‘Why I Want To Become APC Deputy National Chairman Position’. — Dr. Nwoye.

Posted by Ignatius Okpara Featured, Interview, Latest Headlines, News, News Across Nigeria, News From The State, Personality Profile, Uncategorized Monday, March 23rd, 2026

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) — Dr. Ben Nwoye is an American trained lawyer, and a household name in Nigeria’s political space, especially within the corridors of the ruling All progressives Congress APC. He has served the party in various capacities, including as elected and appointed state chairman of the APC in the coal city state of Enugu, South East Nigeria. The Lawyer turned politician is also former Secretary of APC Chairmen’s forum. Recently, he declared his intention to run for the office of the National Deputy chairman of the APC (South) in the upcoming national convention of the party scheduled to take place in Abuja on the 28th, of March 2026.

In this interview with some journalists in Enugu weekend, including our Correspondent, IGNATIUS OKPARA, Nwoye, Bared his mind on the motive behind his ambition of occupying the office..

Q; You recently declared your intention to contest for the position of the Deputy National Chairman (South), of the APC. What are those things or innovations you think you want to bring on board? Or things you feel the party is not doing right in the Southern Region of Nigeria that you would want to correct if elected?

Nwoye: I want to first of all thank God Almighty for the opportunity to be alive today and to still aspire to serve my people. It is not about what they are not doing right, It is about what we will add to what is already there.

You see, the 2027 general election is going to be an election like none other. In my own view, 2023 would be a child’s play if we are not ready. And part of the readiness will come from preparing the party for the struggle ahead. The progressives need to come out. They need to own up to the system. It’s not just all about singing on your mandate we stand at political rallies. The progressives need to do what I will call a purposefully and progressively driven revolution where we move from city to city, town to town, village to village, state to state, door to door, explaining to the Nigerian people what the Renewed Hope Agenda of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu is all about and has done since assumption of office. Explaining to the people the promises that this our dear president has put together for the betterment of the nation. As a party, we have not really done that. I give you an example,

Today, we have a president that has put together a policy where finance will not be a reason for anyone not to go to school, including the university. You can go to school by accessing government loans. But if you check the number, you will find out that more people in the North are accessing that loan than those in the South. The question becomes why?

It’s simply because we have not preached that to our people in Southern Nigeria, and we’ve not institutionalized those policies hence, many people from this part of the country do not know about it. So, if elected DNC (South), I am going to look into such areas, because education remains the bedrock for the advancement of any society. I am going to get our students know about this federal government intervention. There is supposed to be a desk in every government institution sensitizing the people, especially youths about the loan. Young people being admitted into universities need to go through financial aid like it’s done in the United States of America (US).

I think that’s what prompted Mr. President to do what he’s doing in that regard. So that you can’t begin to blame your parents for not going to school because they don’t have money. You can take a loan.

Like I said, it’s quite unfortunate that loan is there and people don’t know that it exists because at the institutions we are not preaching it. The party with a small effort can put a desk in every public institution, higher institution and have a youth manning it, giving ideas, giving the information to those who need them.

Q: What would you say about appointments in your party? If you go to that area of job issue, it shouldn’t be about all about people getting appointed into parastatals or ministries, and fixing their families and relations as well as those they recommended for available spaces, including those who never worked for the party. There must be a clearing house where we need to know what is going on. It is not just the job of a federal character system, it’s also the job of the party because the civil servants also help in implementing the policy of the government of the day. Not when the government of the day is elected by different people, the progressives, people who did not contribute anything will be the ones taking up the jobs, even selling them out, appointment is being sold out to people who never participated in the process. All over the world, when you elect people, you bring people that can push that government policy into the system. You bring people that understand what the policy makers are doing, those that can drive the policy. We don’t have that now. That’s on the area of employment.

I give you one good example, we have this Renewed Hope World Bank assisted program where about approximately at least 1,000 persons, Nigerians are supposed to be empowered through the Renewed Hope Agenda. They’re supposed to be given about 100,000 or 120,000 every month to help them with their businesses, but I don’t see people in the South pushing for it, probably because they don’t know about it, but it is ongoing. These are some of the things the party need to let the people know about in the region. They are supposed to be filling the their data in the system. So that in a very short time recipients will start getting their money, but We’re not doing it. I know here in Enugu, we are struggling. I’m part of the system, we are struggling to get people enter their data into the system. It is through that means that we now find out that before our e-registration in Enugu, we had under 1.5 million people with National Identification Number (NIN) So, under such situation, how can you get the social welfare you need, the social investment? How can you push it to the people if those people are not in the system? We are thinking that the population of Enugu people should be somewhere around between 6 and 8 million people and yet you have under 1.5 million person with NIN numbers. So, the people who are pushing this through the party system are not aware of these things. I’m aware because I care. So, gentlemen, the election of 2027 is beyond mounting podiums and shouting “on your mandate we stand.” We have to go deep down and go step by step and let Nigerians know about the federal government’s human oriented programmes and policies. I give you another example, when the food prices started going down, you saw me on TV defending it because it was a deliberate policy of President Tinubu, yet, nobody is talking about it. It was not magical. There are policies that are put in place that ensured that we had a higher yield in our farms from beans, not just rice. But how about garri? Even your fish product, even the egg, the the poultry, products are going down, all of them. It’s not just that it happened by chance.

Q: So, as a party would you say you have done well in Southern Nigeria on letting the Nigerian masses know about some of these human oriented government policies you are talking about?

Nwoye: I think I will say we have not done so well in the South. we have not done well in taking the message of the renewed hope agenda of Mr. President to the people. We are busy, sitting on the periphery and waiting for a mega rally where the leadership shows up and join the chorus of “on your mandate we shall stand”. So, a Ben Nwoye’s candidacy of DNC South is taking the message of the Renewed Hope Agenda to the people and telling them that listen, yes, the reform has brought some hardship. But it is on record that every other nation that have gone through reforms, went through hardship until they get better and we’ll be able to explain it. We are going to let our people look at where we were. If these things were not done, this improvements wouldn’t have been recorded or happen. Again, take a look at Enugu. I mean, I’m talking of Enugu because this is my home state. What we are enjoying, the type of development we are enjoying in Enugu is only possible because of the amount of money we are receiving from the federal government which has never happened before. And how is that possible? Because of both the fiscal policy and energy policy that are being put together That is why you have in Enugu a N1.63 trillion budget. This is almost unimaginable. But are we explaining this as a party? Are we owning it? Are we taking charge of it? So far, they’re not doing it . What you ask yourself is, how many times has the person sitting on that seat for four years been on TV to explain a policy or face you the media, the press to explain government policy, the effect on the people and how we get this thing better. These are the questions to ask. How come we don’t even know that this office existed until now that I am running for it. I bet you most people don’t know that this is a system. I mean, people say, ‘oh, we heard you are running for National Vice Chairman Southeast’. I said, no, it’s not Southeast. And people are asking me, oh, ‘what do you mean?’. I said it’s Deputy National Chairman South. Some are still asking me to explain what I mean. This means if you have someone who is there and you don’t know that the person is there, then there’s an issue.

And that’s not to say that he hasn’t served, done well in the other areas. But you know, sometimes people sit in a place for too long, and before you know it, they become, very comfortable and I think that’s what has just happened. He may have done well when he was the Southeast chairman or National Vice Chairman Southeast. But when you sit in a place and you’ve been there for 12, 13 years, before you know it, fatigue will set in. I think what has happened in the office is a leadership fatigue. It’s not that the gentleman, you know, is a bad guy. But when the leadership fatigue sets in, then idea fatigue also sets in. And then you get the absence of leadership. That is what you go through where you have crisis. For example there was crisis here in Enugu, there was crisis in Anambra. There was also crisis in Imo. Very recently there was crisis in Abia where they cancelled and stopped the ongoing congresses. Who took charge? Did you hear anybody say this is a solution? Do you see anybody going there in terms of crisis management? Did you see any committee going there? The answer is no. If you push back, even in Lagos, there was crisis in Lagos. There was also crisis in Delta. Even Bayelsa, Rivers, of course, Rivers had been the home of crisis for a while. Leadership has responsibility of facing these difficult challenges, making difficult decision for the interest of all.

You can’t always be on the fence or on the side of political correctness. As a leader, you must always take difficult decisions no matter whose ox is gored. How come we have not had endorsement rally, South endorsement rally for our dear president? How come no one has thought about it? We should have a major rally. So, a Ben Nwoye coming in as a DNC will pull everybody together. We will resolve disputes where they exist. We mend fences where they have been broken and we build bridges where there are gaps. And also, a Ben Nwoye deputy national chairmanship will of course ensure that the entire South is rallying behind President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That hasn’t happened. The biggest opposition is coming up from the South. And the leadership of the party at the apex level, being the DNC South, is folding it’s hands and waiting. You don’t do that. They are gathering in different political parties, PDP, ADC, LP, they are gathering and we are busy celebrating the defection of governors. It makes no sense. We have to go beyond that. We are busy celebrating that we are going to receive governors when we are not rallying those who we have. We are allowing old members to disappear. We are allowing old members to become like old rags. You no longer need them. You’re not asking where is this or that leader. These are the top questions. The founding fathers of this party in the South, both in the South- south, Southwest, Southeast, those who are aggrieved for one reason or the other, this is a time to ask question, rally them round for the re-election of our dear president. You can’t do that just by sitting up in office in Abuja. You have to make moves.You have to meet people. I’ve demonstrated that ability with the small assignment that was given to me. When the party said go back to Enugu and unite the party, and I did. We reached out to people. Before the party said that, I reached out to people also. I reached out to our dear Governor Peter Mbah. And I asked him, and told him whatever it will take for him to come in, I will assist for him to come in. And what will happen to Enugu if he joins the centre. And he agreed and look at what has happened. We are better off being in the centre than playing opposition.

Q: You have pledged to mobilize support for Mr. President ahead of 2027 and you have mentioned NELFUND as one of the most significant achievements of the Tinubu administration. What are other achievements that you can point to that people can say this president is actually doing well especially within the southern part of Nigeria and deserves reelection ?

Nwoye: I don’t know how often you travel. Two days ago, I came back from Port Harcourt. I will say for more than eight years, probably close to 10 years, I’ve not driven from Port Harcourt straight through Aba Road, Umahia, Okigwe down to Enugu. But I did it two days ago. I used to go through Eche to bypass Aba road. About 10 years now I have not driven through Aba. But two days ago, it was a straight road, no detour, no stoppage. That’s one. The security situation has improved greatly. The same thing. Few years ago coming from Port Harcourt down, you will have many security checkpoints. That’s reduced drastically. Reduce in such a way that it affects my travel time positively. Okay, if you come back to, what I told you about the food part, how exorbitant food prices were and how it has become very affordable since more than one year now. People will begin to compare back and front. If you look at infrastructure, state by state, again, let’s take Enugu for example, our dear governor will tell you that the smart green schools you see him building, the Enugu Air you hear of, the smart green farm and of course, the type two health care wouldn’t be possible if not for the policy that our dear president put together that resulted in them receiving way more money than they received before. Okay, look at the concessioning of the Enugu international airport, You see what is happening there now. We can go on and on whether it’s in the area of security or in the area of education which I talked about and the reason I keep talking about that is because education is the greatest equalizer.

You hear Governor Peter Mbah saying that putting 260 smart schools, one in every ward is not just the building, but it’s the contents of the building, the equipment with which the children are learning. Teachers are being retrained there, infact it’s a tech hub. You see now we’re not talking about just the issue of oil. The Tinubu administration has a policy to decentralise power generation and distribution. I think either in this month or next month, we will be talking about generating and distributing our own power in Enugu state. The Enugu State government signed a contract with a South African company to that effect. I think it’s by the end of this month or beginning of next month, they will break ground. This was made possible as a result of the human oriented policies of the APC led federal government under president Tinubu’s watch. And they will be able to mine coal, which was not done before, and using the same coal to generate power, in the end, we will not only be consuming our own power, the entire Enugu will be powered, and we’ll be selling power to the other states. These things wouldn’t just be possible if you don’t have a government that is looking at every area, allowing states to do things they didn’t do before, like being able to generate their own power. It wasn’t there before. It’s a new policy, that’s why we have the policy.

The Tinubu administration has undertaken major economic reforms like fuel subsidy removal and others, and before he was elected, he told Nigerians that if he doesn’t give them stable power, then he should not be reelected, and from every indication he has failed in that regard and other sectors So, how would you convince Nigerians that somebody who has made such promises, which appear unfulfilled, should get their votes again in 2027? I think it’s a very harsh and unreasonable conclusion to use the word someone has failed. You know, government is continuity. You build where the next person stop. Policy is put in place with information the person had at hand. On the area of power, what you have seen is improvement. Nigeria is not Ghana or some other small nations. Nigeria is a very large nation. What they have done is to decentralise power and allowing different states, different region to regulate their own power, which never happened before.

Now, different states are using their own economic advantage, economic scale into power generation and regulation. It is not just the federal government. But there’s a policy which if all those other sub nationals begin to pick from, you will see improvement. I use Enugu, as example again, They’ve gone into private PPP to improve power generation and distribution. By the time they are done, I think it’s projected to be up and running by next year, Enugu will not only be able to give itself full 24 hours power, They will begin to supply others. These things don’t happen overnight. This kind of policy when you put it in place, you have to practicalise it. I quite understand the rhetoric of what Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said, don’t reelect me. I understand all that. But what you have to look at is improvement. Even you will agree that there has been improvement. You will agree with me that before the collapse of the national grid resulting from some form of vandalisation and all that, we were having almost 24-hour electricity. The ordinary man that you mentioned of. They knew there’s an improvement in the area of electricity. Even in my village. I’m sure even if you go to your village, power was becoming regular. So you can’t call it a failure. What you look at is what has he built on top of what was there before.

Q: what is your take on the issue of fuel subsidy removal?

Nwoye: On the issue of fuel subsidy removal, remember, Mr. President had said that We may have been busy eating what we will use to feed our nation and our generations to come. And he stopped it. He said, let’s save some and use some to improve our economy. Go to Abuja. I don’t know when last you went there. Each time I go to Abuja. I see new infrastructures. It’s not a small deal. Tinubu is building a modern nation, a modern city, modern federal capital territory. You won’t be able to do that if there was no funding for it. So, what the ordinary man is thinking, is that there should be handout. Government should just subsidise fuel so that we will be able to drive car, that is okay, but How about your health care? How about your education? How about improving the city and making it more modern? How about the security?

So, you need to look at what they have done in using that money. However, people should also begin to ask their local government chairmen questions. Let’s start with that. Not just governors or president always. They should ask them how much they are receiving now. You hear the story that almost every local government chairman are receiving billions from monthly allocation. They are building roads. It didn’t happen before. They are helping to furnish and build schools, healthcare institutions, and constructing bridges. It didn’t happen before. Before now, the local governments were barely able to pay salaries for primary healthcare workers and primary schools. How are they able to get those monies?

The problem we have is that we still have this concept of centralisation of governance. Everything that goes wrong even in our own community, we skip the councillor. We skip the council chairman. We skip the governor. Even the house of House of Representatives members and the senate, those who should be doing your constituency projects. We skip all of them. We don’t hold them accountable. We go straight to abuse the president as the culprit. So, there is also need to streamline all these things We have 774 local government areas in Nigeria and you see the amount of money coming to your own local government. You can track it and see whether the effect is happening. Tinubu will not be everywhere to make sure that you apply it in the power delivery. But some smart governors like what we have here in Governor Peter Mbah, have taken the advantage of that to put their states back to reckoning in terms of power generation and distribution These things would not happen if we just had a few people during the era of subsidy. And they are there milking the system, collecting money, moving fuel, moving gasoline to other part of the world.

Q: How would you react to the issue of the present high cost of fuel,?

Nwoye: let’s not skip what caused it. You see, the war going on everywhere on earth, made the prices to go up because the movement of trade has changed. You can’t blame it on Tinubu. In fact, oil was coming down. We were buying at N800. before these wars set in. Under his regime, Dangote refinery was launched. More modular refineries are coming up. So you must applaud the administration for these initiatives.

Q: Let’s look at the Agricultural sector?

You will agree with me, that the cost of rice, the cost of garri, the cost of vegetable oil are no longer what people are complaining about. All these things were coming down drastically to the point where Nigerian people are beginning to feel relief from the effects of petrol fuel subsidy removal. Even you as journalists can attest to that

Q: Do you think APC has done well in terms of infrastructure, security and the economic inclusion in the Southeast?

Nwoye: The answer is a straight one, yes.You know, in terms of economic inclusion, of course. I just told you about the concessioning of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, to a private investor, which would position the state as a major aviation hub. It means our sons and daughters can take flights from here to other parts of the world. Thanks to Mr. President. Also, approval has also been secured to extend the Eastern rail line from Aba to Enugu, thereby advancing the dream of a multi-modern transport system. Are you aware that within the next 18 months, a high-pressure gas pipeline would run through Enugu under the South East Development Commission initiative, unlocking over $2 billion in economic activities in the energy and petrochemical sectors. This development will accelerate the Enugu’s target of building a $30 billion economy. The SEDC has given us hope. The things they’ve lined up to do will unlock the economic fortune of the entire nation. So, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the only man in the modern time who has the idea and the courage to release each region to go and develop in their own pace. That now each region has their own development commission. We are not telling the story the way we’re supposed to tell the story from the party angle. Because remember, it is the party that elects the president, those who govern, those who take those position. When we elect them we’re not supposed to just leave them. When their policies are going well, we’re supposed to explain it. If it’s not doing well, we’re supposed to also explain it. We’re supposed to continuously engage the people. It is not just good enough that a party officer has been elected and you just go up in Abuja and you sit down. When we have the commission event here, we should be able to use such gathering as a fora to explain some of these policies to our people. We should be able to use the platforms of south South, South East and South West Comisiossions to explain to our people government programme and policies. The women group who supported the president should be able to be carried along. The youth group should know that these things are there. So that when we do scholarship for smart people that we send overseas, it shouldn’t be on the basis of who you know. It should be on the basis of your effort, on your academic effort, your ability. And we should make it open. Open up the party, open up the system. Explain things in a way that those who support the progressive agenda, the progressive ideology, those who elected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not be without information to defend the system. Many people don’t know these things. You shouldn’t allow the opposition element to create stories that are not there. We have not activated our youths to respond and to be very responsive to counter some of these stories that are out there. If we tell our own stories, if the progressive leadership put together a machinery that can tell each own stories. I think all this will be different. We have not done that. And that’s because the leadership has focused on simple Abuja based party management. It is beyond Abuja based party management. You have to come home. The votes are not in Abuja secretariat. That’s not where the votes are. That’s an administrative office. There are people given to do the administration. People holding the political office of the party supposed to meet the people, not just during election time. Before election time, during election time and after election time. There must be interaction and exchange of idea. Is our policy working? If it’s not working, why is it not working? There must be feedback mechanism. There must be two-way communication, You need to meet the people. You need to be accessible. We move from South east to South south, I’m doing that now as a candidate. And from South south to South west. I’m also doing that now as a candidate. And then we need to also mingle with the North. We need to bridge the gap. Remember, I was the chief of staff to DNC North. So my coming in as a DNC South, there will be a true handshake between the North and the South. The national chairman’s job will be easier. Because you have a support base. You will get support from the South and support from the North. And whatever is working well for the South, we share it with the North. And whatever that is working well with the North, we share with the South. This is our dear president. We have to help him. We have to take care of the political party and allow him to do the governance. He can’t be doing both. Right now, they are getting those involved in governance to be doing the political establishment. We need to be able to be explaining government policies.

Q: Finally sir, even though you’ve answered part of what I want to ask. I believe that your ambition is tied to Tinubu’s re-election. Can you tell us the role you will play in achieving this if elected as Deputy national chairman(South)?

Nwoye: Number one I mentioned it, We know that right now there are many broken fences. And those broken fences and cracked walls, they need to be amended. They need to be patched. We can’t ignore it. Whether in the five states in the Southeast, you will see those fences. You see cracked walls. In the six states of the South south. Same thing exists. You can’t disregard anyone. The six states of South west. It’s same thing. That is why you see people defect. People don’t just wake up one day and defect because they are pursuing ambition. When those who founded the party are mistreated, treated as if they are worthless and nobody cares to call them. I don’t want to name names. But they exist here in the South. we disrespect our founding fathers. The party leaders are not going to them. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not do that. It is the job of those in the Southeast who are in the national working committee to do that.You go to South south, you see the same thing. You see founding fathers, those who helped in building this party when it had very limited value. You discriminate against them because you have new joiners. Sure, we love the new joiners. But, don’t do away with the founding fathers. We need to make the party bigger than it is, like what we have done in Enugu state. We mended fences here in Enugu. So, from Enugu, we will move the story to other states of southern Nigeria. There are people who were in the Labour Party. We brought them in. There were founding fathers who were disrespected, disregarded, suspended, expelled, dejected and rejected. We went to them. It’s not that magical. You don’t create space. You talk to aggrieved members, People are out there expecting someone to come to them and tell them, “We are sorry.” And once you say that, they reconsider their position. Enugu state is bubbling today for APC because we did that. I led a team that went from one leader to the other and said, “We are sorry. You’ve been mistreated. You don’t deserve such treatment.”

So, we do that in the Southeast states. We do that in the South south states and we do that in the Southwest states. Then that will give us the impetus to have a mega rally. And we set up our own group that will not only be responding to false accusations, but will be digging deep into the nonsense the oppositions are doing. Because we can’t allow one story to be told and then there’s no response. We have a situation that we are working from. And we are doing everything every day to work it out. To make it better. To build a system that will last longer. The APC led government is committed towards building a modern nation, modern city both in the area of security, education, tourism, infrastructure, mining, technology. But all these things are not going to be done just one day. Though, the good news is that Nigeria is experiencing huge improvement in all sectors of the nation’s economy. Thank you .