Greg Ibe: I Left United States Because of My Passion for Abia’s Development

INTERVIEW

Gregory Ikechukwu Ibe, professor and founder of Gregory University in Okigwe, is the flagbearer of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State. He spoke with Nduka Nwosu about why his quest to be the next Abia Governor is a divine mandate. Excerpts:

Where will your blueprint take Abians? 

I released my blueprint much earlier in the day, or do we say a few months ago. I knew that people would start manipulating it, but I still went ahead to release it. Now I see people are trying to rework my document. My document is original, a work of study and research. I am a consultant to the ECOWAS, World Bank, and the United Nations. Everything I do is anchored on best practices. My blueprint is my covenant with Abia state. I completed the blueprint, and from there, I derived my manifesto. I am sure of every line of what I have done. If you wake me up from sleep, I will tell you about the environmental issues in Abia and how I want to solve them. I have the answer to every human and governance problem in Abia state. 

However, the more I expose it, the more I throw it open out there; everybody who wants to come in will start grabbing it. I want to assure you that if you lay your hand on my manifesto, it gives you a clear view of what to expect in the detailed document, that is, the blueprint, as well as the game plan leading to the solution of our problems. Whichever local government you find yourself in Abia, you know what to expect based on the blueprint. That is why I said the blueprint and manifesto are based on the long years of experience of working in Abia state with stakeholders, technocrats and the bottom of the pyramid, the grassroots, by a thoroughbred thinker who knows where it pinches the people.

What issues must be addressed when you become governor?

Abia has a unique positioning surrounded by seven states at the heart of the Southeast and South-South, surrounded by a sea in need of dredging; it has what it takes to attract investors of diverse types, yet we have not been able to take advantage of that considering our enormous resources. We were at a point called the Japan of Africa, but we keep going down in performance ranking by the day. The challenges are enormous in terms of reversing this trend on a growth level that will connect with who we are known to be. We did not come here by chance or fluke and if we are not to be downgraded, we must brace up for the challenges of the future. The infrastructure decadence in Aba exemplifies the issues in the ongoing narrative. Every Abian, every citizen of the Southeast, all Nigerians and foreigners privileged to dwell or work in Aba, must be concerned that Aba is now a shadow of its glorious past.  

Aba has gone into a state of decomposition. If you look at Aba, you will see that it has gone tremendously down, and a lot of people have moved out of the commercial city. There was a time the city had a security challenge, such that many people ran away; now the situation is worse; there are diverse challenges bothering on poor infrastructure; people are leaving in their droves, including corporate organisations. The annual ravaging flood has hardly spared the city.  

The state government was supposed to collaborate with the World Bank in helping Aba have a good drainage system. With less than seven months to go, the Ikpeazu administration has nothing to offer the Aba people in that direction. The project has been dead on arrival. The healthcare institutions are as good as dead; the government is owing workers huge amounts of their salaries, and each month adds to the previous month; it is also not paying pensioners. The Bible says a worker deserves his wage. The opposite is the case in Abia state. Somebody somewhere should be held accountable.

All these investments that people make on roads do not stand the test of time. Road construction is a complex science and not an all-comers job. In our clime, we award contracts to every Tom, Dick and Harry who often appropriates the mobilisation fee and dumps the contract. Some do a wishy-washy job and deliver roads that do not stand the test of time.  

I have been involved in all kinds of infrastructure development in Imo, and Abia states, including the construction of the Imo Airport during and after the tenure of the then-military administrator Anthony Ogugua. The asphalted tarmac and runway remain the evidence of a professionally executed job despite the fact that funds were lean and not forthcoming. Since we completed the construction work on that airport, the runway remains one of the best in the country. 

Every type of road construction has a lifespan; it is left to you awarding the contract to prepare for the lifespan. The three or four types of roads have a lifespan; either you do an earth road, an asphalt-designed road or a concrete pavement road; sometimes, two of these types can be combined depending on the soil strength. You must be careful what type of road you are constructing. A good soil hosting a single or double-dressing type of road construction, for example, has a life span of five to seven years. This is comparable to some of the roads we inherited from the British, which surface dressing had a double coating and was continuously maintained by the Public Works Department (PWD)), the equivalent of FERMA.  

Some of these roads with good soil are still being used in the country. If it is clay soil, the road is easily prone to a bad surface as it gets older. An asphalted road has a capacity for 12 years and could go longer with maintenance, like the ones built by the colonial governments and their successors. Now you know where to place the roads constructed by our governors since 1999 with the coming of the Fourth Republic. They have failed to withstand the test of time. There are no factories and solid infrastructure in place, and the ministry of works of many of these states is dormant and ineffective in terms of maintenance culture. Abia state has an infrastructure deficit. The plans we inherited collapsed on one man’s desk. 

I started building the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) in 1987. It took me 16 years sitting down there with nobody to help me to complete the project. I maintained a 16-years presence there, keeping the equipment and the security intact. When Orji Uzor Kalu came in as governor, he invited me in 2002 to make a series of presentations, pleading I should continue my good work while the state government would do the needful. Mazi Sam Ohabunwa, ABSUTH Board Chairman, urged me not to give up on ensuring the job was completed. My patriotic zeal for the state and my desire to make sure the medical students had access to the hospital for their practicals led me on. 

Poor maintenance culture is a big problem in Abia state. Abandoned structures are noticeable everywhere because of a poor maintenance culture. Elevated health centres, known as general hospitals, are littered all over the state with poor facilities, drugs, and medical personnel. Abia state has a definite problem; you cannot compare it with any state in the country that is moving ahead. It remains the least developed state of the Southeast and possibly the whole country. I want to come in and cleanse the Aegean stable; I will hit the ground running with what is available, with whatever anybody has done before, taking it as a base and then make Abia resemble what it ought to be in terms of being the number one state it was meant to be.  

Why are you contesting on the platform of APGA? 

APGA’s original concept was that Ndi Igbo should all come together under one umbrella, just as the Yorubas had at various times come together to form a party that united them in their quest to rule the country. Our embrace of nationalism did not allow us to do this, especially in the Third and Fourth Republics. However, the politics of Nigeria has taught us that those that come together as brothers have better negotiating power than those with nationalistic tendencies. It is not that we are not or should not be nationalistic but that your negotiating power and influence should begin from the home base. Charity, it is said, begins at home.  

You will play the game of nationalism better if your negotiating power is assured. When this alignment is achieved, people will know that associating with us will bring the best returns to both sides, with appreciative dividends that make everybody happy and equal before God. That is what APGA represents, and I feel at home standing in for APGA today. God showed His light to me by making sure that I won the primary when it mattered most. God proved that He has made it that I should go and work for my people. I have no doubt in me that with APGA, Ndi Igbo must come together.

Why do you want to be Abia’s governor at this time?

I want to be the governor because I am from Abia, and it is also my civic responsibility and right to aspire to govern Abia. Moreover, I have been active in politics since 1999. I have watched every governor and government make their input. I have served Abia in different capacities and have been honoured with its highest award of Enyi Abia in addition to my national award of Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR). My contributions to the growth of Abia are there in the public space for everyone to see. I did not want to be recycled along the line. My service to Abia State to date is without baggage. I have fulfilled all the mandates God has given me in my contribution to the growth of the state, after which He asked me to aspire to be the governor in continuation of my service to the people. The divine mandate is that I should deliver to the expectation of the people. Our past leaders led the state in their own way and approach. I am coming as a servant of the people with a more detailed and modern approach that will have an empirical impact on governance. My covenant with the people will be delivered ahead of time. That is what governance is all about.

I have been living in the US, where the citizen should know what he is going to the market to buy between two contending candidates wooing him with their manifestos. Once I get into government, I will be there to serve the people in line with their expectations. Whatever the ill that has befallen Abia state, such as non-payment of salaries and abandonment of pensioners, lack of infrastructure, et al., will be addressed. I do believe that it is time for Abians to regain all that they have lost. 

I aspired to be the governor of Abia state in 2014, and the governor then asked me to hold on for the sake of the Abia zoning formula, which favoured the Ngwa community. I had earlier written to the governor as well as the party. It was documented that by 2023, I would be out again as the adopted candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) based on what was agreed upon. I came out, and unfortunately, the people in power decided to make a change to the Abia Charter of Equity, a charter written and signed by our forefathers, elders, and stakeholders. It became a one-man affair. 

I decided to return to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), a party of principle. I decided to come to APGA to make sure that our people speak with one voice. I am happy that I came in to provide all my ability, all that I have been by way of experience and service to the people; I want to make sure that Abia and Ndi Igbo become properly integrated into the Nigerian experiment. That is a lot of challenges ahead for me. 

Among the other key participants, Uche Ikonne, Alex Otti, and Ikechi Emenike, what are your advantages and weak points over them? 

With all due respect, there is a saying that says: si ce n’est pas du panadol ce n’est pas du Panadol, which is to say: if it is not Panadol, it is not Panadol. 

All these people that you have mentioned are of course stakeholders in the Abia project but there is none among them that has added value to Abia the way I have done, not to the infrastructure, or to anything, I know of; they only come to struggle to be in the forefront of leading Abia, to reap where they have sown so little, preparing to reap from the state like others have done. Some people come to take away from the lean resources of the state but not me. I am the only one with a proven record of having invested in the state, of having employed people in the state and keeps employing people and adding value to the state. Where were they when all this was happening? What did they do with their money? Now, they all want to come now and seek governance. Again, let me add: si ce n’est pas du panadol, ce n’est pas du Panadol, which is to say: if it is not Panadol, it is not Panadol. For me, it is the end of the discussion as far as being the Governor of Abia State is concerned. I wish them well, but they know too well that there is no comparison between them and me. Once my name is mentioned from the area of competence, on investment in the state, on having the perquisite knowledge or ideas on development, I remain their non-pareil. I respect their diverse kinds of training, upbringing, and experience, but they should know that in comparison, I am quite up there. 

Can you brief us on your role under President Obasanjo’s administration? 

President Obasanjo is a detribalised leader; through a telephone call, I was invited to present a paper on public service reform. I flew in from the US. After listening to me, he directed the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Ufot Ekaette, to work with me. I was working from the office of the head of government with all the ministries and parastatals on how to reform the public service. I am happy I did it. There are lots of things that I did under President Obasanjo, which have proven to be the best way for Nigeria. He is the man who saw tomorrow. I am always glad and happy that I succeeded with my boss, who gave me the opportunity to bring out the best in his government. There is no government so far that has tried to unite the country the way he did, seeing every child of this country, irrespective of the state of origin or ethnicity, as Nigeria’s own hope for tomorrow. He saw our diversity as a value-added in nation-building. There is no one that considers every child in Nigeria to be one and every community in the Nigerian project to be one the way he did and still does. The telecommunications and education sectors speak volumes of the huge achievements of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. His achievements cut across the entire spectrum of the polity. 

What other role would you want to highlight?

I did a lot of jobs in the UNDP on human capital development; we did so much on healthcare and agriculture, and I worked on the export of produce. I was everywhere working, and Mr President had a listening ear because he knew that being involved in the UN with him meant that all the best practices would be implemented in all the ministries. We as a people have what it takes to create MDAs that meet global standards as prescribed by the UN through its agencies and as other nations of the world are doing, using prescribed best practices. 

How will you use your UN experience to add value to the education sector in Abia? 

Abia and Anambra states remain the leaders in public examination performances, whether in the case of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) or the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) exams. Majorly Abia state has taken the position of being number one in WAEC or whatever exams. The private institutions are the propelling force behind this accomplishment. In my capacity as a university administrator and founder, I have churned graduates from Abia state in different disciplines, medicine and engineering et al. Sadly, there is neither acknowledgement nor encouragement. 

For me, the private sector in Abia is the largest employer of labour after the government. I am doing my best to develop a teaching hospital of 1000 beds. It will also be a tertiary health institution that will support all other health institutions already in existence in the state. I am training doctors today; I am happy the way I am preparing people. Let me give you another example; the state university will soon be 40 years old; it was only two years ago I made frantic efforts to help it open a Department of Engineering. Otherwise, the authorities were content running such courses as Regional Planning, Optometry, Social and Management courses, and Humanities and then the state is totally lacking in its assistance of the institution. 

Someday, we will need engineers to help develop the state, and they will not be there. We used to have the health technology school in Aba, but today the universities have taken over most of those allied health institutions covering such branches as physiotherapy and radiology; these are critical courses. They are not offered at Abia State University, but my university offers those two courses, including medical laboratory science; we also offer Nursing. We offer all those critical courses so that at the end of the day if we are talking about catchment areas, Abia State should pride itself as one but is that enough? No, because we lack the requisite personnel to take charge of our medical, technological and science departments. We need graduates who would become manufacturers and inventors, skilled and brilliant personnel taking charge of all the departments of human endeavour. Until we can groom and position the drivers of our next flight to the global village of ideas, we have not delivered. There is work to do. 

Let us take pride in the realisation that we have produced technologically trained personnel developed to deliver on the healthcare of our people when the need arises. The need is just right here and now. In the whole of Abia state, there is no MRI. There is no Cat Scan. The former government made all this possible, but today, all this is gone under the nose of the Ikpeazu administration. Abia state, with five million people, has no MRI; for God’s sake, this should never be discussed. There are a lot of people in Abia State that need dialysis. I wonder where they go for it. 

Is the Ngwa population a force to contend with in this election?  

Like I always say, every Abian wearing the shoe knows where it pains. We have gone down this lane 24 years and have seen democracy in action; we have seen how much Abia is developed in terms of infrastructure; it is believed Abia is the least developed state in the Southeast and possibly in the country. We see workers and pensioners die from sickness, hunger, and starvation. Abia is an oil-producing state whose officially declared IGR is nothing to celebrate. Everybody in Abia is wearing shoes of pain and deprivation. Our government is as good as dead. At this stage, everybody agrees that competence must be the new normal. Abians want somebody they can hold accountable, someone who is ready to make a covenant with them with regard to deliverables, a leader with innovative ideas in the art of governance, not one who plays to the gallery of ethnic jingoism, of ethnic politics. I connect with Abians everywhere, whether by way of assistance or employment. The connection is enormous. I have friends in Abia North; it is my community, the same way I have in the whole of Obingwa and Ngwa in Aba. I have a relationship that cuts across the state with the children and parents of Abia state. Many of them connect with Gregory University and Skill G and all my corporate outfits at home and abroad. They have at various times enjoyed and currently enjoy 20 per cent of my scholarship programme. 

What is your opinion on the poor infrastructure network in Abia? 

This government came in and said they would do an expressway from Cross River up to Maiduguri and a ring road from Port Harcourt to Sokoto. I do not know to what extent that was achieved; even the East-West Road has not been completed. How do you initiate new projects, given the situation on the ground? We should be grateful we have completed the road project from Enugu to Aba. The road from Aba to Port Harcourt is unpassable and takes an average of five hours for a journey of 45 to sixty minutes when the roads were in decent shape. We are not part of the new rail system designed by the Ministry of Transport. If we are, this railway masterplan, as it is called, exists on paper for the Southeast. Without the federal roads intersecting Enugu, Port Harcourt, and Imo State, there would not have been any road in Abia. That is the only saving grace. Notwithstanding, the government we want to bring in place will address all those issues.

What is your take on a Nigerian president of Southeast extraction? 

I am a member of the All-Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and we held a presidential convention where Professor Peter Umeadi emerged as the APGA Presidential candidate. Obi, who once was in APGA, was not part of this Presidential configuration. While he was with the PDP, nobody knew that he would change party. Our party has our presidential candidate, and until otherwise proven, he remains our presidential candidate. I have, in the past seven years, if not more, championed the cause of a Nigerian president of Southeast extraction. I have held seminars and town hall meetings preaching and enlightening relevant stakeholders, including leaders of ethnic nationalities, on why Nigeria’s next president must come from the Southeast. The last seminar was held at Sheraton Hotel Abuja on March 5th, 2020. The question resonated on why an Igbo should not be Nigeria’s next president. I have served the Ohanaeze at strategic levels, and I have preached the Nigerian president as an Igbo. Actualising it is something that must be done very fast. I still believe so much that, as Igbo people, our God-given mandate is to deliver Nigeria from the shackles of evil hanging on her neck.  

APGA’s Prof Umeadi and the Labour Party’s Peter Obi, among other Igbo presidential candidates, are serious contenders; they are making the Southeast proud in their quest for a Southeast president. 

Can you define Skill G and your achievements? 

Skill G has succeeded in making sure that all the universities and polytechnics in Nigeria are well-equipped. We offer engineering and technological subjects according to the curriculum of each subject. Skill G has done that in education; we have done it with the Unity Schools.  

We are proud that we have revamped the study of mathematics and science subjects. At a point in 2005 and 2006, we were teaching how to write software to all the Unity Schools and other secondary schools in the country, including teachers. We have for over a decade been building the foundation for sustaining technology development in Nigeria. Between that time and now, we can say that we have really moved on technologically because most of the children and the teachers that used my kits for their educational needs, especially in Unity Colleges, became better scholars and teachers. Today we have very sound scientists coming out from the universities and polytechnics, coming out with ideas, programmes, and inventions that make meaning for Nigeria’s development in science and technology. I believe Skill G has done well for the country, and it continues to do well for the country. 

Does this package extend to universities? 

All 73 states and federal universities have been fully equipped in engineering by Skill G. This extends to the state and federal polytechnics. Sixty-two colleges and mono-technics are also equipped. The coverage is total for Nigeria.  

What is your take on ASUU? 

My take is to have a private, public-sector partnership (PPP) in the ownership of universities. Government can hold the controlling share of 50 or 55 per cent and give the private sector 45 per cent. The government at all levels will be involved in setting up a revolving loan that will aid students in higher institutions pursue their education without let or hindrance. As soon as you do that, it would remove this incidence of ASUU going on strike because of the neglect of public universities. When new money flows into the university treasury, with an increased intake of students, the entire university staff, including lecturers and professors, would enjoy a new lease of life and competitive staff engagement comparable with foreign universities; that makes the business of teaching exciting. Creating parallel unions, as the Minister of Labour, His Excellency Senator Chris Ngige, has done, is not the answer to the problem because the academic environment is different from a business environment. I was a lecturer at Abia State University and a private university, and I complained before going to form mine. I connect with the issues raised by the lecturers. Government should work towards private sector involvement in these institutions. That is the best way it would raise the money to fund the expected projects in these universities and polytechnics and pay reasonable salaries to staff. 

What is your take on Nnamdi Kanu? 

I made a public statement a few days ago when the judgment was given. I asked the government to use what is at its disposal to resolve the Nnamdi Kanu issue. It calls for a political solution. My brother wants to come home and pay respect to his father and mother by giving them a befitting burial. If they require surety, we shall all come out and do the surety. We need Nnamdi Kanu out. When Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, a First Republic Minister and Nnanyi Ukwu Prof George Obiozor visited Mr President Muhammadu Buhari, he said the court should be allowed to conclude its verdict on Kanu. Now the same court that delivered its verdict is surprisingly walking back the same verdict. Now the government has gone to the apex court; we must wait for the Supreme Court to deliver its judgment. The hope is that the federal government should not use its undue influence on the Supreme Court like we are seeing at the Appeal Court, whose three members were re-assigned after the judgment was delivered and its decision reversed. Now the court has made its decision. It is imperative for the president not to swallow his words but to release our brother.