Former Imo State governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, recently weighed in on several key issues, including tax reform, the 2025 federal budget, and Senator Chris Anyanwu’s latest book, Bold Leap. The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain shared his insights with journalists. Johnkennedy UZOMA brings the excerpts:
How do you see the federal budget presented by the President Bola Tinubu to the National Assembly towards the end of last year?
The president has just presented the budget but unfortunately I have not been able to go through it in details. But having seen the pillars of the budget, I am worried that, once again, we are going to spend more on insecurity than on Infrastructure. The budget for Defence and Security is N4.91 trillion, compare with N3.52 trillion for Education, N4.06 trillion for Infrastructure and N2.48 trillion for Health. The latter three are very critical social services, which under normal circumstances, should occupy the pride of place in our budgets. If you go further, you will even discover that the budget for Defence and Security increased by 137.2% from the 2024 budget. Nigerians should be worried that insecurity is still taking a chunk of our national budget, which means that all hands must be on deck in the fight against insecurity.
The budget is coming against the backdrop of the ongoing debate on his tax reforms. The proposed reforms have generated so much controversy. What is your take?
No reform can be pain-free moreso, given the current economic milieu. I commend President Tinubu for initiating the reforms but, on the other hand, there is nothing wrong in people wanting to make inputs into those initiatives. Before independence, tax was the pillar of our national economy, but once oil was discovered, nobody thought about it again. Successive governments paid lip service to taxation. In spite of the controversies, I have no doubt in mind that the outcome will be for the good of every Nigerian.
We are now in the New Year. What is your message to Nigerians?
I would centre my message to Nigerians around the youth, mostly out of love and a desire to have our young people turn [over] a new leaf as future leaders. I am worried that the influence of the social media on our youths is having a negative effect on their potential as leaders of tomorrow. Today, most of our youths have thrown decorum overboard. They have no respect for law and order, no respect for their elders, including their own parents. Most of them have imbibed an entitlement mentality with little or no craving for hard work. However, I would quickly draw their attention to the exemplary attitude of our president, Bola Tinubu, who has shown a tremendous flair for respecting the elderly and according recognition to those who have made sacrifices and contributions towards the wellbeing of our country. The president has shown that there is reward in serving one’s fatherland. He has named a good number of public institutions to deserving past leaders. I would like our youths to embrace the culture of decorum because as I said, whether we like it or not, they will one day become leaders.
The time is now for us to redirect our youths. Fortunately, the president has approved the convocation of a national youth conference. It is my hope that we will make good use of the conference and that it will not be just be a jamboree for young men and women who are connected to those in power. Overall, my desire is that all hands must be on deck to recover our youths before it becomes too late. I am sure that they will come after me after you might have published this interview. That’s exactly the point I want to make. The elders should not, because of fear of getting attacked in the social media, shy away from their irresponsibility of providing guidance for the young ones.
Recently, you harped on the need for peace in your state, Imo. Is peace returning to the state now?
Don’t get me wrong. Imo is quite peaceful. I made that admonition against the backdrop of some skirmishes between some stakeholders in the state and some media aides of the governor over certain developments. Yes, the matter has already died down. Imo has been peaceful so, my concern was that nothing should be done to puncture that peaceful atmosphere. In any case, there can be no limit to which we can advocate for peace, especially at a time like this, both at the national and sub-national levels.
Talking about peace, a former senator, Chris Anyanwu, recently released her memoir entitled: Bold Leap. From reviews in the media, she appeared to have been hard on a few leaders in the state, including yourself.
It is natural that if a fellow of that standing comes up with a memoir, others would take interest in knowing what she is talking about. I have managed to flip through some areas to educate myself not just on the things she had to say about me personally, but also about our state and our country. So far, I am worried about some of the things she said about our country and some of her leaders. The book is full of falsehood and inaccuracies. It is obvious that she did not carry out any empirical research, which is the bane of most Nigerian writers. Most books written by Nigerians are controversial because the writers do not conduct research to find out what other authorities exist on the subject they want to treat. Anyanwu did not write as a journalist which is supposed to be her main calling. I have just read Femi Ojudu’s memoir which represents what a work from a good journalist should be. For example, in her narrative of the 2011 Imo governorship election, she just penciled down her personal opinion. In my forthcoming book, Nigerians will be able to read the unbiased truth about Imo 2011, including statements by top military officers who Madam Anyanwu claimed she recruited to stop me from rigging. A very laughable claim.
Was she that connected?
This is a fellow who rode on the back of the military throughout her career. It was the military boys that railroaded her into becoming a commissioner during the military era and later becoming a senator. When she failed the primary election in her bid for a second term, she went back to seek the help of the same military according to her. Madam Anyanwu is one of those Nigerians who could not have gone anywhere without the patronage of the military. Madam Anyanwu, in her book, failed to mention that she wrote a lengthy letter of apology to General Sani Abacha and the Federal Government and owned up that she told lies in order to sell her magazine. I challenge her to deny that and I will publish a copy of that apology for Nigerians to see the type of person she really is.
Some people may not agree with you but in what other ways are her claims untrue as you say?
Everybody does not have to agree with me but those who know what I have just said are there. Nigerians should just wait for my forthcoming book. She lampooned the Nigerian military for bad conduct yet according to her, she used the same military to stop me from ‘rigging’ election in 2011. In other words, according to her, she used the military to truncate democracy. Was that not a perfidious act against the country and its people? Is it the job of the military to intervene in elections? Has that not been the thing Nigerians have been complaining about? We can now see those that are behind the perennial use of the military to influence election processes and their outcomes, which has been the bane of our democracy. There is a saying that he who rides on the back of the tiger ends up in its belly. Anyanwu’s case is quite illustrative of this saying. The aspect that baffles me most is her claim that a sitting president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, gave her the approval to engage the military in the 2011 Imo governorship election. Nigerians are waiting to see how President Jonathan and his handlers will react to that claim. You can now see why Jonathan failed to show up at the book launch despite the media hype that he and former President Olusegun Obasanjo were going to be there. Why did Obasanjo, who allegedly wrote the foreword to the book, stay away? I am certain that she obtained that endorsement from him before the final output. Obasanjo must have decided to stay away in order not to be associated with such a ragtag book. And Jonathan must have been advised not to have anything to do with a book that defamed him by claiming that as a commander-in-chief, he authorised the use of the military to rig an election. The claim that they used the military to stop me and my party is false. It was the other way round. They used the military to rig me out through the supplementary election.
Talking about the 2011 Imo governorship election, what really happened?
Well, this is not the forum to say what really happened. Except that from what I have gathered, Madam Anyanwu might have printed just a few hundreds copies… I would have asked you to go and obtain a copy and read.
Then I would also advise that you go and read other fully documented accounts of that election and compare. You will be dismayed. As a so-called intellectual, you would expect Madam Anyanwu to be truthful in telling the story of what happened both for now and for prosperity. But she failed woefully. For example, you would notice that she refused to give details on why INEC declared the April 26, 2011 election inconclusive and scheduled a supplementary election for May 6, 2011. That was the first time Nigerians were hearing about supplementary election. Anybody who wanted to be sincere about the 2011 Imo governorship election cannot fail to give details of why INEC declared the first balloting inconclusive and what really happened on May 6 when the deed was done. But she refused to do that in order to conceal certain things.
So, as far as I am concerned, her book is of no use for posterity. It is a cock and bull story. Well as I said, you wait for my own book on the real account of what happened backed with empirical evidence including now declassified security reports.
What was your relationship with her before the 2011 elections?
I had no personal relationship with her but I knew her through Mike Akhigbe who was military governor of Lagos state and later Chief of General Staff. She ran for the Imo East senatorial seat in 2007 when I was also running for the office of the governor. She won on the ticket of the PDP but when she re-contested to return to the senate but lost at the primaries, hell was let lose. She attributed her failure to me and dusted her military contacts ready for deployment against me. She used her radio outfit to broadcast all sorts of lies against me and my administration. When they cooked up the lies that I flogged a Catholic priest, she used her radio station to propagate the lie. When I got security reports that some youths wanted to go and burn down the station on account of that, I stopped it because I am a democratic. I made sure that the radio station was protected. Even though I was not quite close to her before she came into politics, I respect the family she comes from. Her father, the late Hon. N.D Ukah, was a parliamentarian in the First Republic who was highly respected.
You have been alluding to your forth coming book, when do we expect it?
Very soon; just very soon.
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