Nze Chukwumezie is the National Chairperson of the Grassroots Initiative Party, a political party that is in the process of registration with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC In this interview with Chinedu AROH, Nze Chukwumezie discusses the philosophy of the party and how it plans to transfer power back to the electorate when it becomes fully operational. The excerpts.
Tell Us About GRIP
We started in 2015 with different names. It is a movement for the grassroots and for the masses. We tested our strength during the 2019 general election when we were asked to help and deliver the Federal Capital Territory for former President Atiku Abubakar, then running for president of Nigeria. Our party was instrumental to Atiku winning the FCT in 2019. We were in all the area councils. Our people, then as an NGO, were even part of the INEC independent observers. We did our best. We ensured that there was no rigging and no partiality. Our stance is that everything must be free and fair. We won’t rig, and the opponents won’t also. We made sure that everything went well because we were on the ground. We had everything recorded in pictures, videos, and audio. After that, we agreed that having recorded such weight, we could be registered as a political party. We are always for the masses. Our ideology is that Nigeria’s commonwealth should be for the masses. We can not have a system where a country is making trillions of naira, and less than twenty per cent is being used for capital and recurrent expenditure and the rest for overhead. Our position is that anything overhead should not be more than ten per cent.
How far with the registration at INEC?
In 2020, we applied for registration with INEC. It snowballed. It didn’t work out. In 2025, we re-applied, and we got the approval. Our simple interest is the Nigerian masses. Our take is that what belongs to them should be for them. That is the philosophy.
What is the scope of GRIP?
We started as an FCT group, and we made sure that people from all six geographical zones of the country were represented in the executive arm of GRIP. I believe that we are the only group that applied for registration and submitted a list of executives covering the whole 36 states of the federation with their names and phone numbers. If we start to erect structures across the 774 LGAs in the country today, including the FCT, it will not be a difficult task because we have penetrated all the nooks and cranny of Nigeria We are highly on the ground.
What is the membership pattern of GRIP?
Up till now, it has been free. However, everything is about money. I have been the one shouldering over 90 per cent of the financial burden until the time we were given provisional approval to register as a political party. I told members it would be collective because I don’t want to own a political party. We then agreed that we would have dues. Registration is ongoing, but we said the dues will start in February 2026.
How gender sensitive is GRIP?
We are one party that believes that every sector of the Nigerian masses should be represented, including the disabled. We have an office for the disabled, with a leader and a deputy leader. We ensured that we have 30 per cent women representation in our executive. We are there for the youth. We are thinking about the feminine gender and the youth. Our generation has failed Nigerians, so we should give the youth and women a chance. It has always been men, and we continue to have all these issues. So let’s try the female gender and the youth. Women are highly represented. How do you convince Nigerians that GRIP is for serious business? What we are forming is something different. Our party is not like any other party. Let me borrow Bola Ige’s definition of Nigeria’s five political parties before: “they are five fingers of a leprous hand”. We are building an original Nigerian party, natural with local content. Let me give an example of how we shared our appointments. We sat down and shared our executive positions between the North and the South equally. I am the founder and made the national chairperson. The vice automatically goes to the North. The North chose secretary general. South chose the assistant. We told North and South to get us the most qualified people to occupy these positions. That was in 2020. We made sure that these positions were shared among the sub-regions that made up these regions. We are unique. We also have a diaspora region. It is our seventh region. We believe that Nigerians that live outside the country, who identify as Nigerians, should have a say. Most of them ran away due to one reason or the other. They should be encouraged to make contributions towards the betterment of our dear country. We gave the diaspora our seventh region with a chairperson.
How will GRIP tackle the cost of governance in Nigeria?
We shall ensure that elective positions will no longer be too appealing. I don’t see how a government worker or official should be more affluent than business men, like Dangote. This is because they are collecting people’s money, and they are not working for it. Left to us, we would make Senate, House of Reps, and state Assemblies part-time jobs. We want to make sure that the centre is weakened. We want a return to the drawing board where regions engage in healthy competitions. It will no longer be coming to Abuja to share money. The regions will contribute to the centre, and get allocations according to what they contribute to the centre. You can’t have mineral resources in the centre, and the natives won’t know about them. What we have today is Abuja tapping resources while host communities languish. It doesn’t work like that. We believe that anything belonging to someone would be given to them. We also want to stop the exportation of the nation’s mineral resources. Most of the mineral resources we have in this country are exported. Outside the country, they use them for their factories. Nigerians then go there to work as labourers. Why can’t we ask those foreign companies to establish their industries here so that we earn a living in our country? That is job creation.
What is your position on resource control?
That is what I have said. This 13 per cent derivation makes no sense. Regions should exploit their resources, and whatever comes should be shared up to land owners so that they will protect those facilities. Today, our roads are damaged by miners and explorers, and they do nothing for the community.
Come 2027, will GRIP field candidates for elective positions?
We have an issue with INEC. You might soon see us in court. This is because we paid their N2m registration fee. We got all their documents for registration. The documents stated that from the day you upload, you have 30 days for completion. We started up to the fourth day, and the portal shut us out. Our legal department is studying the matter for necessary action. That aside, we are not in a hurry. We started in 2015. We are not in a hurry to jump into elections. But if we are cleared to contest, our candidates will sign an undertaking that they will work for the masses. Anyone that deviates from the accord will be removed. You can’t go to court because you signed a deal with us. There will be no room for people to jump in and jump out at will. It is a party for the masses: for their welfare. We start with our members first.
Any possibility for alliances?
It must be based on interest. There will always be give and take. But everything must boil down to the interest of the masses. It is not a question of agreeing to work for the masses without being practical. Once one shares such ideology, why not? Even if you are a devil and you become convinced that you want to work for the masses, why not? But once you deviate, the union will be cancelled. That is our binding rule.
