DR Austin Nweze, a social commentator and governorship candidate on the platform of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in Ebonyi State, in this interview explains why he wants to govern the state.

By Charles Kumolu

You are a known social commentator and critic, can we know what attracted you to politics?

As a public commentator, sometimes you just don’t watch, you need to participate in the process. God has programmed our lives and every experience we go through is for greater good that God is preparing you for. Over the years, I was the last person to say that I wanted to join politics.

But I knew that I was going to contribute something to the society. I grew up in Canada, I went to school there, and thought I wasn’t going to come back to Nigeria. But all attempts I made to remain in Canada proved futile. A Cameroonian friend called me and told me that the decision to go back to Nigeria will be the best decision of my life.

When I got to London on my way back at the airport, I met a Nigerian being cheated, I had to fight for him. That desire to do something for Nigeria was there. Again, while in Canada, I was the President of International Students Association and when Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe visited and I hosted him, he also advised me to come back to Africa after my education.

Education and exposure

•Nweze: I will change Ebonyi

He visited in 1983, he encouraged us and with that with our education and exposure, we had something to offer Africa. So I decided to come back to Nigeria after my education. So the burden to help this nation has always been there.

On leadership: Over the years I have been bothered when I see young men and women hawking on the streets. Seeing a 17 year old or 16 year old from Ebonyi hawking on the street is a common sight. In 2008, Ebonyi State had the highest percentage of hawkers on the streets. A recent study showed about 70 to 75% of hawkers in Lagos are from Ebonyi State. There is purportedly free education in Ebonyi State, yet our people don’t go to school.

On Ebonyi free education: During the 2011 electioneering period when I contested for governorship, I traversed the nooks and crannies of this state and I found out that rather than these children being in the classroom, they were in the farms helping their parents.

So I realized that there must be something wrong with this kind of free education that they have. You are giving them free education when they are hungry.

That is why they are going back to the farms to help their parents. By the time you make farming more lucrative that their parents can benefit from it, and then these children can afford to go to school.

On financial muscle: If you ask me if I have the financial strength, I will tell you that as I move on, funds will come. People have opened up websites, some are contributing money to this process. And you can never have all the money to run a campaign. You can never say I have budgeted 10 billion to run a campaign because it will finish and you will still need more funds.

So, the thing is that keep the funds will keep flowing as at when needed. It is not how much you have because INEC stipulates how much you can spend. And we have to abide by that which is even good for us.

If we can spend less than INEC requirement and get the governorship, it is a plus. And we can boldly say that we spent N100 million or N200 million. Money is important, but it is not the determinant of who wins the elections. It doesn’t go.

Level of killings

It still remains that we might not have the kind of money others have but we are being strategic about it and you know because at the end of every election, everything that you do, God determines the outcome.

From my experience, I have found out that politics is 80 per cent spiritual, 19 per cent money and 1 per cent personal effort in Nigeria and anywhere in the world. Though the percentage might vary and that is why during political times there is a high level of killings. So my message to the people of Ebonyi State is that I will not steal their money.

I will use whatever resources, even if it is my personal resource to develop the state. If you understand what is going on today in Ebonyi today, you will discover that the stronghold of the PDP has a big crack at the moment. The governor and his deputy are at loggerheads.

When a house is divided against itself, it can’t stand. I am saying that the house of PDP in Ebonyi State has fallen. The same with APC, there is none of them that can say that they willl win Ebonyi this time.