From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Governor Henry Seriake Dickson has allayed fears that he is hobnobbing with leaders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) ahead of the November 16 governorship election in Bayelsa State.
In a media chat in Yenagoa, Dickson, who disclosed the relationship he has with President Mohammadu Buahri, Minister of State for Petroleum and leader of APC in Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva and other APC leaders, said that the defections going on in the state have to do with economic survival not on political difference. Excerpts:
In recent times notable members of the PDP, including Restoration caucus members are leaving the party. Don’t you think this portends great danger for the success of the party in the November 18 governorship election?
These so-called defections are blown out of proportion. This is the season of defections. If politicians don’t defect now when do you expect them to defect? Is it when the elections are over? In 2015, by this time over between 150 to 200 PDP prominent leaders, not faceless caucus members, had defected. They did it so openly and I gave them the stadium for us to celebrate their defection. A state chairman of the party, the late Colonel Samuel Inokoba was among them. People heard them say that day that PDP was not only dead, but that they had buried it that day. People are yet to see defections. This is not up to 10 per cent of the defections we saw in 2015. In 2015, I was running as an incumbent governor, commissioners were defecting, special advisers and prominent members defected. But I am not aware that any prominent caucus member of the Restoration team has defected. I was told that few members of the party, some of them for personals reasons have defected. Take, for example, if you like a Surveillance Contractor who got a job through this government, they are calculating their business risks and now we have an APC leader who has become a Minister of State for Petroleum with the powers to cancel the Surveillance job, are you going to ask that person why he is defecting. They are not defecting because of political disagreements; they are defecting to protect their contracts. The stories must be put in their proper perspective. In 2015, the defections was like an earthquake and we organised ourselves and led campaigns, all those people that defected lost their units, wards and local government areas. The results that were announced, we won seven out of the eight local government areas with all those defections. A former governor and now Minister, Chief Timipre Sylva was the opposition candidate then. We are not saying people should defect, we won’t celebrate any defection and we want more people to come in to join us because we have a qualified candidate. The other side has no validly nominated candidate and they would find out very soon. The other side has nothing to offer and our people know that already. Most of what is going on is politics of propaganda. In 2015 when I was running and they defected was Senator Douye Diri the candidate, there was no issue of running mate, but people were defecting. What is going on is normal, Bayelsa politics of looking for quick gains during election. And I can tell you that a number of them were not part of our success story. PDP members should not be bothered. What I saw in 2015 has toughened me. But we don’t even want one member to leave. We have taken measures to talk to every aggrieved member. For those who have grievances let me assure you that you are better off staying in our party? We would resolve our challenges and move on. If you are not benefitting today; not the candidate today; not an appointee; who knows about tomorrow if we have our party strong and stable, you might be the next person to use the party’s platform to get an appointment or elected. So, please stay in the party.
There are reports and speculations involving the leadership of the House of Assembly, people need clarifications.
Forget about the rumours and speculations. A political leader is not only in the business of building roads, schools and hospitals, we are also in the business of building human beings, leadership development. These are very promising young politicians and I believe the Speaker, Hon Tonye Isenah has a great future. The House of Assembly is stable, united, but because I am not a member of the House of Assembly, I won’t say more. Tonye Isenah is a great guy. There is no problem. You know in politics you have minor disagreement, misunderstanding which are all normal. This is why a governor with experience is important because how you handle things, the judgment you give, things you say, how you say it, all these are very important. But we have a very wonderful House of Assembly and the leadership and members are doing very well.
There was a stakeholders meeting on the choice of running mate how did the meeting arrived at the outcome?
A candidate emerges through a primary election; the running mate decision is what the candidate alone makes. And very often people misconstrue it. I had my own experience too when I was to pick my deputy. There was a name I was meant to have picked and I didn’t get to pick that name. I went to Rear Admiral Jonah who was not even interested, who has just retired, he was not even a party man, and he was not even into politics. I know that by doing so it angered a lot of politicians from that area. So, these are normal rumblings and complaints, but the point to note is that first the decision as to who should be a running mate is that of the candidate to make and not that of Governor Dickson. And a candidate would consider a lot of factors the most important being compatibility. The office of deputy governor is not an office you contest for. All we can do is to support the choice of the candidate. Look at what happened in our presidential primaries in Port Harcourt, our candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on his own selected former Governor Peter Obi and you saw the trouble first from the Southeast. What we agreed at the stakeholder meeting was that we don’t have a role, we would support the candidate. If people are aggrieved our role is to plead with people; persuade and explain to people. I have seen some speculations about a senatorial ambition concerning me. Let me put it clearly with the work I have done in this state, I have so many options. I would love to go to school, teach, and write. I have my farms and stay in the serenity of my farms. For me there is nothing really do or die there. I would continue to be available to support young politicians, support the party and the government. Let me use this opportunity to caution the over sensationalizing of this issue. The office of the deputy governor is not contested for. When I picked Rear Admiral Jonah, I never sat with Nembe leaders; I didn’t sit with Brass Senatorial district. He didn’t even know, he was shocked when I invited him, that is, deputies are selected. One thing I know is that the PDP ticket is a ticket of stability; it is a ticket of competence; a ticket of performance.
It is being speculated that the post-primary crisis in your party is being sponsored by eternal forces?
First of all, there is no post-primary crisis rocking PDP. If there is any party that is suffering from acute, incurable post-primary crisis, it is APC. They are in the casualty ward. Yes with the kind of primaries that we did, the personalities that it attracted, which speaks to the attraction of our party. You can imagine all the big names coming to show and they fought very hard. I congratulate all of them coming from where they came from and pulling so many votes, they tried. It is just that the candidate supported by the Ofruma Pepe was too much for them. Yes, we have aggrieved people and we are talking to them. I have personally met with all the aspirants except Chief Alaibe that I have tried to interact with, but I have not been able to get him. I have sent a lot of people to him. I am also very hopeful. He is a good man and my brother. He is a good party man and great Bayelsan and even though I have not spoken to him, but I know him, he would want to do anything to support this party to ensure that this state does not get into the hands of hungry lions.
There are reports that you are hobnobbing with the leadership of the APC especially Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, a former governor of the state. Can you clear the air on this?
Bayelsa is the headquarters of rumour, Bayelsa politicians do not believe in superior performance and superior logic. My background is that of someone who has done a lot of national politics. I rose from state chairman of AD to national legal adviser, I have played a lot of politics with prominent people and a lot of them are now at the other side. We are still friends, but we disagree politically. If I interact with a governor of another party to discuss common issues they shout. Meanwhile there are governors who do all kinds of things pretending to be sanctimonious. I have never travelled with the president out of Nigeria one day. I have never been invited to travel with President Buhari. Even when I won the 2015 governorship election, the president never called to congratulate me. So, I know those who spread those rumours and propaganda from time to time because of my profile and politics. There is nobody who has fought APC more in this state other than me. No one has fought Sylva from realising his ambition in APC by taking over Bayelsa more than me. I and Sylva for almost 10 years have been political adversaries. We used to be friends and we have been political opponents for 10 years. But for me political disagreements are not personal disagreements. I don’t know the way to his house in Abuja and I am sure he does not know my house. As governor of this state what I have done which speaks to my politics of maturity, accommodation and tolerance is that once a Bayelsan gets appointed at the federal level, I always extends my hands of fellowship. It is unfortunate that they have not reciprocated that to develop this state. It is not every disagreement you take to the market place. Sylva by the way is a former governor of this state for God sake. Yes, we don’t agree politically, but he is not my enemy. I see him as a brother and friend. I see him as somebody I disagree with completely for his politics. President Buhari nominated him as minister and I told Bayelsa senators that they should support him because I do not want ugly stories about Bayelsa. We are not the only state in this country. Where I come from my people would say there is no dustbin where you throw away bad friends and brothers. There are people who play sycophantic politics; they would claim that they are the opposition people. The leaders of this country know me as a man of honour. After his nomination, to be fair to him, he called for the first time in several years to appreciate my gesture. The ministry that the president has given to him is a sensitive ministry. And even today blackmail or no blackmail, on behalf of Bayelsa State, I want to again use this opportunity to congratulate him and to thank the president. Now what is left for him to do is to work with the state and bring needed development to our state. Let this not be another case where at the end of his tenure we would say had we known. Yes, he is a politician, but I expect him to bring the dividends of that sensitive ministry to our people not to me, I am not a businessman; to all the businessmen to have the businesses that can enable them to thrive well and for businesses in oil industry to move down to Bayelsa and the Niger Delta; I want the LNG that could not start unfortunately to be restarted; I want Brass Fertilizer that I have been supporting so much to kick off. And I am looking forward to work with him and others to see how we bring all players on board to ensure the Nembe-Brass road is constructed. That is my politics. I am not for the petty Bayelsa politics. He has intimated me that he intends to visit Bayelsa State and I would receive him officially because he has official responsibility. There is too much pettiness in the politics of the South-south; endless and meaningless fighting between brothers that should be working together for the development, stability and prosperity of our people. If people don’t know what it is to have a minister of Petroleum, I know. Now, the ball is in his court. Yes, we are partisan politicians from two different parties, but I expect he should be thinking about the development of our state.
So, there is nothing like hobnobbing. I don’t need that. Governor Dickson is a politician of conviction not a politician of convenience. There are not many Nigerians politicians that can resist what I have resisted up till now. The state has not played opposition politics before me. And I am very comfortable in my opposition role as I used it to defeat the federal party. I am prepared to be in the opposition party for as long as it takes us to take power provided we are doing what is right.