OMRADE Chris Akomas, labour activist turned politician is the deputy governor of Abia State. He joined politics to continue the “struggle”. He says he is press shy. After several efforts, Sunday Vanguard was able to track him down to talk. In this rare chat with our Abia State Correspondent, Anayo Okoli, Akomas spoke about himself, why he is into politics, the office of deputy governor, the relationship between him and Governor Theodore Orji on the one side and Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, the party BOT chairman on the other side.

With the pronouncement of the Court of Appeal in Ibadan a year ago ordering a retrial of the case of the Action Congress governorship candidate in Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola and the further order that he should be allowed to tender from the bar, a document called “Final Police Report on April 14, 2007 Election in Osun State”, it was expected that the petitioner would briskly tender the document, call a few witnesses and close his case.

My own submitted answer is no. Because we need to totally overhaul and restructure Nigeria. Because if Nigeria is not restructured, nobody you put there, with all the technical supports all over the world, will perform. The presidency is a big monolith that has the life of its own. But he must seriously get down to the issue of Nigeria. And the only issue concerning Nigeria now is the structure of Nigeria. He cannot tackle development if he cannot tackle structure of Nigerria. They are tied together.

Why I am saying that Jonathan becoming President is a divine intervention. Yar’Adua’s death is a call of the Almighty, we cannot challenge God, since Yar’Adua and Jonathan were in a joint ticket to run for the Presidency in 2007 and won; and if Yar’Adua was to run in 2011, Jonathan would still have followed him and history is abound in American and United Kingdom of Presidents after completing two terms, it is the Vice President that takes over, God has settled the case in favour of Jonathan.

The do-or-die mentality is still here with us. That is why you see that law suits continue three or four years after elections were held. The fact is that our politicians need to apply a sportsmanly spirit. First of all the rules have to be fair and known to all such that when there is a political context, when you are beaten, you are beating fair and square.