2015 Presidency: Where Yakasai Got It Wrong – Okorie

Last week, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai declared that the North will not support the South-East in its quest for the presidency in 2015. But, Chief Chekwas Okorie, the founder and first National Chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in this interview denied claims by Yakasai that an agreement was reached between leaders of the geo-political North and their South-East counterparts for the support of a presidential candidate from the North. On the 2011 general election. Chief Okorie in this interview with Mike Ubani besides dismissing Alhaji Yakasai’s claims posits that 2015 presidency won’t be based on Igbo/North dichotomy.?

What is your reaction to the statement credited to Tanko Yakasai, to the effect that the North won’t back South-East Presidency in 2015?
First of all, let me grant Alhaji Tanko Yakasai his fundamental human rights of expression.? He has expressed his own mind regarding the presidency in 2015 presidential election that is yet to come.? But let me also express my disappointment that at his age – for all I know, he is over 80 years old – he is still at this time preaching North-South, Igbo-Hausa dichotomy in the matter of the presidency of this country.? We know his history very well.? Perhaps, people may not know that he was an active player in the First Republic – not only in the Second Republic when he was adviser to former President Shehu Shagari.?

And we also know that he played very active role in mobilizing the North against the Igbo that precipitated the civil war.? So, I had thought that the lessons of history would have made him to at least ,moderate his views on issues like this, and rise above tribalism, sectionalism, and try and be a statesman, at least a Nigerian statesman.? If not for any other reason, for the fact that God has granted him longevity to be able to rise above certain exuberances, and has now become very matured in looking at national issues.? And having said that, what I expect somebody like him to say would be first to acknowledge the fact that our electoral process still needs a lot to be desired.? We are not yet there in terms of having every person’s vote to count.

And in the area of who produces the president in 2015, Yakasai should be looking at political parties – what they have to offer to Nigerians, and what those in power have offered already – whether that is good enough for us to continue – or whether change should come from the political parties.? I say this because in the events leading to the 2011 elections, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, was very vehement in saying that the Presidency would definitely return to the North.? He was almost playing god to the point of saying that there was nobody who would deny the North the Presidency.?

He condemned President Goodluck Jonathan, for betraying whatever he called trust.? But this is a man who will tell you that he is not a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, or any party for that matter.? But he will always talk about agreements as if he was there when those agreements were reached, just as he talked about the agreement between the Igbo people and the North on the 2011 Presidency.

Are you saying that Ndigbo didn’t enter into an agreement to support a Northern Presidential candidate during the 2011 general elections?
I can tell you that there was no such agreement – whether oral or written.

What actually happened prior to the 2011 presidential election?
While some Igbo people were rooting for General Ibrahim Babangida, others wanted Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to be President of the country in 2011.? But still, some others wanted President Goodluck Jonathan to continue as president beyond May 29, 2011.?

By what Yakasai has said, he has completely ignored those who rooted for General Babangida and Atiku, as if they accounted for nothing.? He is now condemning the entire Igbo nation, because of those who supported Jonathan.? If you look at Jonathan’s proportion of votes, he also won in the North overwhelmingly – He beat all those Tanko Yakasa’si people.? Alhaji Yakasai, didn’t believe that a non-Northerner will win at the Eagle Square, where the PDP held its presidential primaries.? Not only did their candidate lose, their candidate lost with a very wide margin, and that was the first time the North had a consensus candidate.?

So, what makes Yakasai to think that 2015 will be different??? Realignment of political forces has been going on as I talk to you now, all in an effort to ensure that 2015 produces a different result.? If President Jonathan is not running, and they blackmail him into not running as they are already doing, by saying he is a gentleman, and that they have agreed with him that he will not run, who tells you that whoever PDP brings will win the 2015 general election?

What makes you think that a PDP presidential candidate will not win?
No.? It’s not possible, except PDP is relying on rigging the election.? But the way the country is restive now, anybody who is relying on rigging is going to sign Nigeria’s death warrant because the place is quite restive.? There is a major problem of trying to stabilize the polity, so I say that a political party with a strong ideology and manifesto will carry the day in 2015.? It does not matter whether it is Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo.?

So, which of the political parties do you think will carry the day in 2015?
I can tell you that the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, will lead a coalition of forces to form government at the centre in 2015.? That is from the point of view of a political party.? The Action Congress of Nigeria,? ACN, is at liberty to express similar ambition.? The PDP has also said they will rule for another 60 years, and the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, is there – thinking that there is something they didn’t do correctly that they will improve on come 2015.

That is by way of healthy political competition.?? And whoever a political party produces as its presidential candidate, will now combine his own profile, with the profile of the political party he is flying its flag to go for the votes of Nigerians.? I am thoroughly disappointed that Yakasai is still thinking along the line of Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, or Yoruba candidate in this year of our Lord 2011.

Let’s go back to the issue of an agreement between the North and the Igbo over the 2011 presidential election: are you sure none existed before the 2011 general elections?
Yakasai should tell us whom the North signed the agreement with.? I remember there was something they called Northern Forum, which Dr. Saraki led.? They came to Owerri, the Imo state capital, to lobby for support for a Northern presidential candidate.? I was there, and people like Jim Nwobodo, and some other Igbo leaders were there too in Owerri when the Northern Forum,? came to lobby us to support a Northern presidential candidate.? We also appealed to them to support an Igbo presidential candidate.? That was the level of discussion.?

They came to lobby us, and we were there appealing to them to also support our people.? And that was the Northern Forum coming to meet their counterparts in Igboland, and not like Arewa meeting Oha-na-eze Ndigbo or political parties going into an agreement.? There was no agreement, and if Yakasai said there was an agreement, let him say who signed on the part of the North, and let him also say who signed on the part of Ndigbo, let’s see whether those Igbo people who signed the agreement have any profile to commit us to anything.
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Don’t you think Yakasai was talking about an agreement within the PDP?
But he said he is not a member of the PDP, even in that very interview with LEADESHIP SUNDAY.? In fact, he said that the last time he was a member of a political party was in 2002.? So, how could he then know what members of PDP.? Are Northerners in PDP making the kind of claim that Yakasai is making.? I expect Yakasai to be more moderate and matured in his political interventions.? It is such hard-line positions that people at that level take, that encourages the lower uninformed ones to? practicalise such sentiments.

Do you agree with Yakasai that the vote of the Igbo in the country is only 25?
I agree with his arithmetic, but its interpretation is faulty.? He is saying that Igbo people have about 25% of the votes.? I agree.? I can tell you that we have 25% of votes in each of the 36 states of the federation, plus the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.? That’s what it amounts to, so he is not telling us anything new.? That’s what we already know.? But if the North has 50% of the votes in Kano, do they have 1% of the votes in Enugu?? Do they have 3% of the votes in Calabar?? Do they have 5% of the votes in Lagos?? The Igbo strength is in its spread, and winning presidential election in a democratic setting, is about number and spread.? And that is what our constitution has specified.? The only thing Yakasai doesn’t understand is that the Igbo have 25% of the votes across the country. And we are better than somebody who has 70% votes in one place, and he doesn’t have up to 10% in the rest of the place.

If that is the case, why haven’t the Igbo made use of their voting strength?
The answer is simple.? There has not been a proper mobilization of this latent force.? And we are about mobilizing this force.? APGA arrived the political scene with a bang – it was a phenomenal entry.? Of course, we know what happened – the forces that came from PDP, especially the seat of government at that time.

Could you explain what you mean by forces from the seat of government?
They saw APGA as a national security threat, and the reason was because our presidential candidate Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was somebody many of them? loved to hate – forget about all those who are praising him now . They felt that if Ojukwu had gained any ground politically, he would have used it to cause trouble.? That was a misplaced suspicion, but that was what informed the massive rigging against APGA all over the country.? And in the Southeast zone, it was a national security issue not to allow APGA to see the light of the day.? I was at the centre of it all, not only as the founder of APGA, but as the national chairman of APGA, who travelled more than the presidential candidate at that time.?

I was more in the field.? After the 2003 presidential election, I had an encounter with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who blamed me for producing Ikemba Nnewi as our presidential candidate, and so on and so forth.? And we decided to do something differently in the subsequent election, and it was this effort to do something differently that those who didn’t want us to see the light of the day identified, and introduced the confusion for which we are still suffering.? But by the grace of God we will soon re-launch the movement, and when we do so, the political equation of this country will definitely change.? And like I said earlier, this APGA which was a rejected stone will now be the cornerstone to lead other progressive forces to form government at the centre.? Any person doubting it will wait for the miracle of 2015.

What was Obasanjo’s major worry over Ojukwu’s presidential bid?
Obasanjo’s major worry was that Ojukwu had not forgotten his ambition to lead the sovereign state of Biafra.? That was a misplaced suspicion.? I remember Ojukwu saying many times that he was one Nigerian that was never allowed to be a Nigerian.? And it was in an attempt to contribute our own quota to give him that integration (ironically which he really came back from exile hoping to integrate our people), but he was the one most alienated.? But it was through APGA that we gave him that sense of belonging – raised him to his highest political attainment – flew that flag – and that triggered off fear.? And as I said he was seen as a national security risk, and APGA suffered dearly for it.?

After that, they didn’t stop’ they felt what was needed was to decimate the party itself.? And of course, some people made themselves available for that decimation, and we decided to that our faith in God was being put to test, but we said we will stand firm, and remain with God, and reclaim the soul of the party.? And I think that is what is about to manifest now.

Don’t you think that Yakasai believes that Ndigbo has no platform to produce the President in 2015?
If he is talking of Ndigbo not having a platform to produce the president, it now becomes a different cup of tea.? We will now know that he is talking about political parties and their preferences, then I can tell him that APGA is always available. Left to the rest of Nigerians, they will never have allowed Ojukwu to run.? One of those people now praising him had used executive fiat to disqualify him from running, and even threw him into jail, for simply expressing his intention to run for presidency.? But they are now praising him to high heavens.?

We have said that we will continue to take our presidential candidate from the South-East geo-political zone until the party realizes its ambition to form a government with such a candidate, and then we now move to another zone.? So, this thing about rotation should be a party affair.? A party picks its own candidate from its strategic advantage.? If APGA with its strong base in some parts of the country, goes to another part where it is weak to pick its presidential candidate that will be politically naïve; that will be unstrategic, and will not lead to anywhere.? The same thing is applicable to some of the other political parties that they have their strong bases.? So Yakasai was not talking about political parties – he was talking about tribes.? When he talked about North and Igbo, he talked about tribes, and I heard we had left tribes long ago.

Do you see him as a tribalist?
In fact, he is an irredentist of a very unfortunate type, and he is not supposed to be at his age.? There should be some lessons of history behind everything that he is saying.? And like I said, God has blessed him with longevity, and he has seen quite a lot, but to remain sectional at this age is disturbing.? Where did all those chest-beating before 2011, lead them to?? Yakasai was one of those who turned around to congratulate President Jonathan – fair enough – that is good sportsmanship.? But why take that extreme position in the process that led to the emergence of Jonathan?? They almost set this country ablaze with their fiery talk about who should produce president or who should not.? Once he had decided that he had outgrown being in a political party, let him talk like a Nigerian statesman, and stop deciding for parties where their candidates will come from, or try to influence where they will come from – or almost like ordering that their candidate must come from a particular area.

That was exactly what he did when he said the next president will come from the North.? Don’t you agree with him?
Then I ask him:? Which political party?? General Muhammadu Buhari’s party – the CPC is there, and nobody is saying that CPC must produce a candidate from the Southeast or Southwest.? Everybody knows where the candidate will come from.? If it is not Buhari, it’s el-Rufai, except God decides differently.? The ANPP is there – Ogbonnaya Onu is their chairman, but he will never be presidential candidate.? ACN? is there – and they are already promoting their leader, so you don’t even need to go to any oracle to know whom they will foist in 2015.? So, these are issues that politicians are already studying and weighing their relationships.?

As for the PDP, they are still in a game of wits – cat and mouse.? Assuming that Jonathan will surrender his right to run for a second tenure, they have not reckoned with the pressure that will come from his South-South constituency – that he should not throw away the mandate that God has given him.? And they have not also reckoned with the battle that will come among themselves on who they will present as presidential candidate.? After all, they have seen that their so called consensus didn’t work. Vice President Namadi Sambo, is expecting that if his boss is not running it should be his turn.? And Atiku said ‘No’, it is Northeast that is yet to produce a president.? But Northeast produced a prime minister in the person of Alhaji Tafawa Balewa.? So, all of these things will begin to take shape as we cross 2012, and enter 2013.? Eventually, alliance, coalition will be the magic wand, and that is the only one that will produce a stable government.

Do you foresee a situation where the PDP will give its presidential ticket to an Igbo man?
No.? The Igboman has no chance in PDP.? This thing is not about wishful thinking.? The machinery of PDP is not going to be sympathetic to that kind of proposition.? In fact, the Igbo will not get vice presidential candidate in PDP, because if for any reason President Jonathan is blackmailed into conceding that he will not run, then at least for them to guarantee his support, they will give him the prerogative to choose a running mate, and he is not likely to take somebody from the Southeast.

If Jonathan is not running in 2015, where do you think the vice presidential candidate will come from?
If President Jonathan is not running, he will choose the vice president from his Niger Delta area. In fact, he may choose a Bayelsa man.? If he doesn’t do that, the farthest he may go is Rivers, where his wife comes from.
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So what is wrong with PDP choosing an Igbo presidential candidate?
It’s politics, and as I said it’s not wishful thinking.? There are certain calculations that you must put into consideration.? It’s not like lottery.? In 2002, I told the World Igbo Congress in the presence of leaders like late Chuba Okadigbo, and others who came to address the o Congress, that these Igbo men who came here to say they are going to run for presidency, were going to run for vice president, and that APGA will be the only one to produce an Igbo presidential candidate.? And it happened like that.? And not only did they run for vice president, they were even falling over each other who became Buhari’s running mate, and Buhari later chose the late Okadigbo, and the others began to cry openly.?

One was saying in the Eagle Square that his heart was bleeding, and eventually they all ran back to PDP for not getting the slot of vice presidential ticket.? And those who went to PDP – what happened?? They cried out of Eagle Square.
You know what happened.? And the situation has become worse for them in PDP right now.? Look at their so-called attempt to zone party offices; have you ever seen where Igbo is being considered?? The thing is whether the Southwest will take secretary of the party (PDP), and the North will take chairman, and these are the two critical positions in a political party.? And if they had gone that way; Igbo didn’t produce a presidential candidate when an Igbo man was chairman of the PDP, is it when the Igbo is treasurer that they will produce a presidential candidate?