I Am Driven By Truth And Hunger To Represent Anioma At the Senate - Abavo-born Smart Madu Ajaja

I Am Driven By Truth And Hunger To Represent Anioma At the Senate

-       Abavo-born Smart Madu Ajaja

Smart Madu Ajaja is a Human and Environmental Activist with particular interest in environmental justice and international relations. He is a USA-based orthopedic nurse in industrial, correctional and oncology nursing with licensure in three different countries

of the world. He also ranks high as an Anioma inventor able to devise “unpatented dynamic Immobilizer” for the management of Volkmann’s Ischemic Contracture but he is best known possibly for his Anioma advocacies and leadership contributions over the time. Ajaja is the latest in the train of Anioma candidates with political ambition to represent the Delta North Senatorial District of Delta State at the Nigerian Senate. In this interview with EMEKA ESOGBUE, he speaks on his ambition, hopes and mechanism in place to enable him succeed. He also bares his mind on the state of Delta State and Nigeria among other issues. Excerpts:     

Esogbue: Suddenly, there is this distrust among the Nigerian ethnic families and everyone is worried. With hate speeches and threats precipitously menacing the existence of the Nigerian state, the ordinary Nigerian is worried. How in your opinion did Nigeria come to this?

Ajaja: Thank you Emeka Esogbue. Nigeria was originally programmed to fail as it was founded on the economic gains of exploitative British colonialists. They planted sophisticated series of divisive time-bombs that started exploding soon after they left office. This was ignited by lack of commensurate economic content that could have translated to prosperity instead it gave birth to divisive, manipulative and homegrown colonial locusts who now unleash poverty on our people. I predict that these hate speeches and genocidal effects on Nigerians will get worse unless Nigeria is unconditionally opened up for equal access to opportunities for the neglected masses through focused, transparent, accountable and alternative leadership to be driven by capable men and women of conscience and integrity.

Esogbue: Okay, thank you Mr. Ajaja, let’s move down to Anioma, you have been in the struggle for the betterment of the Anioma people. What will you say Anioma advocates have achieved over the years?

Ajaja: The Anioma people have not achieved much beyond psychological victory of having one of them being the present Governor of Delta state if that is really an achievement. In my recent visit to Nigeria, I did not see anything tangible that has inspired confidence about the living condition of the people except a few whose palm-nuts were cracked by a benevolent political spirit to earn a living without putting in any work at the expense of the people.

Esogbue: We also hear in some quarters that your Anioma people have called on you to represent them at the senate. How true is this?

Ajaja: Yes. Our people have been serially shortchanged by lackluster representatives who court them with cups of rice, salt, beans and expendable sorry cash which cannot last a few hours. Well, I believe that our people have watched me grow in voice, strength and actions over the years and have become convinced that I have something uniquely different to offer them hence the clamor to make me commit to offering myself for this public service. It has grown so loud to the extent that I have had to cave in to represent them at the senate. I am coming into the race with an alternative attitude to corrupt leadership which is a product of unconstitutional rotational party arrangement. I believe I would not make the regular lying Nigerian politician who would only tell the people what they want to hear to earn their votes. I am driven by truth and the hunger to serve my people and will not pay anybody, “employ” a godfather or party chieftain.  The call has heightened because of the caliber of exceptionally conscious Anioma people especially the youths that are involved. “Smart Madu Ajaja for Senate” is now the latest development in Anioma. I confess before God and man that I never met 99% of these incredible Anioma sons and daughters until recently in Agbor. You will recall that I was recently honored with “Leadership Award” by Anioma Leadership Consortium for my leadership delivery to my people. It will also interest you to know that I have some of the best brains from across Anioma advancing this cause. I see this as a total departure from money politics. Sycophants and professional blackmailers are not on my payroll. Am I not lucky? 

Esogbue: Congratulations to you on your given award. Well, but now that you are USA-based, at least at the moment, some people especially your critics may argue that you are unfamiliar with the Nigerian political terrain. Do you agree with them?

Ajaja: (laughs) …Emeka Esogbue, I scoff each time I am asked this particular question. Only ignorant people make such a baseless and lazy assertion which is not from the position of knowledge but from the beer parlor. Any good leader could have lived anywhere especially in this 21^st century.

Esogbue: But you do not reside in Nigeria at the moment.

Ajaja: (laughs) I am a natural-born Nigerian citizen from Abavo. Do you think any Nigerian is more Nigerian than me? I have lived here (in Nigeria) and have been deeply involved in searching for ways to make the country great. Being in the USA or any other country at the moment does not and should not alienate me from being the Nigerian that I am. It cannot also stop me from dealing with the challenges of the corrupt environment. They have used the phrase, “Nigerian politics is dirty” to defraud and scare those in the Diaspora who are willing to change things politically but my case is different because I will not allow mischief and antics to scare me from representing my people. I am a complete Nigerian ready to roll with Nigerians at home and abroad on this mission to the senate. I am also very optimistic that if the people regain their consciousness as I see them already doing between now and 2019 with God on our side, there will be a stunning tsunami that will go down in the history of Anioma and Nigeria.

Esogbue: It is good to know that corruption, lack of proper representation and other political vices are your chief reasons but if one may ask once more: How were you able to nurse this political ambition over the years?

Ajaja: I did not nurse the idea beyond seeing myself taking the lead in answering the call by my people to represent them. They know and trust my past precedence and believe too that I can represent their interest at the senate. If a people see something in you and believe you have so much to offer them, will you disappoint them? I am on a mission and it appears my message is going to get even bigger and bigger until it gets to everybody who needs it to wake up from slumber.

Esogbue: You are likely to compete with other political bigwigs in this journey. Again, it is a known fact that all the senators that have represented this particular Senatorial District returned after serving out their initial tenures. Can you stop this very incumbent should he decide to re-contest?

Ajaja: I respect the incumbent Senator and all other contenders for the seat, but I am not scared of any of them, including the mountains of money they may have at their disposition. I trust what is in me that shows up whenever I am about to be counted out, to give me victory. Already, I have been written off in some quarters by some Anioma political pundits as a greenhorn and I appreciate it because it gives me more fuel to work even harder. Biblical David was an underdog but it took just a sling and a stone that was in spiritual sense more than a powerful AK-47 to down the almighty and heavily enamored Goliath. I want to remain the underdog in this contest working, as the small axe against the big tree.

Esogbue: Our readers will like to know if there is anything you can do differently from all those who have represented the region at this level?

Ajaja: I am a hands-on man who aspire to bring leadership and the right representation by collaboration with the right people. I do not achieve this as their Lord and personal savior. I have already started to study the various Anioma areas to identify the specific challenges peculiar to them so that I can synthesize the list of the proposed bills that I will push to become legislations. There is the need to synergy efforts between me and other senators. If given the chance to lead, I will run a compact, sensitive and ready-to-go constituency office for dealing with urgent citizens’ issues and challenges that would require interventions in my official capacity as the senator representing the Anioma District. One thing I will not do, is to leave the business of representing the Anioma people to getting myself involved in being a stooge to anybody at the senate or making laws that would protect me and others against any fraud we may have committed in the past against the state. I have never been corrupt. Note that! I will bring my colleagues together to craft stiffer penalties against corrupt public officeholders and their accomplices anywhere.

Esogbue: Outside your senatorial ambition, you appear to have a very good standing with Abavo youths who respect you a lot. What is behind this?

Ajaja: Simply because I lead them by example and tell them the truth. They are a set of incredible kids and I love them so much for coming to the defense of their fatherland. Three weeks ago, when I was at Abavo, they besieged and were with me until I left. I hope to go places with them because of their commitment to the cause of justice, especially that which involves non-violence.

Esogbue: What is your estimation of Senator Dr. Okowa, the Governor of Delta state? Do you think he has met the aspiration of those that voted him into office so far?

Ajaja: Senator Okowa had the opportunity to become the first revolutionary Governor of Delta state but derailed soon after. This happened after a brilliant start that saw him giving a clear baseline picture of the state of the treasury which put the debt burden of the state at over 600 Billion Naira this he claimed to have inherited from Emmanuel Uduaghan. I am so sad about the death of the public school system in the state and I mourn especially, the historic St Charles College now Abavo Grammar School which was established a year after I was born. At Abavo my home town, all I saw was misery everywhere as the place looked more like a war zone with no roads connecting the various quarters. Before I arrived Nigeria on June 26, 2017, I had shipped a brand-new car but as if the dysfunctional Nigerian system knew ahead of time about what was going to happen to minimize damage, there was an annoying delay in bringing the car out of the port until three days to the termination of my stay. As we speak, that car is at an expensive garage in Abuja going through a major repair arising from its three days use in Delta state because of its bad and poorly constructed roads where they exist. Hospitals have become advanced mortuaries where people go to die and get embalmed for the next obituary announcement and set of parties for the weekend. As it stands today, unless I am unconscious, I will not lie down as a patient at the Agbor General Hospital because of the squalor of a place. Based on what I saw on the ground, the Delta state Government is a huge scandalous disappointment regardless of what some compulsive sycophants tell us on the social media but Governor Okowa can turn things around if he decides to.

Esogbue: So much from Delta State. Now, back to your political ambition, what is your agenda for your Anioma people after your victory?

Ajaja: My first goal would be to establish a robust system of transparency and accountability which have never existed to enable me establish a collaborative platform necessary for a collective law-making process with the active involvement of the people so that we will collectively take responsibility for our success and failures. I will work with the people to take an inventory of the challenges in Anioma and prioritize them according to their gravities so we can deal with them in an organized sequence except where there are emergencies that would temporarily override the established sequence. I will only promise what I can do because I am not going to lie and make myself look bad. Our people need to be told the truth so that they can trust again. I will focus on the overhauling of the nation's healthcare delivery and the educational system to meet the 21st century standards and Global best practices. I will push for the removal of federal character policy, push for total autonomy for Local Government, and restrict cattle rearing to management within the ranches. I will also push for transportation of goods from areas of production to the end-users; dismantle and rebuild the corrupt judiciary. The police will not be left out as I will enhance and outdate the police training and operating system to enable them adapt to our cultural and environmental specifics that will prescribe stiffer punishments for human traffickers. I will search for lasting solutions to the nation's embarrassing chronic energy crisis and reinvent the agricultural sector to boost local food security in addition to improving the telecommunication industry. I strongly believe that if actions are taken on all of the above issues, the nation's economy will be jump-started to create jobs, which will in the end bring about prosperity and promote national cohesion.

Esogbue: What measures have you put in place to achieve all of these?

Ajaja: I have set my priorities and will focus on them. As I said earlier, I plan to remain on task without making too many promises and I will be totally transparent so I will have lesser questions to answer. Leaders fail or succeed because of the caliber of the people they have around them. I will never appreciate sycophants who would tell me that I am doing great whereas I am failing just because of what they want from me. I know how to diagnose them and close my door tight against them.

Esogbue: Who is Smart Madu Ajaja?

Ajaja: I am an Abavo-born, Ika-made, Anioma-proud and Delta-brand and a Human and Environmental Rights Activist with special interest in tradition, socioeconomic, environmental justice and international relations. I was born in Abavo on June 13, 1962. I believe I am an accomplished professional nurse with vast experience in General, Orthopedic, Industrial, Correctional and Oncology Nursing with licensure in three countries and I have worked in elite hospitals such as the Houston Texas-based MD Anderson Cancer Hospital and Corporate Healthcare institutions in several countries that include Nigeria, South Africa and the United States. As an inventor, I designed and deployed an unpatented dynamic Immobilizer for the management of Volkmann’s Ischemic Contracture. This is an orthopedic condition that arises from complicated cases of fractured dislocation of the elbow resulting in reduced blood supply to the muscles needed for flexion and extension of the elbow joint. I successfully achieved this as the Head of the Orthopedic unit at the Bethal Hospital, Bethal in Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. I am also a successful businessman who run small business, Allied Vision Group LLC and doing businesses as Visabooks.com, a global website with specialty in textbooks procurement, sales and distribution within the United States and around the world. And as a writer with a passion for analytical and forensic thinking, I have authored tons of breath-taking essays and articles on local, state and national issues. It brings to the world’s attention challenges of corruption in Nigeria. I co-founded the Austin And Grace Foundation as a platform to provide assistance through scholarships to indigent students in our collective efforts to defeat ignorance through literacy. I have philanthropic works on our deceased parents of which not a few students have benefited from and we are hoping to extend it beyond Abavo. I am also a founding member of Anioma Voice Worldwide Foundation (Inc) and one of its leaders. It is an Anioma Socio-cultural apex body where I have been deploying my resources and funds in concert with others for the group's charitable and empowerment efforts for all Anioma people. I am a family man with four children and a mentor to numerous young people who look up to me as their father.

Esogbue: Thank you Mr. Smart Ajaja for talking to us

Ajaja: Thank you very much Emeka Esogbue