Ikpeazu: The State Has Failed to Protect Our People, They Have No Choice

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State tells Nseobong Okon-Ekong that although he is still tabulating losses from the sit-at-home ordered by the Independent People of Biafra, but he was sure that it will be huge

How is your government working around the sit-at-home order that has been largely based on fear of attack and sympathy for the cause of the IPOB because it seems the people are obeying and complying with the order?

You see, the state of security and people’s perception is key. Our people here in the South-east feel that they are uncared for, that our country is insensitive to the plight of the ordinary people here. You know, I can go on and on and on. Imagine that our people are predominantly traders. If you look at how long it will take you to go through Apapa Wharf. Assuming a trader borrowed N10 million to do importation, even if it is for raw materials and he has to pay interest on that money and it takes four, five or six months to clear. Plus, all the time it stayed at the wharf. By the time you know it, the poor man would have lost all the money, all his capital, paying interest on the money. And you’ve got a factor in how long it will take his container to pass through the treacherous route of coming from Apapa down to Onitsha, Nnewi, Aba, and so on and so forth.

So our people feel that there is a deliberate attempt to asphyxiate them and condemn them to poverty. To that extent, whatever it was, the demonstrations through disobedience, our people are now at a point where it is difficult to mobilise them socially, that is the first point. The second point is that the fear for reprisal or what will happen is also valid. You recall that a few months ago, we had this unknown gunman, attacking government installations, killing policemen, killing soldiers, attacking prisons with impunity, snatching arms. So, if the security apparatus of the state has been so assaulted repeatedly, then, who do you want them to rely on?
The third point I would like to make here is that there is proliferation of small arms in West Africa and in Nigeria in particular. And when I talk about small arms, I’m talking about the Kalashnikov AK-47. And that rifle is a monster. You don’t play dice with somebody with an AK-47, even if the person is your child. Once you see somebody with an AK-47 arm, you are on the wrong side of the nozzle. You cannot but be careful and cautious. So it is a combination of these factors. One, our people are beginning to feel uncared for, they’re beginning to feel that the nation is insensitive to their situation and their plight. Look at it from the economic perspective. Look at it from a political perspective. Look at it from a social perspective. Then there is also the issue and the problem of proliferation of arms, and what has happened in the past, the experience in the past, such that the police station you will go to report has been burnt or will be burnt. So it became very, very difficult to convince our people, even when it is not reasonable, or economically advisable for them to continue to comply with sit-at-home situation.

So do you think that this could point to the people outside the South-east that the South-east people have accepted IPOB?

The South-east people have not accepted the IPOB. But what option do they have? If the state is not able to protect them and their economic well being is not protected, and nobody’s listening to them so they don’t have options, and we know that if a man is hopeless at times, he begins to hope on hopelessness, hope on nothing, cling on nothing.

The South-east caucus in the National Assembly is beginning to work on the option of dialogue and all that. What is your view?

I think that this initiative of the National Assembly should have come so many months before now. But, be that as it may, it is better late than never. The worst war, altercation, fracas, are resolved on the table. And some of us have said this thing from the beginning that we should begin to engage. One of the pillars of democracy is that a true democrat that finds himself in a leadership position, to be able to dredge up sufficient courage, to listen, even to the blabbing of a fool, even when at the risk of people, standing in your face and telling you that you are a foolish leader, knowing fully well that there must be consequences for every action. But the way to go is to listen at all times. Listen, engage. It is only when intellectual ventilations fail that kinetic approach becomes the option. So, I want to say that their idea to engage should have come before now, but it is better late than never.

As a person, did you lose anything during this attack? And looking at the larger picture did you lose anything personally, your productivity, your economic activities. Did you suffer any loss?

Oh, quite seriously. Part of what I had evolved as my strategy to create a better life for my people, is to enable trade and commerce, to enable small and medium enterprises, and to enable both foreign and local direct investments. Through them, we try to deal with the issues of unemployment, job creation and capacity building. All of these policies suffered a major setback as a result of this sit-at-home. The most critical of the setbacks, is the fact that the socio-political milieu became somewhat unpredictable and there is no investor who would like to invest in a place where there is no referable predictability in terms of socio-political stability. So, the South-east as a people, the government of Abia State as an entity suffered so much as a result of this sit-at-home. You can look at it from the economic dimension, you can look at it from the dimension of foreign and local direct investment, you can look at it from point of view of putting down our economic base because we are in a place that thrives as a result of influx of people. Trade input coming into Abia is gauged at about N60 million. And once that happens, people won’t come, and we were running a risk of people finding alternative places to shop, even our clients and customers from across West Africa and other parts of Africa would begin to look for options, and once an individual begins to see options and alternatives, it is usually difficult to convince the person to go back. I’m not even undermining the lives that were lost. Those were very important. Sacred lives. Everybody’s life is sacred. I’m not even talking about the psychological trauma on our children and women and wives. So, all facets of socio-economic life were threatened and seems to suffer some form of dislocation or the other.

Have you had time to put the losses together, in terms of Naira and Kobo?

I have not. I’m still working on the Mathematics and I think I’ll be ready after Monday, because this week’s Monday was not bad. I mean, people have become tired. People have become lethargic. In some places in the South-east, you heard stories of individuals coming out to fight, to say that they were tired of staying at home, I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. So, it will be too early to put a figure to it, but I’m certainly sure that if we improve on what happened this week Monday, if we improve on it next week, then one thing we can be able to say is that, that may have come to an abrupt stop and then we can tabulate our losses but it will be huge.

There appears to be a division or crack in the rank and file of the IPOB. Have you noticed that? Because their spokesman said they have called it off and it should only happen on the days their leader is taken to court. But some people still went about to enforce it, which they have denounced also. What do you think this portends to the future of IPOB? Will continue to obey them?

I want to say that what we saw or what we are seeing is a betrayal of… or let’s say tacit support for what some of us have advanced earlier that the struggle as presently constituted does not seem to have a sustainable framework. It doesn’t seem to be coordinated sufficiently to lead that kind of deep struggle for self determination and secession. It is not a tea party. And it needs to be rooted on a strong ideological framework that can sustain the support and popularity among the masses. But in a situation where some of the decisions of the leadership of the struggle become inimical to the economic well being, and in fact, academic well being of the people that you have vowed to protect, then it puts the whole thing in a serious joke pattern. So that is where we are now, what will happen eventually going forward will evolve, and we are watching. What I’m sure is that the people are becoming lethargic, weary and tired. And how that will pan out eventually, we will know, going forward, but it is now clear to everybody that the struggle lacks coordination. The struggle lacks a think-tank that can evolve policies that are sustainable and must also have a framework for engagement, because you cannot just take up arms and then that will be it. They must have a framework for engagement, both locally and internationally. But if that is not what the case is, then I’m afraid, it may fizzle out.

There’s a study on this sit-at-home and it came out that Abia State was the least compliant while Ebonyi had the highest compliance, why do you think this is so?

I think that, here in Abia, our people are traders, our people are small-scale manufacturers and they understand the value of time. And they understand also that time lost can never be recovered. And some of us have continued to drum it into the psyche of our people, that this struggle should be ideological, it should be driven by strong ideology to cancel out all forces of oppression, and everything that seems not to include any part of Nigeria. As far as I’m concerned, if this struggle that they are leading is about marginalisation, about equality, about social balance, about political balance, then there is Biafra in the heart of many Nigerians. Go through the Middle-belt, go through some, some ethnic groups in Southern Kaduna, go to Adamawa. There are so many places where all kinds of marginalisation is happening, and therefore there is Biafra in the heart of everybody. But what we are saying is that can we come to a point where we can focus on the real issues, and not on total dislocation of the fabric that holds us together as a country, because that is a very costly and dangerous route to travel. I was old enough to see a few things during the war, and I don’t want a repeat of that kind of thing in my lifetime again.

QUOTE

In a situation where some of the decisions of the leadership of the struggle become inimical to the economic well being, and in fact, academic well being of the people that you have vowed to protect, then it puts the whole thing in a serious joke pattern. So that is where we are now, what will happen eventually going forward will evolve, and we are watching. What I’m sure is that the people are becoming lethargic, weary and tired