Chief Godwin Ubaka Okeke, popularly known as GUO, is the Chairman, Board of Directors, G.U. Okeke & Sons Limited and G.U.Okeke Transport Services Limited. The transport mogul and businessman who recently celebrated his 76th birthday, spoke on the sidelines of the event, and bared his mind on issues of governance, the polity and life experiences. He particularly recalled the “coup” he led Onitsha business elite to successfully execute against the then military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who planned cut Onitsha out from Anambra State and join it with Asaba to create Anioma State, with Asaba as capital. Enjoy the interview.
When you look at Nigeria today, how do you feel?
I am so disappointed that our nation is not doing well. Life was much better in the past when I was growing up and even when I started business. The exchange rate of the naira was good and the economy was booming. At that time it was easier, to a large extent, to plan your operations well because the exchange rate was stable and you could predict the cost of operations for one, two or three months ahead, because prices were relatively stable due to the stability of the exchange rate. Basic necessities of life were very affordable. The poor could find to eat. Today, even the people who are genuinely rich are not finding it easy. Corruption and bad leadership teamed up to destroy the economy. I do agree that external factors may have contributed a bit but if we had good leadership, then the leaders would have taken necessary proactive steps to shield the country from the impact of negative external factors.
It is a big shame that till today, when Nigeria is almost 65 years old since independence, our country still cannot generate up to 5000 megawatts of electricity, which is why you see generators everywhere, from the small Tiger generators which hairdressing and barbing salons use to the big diesel generators in the premises of companies, secretariats, universities, Government Houses and Aso Rock State House. The good educational system that produced my generation and others before us has broken down. That is why we now talk about cultism in universities. Like I said earlier, we squarely blame bad leadership and corruption for the state of the nation. That is why I am appealing to the media to strongly tell the entire society that all of us must stand up and protect the economy of Nigeria, starting from the Federal, State and Local government authorities including the civil service. I so much believe that Nigeria is a blessed country. God loves us so much that He gave us many things free, to get us moving. Unfortunately, some people are misusing these gifts, stealing and robbing the general public for their own selfish ends. We talk of people embezzling billions. We never heard that before, now we are moving into trillions being stolen. For how long are we going to keep quiet and these things will be going on?
Peter Obi suggested the other time to add firing squad and life imprisonment for those defrauding and stealing from government purse, including companies. That is the only solution that can save this country or else the whole economy will collapse. Look at China and the way they operate, they have all these things. You can’t steal and get away with it over there and I think it is only this harsh punishment that can deter people from corruption in Nigeria. Can you imagine that when politicians share rice, garri, beans and money during their campaigns, we clap for them? After that, our suffering continues with no good roads, security, no power, etc. How can industries survive under this atmosphere? Look at our higher institutions, before now, many people outside the country used to come to Nigeria to study as international students but today it is very rare to hear of such. The schools are not well equipped, hospitals are rotting away, and roads are deathtraps while factories are moving into other African countries. We have the power to vote people in and vote them out. Let the media help to educate the people on their rights.
What are your greatest regrets now that you are 76?
I have too many regrets, most especially seeing so many potentials of what the people in government can do to make life better for the citizens but they are not doing them. There is too much suffering and poverty in Nigeria, when Nigerians are supposed to have the best life. The reason we are always happy in life is because of the love of God for our family. I don’t know how many of you who were in Onitsha by 1991, when there was strong indication that Onitsha will be merged with parts of Delta State to create Anioma State. I took great risk then. Senator Chuba Okadigbo now of blessed memory called us for a meeting in Awka and exposed the plot to excise Onitsha from Anambra to join Asaba as Anioma State. He gave us an exclusive scoop then, that the then President Ibrahim Babangida was coming to the area within days to make the announcement. There were serious agitations by Warri and Sapele people after the creation of Delta State and making Asaba the capital, they protested that Asaba being the boundary between Delta and Anambra should not be the state capital. But knowing that Babaginda’s wife, Maryam, was from Asaba, IBB wanted to appease them too by making Asaba the capital to give them that honour. When Okadigbo exposed the plot, we had to organize an action immediately to thwart that move. As the leader of the traders in Onitsha at that time, we said we cannot cross the River Niger to join Asaba as another state because the traders own 98 percent of investments in Onitsha and Ogbaru. We maintained that the River Niger is the natural boundary for both states and nothing else. By the time we planned the action in the night, some traditional rulers were drafted to go to Abuja to see IBB while other people were deployed for massive blockade and demonstration. But by 2.00am, our plan was leaked. Soldiers, police and detachments of other security agents surrounded my house in Onitsha and placed me on house arrest. I kept quiet but they didn’t know that we had planned the execution far ahead. Though they surrounded me in the house, the roads were already jammed up as early as 6.00am that morning. It was well organized that there was no single movement of vehicles and the bridgehead was also blocked. The protesters were shouting, “We are not going to Anioma, we no go gree.” IBB instead of entering Asaba through Benin Airport landed in Enugu and came by road to Onitsha enroute Asaba. I was still in my house that morning under house arrest when I got a phone call from the police boss that there is trouble in Onitsha. The police said I should come out and talk to the protesters so they can clear the road but I told the police I could not move an inch since I was being held up in my home. By 7.30 am, they called me again that they have been ordered to leave my house, that I’m no longer under house arrest but I should come out and help so that I can bring the situation back to normalcy. That was when I had to go to the bridgehead and when the protesters saw me, they erupted into wild jubilation. While we were there, I got the signal that IBB was close by with his convoy. I cleared the road and he eventually got to where we were and he came down and addressed us. He asked us what the problem was and we told him in plain language that we didn’t want to join Anioma State with Asaba people. After listening to us, he said, “GUO, tell your people that we are no longer going to do that.” I told him to personally address the people because I may be mobbed if he didn’t act as he said. That was how IBB personally spoke to the protesters with a megaphone and everyone erupted in another wild jubilation. Those we sent to Abuja had not even reached Okene in Kogi State, when IBB made the announcement that we were no more going to Anioma and the news was everywhere. That was how we saved the day for people of Onitsha. That is why today, Onitsha is not under Delta State. It was a big risk that we took then but do you know the irony of the whole thing? Two years after we fought all the battle, some people instigated trouble in Onitsha market in OMATA traders union. They saw what we did and felt that I had become too powerful; that if allowed to continue, we could even topple a sitting government. That time OMATA was very united. If it should be now, all these people enforcing sit-at-home today, we would have crushed them without even government assistance. The then government went as far as sending some traditional rulers to take over OMATA. When that one didn’t work, they sent an army colonel to take charge. Traders protested that they didn’t want the military incursion but they (army) then set fire at one end of the relief market and the opposition cashed in on the opportunity to the extent that the next morning while I was still in my house, it was falsely reported that GUO had set Onitsha market ablaze. In order to save my name, I went to 82 Division in Enugu and reported. I was later brought down to Onitsha army barracks and detained for five weeks. After all the investigations, I was cleared and never indicted in any form.
Why did you decide to celebrate your birthday with the visually impaired, deaf and dumb?
In the 90s when I was the head of the traders in the old Anambra State, we used to see the blind roaming about without help. I started organizing them with my wife. We began paying their school fees and forming the association to the extent that till today, we are still their patron/patroness. We started seeing the potentials in them and today there are some of them who have doctorate and masters degrees and even one of them is a professor. Some of them are gainfully employed today. About 10 years ago, the group of deaf and dumb also came to us seeking assistance and we decided to incorporate them too. From that year, we started attending their events at Central sShool, Onitsha. Luckily for them, I also had my elementary school education at Central School, Onitsha in the 50s. The first time we went for their graduation, we wept seeing how they were abandoned and from then we began assisting them. They say givers never lack because since then, we have been doing fine together with our children. We discovered that many of the deaf and dumb students used to come to school from Ogidi, Asaba and some other far places. When it rains, they could not come to school coupled with the high cost of transportation. That was how the idea of building a dormitory and classroom blocks with laboratory came about and we did that through the Godwin and Patricia Okeke Foundation.
The Anambra State governorship election is due in November. What are your thoughts on this very important election?
Politicians should desist from using our youths as instruments of violence during elections. Some selfish politicians use our youths hopelessly but train their children well. But God cannot be deceived. If you hide your own children in a better way and use other people’s children as thugs, God will eventually turn around and ‘pepper’ you and your children. The whole world is laughing at us. The youths should learn to be wise and take wise decisions and actions too. They should not allow themselves to be used by anybody for selfish purposes.
Who should be blamed for the get-rich-quick syndrome among youths?
I don’t blame the youths much but I blame the older people and parents more for not showing good examples. We expose these children to various unhelpful lifestyles and falsehood. You find rich parents who send their children abroad with embezzled money, and those children end up taking drugs overseas. They would not attend classes because their parents bought mansions and put them in the mansions. They frolic with their boyfriends and girlfriends and that is why many of your youths are getting spoilt seeing all these things. I was already a millionaire before I married, and God kept blessing me after marriage, but my wife and I have never indulged our children or allowed the little we had to influence our children negatively. None of our children had a car while in the university or lived in a flat outside the university hostel. We never gave them the latitude to misbehave because their parents were made. At times, some big men come to us to ask us how we were able to do that and I ask them, ‘have you ever spent your money to train other people’s children or you only mind your own?’ I tell them to make efforts to train others who are not connected to their families. Many children are under our care today even though they are not biologically related to us in any way. I tell parents today to stop exposing our children to that useless lifestyle.
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