90% Of My Senate Pay Will Go To My People – Akunyili

Posted by admin General Politics, Latest Politics Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

Former Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, recently picked the All Progressives Grant Alliance (APGA) ticket for Anambra Central Senatorial Zone.

In this interview with Uchenna Awom, she reveals her burning desire to give unrivalled representation to her people if they give her their mandate

We will like to find out why you decided to vie on the platform of APGA instead of PDP. Does it mean you have lost confidence in PDP?

I prefer to talk about APGA than to talk about PDP because I have left PDP and I don’t think it is necessary for me to continue talking about PDP since I have left PDP. I have decided to run in the platform of APGA because my governor is an APGA governor, Governor Peter Obi, and he is doing fantastically well and I want to join him to take Anambra State to a higher level. Gov. Obi, Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, the leader of APGA, and the chairman Chief Victor Umeh, like a tripod they have upheld that party in Anambra State to the envy of many; like a tripod they have stablised APGA and endeared APGA to the good people of Anambra State. Other parties are in the periphery.

Now you are coming to the Senate. When you get to the Senate you become a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, you won’t be representing only Anambra State. Are you saying you will not leave APGA for PDP because this is the practice now in Nigeria? People leave the PDP and run on the platform of other parties, but when they get into office they return to the PDP.

You don’t know me enough. I don’t do things because others are doing it: I do things out of personal conviction. Why would I leave APGA tomorrow to go to PDP? I don’t see why I should run away but if my governor and the people of Anambra State decide tomorrow that they all want everybody to move to any party, of course, I will not say no. But for me as one person, after running election on APGA platform-because this is my platform – then I get what I want using their platform, then leave them and move to PDP; no, that cannot work and I want us to appreciate that this party thing, we seems to be over-emphasizing parties now.

Bu t I believe that party is a platform and that what is more important is the work we are able to do when we are given that platform to serve our people. After all, where is NCNC that our fathers ran election under in those days? What of SDP, NRC all those parties; where are they? But what have endured are the jobs that people did using various platforms. In the same way, nobody knows in the next ten years whether there will be APGA or PDP, but there will be positive memories of jobs done by people who used these parties as platforms. That is what is important and we should get that right.

Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan emerged victorious at the PDP presidential primaries. What is your take in this?

I am very happy it was a wonderful convention. I did not go because I have left PDP but I was awake until the result was announced. It was orderly and transparent. Everything was open and the victory was a resounding one. So, I think Nigerians should be happy because it means that our democracy is growing. It was a lot better than the last convention we watched four years ago,. It was more organized and there were no atom of rowdiness despite the huge population of people. And you know that APGA does not have a presidential candidate and I won’t say more than that; we are happy about that.

Congratulations on your emergence as the APGA senatorial candidate for the April elections. What do you think you will do in the Senate that has not been done?

I will do a lot. The representation I will give to the people of Anambra Central will be such that they have never experienced before. I will make them, for the first time, appreciate that Senate has a lot to offer to the people that sent a senator to represent them. I will be holding town hall meetings intimating them of what will be happening in the Senate and getting feedbacks from them. In fact, it is in those town hall meetings that they will tell me the bills they want me to present. And I have to constantly interact with them because my being there is not being there for myself – it is being there for them. I will also ensure that I attract projects for them from the federal government and some organizations and charitable individuals across the globe because I have made sufficient contacts and I have sufficient goodwill to attract a lot for my people. I have already promised them that from June as soon as I am sworn in, whatever resources I can galvanize, including my personal resources, the personal allowances I will be paid, I will start the first project.

And that is putting public toilets in every market with accompanying bore holes, and going to give scholarships and going to work it out so that it will be institutionalized and not just what will start and finish after four years. I am going to also empower women, especially the widows, and then all other projects that would depend on communities because communities will be telling you what they want. I am going to demystify such position as being in the Senate because I will announce in the town hall meetings what ever are my salaries and allowances. There should not be shrouded in secrecy. Whatever monies that will be given for constituency allowances, or however it is given, whether it is through ministry or National Assembly, I will announce it so that everything will be in the open. In fact, I told the good people of Anambra State Central that if after one year they don’t have cause to say, “thank God we fetched this woman,” they should remind me to resign because I will have no business to remain there representing people that are not feeling my representation. It is a cheat on them, it is ungodly, it is unfair and I mean every word of it. And I believe that I will not just be working for Anambra Central; I will be working or the entire country because as I am working and bringing everything to the table for the country to see and not just my zone, other senators will start doing what I am doing. It happened when I was in NAFDAC: every other DG wanted to be like me. So, I want to replicate the same thing; let other senators do what I will do.

You mentioned the issue of allowances. This is an issue that is creating a kind of problem between the public and the National Assembly. What’s your view on the amount of money National Assembly members are collecting as allowances; considering our economic situation, do you think it is justifiable?

I don’t think it is fair to the Nigerian people. But I want to tell you the truth – the truth might be bitter – I will not go there to start fighting for the money to be scrapped because it will generate too much tension in the system that will not help the Senate to unite and work the way we should work for the country. What I will do, by the grace of God if I am there, is to collect whatever others are given, go to town hall meeting in my zone and tell them I was given N10 million for instance, I am taking N1millio for myself, I am giving N9 million to the project committee or whoever that is handling the toilets, the boreholes, the scholarships. This is what I will do. I will not go and say this money should not be given because my people need it. Got o the villages and see how people are suffering. N50,000 will revive some widows and make their children got to school. We have such people all around me in the village. So, why should I reject the money; I want us to be realistic, I will not complain or fight that it should be reduced. I will tell my people this is what I have been given for June, I am taking 10% and plaughing back 90 per cent. the committees will tell me what they need and it will be done for them. When the money is finished, the committees will know that the money is finished and they will be part of it. I want to do something that has never happened before. So, going there to fight against the allowances and salaries, I don’t think it is strategic.

You are a very passionate person and a transparent person, too, what if Mr. President who has worked with you before insists that he wants to work with you again?

Jonathan is my man and still remains my man today and tomorrow. If after winning the elections he wants me to work for him, I will go and work for him. Because quite frankly, he is a good man.

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