The prince of Mbuburu Kingdom and the CEO of Buzuzu Group of Companies, Prince Lawrence Ezeh, speaks with LEADERSHIP Scorecard on the politics of Enugu State and why he is wading into the deep end of politics come 2019.
You have been in the private sector and invested so much in the lives of the people in your locale, while supporting the current administration of Enugu State. What encouraged you to join the race to represent the people of Enugu East Senatorial District come 2019?
Politics, they say, is for everyone. There is bit of politics in everything we do, even in the oil & gas sector. For you to attain some level in that sector [or anywhere for that matter] you have to apply some level of politics. I’ve done quite a number of things for my people that, at some point, they reasoned that, if I could touch their lives as an onlooker, more could be done if I am elected into public office.
I really didn’t make up my mind on my own; a lot of people came to me and asked me to take the leap for Enugu East Senatorial seat, saying: “You need to put your heart together and go for us. We believe that if you have access to this position, you will represent us better than those who have occupied that position in the past. At the same time, you will be able to give an effective representation, based on what we have seen you do and your present conduct in other aspects.” After considering their presentations, I decided that, truly, I could do more for the district if given the opportunity. I have everything needed by law to occupy that office and, given that I consider it a moral obligation, it would bring me and the people nothing but joy to serve them, for I will do them nothing but good.
Besides, representing your senatorial district, you will be required to make laws for the nation. There has been so much contention over national security and the rule of law. How will you defend both?
If, God-willing, I ascend into this position, my primary responsibility will be the interest of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. After that, we can consider the interest of the party. I think where we generally have conflict on the floor of the National Assembly is when our lawmakers push the interest of the country behind and put political affiliations in front.
Basically, this is where we are having challenges. Whatever the president puts across, whether it is good or not, you will see people opposing or defending it. When you have that on the floor, you need to tell yourself that most of the agitations on the floor of the Senate are not borne of true concern. Putting the interest of the country first is the primary thing, while the party comes second. Sadly, some lawmakers push the party’s interest ahead and the nation’s behind. If I do get there, I will always have it at the back of mind that the country’s interest supersedes that of my party.
As for the issue of national security, it is not the job of the Legislature to appoint service chiefs or the national security adviser, but it should be given the opportunity to scrutinize and access those being appointed so as to be sure that the issue of ‘Federal Character’ is taken care of, especially in situations where you have the key security architecture of the nation being managed by a section of the country. That is not a great example of putting the nation first.
I believe [and strongly too] that when people want to trivialize this issue, they come up with all sorts of excuses, forgetting that whatever one man has to offer from one state, there are thousands of other Nigerians from other states who can perform better. It is left for the president to respect that aspect of our constitution, because once you jettison the ‘Federal Character’ in appointments and all that, it gives rise to unnecessary agitations. It is important that legislators look closely at how these appointments are being made and if they cut across various fields. Sadly, sometimes, when lawmakers should be hard at work making laws to shape the economy of the country and help her citizens, they dwell so much on frivolities associated with ‘Federal Character’, how it is being violated and if it is respected. This could take weeks. You can imagine the number of ‘working’ weeks there are in the Legislative calendar and how much of those are wasted on debating about things that would not matter ordinarily, if the right things are being done.
Many people consider the All Progressives’ Grand Alliance (APGA) a more ‘Eastern’ party. Why did you opt for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)?
The PDP has been the only political party I have known and aligned to from the day I decided to go into partisan politics. I didn’t just join the political party because I want to run for a political position; I have been a member of the PDP since 1999. It has been the only party I have stood for and it equally has done so to me in a number of ways. I hail from Enugu State, where the PDP is very much like a house-hold party, cutting across wards, families, religion, civil service, local governments, councils, unions and, even, in higher institutions. Running for a political position on the platform of another party is much like trying to market yourself in vain. Even if you set up a billboard or poster bearing any other insignia besides that of the PDP, people just gloss over it without seeing who is contesting; the party and that candidate are already written off before the election begins. That is how much the PDP means in the state. That said, I am not interested in being relevant; I am in this race to win it. I have the relevance; what I want to do is run for the senatorial seat and wins the election, so that I can better the lives of my people in the next four years and beyond.
You say you want to better the lives of the people in the district. What is your blue-print for youth empowerment, education and the common challenges in Enugu East?
Actually, I have laid out a blue-print, especially for education. Currently, I have about 35 indigent children being funded by my scholarship scheme. We are expanding the scheme to accommodate 50 students this September and we want to grow gradually from there. It’s been three years since the scheme began and I realize that the education that actually shapes the minds of children begins at the secondary school. It is from that level you see those inclined towards the arts, sciences and social sciences.
At the end of every session, we go into schools to pick the best students, put them together and award them scholarships from JSS1 to SSS3, believing God that, if they do well from there, we can encourage them to go all the way to the university.
Having done that, if God wills and I get into the political position, I plan to ensure that, annually, I should be able to have a minimum of 10 students from each of the six local governments that make up my zone. I plan to keep this going, so that we can raise intellectuals among us and set the tone for development by grooming the young to become tomorrow’s leaders in deed and in training, not just in words. Also, you will agree with me that what Senator Ike Ekweremadu has done has inspired those of us who aspire to go to the National Assembly. Looking at someone who has achieved that already, gives me great confidence in that possibility. Also, knowing that I can foot the bills of these students with my resources has set up the wider-bigger picture for me. Now, I know that, if I do get in there, I am condemned to continue what I have begun.
I floated this scheme, because I happen to come from a rural area and, back in my days as a pupil in the primary school, I had two friends who were far better than I was academically. They had the best results then, but couldn’t advance to secondary school because they didn’t have privileged parents to assist them. One of them is late now and the other a mechanic in Delta State. These are brainy lads that wasted away. That was it for me; I saw that we had lots of bright children in our rural areas and, if left to themselves, would waste away because they are not opportune to access education. I decided to take it upon myself to do all in my power to get them off the streets, give them quality education and see what God and the future holds for them.
As for providing some form of livelihood for young people, I own a construction company where lots of young people earn a living. One of the young men that works for me today was picked from the street, after he was accused of embezzling N5000 from a youth fund. After some days I invited him over and discovered that it all stemmed from idleness. I assured him that I would take him to Port Harcourt and get him to learn [how to operate] one of my machineries. I did and today, he is one of the best operators I have.
When he returned to the village and some other youths noticed that his life has changed, they came to me for help. Now, I have so many of them that are apprentices or have graduated from learning one skill or the other. One thing I always want to discourage is the idea of having youth groups. These groups are not industries; they produce nothing other than help young people extort money from other young people. What I expect our people to do is have a youth body to engage them in skill acquisition. As an engineer, I believe so much in performance. I do not rate too much talk. While in office, I will separate those in need of higher education from those in need of skills to survive. This is the only way to access and get them to be mentored.
Sadly, I have noticed that, once you are in a political office and there is an opportunity to engage people and help them get skills to survive, some people hijack the process and ensure it does not succeed so that, tomorrow, they can ask the politician “while you were in office, what did you give to us?” just so that they can rubbish him. If they know so much that needed to have done, why do they not suggest and put this knowledge in proper perspective?
What is your take on the performance of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration?
To be candid, he has scored about 95 per cent. You will agree that in Enugu, there is peace and everyone can move around without being harassed by anyone. It is only in Enugu that you can spend six months without hearing of a case of armed robbery. We have a governor who ensures that most of the idle minds around get stipends from the government, so that they can stay off crime. Sadly, people do not know that it is more expensive to keep an environment peaceful than it is to control disorder.
Also, Ugwuanyi has taken governance and government down to the ordinary people, with his recent establishment of the liaison officers, to act as a go-between for the government and the autonomous communities. So, no community can complain about what is going on in the state, because they get direct briefings about government activity.
As for the issue of workers and government relationship, you discover that, even during the period we had issues at the Federal level for close to two months, Governor Ugwuanyi was the first governor to pay salaries without waiting for any form of allocation from the government. He did that because he has a social contract with the people and he understands how Enugu works. We do not have ‘oil’, so Enugu State is, basically, a civil service state. The governor knows this, so he ensures that salaries are not withheld at any point.
There is this sense of connect he has with the people of Enugu. As for physical infrastructure, he has engaged in landmark infrastructural development and brought alive projects which lay fallow over the years. The most recent is the Milliken Hill Road which he fixed. Now, it is more like a tourist attraction, because it is like hair-pin bends woven into the hills in that area. It was first constructed by colonial master who wanted people to come enjoy the sight of the place but it was abandoned for close to 60 or 70 years. Now, though, the road is coming to be again and has been commissioned. The other day, on my way to Anambra State, I was surprised that my driver drove through that way and it appeared to be the shortest route to access 9th Mile. The governor gets into projects of necessity, projects that endear him to the people of the state. While the previous administration did a good job in developing the urban areas of the state, Governor Ugwuanyi has gone beyond the urban areas into the hinterlands. If you go to Nsukka axis, you will discover that he has created another mega city over there. Like I said, we do not have oil and gas, but the little resources we have are optimally utilized and reasonably deployed.
The best thing the governor has done is simplifying the roles of a governor. How do I mean? We are used to seeing governors act like gods, but Ugwuanyi is with the common people and has made them to feel that he is a leader they truly want and value, because he runs a government of inclusion and self-participation.
What else could the people of Enugu State ask for? He has got our support for a second term and he will have it.
