Frank Ukonga:
Chairman SDMP, Edo State of Nigeria: Media Chart: / Interview held in Benin to
Mark the 2ed SDMP State Congress @ the National Youth center on the 8th
February 2013
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| Prince Frank Ukonga - elected Edo state SDMP Chairman on media chart with the media |
Preambles: On the 8th of February 2013, SDMP- Social
Democratic Mega Party held its State Congress in Edo state to elect the state
EXCO as well as the elect and ratify candidates to contest the Edo state Local
Government Election of April 20; 2013, for the posts of Local Government
Chairmen and Councilors into the 18 Local Government Areas of Edo State of
Nigeria.
Prince Frank Ukonga was elected
the Executive Chairman of the SDMP in Edo State for a Four years Term addressed
to Lead the party to contest the Local Government Polls of 2013 and to contest
the 2015 general elections in Nigeria and the 2016 Governorship elections in
Edo state.
The Media took time to interview Prince Frank Ukonga on State, National
as well as on international issues-
Observer Newspaper: His Excellency: You have just been elected the
chairman of your Party, congratulations- what are your programs like:
Prince frank Ukonga: My first task is to rejig the party and build
a formidable political structure that will make a difference in the delivery of
dividends of democracy to the teaming masses of Edo state and to Nigerians in
generality who have become a simile of the parsonages of the great Elizabethan
classic of George Elliot as in the “Weaver of Ravelor” who improvised about the
coming to creation hopeless and miserably wandering men and women who are
unfortunately remnants of a disinherited Race and that she was predicting the
coming to being of our case in Nigeria and sub Saharan Africa is to say the
least…our destiny at SDMP is to re humanize and empower these great negroid
Bantu stock of the Black Race of Sub Saharan Africa presently… .
The Guardian: His Excellency: How do you intend to go about these lofty
goals?
Prince Frank Ukonga: First I am committed to opening more offices
of SDMP in the 18 Local Government Areas of Edo state addressed to get closer
to the grass root and secondly we shall emback on accelerated membership drive
to make SDMP a house hold political party in the state. We shall also Endeavour
to bring in to the party credible money bags in the case of funding while we
are resolutely committed to embracing the women and youth vanguard of Edo state
becoming members of our great party and to empower them as the engine of SDMP
policy thrust in Edo state. The dilemma of these great women and youth of Sub
Saharan Africa has been well improvised by the great Russian writer Turgenev in
his greatest classic ‘the Hunters’ sketches’ where he observed young men and
women with great talents and youth to the marrow who simply stupidly jokes away
their lives out of indiscretion and mediocrity, as a wasted generation as
improvised by Prof. Wole Shoyinka…Our prerogative at SDMP is to empower these
class of people and make then useful to subsequent creation.
Sahara Reporters-Dr Isibor: His Excellency, What’s your assessment of
State of the Nation?
Prince Frank Ukonga: The Nation has being dragged into stagnation,
ruins and decay by the fifth columnists of the Etat, the unseen powerful ruling
hands of viciously and dangerously calculating cabals..who tenaciously insists
on violating our birthrights through commissions and omissions to eternity…as
improvised by the Russian celebrated classic of Tolstoy in his celebrated
expose of “The power of Darkness’ where he improvised about the contradictory
course of rabid exploitations and slavery of man by man and the magnitude of
wickedness that man can inflict on fellow mankind through larceny of state and
public funds, depravity and denigrations…as contradictory course of historical
and dialectical development and the inevitable catastrophe this portends for
humanity…
Vanguard: His Excellency, What Solutions do you proffer to this?
Prince Frank Ukonga: The advent of democracy and universal adult
suffrage give the power to the people to chose their leaders and that is the
great beauty of democracy..the choice is yours; either to continue to live
under denigrations, unemployment, hunger, poverty or to vote into power the
right people that will guarantee you three meals a day, jobs for all,
electricity for all, industrial revolution, agricultural revolution, free
education at all level, security and safety of lives and properties etal which
are the key points of SDMP… so the choice is in your hands.. as improvised by Dostoyevsky in his classics “The Brothers Karamazov”- that power belong
to those who have the courage to stoop down and pick it up… and not until when
the Nigerian peoples and the peoples of sub Saharan Africa muster the courage
to pick up the power to vote genuine democrats into office then the situation will continue ,. But if
voted into power the government of SDMP will be resolutely committed to the
empowerment of all and sundry in the polity and guarantee peace, love, security
and above all take the country to the promise land of progress and prosperity…
Edo state Broadcasting Service- EBS-Radio and TV: His Excellency: Is
your political Party part of the Merging Political parties of Mega- APC
Prince Frank Ukonga: The Social
Democratic Mega Party- SDMP is not part of the new emerging merging parties of
APC. The parties involved are CAN, CPC,ANPP etc but the SDMP was the first
Nigerian Mega party of merger of 25 political parties to be legally consummated
in the history of Nigeria and Sub Saharan Africa and we are here to make a
difference and our door is still open to absorb other political parties into
our fold… currently we are negotiating with some political parties and you
shall be the first to know as soon as our new mergers come to fruition addressed
to make a difference in the 2015 presidential election.
The Punch Newspaper: His Excellency, what’s your opinion about mergers
of political parties
Prince Frank Ukonga: Most countries of sub Saharan Africa have weak
political institutions as well as economic, educational and weak industrial
capacity utilization In as much as we
subscribe to accelerated economic and industrial development of sub Saharan Africa
it is important to note that developing strong political institution is the
panacea to keep the military at bay from coups de Etat that has been replete in
the past six decades of the affairs of Nigeria and sub Saharan Africa; and in
this context we support mergers and acquisitions of political parties but then
this should be done curiously by marrying political parties of similar
ideological orientation so as not to lay another problem for the future of
Nigerians.
The Navigator: His Excellency what’s your stake in the forth coming
Local Government Polls of Edo state
Prince Frank Ukonga: At SDMP we have been promoting the bill for
the autonomy of Local Government in the constitutional review exercise and we
at on same page with the President of the Nigerian Federation His Excellency
President Goodluck Jonathan,,, but then the Governors Forum under the
Chairmanship of His Excellency Rotimi Ameachi has a different opinion as the governors wants to continue to lord it
over the Local Governments… we also hold as truth self evident that the Local
Government is the first tier of federating Units of the Nigerian Federation in
a collegiate beauty with the state structures as colligating federating units
but then the governor forum share a different view.. Any way our prerogatives
as regard the Edo Local Government elections id in all the Local Governments of
Edo State and the Nigerian Polity in generality addressed to capture political
leadership of the country. And in this context we intent to retire His Excellency
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to his town of Iyeamho and take over the realms of
leadership of the state starting from the LG Polls of 2013.
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| SDMP Edo state EXCO |
Nigeria News Direct Newspaper: His Excellency: The question of
mandatory deposit of 100 thousand Naira for chairmanship candidates and 50
thousand Naira for counsellorship
demanded by Edsiec, as well the aspects of alleged 450 thousand Naira
demanded for tax clearance and 780 thousand for chairmanship tax clearance is
seem by many as could pose obstacle to
candidates what’s SDMP doing about this
Prince Frank Ukonga: We are still consulting about these stumbling
blocks to the attainment of free and fear polls in Edo state. We may eventually challenge the edict in
court. The INEC ,the federal electoral body does not charge money from
candidates and there are court rulings to that effect stopping state and
federal electoral bodies from charging fees from candidates, but how these
strange apocalypses suddenly crept into the Edo state election requirement is
suspect as a ploy to alienate a large majority of credible candidate as well as
political parties from registering its presence in Edo state. This will have
negative backlash on the development of democracy in Edo state as well as in
Nigeria and sub Saharan Africa.This potent grave dangers to the growth of democracy
on a universal basis and must be checked.
Peoples
Daily: His Excellency, But you are viewed
as part of the progressive coalition in the 2012 Governorship polls that worked
assiduously together with the comrade governor to earn the tremendous success
of the Edo polls , adjudged the best so far in Nigerian History, how come you
seem at daggers drawn presently..
Prince Frank Ukonga: You are right that the progressives came
together in the Edo governorship polls including my political party SDMP to
work with comrade Adam Oshiomhole and his subsequent victory. Without our
coming together the votes of the progressives would have been split into
fragments including that of the comrade governor and non of us among the
progressives will emerge the winner so the victory when progressives hunt alone
separately and differently, inadvertently goes to the PDP as in the case of
Adamawa gubernatorial polls, Korgi governorship polls etal ,so we did not want
this to manifest in the Edo polls… but that is as far as we can go.. I was a
governorship contender in the Edo polls and His Excellency Comrade Oshiomhole
is my friend but then political institution transcends friendship and
sentimentality. And to tell you the truth National EXCO of SDMP has given me
only two options on the issue of Edo polls as regards the alien strange
nihilist features that it suddenly enveloped itself and the two options are
that either we go the court or we boycott the election. That was why I told you
that we are still consulting. And we are not alone in this, the NCP state and
National EXCO hold same opinion and perhaps the PDP.
The Pointer: His Excellency which of the two options will you prefer
either court action or boycott
Prince Frank Ukonga: I told you already that we are still
consulting. It would have been a great opportunity to firmly anchor SDMP into
Edo state if not for these strange edicts of the comrade governors Edsiec that
has become the albatross. In many states of Nigeria that conducted Local
Government polls such laws and mandatory deposit and prohibitive sums of money
were not charged for tax clearances. So it is perceived in some quarters as a
hegemonistic totalitarian ploy by the incumbent party to completely dominate
the Edo political landscape for ever..which if not quickly addressed to return to
the status quo anti bellum will kill the growth of democracy in Nigeria, Africa
and threaten the entire globe…like in some other states of Nigeria in Niger
State the governor of Niger state His Excellency Aliyu Babangida extended the
olive branch to other political parties gave them money and vehicles to deepen
the growth of democracy in the state during their local government polls. As
the chief executive officer of the state you are governor to all… same the
Delta state governor His Excellency Oduagan did as well as the Kaduna state
governor the late Patrick Yakowa did by being supportive of other political
parties in the state in order to have an even level playing field.. As in coming
to equity with clean hands… these set of governors are matured and advanced in
politics. They never hiked the tax clearances nor did they ask candidates to
pay a sum of mandatory deposit.Why should we in Edo state adopt satanic alien
methods that will kill democracy for ever in the state…
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| Prince frank Ukonga in cap with SDMP Women leaders of Edo state of Nigeria |
National Peoples News: His Excellency, what would be your programs when
elected to power?
Prince Frank Ukonga: SDMP is a social democratic party and we as
social democrats subscribe to the polished tenets of Marxist philosophical
frontiers in the aspect of political ideology and philosophical argumentum:
which translate to the fact that we believe as adamantine that human beings
determines consciousness which begin to invigorate enterprise from whence
emanate production and its subsequent production relations that gave rise to
class struggles in its dialectical and historical instances based on
evolutionary theory of ontology of the homo sapiens out of which evolved the
necessity and sufficiency premises of Maxim Leninism ideology resolves that
holds adamantine as truth self evident and scientific and dialectical the
following observations:
That all human being are born
equal and are equal before the law and the state….
Education: That we believe in
free and qualitative education for all at all levels as adamantine rights for
all the citizens of a polity ruled by Social Democrats…..
Employment: We believe in Jobs
for all, empowerment of all citizens of the state and country as imperative for
a truly democratic progress addressed to galvanize the social and economic
entropy of the polity toward the attainment of rational eudemonia….
Industrial and agricultural
revolution: SDMP will be resolutely committed to industrial and agricultural
revolution addressed to create jobs and raise the gross domestic product of the
state and Nigeria in generality…
Healthcare: At SDMP we are committed
to deliver good and well equipped hospitals, maternity centres throughout the
State addressed to provide healthcare to the majority of the peoples…
Housing for all: We shall provide
a policy thrust that will deliver cheap and affordable houses to the people…
Electricity for all: We shall
partner effectively with the federal Government to provide electricity to all and
sundry 24/7 in the state….
Development of Strong Political
and other institutions: We shall provide an even playing field for all to
participate in the governance of the polity through a policy thrust of
developing strong political institutions in the state which will translate to
supporting all political parties in the state financially and otherwise to
build formidable structures addressed to deepen the development of democracy in
Nigeria and sub Saharan Africa…. This will include support for NGO’s, Civil Right
groups, the Police, Para Military as well as the military institutions located
in the state and also support the Legal commission, the civil service
commissions, the recreation and tourism industry, the cultural development
institutions, the Traditional rulers institutions would be empower to play
active role in the governance of the state while the youth, sports and women
development department would be given maximum support…etc
Conclusion: We thank you all for attending this our celebrated milestone
of the Second Congress of SDMP in Benin
City and we at SDMP promise resolutely to deliver the dividends of democracy to
the teaming population of Edo state when voted into power..Thanks and God bless
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