Tag: Jonathan

Hon. Oji Ngofa is the Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He served two terms as the Chairman of Eleme Local Government Area, Rivers State, between 2007 and 2014. In the April 11 governorship election in the state, which he described as “a fight of blood and fire”, he delivered his LGA to the APC. In this interview with PRECIOUS DIKEWOHA, he offers an insight into what transpired during the election and why Governor Rotimi Amaechi fell out with President Jonathan and his wife, Patience, among other issues.

How would you assess the last general election in Rivers State?

To be very candid with you, there was no election in the proper sense of the word. We have seen the trend of elections in Nigeria, especially in Rivers State, but I can say with all honesty that the elections of March 28 and April 11 were severely compromised.

This time, it was not just the usual situation that we see and call irregularities; we had elections during which the institutions charged with the responsibility of conducting elections, I mean the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security forces were involved in obvious cases of collaboration with a political party, the PDP, to rig the elections in Rivers State. The Resident Electoral Commissioner was specifically posted to Rivers State to perfect the rigging modalities that PDP embarked upon. And that is the reason why the result has turned out the way it is, strongly criticised by both local and international observers. And so there was no election. What happened in Rivers State was a total sham.

Is it not an irony that your party, which is governing the state, is the one crying over alleged rigging during the elections?

That is what I am saying; that the institutions charged with the responsibility to make the votes count are all federal institutions. INEC is a federal institution. The security forces are also controlled by the Federal Government. So they apparently acted in a way to show bias in favour of those calling the shots at the federal level.

And, of course, if you have been following the political trend in Rivers State since 2013, it makes sense to say that the government of Goodluck Jonathan, through the instrumentality of his wife, Patient Jonathan, arranged the whole sham of elections in Rivers State since 2013. This they did by taking over the security forces of the state from the governor through the posting of Joseph Mbu as Police Commissioner. It is the consistent pattern of the Federal Government, which employed its weight in the politics of Rivers State just to deal with Governor Chibuike Amaechi who disagreed with Jonathan at some point.

That disagreement went on, manifesting in the process of election. And I think the President and his wife, in a bid to prove that they are in control at the federal level, instigated the sham that happened in the elections of Rivers State. And they can specifically be held responsible for the desecration of the election process that happened in the state.

What have you to say about the politically motivated killings during and after the elections in Rivers State?

The politically motivated killings in Rivers State were part of the entire script. It was a deliberate arrangement. When you look at the killings that took place, you will know that the whole idea is to intimidate voters and violate the electoral process, to attack APC members who opposed the President retuning for a second term. It was an attack on APC members who supported Governor Amaechi as one who has the mandate of Rivers State and the issues Rivers people stand for.

So they knew that majority of Rivers people are with Amaechi, and they believe that the only way they could forcefully have their way is to violently attack people. And the pattern has been consistent; they think that when they intimidate and kill people, it will stop them from supporting Amaechi’s cause in Rivers State. And that was what created the kind of violence we have suffered in the state.

Don’t forget that when this crisis started in 2013, when they procured judgment against the PDP led by G. U Ake (former PDP chairman in River State). They posted Mbu to Rivers State as the Commissioner of Police. The whole idea was to muffle any opposition to the President in the state. And at that point, for the first time in the state, militants were out on the streets of Rivers State protesting against the governor of the state and protected by the police.

Don’t forget that those that have been identified as known criminals and had been curtailed by the security in Rivers State were, for the first time, let loose on the streets of Port Harcourt and they started feeling that they had the power to go back to their old ways. Of course, most of them were deployed by the PDP to carry out their electoral enchantment. Unfortunately that has led to the killing of several people and the electoral sham that took place in Rivers State.

You were part of the movement that brought change at the national level. What made it possible?

Of course, most Nigerians were disenchanted with the PDP. After 16 years of governance and the disaster of President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigerians were yearning for change. And those who believed in change and those who think Nigeria was not properly governed galvanised their forces together. APC just took the opportunity that Nigerians were yearning for change.

The PDP was in its comfort zone, thinking that having governed this country for too long, they had tormented the people to stupor and the people would have no choice but to accept whatever they would bring. Of course, for the first time, the people said no. Don’t forget that the PDP itself has actually imploded with bad governance and lack of internal democracy. This is a party that allowed five governors to leave the party in one day.

They couldn’t even govern themselves; they couldn’t govern the PDP family and the entire process imploded. They were changing their national chairman as if they were changing gear in the car. So Nigerians were tired of this, but they thought they could take Nigerians for granted. Sixteen years of PDP have not brought significant change in this country and we think that we have the expertise in this country. We have the resources and if properly applied, Nigeria will be much better than it is today.

And of course, the impunity of Jonathan’s administration; they thought they could go away with that. The interference of the wife of the President in the governance of this country was intended to bluff people off. So when the APC came together through the merger of different political parties, people saw that this could possibly be a way out.

I tell you, if Nigerians did not do what they did in the last general elections, Nigerians would not have hope anymore. The ouster of Jonathan during the election represents the desire of Nigerians to improve and to get better. I can tell you that this improvement has just started. My party will learn from PDP’s mistakes because if we fail, we will also be voted out.

The significance of what has happened on 28 March is that political power has shifted to where it should be. No matter how big the party or the country, power belongs to the people. The people have demonstrated that on the platform of APC. Any political party that takes Nigerian people for granted will be treated the way PDP was treated at the national level. I think that is good and positive for the democratic growth of this country.

A lot of people have accused Governor Chibuike Amaechi of plotting against the Niger Delta people by joining forces with the North and the South West to abort Jonathan’s quest for a second term…

You know that when people fail, they tend to look for other people to blame rather than blaming themselves. Now, in what ways did Amaechi connive with the North to undercharge the Niger Delta people? First, we have a Niger Delta President who allowed his wife to interfere in the governance of a state. As President, he did not see the need to call his wife to order. And the President didn’t realise that governor Amaechi got his mandate through the electoral process. The President’s wife has no mandate; she has no constitutional role to play in the country.

Before our very eyes in this state, the wife of the President snatched the microphone from a sitting governor. The President from Niger Delta did not care to come home to resolve whatever the issue was. Rather, he took sides with his wife and decided to punish Rivers people.

The President from Niger Delta was against Governor Amaechi when he contested as the chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum. The President from Niger Delta did not see the need to protect the Niger Delta governor who was contesting to lead the governors’ forum. We all are aware that Governor Amaechi scored 19 votes and a Niger Delta President who sponsored Jonah Jang (Plateau State governor) didn’t see the need to protect his Niger Delta governor. He took sides with the Northern governor to be the chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum. Nobody saw anything bad in that.

In the process, the governor from Niger Delta won the election by 19 to 16. But President Jonathan interpreted 16 to mean 19 and therefore supported the Northern governor who got 16 votes. The President also allowed the festering crisis in Rivers State, which led to the defection of Amaechi and his supporters. They attended several meetings to see how that could be resolved but the President of the country could not resolve that. So Amaechi was forced out of PDP, and he is a governor, a politician.

In Nigeria, you must play politics on the basis of a political party. Since they didn’t want him, they procured a judgment in Abuja and foisted Obuah who never contested as the chairman of the PDP in Rivers State in 2012. I was privileged to be at that congress as a local government chairman then. Felix Obuah was not anywhere near the venue of the congress in March 2012. But one year later, they forced him in as party chairman. So what do you expect the governor to do? Who would have been subjected to what governor Amaechi was subjected to and would not find an alternative to protect his mandate as governor of the state?

The same President from Niger Delta didn’t know that Rivers State was part of the Niger Delta and ceded oil wells meant for Rivers State to other states. Oil wells meant for Etche were given to Abia. The oil wells at Souku in Kalabari were ceded to Bayelsa, and the oil wells meant for Andoni were ceded to Akwa-Ibom State. And Governor Amaechi has the mandate of Rivers people to protect their common wealth; he has the mandate of Rivers people to protect their property. But the President didn’t see any need to protect what belongs to the Niger Delta, particularly Rivers State.

The same President grounded the plane of his Niger Delta governor, which was meant to make his transportation easier. The NLNG, which was to be built in Bonny, the President stopped it against the interest of Rivers people. What did the President do for Rivers people? The answer is nothing. We have never had it this bad in our history.

Let me take you back a bit: every federal investment you see in Rivers State was built by Northerners: from the petrochemicals, the two refineries, old fertiliser company, Federal Ocean Terminal; they were all built by the Federal Government under the administrations of people from other regions, not from the Niger Delta.

Of course, you are aware that the President himself admitted when he came to campaign in Rivers State, that he had not done anything for Niger Delta people, particularly in Rivers State. And we are saying you cannot continue with this level of impunity. Look at the level of insecurity in Rivers State. I am telling you that a Wike-led government cannot manage the security of the state because it is the same people he has used to secure sham electoral victory. So this state will be in big trouble under Wike.

Some people said that the governorship candidate of your party could have played the sportsman’s part by congratulating Wike, who was declared winner in the last governorship election in Rivers State…

There is no basis to congratulate him, because election did not hold in Rivers State, Wike did not win an election in Rivers State. What they did in Rivers State was that a top INEC official gave them the result sheets, they wrote and returned it. But in Eleme Local Government Area where we took charge, they did not succeed and we got that through fire and blood. That was why APC won in Eleme LGA. People deliberately go to war in the name of election. The luck we had is that the soldiers that came were not biased. They didn’t chase us away like they did in other LGAs. That was what made it different in Eleme.

Your party rejected the outcome of the election in Rivers State. What is your expectation at the ongoing tribunal? And if the tribunal nullifies the election, do you think APC can contend with PDP in another election?

The method will change because we don’t see how the sham that happened in Rivers State will stand. The mandate of the people that has been violated and stolen must be restored. The people of Rivers State cannot be in the government that is not their own. This incoming government will suffer illegitimacy until it is restored by the tribunal’s decision. We wouldn’t have issues in the next election if the tribunal nullifies the election because the dynamics would have changed. The next government would have come and it is a government that would not deploy police on partisan basis, and that was what we saw in Jonathan.

Everything about Jonathan was how he would return as President for a second term. And what has happened has proved the futility of human thinking. The crisis we saw in this state was that Jonathan thinks that Amaechi’s position was in contrast with his political career and Wike being an opportunist just saw an opening and took it.

If Wike and those running around were interested in solving the problem between Amaechi and the President, it would have been resolved. But they were interested in taking the opportunity provided. They came in and divided them the more. But who is laughing last? Amaechi and APC will laugh last in this state.

How sure are you that the incoming government of APC will deliver?

The crisis that led us to leave PDP has shown that it was a separation between those who desire the good of this country and those who chose to perpetuate themselves in old ways without any sound principle or morals underpinning their politics. Even in Rivers State, the separation is between those in the evil kind of politics and those who desire the good of this country. Of course, the progressives are in APC and those who want to continue with evil ways are in PDP. I can tell you that we have very smart, intelligent people who love this country as APC members. With the resources available, I can assure you that you will see a government deliberately working for the growth and development of Nigeria and working for the happiness of Nigerians.