A member of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas, is a founding member of the party and an ex-presidential aspirant on the party’s platform. He hails from the Kalabari part of Rivers State. In this interview with BISI OLANIYI in Port Harcourt, the former Minister of Culture and Tourism declares that Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s successor must be a riverine person, while asking the former Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, an Ikwerre (as Amaechi) and from the upland part of the state, to respect the zoning arrangement in the state. Excerpts:
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, was in Port Harcourt on October 13, after the October 9 show of shame in Abuja involving some thugs allegedly working for a candidate, and leaders of the party from Rivers State, who are clamouring for zoning, which will jeopardise Nyesom Wike’s governorship ambition. When the chairman visited Port Harcourt, other governorship aspirants said they were not invited or informed and did not show up, with only Wike and members of his Grassroots Development Initiative in attendance. What is your reaction?
I am surprised that you are telling me that the National Chairman of PDP was in Rivers State on October 13. I earlier saw Alhaji Mu’azu in Lagos and we chatted. If he was coming to Rivers state on October 13, as a senior member of the party and a member of the Board of Trustees (BOT), he should have extended some courtesy by informing me that he would be coming to Port Harcourt on October 13 and of course, I would be very willing to receive him.
This is one of the things we are talking about. Three of the governorship aspirants on PDP’s platform in Rivers State have also telephoned me to say that they were not invited to the meeting that took place at the secretariat of the party along Aba Road in Port Harcourt and they did not know anything about it, which further goes to complicate things.
I later heard that Alhaji Mu’azu gave a lot of praises to Nyesom Wike, whom he described as having spent a colossal amount of money to do a lot of things for the PDP and also organised the party, with a parochial unit of the total electorate of Rivers State. It is very unfortunate that it happened.
People will misread and misunderstand the actions and seeming endorsement of Wike. In political parlance, people will misinterpret it that the generality of the people of Rivers State were with the national chairman of the PDP, largely to endorse the candidature of Wike, which will have negative repercussions on the Ogoni and riverine Ijaw people of PDP candidates. I feel a bit disillusioned about it.
I believe that if the national chairman was coming, not the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI, which has Wike as grand patron) faction of the PDP would have been met.
While Alhaji Mu’azu was speaking in Port Harcourt, he gave a tactical support to the speculated governorship ambition of Chief Nyesom Wike, when he said: “Wike, you are on course.” What is the implication of the statement, considering the fact that other aspirants were not there?
I will have a very liberal interpretation to it. On course to destruction, on course to attention or on course to have seizure of the political party, with his formation of the GDI?
Is it right for Alhaji Mu’azu to have gone to the Port Harcourt residence of Chief Wike to have lunch after the meeting at the Rivers State Secretariat of the PDP, considering the fact that the minister of state for education is one of the governorship aspirants?
I was in Port Harcourt on October 13, when Alhaji Mu’azu visited, but I was not informed of his visit, in spite of being a member of the BoT of the PDP. My house is as good as any Government House. He could not come to my house and could not go to the Port Harcourt house of Chief Ombo Isokari, who is also a member of the BoT from Rivers State and he (Mu’azu) was hungry and he preferred Wike to give him a free lunch, it is very discretional.
I learnt that Prince Uche Secondus (Deputy National Chairman, an indigene of Ikuru Town in Andoni LGA) was also at the state secretariat of PDP. They are all working together.
The State Executive Committee (SEC) of the Rivers PDP, led by Chief Felix Obuah, recently accused you of fraternising with Governor Amaechi of the All Progressives Congress (APC), holding meetings and screening governorship aspirants of all political parties, to undermine the PDP, under the guise of meeting of stakeholders of Rivers and fanning the embers of disunity within the party, in spite of being a member of the BoT of the party, threatening to sanction you if you continue to do so and that Rivers PDP shall not zone the governorship ticket of the party to any ethnic nationality, saying all constitutionally-qualified members of the party are free to vie for the ticket, to allow for the best candidate to emerge. What is your reaction?
That is absolute nonsense and complete madness. Amaechi is the Governor of Rivers State, my state of origin. It will be foolhardy for anybody to say that I should severe relationship with him. Jonathan is my younger brother. I have been playing fatherly roles to both himself (President Jonathan) and Amaechi. During the problems, I moved into it with documentation.
I have tried as much as I could to reconcile President Jonathan and Amaechi. It is very painful that Amaechi left PDP for APC, because of mismanagement and I blame our elders. Why are we elders? What are we afraid of? What do we gain from playing politics? If two of your sons are quarrelling, you should be reconciliatory, instead of taking sides.
I have never met with any of the governorship aspirants from Rivers State. I have never held any meeting with them. Maybe Albert Horsfall held meetings with them and they are mistaking me and Ombo Isokrari, who are the two BoT members of PDP from Rivers State, for him (Horsfall). I am the senior member of the BoT. Isokrari and I have never held meeting of any nature with any governorship aspirant.
We have been having elders’ meetings to arrest the imbalance and strategy of eliminating the rest members of the PDP, under the aegis of the GDI. Rivers PDP is synonymous with the GDI and Felix Obuah (Rivers State Chairman of the PDP) is the Campaign Manager of Wike. Obuah is not giving chance to anybody and no respect to any of the senior members of the PDP. It is complete thrash. They must have mental examination.
I am friendly with Amaechi, but I have never discussed politics with him. My position to Amaechi is that a riverine person must be the governor of the state in 2015. Let me emphasise that I am a founder of PDP and I can never leave PDP. We know where our loyalties are, but when it comes to the governorship candidature, it has to be a riverine or Ogoni man in 2015.
The last time I saw Amaechi was on Independence Day’s church service in Port Harcourt. After the church service, he invited a few of us to his residence and of course I went. As a father, must I kill one child for the other? That is immature. That is the failure of this country. A lot of things go wrong with our system and leaders. Leaders taking sides and becoming sycophantic and lean to one side, instead of bringing the feuding parties together and ensure peace.
What are we talking about, if a chairman of the party (of PDP, Mu’azu) cannot bring real, true reconciliation and peace? I am a member of the BoT and a founder of the PDP. Bringing all of them together is something I have been working on and which I still have in the offing. Has the new so-called chairman (of PDP, Mu’azu) been here (in Port Harcourt) to pay respect to me, since he was appointed? They are very hypocritical and I do not believe in all the hearsay.
Will it be right to say that you took sides against President Jonathan by supporting Governor Amaechi in their political feud?
The import of this question I would regard as a figment of hallucinatory imaginations. At my age and political maturity, more so, having played a fatherly role to both President Jonathan and Governor Amaechi, I could never have taken sides.
My responsibility is to ensure that if there is any feud whatsoever, it will be in my province to foster reconciliation and restoration of brotherly love between them. The President is the paterfamilias of the nation and in this peculiar circumstance, the father of the Southsouth states and their governors.
The relationship between President Jonathan and Governor Amaechi, immediately after the 2011 elections, was impeccable and without blemish. Disappointedly, most politicians become either bystanders or indulge themselves in fuelling any little crack in relationships. Such circumstances are used to disseminate fabricated 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. With no intervention of elders, the situation will degenerate to a point of no return.
I made unlimited overtures by personal contacts and writings, as well as utilising established political institutions like the Board of Trustees of the PDP and other well-meaning agencies. It is indeed a pity that we find ourselves in the current quagmire, which by the grace of God shall come to pass amicably.
What are your views about the current political situation in Rivers State?
The current political situation in the state is very sensitive and volatile, from the point of view that malice, hatred and vicious rivalry are being brought by the political class, in order to arrest power and control of the polity.
To be able to have equity, fair play and justice, the political class must bring God-fearing conscience into the power matrix. In 1998, when the PDP was established in Rivers State, the party structure and control were primarily in the hands of 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 (now Rivers and Bayelsa states). 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 accordingly favoured on the platform of the 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 Ikwerre 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 Dr. Peter 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 severe financial recklessness, infrastructural decay and phantom projects that were never achieved.
Two prominent illustrious sons: Chief Marshal Harry, the first PDP chairman of Rivers State and another founding member, Chief Aminasoari Dikibo were brutally assassinated, without the government making any effort to track down their 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 the then Governor Peter Odili to hand over to Rotimi Amaechi of Ikwerre extraction. All in all, the upland group, primarily of the Ikwerre extraction, will now govern Rivers State for 16 years, at the expiration of the tenure of Governor Amaechi in May, 2015.
The emergence of Nyesom Wike, a (former) Minister of State for Education and his desire to contest the governorship in 2015 does not augur well for peace and harmony in the state, and it is unacceptable to the generality of the Rivers people, especially the riverine Ijaw group, Ogoni group and the large members of the Ikwerre group.
If Wike is granted by the leadership of the PDP to emerge as the governor of Rivers State, it will mean that for 24 years, the people of 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 some unsavoury repercussions, which no one for the time being can predict.
It is therefore in the best interest 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, largely for the purpose of peace, harmony and survival of the state.
You have for some time been too quiet on the political situation in the state and Nigeria. Why has it been so?
For over one year, I have resisted granting any press interview, as I elected to critically observe the various scenarios of events at the federal level, as well as in my state of origin, as they develop.
I was very vibrant and committed and active in the 2010/ 2011 campaign, but as you will note, age is catching up with me and at 75, I can no longer be criss-crossing 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.
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 discretionarily 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 in Rivers State.
Is it true that there is misunderstanding between you and the family of President Jonathan and will it be correct to say that the Soku oil wells’ dispute between your Rivers State and President Jonathan’s Bayelsa State is responsible?
There is no iota of truth in the widely-disseminated impression that there is misunderstanding between myself and the first family. I believe it is speculative and mischievous propaganda stuff. The President is of Ijaw extraction as me 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. Dr. Jonathan is currently the President of this country.
You will recall that at the inception of the 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 unrelenting hard work for the party, especially in the Southsouth geopolitical zone, 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 maintain this posture, except the president holds a contrary view. He (President Jonathan) is my brother and nothing can separate us.
I will not like to discuss anything with regard to the Soku oil wells, the boundary adjustment of the conceptualised annexation of Kalabari oil producing communities to Bayelsa State. So many stories are peddled, but as an Ijaw elder, it is my duty always to ensure that the situation is contained at all times and amicably with brotherly love.
The communities involved have settled as Kalabari communities for over 200 years. The boundaries separating the two states have existed for decades, throughout the periods when both Ijaw and non-Ijaw administrators governed the former Rivers State. For it therefore to attract the dimension of conflicts between the two sister states is unfortunate, but I believe it will eventually be resolved, for unity and our great love for one another.
As a founding member of PDP, what are you doing about the consolidation of the PDP gains in the 2011 elections?
From the evolutionary trend and antecedents since 1999 in Rivers State, the PDP has been the dominant, unbeatable and acceptable political family in Rivers State. The performance of PDP in 2011 in Rivers was phenomenal, producing the highest votes 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 the state.
The imbroglio that arose gave rise to the current disharmony, suspicion and conflict among the PDP family, resulting in a group moving away, under the leadership of Governor Amaechi to the APC.
