Two times member of the House of Representative for Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency in Enugu state, Hon. Dennis Agbo (Mr. Integrity) who late last year recovered his Labour Party (LP) mandate from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has disclosed that he is defecting to the PDP. He gave his reasons, arguing that Governor Mbah’s good governance deserves support from the federal government through representatives such as himself. He gave other reasons why he has concluded to dump the LP and back to his original party on Thursday may 1st 2025 .

My background

What people remember more about me is my banking career. I am an accountant by training. I’m a chartered accountant. I’m a fellow of the Charted Institute of Accountants of Nigeria. Today, I’m the most senior accountant in Enugu state. That’s my background by training. In banking, I rose to fairly high level, I also moved very fast. Between 1989 and 2004 I became a General Manager in UBA in charge of consumer banking division for the entire South Eastern Nigeria, of the five states, a part of Kogi state, a part of Benue state and a part of Delta state, that’s Asaba, and also a part of Rivers state, that is Port Harcourt. I left banking in 2004 and I set up as a consultant. I was the first person in Nigeria to choose the niche of governance reform consulting as my area of consultancy. So that was what I was doing. I had offices here in Enugu and in Abuja, and it prospered very well. I was serving states, I was serving local governments. I was serving government agencies. I was serving the federal government. I was serving political parties. I was serving legislators. I was serving anything that has to do with guiding governance from cradle upwards. That is, that was my business, trying to give governments the staying power to design projects that had in that impactful projects that will benefit the people, what the people wanted, let government serve what the people want, and then assess the impact of their projects. Make sure that government designs a project, implements that project faithfully unto its end, not abandoned projects, but giving governance and government projects a staying power. A staying power means keeping the eye on the budgetary allocation, the milestones, the project review, project control, that is milestone assessment, making sure that at any point in time the particular milestone at a particular time is being met. It is not easy in government, because government has a lot of distractions. So the consultant gives them the staying power. We also give governments’ access to independent revenue, especially the state government, non statutory independent revenue coming from their share of federal government investment projects and their employment, and then the donor agencies, and then we related the states to other arms of government, both the agencies and the federal government and their local governments. So all that were the things we did in governance consulting.

It was this I was doing when the government of Sullivan Chime came in 2007 and by 2008 I think somebody mentioned that, oh, that there is a good state person in Abuja doing a lot for other states. So he approached me that he wants me to do for them what I was doing for that state. Initially, I thought it was going to be a consulting engagement, but instead he offered me the position of a Special Adviser, initially and then later, a commissioner. And it was difficult for me to accept in various ways. One, I didn’t understand, you know, I was suspicious of government people, and two they couldn’t pay me but eventually we resolved. I realized that if your state gives you the honor to call of coming to serve, you can’t be talking about money. I also realized that, that was a very sincere government that was intent upon, you know, serving the needs of the people. After all, how did they find me after all I didn’t contribute to the elections, I wasn’t part of politics as at that time but they traced me all the way to Abuja and the government, I mean the Governor then showed clearly that he needed me to come and serve. So I put a lot of things aside, and I came and served the government as a Special Adviser, initially, on intergovernmental and multilateral partnerships. I was the first person to serve in that office. I created the office, and so on and so forth. Now, after that, along the line, he also made me the Commissioner for Human Capital Development and Poverty Reduction, and combined the portfolios together, and I was serving in those two capacities up till the end of his first time. It was then that I realized that really the platform of governance or government can give somebody a pedestal to serve more people and be more effective in discharging effective service to the people. It gives you wider scope of influence and then it gives you the opportunity to actually design what’s an intention and deliver it for the good of the people. At the end of his first tenure, Sullivan asked people in Executive council if anybody wanted to contest election? I now told him I would like to contest the position of House of Representatives for my constituency. The reason was that the person who was there then had stayed for two terms and I thought that, you know, it should be time for another person to go into the office. So he cleared me to run, but later on, also invited me to ask me that he had agreed with people in the National Assembly for the person who was there to go for it for a third term. Mine was not a desperate bid, so I just gave it up immediately and went back to what I was doing. He reappointed me Commissioner for his second tenure but my activity, what I was doing, was also suffering. So at that time, I chose to go and attend to my own private business, which I had abandoned for about three years then. So I went out of government between 2011 and 2014 because he told me, Oh let this person just finish. So I returned with the idea again and he cleared me again to run. We went through a very credible primary election process and I won. I won both at the consensus meeting, I won at the field and then I was the candidate of PDP in the 2015 election. And then I went to the election and won again by a fairly wide margin. I won 28 out of the 30 wards. So then I went to House of Reps, now having the opportunity to actually serve the people and between 2015 and 2019 what I heard, not what I said, was that I delivered a very sterling performance. It showcased what could be possible, what people can do from the office of a member, House of Representatives. I missed the 2019 to 2023 but I returned again in 2023 to contest and one thing led to the other on why I did not continue in 2019. As a matter of fact, I’m told that my sin was my performance, that I over performed. You can verify what I’m telling you; because that’s what people have told me, and I think I can put one on one together. Okay, I over performed, and I was taken out because of over performance. So I disagreed with the government then, because I thought that the more you perform, the better for everybody, and better for our people. And our governance should be a combined effort between the state government, the legislators in Abuja, both the Senate and House of Representatives members and the local government, everybody putting hands on deck to just move the state forward. The more you did, I thought, the more the better it should become. But then, no, I was taken out, and somebody who couldn’t do it as much as I did was used to replace me. I waited, I bided my time, 2023 came and we went back again, and our people saw with me, they remembered my performance, and they wanted me back again, so I contested and won again by landslide victory.

Okay, like you said, you started with the PDP. So, what happened, what made you to go to the Labour Party?

Okay, then in PDP, there were myriad of problems in the party. One, internal democracy was not there. Like I said, if I’m allowed to go into a free contest in the primary election I would have won in 2019. I was not allowed to do that. Something happened, you know, and internal democracy was not being operated, so I was just taken out by fiat. Now, when it came to 2023 it was clear, then very, very clear that the government of PDP was not doing well. We tried as much as possible to try to contribute ideas as to make the government to work better but those ideas were not accepted, were not implemented. So the government continued to go the wrong way, the wrong direction and every person in Enugu state knew that this government was not performing, both us in the PDP then, and those who are just citizens in other political parties were frustrated, they knew that the government was not performing, because we had the first government in 1999 of Chimaroke Nnamani, we had the second one of Sullivan and Chime, then there was a third. So there were governments to compare with and people knew that it was not going well with Enugu state at that time. And then you remember the federal government was also not clicking for those years. So the candle of the Enugu state was being burnt from two sides. It was not happening at the federal level, it was not happening at the state level. So everybody was like disenchanted, disgruntled but some did not have the boldness to say, Okay, we want to leave this party and go and try, you know, something from a different new, brand new political platform. Not many people could do it. I thought our people deserved something better and however it should be given to them they deserved something better. So we went to the Labour Party, and then started telling our people that on this platform we will be able to do something better. Remember that I have been there before that I did this, if I’m given the opportunity again, I will be able to do it. I will be able to repeat another good performance. They believed me. They believed me then, and they believe me now. People always gave me this chance and I cannot be more grateful to them. I thanked them and I thank them always. They call me mister integrity. Many of them don’t even know my name. They say that I am Mister Integrity. I’m integrity epitomized and I try to work very, very hard for them, and the more I work, the more they also trust me. Even now, what I tell them, they tend to believe me, and I will never deceive them. I will never lead them astray. I will never relent in working for my people. I will put in everything, day and night, all networks, all connections, and all opportunities. I’ll bring it to bear to bring something good, to bring the good to our people. They deserve it.

You had an option of a ruling national party, the APC, why didn’t you choose the APC then, why did you choose the Labour Party?

Thank you, because I just told you that as at that time, between 2015 and 2023 there were two governments, and they were not doing well. The one at the federal was not doing well; the one at the state was not doing well. And I said the candle of the Enugu state was burning from two sides. We didn’t have somewhere to run to. If you couldn’t get the good governance at the center, you could run to your state and you see projects going on and that could pacify you, that could make you, you know, happy a little bit. But then it was not so here it was not so there, so there was no way, as at that time I could have gone to APC. It’s not a party that was performing and was attractive, and they will be a very hard sell. In fact, what do you tell people as reason coming to APC? What will you tell them? Is it because anything was going well? Then infrastructure was dilapidated. Things were going wrong. Exchange rate, they had a wide disparity of exchange rate. They couldn’t address any strong reform that will move the country forward, like removing the fuel subsidy or any such thing. They had no capacity for anything that will bring about good reforms or reforms that will move the country forward. They had no capacity to do it. Things were just going bad. Production had hit, insecurity was there, and it was like the government was not doing anything about that insecurity. It was as if a lot of people even alleged that if insecurity continues to last, and people are bandits, were running riots for so long, then it means that the government must have its hand in it. That’s what people thought, or that’s what people said as at that time, then why do you blame them for saying that? Because the government was like helpless. Government cannot claim helplessness. The primary business of governance is the welfare and security of the people, and once government fails in those in those two responsibilities then they have no business being in governance. So, but these two things were happening here and there and there was no way I could have gone to APC. People will talk about, oh, making things, you know, get it easy. I don’t believe in easy politics. I believe in sincere politics. I believe in truthful politics. I believe in, you know, even going the hard way. The Bible I read says narrow is the way that leads to eternal life and few are they that find it. But road is the way that leads to destruction, to hell that many are those that have trooping through it. So, you know, to go to APC government in the center will look attractive to many, but they didn’t look attractive to me at all because they were that time not performing.

So, the APC failed and the PDP failed. Is the Labour Party filling that vacuum now?

We came in, we used the platform of Labor Party, a brand new platform and we contested election. We had opportunities to tell our people, look, we are new, and give me the opportunity. Remember that I’ve been here before. Give me the opportunity. I will repeat my performance. Now I have found myself back there, and I’m repeating that performance. I am not sparing any effort. I’m building schools, I’m giving electricity. I am empowering the people. I’m creating economic opportunities that will enable the citizens and my constituents to thrive. I’m doing that. So there’s no fail as far as I’m concerned. But in a Labour Party, of course, because it was a new party, you know, a lot of people came in, the good, not so good, the bad, even the ugly. We all moved in but then I speak for myself, because at the end of the day I have account to give to these people who gave me that chance, and I’m giving, and I think I am doing well, because they come to me back again, even now, and they said, you are doing excellently well. That’s what I hear. It’s not that they’re not patting me on the back, they’re not flattering me. They know that I’m trying, that whatever is not possible is not possible but it’s not out of not trying. I give them of my best.

We learnt that you’re having a romance with the PDP again, or rather, maybe particularly with the Governor of Enugu state. Why the romance with the PDP again?

Yes, the romance, or the relationship, the very robust relationship that I’m having with the Governor of Enugu state is for one thing. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, we are all concerned about the development of Enugu state. And then when the coin turned, when they took the bend, and the new government came into Enugu state and started showing seriousness, the things that were missing were getting done, so many things. Now, let me begin to just mention few- insecurity was the thing in Enugu state; this man came in, the new governor, and brought this command and control center. It is the next generation way of solving the issue of insecurity. He has hundreds of vehicles equipped with modern gadgets, communication gadgets, satellite based cameras, monitoring all the hot spots in this state, reporting to a command and control center that is the way to go. Two, he has this farm estate project that he’s doing, and each ward is supposed to participate, every ward, 260, wards in Enugu state, each ward is supposed to cultivate at least 20 hectares, every ward. Multiply that and you see how many hectares of land will come under cultivation in the state. I have made my own input to that project. I said, look, each of these estates should do a mono crop, map the state into areas of best fit, decide, determine with what is best for each ward to cultivate, but make it a mono crop for that estate to bring out substantial output from there. And they are doing it. It’s not just story. Now imagine where 260 multiplied by 20, that is 2,600 multiplied by two. That’s about 5200 hectares of land is brought under cultivation in Enugu state continuously. And there are many local people that will bring more, like in my local government they are bringing so much more. That is the 4000 hectares from Ette, there is the 200 hectares from Aguibeje, and there’s the 220 hectares from Umuogboegu. There are other ones that will come. If you join these two together, you are already treating 4500 hectares in one local government. In the other words at the end of the day you are going to have up to 50,000 or let’s say, 30 to 40,000 hectares of land come under cultivation in Enugu producing yam, producing maize, producing vegetables, tomatoes, and so on and so forth. It is an agricultural revolution, next to what Michael Okpara did in the 60s. Nothing has happened in at that level since that time. Number three; he begins the Smart school project to prepare our children for competitiveness in the next generation. You know that your child attending the private schools have tablets going to school. That’s how they relate with this generation. Teaching is conducted with technology. Now, the man is now saying it is not just the children of the privileged few that will attend private schools, but the public schools in Enugu state, in every ward, there’s a smart School, where the children of everybody can access and the children will go there get acquainted with the use of tablets, computers, e-learning, magic boards, interactive boards for teaching. These teachers are also being retrained to be able to cope. The thing is like a roller-coaster, even the teachers are losing the beat, but then everybody’s being carried along. The charts are being retrained. Books are being produced. Tablets are being distributed. Schools are being built. Modern environment is being created for the children to for learning. Look at infrastructure, there is no single pothole in all the major roads in Metropolis now. He commissioned 141 urban roads just about a month ago and work is going on in each and every one of them as we speak. The road that takes me to my place, that is, that takes you to Nsukka was done by the government of Sullivan Chime. We thought, we wished it could be expanded, straightened, dualized and stabilized. It was not done for the eight years when we are in government with somebody from our side. Now, this man has come and the road is being expanded, is being dualized, it’s being straightened. It’s been stabilized. A lot of bridges are being constructed on that road. What do we say and leave the other?

So there are so many things that are happening now, and we wonder why all these things were not happening before, and that was why we had the disagreement with PDP as at that time. So my relationship is that this man is doing it and I’m saying, look, it is not just to leave our Governor to be doing everything. Some of us who are in Abuja, in the House of Reps, in the Senate, we should bring incremental resources, assistance, support, funding from the center to support what the governor is doing. So primarily the thing that defined my relationship with the Governor was my intention, my determination, to contribute to what a man is doing; because this is a man that wants to grow the economy of Enugu state from a mere 4.5 billion US dollars to 33 billion US dollars. It’s not something that should be left for him alone. I have a belief that the revenue sharing formula in Nigeria is really skewed in favor of the federal government because when the state government collects their cheque and local governments collect their cheques, they tend to turn their backs at the federal government, and with the whopping amount of allocation that is given to the federal government, and they don’t remember that they are also part of the federal government, and that when they come home to share between them and local government the 48% they leave 52% and their share of that 52% should actually be more than the combined share of both the state and the local governments. So what I’m saying is that we in the National Assembly have a duty to make sure that we give our state access to their share of that of that federal revenue for projects, for investment and for employment by federal character, every state is supposed to be equal in one in some way to share in the implementations of the federal government. So that drives my relationship with the state. That drives what I’m trying to do for the state and to the governor. And when you come close he welcomes these ideas. So across party lines we have related well, I have contributed substantially. I have access to this government, and I cannot have something to contribute to the government that I have access to and I withhold it and maybe I go and start complaining, no! I have access. The man welcomes ideas and so we come close. We give the ideas, he accommodates our own ideas, he changes things, he makes amendments and then everybody’s being carried along. That is how it has done. If you look at this their farm estate project, I am driving it to the best of my ability, because I believe it holds the key to the economic future of our state, even to enable this quantum leap of growth in our economy from 4.5 billion US dollars to 32 US dollars.

Are you aware that people still complain about lack of water, insecurity and taxation in Enugu State?

Okay, one is that you cannot make an omelet without breaking an egg. There are some who are not used to the ruffles that brings about development. I am not saying that everything can get perfect overnight, because it didn’t fail overnight, it took a very long time to destroy what had been created in Enugu, it will take us probably 30 years to bring us forward and to enable us to move forward. Lack of trust has been created overtime and cannot be removed overnight. People don’t trust government again. They have made promises before, and they never lived up to it, but now I think I should be faster to understand that, look, there is sincerity here. If you talk about taxation, let me say one thing, government activities are funded through taxation. When government enables you to make 1000 Naira, they probably want to come and take 100 Naira of that money, it is the good road that you are driving to conduct economic activity that enables you to make 1000 Naira where you are making nothing. Now, you the government links you up again and you begin to make 100,000 Naira, and the government wants to take N1,000 of that money, just 10% that they are using to organize the road, your security, this and that. I remember you asked the question, has this security been wiped out? No, it cannot be wiped out. In fact, criminality is what every sensible government should prepare to confront. You don’t want to say, Oh, I have eliminated criminality, so we are going to live in Eldorado. No, there could be those criminal elements who would like to commit crime, so you have to be really prepared to deal with them. Now, we have seen a few cases of kidnapping, of banditry, of armed robbery. We have heard about certain resurgence on the Ugwogo-Opi stretch, once or twice. But my brother, if we want to be sincere to ourselves, I counted 22 police checkpoints, not police posts, not checkpoints, because before what we used to have our people who police people who are on the road, extracting money, causing gridlock, but if you go on this 22 posts from Ugwogo to Opi, there is no car queuing behind the other. They are not extorting money. They are there for deterrence. That is what you call security presence; suffocating security presence is there on that stretch now, where will you commit crime? When you are on one check point you are looking at another checkpoint again. Where is the armed robber going to operate? Where is the kidnapper going to operate, yet we have seen one or two issues for every one issue we have heard now, or we have experienced now, we could have had like 20 before. Now, we have seen the government still working so hard to make sure that everything is completely abated, if it is possible. For instance, if you kidnap somebody now and you are taking the person to the forest or to your hideout, the satellite can monitor you, it can view you. So the hideout of the criminals has been identified and is being taken out. So the war is going on. The battle is going on between civility and criminality, and it is not a war that this government intends to joke with or to even think of losing. No, they are willing and winning.

So, what is going to be the dividend of this new relationship with the state government?

Okay? Now the dividend is already showing because one I’m contributing to what the government is doing. I have made budgetary imputes to federal government budget to support what the state government here is doing. I’m, by the grace of God, I’m going to single handedly handle the rehabilitation of Augibeje and Umuogboegu farm settlement that has been abandoned for over 40 years since the government of Jim Nwobodo. That farm settlement has about the two of them combined, about 420 hectares. That’s quite substantial, and I intend to bring resources to clear that place, prepare the land, stump it, fence it, do perimeter fencing, do their gate house, and prepare a place to a standard, modern farm estate where our youth, at least 400 of them can go and take a hectare per person and cultivate maize, cultivate cassava, cultivate whatever is the flagship produce they want to produce from each of the farm estates. I want to do this. We are having a new understanding between the parties; we are not playing politics yet. We are relating and trying to build synergy, trying to contribute, to help the government with what they’re doing. What is going on now is that for the past one month, I have had my house in the village returned to some pilgrimage, of some of sorts, where various groups are coming around differently, one after the other, making one request.

What are they saying?

Oh, that Peter Mbah is working, the Governor is working; you are working. We are satisfied with your work. We also see that you are relating well with the governor, and that you’re working well; that we want to urge you, want to ask you, want to request you, please can you return back to the PDP, where the governor is, and work with him? They believe it will help to synergize more and to bring more benefits to our people if I begin to work from the same political platform with the Governor. So many groups have come and repeated the same thing. One, Peter is working. Two, you are working. Three, the two of you are relating well. Number four, please we want you to return to PDP where you have always belonged, that it will help our people more. So I told them to allow me to think it over and probably consult people. So I’ve taken time to think about it and there’s no saying that the government is working, In fact, I believe that they are correct, because I’m also trying in my own beat. In my 100 days in office, I commissioned seven projects, five classroom blocks, and two electricity projects. There are other ones, like solar street lights. I don’t even count them. So our people believe that I’m working and they are correct. Number three, you are working well with the government. It is true. I am working well with the government. I wonder if anybody is closer to him than I am across party lines, each person respecting the other person’s political opinion. But we are working well. We are working in synergy. I’m contributing to his government. He’s allowing me to contribute. He’s not blocking my way.

So I’ve weighed it and I know that these people are correct. Now I’ve gone to consult people because these are the same people who we went back to and said, look, we can’t stay here again, we are living. Do you know that my election, the victory I won in 2023 was not contributed only by the Labour Party people? How many of us are Labour party? But people voted for me across party lines, because everybody was seeing that what I was saying was correct. So now this time, the same people who you asked to join you in opposition, they are now asking to come back home. You cannot ignore their view, especially when what they’re saying is correct. So it is now my responsibility to consider what they’re saying and to respond accordingly. And I think within a short period of time, you will start hearing how these things are going to be processed because I can tell you that the decision is made. The job for me to return to PDP is made, and agreed by people. It is now a matter of time and process and the process is really on now.

So, you’re returning to the PDP?

Yes, ultimately I’m returning to PDP, the decision is made, and when I take decision I don’t wait on it, I don’t romance it, I don’t play around with it. I am returning to PDP and that is because the processes are in progress now.

Have you resigned from the Labour Party?

No, I’ve not resigned from the Labour Party but the process for me to return to the PDP is already on. I also ask God, look, there is nothing I can do in this world except what you ask me to do.

So what happens to Labor Party because there was a reason why people voted for Labor Party…?

…yes, the reason is the same reason I’m telling you about. They voted because there was no performance in the other side. Now, in those groups that are coming one after the other there are many Labour party people that I recognize. After people saw that my mind is made up, I think it is already a movement, mass movement. Nobody is going to remain.

Don’t you think that people voted for Labour Party because of Peter Obi?

Yes, Peter Obi joined and it brought credibility to the platform, the labour party because he is a credible politician, but I want to ask you if you think that what we did in 2023 in Enugu state was because of Peter Obi, how about Anambra State? Why did we perform better than Anambra state where Peter Obi comes from? Why is it that Enugu state performed best across the whole country in Labor Party? Peter Obi comes from Anambra state and Peter Obi did not perform one third of what we performed in Enugu state here. The wave that happened was not the Peter wave in Enugu state; it was a different type of wave created by non performance of a government in power.

Do you consider about the next election, do you consider getting a ticket for the next election?

For now, there is no consideration about ticket. In fact, I wish these demand to come back to PDP had waited a little longer, because that I’m in Labour Party does not stop me from anything I’m doing, and I believe that now is the time for governance. The time will come for politics, and that time will ask God. I’ll ask God, believe me, politicians don’t ask God, but Dennis Agbo asks God, what do I do? And whatever he says; he said, who he sends, he equips. He said that a labourer is deserving of his wages. I don’t worry myself at all about elections. I worry about generations. I want to try myself as a statesman, not a politician, I don’t do next election because, let me tell you, it’s not my style of politics.

So even after all the turbulence that you had with the PDP in pursuit of the Labour Party mandate, the back and front in tribunals, you’re dumping the Labour Party for the PDP that gave you all the troubles?

That’s what you call political contestation. I don’t fear the contestation. I know the God is behind me. In management, advanced management, always believe that the man up there has more information. I have more information than people who are just watching me. You are watching me from outside. You may not understand me, because I’m really like a wing. I don’t know where I’m coming from. You don’t know where I’m going. But if you know what I know, if you hear what I hear, if you pray the prayer I pray, if you read the Bible that I read, you know that I know what I’m doing and I know exactly where I am going. Even when those things were happening, I knew why it was happening because God needed to bring certain people to open shame and disgrace. It was not enough after the election, when I defeated them by the last time. If you think that victory came by chance, come and contest against me again, they will know whether it is by chance or whether it can be repeated again.