From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva has backed the calls for Southern Nigeria to have a shot at the presidency in 2023.
Sylva, a former governor of the state, in an interview monitored by Sunday Sun in Yenagoa shortly after the inauguration of the state, local government and ward executives of the party said that based on the principle of equity, the presidency should come to the South in 2023.
He applauded the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari in tackling corruption and insecurity, noting that Nigeria was not where it used to be.
You are referred to as a member of the kitchen cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari. It is almost seven years in power, would you say the government has delivered on its campaign promises?
I think we have. When you say kitchen cabinet, I would say I don’t belong to the kitchen, I belong to the oil industry. But as somebody that works very closely with the president, as somebody that admires the president as a person, as somebody that has been in the thick of everything that has been happening from 2015 till now, I would say that we have done very well as a government. And I would give you examples. When they say in the areas of corruption, if we have done well, yes I would say we have done well in fighting corruption. Corruption has three segments. One segment is for the revenue to come to the purse of the government. The second is that after the money has come to the purse you manage that money within the government to begin to deliver projects to the people. The third segment is when the money leaves the government to the society. As far as the first segment is concerned, money coming into the government, we have completely taken control of it by way of the Treasury Single Account (TSA). By way of the TSA we have been able to control this segment. This means that when the government earns money, it surely gets into the purse of the government. Before now that segment was the biggest problem. Because you must have heard that people even sold crude oil and the money that was paid for the crude did not come into the account of the government. And there were situations where in certain places the parastatals had over 90 accounts. So when money comes in, they put it into any account and after a while, they do the more you look, the less and then they take the money out. So the money did not come to the government at all. When we came in that was the first thing we were able to achieve so that money at least comes into government through the instrumentality of the TSA. So, the other segment of corruption which is managing the money within the government to deliver projects. That one I cannot say has been completely handled, but it is not within the purview of the government totally because you must report the incident. As Mr President, he cannot know what is happening unless it is reported to him. If incidents have been reported and he did not take action, that is where you can hold him responsible. Incidents must be reported first before he can know. Even if you bring the president of the United States to Nigeria, he would not know what is happening there except if incidents are reported. Now, the other segment is also dependent on reporting. If a policeman collects a bribe from you, how would the president know unless it is reported. In these two segments we may not have achieved 100 per cent success, but that is because we have not been able to get our people to cooperate and report every incident. And I assure you, the president I know very well if you report an incident to him even if it is daughter that is involved in corruption, everybody knows President Buhari would do something about it as long as it is substantiated. We have done well in the area of corruption. In the area of security, we have also done very well. The problem is that sometimes there is an evolution of crime. When we were younger the crime we were familiar with was armed robbery. They come to your house and say your money or your life. And they steal your money. We were even advised at that time to keep some money all the time so that when the armed robbers come and say your money or your life, you give them some money and they go away. That was the crime we were used to. Today, crime has evolved. Now when they come, they don’t come for your money, they come and steal you, keep you somewhere and begin to negotiate. So what I am saying is that when we first came in, the crime that confronted us we were able to handle. Of course, the evolution of crime has also produced other forms of crime. Because when we came in there was nothing like banditry. You can see that today Boko Haram has been handled effectively, more or less. Banditry is a new crime. Boko Haram or ISWAP don’t have any territory in Nigeria. We have been able to hold them and they are not as effective as they used to be. At least since we came you have not heard of bomb blast in Abuja. Before it used to be rampant and we were all very scared. But today you have not heard of bomb blast anywhere, so we have been able to handle that problem. Of course, crime has also evolved into other things and we are trying to handle those.
APC in Bayelsa State has been under some litigations. Some have accused you of being high handed in the way you lead the party and that is why there are factions taking the party to court in the state?
I don’t know what they mean by being high handed. The party held congress and I was not there. Yes there was a court injunction, but the life of an injunction was seven days, it was clearly stated. If the injunction had expired and the court gave us the go ahead with the congress and the national secretariat said go ahead with your congresses, we went ahead. I don’t know how that is high handedness. I have always been the fairest leader of APC. Let me tell you, the outgone chairman of APC from Southern Ijaw was not nominated by myself, it was nominated by David Lyon. I told him to bring the chairman of the party. The outgone deputy chairman of the party was nominated by Senator Heineken Lokpobiri. And at that time it was only the secretary that I nominated. And even today you can say that it is spread out. Everybody has a say. One of the leaders in the local government said why he was not included. I say we are not just including people. We are not just writing names. Congresses were conducted and I asked were you there and I said if I put your name there that is when I would be high handed. The fact that I could not put a name that was not there shows that I am not high handed. The matter in court has no merit. The people going to court have no merit. I believe that we should be able to come together. Now we set up the elders committee because they say a community where you have elders they would be able to handle situations. I am not saying they should leave the party because everybody knows this is where the honey pot is. So everybody would come. So let us just come together and resolve our problems. That is why we have inaugurated a very powerful elder’s council headed by His Excellency Werinpre Seibarugu so that they would be able to call all the aggrieved people, if they call me I would come, so that we all sit down and ensure that the party moves forward. The party is more than ever before stronger and ready.
Your party boycotted the last local government election, another one is coming soon, are you thinking of boycotting it again?
Local government elections in Bayelsa don’t hold. It is the government in power that would put their people. The other election in my ward, we said they should come and do an election, instead of doing election, because they know they cannot impose anybody, they decided not to have any councillor. They refused to hold the election because they know they cannot impose someone. The local government election is of no use. As long as the election is under the State Independent Electoral Commission, all the names are written in the Government House. Before now, we used to conduct elections and other parties used to win. The local government election is not the test of popularity of a party. In the general election and the governorship election, we did not have any problem. The Supreme Court did not say we did not win the election; they only faulted the qualification of the deputy governor. If that thing happens to a party, it would be very traumatic. Having won the election, they took it from us just a day before the inauguration and gave it to someone else. That would be traumatic for any party. It was very traumatic for us, I accept but we have been able to recover from that. And I am telling you that our party is stronger than ever before.
You were quoted to have said Bayelsa State owes you one tenure. Are you still planning to come to Creek Haven?
I would not run for governorship for Bayelsa again. I have said that chapter of my life is closed. If I was to run for governorship for Bayelsa, I would have presented myself in 2019, but at that time I presented David Lyon who won the election and we lost at the Supreme Court. This time again, we would look for a credible Bayelsa and he would run under the party. I can tell you that candidate would not be me.
There is this clamour for a Southern President come 2023, are you in support of that?
I have always been in support of a Southern presidency especially now because this country is built on equity. The presidency goes North and after it comes to the South. It is not a written law but like a principle of equity. It goes North, it comes South; it goes North, it comes South. So, if the North has taken it for eight years, I believe it is the time for the South to produce the president. I have never made my position hidden. That is my position; I feel the presidency should come to the South.
You and the countryman former governor, Seraike Dickson seem to have this running battle, have you people settled since both of you are in Abuja.l?
He is a countryman and I am a city man. But we still talk. For me the most important thing uppermost in my mind is Bayelsa State. If there is anything I need to discuss with Senator Dickson in the interest of Bayelsa State, I will not shy away from it. We are probably not the best of friends now. We used to be, but so much water has passed under the bridge between us and we cannot pretend to be best of friends now. But even Senator Dickson, I realise the interest of Bayelsa is uppermost in his mind so if there is any reason for us to collaborate in the interest of Bayelsa we will. Bayelsa first.