As political activities ahead of the 2027 governorship election begin to gather momentum in Abia State, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kelechi Anosike, insists that his party laid the foundation for Abia’s development and remains the best thing that has happened to the State. He also speaks on his plan for the State if elected. Charles Ajunwa brings the excerpts:
Aggrieved Abia PDP stakeholders described your emergence as the party’s governorship candidate as rude shock to them. What’s your take?
Maybe because they have not been following my growth and trajectory in the party. I joined PDP since 2005, and I worked closely with former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In fact, I did a book, one of his biographies, titled: ‘Olusegun Obasanjo, The Man, The Message, The Movement’. It’s a three-part book. And in 2006, I served as Chairman National Assembly’s Screening Committee sent to Plateau State. In 2007, 2009, late President Yar’Adua appointed me as a member of some presidential committees, including the one for the review of insurance law, which I did with late Professor Joe Irukwu and Prof. Osipitan. So I’ve been around. The PDP office in Nkwoegwu Ward of my party, I’ve been the one paying the rent all these years. In 2011, I ran for House of Representatives, and I was denied the ticket. I was given to Oluchi Ibechi. In 2008, I contested to be a member of National Working Committee of the party when I sought for the office of Deputy National Financial Secretary, the same convention that brought late Sir Vincent Ogbulafor. I was in that convention. So when I read one report saying that, ‘my emergence is the eighth wonder of the world, that we should study it’. I laughed it over. So I’m wondering where are they coming from. I want to state categorically that I’m a strong PDP member from my ward to state and national levels. So, it was easy having understood the dynamics. And I’m PDP both at heart and in spirit. It was easy for me when I come in to be able to get the ticket because I’m a real party man.
But your emergence seems to have divided the party. Are there efforts to pacify those that lost out?
It’s important to say that PDP is not divided. It’s one united big family. But in every competition, there must be a winner. Of course, those that failed to get the ticket will not be happy one way or the other. It’s human, emotions and so on. But I’ve reached out to them. I’ve called them. The party too, at that level, has reached out to them. So there’s an understanding and formidable cohesion is being built so that we go into the election as one united big family. In fact, in my acceptance speech, I extended the olive branch to them. That we should come together, one person must win. But we have a collective mission. That mission is to reposition our party to take back the Government House from the Labour Party.
Did you also reach out to other aspirants that lost out in the party’s primary election?
Yes. I have spoken to most of them, but I’ve not invited them yet. I intend to that soon when we are having stakeholders’ engagement, where party members will interface with one another. At that platform, we’ll be able to reach them and bring everyone together to join hands and reposition our party
Years of PDP in Abia still remain a subject of controversy. How do you intend to convince Abians to vote for the party again?
You see, there are a lot of misconceptions out there. PDP remains the best thing that happened to Abua State, and that’s the truth. And the PDP remains the most expansive and formidable party, both in Abia and in Nigeria.
Our leaders are doing their very best to reposition the party. I tell them that I’m presenting a new direction and a new mindset. Some misunderstandings about the party came from the paucity of funds available to the past PDP governments. And the windfall that the Labour government is witnessing now due to subsidy removal. All thanks to President Bola Tinubu’s economic policy on subsidy removal. So the amount of money that comes into Abia State monthly, is about what the last PDP government saw in four years. There’s much more money available now to do more work than then. Apart from that, I tell them that I present a new energy and a new mindset. In fact, we have records of roads done by PDP. They far outnumber what is being done now. But you see, it’s a different thing when you are doing your job quietly, and someone decides to embrace social media to exaggerate what is being done. Even what is not on the ground is being recorded as being done somewhere. Take the example of the Smart Schools in 2024, not one is on the ground. There’s another one in Ukwa, they call it a recreational park. They claimed they spent billions, but nothing is on the ground. When the campaign starts, some of those facts will be made available to the public to see that PDP remains the best thing that can happen to the state.
Analysts have attributed the PDP’s loss to Labour Party in 2023 to poor performance. Do you agree, and what has changed?
I don’t know what they meant by poor performance. You assess a man based on the amount of money available to him. With little resources available to them, they still had the rice belts from Ubani to Isikwuato. And there were two rice mills functional. There was Osikapa Abia, home-grown rice Abians produced. All those things have fizzled out. The past governments set up the oil palm belt from Ukwa axis. All those things have fizzled out. There were holistic developments by past PDP’s governments. But this government has only centred on few road infrastructure with total neglect of all other aspects and indices of good governance. So I differ from that question. There was no poor performance, yes.
In your acceptance speech you promised to focus on agriculture and industrialisation. Can you throw more light on this?
I present a welfarist philosophy. I said the next government of Abia State will be welfare and care government based. I said that any Abian in need will be a priority, not a problem. I also said that we will build infrastructure, we will build lives. I also said that never again will any Abian go to bed with an empty stomach. There will be enough food for everyone. So the next government will be centred on welfare.
And talking about welfare, there’s an economic welfare. I’m looking at prosperity and wealth creation. I’m looking at SME financing. I’m looking at skills acquisition. I’m looking at entrepreneurship grants. I’m looking at industrialisation, market expansion, agricultural exports. Then we also have what I call social protection welfare. In the social protection welfare, I’m looking at protecting the vulnerable citizens. Then the beneficiaries will include widows, the elderly, persons with disability, orphans, poor households. Then I look at healthcare welfare. I’m looking at affordable healthcare. We’re looking at free maternal care, rural clinics, health insurance, drug subsidies, and mobile hospitals. Then when I look at educational welfare, I’m looking at human capital development. One of the programmes will include scholarships, teacher welfare, school rehabilitation, digital learning, and skills acquisition.
We’ll talk about youth welfare and empowerment. You know, there’s no programme now in the Abia State government centred on youth. There’s none. No opportunity for Abian youths. So we have what we call youth agog. So in this youth welfare empowerment, we’re looking at startup funding, tech hubs, and sports development. Youth employment, talent hunt. We’ll harness and develop talents in Abia and commercialise them, market them to the world, both in sports, in music, and in various aspects to keep Abia youths busy. What happens now is that as they’re graduating, they’re going to Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. Nobody wants to stay at home. So all of that will change.
The government will be more about women and youths. Women’s welfare and economic inclusion. So part of the programmes will include women’s enterprise funds, maternal health care, political inclusion, and cooperatives. Then we have workers’ welfare. In workers’ welfare, we’re talking about a motivated workforce. So the programme will include prompt salaries. I promised them that we’ll pay above minimum wage. The present government is struggling to pay. Ebonyi is paying N85,000 minimum wage. Enugu, N85,000. Imo, N104,000. But Abia State government is struggling to pay N70,000. They pay 60 in some cases. Then, pension reforms, housing support, health care coverage. We have what we call Pension Plus. Pension plus is, they get their pension as at when due. Then plus health care. There’s a reason why they’re called senior citizens. So with the cost of healthcare now most of
them cannot even afford it. So their equity contribution to the health insurance is the number years they’ve served and retired. Then they go to hospitals, they get free medicals. So the government will subsidise their healthcare. Some state governments have misappropriated and misapplied the subsidy funds given to them. The federal government gave it to them so that they can provide infrastructure and social welfare. So most of them focus on infrastructure, neglecting the social aspects. Then there’s rural welfare. In that rural welfare, it’s inclusive development. So we’re looking at programmes like rural roads. There are rural roads we want to open. For instance, in Ofeme now, there’s a road that connects to Isikwuato. This will also help in the transportation and distribution of agricultural produce. There’s a road that connects somewhere from Isiala Ngwa to Ikwuano. All those roads, we want to open them up.So while increasing accessibility, you’re also helping agricultural produce and development along those roads. Rural welfare includes those rural roads, electricity, water supply, and rural market expansion. Then there’s agricultural welfare. This is about food security. I mentioned the back-to-farm state policy- Operation Feed Abia. Everywhere will have a farm. There will be farm grants. I told you earlier about extension worker services. I used to enjoy their services then. Farmers were educated how to put fertiliser, best seedling and the best farm method to adopt. Those things are not available again. In fact, they used to have ADP along Osaa Road. So we intend to revive those things. We have some of those subsidised fertiliser farm settlements. M.I. Okpara started farm settlements. So we now have to digitalise the farm settlements we have to make them appealing to the youths to embrace agriculture. Then mechanised farming. Like in the villages now, if a particular area is to be farmed, they use manual labour to clear it. It will cost the state nothing to mechanise the clearing of sites. Just get those tractors and caterpillars they go there and clear the whole farmland. They already know the boundaries of their farms. So you save that cost from them. From the Ministry of Agriculture or the Ministry of Works, they send those things to various communities. Local governments will be functional. As part of the plans to make the youth make youths to embrace agriculture. There will be sporting facilities, innovation hubs, tech hubs, and so on. So, where they are farming, they still have access to the whole world while living in the farm settlements.
We have the housing welfare. I’m a mortgage expert, I have a PhD in housing and mortgages.
It doesn’t cost much. Do you know that most civil servants are contributors to the National Housing Fund? Then can I shock you? You see, when they retire, they are more concerned about their pension being deducted by the government. Nobody pays attention to the NHF that was taken from the source. In fact, during my PhD presentation, they were surprised that those monies have gone. In fact, my Mum after she passed, I started asking for her own contribution too. They calculated it for me, and they would give it to me. The whole essence of the law setting up the National Housing Fund Act, is that you contribute so that government gives you a house and a mortgage. So that becomes your equity contribution. But do you know that over 90 per cent of civil servants retire and dash government’s money. And there’s no house, there’s no mortgage. But it was taken from source. So I will make sure that Abia civil servants who are contributors to National Housing Fund are able to access those funds. And get the other one, they augment from Federal Mortgage Bank, and get a house. So there’s housing welfare, affordable housing, mortgage schemes, slum upgrading.
There’s justice and security, and welfare. Several persons are languishing as awaiting trial persons (ATPs). Most of them are innocent. Most of them were arrested at the scene of the crime. After the perpetrators have already gone, they just pack them and dump them. There was a particular case of a woman, her only child was picked up, nobody spoke for them. So all she wanted was to know who can help them release the boy before she dies. As they picked the boy, before the woman got sick, the woman eventually passed on. The boy was not released.
There are several of them there. Within 100 days in office, there will be a panel of inquiry headed by a retired justice that will interface with those ATPs. They will bring them out. The ones who committed murder or caught at an armed robbery scene will remain there and face justice. But the ones that were just picked randomly, either they were strolling at night police picked them, they will release them on the spot. Part of the programmes include community policing, judicial reforms, and legal aid. We will make sure we have a vibrant, active legal aid, where the state provides free legal services to the indigent ones who cannot afford it. They will get representation. We make sure we do that. Then there is infrastructure with a humanface. I say we will humanise governance. We humanise infrastructure development. That is the core. We build lives. We build infrastructure. We will make sure that we humanise infrastructure development, both the roads to farms, hospitals before prestige projects. Schools before monuments.
The infrastructure that must directly improve human well-being. We pursue them. So it is a care and welfare government. These are some of the programmes we intend to pursue in the next government that will take over the state.
Who is your political godfather?
My political godfather is all Abians. Who stopped? Because the thing is, like I said, is a welfare philosophy. Everybody likes welfare. So when I preach welfare to delegates, they say you are the one who will follow. They are the godfathers. So when I preach welfare to the entire Abians, the electorates they are the kingmakers.