Q: What is your take on the Governor’s move to APC and are you moving with
him?
A: The short answer is No. Moving to APC is a mistake for him which has
become inevitable. So I call it the inevitable mistake. The Governor boxed
himself into that position almost deliberately and so if it looks like
beer, smells like beer and taste like beer, then let us all all
acknowledge that it is what it is. He chose the path he is walking. Talk
of him being forced to take it is for those who don’t know any better. Mr
President loved Amaechi but Amaechi put that love aside to perform his
first love which was Chairman of the Governor’s forum and his performance
of it undoubtedly brought them into conflict. He naively thought that it
wouldn’t. Many of us advised him against it but he said, “The President is
the Commander in Chief, I am just a Chairman, there will be no conflict.”
Now we can see how wrong he was. The President may have made peace with
Amaechi but the President’s men and women wouldn’t especially considering
the media approach he (Amaechi) employed. The insults were too much and it
only made a bad situation worse. People who have tried to kill the
President have made peace with him so why not Amaechi. The answer comes
from the lack of a sufficient desire for peace.
Very few people have the authority to talk on this matter like small me. I
understood the internal working of Amaechi’s mind on this issue, I am very
familiar with the President’s personal view on this matter, I have worked
with the heads of the current APC family (Tinubu and Buhari) at close
quarters and I understand the pulse of both teams very well. So when I,
who understands this in and out say Amaechi was wrong, I know what I am
saying and when I who has been there before say, “don’t go”, I know also
what I am saying. Asking me to go there is like asking me to return to
secondary school after leaving University many years later. A big mistake.
It is the Governor’s supporters I feel sorry for. He has been Speaker for
eight years and will be leaving as Governor after eight years, so he can’t
complain. But thanks to his decision, his “inevitable mistake”, many
councillors, LGA chairmen and other political office holders will have
their political prospects cut short. It is them I pity. They are the real
victims. Alongside Rivers people. Amaechi will be fine.
Q: People are wondering where you stand. Is it with PDP or PDM?
A: They shouldn’t. I am in PDP. I have been there since 2010 and I am
staying there. Many of them wonder because I speak for the people first
before the party. Unlike most politicians, for me my state comes first. I
will not blindly follow a party that does not have the interest of my
state at heart. So if my views are seen as anti-PDP, it is only in the
spirit of correcting the one you love whenever they deviate. After all
when Amaechi and I were working together I publicly criticised him. My
loyalty has always been to the people. If Amaechi or PDP do not walk the
path of my people, I will not hesitate to remind them. Having said that,
PDP is still the best of the rest. The only party with a national interest
and people who you can go to war with. I would rather go to war with Wike
than with some of these two faced politicians. With him and his faults,
you know where you stand with him. I can deal with that. Same applies to
Jonathan. If he can’t do something, he will not say he can. He may be slow
to decide but when he does, that is it. He keeps his word. That has not
been my experience with many of them.
If I take you through the new APC arrangement, the story is different.
Since political parties have refused to have a unique ideology of their
own, despite some of us coming close to insulting them on the subject, you
are better of pitching your tent with a team going somewhere and with your
people’s interests at heart. I make bold to say that, for me in Rivers,
that team is PDP. With respect to PDM, it is a party close to my heart and
many good people uncomfortable with the aggressive style of politics
played in PDP have sought refuge there. They are organised, respecters of
internal democracy and a roof for those, who can’t see the difference
between APC and PDP but want to get involved in party politics to make a
difference. My dream is for PDP to make them allies. It will not be easy
but it is possible. They have a bright future, if not now – in 2019.
My committment to the youths has made me keep one eye on PDM and its
progress. I believe the youth can use it to take control of their future.
Their website pdm.ng is proof that they are the first political party in
Nigeria to effect online registration. At the rate they are going with
manual registration kicking off next week, they are set to become a
serious force in Nigerian politics. Their pedigree guarantees it. I tell
people that my heart is with PDM but my head and my legs are firmly in
PDP. PDM will make change tomorrow, PDP can make change today. They should
work together.
Q: How is your relationship with Amaechi now?
A: It is no longer what it used to be but that is also inevitable. I have
supported him at my own expense and it was no longer wise to continue to
do so. Each man to a box they say. Most of the negativity I get today was
because I decided to support Amaechi’s government in 2007. Some accuse me
of doing it for money, others accuse me of lacking the fighting spirit,
some go as far as calling me a sell out. All that because I decided after
fighting a good fight that I should allow what I saw as a divine decision
to stand. I sold all I had to fight the 2007 election but after I
supported Amaechi, I had to leave the state to survive because I was not a
government pickin who survived off government leading up to 2007 so why
should I be lazy and become one now? Amaechi knows this. I did some work
but it was not at all commensurate with my input and even though I
finished it after one year, it took them over two years later to pay me.
But I never complained. Amaechi was a good man and I know he appreciated
me.
Amaechi was like aradite anyway so empowering me was not his first, second
or third interest. I noticed this and went about my business. Many say I
was involved in Silverbird, the 1000 bed hospital, waste management and
many other things but the truth is not what it seems and one day it will
all come out. In 2011, I engineered over 1/2 a billion Naira of
contribution to Amaechi’s campaign. Majority of the contributors came with
money from outside Rivers state. Did Tonye Princewill see one contract
worth that much? No. Yet I still stood by him. Because I was there for the
state’s interest, not my pocket. That support I gave Amaechi cost me
politically but I didn’t look back. I gave it. In the end God will judge
us.
My people supported him tooth and nail but yet they were not acknowledged.
I asked and asked, they were promised and promised but even after he told
them in public and on National TV that he likes to keep his word as an
example to his children, he didn’t. Still I supported him. He removed our
commissioners in his cabinet, still I supported him, he promised other
appointments and failed, still I supported him, because I was not there
for me. If I was interested in me, I would have done things differently,
had a deal with Omehia and collected 1.5 billion from him. All this I did
because I believed Amaechi came from God. I never knew him before October
2007, yet I was more useful to him than people who grew up with him in
politics. Many of my supporters felt that my refusal to fall out with him
signified I was eating fat and content. This was not the case.
I saw my support as a stabilising force. The Riverine were agitating for a
Governor after eight years of an Odili upland regime. People like me
deciding to stand by Amaechi gave him credibility and soothed the Riverine
/ Upland divide that has dogged our state for so long. One day I sincerely
hope that Amaechi looks at my role and realises that he lost a friend
given to him by God. It might be too late for us, but let him not do this
to others. Eventually it catches up with us. The same man he called
corrupt aka Mr Consumables and not wanting to do politics with is now the
interim Chairman of APC in my state, the same man he called an irritant
and refused his calls is now his spokesman and the list goes on. He
deliberately poached members of my team without the courtesy of my consent
and did it only when he needed them. But I am not bitter. They are good
men and deserve recognition. I am glad for the role I played in their
lives. Good luck to them. I only wish he had recognised them sooner.
Q: Can you still be Governor in 2015 now?
A: Why not? I am free of all encumberances. I have stood in Amaechi’s
shadow for too long and now I am once again my own man, free to talk for
me and free to speak for my people without worrying about relationships
and allegiances. Even though I was still quite blunt, I was a lot more
measured than I would like and a lot less critical than would have pleased
me. Now I can talk about what is still wrong, what is not right and what
needs doing without suspicions about me wanting to be Governor. Many
people say I won in 2007, 2015 will be an opportunity to find out how
popular I really am. I have never held a political office before, yet I
have touched more people than some Governors and I have not campaigned for
a day since 2007. That is the grace of God and I pray for it every day.
Rivers state will experience what it has never seen before. That I promise
you. It will take an Obama to stop what we are coming with and I can’t see
a Kenyan coming to win Rivers state, can you? No. Unless the One from
above says “Don’t.” I will do. And I will not look back for anyone. 2015
is all the way or nothing. The past is the past. We all make mistakes.
That is why pencils have erasers. All I can ask is for people to have a
forgiving spirit. As for Amaechi’s support, I told him on the 6th of
January 2012 about 2015 and I saw it in his eyes that he wouldn’t support
me but I still supported him. Now all this happens, through no fault of
mine. Can you see? God decides not man. It is amazing that the same
beneficiaries of this philosophy still want to play God. I guess it is
only human nature to think a Governor will install a Governor. I heard
Amaechi said Tonye Princewill will never be Governor. I hope it is not
true. But I will ask him. I have never abused him or insulted him. In fact
I have even prayed for him. But I will not fight our President and I will
not go for Senate in 2015. This I will not do. We have agreed to disagree.
I hope agreeably.
Q: What is your view on Atiku and Jonathan. Who will you support for
President?
A: I will support the President for a continued four year term in office.
Let me make that absolutely clear. As much as Atiku in my mind is a
brilliant politician and a great Presidential material, I am afraid that
his route to the Presidency is unclear to even a nuclear strategist like
myself. He can’t get the PDP ticket and the APC ticket is not aimed in his
direction either (thanks to the G7). He can’t keep jumping just to get a
ticket, so I believe he should stay in PDP. Who knows, if he stays there
anything can happen tomorrow. 2019 is there and his chances are still
quite good. Jonathan can acknowledge his support, Nigerians can or maybe
just maybe he wasn’t destined to be President. I don’t know. What I do
know is I am not going to APC, Atiku should not allow himself to be used
by those G7 Governors. I have no reason to do what would amount to
impeaching the President by denying him a second term. What is his crime?
Granted he has not done fantastic in many areas but I am not fooled by
the finger pointing especially because of the grubby fingers that are
doing that pointing.
They are no better, they have a selfish agenda and do not mean well for my
country either. I’d rather have four more years of this certainty than
eight more years of their own version of it.
Politics should be about compromise. Honour amongst thieves. Help Jonathan
to go again for the sake of the country and help him rule. He needs all
the help he can get because many good people are fooled into abandoning
him so the bad people around him are gaining relevance. The President is a
good man. I’ve seen many acknowledge this. They complain about the people
around him. So why not come around him too? If you are kept at a distance,
maybe it is because of your actions and your body language. Open it up to
dialogue and compromise. Do what Mandela would have done. Talk to your
oppressors, dine with your enemies and seek a way forward knowing that the
interest of the nation come first. The voice of the people is the voice of
God. Jonathan didn’t get there by his might, so maybe God has a reason.
Let us think about it. Everything I have said here, I have told Atiku in
private. Without divulging his response, let me say that he acknowledged
that Jonathan is the only President that has not attempted to destroy his
business. All other succesive Presidents have. Does that not tell you
something. Nigerians have heard the phrase, “It’s the thought that counts
but let them remove “the” and use “It’s thought that counts.” We need to
start thinking.
I rest my case. That is the kind of man you are dealing with. A GEJ/Atiku
alliance would so gladden my heart. It would be a dream come true for my
nation. If Mandela and de Klerk could work together, why not them? The
answer is leadershp and these elders God gave us. Ego and ambition can not
come before us the people. My comfort is that God knows best. Only one
person can occupy that seat at any one time. For now it is Jonathan. I
advised Amaechi not to support him in 2011, Amaechi ignored my advice. Now
he wants me to help him clean up the mess? I won’t do it. You lie in the
bed you made. Jonathan may not support me for Governor but I will support
him for President especially seeing the forces that have mounted against
him because it is right. I try not to put my interest first. It helps me
sleep better at night.
Q: With PDP in such dissaray, how can they win the Presidency in 2015?
A: Because what you see as a disarray is really just a cleansing. Those
that leave were never meant to be there. Granted PDP has a structural
problem highlighted by this recent drama but now PDP is free to address it
without distractions. PDP is a formiddable machine. I know. I have come up
against it before and so I pity those who start to read its obituary. They
underestimate it and underestimate Jonathan. I did that in 2011, but I
will not be repeating that mistake. Listen. PDP Governors controlled the
party until Jonathan came along. Obasanjo and Yar Adua had tried to
rebalance the control but they failed.
We have a string of memorials for PDP Chairmen who fell at the hands of
the Governors but GEJ changed all that. How? You can trace it to the
Governors forum election. A masterpiece in political slight of hand. Now
you see it. Now you don’t. While all of us were complaining that 19 is
more than 16 and quite rightly so, the forum died and Governors were
suspended by the same party they controlled. People should go and study
what is happening in Nigerian politics today and they will see that acting
foolish is the new wisdom because Nigeria is full of wise people. Busy
analysing the problem so much that a silent listener who actually focuses
instead on solutions can makes progress where other so called smarter ones
have failed.
In the end the majority know that APC is no better than PDP and if they
sense that PDP and Jonathan are ready to listen, they will give them
another chance. If President Jonathan wants to come back in 2015, he has a
lot of work to do. But he can do it. Some of us will help him do it. There
are many young Nigerians that see the 419 in our politics. How can APC
absorb the same PDP governors they were abusing last month and hand over
the party in their states to them as if people were not there before. And
they say they are different? Is that democracy? Is Nyako change? The
original APC members in Rivers state are about to defect en masse to PDP
and PDM in sheer disbelief. Tell me who is in disarray.
A: Is the level of corruption in Nigeria today not an indictment on Jonathan?
Q: It is an indictment on all of us especially him. Yes. But Nigerians
need to move beyond complaining to actually doing. We complained about
Obasanjo assigning National assets to himself and what happened?
Jonathan’s hasn’t done that. Did corruption end? Did it go underground? So
why do we keep doing the same thing and expect different results?
Complaining about GEJ is not the solution. He has done a couple of things
that suggest he can do more. The PDP Chairman’s son has been remanded in
custody. Haba! That was never possible in Obasanjo’s PDP. But it has
happened. Tambuwal complained the other day that Jonathan’s body language
encourages corruption, Amaechi complained that trillions are missing and
Dino Melaye set up an anti corruption NGO. Who are we kidding? Can we
please stop the drama. The political class are all knee deep in corruption
so forgive me if I don’t fall for that particular game. They want Jonathan
out and somebody else in. So they can control the key to the CBN vault.
Sorry. Now we know. If good people surround Jonathan, bad people involved
in corruption will be expendable. Now you ask him to chuck out the few who
stood by him and he feels exposed. Let us understand them even if we don’t
agree. Obama said of Mandela that he “sought to understand where his
opponents were coming from.” We should learn from Mandela.
Nigerians should be wise. The truth is bitter. There are no saints in the
political space anymore. Just serial sinners. Let us find the ones who
accept they need help and see if we can save them. Jonathan needs help. He
has only four more years. He is a much better option than a full eight
years of these other ones. The damage political drama does our nation is
beyond belief. In the end, they all settle and resume casual affairs,
while the people remain casualties. Never again. I don’t see 2015 as
change, I see it as a preparation for change. I see that change in 2019.
Q: Where do you see the state of the nation come 2015?
A: I see it stabilising. The critical year for me like I said is 2019.
When Jonathan is on his way out. If the North do not support him now, they
will loose the President’s support in 2019 and that may tilt things in
favour of the South East politics. That would isolate the North and drive
their political prospects deeper underground. Knowing the history of our
country, that will open up many ugly possibilities. Containing that
situation in 2019 is my concern. Not 2015. If the President does what he
needs to do, 2015 will pass peacefully and there is nothing to suggest he
won’t.
Q: Mandela pulled South Africa from the brink, what can be done for Nigeria?
A: Nigeria can move forward in leaps and bounds if they are given the
right leadership. Mandela was a fighter and a defender of democracy but he
was willing to speak with even his oppressors to move his country forward.
This is what is lacking here in Nigeria. Selflessness. If we can get a few
of them to hold on to this philosophy, the future will be bright.
Politicians have to learn to keep their words and be open about their
deals behind close doors so we can see who keeps their side of the bargain
and who does not. Mandela and the ANC negotiated in open with de Klerk and
his team. The interest of the country need not be a secret. We don’t all
have to be the President or have one from our region to progress. Let
God’s will survive. This brings me to the issue of a national conference.
We need one and we need it now. Dialogue is the key to all our challenges
and we have many of them. Those afraid of dialogue need not be unless they
are happy with the status quo. The status quo cannot continue.