Bishop Ossai reveals his plans to succeed Enugu State Gov. Sullivan Chime.

Oscar Okwudili Ossai, the renowned presiding Bishop of City of Refuge Ministries International, Lagos and stakeholder in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of Enugu State, aspired twice but did not succeed for a seat in the National Assembly. He speaks with CHRISTIAN OKEKE on why he now wants to succeed Governor Sullivan Chime in 2015. Excerpts:


Although we have seen clerics become governors of their states, what we have not seen is a cleric become governor in the South-East. Now, do you think that your calling is going to have an impact on your ambition?

I have continued to insist that it is men of God that are blessed with passion that can be self-sacrificing; that can be dispassionate to really pursue people’s improvement passionately. I am saying this in the context that this is my 42 years in the ministry. I have done all I have done in life as a preacher, born-again Christian to the core. Righteousness has been the standard of my life. Not until men of God come
back and take over the mantle of leadership as has been experienced in all other developed platforms in the world; not until men of God wake up from their sleep and come into issues of leadership the way we have pursued evangelism, the way we have pursued telling people to repent and give their lives to Christ, our nation will not change.

But we have this factor of denomination that is so strong in the zone that may not augur well with your ambition?

I believe fundamentally that I am a bridge builder. I am a Catholic by birth, baptized and confirmed. Anyway, I am from Nsukka and the people of the area are Catholics. I have worked with the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), several bishops, even of the Anglican churches. I believe in ecumenism. I just finished doing a crusade where the Anglican Bishop of Nsukka, myself and Umar Ukpai gathered together…. We work together.


Are you scared; are you concerned about the issues of thuggery, rigging and manipulations that are associated with the country’s politics?

Am I scared? The answer is entirely no! I have been around; I have seen it all. The type of government you run is what determines all these factors. Since Governor Sullivan Chime has been in power, there has been a reduction in thuggery, political assassination and all sorts of that in Enugu State. We have to follow the same pattern he laid and improve on it. I am not bothered about it. If there is fairness and equity, if people are given opportunities to express themselves and bring their arguments in the front and we discuss them intelligently, we will all agree to solve any problem that arises. I believe that there would be no need for violence either in the state or even in the country. The problem is when people are not allowed to say what they want to say.


People are looking at the next governor of the state coming from Enugu North zone, that is, Nsukka area but then we know we still have the Nnamani factor, the Chime factor and all that. Do you see the coast clear for you?

It is a reality that the coast is clear. It is a reality that there are some of these big men who are from this other side but I said that the coast is clear because, like I told you, the PDP is a big family. We usually sit down and decide how we are going to move forward and graciously, the current governor has said to us that governorship will go to Enugu North. The same principle of balancing is not just going to be done but is going to be seen to having been done. So, our big brothers, who have handled power, who have handled political offices, will help us. I call for peace, unity and oneness. Let us be our brothers’ keepers. It is not about violence. We can move the whole state forward. Enugu is crying for intervention; the state has a lot of capacity; it will get better as we get close by.


Do you have confidence in the current national chairman of the PDP, Adamu Mu’azu; do you believe that he will have the courage to do what is right in Enugu State?

He is somebody that I have watched since 1998. He is an intellectual; he is a balanced person and he is not the aggressive type. I have absolute confidence in his leadership and that he will help us to run an ultra-modern national party that will gather people. The PDP is a big umbrella that can accommodate every person. So, Mu’azu will help us to make way for a level-playing ground. The government is our government.

President Goodluck Jonathan is believed to have ambition to seek re-election. What thought do you share, that he should contest or not?

We should go back and thank God for a time like this. People don’t understand how He works. It is God that makes kings. Power belongs to Him and he gives it to whomsoever he wills. When God has given power, there is something that He is trying to achieve. God has provided a man, but for his kind of person and strategies, Nigeria would have gone up in flames. It is God that put transformation idea into this man. The gentleman, that is our president, God gave him an idea that what this nation needs is a transformation agenda for the country. How to follow a leader is to sit down and study the leader: where is this leader headed to? If he decides to run, let us all support him because that is what will bring us to where we are going to as a country. I will work for him much more than I have ever worked before.

Do you believe the agitation by a section of the North for power to return to the zone in 2015 would become a factor in 2015 elections?

That is the good thing about democratic politics: bring your views to the table, whoever the people choose becomes the president. I don’t see why there is any agitation. Let the section produce a candidate and let the people of Nigeria compare their candidate with the president if he chooses to run. If a section says no, we are not going to allow a section determine for us the direction of the country. It is a common interest; it doesn’t call for insurgency and challenges as much as we have had. It is what I may call lack of understanding of democratic ideals. It is not about what I want; it is about the majority views of the people. The concept of whether power must return to one section or the other has always been there. It is constantly a Nigerian issue.

What is your take on the ongoing national conference, especially with the agreements and disagreements coming out of it?

My understanding of what Mr President is looking for is that he is trying to chart a direction for the nation that will at least aggregate thoughts and give a direction to where we should go. The disagreements and contentions are all fine. They will quarrel, they will disagree but eventually they will settle and by the time they settle, a direction comes out. Even if we disagree in the confab, the most important thing is what is the basis of the disagreement? And it becomes the basis for discussion. Nigeria is running without anything. We don’t even know whether we agree or disagree.

How can you rate the administration of Gov Chime of Enugu State?

He has done well, quite frankly. In terms of infrastructural development, Chime has done very well. You can now access Nsukka from Enugu in less than 30 minutes. That’s like a miracle. The first time I used that road, I nearly came down from my car to kneel down to thank Chime for a job that is extraordinarily well done, a very good road. So, he has done well. Sullivan’s administration has laid the foundation in infrastructural development but, there are greater ideas; there are more ideas that we can bring in, that can even make PDP as a family to shine better at the end of the day. Following from the foundation which he has laid, there are other things we can build on top of that foundation. He has given us a good foundation; therefore, what we can build on that foundation can be very big.

We have heard that you have interest to become governor of Enugu in 2015. Can you confirm that?

Everybody has interest to become governor. I have always been a player in Enugu State. I come from Enugu North and one other thing that makes me love Chime very much is that the governor has magnanimously, openly and publicly said that the next governor of Enugu should come from Nsukka. So all of us are grateful to him that he didn’t mince words, he didn’t leave it hanging and he has also said that there are lots of people who have had opportunity to represent their people at various times, that time has come for new people to be allowed to also have a feel of what it is like. Sometimes I listen to him, he sounds like God, I mean the way God sounds: very honest, very direct and all that so if I am given the platform to run for state executive, I will be happy about that. Yes of course I am not imposing myself. I am only saying if the platform is available, I will take advantage of that.

What is your blueprint for the development of Enugu State?

On my own, I have thought about that. I had wondered what to do with a state like Enugu; I have wondered how we can make life better, improve living standards, improve what is happening and I see lots of opportunities and I have a blueprint on how to actualise this. Having been in the politics of Nigeria since 1996, it would have crossed my mind severally as per what we can do with my state. I believe it is too early to come out clearly but areas that need to be touched are many. Human capital development is a very important aspect of what I want to see done: how can we improve economic power of the people, how can we create opportunities that can enable people to excel in life, how can we bring people into governance? Of course, I am believer in plural form of government. I don’t believe in isolating people. I have written on how nations fail. I am thinking that one of the ways we can make our party stronger, make even our nation stronger is by opening the political space for many more people to participate, let’s not isolate people. If we can empower the people financially and socially, we can get the best from the people and make them participate more in the political space. I am also seeing agriculture. We can improve on the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state. I have all of these plans in my head. It is something we have been toying with for a long time. So given the platform, I can assure you that within the next four years, we can excel more than a lot of people who have had access to power in that state.