Chairman of United Nigeria Airline and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Anambra State, Prof Obiora Okonkwo, in this interview bares his mind on pressing issues especially the urgent need to form a coalition of political parties with the aim of defeating Prof Charles Soludo during the state's gubernatorial poll later in the year. David-Chyddy Eleke brings excerpts.

We have just seen you declare your intention to run for the position of governor of Anambra State, what informed this decision?

After very wide consultations, as a result of some promptings, I have taken a personal decision to run. I can easily confirm that majority of stakeholders, majority of Anambra people decided that my humble self with my level of qualification and exposure is capable of solving the endemic problems we have in Anambra State, so I am convinced that these invitations to run are genuine and that is why I have made up my mind to call my grassroots campaign organisation to tell them that I am interested in running.

I have told them I have made up my mind, and that we have work to do and that they should go out there and do what is needed, what they know how to do already.

What is your take on the zoning arrangement in the state, especially considering that it doesn't favour you as an aspirant coming from the central zone, as people believe it is the turn of the southern zone?

As for the zoning you just mentioned, I want to tell you that the zoning formula people think we have today is not an Anambra thing. It is an internal arrangement which APGA made, and which they want to impose on our people. This state requires the best, and we must be able to send our best to represent us. Assuming there is zoning, but I'm not conceding that there is one, it has not done us any good. If assuming there is truly zoning too, then I will tell you that it is actually the turn of the central zone because we have had Governor Willie Obiano do eight years to represent the North, Peter Obi has done eight years to represent the central zone, and in the South, we had Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju who did just four years and now Governor Chukwuma Soludo is about to complete the same four years for the South, that means that all zones have taken their turns, it is now the turn of the central where I come from.

So if at all there is zoning, it is to the zones and not to individuals. If at all there is any zoning, which I do not believe in, the zoning is to the favoured zone and not to any individual. So having had eight years of Peter Obi from Central, eight years of Obiano from North and Soludo completing four years for south to make it eight years, in actual sense, the people whose turn it is today are central and I'm truly from Central.

However, I'm not declaring my intention based on where I come from. At this age and time, such things are mundane. It is too mundane to be talking about zoning, even if zoning is the thing for us, the South people are worse hit in the insecurity going on in the state, how have they used the power given them to better their zone? So what I have seen now with this present government of APGA, led by Soludo is that he is just massaging his ego, he does what he wants, not what is good for the people. It is very glaring that our security situation is very bad, even before the blind. He has ruined our traditional institutions, he has desecrated our sanctuaries, he is a man who stands even on the altar of God, before the blessed sacrament and dishes out information that are very condescending to the leadership of the church and even insulting people of the state. So the damage we have seen in this state under him is unequaled and I now believe that this is the time to clean it up.

I am calling on well meaning Anambra people to join in this movement. It is a coalition, we have to collate from all the political parties and support across the state to be able to remove him. Yes in the last few years as governor, having rehabilitated himself, he is now ready for a real contest. He went into boiboi with Obiano for four years and accepted such condescending positions to remain under Obiano because he had no resources to vie on his own, today he boasts that he has everything it needs to chase everyone out of the race.

At the appropriate time, he will tell us where those resources are coming from because we know he does not have any such investments that can be giving him such dividends in the last three years. I am out, and our mission is to seize Anambra from him because we have to liberate Anambra State.

Can you tell us what would be your area of focus if you are given the opportunity to lead Anambra?

Very soon we will present our agenda for the state as a public document, our focus now is to parley with the party people, so that they will see the need to give us the ticket. Once we get the ticket, we will get to work. We know what we should do, and this is not something we should be talking about publicly. In the coming weeks and months, it will become glaring to you where we are coming from and as a governor, I can tell you that even before swearing in, we would have reduced insecurity considerably.

We will prioritize security, we have been involved in this, we have done that in our local communities and we have been involved in the national security affairs but you know that matters like these are not for public consumption, but I can assure you that we know what to do and how to do it to hit the ground running for proper economic development. Anambra's economy is dead as we speak, there is no night life, no night economy, once it is 6pm, everyone is running home because they know the situation in the state. Day economy is about 50 percent and night economy is also same, so I can tell you that coming from business background, this is something we will solve. We don't need to go far to raise funds to develop this state. 20 Anambra people are capable of providing huge amounts if you ask. We know up to 100 Anambra people who will give us enough resources to jump start the economy with infrastructural development which in itself will attract huge interest and then people can feel free to come back home again and invest.

One of the biggest things that matter to us is coming home. That is why we have the word aku luo uno, which means being identified with your wealth through its visibility in the village. That is why, no matter where we are, we always come back home for various events. It matters so much to us. It is only Anambra man that can live in an uncompleted building in another state, but he has a mansion back home, where he comes to stay, but today we can not enjoy such mansions in the village because of insecurity. Look at Christmas, people find it difficult to come back home to see family and friends. Everything we are hearing is theory, and it is so sad that after three years in office, the incumbent governor is still telling us what he will do in insecurity, that is insensitive.

Yet you hear people say that he has started, let him just complete his tenure because he is from South. Come on, what are you telling the spirit of those who have died of insecurity because of the ineptitude of the governor? What are we going to tell the spirit of people whose disappearance have remained unresolved? They are there looking at you and trying to know what you will do to ensure that such do not reoccur. Even the newly launched security called Udo Ga Achi, which is just a political platform he is trying to raise, how many Mondays have gone and we are still dealing with issues of sit at home.

All these things are empty threats, he doesn't know what to do. He will just use that platform to fight his political enemies. Just here in our neighbouring state, Enugu Governor specifically, some one that means business, just three months and sit at home is gone.

Soludo doesn't know what to do any longer. This is a governor who told us about Dubai, Hong Kong and Taiwan, what has he done? I

Is that what he wants to achieve by launching the new security outfit? Today what we see is that they are getting some innocent people and unfortunate people and they put them on the screen and tag them criminals.

We never get to hear this is what police has done, or army has done, or DSS, does it mean we don't have them existing in Anambra State that we have to use non state actors to fight crime. In a state like Anambra, how much can non state actors do? This governor is some one who has thrown the traditional institution in the mud and appropriated the Presidents-General of communities as part of his government.

What would you do differently in the area of security if you were in the governor's shoes?

A lot. We will do quite a lot, let me tell you, in this community where we are now, I mean here in Ogidi, two years ago you may have known about the level of insecurity here then. Within a month you hear of the killing of 20 people or more, their head cut off and boys using it to play soccer. I single handedly solved it. We did not share it in the social media, we didn't share it with anyone. We just stepped in, did what we had to do, which we must not disclose to anyone, and since then everywhere have been calm. We didn't advertise it anywhere. 60 percent of people who are into kidnapping are there because Anambra under Soludo is safe haven for them. It is safe for them to do so, it is profitable to them.

Nobody operates in a place where the heat is on. Don't forget that when he took over Anambra, he had argued that Anambra was the safest state in the South East, today under his watch, can he say the same thing?

If you can't get security right, you won't get anything right.

Today, no one is investing here, people who want Soludo for even an extra month are people who have never sat close to people who came out of the hands of kidnappers alive, or families of people who are missing.

I have a friend whose son has been missing for two years now. Look at the young lady, the banker who just died in the hands of kidnappers even after paying ransom, which bank staff would want to be posted to Anambra with stories like this? I just held a meeting with a group of people in Asaba yesterday, they are all Anambra people, but they relocated to Asaba to go and set up their businesses. You need to look deep down, to see the danger this insecurity is causing to Anambra people. Christmas has come and gone, if you come to a meeting where just 10 wealthy Anambra people are holding a meeting, you look outside and you see several security personnel waiting, but we have just 10 people inside. Did you know how much it cost them to have that? That is not the kind of life we want to live.

People don't want to come home with their family because of this. A friend of mine, his mother always comes home at Christmas when it is cold, but this year the woman could not come. When she insisted, her son said "Mama, you have to sign an undertaking for me that if you go and anything happens to you, I am not responsible". The woman is stuck in Abuja now after coming back from overseas.

Don't forget that what we are seeing today is the best of Soludo. You can't see anything better than this if we give him a second term. People in government perform more in their first tenure because they know they will be needing re-election, but Soludo does not know what to do any longer. That is why we need to remove him now.