*Says Sect’s action targeted at ANPP

Chief George Moghalu served as the National Secretary of the All Nigeria Peoples Party at a time that the party’s glory appears to be at its zenith. Though he left the party briefly for the Peoples Democratic Party, he returned to the ANPP fold where he contested to be chairman of the party but lost to the incumbent, Ogbonnaya Onu.
During the last election, Chief Moghalu contested for the Anambra South senate seat but lost to the Peoples Democratic Party Candidate.In this interview with BEN AGANDE in Abuja, Chief Moghalu speaks on a wide variety of national issues including the Boko Haram threat and the prospect of an Igbo president in 2015.
 Excerpts:
 
The government has been inaugurated and the ministers have been named, what is your assessment?

It is too early to asses the government because it has just been inaugurated. We are going to watch and see to what extent these people will work in tandem with the president and his transformation agenda. No matter how you look at it, we need transformation. Government is just being put in place and we expect that in the next two weeks all appointments would have been concluded so that people can get into their jobs and Nigerians can benefit.

 Do you think that the calibre of people appointed can drive the transformation agenda of the president?
It would not be fair for me to make a blanket assessment. I have had contact with a few of them so it would not be fair for me to make a blanket assessment. They have been given the job, let’s leave them and see how they will perform consequent upon which we will assess them. A good number of them carry very strong Curriculum Vitae. But like I have always said, being a minister is a different ball game.

Even before the full commencement of the so called transformation agenda, the president plans to send a proposal to the National Assembly for a single tenure of six years for president and state governors. What do you think about this proposal?

While I like the four year tenure is that it is not a matter of re-election. It is a matter of referendum on the performance of the people who have been holding position in government. I look at the second term as a period of assessing the performance of the incumbent in the past four years to be able to know whether the mandate should be renewed or not. That is why I do not like single term because if you give somebody six years, seven years or eight years single term, he goes there with a fixed mind knowing fully well that whether we like it or not, he would spend those years. I strongly support a four year term which we have been used to, which other developed democracies have been practicing because it gives you an opportunity to asses the performance of any body in responsible position and you now determine whether the mandate should be renewed or not. The problem with this country is not about tenure. It is about governance.

 Talking about good governance, how do you think the government should handle the security challenges posed by the Boko Haram threat?

I think we should increase our intelligence gathering capabilities. Our security agencies should be better trained on how to identify the problems and nip them in the bud. I think it is a welcome development that the government has set up a committee to allow people proffer what they feel is the solution to the problems behind the Boko Haram challenge.

 Don’t you think that the Boko Haram threat is as a result of the failure of the ANPP government in Borno State?
No.  Rather we even suspect that the Boko Haram is targeted at discrediting the ANPP government. Don’t forget that all the high profile killings that took place in Borno State were targeted at members of the ANPP. We lost our deputy chairman, the blood brother of the governor of Borno State; our governorship candidate and local government chairman. We even suspect that the ANPP is being targeted by the Boko Haram maybe on the sponsorship of other parties.

 Shouldn’t the government negotiate with the group? Shouldn’t soldiers be withdrawn as being demanded?
How do you negotiate with a faceless group? Where do you take the letter inviting them for the meeting to? The involvement of soldiers was as a result of the total breakdown of law and order. If you withdraw the soldiers, what alternative will you proffer? What we need is to ensure that the soldiers operate strictly on their rules of engagement and do not become unnecessarily high handed in dealing with the threat posed by the Boko Haram.

 Do you think that the proposal for the creation of more states is justifiable at this time of our political development?

For the sake of equity and justice, one state must be created for the south east. All the zones in the country have six states except the North West which has seven states. What we must do in order to ensure that justice is done is to create one state out of the South East in order for the zone to be at par with other zones. Democracy cannot thrive in the face of injustice. The south east deserves to have another state in order to be at par with other zones of the country. That is not negotiable.

 If the zone is to choose between producing the president of this country and having another state, which one would be the preferred option?

Why should we be made to choose between creation of state and producing the president of Igbo extraction? Did other zones have to choose?

 The argument is that the South East has not been able to handle positions given to it well. People have pointed to the senate president’s position where almost all the states in the South East had to produce the senate president?

Have you looked at the way those senate presidents emerged? Were they the choices of the people or they were forced on them?

 When Evans Enwerem emerged as the senate president, it was Dr Chuba Okadigbo that the people wanted. That was why when the senate elected their own president in the person of Pius Anyim and Ken Nnamani, did they not serve out their terms. The south east is determined to produce the president of Igbo extraction and when the time comes, we will all sit down and get the best material available from the land. It is not something we are ready to compromise on this time around.