***Security is not the greatest problem of Nigeria but mutual suspicion
The Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpazu has indicated that the phenomenon of the G-5 governors is beyond the 2023 general election as being perceived in many quarters.
Speaking on Thursday at the Yaradua Center in Abuja after the public presentation of a book “The biochemistry of the environmental pollution’ he co-authored with a lecturer from the University of Portharcout, Dr Kalu Kalu Igwe, he reiterated that the G-5 governors’ grouse against the national leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is to ensure that everyone’s interest is protected, especially at the national level irrespective of tribe or zone.
The PDP has been enmershed in an internal crises over party leadership with the presidential candidate, Alh. Atiku Abubakar and Governor Wike of Rivers state, Southern Nigeria, having opposing views with Gov. Wike calling for the removal of the party’s National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu for the South to produce the party’s next national chairman.
Ikpazu who dismissed the notion that the G-5 is no longer relevant said their agitation is about inclusiveness the lack of which has been holding the country at the jugular which he said was being reenacted by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“Let me say this to us, how I see G-5 is that what we try to bring to the fore is beyond 2023 elections
It is about inclusiveness, it is about what we think is at the root and jogular of what we think is with Nigeria.
“If I come to a point in my life as a politician and you produce two or three critical officers of my party and they are coming from one particular geo-political zone, I will still agitate, even if , it comes from my geo-political zone.
“I am talking about, how do we bring everybody on the table. If you exclude Igbos I will protest, if you the same to northern Nigeria I will ask the question, I will also protest. If you exclude people from western Nigeria, I will still Protest.
“For me, it is about including everybody, the youth, the women. People from the North, People from the South.
“All of us, we need to do social mobilization in order for us to solve the economic problems of this country.
“Social mobilization to solve the security problems of this country, you do have to put the cart before the horse.
“The greatest problem of Nigeria Today is not security, neither is it economic. It is lack of cohesion. It is disunity. It is because there is mutual suspicion, lack of mutual respect.
“We must come together, women, youth, people from the south, people from the North stating that this country belongs to all of us under one God.
“The parameters must be the same. A criminal in Zamfara, must be seen as a criminal in Abia. A criminal in Enugu must be seen as a criminal in Lagos. So G-5 is what it is because it is beyond 2023.
On the book presented to the public and it’s relevance in the academic circles he said, “You have heard the professor if environmental studies in the university of Portharcourt declared Publicly that he has been teaching that subject for 20 years without any material for teaching and I needed to fill that gap.
“It is a very strong inspiration and drive to stop that gap. It was a very strong inspiration and drive to ensure that, that gap is filled. The essence of our being, here, is to solve problems.
“My study and sojourn in the area of biochemistry will be in vein, if I cannot contribute to the body of knowledge. It is this drive that propelled me to keep at it till I achieved it.
“When I came over to the flip side of public service, to serve as governor, I thought that, that would have been a point of divergence and disconnection from my first love – Biochemistry,
Each time, I look at every issue, and every problem from the perspective of biochemistry.
“In 2013, I had the opportunity to serve as the deputy general manager of Abia State Environmental Protection Agency. As we were managing domestic waste I also saw the dimension of Biochemistry in terms of trying to explain the causes and the diseases and the derailment we suffer everyday because of the pollutants in the environment, so Biochemistry refuse to leave me and I had to go back and pick it up.
He said he feels very fulfilled because it was a journey that he started over 20 years ago.
“It is not easy at all. To write a book on biochemistry does not leave me with too much choice, because there are rules, there are principles which you must reflect in your interventions. For me it is the icing on the cake, as an academic. I feel fulfilled I feel very happy.”
The chairman of the book presentation HRH prof James Ayatse who is a professor of biochemistry and the To Tiv said people can make contribution to knowledge in any topic they have chosen irrespective of the other challenges.
What is important about the book is contribution to knowledge rather than what ever will come out of it in terms of financial reward.
He said it is not for the purpose of making money that the book is being presented, it is to have a wonderful contribution to knowledge in the area.
He commended the governor who he said was his student for combining the rigors of governance with intellectual venture
“Ikpazu, I am proud of you as one of your teachers. You have gone where I couldn’t make it, you know I dived into politics.