Why should we run away from our history? It means that that ugly past is still haunting us in a way. In any case, we cannot be saying that the presidency or Biafra is anybody’s to give. It is our collective patrimony. It is not a matter of “take this or that”. Must we continue to dissipate energy in the sing song of the woes of yesterday?Not at all.

“The people we lead expect to draw inspiration from us , not lamentations of marginalisation.”

The tactics of red eyes only leads us to producing more war lords, not champions of democracy. Although it worked for the Yoruba, the North and Niger Delta, I do not believe it will work for Ndigbo. As is said earlier, where is that leading us?

No matter where the president is going to come from, what we should concern ourselves with is who will do this dirty job of rehabilitating our collapsed building. Nigeria, as far as I am concerned is a collapsed building with so many people, mostly youths, trapped underneath. The next president must be one who has the capacity to ensure that the people trapped underneath are rescued alive. For that to happen, it means that all hands must be on deck. For all hands to be on deck, Nigeria must be reformatted and every nationality re-motivated.

To employ the metaphor of a collapsed building still, all the professionals, architects, civil engineers, structural engineers, technicians and what have you, must be involved. In short, the next president of Nigeria is going to be the most tasked in the history of Nigeria. I have seen some people moving up and down and I just laugh. The presidency of Nigeria this time around will not be for sale or by threat or bullet.

A lot of people still talk about the fact that the roads built during your tenure are still intact, with little or no portholes even though it is over twelve years since they were constructed. What was the magic?

There was no magic. It was just that all our road projects were properly designed by qualified consulting engineers and bills of quantities produced by professionals, including environmental impact assessment reports. The projects were properly advertised, tendered and awarded to well-known engineering firms and supervised by the engineers of the state’s ministry of works. In short, what you are referring to is the due process strategy we adopted which Imo people are still benefiting from.

Some of our leaders have a habit of passing the buck to the youths. The other time, the President at a forum abroad said Nigerian youths are lazy…

The president might have been misquoted, I can assure you. However, we would be doing the wrong thing by blaming the youths for a situation that is no fault of theirs. Is it really their fault that the standard of education has fallen? Is it the fault of Nigerian youths that the only prospect facing them after graduation is unemployment? Who do we blame? There is enough blame to go round. But the blame game cannot solve the challenges we face today. The next president of Nigeria must endeavour to return the political class to the critical business of nurturing opportunities for the youths.

You are of the opinion that it is not necessarily the dearth of good leaders that is responsible for the situation in the country, where do we put the blame squarely on?

Let me put it this way, by re-iterating the views expressed by some notable world leaders that what Africa needs are strong institutions not strong leaders and I think that our country, Nigeria, fits into this template very well. Our problem is largely institutional; what you might also describe as systemic. This is why I remain a strong advocate of a political restructuring of the country.

All the problems confronting us as a nation today are nothing but symptoms of the present flawed structure that has failed every test in the last 60 years. Because of that systemic flaw, we have been unable to develop strong institutions. We must re-examine the structure which concentrates power and responsibility at the centre. What we have is not the political structure our founding fathers negotiated at independence.

But we have been on this for some years now. About five years ago restructuring was the only talk in town but suddenly nobody talks about it again…

And to our detriment; but I don’t think Nigerians have given up on that. As far as I am concerned, any other thing outside restructuring would remain a mere palliative. Everybody is talking about presidency, but a country gets the type of president it deserves.

“Unless we restructure, the country will remain standstill and even retrogress. Unfortunately, some of our brothers up north are not comfortable with the idea of restructuring and seem determined to ensure that we remain with the current arrangement that is not working”.

But what would you attribute such an attitude to? Many Nigerians support restructuring. Even in the North, some of the most ardent advocates of restructuring are from there, a leader like former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar for example. What do we do to convince the few but powerful elements who are anti-restructuring?

The reason rests on fear of the unknown and the comfort zone syndrome. Some of the elements in the North fear that restructuring will tamper with their comfort, just like the man with a blanket under winter trying to cover himself alone with the entire blanket.  They are comfortable the way things are now. It is our duty to convince them that they will be even more comfortable with restructuring or we may be compelled to look for our own blanket. Perhaps that is what those agitating for Biafra are doing unconsciously. Looking for their own blanket.

When you talk about imbalance, is the Southeast not getting attention already? The Second Niger Bridge is right now under construction.

The Second Niger Bridge matter is an over flogged issue. It is being built under a Public-Private sector arrangement that will involve tolling in order to recover the cost of building it.

I don’t think many of us understand the politics of this Second Niger Bridge. You may recall that when the administration of President Obasanjo came up with the idea of a national intervention programme to promote peace and restore a sense of belonging in the country, the Southeast was initially left out. But the Federal Government, under that programme, embarked on the construction of the East-West road at a cost of N400 billion; the Kano-Maiduguri road at a cost of N600 billion; the Lokoja-Abaji-Abuja road at a cost of N200 billion and the Ibadan-Ogbomosho-Osogbo road at a cost of N150 billion.

There was nothing for the Southeast and when we asked questions, we were promised the Second Niger Bridge. You will recall the several back and forth around it and even when it started, see the condition. Our share of that national intervention programme is still outstanding till date. None of the other intervention road projects have a tolling arrangement, meaning that the people of the Southeast will be indirectly paying for the bridge since more than 80 percent of the road users that will cross the bridge will be indigenous of the Southeast or at least those resident there. Where is the fairness in that? There is also this road, the Otuocha-Nmiata-Kogi road of less than 150 kilometres that was awarded by the Yar’Adua regime to a company called Niger Cat in 2009. That road is still abandoned by the federal government till date. If completed, it will shorten a journey from any part of the Southeast to Abuja by more than three hours. Why is that road still abandoned?

That reminds me of your lecture at the first Achebe International Conference at the University of Nigeria in 2017, where you tried to debunk the notion that the Southeast is land locked. Did that make any impact?

Well, I don’t know what you mean by impact but the truth remains that, contrary to that impression, the Southeast has one of the potentially deepest seaports in the country at Osemoto-Oseokwa axis between Imo and Anambra states, offering a potential for a natural Greenfield deep sea port. Besides, it lies only 18 nautical miles to the Atlantic Ocean and will be a strategic hub for the oil industry and inland dry-docks to promote trade. It has the capacity of handling over 35 percent of marine business in Nigeria. A sea port was designated there in 1959 but the project was abandoned for political reasons. I can tell you that it was the attraction to its potentials that made my administration to site the Oguta Wonder Lake And Resort Centre in the area to encourage both the federal government and foreign investors. The Yar’Adua administration also cited a Naval base and a Marine Police in the area but these projects were subsequently abandoned till date.

Let’s come home to Imo State. Over eight months ago, something quite dramatic took place in your state, Imo. The Supreme Court sacked the administration of Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, in favour of the current governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma. You were a strong supporter of the Ihedioha administration and it is a well-known fact that you were at the background guiding the governor with your experience. But up till now, you have not made any comment on that development as the people would expect you to. Why did you decide to keep mute?

I don’t understand why I needed to say anything. It was a straightforward matter. The highest court in the land had ruled on it and I had no option but to join other law abiding citizens to respect the judgment.