From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
Delta-born All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Chief Ayiri Emami, has warned that APC may implode if newcomers displace old loyalists. He made this known in an interview where he also accuses the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of manipulating constituency boundaries to erase Itsekiri political relevance. He also spoke on these and other issues.
Excerpts:
President Bola Tinubu has spent two years in office; how would you assess his performance?
I think the president started with a note of trying to put up some policies and you know, when you don’t have a good foundation, it is always very difficult to have a proper building on top. I think the foundation and the structure laid by the past leaders weren’t good enough. So, what he is battling with now is what he met on ground, and some of those things people said, ‘oh, Tinubu has inflicted hardship on us.’ The hardship, like what I used to say, was not caused by Tinubu.
So far, so good. He has tried his best, trying to fix one or two by removing subsidy and the backlash of the subsidy (removal) is what we are all experiencing, including the rich and the poor. There’s nobody that is exempted.
People are practically crying of hunger. What do you think the administration can do to ameliorate this poverty and to get sympathy of the electorate ahead of 2027?
To me, it’s to do more inward investment. First, if we can get the issue of insurgency in the North-East sorted, the issue of banditry and the rest, people can go back to the farm. Definitely, we’ll have our food. Those of us from the South-South are majorly into fishing. Maybe they bring some palliatives that can cushion the effect of the fuel price so that we will go back to our normal business. I think those things will cushion the suffering in the Niger Delta. Like I was discussing with some people, if the boat we use for fishing can be converted to CNG, it will solve some of our problems.
And I also think that he has to reshuffle his cabinet so that he can have some vibrant people that will go and do the job. Because it’s not Tinubu that will go everywhere to do the job, it is the people you assign your portfolio to. A lot of people are sluggish, weak, and I don’t think they’re even thinking well. Not more than four, five, ministers are very active. Sometimes, it is not all about the president.
I think there seems to be a lot of fixations on the federal government. With the withdrawal of subsidy, state governments have received almost triple or more than triple monthly allocation of what they used to receive before the removal of subsidy. Nigerians are still complaining. Why?
A lot of these governors, I don’t think they are helping situation, so that puts a lot of pressure on the federal government. If the federal government has taken off subsidy and the money is being paid to the state governments, the states are supposed to look at what are the needs of people in each of the states, but I think the state governors don’t care, so everybody now focuses on the federal government. But I would suggest that the president puts an eye on what is going on in each of the states, since the allocation is being adequately sent to the state governments.
In the last few months, a number of opposition governors have defected to APC, we have in Delta, we have in Akwa Ibom. Do you think this is genuine and do you think it is enough to garner votes for APC in 2027?
First, if you are in a team and your team is doing well, people will be willing to come and join your team. Look at football Premiership, there are some players, no matter the little money you offer them, they will say, no, I want to go and play for Real Madrid. I want to go and play for Barcelona. So, if Asiwaju is doing well, and the governors see that this is the way to go, it’s a welcome development.
Are you threatened by the formidable opposition?
Competitions are necessary in everything. If you don’t have people to compete with, it makes you feel very lazy. So having a proper opposition coming will make us wake up.
There are also people who are feeling worried that this gale of the defection could lead to an implosion within the APC itself. Is that correct?
People like Omo-Agege, I know I can speak categorically about it, he doesn’t have a plan to leave. But one thing I know some of us will not accept is a situation when you come in and said you want to pull us out, we’ll not agree to it. That might cause another chaos. Nobody will leave. I don’t believe anybody can push me out. If I decide to step aside, that’s a different issue. To me, I’m always very reasonable. If I meet somebody, somewhere, I’ll try as much as possible to see how we can work together, but a situation where you will come and say no and you want to lord it on us, will be resisted. I don’t think Asiwaju believes in that kind of policy because he is a politician, he knows what that means. People like me, we were almost killed because of APC in our community, even up to the issues we have in our palace, it was all political.
I was accused of using the palace to do APC, and today, everybody is there, and I’m happy. When President Buhari came to my palace, they were very angry. In 2015, when we lost our king, I invited Asiwaju. I knew the problem I passed through, trying to manage it. Even when the Olu got into office and went to Asiwaju’s place to say thank you, they criticised me. So, they thought everything I was doing, I was using the palace to play APC.
I know a lot of people that were killed because they associated with APC. The state government dealt with them; their businesses were grounded because they were affiliated with APC. Today, you are coming, yes, we agree you can come, but you should realise that these people too were the voices when you said there should be no voice.
But you agree that the party’s Constitution gives the leadership of the party at the states to governors?
I don’t have a problem with it. The party’s constitution gives the power to Mr. President, the president too should know that he has followers in each of the states. He should be able to protect us.
What’s the present situation in Delta now, since the governor joined you?
The governor and the leadership then, like somebody like Ovie Omo-Agege, what I’m expecting is that they should sit, meet and see a working formula, but that has not happened. The APC party chairman in Delta, if he knows what he’s supposed to do, he’s supposed to unite everybody. So those are the people causing confusion in that state.
These were people that Ovie single handedly put together to ensure that they build up a party. As at then, some of us were telling him that what you are doing, don’t do it with your tribal people. I was actually against Ovie then because I said you cannot be running for governor; at the same time, you have a party chairman from your place.
So, everything they wanted then, they wanted it to go to Central, even up to NDDC. But today, the way people complained about Ovie, I stood by him because I know that those that caused the confusion are the one praising the governor now. If not, they are the ones that’s supposed to say, ‘oh, Governor, you are coming, you are welcome, but this is our structure.’ You can’t have a section of people where Keyamo goes there and starts saying those that are not in this room are comedians. To me, those things are offensive.
So, what’s the way out?
I still believe that the governor should be magnanimous enough to ensure he calls the people. There is nobody that is not important. He should relate well with everyone.
Don’t you think the coalition can take advantage of this disagreement?
That’s why we need to work fast. Because sometimes too, people might be in your party and work against you, which is very dangerous.
The issue of Constituency delineation seems to be generating ethnic tension in your state. What are the concerns?
There’s a Supreme Court ruling that they should delineate Warri Federal Constituency. None of us went against it, but you have to do it religiously with the law — the Electoral Act. But in a situation where you come, you will now begin to allocate, take somebody’s Ward to another, we will not agree, because those are the injustices one actually complained about. But coming to implementation, somebody that has two Wards is now having 10 Wards, he’s having 14 Wards. Somebody that has four Wards is having 14. Somebody that has six, you are reducing it!
I am faulting INEC because if the Supreme Court says do delineation, you can equally write to the Supreme Court because the instrument for the delineation is not a projected census. So, you (INEC) can tell the Supreme Court that ‘these are some of the issues why I cannot carry out this delineation now.’ But you just went and try to favour some persons. And we’ve told everybody, we’ve told Mr. President, we’ve told everybody that cares to know that INEC must do the needful or they should investigate that committee that was set up by INEC.
Everybody has representation by ethnic nationality in the National Assembly. Do you know that Warri Federal Constituency is the only place the Itsekiri can contest, but the Ijaw have Burutu, Patani, Bomadi; the Uhrobos have Ughelli. The only place we are confined to is the Warri Federal Constituency.
Finally, what are your expectations from Tinubu, the entire South-South region?
When he came to campaign, he assured us that he will fix the Omadina-Escravo’s road for us. I have met him several times over that issue. The NDDC and Chevron — his own is just to supervise to see that they come together and do the road. And while he was campaigning, too he told us that the EPZ, the Ogidigben project — that project was on during Jonathan (administration). They were about awarding the sand filling when they had their coalition, and all of us followed that line, and Buhari won. Immediately Buhari won the money that was allocated to that place they use it for AKK pipeline. That’s why some of us today cannot just wake up and say we want to go and support the North, because a lot of us from the South joined to say we are one Nigeria, we didn’t like the way Jonathan was ruling. Now, Asiwaju promised us, he travelled to China, he met with the company and I think the leadership of the company is supposed to come next month to meet with Asiwaju to see how they can go about that project. They are forming coalition again. We are all complaining about hunger, if there’s no investment, how will somebody reap? So anytime they want to invest something tangible in our area, that’s when our people will go and join them to form coalition. So, that is the reason some of us will not even think about this coalition. When they get into the office now, they will take the money… I am not saying they should not take anything to the North but the one in our place, do it.
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