders have proved incapable of reining in the Boko Haram members, and so when they gather and sometimes, even try to blame Igbo leaders for not prevailing on these our people from peaceful demonstrations, I begin to wonder which part of the head they are reasoning.
They have on their hands, for several years, something that has become a national embarrassment, which has cost this country so much in terms of human lives and property. A figure from the north the other day said that over 700, 000 of their people have been killed in the insurgence. I don’t know how they got the figure, but that came from the north, and they also said that 2.2 million people have been displaced. That is enough to embarrass any person that calls himself a leader from the north, and does not give him the face to look in the face of his counterparts in other regions not to say that they have not called their people to order.
I am really in sympathy with President Muhammadu Buhari. It doesn’t appear to me that he has received the quality of advice that will help him to really deal with this matter. It seems he is not addressing the issues that needs to be addressed, and that is trying to get to the leaders of these people, our people who are agitating. But that is not happening.
I can’t see myself speaking for IPOB or MASSOB. I cannot speak for them, nobody else can, no governor can, no Ohaneze can. Only the leaders of those groups can do that. If they see any of us legitimate and credible enough to be part of that negotiation, we will not shy away from such a responsibility. If they seek our advice, we will advise.
But when you see a governor gather traditional rulers and receiving other traditional rulers from the north, making photo show of it, I begin to laugh, and government begins to think that it is one of the ways of resolving the matter. Its not about grandstanding, it is a very serious matter threatening the stability of this country.
Do you really think realizing a sovereign state of Biafra will solve the problem and your solution to the restiveness?
The truth is that Igbo people have had it very rough since the war ended, and comments coming from certain leaders, especially those who played key roles in the war, do not point to the fact that there are any intention to right the wrongs any time soon. Efforts made for which our people participated, through constitutional or national conferences, and other recommendations, even constitutional amendments at the National Assembly have all been frustrated.
Even in the 5th assembly when Obasanjo was there, all of them went down the drain because of one mischievous clause on third term. And the baby was thrown away with the bath water. In the 7th National Assembly, the constitutional amendments got to a point where it was passed. It was not total answer but it was a departure from what we had.
That will still stand against Jonathan as a disservice to this nation. Another little provision in the constitution which the presidency objected to has nothing to do with the issues at stake, and he is not even there to benefit from what he wanted from being included, and he couldn’t sign that into law, he couldn’t promulgate that law.
Now, here we are, some northern elders have described the recommendations of the constitutional conference in such derogatory terms, in fact, some of them described it as a document meant for the trash can. This is a conference that cost this country over N7 billion. Most of the recommendations were arrived at by consensus.
There were no disagreements in the deliberations, but the likelihood that those recommendations will be implemented are not there. Put all of these in totality, you now begin to see why people are beginning to feel that if you don’t want us, we better leave the country, and that is an area that must be addressed for us to have one Nigeria.
For those who say that one Nigeria is not negotiable, they are simply deceiving themselves. That statement presupposes that there is unity, because if there is unity, we begin to see whether you can negotiate it or not. To have unity means that certain things must be in place.
There is no unity if there is no justice; there is no unity if there is no fair-play; there is no unity if there is no peace. These are ingredients that come together as preconditions for unity. When all of them are lacking, without exception, then, there is no unity. You need to have unity first, and that unity, I don’t see.
Then you go to other issues, whether it is realizable to have a sovereign state of Biafra. I can tell you that is a tall order. It’s a tall order because one, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu whom I followed loyally for two decades, 22 years, in 1982 when he came from exile up to 2004, said time without number that a Biafra of territorial area, of a geographical area, with geographical integrity with continental shelf and air space can only be achieved when we who want it have superior tanks to Nigerian tanks, superior arsenal in order to prevail in a combat. In other words, war.
And he said, that the option was not attractive because when it was tried, it failed. But he believed strongly in the Biafra of the mind. He went ahead to explain that, and I believe in that, and many Igbo people are already Biafrans in spirit. But the geographical area, if you want to realize it peacefully, it takes a long time.
When people talk of referendum, I hear Ralph Uwazurike often talk of referendum, it pains my mind that people who ought to know decide to mislead the gullible, uninformed people. I remember when the same young man would say that by some fiat, Biafra will be given by United Nations. They believed him. Years after, they are now talking about United Nations, as if, if you just write some love letters, then they will come and conduct referendum. It costs money, logistics, it will take a decision of the United Nations, and you must have the cooperation of Nigeria.
The United Nations did not just walk to Scotland to have a referendum in 2014. They did not just walk to Canada to say they are coming for referendum. A lot of legwork, intellectual input, and so on, will be involved, before you can begin to talk about holding a referendum. I am not saying that it is not possible, but is only saying that it’s not something that can be achieved overnight.
To even begin to have a sign of success, there must be a political platform, a registered political party that will anchor it. It’s not just an NGO thing, neither is it done by simply having separatist movements. All the successful ones have all been done through political parties.
In Canada, it was done nearly every 10 years. In each occasion, the host country like Canada will make more concessions to Québec people who want to separate. Those concessions will please more people and they will vote ‘no’ at the referendum. It has happened many times.
THE AUTHORITY
