Senator Chris Ukpabi was the only senator elected on the platform of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN in the Second Republic from the South East. He was subsequently chairman of the National Republic Convention, NRC in the Third Republic and is presently a chieftain of the PDP in Abia State. In this interview, he assesses the performance of President Jonathan and challenges before him ahead of the 2015 presidential election. Excerpts:

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

Looking at the situation in PDP, with your over 35 years in politics, what would you say is the cause of the crisis we see everyday?

I wouldn’t call it crisis. It is a question of somebody wanting to occupy a position and another wanting to occupy same. And that is life. Somebody can’t tell you I want to be president or governor and you just allow him, no that is not democracy. The very moment you say you want a position then there would be disagreement naturally. And as a mature political grouping we disagree to agree.

What is so unique about Jonathan’s administration that you think Nigerians should appreciate?

He is humane and then he looks at matters very dispassionately. He gets along with people. He has come to show Nigerians that politics is not a do- or – die affair. And if you kill somebody you want to take charge of, who will you take charge of then. And because of his Christian nature, knowing that he has reached the peak he now decides to take everybody as himself, believing that it is better to make people realize their mistakes than to force them.

Take for instance, a number of times people have tried to mess him up. They use languages that are not very complimentary to the president of a country but he has not reacted. This is a man who has all the powers. If he says kill it happens and if he says spare it happens. But he decides to follow the part of peace and love for every human being that comes around him. That is very unique. But his critics see this as weakness.

It does not show any sign of weakness. I am a Reverend and then it is not for you to start hitting people back because there is strength and valour in making sure that the man who has insulted you is shown kindness. He on his own will regret. That is why the religious side of it is better. You don’t go to and take revenge, leave God to do the rest for you. And anybody who says that is weakness may not know the will of God for you.

In your assessment what are the things the President has done?

Senator Chris Ukpabi

I want to first say that there is no President, governor, chairman of local government that can handle all the problems around them. They come in, do their bit, and move on.  That is the background around which I will lay out some things he has done. Look at the railway system that has been moribund for so many years. Many people from my own place who speak Hausa today do so because they are offsprings of those who worked in Railway Corporation. And that has helped in binding the country together. Now from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, it is only a small place in Aba, that is left, it would have been completed.

Look at the Lagos to Kano route, people can now use it. And the more you use these rails the more our roads last longer. It makes me remember those days when we used to go to secondary schools. We will just jump into the train, sometimes we don’t pay. We get to the next station we stop. Look at electricity; he has taken it to a whole new level. I was reading one of the reports and it stated that from 1999 till Jonathan came into office we were still using only 2000 megawatts. But only two years in office we now have 4500 mega watts and he has promised and put in motion, things that would be done to make Nigeria within a short time enjoy uninterrupted power supply.

What can be better than that? Go into Agriculture. We are almost 60 percent self sufficient in the production of rice, but not only that look at the job it has brought. It is something to be glad about. If you know the amount of money we used in importing rice in the past, you will know that he has done so well.

He will do the much he can do and, leave the rest for others. There are a lot of areas that Jonathan has shown he is ready to work. Last year, as someone from the South East, we were afraid where we would be in a position to get to our villages. The roads were so bad, but he set up a team, incidentally the chairman of that team is my friend and they had to do the roads.

Now I can drive from Abuja here to my place in the East without any problem of bad road. Look at the Second Niger Bridge, our people were jubilating and praising God when Julius Berger mobilized to the site to start work. Most of these things have been left all along and this young man is doing them, why don’t we appreciate him for once. I am sure people can travel through our airports in recent times and you would be proud to say you are a Nigerian. Before now it was an eyesore but today it is very beautiful.

These are things Jonathan would be remembered for within such a short time, just two years. I was reading somewhere where somebody was scoring him low, unfortunately, for those writings, they were hooking the failures of the past administrations on him. How can you? If you are looking at past administrations then blame those responsible for that and praise him for what he has done within such a short period.

So you are supporting him to go for a second term?

Yes, why shouldn’t I. If I as a PDP member refuse to allow the man go a second term, the entire PDP should get out of the stage and allow the opposition because we will be shooting ourselves in the leg. This is a man we brought out to be the President of this country. He has only done once, Constitution allows him to do a second term and we in the PDP say he shouldn’t do, it means we are saying he has not done well and the best thing to do is for the whole PDP to get out and allow the opposition take over.

What about the issue of the purported gentleman agreement he signed with the governors?

To begin with governors’ forum is a mess. I don’t recognize it. Let them go and do their job as governors. They just gang up to whittle down the powers of the president. The question is what is it they are adding to the polity? And why must there be governors’ forum, are they the owners of this country? I was in this game when most of them were in secondary schools. They can’t just come and tell us they have governors’ forum, just to dictate to us.