Chief (Barrister) Charlie Ugwu is a distinguished attorney and entrepreneur. A famous estate developer in the FCT, Ugwu is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State and a highly connected and politically influential personality in Enugu State and around the country. In this interview with journalists at his campaign headquarters, Wuse II, Abuja, in the run-up to the PDP presidential primary holding in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) , Ugwu speaks on why he wants to be Nigeria’s president, his plans for the country, why the PDP must bring out a Southerner as a consensus presidential candidate at its national convention, Sunday, May 29, 2029, among others. Excerpts:
Chief, congratulations on your entry into the presidential race. It is no mean feat at all, not only because of the cost of the nomination forms but also because of the enormous task that awaits whoever will succeed President Buhari.
Thank you very much. Of course, nobody who is running a presidential election can be said to be walking an easy street – not at all. It is even more herculean in the case of 2022/2023 Nigeria, especially because of the mountainous challenges that, as you rightly pointed out, the incoming president after President Muhammadu Buhari will have to deal with. But human problems are for people to solve and I believe that I have what it takes to solve Nigeria’s problems post-APC government.
What do you expect from the PDP presidential primary this weekend?
I believe the outcome will be the best for the party and Nigeria. The best candidate will emerge. We are poised to take back power from the APC. Nigerians – you and I – I am sure, just can’t wait to see the end of APC’s misrule.
How would you describe Mr. Peter Obi’s resignation from the PDP?
He made a choice and we must all respect that choice. Mr. Obi is an adult, a former Governor and a very intelligent Nigerian. I am sure he knows what is doing. We just have to respect his choice. That is all I can say about that development.
But, why do you want to be president?
Because I know I have what it takes to be president and run the country effectively and efficiently. If you have read my declaration speech, you would have seen what I mentioned as my motivations for entering the race. See, I am pained by what is going and I am sure most Nigerians are. I weep everyday at the killings going on across the country; I cringe at the poverty level; I weep at the bruising corruption level in the country; I shudder at the lack of production in the economy, and as a lawyer, I feel bad about the lack rule of law in our judicial system. I can go on and on and won’t be done in the next 30 minutes. Point is, the country is in a bad shape and no one who has the capacity to rescue it from the precipice where it is now, as I do think I have, will stand by and not do something about the situation. That is why I want to be president: to rescue the country because I think I can. As a matter of fact, my campaign theme is ‘to reinvent Nigeria’.
Could you, please, expatiate on this theme? How do you mean ‘to reinvent Nigeria?’
Yes, we need to reinvent Nigeria because it has, for too long, been left in the doldrums where the military, with the active support of the political elite, during and post-military era, left it. We had a thriving democracy (and a progressive economy based on the 1963 Republican Constitution), which the military truncated. After 14 years in power in the first instance, the military returned the country to civilian rule in 1979 on the basis of the military-inspired 1979 Constitution. The military was to truncate the civilian rule again in 1983 when the incumbent President, then Major-General Muhammadu Buhari ousted the late former President Shehu Shagari from office in a military coup on December 31, 1983.
Then on May 29, 1999, after another 16 years in power, the military again returned the country to civilian rule on the basis of another military-inspired Constitution, the much-maligned 1999 Constitution.
It means that in the 29 years of military rule in Nigeria and 23 years of post-military civilian rule, we have run Nigeria on the basis of a military-inspired system and you can see where that has left us: in the doldrums!
But we have had democratic rule these past 23 years and counting… (cuts in)
That’s exactly what I am saying. We have had 23 years of democratic rule to what end? We say that military rule is an aberration but we the political elite would appear to have been only too happy to run with the system as bequeathed to us by the same military. If military rule is an aberration, why have we not been able to do away with the vestiges of military rule? The implementation of the 1999 military-imposed Constitution is all but military rule in disguise.
It has been argued that the problem is not the document, the Constitution, but its implementers…
That is a fallacy, the fallacy of assumption. In other words, you assume the content of the document is good but the implementers are bad. It is possible that the implementers are bad but the main culprit is the content of the document. As good or bad as the implementers may be, they can only implement the provisions of the Constitution and I am saying that the provisions aren’t good enough to stand the test of time.
Let me give you a few examples: 1) The 1999 Constitution provides for a three-tier federal system – the centre, States and local governments. That is an aberration. Every federation is composed of only two federating units – the central government and, in our case, the States. There is nowhere else in the world that LGAs are written into the Constitution as federating units. The political elite should have done away with this.
Our public educational system is underperforming due to many factors. What would you be doing differently if you become the president?
We are saddled with an education system that has centralised everything – from admission to tuition fees. This is wrong. Our universities, for instance, should be autonomous, as they used to be, so that foreign students, who would pay their fees in foreign currency as our own children do in Ghana and other nearby African countries, can once again be admitted into Nigerian universities, as used to be the case.
We’ve gone back and forth on power. Do you have a solution for this sector?
My solution is simple: abolish the national grid system and unbundle the power sector the more. Why, for instance, should we be saddled with a national grid which when it breaks down every part of the country is thrown into darkness? We must abolish the National Grid and allow each State to use the resources at its disposal to generate power and sell to whoever wants to buy from it. So, Enugu, Kogi can generate power from coal; the coastal areas (the South South States and Lagos) can generate power from gas while the North can generate from the sun and wind. We should remove power from the Exclusive List.
One of our problems is heavy Exclusive List: (cuts in)
The centre is so heavy it has even a ministry of water resources that controls even borehole drilling in any part of Nigeria. All of 68 items on the Exclusive list should be put back on the Concurrent List.
With increased security challenge, how can we have a better security architecture that will be efficient in protection of lives and properties of Nigerians?
The Constitution provides for only one federal police force that is in charge of law and order all over the country. The result is the state of insecurity that has overwhelmed the police and other security agencies. We should tackle insecurity through better funding of the police, creation of State police and other levels of policing at the local level, to provide adequate security cover for the country
What’s your template to improve on our justice system?
The current constitution is inadequate in its provisions with regard to the justice system and administration in the country. There is a need to enhance justice delivery through the creation of Courts of Appeal in each State of the federation, and the making of the Supreme Court a purely Policy Court.
In the past, Nigeria was known for her depth in agriculture but that is no more. What will you do to revamp that sector?
I shall boost the economy and create wealth through agriculture. I will revive the marketing boards to act as off-takers of produce from farmers. in this way, we would leapfrog agricultural production to meet our national food requirements as well as the nation’s export and, by extension, foreign exchange needs.
In the end, what I have in mind is our return to the 1963 Constitution without necessarily reviving the regions. That Constitution gave the component parts of the country control over resources in their domains thereby allowing them to use their comparative advantages to promote overall economic development of the country. That way, a state like Bayelsa, which is the smallest in the country but bigger than countries like Cape verde, Togo, Mauritius, among others, can leverage, for instance, its fish resources to promote exports from Bayelsa and earn foreign exchange for the State. That’s what we were doing before the advent of ‘military aberration’ which, no thanks to the inadequacies of the political elite, would appear not to be so aberrant any longer.
What experience would you say you are coming into this race with? Why should we trust Nigeria into your hands? What governmental/political experience stands you in a good stead to successfully run Nigeria?
I have been an attorney and entrepreneur for more than 30 years now. I have been managing men and materials since then and, by His special grace, I would say I have done quite well over the years. If you are asking whether I have held positions in government, as an appointee or elected public office holder, I would say no. But I hold the view that what a man needs most to be a good president are his faith in God, vision, passion for whatever he does, courage of his convictions, physical, mental and psychological preparedness, human/material resource management skills and the requisite educational qualifications. While experience is of paramount importance, one cannot be disqualified from seeking to serve his country as president for the simple reason that he never had previous experience in government. That cannot and must not be a limiting factor at all. Indeed, history is replete with public figures who became successful public administrators without any previous experience in public service – from Mr. Peter Obi here in Nigeria to Donald Trump of the United States, among many others.
How are you going to tackle the Nigerian situation, what, to many, has become a conundrum of sorts? The security situation, the parlous state of the economy, the debt burden, the burgeoning youth unemployment, among others – how are you going to deal with all these if elected President?
As I have already observed, the situation is really bad, but with the right mix of policies and human resources, the situation is very much salvageable. First, I will approach the situation with a sincerity of purpose, with absolute altruism. What we do not have at the moment are selfless leaders who will do things for the good of the country and citizens without thinking about their personal gains. There are men and women in this country with the knowhow and contacts that could be effectively deployed to solve problems with immediate effects but nobody will ever talk to them because they are either not from the right geographical location or members of the ruling party. As president, I will cast my net far into the sea, to look for Nigeria’s best wherever they are or whoever they may be, to come and avail the country of the benefits of their expertise in their areas of endeavour. With such men and women in place, you can be sure of prudent utilization of resources to tackle existing problems and the ones that will arise in the course of time.
That’s all Nigeria needs to solve its seemingly foreboding socioeconomic and political problems: men and women from different parts of the country with the patriotic fervor to serve the country and citizens. I wager that one of the greatest deficits of this government is the lack of diversity in the number of men and women called to help the president run the country. Nigeria is too big, too complex and diverse for the family-affair kind of leadership that the Buhari Administration has provided for Nigeria in the past seven years or so.
The argument about zoning is raging in your party, the PDP. What is your take on what has suddenly become a ‘sensitive’ issue in the party, what was hitherto taken for granted in the former national ruling party?
I would say I copiously tackled this issue in the address at my declaration.
The PDP Constitution provides that the party shall “adhere to the policy of the rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice, and fairness.”
The purpose of this provision is to guarantee inclusiveness, ensure equity in power residency and encourage in perpetuity healthy political dialogue and engagement between the North and the South. I recall that in the 2019 PDP primaries in Port Harcourt, only Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Dr. Olusola Saraki and Governor Tambuwal contested; there was no southern aspirant. With the emergence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the flag bearer, the party entered the presidential election in 2019 with a Northern candidate.
It is, therefore, only natural that this time around, the North should support the zoning of the presidential ticket to the South, in accordance with the extant provisions of our constitution on this matter. That is the fit and proper thing to do.
Where in the South should the ticket be zoned to?
For me, first thing first. Let the party zone the ticket to the South first. Thereafter, we can talk about where in the South the ticket should go. Should it go to the South West, which has had eight years of Obasanjo as president from 1999 to 2007, and another eight years of Osinbajo (still loading) as Vice President from 2015 to 2023? Or should the ticket go to the South South which has had five years of Jonathan as president from 2010 to 2015? Or should it go to the South East, which has had only six months of executive presidency, as it were, with the late General Aguiyi-Ironsi as military Head of State from January 17, 1966 to July 29, 1966? But let the ticket come to the South first.(Coirtesy: AbeyaNews)
