BY VINCENT UJUMADU

…Says “NASS decision on SEC is final”
Former Governor of Anambra State and the Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial Zone Dr. Chris Ngige, in this interview in Awka, spoke on a number of national issues, including measures being taken by the National Assembly to ensure improved power supply in the country, the move by some political parties to merge ahead of the 2015 general elections, as well as his plan for the governorship of Anambra State in 2014. Excerpts:

HOW has the journey been in the National Assembly?
This is a moment of stock taking especially at this time of the year. The Nigerian Senate runs a committee system and I belong to the highest number of committees. I belong to seven committees. The Senate has about 53 committees. I belong to the committees on power,  health and capital market, which relates with the Security and Exchange Commission and carries out over-sight functions on them. We also look after the security exchange tribunal, which is like a court.

People who are short -changed in the capital market can run to the tribunal if they have a problem with their stock broker. This particular court is not known to many people and that is why in the capital market people are short -changed. There are lots of malpractices and people just keep quiet.

This year, we intend to energize that court and do one or two things. We may do a constitutional amendment and send it to the judiciary so that they can be one of the courts of the land that is recognized by the constitution in which case, they will be funded from the judiciary.

Power committee
We also look after the Stock Exchange to know what they are doing because we are representatives of the people.  I find the power committee as the most challenging. Without power no country can develop. You can see that the power situation in Nigeria has been rough. Everybody has turned into a generator of power. Most industries in Nigeria have closed down because of poor power supply and generating electricity is very expensive to the extent that many companies have moved to other countries, including Michelin, Dunlop, Cadbury and a lot of textile companies.

If you come down to the East here, a lot of small assembly plants like motor spare parts, motorcycle spare parts in Onitsha, Nnewi and Aba have been affected and both barbing and hair dressing salons have been confronted by this power problem. So to us in the committee, we have a challenge and the executive drew a road map by the president in 2010. His predecessor, the late President Yar’ Adua did same. But the road map we now have for which we assist them in terms of appropriation of funds and oversight functions to monitor the work being done with the funds.

Dr Chris Nwabueze Ngige

When we came on board, we discovered that the power generation of the country was epileptic to the neigbourhood of about 2,803 KVA and we confronted the problem head on. The problems are in generation, transmission and the distribution points. The Obasanjo regime put up a lot of power generation activities though a lot of them were not properly sited economically.

This is because the first law in economics is that if you want to site an industry whatever that industry will do for you; you must do that at a site closest to the raw materials. These plants were sited in places far from the gas point because they are gas fired generation plants and the ones we have in areas like Omotosho, Ororunshogu and others in the other side of the country had problem of gas supply. As a result, projects that were completed could not come on stream. Those that came on stream came on stream about half of its installed capacity.

But today we have done some synergy through oversight and through a master plan involving NNPC, ministry of petroleum and the national task force on power and power ministry. We also discovered that a lot of contractors doing transmission works were no longer around for one reason or the other and we have to seriously oversight them and in the course of over sight, we discovered that the company established to implement the power road map had a lot of its containers trapped in the port. Those that were not trapped have already been sold away and we intervened as a committee on power and we recovered a lot of these containers.

Talking about the transmission lines, a lot of them have been completed, including those of Umuahia, Mbalano, Yola and in Lagos area. The problems are no longer as we met them. In 2013, government has appropriated a lot of money for the transmission companies. Because one of the problems we now have is that the transmission lines are weak and cannot carry even the 5,000 MW that is been approached.

There are systems failure because the lines are old and decayed. A lot of places have gaps in them and have been dumped so you cannot call them good transmission lines. But the 2013 budget would take care of it and we shall make sure that a lot of those capital projects are not abandoned.

Why has there not been any replacement for Professor Bath Nnaji?  
You see that is the prerogative of the executive arm of government and the legislature cannot tell them who to appoint. But we in the South East have made       demands that the next power minister should came from the South East as the man that was there is our brother and I have also told Mr. President officially   that this is what our people want and he has promised to put it into consideration.

How are you handling the controversy in the capital market?
There is no way government can intervene in a capital market situation. Even in America they did not intervene in the capital market situation they intervened, in terms of providing jobs for the people and they faced the motor companies and gave them plenty of money so that they can keep afloat to avoid a lot of people being thrown into the labour market.

Private affairs
Our own government did same here in the banks when they discovered that the banks were distressed. Nobody will buy something that is unhealthy so there is no way government can go and intervene in your private affairs because the capital market situation is your own private trading.

On the issue of the Director General of SEC, the Senate committee on capital market at one time came out with a release that they supported the House of Representatives committee by saying that they are not going to deal with that commission. So I don’t know what you expect us to say. I am a member of the committee and whatever decision we take, we take it based on Senate rules. And if we go to such a committee and even if I don’t want the D/G of SEC punished or to go, I am but one person and I can be overruled by my members and once they overrule me, that is all.

Are you aware of the report that some governors are against state creation?
I do not know about state governors being antagonistic to state creation. I can only speak about the   South East governors where I come from and where we have been meeting. The governors of the South East are not antagonistic to the creation of states.

If anything we are all united to the fact that South East is the only geographical zone with five states in Nigeria and before anything is done, we must have equity by the creation of the sixth state in the South East in order to bring us at equilibrium with the other zones. We have even appealed to Mr. President that we need an executive bill to be made on our behalf for the creation of a state out of the South East.

What is the situation with the much talked about merger of some political parties to challenge PDP in 2015 elections?  

The progressives led by ACN were already meeting with others such as the Labour Party, LP, Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA and Democratic Peoples Party, DPP for the purpose of forming the mega party. By a kind of metamorphosis, the affected political parties which have radical politicians in their rank and file, would do everything possible to ensure the growth of democracy in the country. Fourteen years after the emergence of the present democracy, it is obvious that nothing good can come out of PDP and that is why we are determined that by the first quarter of this year, Nigerians will see that progressives mean business. CPC has already named a committee for the merger talks, just like the ANPP, while those to represent ACN would be named by the end of this January.

On arguments that Anambra North should be allowed to produce the next governor of the state in 2014 since the area has not done so since the creation of the state in 1991.

Since the advent of the present democracy, we have had four governorship elections in Anambra State and these were in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2010. In all of them, the people of Anambra North participated and contested for the governor of the state. In 1999, the major contenders were Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju, Professor A.B.C. Nwosu, Chief Ajulu Uzodike, among others who were from Anambra South, as well as Senator Joy Emodi, Chief Frank Oramulu, Dr. Mike Areh and Chief Ozodinobi who were from the North. There were also contestants from the Central and we had Sam Okechukwu, Agunwa Anaekwe, Aneze Chinwuba, among others.

In 2003, I came from Anambra Central. The incumbent governor, Mr. Peter Obi is also from the Central, while Uzodike and Okechukwu Odunze came from the South and North respectively. These people from the North are not weaklings. They contested and lost gallantly. I emerged as governor and when I was removed by the court, Obi from central was returned.

In 2007, politicians from the three senatorial zones also contested for the office of governor, which was won by Dr. Andy Uba, but was stopped by the court. In 2010, we were all there, including Dr. Alex Obiogbolu and Senator Emma Anosike who are from the North. In all the elections, people from the North never said let us leave it for the people of Central or South so that we can have our turn later.

Struggle for power
We are not saying that our brothers from the North should not be governors because they have the right to the office. But people struggle for power as our brothers from the North have been struggling for it since 1999. But if we want to say that we should start zoning the office of governor, we shall sit down and discuss it and decide which zone should start it, otherwise it will be undemocratic and will run foul of the Constitution of Nigeria if it is decreed that one part of the state should be allowed to produce the next governor.

It must be made known that we have been living in peace in Anambra and nobody had considered any part of the state as being superior to the other. In 1952, the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who is from the present Anambra North senatorial zone, came back from Lagos and contested for premiership and ruled Eastern Nigeria for eight years before going to become the Senate President and later governor –general and subsequently the president of Nigeria and other parts of Eastern Nigeria never complained.

There was also a man named Ukpabi Asika from Onitsha in the present Anambra North who ruled the old East Central State unfettered and we never complained. Similarly when the late Senator Chuba Okadigbo from Anambra North became the senate president and number three citizen in the country, other senators from Anambra supported him as they did not argue whether he was from a particular zone. We therefore do not want this dichotomy to be introduced now in the state.

So, for the 2014 governorship election, I am still consulting and by the first quarter of next year, I will make my decision known to our people. It is not correct for people to be saying that there should be rotation of governors when during the public debate on constitutional amendment, it was agreed that governors should emerge on merit.