APGA will upgrde Abuja Satellite towns-Dr. Anthony, Senatorial candidate

There are many candidates in the race for the lone Senate seat in the FCT, what do you hope to do to make a difference to defeat other contestants?

The others are not contesting on my party’s platform. However, my advice to the electorate is that they should vote for the best candidate. By this I mean that the people should be careful to bring in someone who will provide proper representation and bring development throughout the territory.

The lone Senate seat in the territory has been held by someone who has been in the National Assembly since the past twelve years. People are complaining that the Senator, who is also re-contesting has not brought anything new to the FCT for so many years. How do you react to this allegation?

I believe you are talking about the Landlord Senator. He has made our job easier for us by not performing to the satisfaction of the people. The person there as Senator, has not done much as evidenced in the remote areas especially the satellite towns. If we visit many communities in Abaji, Kwali, Kuje, Bwari and Gwagwalada, we would see that these areas have not felt any development. It is only in AMAC that we have a semblance of government presence but this is because AMAC generates its own funds and also enjoys the limelight as the seat of power. All other areas of the FCT are in dire need of repairs and infrastructure. There are no roads, no light or pipe borne water and the occupants, made up of indigenes and non-indigenes live in abject poverty.  The schools are dilapidated and need repairs. The children are not being encouraged with scholarships to further their education. I almost wept when I went to Kwali and Abaji recently. We have been doing some health and palliatives outreach programmes in the past one year in the territory. There are places we visit and one will doubt whether the place is still Abuja due to the level of under-development in such places. These places are just a mere two or three kilometres from the City Center but they are thoroughly neglected. In Karamajiji community, there is a disabled camp there and the people have not received government attention for so long even though they did not bring disability on themselves. The people in the camp are living like people who have been rejected and they have children who are healthy and require education. Government should also incorporate them into its development plans.

Let us look at your structure and that of APGA, your party, in the FCT. You have not been long in politics and the party is only visible in Gwagwalada where it produced a chairman recently. How strong are your structures and that of your party for the 2023 general election?

We have strong, reliable structures in FCT and I am optimistic that we would come out victorious in the election. We are expanding the party offices. Before I picked up the ticket, we only had the National Secretariat of APGA but since I came in, we have expanded by opening offices in the six area councils.  We now have offices in all the councils and we have commissioned some of them. We will soon launch the remaining two while also inaugurating our ward coordinators before the year runs out. We have the structures and APGA as a party won area council elections in the FCT, apart from producing many councillors. It’s just that the party lacked proper leadership structures in the FCT before now but I am here to address the problems of the party and channel the energy of its members properly so that the party can realise its full potentials.

If God helps you to realise your objectives, what will your focus be in terms of development. Will you make the satellite towns more active and vibrant with development or what?

Yes. It is part of our plans to develop the satellite towns. However, my campaign is focused on the youth. I do not believe in what some people now call a northern ideology whereby one rich man will be feeding the entire town. People will gather in one man’s house in the morning to beg and food will be provided for them. The same thing will be repeated in the afternoon and in the night. I am an Igbo man. We believe in teaching people how to fish instead of giving people fish every time. So, my main aim is to empower the youths of the FCT by bringing some of my German partners into Nigeria to mentor the youth on ICT and empower them so that they can stand on their feet and reason well. The government we have in place currently has weaponised poverty so that they can use it during elections to share N1000 or N2000 to people for their votes to remain in office. In APGA, this is not what we want. We want to have a Nigeria where our youth will become one of the sources of manpower, income and forward movement.

Some people are requesting for more than one senatorial seat and about six House of Representatives seats in the FCT. Do you buy the idea of having more National Assembly representation in the territory?

I share the view but not the numbers mentioned. Currently, we have one Senator and two House of Representatives members. Abuja is as big as some states. AMAC alone generates more revenue than many northern states. Abuja should have two senatorial seats and about four or five House of Representatives members in the spirit of fairness.

You are the only Igbo man in the race in the FCT. What would you advice the Igbo community to do during the elections especially in the territory?

The configuration of the voters in Abuja, according to INEC statistics, shows that the Igbos makes up more than 62% of the voting population. Although, some people are saying it is 67.8%. This tells you the capacity and strength of the Igbos in Abuja. More than 90% of tax payers in the FCT are Igbos. Also, 80% of the buildings in Abuja belong to Igbos. AMAC and Bwari area councils alone which are the two most developed areas have substantial numbers of such houses. In Kuje, Gwagwalada, Kwali and Abaji, the Igbos have several investments. A parable in Igbo says a man’s thoughts, interests and mind stays where his possessions are domiciled. I do not see why an Igbo person should not be part of the decision making body and process in the FCT. I live here in Abuja and I have three children who were all born here in Abuja. I am from Anambra State but I spend one month at home in the east and the other eleven months in Abuja. I pay my tax here in Abuja and I built a house here first before the one at home. So, nobody can tell me that because I am an Igbo man, I cannot contest an election here in Abuja. If there is an earth quake in Abuja, it will not select only the indigenes to kill. It will kill everybody on its path. So, I believe that if we shall all take part in the sorrows of Abuja, we should equally reap from the fruits of Abuja. So, I believe that I am fully qualified to run as an Igbo man. Again, to back up what I am saying, the constitution clearly states that as a resident of the FCT, I am fully allowed to run for any political offices, to vote and be voted for during any election. So, I believe all parameters are tilting towards our direction and I believe that the Igbos can change the narratives if they come out now.

Please tell the public what your selling points are because every product must be attracted to a buyer for the buyer to notice the product.

I am a young entrepreneur and I have never done any government contract. Also, I have never worked for government and I have fresh ideas about how to make things work well in the country. I am an investor with several investments in Abuja. So I will not depend on government money. I established my investments from the scratch. I did not even come from a wealthy family. Igbos generally know how to create wealth. So, one of my biggest selling points is that I will teach the youths in Abuja how to  stand on their own without having to  wait for their  leaders to give them peanuts. What we would do as leaders when we come on board is to give the youths the enabling environment to excel. This will enable them to thrive on their own without waiting for handouts from their leaders. We would provide scholarships, train the youths on ICT to empower them. There is so much to be benefitted when people are provided with knowledge especially youth empowerment.

Lastly, INEC said many voters’ cards have not been collected. As a stakeholder in the election, what will you tell voters about collecting their cards?

PVC collection is the biggest challenge we are having now. During the registration period, we pleaded with INEC to take the registration machines to the markets to capture more people and it complied. A large number of people registered but have not collected their cards. The highest sensitisation that we should all be doing now is to educate and plead with people on the importance of the voters’ cards. We have been moving from market to market to talk to market leaders about this matter. The only way people can make a change is by collecting their PVCs and by voting so that nobody will be disenfranchised and people will decide how they want to be governed.

Are the political parties and INEC really doing enough to sensitise people about the PVC collection? We used to have town criers in the good old days and they were very effective in passing information. What is preventing the government or INEC from using the system?

INEC to me is not really doing enough on the matter. I must say that northerners have a better way of mobilising their people to collect PVCs. Northerners have a structure where the Imam who knows everyone that comes to the mosque will be used to distribute the cards and keep the rest to be used for  rigging. With the new system introduced by INEC for the 2023 elections, it will be difficult for people to rig election. This is why the riggers have resorted to registering underaged children but INEC has been removing them from the system. This is also the reason we are discovering PVCs in gutters because the people who hid the cards with the hope of using them to rig now realise the cards will be useless and they cannot do so again. INEC should do more to sesitise the people because if we have a good government in place, even INEC will benefit because it will become a better structure that can stand on its own without waiting for the government to give the commission money to carry out its assigned responsibilities. INEC should be truly independent. It should be an entity that has no connection with the incumbent administration because when it is not truly independent and lacks the funds it requires to function, the officials will be compelled to go cap-in-hand to beg for money and the administration in office can use that to dictate to the commission and try to bend it towards a particular direction. INEC should do more sensitisation to enable people to collect their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs). Ends.