We4We MEDIA EXCLUSIVE –
HON. Ugo Nwaokoro bares heart on his new book, the recently concluded elections in Nigeria, People’s Perception of INEC, Voter apathy, Peter Obi and the Obi-Dients, Upcoming Imo State Gubernatorial Elections, Hon. Athan Achọnụ and a lot more.
Hon. Ugochukwu Nwaokoro, the former Deputy Mayor of the City of Newark, New Jersey, USA, speaks to We4We Media on his forthcoming book titled, “The plunder of Africa: Exposing the Exploitation of African Resources and How to Stop it!” With him briefly availing himself to our Media Correspondents, they capitalizes on it to delve into a range of other sensational issues happening in and around our communities. We got him to discuss the state of affairs in Nigeria and the gubernatorial elections coming up later this year in Imo State. As usual, Hon. Nwaokoro did not disappoint as he laid his opinions bluntly and unapologetically without fear or favor. Below is the transcript from our interview.
We4We:
Good morning Honorable and thank you for granting us this interview. How have you been doing since you left the Deputy Mayor’s office? By the way, congratulations on the success of your podcast, the Commonsense Africa Podcast.
Hon. Nwaokoro:
Thank you for having me, I am humbly delighted for the opportunity to talk to you about what I have been doing since I left the Deputy Mayor’s office of the city of Newark. As you already pointed out, I became the host of the successful podcast, the Commonsense Africa Podcast, it’s very time consuming, we were doing a minimum of two episodes per week, I couldn’t do anything else with my life it became too much for me. I decided to slow things down by not doing anymore episodes and allow the already posted episodes to run. I needed time to help in the Obidient Movement in preparation of the May 25, 2023 presidential elections. At the same time I decided to complete one of my books that I have been writing for sometime, but procrastination has made hard for me to finish it. I am very happy to share with you and the world that I have just completed one of my books titled, The plunder of Africa: Exposing the Exploitation of African Resources and How to Stop it! It is an interesting book that highlights the various ways the West has exploited Africa over the years, and our solutions on how to put a stop to it. The book is designed to be a guide to African leaders in their quest to reposition Africa and free her from the strangulating grip of the West. The book is being published now and by the end of April it will be ready to be ready to be launched, and I hope you join us then for the launching and promotion. Every person of African descent, lovers and friends of Africa would need a copy of the book to really understand where is coming from to help us to focus and design where we’re going as Africans and as a continent.
We4We:
Woww! You have been really busy. The book sounds very interesting and looks like a guide that Africa really needs. I can’t wait to lay my hands on a copy. Please, do let us know when the book is out from the press, the launching and the promotion, that way we can do our share to support. You mentioned earlier about your involvement with the “Obidient movement”. Can you talk to us about the movement and how you hope to sustain the momentum of the movement past this election season in Nigeria.
Hon. Nwaokoro: The emergence of viable political movement became necessary during and after the ENDSARS protests of 2020. Instead of the government and the political elites to listen to the yearnings and cries of our youths, they totally ignored them and as if that by itself wasn’t bad enough, the government abused them in so many ways, calling our youths all sorts of names, even the president called them lazy youths. Alongside others in his camp, the president challenged the youths to run for elective offices since they wanted change. The government went further to unleash the police and the military to shoot and kill innocent and peacefully protesting youths that their only crime was asking their government to listen to them and dialogue with them. That missed opportunity by government to engage the youths only exacerbated the need for a movement. The youths accepted the challenge and decided to get involved with politics and as they were trying to figure out the platform to use, the PDP gave them the gift that never stopped giving by frustrating Peter Obi out of PDP. Obi’s demonstration that he was not a status quo politician gave the youths the leader that had been yearning for and the Obidient Movement was ‘birthed’. I don’t think it would have made a difference the party Obi joined as long as it’s not APC or PDP. So, the moment Mr. Peter Obi joined the Labour Party (LP) and secured its presidential ticket, the Obidient Movement exploded, with Mr. Obi’s charity and integrity merging with the enthusiasm and energy of the youths. Initially, the traditional politicians did not take the movement serious. Some called it ‘four guys in a room with a laptop making noise on social media”. As the noise continued and LP started getting momentum, they said it had no structure, but they failed to take note of the massive registration of youths to vote. The way they followed and campaigned for Obi. It got to a point that Obi was no longer his own man, the youths claimed him without him even winning the presidency yet. Just when the politicians realized that the youths were serious in obtaining their PVCs, they began making their undemocratic moves, using INEC to disqualify registered voters, most of them the youths, claiming they were double registration, something that could have been simply corrected by canceling one registration if indeed there were double registrations, they had ample time to make the corrections, but they chose outright disqualifications.
About your question on how to sustain the momentum at the Obidient Movement, accountability is the key. Starting with the quality of candidates that the movement support for election. You cannot support a known criminal, 419ner, drug dealer, ex-convict to run for office and expect him or her to not steal from our treasury if victory is attained. Ii’s impossible. One cannot give what he or she does not have. We cannot continue to support and elect criminals and then expect them to not exhibit their criminal traits while in office. Assuming we do not allow candidates to buy their way in, then they do not have the burden of trying to recover money used for rigging, then we can have the moral decency to hold our candidates accountable. So, the process we use in selecting our candidates must be devoid or material or monetary inducements, that way a good pool of quality candidates will be maintained. That is the first step to sustain the movement. The U.S. Republican Party is suffering all kinds of defeats and ridicule at elections largely because of the poor quality of candidates that it had presented he to run for offices in the recent times.
We4We:
What’s your take on the recently concluded Nigerian elections?
Hon. Nwaokoro:
What was equipped and prepared for to produce the best, most free and most fair election results in Nigeria, ended up being the most disgraceful, most wasteful of public funds and most publicly carried out criminal acts in the history of Nigeria. Everything happened in public view. INEC officials, Law Enforcement agents, governors, politicians and thugs, intimidating voters, changing results, mutilating election result sheets, disregarded and disabled BVAS electronic upload from the polling units as required by the electoral act, throwing away legitimately thumb printed ballot papers and replacing them with fakes, underaged voting, etc. The elections were so boldly, stupidly and recklessly rigged with impunity that at some point one thought it was an official duty, no cover up or discretion of any kind. The mutilations of result sheets signed by party agents were so shabbily done that even kindergarten children could have done a better job. Evidence of the riggings are littered on the streets of Nigeria. Every polling unit in Nigeria is now a crime scene. Still with all these pieces of evidence, the INEC chairman, in supposed good conscience at grave time hours of the night, announced a winner with numbers that up till now cannot be reconciled by INEC servers. All the INEC chairman could say was, “go to court!” The INEC chairman makes it appear like his duty to his paymaster is to move the elections to be decided by the courts by any means necessary. One may ask, why the rush to get to the courts even when the votes are still being collated? Is the court a safe place for the riggers, especially the Supreme Court knowing that is the final court of the land, and if it’s compromised as well just like INEC. Then the perpetrators of the biggest crime in Nigeria have won? Is it to go to court and have the case sit in court for the next four years? The nocturnal and clandestine movement of the Chief Justice of Nigeria does not give hope that the Supreme Court of Nigeria is a place for fair justice, the same Supreme Court that made a guy that came a distant fourth the current governor of Imo state, turning a state that used to be one of the most peaceful in the country into a war zone and a killing field? The actions of president Buhari does not portray him as a fair commander in chief who gives hope to the woken up Nigerian youths, his utterance when Tinubu went to present his fake INEC certificate is bothersome. Not only did he congratulate Tinubu, he congratulated himself as well, which means he’s happy with how this went down and are still going down. How come the DSS and other law enforcement agents have not invited INEC chairman , Nyesom Wike, the oba of Lagos, the oba of elugushi, the baale and others involved in putting the oro festival on the eve of the Election Day, all geared towards voter intimidation? The same DSS is now warning about a possible protest against the swearing in of Tinubu. What choice has the DSS left the Nigerian people? Nigerians, especially the youths have done what they are supposed to do by voting, and you failed to protect their votes for them and now you’re protecting an illegal mandate. When you fail to allow peaceful change to occur, then you must be ready for a revolution, starting with peaceful protest, as we are witnessing all over Nigeria at the moment, including mothers protesting naked on the streets. The magnitude of the rigging of the elections and the impunity used in doing it calls for nothing short of resistance, and as it’s the practice, every action begets an equal and opposite reaction, and what Nigeria is facing at the moment with INEC begets nothing short of the mother of all protests in the whole of Africa. This can be avoided if the president acts like the man in charge and cancels the entire elections saving lives and saving Nigeria from further embarrassment. It’s going to be the worst mistake and travesty of justice to swear-in Tinubu and Shettima based only on the words of the INEC chairman without data to back it up. I hear people say that interim government is not in our constitution, yes, but the constitution is made for normal times, this is not normal times. It’s not in our constitution for the military to carry out coup d’tat , but it happens and the constitution is temporarily suspended. In this try times in Nigeria, both the president and the National Assembly can initiate an action to temporarily make room for interim government until the heavy allegations leveled against Tinubu and INEC are resolved. The need to protect the office of the presidency and protect our democracy outweighs the danger of allowing a man with so much damning allegations to sit in Aso Rock for even one minute, what if he’s truly guilty? Can you imagine the negative impact of exposing our National security information to such a man, allowing him access to our collective wealth? Actions do have consequences, you know. Do we even think about the impact of this INEC, Tinubu and APC rigging and abuse of our constitution has on our youths? Are we not telling our youths that it’s okay to do what Tinubu and INEC by rewarding Tinubu with the presidency? Nigeria is now on track to be tagged a kingpin nation if Tinubu is sworn-in pending when the court resolves the lawsuit against him. In a sane clime, the DSS should have been interrogating Tinubu, INEC Chairman, Obi of Lagos, M’C. Oluomo, Nyesom Wike, El Rufai and others for their roles to sabotage democracy in the country. Then you have the selective arrests by DSS and the other law enforcement agencies, any Igbo person that opens his mouth to condemn or speak against the evil in the land, is arrested, even a minor by the name Kamsi was arrested in something that looked like kidnapping, just for making a video asking the government to respect the other of the Supreme Court to release Nnamdi Kanu. Mean while all these APC members and supporters I mentioned above, including the man that caused the delay of the plane. What’s this country turning into? Where criminals roam free with impunity while the innocent law abiding citizens are constantly being harassed by law enforcement or government backed thugs. My brother, if I continue to talk about Nigeria, we do not have enough time today to even scratch the numerous issues beleaguering Nigeria.
We4We:
You’re right sir. The problems of Nigeria are so many that we do not have enough time to do justice to it today. Can we talk about the gubernatorial elections coming up in your state, Imo State, towards the end of this year?
Hon. Nwaokoro:
With the abracadabra ruling of the Supreme Court of Nigeria that selected the current governor of Imo State, Imolites do not really have faith in voting and elections anymore. A⁶ man they clearly did not vote for had been imposed on them for whatever reason best known to the Supreme Court. Their attitude is that, what’s the point of voting, when at the end the Supreme Court would over ride the people’s votes? The charisma of Peter Obi and the energy of the Obidient Movement was the only reason that made Imolites to come out in droves to vote in the last elections, and still it’s on record that the Supreme Court governor of Imo State and his agents interfered, intimidated, disrupted and rigged the elections, even where the people didn’t even vote, they wrote in results for them. INEC and its chairman have again proven to Ndi’Imo that their votes do not count, just like the Supreme Court did to them in 2019 gubernatorial election. It will take a candidate with the level of charisma and enthusiasm of Peter Obi to motivate Ndi’Imo again to come out to vote.
And out all the candidates that so far have declared their interests to vie for the governorship of Imo State, especially in the Labour Party, only one man stands out as the most qualified by a very wide margin, and that man is Senator Chief Nneji Athan Achonu, The OneArmGeneral. Chief Achonu’s passion and love for Imo State are unequalled to those of any other Imo person’s, living or deceased. He had further demonstrated this through his huge personal financial investments in and around Imo State. Chief Achonu’s quiet philanthropic work is unlike anyone I have seen in Nigeria, let alone in Imo State. He gives and helps without any noise or unnecessary publicity and he continues to give. I personally think that his coming out to run for the governorship of Imo State is him still giving to his people. It’s not him doing it for popularity and definitely not doing it for the money he will get from the office, because from his investment in Imo State and in Nigeria in general, I cannot think about another Imolite that can match him wealth to wealth. Chief Achonu has the selfless capacity to bring transformative development to Imo State. I really do believe in his sincerity and vision to transform Imo state to be even better than Dubai as he stated in one of his video interviews. I remember listening to him speak to Diaspora Imolites in the Bronx, New York in 2015 during his exploratory meeting in preparation for his anticipated run for the Okigwe zone senatorial seat, his articulation and understanding of the issues of Imo Sate was intriguing, amazing, convincing and a clear reflection of his compassion and vision for the state.
We4We: Do you know if Chief Achonu is actually running for the governorship primaries under the Labour Party?
Ugo Nwaokoro:
I hope it’s true because I heard it from a friend but i haven’t been able to confirm it. I pray it’s true (that he is running), because Imo State will be blessed to have him (Hon Athan Achọnụ) as governor. He appears to be a serious, focused and goal-oriented individual.
We4We:
Answer the question (whether you’re aware that Chief Achonu is truly running), then you conclude.
Hon. Nwaokoro: Thank you for the opportunity to talk about the state of affairs of our dear country Nigeria and my beloved Imo State. May God bless Imo State, bless Nigeria and the people of Nigeria.
We4We Media:
You still didn’t answer the question. I guess it’s safe to believe that you’ve given an early, very early endorsement to the OneArmGeneral Athan Achọnụ for the 2023 Imo State Gubernatorial contest. Thanks again, Hon. Nwaokoro.
Ugo Nwaokoro:
I thought I answered all your questions. On a more serious note, I think if given the opportunity to serve, the OneArmGeneral would deliver for Imo State. I appreciate your time. Always a pleasure. Hahahaha..