FRANK NWEKE JNR: With New Electoral Reforms, I’m of Winning Enugu Guber PollConfident

Former Minister of Information and National Orientation, Frank Nweke Jnr, is the governorship candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance in Enugu State. He is a highly dynamic public figure, who has been able to function in public, private and civic sectors in the last two decades. In this interview with Gboyega Akinsanmi, he speaks on his chances in the 2023 gubernatorial election, unveiling his agenda for the state and its people, just  as he proposes ways to decisively address insecurity

Enugu is purely a PDP state. It has been since the time of Chimaroke Nnamani. Now that you are contesting on the platform of APGA, are you not concerned that you have a lot of work to do to get to the government house?

I don’t want to deny this obvious fact or challenge. The challenge is there. But there is a saying in my place that something may be tough, but it takes a human being to deal with it. Part of the confidence we have is that the level of discontent is very significant. The state was never as bad as it is today. Enugu used to be the cleanest city in Nigeria. Today, it is unbelievable the level of filth that dots the length and breadth of our state from urban to rural areas. If you look at the level of poverty, Enugu is the third poorest state in Nigeria based on the current data released by BudgIT Foundation on the State of the States. Primary school teachers had been on strike for months. Why are they on strike? It has been this way because of the inability of the state to pay the minimum wage of N30,000. How many years after it was first agreed? You are the custodian of the foundation of your school system. They have been on strike for months, and the government is not concerned. If you listen to the pensioners, you will cry on their behalf. They cannot get their gratuities. So, there is a high level of discontent out there. Consequently, the people are also clearly tired. For us, however, we are making a very strong case to the electorate. We are also reaching out very strongly. To the glory of God, we are getting feedback. I am not under any illusion. It is not going to be a walk in the park. But there is a significant opportunity for us. We are working hard as a party to make sure we succeed in the next governorship poll.

With the huge challenges in Enugu State, what are you planning to do differently if you win the governorship contest at last?

A few weeks ago, we unveiled our manifesto. There are seven thrusts of the manifesto. The first is leadership, which has been lacking for the last seven years. Leadership is so critical. I have often said everything revolves around leadership. It does not matter where you are; it is the quality of leadership that determines whether an organisation will continue to thrive or it will survive. Under the current administration in Enugu State, leadership has been a pure disaster. If you talk to the clergy, they have tales of woes. If you talk to the traditional institutions, they have tales of woes. If you talk to the young people, they have tales of woes. If you talk to the market women, they also have tales of woes. One is coming to the table with a very visionary leadership with the determination and personal discipline to do the right things.

The second is governance. I recognise that to lead well, we need a bureaucracy that works. You can be a genius. But if you do not have a team that shares your vision and that is as knowledgeable as you are, you are only going to waste your time. I intend to provide leadership for us to find men and women who will join our cabinet and work with me to deliver progress for the people of Enugu State. The current situation is not in any way similar to what I am just describing. Everything just happens from one table. It is common knowledge.

The third thrust of the manifesto is the issue of security. I acknowledge that the coercive power sustains the Federal Government of Nigeria. I recognise it. As a former Chief of Staff, I also know that there is so much that a state can do to address the issue of security, which entails working with different grassroots groups; establishing a control centre and setting up hotlines, among others.

The fourth is the issue of human capital development. My strategy is to keep it very simple. We have primary healthcare centres where we do not have nurses and doctors. We also have intermediate healthcare institutions, where we do not have doctors and nurses. We have tertiary healthcare institutions. It is the same tale of woes. Going to these hospitals is like a death sentence. When you go there, you see the conditions of these hospitals. If you have a relative there, the person is more likely to die than live when he enters any of these hospitals. In the health sector, my approach is preventative to make sure children get their vaccination; train the nurses and doctors; provide the drugs and procure the equipment for the health sector. We will do the same in intermediate and tertiary healthcare institutions. If we are to make this investment at the lowest level with the right communication and incentives, we can slash healthcare spending by almost 40 or 50 per cent. In terms of education, I am heartbroken that primary school teachers are on strike incessantly. What is the problem? Enugu refuses to pay N30,000 minimum wages years after the governments at all levels agreed to this minimum wage. For me, education is key. The training of teachers, equipping of schools, review of curriculum and the deployment of STEP subjects will be a priority for me. We will also include Arts.

The fifth thrust of the manifesto is water sanitation and environmental sustainability. Enugu has been faced with a water crisis for the last seven years. The problem is the same across the length and breadth of the state. If there is a water crisis in the urban centre, think of what it is in the rural areas. For us, Enugu’s water sources have not dried up. Enugu had pipe-borne water as far as 1924 when the colonial masters were there. Under the last administration, I was getting pipe-borne water in my house. But what happened in the last seven years? If you look at the budget, a large sum of money has been budgeted for the same purpose in the last seven years. We still do not have water. Where has the money gone? Based on research and interaction with experts, I believe it is possible to bring pipe-borne water back to Enugu within 12 months. Leadership is critical. A leader focuses on what issues are and a deliberate effort to find people who can make things happen.

On the issue of sanitation, it is just a disgrace. In the past, Cross Rivers was the main competitor we had in terms of sanitation. But Enugu has now become filthy. It is purely a disaster. I believe you will agree that all things have public health implications. When the environment is dirty, there is a risk of an outbreak of diseases. One area I will focus on is the issue of urban slums. In the federation, there are 774 local government areas (LGAs). Of the 774 LGAs, only 35 have been adjudged open-defecation-free. None of these 35 LGAs is in Enugu. I have gone around the state. I visited slums within the capital city. Most people use nylon bags to defecate in the city of Enugu and on the high streets of Enugu. One of these slums is behind the government house. Go and see the living conditions of these people. Things do not have to be this way. My theory is that it is in our collective interest to fix these issues now before it is too late. The number of people that are deprived is much. The inequality is so wide. Just like what happened during the EndSARS when everybody was in danger, the police ran away; the military ran away and everybody ran away. This is because the people that are in the lowest rung of society are in large numbers. It is unfair. I believe it does not have to be the case. One is determined to restore some dignity to our people.

The last thrust of the manifesto is my interest in technology and innovation. This is the 21st century. Enugu is very lucky in that it has 11 or 12 tertiary institutions within the state. What does this suggest? It offers the opportunity to create a huge pool of resources, young people who are highly dynamic, innovative and talented. They are looking for a way to express their creativity and talent. They constitute a major manpower for potential investors and also the transformation of our states. However, the problem is that the IT infrastructure in the state is not too robust at all. This is so unfortunate. I believe through a public-private partnership, we can bring investors to renew our IT infrastructure which will expand access to broadband and increase the speed of the network. Because of the large number of young people that we have, I am interested in keeping our young people in the state. When most of them graduate, they leave immediately. 

You cannot blame them because man is constantly looking for the path of progress. And the progress is in Lagos, Europe and America. You cannot, in good conscience, tell them not to go. What we plan to do is to give them an alternative. That alternative is the right leadership. That alternative is the right governance. That alternative is the right policy environment that will create the infrastructure required for them to live a good life. All of these things can be done.

You mentioned security in your seven-point agenda. With the level of insecurity in the country, especially in Enugu State, how do you intend to address the security challenges the state is facing?

Recently, I outlined five or six steps a government could take immediately to curtail the upsurge in insecurity in this country. First, I suggested that the state government should summon or direct their local governments to summon the presidents of town unions, traditional rulers or faith-based institutions to a meeting where the government can engage them and help them understand the role they have to play in the maintenance of law and order within the state. There is nothing that has been happening in local governments. I believe intelligence gathering through these people is fundamental for the success of any kind of security strategy or operation that a state has. Second, I suggested that the statutory security agencies should be engaged more intensively. From the time I was the Chief of Staff to the period I went to the federal level, I learnt that the security personnel were not magicians and that they were constrained in significant ways by training, funding, equipment and the rest of them. I said we needed to engage them more and support them to discharge their duties. Third, I suggested to the state government to engage the federal authorities in terms of deploying more arms, personnel and resources. Fourth, I suggested that it was important for the state government to deploy technology a lot at this time. When people have been kidnapped, for instance, you find that you go to private firms to track where the criminals are coming from. These are what private people do. They paid 50,000 or N100,000 to track it. Whose primary responsibility is it? I believe the government can do better. Fifth, I suggested that the government should set up a situation room where you can coordinate the security operation between the state government, statutory security agencies and other outfits created by the government. Sixth, I suggested that the government should set up hotlines through which citizens can easily contact the authorities when they have information. Lastly, I suggested that the government should inform the public about what is going on. 

There is a need to update the public that this is what we are doing and that they should not panic. For me, these things are simply logical steps that the government can deploy to address the issue of insecurity. But in the long term, I will adopt the approach of Lagos. You know most parts of Lagos State are wired up because there is Command and Control Centre in Alausa where the state can be monitored. I have been there before. When you go to the centre, you see everything happening in Lagos metropolis in terms of traffic congestion and petty stealing. It is also in Abia State. There are multilateral agencies that can help us make the kind of investment that we want. If I am elected, Enugu will be wired up. Nsukka will be wired up. Major urban centres will be wired up as a way of addressing the kidnapping and insecurity that is going on. In my community today, some of us have contributed money to install security cameras, put in place security measures, set up barricades and create a control centre from where we provide support for the police.

Do you have confidence in INEC that the election will be very transparent and peaceful and also one whose outcome would be acceptable whether favourable or unfavourable?

Part of the confidence we have is in the significant reforms that have taken place in our electoral process. Based on what happened in Edo State, when BVAS was first tested and subsequently in Anambra, Ekiti and more recently in Osun States, I am confident that we can have transparent elections. If that is the case, I believe there will be no basis for one to begin to make any claim for now. But my position again is that a lot depends on how things proceed. The Electoral Act makes a lot of provisions for things around security, the circumstances of the elections, and whether there is violence or not. If there is violence or elections are disrupted, there will be no reason to challenge it if it is not significant. If it is significant, it will be fair for one to take the necessary steps to get justice. 

What is the guarantee you would win the next governorship election?

 I have deep faith in God Almighty. In a democracy, what we must do is make our case to the electorate. At the end of the day, the voice of the people is the voice of God. We are working very hard. We are making our case very strongly. We are hopeful that they will understand what we are saying to them. Come next March, they will vote for us. I will be sworn in as the governor of Enugu State.

At what point did you pull out from your traditional political alignment, which is the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)?

Yes, I served under PDP at the state level between 1999 and 2003. I also served under President Olusegun Obasanjo between 2003 and 2007. With a sense of responsibility, I want to say the two administrations did very well given the fact that they came to power at the time the military transferred power to civilians. One of the reasons the PDP enjoyed pan-Nigerian support was because it had a constitution that enshrined the principle of rotation. So, every constituent group in the country had something to look forward to. That was what bound everybody together. That was why the South-east, where we come from, embraced the PDP apart from the fact that one of its arrowheads, Dr. Alex Ekwueme was from the South-east. But that was the most important attraction of the pan-Nigerian characteristics of the PDP. In the run-up to 2023, one would have expected that a region like South-east, which has shown fidelity to PDP for nearly 24 years, would have been allowed to fly its presidential flag. The party would have respected its constitution, especially its zoning principle, which has been practised for years. Regrettably, that was not the case. For me, based on principle, I have a fundamental issue with the inability of a group of people to respect the document that guides the association. This is one of the reasons that triggered the exodus of a lot of people from the party including myself.

Let us look at the local context. The local context for me is my state. For me, in the last seven years regrettably, the PDP has not done well at all. The water crisis is rife in the state. Insecurity is at an all-time high. The health situation is not better. Many more slums have emerged in urban areas. We have not seen any investment in the state in the last seven years. Major investors, who came into the state, had to leave with tales of woes, though depending on whom you are speaking to. There is significant deterioration in the whole state. For me, it is like a double tragedy. At the federal level, the party has not shown any character. At the state level, the party has performed abysmally. Pensioners are owed running into years. Primary school teachers are on strike. I could not think of anything more dangerous to human capital development than that. It was under these circumstances, I told myself that I could not continue to associate with such a party.

What informed your decision to defect to the APGA?

Honestly, I was conscious that I needed to join a political party that aligned with my worldview on public policy and development, among others. That is why I chose APGA because of the principles on which it was founded. It was founded on the principle of shared prosperity. We have a principle in Igbo land that encourages us to be our brothers’ or sisters’ keepers. The principle simply means shared prosperity. Put differently, it also means we should leave no one behind. It offers a great opportunity for one to pursue one’s career and desire to bring transformation to Enugu State, which I believe, is the capital or the melting pot of the Igbo nation.