10:11
Unknown
How we tried to resolve Jonathan, Amaechi feud’
Alabo-Graham Douglas is a senior member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Rivers State. A founding member of the PDP, he served as minister under the Obasanjo administration.
He is currently a member of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT). In this interview, Douglas speaks on the rift between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and political developments in the state among other issues.
You have for some time now been quiet on the political situation in Rivers State and Nigeria in general. Why has that been so?
For over one year, I have resisted granting press interview as I elected to critically observe the various events at the federal level as well as my state of origin, Rivers State, as they develop. I was very vibrant and committed actively in the 2010/ 2011 campaign efforts.
But as you would note, age is catching up with me; at 75, I can no longer criss-cross the country. That apart, I observed a new set of gladiators parading the political scenes, with a stock in trade of intrigues, manipulations, conspiracies and telling destructive lies against persons to procure favour.
ALABO Tonye Graham-Douglas
ALABO Tonye Graham-Douglas
When I also observed that people at the echelon of the illustrious class are susceptible to accepting and making conclusions of malicious stories, I decided to preserve my honour and pedigree. I am a strong believer that any leadership that judges third parties through the perception and lips of such characters is likely to fail. Suffice to say that I have remained to be a consistent, undeviating and loyal member of my party which I helped to found in the nation and especially Rivers State.
It is believed in some quarters that there is a misunderstanding between your family and the family of President Goodluck Jonathan. Is that a fact?
There is no iota of truth in the claim that there is misunderstanding between myself and the first family; it is a speculative and mischievous propaganda. The president is of the Ijaw extraction as myself and, with the zeal and enthusiasm with which I have always promoted the Ijaw cause, I do not see how I could ever have any form of misunderstanding with an illustrious Ijaw son like the president of the country.
You will recall that, at the inception of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), I was one of those who contested for the office of the president of the country. I contested with former President Olusegun Obasanjo. I did not win, but in recognition of my hard work for the party, especially in the South-South, Obasanjo appointed me as one of the early ministers of the PDP administration. Throughout the period and up till the moment President Jonathan assumed office, we had impeccable relationship. I still maintained this posture; except the president holds a contrary view, he is my brother and nothing can separate us.
But the belief is that the Soku oil wells dispute separated you…
I would not like to discuss anything with regards to the Soku oil wells and the boundary adjustment of the conceptualised annexation of Kalabari oil producing communities to Bayelsa State. So many stories are being peddled, but as an Ijaw elder, it is my duty always to ensure that the situation is normal at all times, resolved with brotherly love. The communities involved have settled as Kalabari communities for over 200 years; and the boundaries separating the two states (Bayelsa and Rivers) have existed for decades, throughout the periods when both Ijaw and non-Ijaw administrators governed the old Rivers State. For it therefore to attract the dimension of conflict between the two-sister states is unfortunate, but I believe it will be eventually resolved for unity and our great love for each other.
Is it true that you took sides against the president by supporting Governor Rotimi Amaechi in their political feud?
This question I would regard as a figment of hallucinatory imagination. At my age and political maturity, more so, having played a fatherly role to both the president and the governor, I could never have taken sides. My responsibility is to ensure that if there was any feud whatsoever, my role will be to foster reconciliation and restoration of brotherly love between them. The president is the father of the nation and, in this peculiar circumstance, the father of the South-South states and their governors.
The relationship between the governor of Rivers State and the president immediately after the 2011 elections was impeccable and without blemish. Disappointedly, many politicians become either bystanders or indulge in fuelling any little crack in relationships. Such circumstances are used to disseminate lies and unimaginable stories.
Some begin to create division between the parties and go as far as brandishing anyone who cultivates any form of relationship or contact with the less advantageous member of the conflict as an enemy. And, with no intervention of elders, the situation degenerates to a point of no return. I made unlimited overtures by personal contact and writing, as well as utilising established political institutions like the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) and other well-meaning agencies. It is indeed a pity that we found ourselves in the current quagmire which, by the grace of God, shall come to pass amicably.
As an elder, both within the state and at the national level, what is your view on the current political situation in Rivers State?
The current political situation in Rivers State is sensitive and volatile from the point of view that malice, hatred and vicious rivalry have been brought in by the political class in order to arrest power and control the polity. To have equity, fair play and justice, the political class must bring God-fearing conscience into the power matrix.
In 1999, when PDP was established in Rivers State, the party structure and control was primarily in the hands of the people of the riverine Ijaw extraction. We took cognisance of the fact that during the military era and thereafter, during the brief civilian dispensation, persons of riverine Ijaw group had ruled the old Rivers State. We unanimously decided for power to shift to the upland group.
Considering the prevailing circumstances at the time, to give the upland group a sense of belonging and togetherness, Dr Peter Odili was favoured on the platform of PDP to govern the state. It was implicitly agreed that we were to practise a turn-by-turn power sharing mechanism between the three main component ethnic nationalities of the Ikwerres and other groups of common affinity, the riverine Ijaw and the Ogoni and neighbouring mainland communities.
It was unambiguously agreed that at the expiration of the tenure of Odili, power would shift to the riverine Ijaw group and, at the expiration of the rulership of a riverine Ijaw governor, it would move to the Ogoni group. Unfortunately, that was not to be as the era was characterised by confusion, ethnic conflicts and beginning of militancy. There was financial recklessness, infrastructural decay and phantom projects. Two illustrious sons-Messrs Marshal Harry, the first PDP Chairman of Rivers State and another founding member, Aminasoari Dikibo-were assassinated without the regime making any effort to track down the assassins.
That era left with no significant landmark except that instead of handing over to a riverine Ijaw aspirant, a unilateral decision was made by Odili to hand over to Honourable Rotimi Amaechi of the Ikwerre extraction. The upland group, primarily of the Ikwerre extraction, has now governed Rivers State for 16 years, at the expiration of the tenure of Governor Amaechi in May, 2015.
The desire of Chief Nyesom Wike, Minister of State for Education, to contest the governorship in 2015 does not augur well for peace and harmony in the state. It is unacceptable to the generality of the Rivers people, especially the riverine Ijaw group, the Ogoni group and large members of the Ikwerre group. If Wike is allowed by the leadership of the PDP to emerge as governor of Rivers State, it will mean that for 24 years, the people of Rivers mainland would have ruled the state at the expense and great marginalisation of the other major ethnic nationalities. Such a situation arising will not be tolerated and may have unsavoury repercussions, which no one for the time being can predicate.
It is therefore in the best interest of the people and the state and for the sake of God-fearing conscience, equity and justice to ensure that power shifts to the other groups that have never been given the opportunity to govern the state.
As a founding member of the PDP BoT, what are you doing to consolidate on the party’s gains in the 2011 elections?
From the evolutionary trend and antecedents since 1999 in Rivers State, PDP has been the dominant, unbeatable and acceptable political family in Rivers State. The performance of the PDP in 2011 in Rivers State was phenomenal, producing the highest result in the country. Politics, we know, is a concentric circle of intrigues, manipulations, obscure self-interest, phantom lies and all manner of societal lies and evils, which accordingly destroyed the very fabrics that united the PDP family in Rivers State. The imbroglio that arose gave rise to the current disharmony, suspicion and conflict in the PDP family, resulting in a group moving away under the leadership of the state governor to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Much as the state remains a PDP state, with the riverine Ijaw group absolutely supportive of their son, the president’s election for a second term shall be without rancour or problem. But that of the election of the governor could tear the state apart. This is why it is my fervent and strong solicitation that PDP must not field another Ikwerre aspirant but someone from the riverine Ijaw or Ogoni groups. There is a propaganda that without the Ikwerre vote, no governor can emerge in the next dispensation. This is absolutely incorrect because, in the 1999 elections, whereas the Ikwerres, Ogonis and few other groups did not vote for Odili who had just one ward, the combined undivided and consolidated votes of the riverine communities led to the emergence of Odili as the governor of Rivers State.
I would summarise that, if by carelessness or inattention to the realities we take for granted the PDP support and neglect the concealed strategies of the opposition, we may have some dents in our family. This is why we have in the past few months galvanised the party elders and leaders in the state to speak with one voice and select a governorship aspirant. God being our help, we shall succeed.
What is your opinion on the recent reconciliatory and re-integration meeting of the PDP in Abuja?
From the innocent and unsuspecting perceptual view point, the intention of the party hierarchy may seem plausible and commendable. I personally presented myself and briefed the reconciliation committee where I found men and women of honour and character. I am confident that they would provide an unbiased, non-sentimental and God-fearing report that will consolidate their already acceptable credibility.
I do believe that the committee will do an assessment of one of the Rivers State governorship aspirants, Nyesom Wike, his chief promoter, Dr Peter Odili, and some party officials who are working towards the emergence of Wike without ever appraising its positive and negative repercussions on the state.
Rotimi Amaechi and Goodluck Jonathan
Rotimi Amaechi and Goodluck Jonathan
In a system where a serving minister would single-handedly organise party structure, provide party paraphernalia and pay monthly expenditure without anyone challenging him, or where someone will govern a state and ask a court of competent jurisdiction to grant him perpetual injunction not to be examined is not good.
Enough is enough; and I can assure you that never and never again shall the riverine Ijaw and Ogoni group be marginalised and deprived. I also believe in Mr President’s assiduity, morality and God-fearing disposition to provide the judgement of Solomon, subsequently.
Recently, the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, visited Port Harcourt. Chief Nyesom Wike and his supporters received him at the party secretariat while other governorship aspirants were conspicuously absent. What does this portend for PDP in Rivers State?
I am surprised that the PDP National Chairman was in Rivers State on Monday. I saw him in Lagos and we chatted. If he was coming to Rivers State, as a senior party member and member of the BoT, at least, he should have extended some courtesy by telling me that he was coming to my state. Of course, I would be very willing to meet him. But these are the things we are talking about.
Three of the aspirants have also telephoned me to say that they were not invited; that they did not know anything about the visit. This further goes to complicate things. And from the information I had, in his discussion with the people at the party secretariat, Muazu gave a lot of adulation and praises to Wike who he described as having spent a colossal amount of money to do a lot of things for the party and also organised a party with a small unit of the total electorate in this state.
It is very unfortunate that happened, but people will misread and misunderstand the action to be ‘a seeming endorsement’ kind of thing. Knowing how things are being interpreted in the political parlance, people will still spread it to the generality of the people of Rivers State that the PDP National Chairman came, largely to endorse the candidature of Wike. This will have negative repercussions on the Ogoni and the riverine/Ijaw people of the PDP family. I feel a bit disillusioned about it and I think if the Chairman was coming, he was coming as the PDP Chairman and not as the Chairman of the Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI) faction of the party.
While the chairman was addressing party supporters at the party secretariat, he said, “Wike, you are on course”. What does this portend, given the fact that other aspirants were not there?
I will have a very liberal interpretation to it; “Wike, you are on course”; on course to destruction or on course to ascension or on course to have a seizure of the political party, with the formulation of the GDI? I think it should be very subjective and individualistic in interpretation.
Is it right for the PDP National Chairman to have gone to the house of the Minister of State to have lunch after the visit?
If they are friends and he so elects to do, since this is not a PDP state and since he cannot come to my place-as my house is as good as any Government House-or the house of any other member of PDP and he wanted to go to somebody who wanted to give him free lunch, it is discretionary. I will not condemn him since Uche Secondus (the PDP Deputy National Chairman) was there and he is a good friend of Wike and they are all working together. So, it is possible that he wanted to pay a courtesy visit to one of the ministers, a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
About three weeks ago, the PDP state executive said a member of the PDP BoT from Rivers State
Posted in: Politics
0 comments:
Post a Comment