Central in the National Assembly, who
also contested the November 16, 2013
governorship election in Anambra State,
Senator Chris Ngige, spoke with
SUNDAY ABORISADE on the election
and other issues
Why did you go to tribunal to challenge
the result of the Anambra State
governorship election?
The election which held on November
16, 2013 had a prelude which started
when our voters' register was marked
for continuous registration and
upgrading. In the course of doing this,
some people in the information
technology unit of the Independent
National Electoral Commission used the
opportunity to bastardise the voters'
register. The exercise was meant to
upgrade the one used for the 2011
election. By the Electoral Act, they were
supposed to have given us the Certified
True Copy at least 30 days before the
election. INEC gave us the electronic
copy and we were in the process of
printing it out when INEC invited us to a
voters' stakeholders forum, three days
before the election and told us that
there was a mistake in the register and
that they discovered that everybody's
age was down by two years and that
they would do the upgrade. The
electoral body assured us that the issue
of multiple registration had been well
taken care of. So we believed INEC and
accepted the new e-copy that its
officials gave us during the meeting for
the election. But INEC identified all the
strongholds of the All Progressives
Congress such as Idemili North, Idemili
South, Ogboko area of Ogbaru and Oka
South, especially the GRA. They
removed people's names. They did that
across board in my entire strongholds.
In Idemili South which is my local
government, my own hometown, they
did that simple fraudulent arithmetic.
Apart from that, on the election day,
they removed people whose names
started from 'N' to 'Z'. They know that
many Igbo names start with 'N' such as
Nwankwo, Nweke, Nwafor to Okeke,
Okafor, Okoli, Okerekenta, and
Ugochukwu. They removed all and
people were running up and down on
the election day looking for their names
in the register. But more annoying was
the fact that INEC had pasted names of
eligible voters at the polling booths for
verification 30 days earlier. Its own
voters' register which it gave to us and
which contained the names of these
people were actually pasted and so the
people drew the attention of the
electoral officers to the fact that they
found their names pasted on the walls
but that they were not in the register
with which they would be accredited to
vote. The electoral officers ignored the
complaints. The electoral officers who
were deployed in my strongholds were
specially trained because they were
drawn from the Federal Government
institutions in Anambra State like the
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, and in the
previous meetings with INEC officials,
we were told that people from that
institution would not be used for the
election because the All Progressives
Grand Alliance deputy governorship
candidate, Nkem Okeke, was a senior
lecturer at the university and he
resigned shortly before the election.
The lecturers were used as supervising/
presiding officers who distributed and
received materials and results. When
you complained, the presiding officer
would tell you that he could not help
you and that it was only the SPO that
could help; the SPO would in turn
ignore you. That was the fate of my
people in these places that I
mentioned. The case of Idemili North
was more pathetic because some days
before the election, we were told that
there would be no voting there and
because APGA people were booed when
they went there to campaign, the
people were told that they would not be
allowed to vote on the election day.
What are your expectations from the
election tribunal?
My expectation from the tribunal is that
I should get justice. I am not asking
them to declare me governor. I am
saying that the election was a bad one.
The National Chairman of INEC also
confirmed that it was a bad one. He said
it was an albatross to INEC. In places
where it claimed that voting took place,
materials arrived there too late. Those
places were in Anambra Central where I
won the senatorial election convincingly
so they have a reference point. It was
not as if they were guessing, they knew
what they were doing because they
calculated their strategy to rig. We want
to get justice so that Anambra people
can go for a genuine election.
Are you calling for an outright
cancellation of the election or a re-run?
We are asking for an outright
cancellation because they did not get it
right. The voters' register is the
foundation for any good election. The
PDP candidate found neither his name
nor that of any member of his family, so
they didn't vote.
But some people believed you lost the
election because you contested on the
platform of the APC which is considered
as an ethnic political party.
But I flew the flag of the Action
Congress of Nigeria and won the
Senatorial Election. I defeated the PDP
candidate and he did not even get up to
10,000 votes. We also defeated the
APGA candidate, Dora Akunyili. It is
wrong to say that I contested on the
platform of a Yoruba or Hausa party. Are
there no Hausa or Yoruba persons in the
PDP? Are there no Hausa/Fulani people
in APGA? PDP as we speak today has a
Hausa/Fulani as the chairman. The
National Secretary of the PDP is a
Yoruba man. There is no Igbo man who
is a ranking officer in the PDP. The
highest officer the Igbos have is the
Publicity Secretary. By ranking in the
PDP even in the party's constitution, the
publicity secretary is number seven or
eight officer. So, who is fooling who?
The APC is a national party just like the
PDP. Hausas are there and they are in
good quantum; the Igbos are there –
Rochas Okorocha is from Imo, Chief
Ogbonna Onu is there, Ezekiel Isiugo
and Senator Julius Ucha from Ebonyi
State are all there. The only thing is that
my own part of Nigeria is not used to
opposition politics. I remember when
we formed the PDP in 1998, we were
few. We had Alex Ekwueme who was
contesting presidential election then but
a lot of the Igbos and all their
billionaires were all in the All
Progressives Party. Chief Emmanuel
Iwuanyanwu was in the APP, Arthur
Nzeribe, Arthur Eze, Chris Uba and
others including Evans Enwerem, Ifeanyi
Ararume and a host of others. But
immediately we won the presidency,
they all drifted to the PDP and today,
they are the champions in the PDP. But
when we were toiling to register the
party, they were all in the APP, they
were not with us. We only had the late
Chief Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Joseph
Okonkwo, Alex Ekwueme, myself and a
few others. It was after we won election
in 18 local government areas of
Anambra State that they identified with
us, so the same thing will happen in the
APC and we are waxing stronger and
growing everyday. If our politicians in
Igboland hear an announcement today
that the APC had won the Presidential
election, they will drift to the party. My
people are not too used to being in the
opposition party and we don't have
regrets for being where we are. I have
played this opposition politics since
2005. They removed me from the PDP
then and de-registered me. PDP is the
only party in the world that deregisters
members and asks them to go. That
was what happened.
It was even said you used the media to
hype your popularity before the
election.
That opinion is wrong. This is because
we won the Senate election there.
Senate is one-third of the state and that
is seven local government areas. There
was nothing like media hype at all. If
there was anything at all, it was the
APGA that used all the money in this
world to do propaganda. It had the
television houses that it engaged on
dedication coverage and the print media
too, so, I am with the people of
Anambra State; they know me and I
know them. They love me. I know that
if they had the opportunity to vote, they
would have voted for me. The fault was
not theirs. In few places where voting
took place, a political party took money
to the polling booths and shared it
among the people with the assistance of
the police.
It was alleged that you relied on
manipulation when you boasted that
you would win the election.
Well, one of them saw me at the airport
and said, 'Yes, we beat you to a game.
We learnt you wanted to use Idemili
with their high votes and other
strongholds of yours to get the majority
of the total votes cast but we stopped
you by preventing elections there.'
APGA admits that. It is not a secret; the
party even said it was not hiding it.
They connived with the Resident
Electoral Commissioner to allow voting
in some places; they tore the register
into two and removed a portion. When
some people called me from the fields
to complain, I asked them to take the
register we gave them and go back to
the electoral officers since they had
confirmed two days earlier, but the
INEC officers rejected them and said the
register they brought was not the
certified true copy. The INEC officials
gave us e-copy as against the CTC. We
printed our own copy but they brought
out their own and their men
manipulated the process. That is why
we concluded that they employed
sophisticated rigging mechanism in the
election. It was scientifically rigged.
Some people believe that you won the
contest between you and Dora Akunyili
through manipulation.
How can anybody say that Dora Akunyili
was more popular than me in the area?
Was she ever a governor? Was she doing
her NAFDAC activities in the rural areas
of Anambra State? Her NAFDAC was in
Abuja, Lagos, Aba and Kano. That
election is gone and I don't like
discussing it. She is a family friend. She
wants to try her luck again in 2015 and I
don't want to discuss it but if she comes
out and we meet on the field, if I am
not running, I may give her tips on how
to win.
Anytime you contest election, it is
always trailed with controversies, why?
Because they are looking at my size.
They underrate me. They say this is a
very small man that they can go and
undo very easily. That is it. Even as a
governor, they said this is a small
governor, we can put him in a toilet, we
can kidnap him. But I am always fighting
back. Even as a child, I was small in class
and my mates would bully me but I did
fight back, and the bullies usually got
injured when they fought me. From
primary to secondary school, I remained
myself. I stay on my own, I don't look
for trouble but I don't run away from
trouble either. That is the situation.
What gives you the impression that you
could win another governorship election
in Anambra State?
I am relying on the people. They will
vote for me because they believe in
me.
The recent local government election
was won by the APGA by a landslide; is
that not an indication that no other
party is strong in the state other than
it?
Haaaaaa !!! Are you talking about that
election? It means you are not familiar
with what is happening in Anambra
State. Ask your correspondent in
Anambra State whether there was any
voting anywhere in the state on that
day. There was none. After the
governorship election, APGA further
perfected its rigging strategy. In fact, it
did not print enough electoral materials
for a start. its members didn't want
their materials to fall into wrong hands
and they remove people who were
validly nominated by the party. People
believed that there would be a battle.
My party asked APGA to bring its voters'
register for the election but it failed to
produce it. We asked the party whether
it was the INEC register, which was
being queried in court that they would
use, but it couldn't give a direct answer
and we wrote them, yet, we didn't get
any reply; hence, my party pulled out of
the election, and so we didn't
participate and there was no election. I
can confirm that. What then happened
was that there was selection of people;
people were selected based on
connections like in my local government,
the son of the traditional ruler is the
chairman of the local government in
Okah South. We have two other council
chairmen who were selected because
they were children of traditional rulers.
The selection was done on patrimonial
basis, they did allocations.
What is the striking aspect of the APC
manifesto that made you to embrace it
compared to the PDP and how will that
affect the welfare of your people if
elected?
The APC is the party of the people. It is
a party that is owned by the people. If
you go to the APC-controlled states
today, starting from Imo, Ekiti, Edo,
Osun, Lagos, even Borno and Yobe
states that are being troubled by the
Boko Haram insurgency, you will
discover that the people are happy with
their state governments. It is
government by the people because the
people elected their governors
genuinely. You need to see the
quantum of work that is being done
there, such as agrarian work, massive
infrastructural development, social
welfare, educational development and
health. When you see it, nobody will tell
you that these are the people's
governments. Go to Rivers State, you
will see that there is no pretence about
it. Go to Osun State. Even with the
huge population and the cosmopolitan
nature of Lagos, the APC government is
working there. The APC manifesto
makes the people its priority. It's a
people-oriented manifesto and that is
why we have change as our motto. We
want to change the people's attitude of
doing things into a positive perspective.
We want to have a people-oriented
national budget. We want to create jobs
for people so that when you create jobs,
our country would be economically
productive and not a consumption
economy.
If today, the Chief Executive of Anambra
State defects to the APC, would people
like you not defect to other parties?
We will welcome him.
Would you still remain in the party?
Some people believe that you joined
the APC to actualise your governorship
ambition.
Noooo!!! If the governor of Anambra
State today decides to defect and
become an APC member, I will go to
the tribunal and withdraw my petition. I
will withdraw it because there is no way
he can escape running the party
manifesto. He would be baptised. After
baptising him, we will confirm him. We
will give him confirmation and teach him
the ropes. He would get inculcated into
the APC's manifesto and our way of
doing things. That is what I wish for
Anambra people. So, if I have
somebody who can do it, why not? He
should go on. Everything mustn't be
me. It's true I am not vying because I
want to be the governor. I have been
the governor before, so it is not a do or
die affair. If the senate race comes up
again and I don't want to vie, so be it.
By then, I would have contributed my
quota; everything is not about self. We
are doing it because of service to the
people. If there is anybody, especially
the man they say is the governor-elect
in Anambra State today, who wants to
join the APC, he would come and we will
give him our manifesto which he will
start implementing.
Looking back now, how do you feel
about the Okija saga?
Why do you want to go to that area?
The Okija saga has been over-flogged.
But you know that I went to Okija and I
told the world that I went there. I took
my Bible and I know that my prayers
are stronger than any deity or whatever
they have there. They are very small
gods. My God is a very big God.
Eighteen months after my visit there,
those deities were removed. The place
was converted to schools and some
other things during my regime. The
Federal Government sent security
agents there and so many things led to
others and the place was turned to a
plain ground.
Do you feel bad about the saga anytime
you think of it?
Of course, yes, because I thought all
those things didn't exist again and that
they were mere manipulations and that
once you believe in the Supreme God,
and you worship him well, he can do all
things for you. There are no two Gods.
Okija was a makeshift arrangement by
some 419 people to hoodwink and
extort money from people and do what
they wanted. It is fake. I am a practising
catholic. I'm a knight of the Catholic
Church and I believe in everything
Catholic. I practise my faith religiously
and I have no apologies on that. Those
who are fetish and occultic can continue
but I pray that they will see the light
very soon.
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