Buhari: Change Nigeria needs

A medical practitioner, Kelechi Nwagwu, is the Convener and
National Coordinator, South-East Professionals for Buhari. In
an interview with RAZAQ BAMIDELE in Lagos, the vocal pro-
Buhari campaigner stated reasons he, a south eastern
Christian, is campaigning for a Muslim candidate from the
north. Excerpts:
Why are you supporting Buhari?
You know General Buhari has been terribly misrepresented to
Nigerians, especially, in the South-east. A lot of our young
people who never had the opportunity of knowing Buhari when
he ruled this country for the first time, really do not
understand who the man, General Muhammadu Buhari, is. I
am into this organisation to help, especially the people from
the South-east know who the man, Muhammadu Buhari, really
is. A gentleman, an officer, a patriot, a good Muslim who
people keep misrepresenting as an Islamic bigot. I have had
several opportunities to interact with the man one on one,
from the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), time. I did
several articles in my own little way to get the people to know
who the man really is.
With your knowledge of General Buhari, is he a hater of Igbo?
Is he a hater of Christians?
The answer is no. A lot of his actions would let you
understand that this man is not what they portray him to be.
Who are the people who portray him in bad light? They are
those who are scared of Buhari, becoming the elected
President of this great country.
Why are you supporting his aspiration to become president?
We are out to support him and portray him appropriately as a
patriot, as a man who has this burning desire to put things
right in Nigeria. We are supporting him because he is one
fellow we believe has the will, the desire and the wherewithal
to fight the monster called corruption. We all know that corrup­
tion has practically crippled and destroyed this country. If you
fight corruption, you would have succeeded in freeing loads of
cash that could be deployed to develop the infrastructure that
has practically decayed in this country. People built the
Expressway. We cannot be talking of repairing it. We should
be talking about building new ones. Somebody built the rail
lines that we are putting locomotive engines on. Why can’t we
see someone else that would say I am building north-east,
north-west rail lines? Like Enugu to Sokoto. Lagos-Port
Harcourt. Lagos-Calabar rail lines. During Chrismas, Chritian
easterners like us struggle to drive thousands of kilometers
home. And in the process you witness a lot of multiple acci­
dents on the road. During the last trip, I saw several auto
crashes on the road claiming my people’s lives! If it were to
be a rail line from Lagos to the east, an electric train that will
take you two hours to the east, would we need to drive from
Lagos?
A lot of our people in the East are hoodwinked to take
decision out of sentiment. If a man has ruled Nigeria for about
six years, and the first time he came to Imo State was when
he wanted to receive the defectors to his party and the
second time was when he came to campaign for a second
term in office; he made the same promise he made when he
came last time to campaign for election. He promised a
second Niger Bridge. I used to tell friends that this second
Niger Bridge we are talking about is just 1.7 kilometre long.
Should that take more than four years to build? Would it take
up to four years to build? Not a single project was
commissioned by this government in his six years in office in
Imo State. Not one. I don’t know of other states. But to the
best of my knowledge, I don’t see this president visiting any of
the eastern states to commission a single project.
Why are you not supporting somebody from the South like
you?
Must we continue to support him based on geography of
where he hails from? This is Bayelsa State beside Imo State.
Right. Common, we should grow beyond that sentiment. We
want a leadership that will free funds being stolen on daily
basis, direct the funds to develop infrastructure. We need a
man that will change Nigeria so much that our children
wouldn’t need to know any minister, Permanent Secretary or
top government officials to get jobs. So that our children will
get job, get admission because it is their right. We want a
country where you will be happy to park your car and join
public transport. We want a country where things are done
purely on merit. That is what we want. We want a country
where there will be a real fight against corruption. We don’t
want to hide under any excuses on how corruption is being
fought through the ICT. We don’t want excuses that you don’t
want to jail anybody. We are living in a country where, if you
steal a goat, you will go for ten years imprisonment, while
those who steal billions will get two years and presidential
pardon later. You cannot say you are fighting corruption with
that process.
How long have you been in this group?
The group first came up before 2011 election. I worked as an
individual then, trying to project the General. But I felt that
was not enough for me alone to do what is needed to get the
man properly into the South-east. So, I called some like minds
to penetrate the interlands, communities, everywhere in that
region to project the man in the real colour that he is. It is
not about your opinion about General Buhari. It is about what
General Buhari is, really. So, the organization is not very old.
It was specifically founded and packaged to project General
Muhammadu Buhari in the right image to our people.
If you don’t know me, and somebody told you that I am an
armed robber. Until you know me, you would still have the
perception that I am an armed robber. That is how the case
looks like.
South easterners are predominantly catholic. So, Rev. Father
Mbaka in his new year sermon shocked the easterners when
he made them understand that this man does not hate us.
That was the first incidence that happened. Again some other
things have been going on Imo State. The Governor of Imo
State, Owelle Rochas Okoroha, his performance as APC
governor has endeared him so much to the people of Imo
State. And for the fact that Okorocha is also projecting Buhari
to his people that, this man will work for us, as I am working
for you, is making a lot of sense to them. During his campaign
in the state, our group was well represented. So, we are doing
our job at the level of the grassroots. One-on-one discussions
going on, through which we tell the grassroots people why the
General is the right candidate for 2015. And interestingly, the
perception is changing. As I am talking to you, I am not the
only one in the group, I have friends and colleagues that are
equally working. What we do is because we have better
access to information, we make sure the information sink
through, so that those at the grassroots levels-our fathers,
mothers, uncle and others, get the truth. Geographical factors
will not develop the villages. Geographical factors will not
guarantee your pension. Reasons of geography will not make
your children get jobs. If it would take somebody from far
away Daura in Katsina State to rule the country and rule it
well, if it would take somebody, who is a Muslim to rule this
country and rule it well, so be it. China is developing and
Chinese are Buddhists. I have a lot of people working for me in
my clinic -Yoruba, Igbo, Edo. I look at competence. I won’t
just hire you simply because you answer Chukwuemeka. I will
hire you because you would be able to deliver on the job. We
want a man that has demonstrated the zeal and capacity to
put things in order in this country. And we are working and
doing the more we can, and by the time you see the south-
east result where Jonathan had once scored 100 per cent, you
will know how far we have gone.
Have you not been challenged over Buhari’s age?
We have severally handled that question. As a medical doctor,
I can tell you that there are some diseases with age-senility.
But we should equally realise that not long ago, Tunisia
elected a new president, who is 88 years old. And these same
PDP people that criticise Buhari for being too old, were all
over the place, struggling to get former President Olusegun
Obasnjo third term in office at 70. Age was not a factor then
because it was at their advantage. You see, death never
comes with age. Babies die in the womb. Babies die right after
delivery. People who are 100 years die so also people who are
ten years. That was why the adverts we saw in the papers
were disgusting. The man has been campaigning, traversing
the country, addressing the nation. Sometimes, he addresses
gathering in three different states every day at 72. I don’t
think we have any issue with that. His competence, passion,
zeal and desire are not in doubt. If you are doing a job and
you are doing it well, it means you have a passion for it. The
man demonstrated the first time he came that he could put
things right. We know about his anticorruption drive when he
bundled some people to jail. We know the issue in fighting
indiscipline.
Our position is this, if it will take a 72- year old man to put
things right in Nigeria, so be it.
What are your expectations on February 14?
What goes on in the country now is a movement. I had told
people before June 12, 1993 happened, they said it was not
possible. On February 14, this year, what will happen will make
what happened on June 12, 1993 a child’s play. It is a move­
ment. You can see the likes of Governor Rotimi Amaechi of
Rivers State and Rochas Okorocha. Those are the APC
governors that have demonstrated that it is not rocket science
to deliver infrastructure, build schools and hospitals and
roads. I have an experience to share. I had a wedding in
Owerri. When I could not get a flight to Owerri, I flew to Port
Harcourt from where I took a cab to Owerri. I wondered how
smooth the road was. The road belongs to the Federal
Government but was rebuilt by Rivers State Government of
Amaechi. These people have demonstrated that things can
work in Nigeria. They are immensely popular governors with a
lot of followership. South-west governors, we know where
they are. The APC governors in the North are fantastic. You
saw the rallies in Bayelsa and Rivers. It is a movement. You
can see that the panic button has been pressed and that is
why you are getting Greek gift of petroleum price reduction.
Later, they said the man was diagnosed of cancer by the
Ahmadu Bello Teaching Hospital. The hospital has to come
out to say he had not visited the hospital in five years. They
leave the substance and chase the shadow by attacking
Buhari’s personality. This simply means that they have lost
the plot. What is going on now is a mass movement that will
take flesh on February 14. And that is why we have tagged it
‘FeBuhari.’ That day, you will see that Nigerians truly desire a
better country.