Chief Onyekachi Onyekwere is a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Abia State.  He was also a member of the defunct constitutional conference and a major stakeholder in the present dispensation.

He bares his mind to Nnenna Ezeah on the on-going debate over tenure elongation for political office holders in the country and other issues.

Excerpts:

What is your take on the issue of tenure elongation for the president and governors?

I wish the president didn’t go into that.  To me, it is most regrettable because there are issues in the front burner that the president should have tackled. This tenure elongation or whatever you want to call it will add no value to this administration. I don’t know how he got the idea and I don’t know what led him into that but I sure know that it is a wrong step he is taking, only two months into his administration.

He said it was not just his idea but that of other political party stakeholders

If he said that , it is very sad and disappointing. The bulk of decisionsstops with the president  and he should know what to give out to the country.  If he is saying that it is a collective decision, this is not the right time to have that.

Onyekwere

There are lots of things he should be thinking about. We have the problem of light, security, the Boko Haram, bad roads. In fact, we have multiple problems for him to attend to. Why  tenure elongation at this time?

What is your earnest assessment of Jonathan’s  leadership so fars?

So far, I am afraid he has very little to show for the quantum votes and confidence Nigerians reposed on him.    The President should not act as if he is a barber-chair  that you can turn around the way you like.  We need a leader at this time that will be able to stand firm with his decisions.  But I am not seeing those decisions because he is not taking them.

In fact, I am disappointed and I suggest he better get up now. There are a lot of responsibilities.  I am afraid the way Jonathan is going, he should not be the Gorbachev of Nigeria, that will dismantle this country. This is because his roles and attitudes and dance steps  look much like that of Gorbachev, in the Soviet  Union that dismantled that great country.

I wish and I pray that Jonathan does not play that role because these signs of indecision could lead to the predictions that the American had about Nigeria.  I am very very afraid,  may he not allow that prophecy to be fulfilled in his time.
Under this circumstance, what do you think should be done?

First, the elongation will not sell and I am also afraid it will make him unpopular  and if it does, it means that his leadership and rulership during his remaining years will be difficult. So, what I want to see him do is to retrace his steps and confront the multitude of problems we have. Like I said earlier, he should grant them a lot of attention.

Workers are  demanding for N18,000 minimum wage a month which translates to N600 a day.  These are issues to tackle not elongation of tenure that could even be attended to later.  It’s a constitutional issue. We have problems at hand, he should attend to. That is what I am trying to say. Let him retrace his steps and face these problems. As it were, no constitution will stop Jonathan from  running the next four years.

If he tackles our problems decisively, I bet you, Nigerians will beg him to continue.  Look at our roads, power, security etc and people are talking about tenure elongation.  It is not only sad but very embarrassing.

As a member of the ruling party, what efforts have you made to put this across to your party?

I am just saying it here now, and I wish they will heed to my advice and I want to quickly add that PDP made a mistake by killing zoning. They should also leave the members of the House of  Representatives  over voting Tambuwa as the speaker.

That is democracy in action. This people selected their leaders by themselves. Zoning has been killed by the party when they selected Jonathan as their presidential candidate. If they go to revisit the issue,  there will be a chain of reactions.

So, I suggest that the speaker and his deputy should be left to rule the  house. There should be separation of power, there should be no interference, and Obasanjo who killed the party’s zoning formula, should not come back now and speak from the two sides of his mouth. Besides I beg him to go on retirement.

Don’t we need the wisdom of the elders?

He should act on a consultation capacity; let him be consulted before interfering in any issue that concerns politics in the country. The other day,  U.S. President Barack Obama, invited  his predecessor George Bush for a visitation  at Ground Zero, after Osama Bin-ladin  was killed but Bush declined. You lead and you leave. It happens. We are imitating the U.S. and when a president finishes, he keeps quiet and allows the other president to do his job.

Now that politicians are singing discordant tunes over this elongation of power, what is yous advice ?
You are misunderstanding these politicians.

They are only trying to lead Jonathan to his early grave. They are not singing any discordant tune, they are trying to bring out and disgrace and humiliate him, like they did to  Obasanjo. Don’t misconstrue that as they are singing discordant tune.

There is nothing like that. They just want to bring him out and bury him alive. So, I will advise him not to listen to them, let him take the four years Nigerians freely gave to him. if he is interested to be a beneficiary of the elongation fine, if he is not interested better,. but that is  not the issue. The issue now is that he should not even sponsor such idea now, all he need is to enjoy the four years mandate freely given to him happily by Nigerians.

That brings us to the issue of Boko Haram, do you think Jonathan has done enough if not, what do you think he should do now?

Well, that is a big security issue, some people are calling for amnesty, some others are calling for full scale military action, but I am calling for a drastic action.  This is because one, nobody knows who are the Boko Harams and what they represent. Are you going to negotiate with spirits? And we are talking about people who kill for no just course. Some people have been comparing them with the activities of the Niger Delta struggle for resource control, there are no comparisons what soever.  We are talking about people who kill only for the sake of killing, even killing their own brothers. I am asking the president to take a decisive action  about them.

Victims of Boko Haram onslaught, what do you what government to do for them?

They should be compensated like the youth coppers were compensated because their sufferings were as a result of the negligence by government. Government has the constitutional responsibility to protect lives and properties. So, if they have lapses, it is their responsibility. But the security of a nation is the collective responsibility of all citizens. Members of this Boko Haram lives in our midst, we should be able to help the government to pass information to the police. But I recommend I decisive action.

How do you see Nigeria in the next four years of Jonathan’s leadership?

To start with, there is no nation that survives, when you have so many ethnic annex and then without a strong leadership, there will be chaos and there will be crisis. The president should get up as a president. Nigerians let him go at the last tenure because he claimed it was a borrowed tenure, but this is a mandate freely given to him.

He should be responsible to what ever happens in Nigeria within these four years. He should stand up and take responsibility and let history record it.

What will be the position of the Igbos come 2015?

The Igbos think and I believe they were meant to think that they were going to get it by 2015. I don’t see how it can happen, it is impossible because the northerners will go for it. let the Igbos first put their house together and when we get to 2015, we will know where we are coming from.