A former governor of Anambra State,
Chinwoke Mbadinuju, in this inter view
speaks about the controversies which dodged
his administration, godfathers and the
inability of the Peoples Democratic Party to
form government in the state since he left
office.
It was speculated that you were going to be
among the governorship aspirants in the last
election in Anambra; what happened?
The main reason why I didn't pick any form and
why I didn't go into the contest is because
already, most of the PDP members in Anambra
were my boys, I brought them up. Some of
them were my Special Advisers. Others were
Special Assistants and Secretary to the State
Government or one thing or the other.
If I had gone into the contest with such people,
the so-called godfathers will back them to try to
disgrace me and win the election at all costs.
Then, you would see money bags throwing their
weight and money around and I might find
myself alone. If I lost, it won't augur well for
me and my supporters. I consulted with my
people although I had made up my mind under
the circumstances at that time. It was a
personal decision; nobody forced me to or not
to.
After four years in Awka and all the things that
followed, I felt I did enough in four years and
the circumstances in which I was stopped from
going for a second term are now seen to be a
mistake by whoever did that, especially the
leaders. In fact, it was one leader, the former
President Olusegun Obasanjo, he was the
person who singlehandedly stopped me. I made
up my mind it was not worth it, I have done my
best for Anambra and I did not want to contest
for governor again.
I felt it was better I stay out to offer advice to
those who were in the race. I never showed
interest. If I did, it would be a different thing.
My people in Anambra and the PDP here in
Abuja know that I never made a bid for the job
in 2013, I never picked the form.
What was your greatest challenge as
governor?
Controversies. They all called me controversial.
If things were going one way, there would be no
need for controversy. Like the issue of security,
it was the most challenging aspect of my
administration because women were running
into the churches to sleep because armed
robbers had written that they would come to
their houses on such and such a day and time.
Most of the women chose to go to the church to
take shelter every night. As a governor, I lived
in Onitsha during this period, it was hell. This
Umuleri/Aguleri and Umoba Anam have fought
themselves for over 50 years.
I said I was not going to preside over that kind
of thing and decided to do something. Even
when I said I was going to Umuleri to try and
stop the fighting, the Police and SSS advised
against it. I said okay deputy governor sit by my
left hand side, you are from that area. I am
going there, all of us are going but they said
people don't go there but I said we would go
and if the governor and his deputy perish, then
it will be news. We went and came back.
When they say that you are controversial, you
can't just be controversial for nothing because
you are trying to do good. I was there to do
good for Anambra State, I started prayers every
Monday morning in all government
establishments, I used to go to the Onitsha
Market and town halls to conduct prayers and
God kept answering the prayers and performing
miracles. Those who didn't like my style said it
was controversy.
With your experience as governor, what
would you say about godfatherism?
Well, a godfather has many connotations. You
could have positive godfathers and negative
ones. The good ones work towards making
things work and succeed but if you have a
godfather that is always challenging, he wants
to make appointments, if you have 10
commissioners, he would want to have three or
four. After you have given him two
commissioners, he will say he wants Special
Advisers, Special Assistants and he will even
want to choose their portfolios but I said these
things are not done like that and they said it is
done like that, that is controversy.
You are the governor and you run your
administration the way you want it. I know
some people helped us. There is nobody who
campaigned for elections or any position who
was not assisted. I have not seen one person
who will come out and say I didn't have any
help and it was the same type of help I got and
I was in trouble. Some of them wrote a petition
to the President and the petition was carried by
the then Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to the
President. They said I had N3.5bn abroad and I
told the President - we were in his office that I
never saw such money in Awka.
After attending the federal allocation meeting,
sometimes Anambra State will get N200m,
sometimes N600m; it was never straight. I
couldn't pay salaries in some of the months so
where could I get such money to send N3.5bn
abroad? I told him it was not possible, he said,
if he didn't approve it for investigations, some
people would think that he was colluding with
me. I said okay. Atiku brought the petition and
Obasanjo looked at the petition and said but
there is no covering letter, Atiku put his hands
into his pocket and brought out a covering
letter. These people were ready, everything that
they could do to get me jailed or killed, what
did I do? I was doing well.
Christ was doing good, healing all types of
diseases. It is my experience to be doing good
while people that run me down go through all
sorts of problems, it was terrible I must tell you.
In any case, they went to Europe, London where
I studied, they went to Russia where we visited
when I played football, I played in Spain,
everywhere, they saw my CV and thought that
all the places I went, I put money there, they
went to America where I also studied and saw
nothing and at the end, President Obasanjo
called me on phone and said "Governor
Anambra," I said sir, he said you can walk with
your head high and I said I told you sir.
The only thing I had was three pounds in
London at the University of Southampton where
I studied Law and I had left in Lloyds Bank
three pounds, I couldn't have finished it. I kept
it there. Godfather or no godfather, in my own
case, they were negative even in the case of
those who came after me, they had it rough
with godfathers. The person who started
godfatherism in Anambra State was former
President Obasanjo because he wanted his boys
to be governor. In my own case, he wanted his
boy Andy Uba to rule Anambra and indeed his
nominee became governor for a few weeks.
Anambra State is not an easy state where you
can go and do two terms, it's tough.
You can ask Peter Obi what he went through to
get a second term; he succeeded because he
had godfathers who were positive. In the case
of the PDP, we had godfathers who were
negative. I was sent to prison pending bail but
5,000 hoodlums were hired to start a riot and
attack the prison with the aim of killing me.
They came to the prison where I was. They
trampled upon the prison gate and came to my
cell but I was gone. One judge told me their aim
was to arrest me, tie my hands and feet and
drive me through the streets of Onitsha main
market in an open van, the same market I go to
for prayers, before killing me.
Is it correct then to say that godfatherism
hindered your performance?
If you performed 90 per cent with all these
distractions, there is no way you can tell anyone
that you performed 100 per cent but the
important thing is if you go to Anambra State
today, they will tell you that my four-year
administration was the only time politicians
could come to Akwa and go back home with
money to take care of their families. No
governor from then till date has done it. I did
the best anybody in my circumstance could do, I
am happy with what I was able to achieve.
When you read my book which I entitled: "How
I governed Anambra State," after reading it you
can read: "Legacies and Challenges" and you will
know what I went through to achieve whatever
we achieved in Anambra State.
What do you feel when you are described as
the least performing governor since the
creation of the state?
That's politics. What are they calling President
Jonathan today? They say he is not performing.
Opponents will want to say anything and if you
continue to listen to the opposition, you won't
go anywhere, you won't do anything. They will
tell you oh, Mbadinuju did nothing! Nothing?
But Obasanjo came and inspected my
infrastructure and gave me "A" yet I am
nothing, Jerry Gana and his team came and
toured the whole country and Anambra State
under my watch took the gold cup, yet
Mbadinuju did nothing. If you don't ignore
some of these people, you will run mad.
How do you feel about the murder of Mr.
Barnabas Igwe and his pregnant wife who
were murdered during your tenure in office?
Anybody who listens to the rubbish being
peddled about allegations that I was involved in
the dastardly act has nothing to do. The person
does not fear God. How can a governor who was
leading a whole state in prayers every Monday
morning and God's blessing was visiting the
state and I was going to markets and town halls
preaching goodness and after I have done that,
then I will relax and go home and pick up my
gun and begin to shoot the people I prayed for?
It's not possible.
I was in Huston, Texas attending a meeting
when I was called and told this couple who
were lawyers had been assassinated. This man
and his wife were among those who supported
me and planned for me to become chairman of
Onitsha Bar Association, that is the highest you
could go in law practice in the state. I was told
they had been murdered. I knew that the man
who was killed was the chairman of the Onitsha
bar at the time I was governor, he was from
Imo State, we were together, and he and his
wife were my supporters. How could I go back
and begin to kill those people who supported
me to rise?
These things are not possible. The chairman was
very concerned about the welfare of the people;
he was always urging that we pay salaries. I
used to explain to them that the money they
were giving us was not enough and it was
deliberate on the part of the Federal
Government. They seized most of our money in
the allocation waiting for my replacement. Once
my replacement came, he was receiving N3bn to
N4bn within the first month. I never received
more than N600m; you can see the whole thing.
When I came back I surrendered my immunity
and told the police because the Onitsha Bar
Association said they won't appear before the
committee I was going to set up to find out who
killed the couple because they already suspected
that I did it. To cut a long story short, when I
came back, I surrendered my immunity as
governor and asked the police to investigate.
I gave them a 20-page report and the police
went through. After this, they arrested 14
people to be charged. The police let me go
because they saw my passport and visa and
they knew that on the night that the couple was
killed in Onitsha, I was in Huston.
Since I didn't kill, was there conspiracy? The
police said for the 15 weeks they did their
investigations, nobody mentioned my name.
That was a no case submission. I went on leave
in London, before I came back, the same
problem of the Presidency here in Abuja
developed. They called upon Sunday Ehindero,
the then IG and asked him to arrest me. They
dismissed the earlier report which acquitted me;
the Presidency said it didn't accept the earlier
report. There was nothing I didn't suffer. I am
not a person that can turn round and kill his
friends .
He was from Imo State, I was not contesting
against him, and he was not contesting against
me, least anybody will say he was blocking my
way. They killed him; the police report was that
those who kidnapped (Chris) Ngige who was the
governor after me, those who kidnapped him
were the same people who killed Igwe and the
wife. Why did they kill Igwe and the wife? To
make it impossible for me to do a second term,
how could I have killed Igwe and his wife? I did
not. That is what some people based their
arguments on, not to allow me run for a second
term. Since then, who in the PDP has been able
to go for a second term in Anambra State? The
issue is that if you cannot be fair to other
people, God will not be fair to you.
Even though legally, nothing linked you with
their murder, do you think people would stop
linking you with the murder?
Most of them are already mental; some of them
one way or another are facing judgment. Those
in government will always be criticised.
How were you so comfortable when so many
unions went on strike for as long as one year
as governor of the state?
It was not peculiar to Anambra State. Schools
were closed nationwide that year. Even under
President Obasanjo, the Police went on strike
for the first time in history. It was a general
problem; Obasanjo caused it by inflating
workers' monthly emoluments and hyped it. We
didn't have enough money to pay teachers .
The governor of a state today who was the
leader of workers was always coming to
Anambra State riding a rickety Volkswagen
beetle to camouflage and go to one of the
godfathers, receive money from them and insist
that no teacher would go to the classroom. Even
the women who were willing were chased out of
the classrooms. As long as the labour leaders
were fed by the godfathers, the schools
remained closed. There was little one could do.
Was there an agreement you had with these
godfathers that you reneged on?
How can anybody say I was paying godfathers
while at the same time they said I reneged on
an agreement? There is a godfather who had an
arrangement with the military that he would be
paid N10m every month, I wasn't there when
the agreement was made. When I tried to stop
it, I was dragged to President Obasanjo's office
and I told Obasanjo this is the situation I found
on ground and Obasanjo said I had to go back
and continue paying it; that it was legal. At what
stage did I renege? They will always try to give a
dog a bad name in order to hang it. Obasanjo
gave them contracts worth billions of naira, they
were super rich, there was nothing I could give
to them.
You mean Obasanjo asked you to pay this
godfather; who is he?
Yes, Obasanjo asked me to pay. The godfather
is one of the Uba family.
Have you met Obasanjo after you left office
as governor?
Yes, I have met him and we are friends. When I
first visited him, he received me well and even
took me to his chapel where I preached
because I am now an evangelist. He has
received me very well after then. But I don't
know whether all those things enter his heart. I
like to see him as my friend because he was
once my leader being a former president. Again,
you should know that being a former military
officer, you can not blame him if he still exhibits
traits of a former military man. I consider him
as a friend anyway.
Do you have any regrets becoming governor?
No. When you read these books, you will know I
have no regrets. Nobody can regret being a
governor of a state, whether good or bad. I
contributed my part to the development of my
state. Only opponents will see nothing good in
everything you do. I can go anywhere in
Anambra with my head held high.
President Obasanjo recently wrote an open
letter to President Jonathan. What do you
make of it?
It is very doubtful that OBJ wrote the letter, it is
very likely that Femi Fani-Kayode, the former
Aviation Minister who has been taking up issues
against PDP and ministers of the PDP did. I
know how he coins his words. This 18-page
letter was not written by Obasanjo, he signed it.
Just like you read the Presidency, it could be
Reuben Abati who wrote a statement. In the 18-
page material, one can see clearly what he
(Obasanjo) and the APC are trying to do.
They want to bring this government down, they
are saying impeachment; if that does not work,
they are saying let military take over. The
libellous and defamatory letter from Obasanjo,
indications are rife that the real author of the
said letter was Hon. Femi Fani Kayode, a restive
youth and a political trouble maker. However,
since Obasanjo signed another person's letter,
the former President must prove all his
allegations, and not Jonathan to prove them, or
even reply to the spurious letter, after
smuggling the former military heads-of state
into Obasanjo's personal troubles. In fact,
indications have it that the G7 contributed ideas
to the troubler's letter.
Stay updated!!!!
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