By Ngozi Nwoke
Amb. Desmond Akawor is the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in Rivers State. In this interview, he spoke on the presidential candidate of the opposition party, Atiku Abubakar, the ongoing internal issues in the Rivers State PDP among other issues.
There is a bit of unrest ongoing in the Rivers State PDP. Do you think the PDP has a chance of winning the governorship and presidential elections?
Well, let’s take the state level first, let me just mention to you, if you look at my position as the chairman of the party, I’m the best to tell you the situation of the party as at today. I can confidently tell you there is no crisis in the party that may even lead to anything called negativity in terms of election. Of course, I’m sure that you know by the DNA of Rivers State that this is entirely a PDP state, right from 1998 to date. The governor has recently scaled up whatever that would hinder our chances of winning the election in the state.
But you know when there is any contest of more than three people, there is always a case of who will be the winner. The essence of people going to contests is their chances of winning for them, they consider themselves as the best. At the end of the day, it is only one person that will emerge the winner and there is no way the other contestants will not feel disappointed. That is exactly what is at play and you know when politicians go into a contest, he takes in all his might, resources and strength, expecting to be the winner.
Right from 1998 to date, we have a family called ‘The PDP Family’ in Rivers State, which was instituted by Dr. Peter Odili, when he was the governor of the state. He created a family that debunked quite a lot of things in River State.
There was no longer what we used to call riverine and upland dichotomy because we all became one family and that segregation was eradicated. Then we had a family called ‘The Restoration Family.’ Every politician today in River State, whether from the PDP or APC, came out of that family, including the former Minister of Transport who moved out of the family and joined the APC. So, they are still part of that Restoration Family and members of that Restoration family or majority of the members remained with the family and up to the point when Governor Nyesom Wike emerged as governor. We all regrouped again as a family, of course with the former Minister of Transport on his own trajectory.
So, this family was still intact and with the way we operate in Rivers State, the family always discussed plans before any elections. That is why when we had the local government elections, there was no shedding of blood, there was no burning of houses, no hair was lost. We have our peculiar way of operating without causing violence in the state. The consensus you see today, has been planned and originated for a long time. The same applied during the last governorship election. Before then, we have had congresses, and all the congresses were concluded amicably up to the point of electing national delegates.
There was no rancour anywhere and then we entered into the delegate elections and then the congress that produced the House of Assembly candidates, House of Reps. Senatorial candidates and then the governorship candidates which was the climax of the whole issue.
Then when we got all the other ones we handled, there was no crisis because the same method was applied, members had a closed-door discussion and agreed on who should go for what position. On the night of the governor’s birthday, the Elders’ Forum agreed to meet the governor to wish him a happy birthday with the chairman of the forum, Chief Ferdinand Alabraba, a former chairman of UBA and elder statesman over 80 years. Talking of about at least 30 elders; so, in the same way, we agreed that very night that there is this story going round about the presidency and that our governor has done all he needs to do in the state and we think he is a product we can sell to the nation as a president. So, we drafted a letter wishing him happy birthday and including two clauses there urging him to come and run for presidency. This is also to inform the world that the idea or plan of presidency was not initiated by Nyesom Wike. He was not the originator. It was the River’s elders that urged him to run for the presidency, of which I was part of the team. When we presented him the letter of request to run for presidency, he read it. In his usual way, he smiled and said ‘well you people said I should run for presidency, first of all, let us discuss who should be the next governor of Rivers State’. Everybody was taken aback and the governor asked, ‘what kind of governor do we need?’ Some people said we need a governor with integrity, some said we should zone it to a region.
The governor said he needs to still consult people so as to know whether he should consider our request of him running for presidency. So, the idea of running for presidency was not originated by him as it is being speculated. It was by the elders of Rivers state.
The governor asked those who wanted to be governor to indicate interest and 14 people indicated interest including most of our brothers who are generating one tension or the other today. I asked all those who really wanted to run for the governorship position to gather for a discussion and the discussion started on the kind of governor we need.
Pertinent questions were asked to all of them. At the end of the discussion, we agreed that none of them should campaign, or make any publicity on the discussion until the appropriate time when the forms are out and we will decide on what to do next.
The forms came out and we bought for all 14 governorship aspirants free of charge. Then we saw that none of the aspirants was willing to step down for another, even though we all know that it is only one person who would emerge as the governor after all. Some of them were asked to step down for some reasons and they refused. It became an issue for the party.We had a meeting with the governor on the issue and he stated that Rivers State has three senatorial districts and we have had governors from these districts in the past.
It was in the meeting that the governor took the decision that the governorship candidate must come from the riverine area and there were only two candidates from the riverine area contesting for the governorship position out of the 14 candidates that indicated interest. And they were Sim Fubara and Tele Ikuru, the former Rivers State deputy governor. These were the only people from the riverine, so automatically, the other candidates were forced to step down. And because of the crisis between Prince Uche Secondus, who is a cousin to Tele Ikuru, and the party, the only candidate chosen became Sim Fubara. As soon as Fubara became the candidate, a lot of comments and questions began to go against the choice. The decision was based on equity and fairness.
So, we have embarked on a sensitization exercise enlightening the people of Rivers State on the need to vote for the right candidate and the massive support for Sim Fubara is evident.
What is your reaction to the APC Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket?
We need to be very careful as a country on the issue of Muslim/Muslim ticket and Fulani/Fulani ticket.
We all knew how we celebrated Mohammadu Buhari when he was a military head of state with Tunde Ideagbon. It was the same thing during the 1993 elections when Abiola emerged with another Muslim; none of us was interested in Muslim/ Muslim ticket.
We struggled for Abiola, so this time around, let us not be confused. The issue is that lets look at the competency of the candidates in question. Are we concerned about Muslim/Muslim or are we concerned about Fulani/Fulani? The crisis we have in West Africa, is it a Muslim/Muslim issue or a Fulani/Fulani Jihad?
What is happening to us in Nigeria, in Benue, in Zamfara, in Sokoto, is it the Muslims that are being saved or some Fulani movement that is eliminating our people? We need to be careful in taking decisions, we have choices in our hands. So, for me, one thing we must stop is the Fulani/Fulani movement. If at the end of the day the option/alternative becomes a Muslim/Muslim agenda, in order to stop another Fulani president from succeeding a former Fulani president, I will support the agenda as Desmond Akawor. So, it’s good to get this picture right, people talk about Muslim/Muslim ticket, nobody talks about the continuation of a Fulani man taking over from a Fulani president.
So, you look at what is going on at the West African coast right from Upper volta down, there is a movement that feels that Nigeria is where they should settle. Something happened in Turkey before it happened close to Nigeria. Again, I implore us to be careful. In fact, when people say Tinubu’s wife Remi is a pastor in Redeemed and they live in the same room, those are not the issues. The question is who is Tinubu as a person? Is he somebody that will change the misfortunes of the country? That is my concern. The one I don’t want us to agree on is this Igbo presidency coming from the South East.
What is your particular reason for this? Don’t you think power should go to the South-East for justice and equity?
The particular reason I don’t want us to agree on Igbo presidency is because it is doing nobody any good.
A Fulani cannot stop Miyetti Allah. It is a natural thing for them. So, if another Fulani man comes on board, he will not stop Miyetti Allah from operating their cow business. That is what is going on in the country today and that is why the president cannot speak against them or act against them. That is my answer to you.
What kind of president does Nigeria need in 2023?
We deserve a president that will be transparent, truthful and not selfish.
A president that will see Nigeria as his own constituency and a president that will bring in devolution of power and resource control to enhance and improve human productivity. That is the kind of president I think Nigeria needs.
Is restructuring the way forward for Nigeria?
If we don’t restructure the country, we are heading for the doom. The egg is definitely going to break one day but if we restructure, we will remain as one entity called Nigeria but with independent states.
Do you see the possibility of the INEC conducting a free, fair and credible elections in 2023?
In some states, yes, I agree that there will be free, fair and credible elections but we all have one regret which is that Nyesom Wike will not emerge the president of this country. If that opportunity was given to Nyesom Wike to become the president of this country, the case of insecurity will become history.
It happened in Rivers State, when we used to experience kidnapping and cultism, where are they today. We need to understand that when people are not committed, passionate about something they do, the evidence will be clear on their performance. You look at a group of people killing scores of Nigerians daily and because the terrorists perpetuating this heinous crime are from your tribe, then you choose to play down on it.
If Gov. Wike was given the opportunity to become the standard bearer of the party, I can tell you for a fact that those so-called bandits and insurgents will be on their toes. Here in Rivers State, the case of Don Wanney that terrorized the entire Ogba community, is history today. The case of Bob Risky that terrorized the whole of Ogoni area, is also history today. It takes a man of courage that will work with security agencies to fight insurgency to a standstill. Our security agencies have the knowledge and expertise but are not being empowered adequately.
If Atiku emerges president and is a Fulani man, are you saying that we should be worried?
Atiku cannot solve the problem of insecurity. I’m from Oyigbo, Rivers State. Our people are more of cassava producers and you expect me to tell my people not to farm or produce cassava because of the fear of getting attacked by Fulani herdsmen in their farms?
What is your thought on the inability of the Federal Government to tackle insecurity?
The body language of Mr. President shows that he has not taken a decision to fight insecurity. If he has taken a full decision, the problem will be solved long ago. We need a man with courage, we need a man who can make decisions. The fish rots from the head. We need a man that will empower the security agencies, I can tell you that I still believe in our security agencies but they need to be empowered morally and physically. They urgently need to be empowered.
What will be your word of advice to the people of Rivers State based on your position as regards utilizing their PVCs wisely?
From me to Rivers people, I will say that we elected a man to become our leader, in the person of Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, who has positively changed Rivers State in massive ways. He has not disappointed us in terms of infrastructure, sports education, employment and health. I have visited the Rivers State University and the lecturer told me that they are not on strike and they are the highest paid in the country. He hasn’t disappointed us in any way and he has done well because we elected him as a leader and he has done all that we told him to do for us. As the chairman of PDP, I send this message to Rivers people to cross examine the score card of this administration and choose to vote wisely for the best. Wherever Nyesom Wike tells us to go in 2023, that is where we will go because we know he thinks well of us and we know he has the thought of Rivers people at heart.