Chief Claudius Enegesi, former speaker of the old Rivers State House of Assembly and former deputy national treasurer of the peoples Democratic Party (PDP) speaks on factors that may sway voters during the November 16, 2019 governorship poll in the state. EBIOWEI LAWAL brings the excerpts.
You have dropped the umbrella and picked the broom, how did you find that easy?
I had no difficulty in dropping the umbrella and picking up the broom. Because of what has been going on here in Bayelsa for the past three years, l decided to be a little bit reticent and taciturn, watching the events as they unfold in the PDP especially with the governance of the state. You know very well that l have been a PDP man since 1998 until October 21, 2019. But for the past two or three years, things were not moving right in what I believed and what convinced me, about twenty years ago, to be in the PDP. Even if suggestions were made, they were all turned down and it is very disheartening. So, for me to take the eventual decision that I took, it was very easy and when I did it, l became relieved as if I was carrying a very big burden. A burden in the sense that the interest of my people here was not being protected by the PDP.
The government here was not respecting where l come from. If you get into politics, it is not about your personal interest. A true politician who knows what he is doing and where he got it from, it is about the people whose interest you think you can protect, propagate and defend and see if it will be a vehicle for the development of even individuals or the area you come from which was not forthcoming from the present PDP government which I was a major stakeholder. Then, I came to find out that the governance of Bayelsa became so primitive and personalised with arrogance and disdain for the people; and that is not the essence of being in politics and governing the people. The state became so decisive along ethnic or clannish lines promoted by government. But to be in government is to build and pull the people together for a holistic development and cohesive existence of a people, not to divide them. Bayelsa of today has become more divided. Yea, it can be mouthed that Bayelsa is a homogeneous ljaw state but with the present government, it became so disunited, promoted by government where the phrase of core-ljaw and non-core-ljaw was promoted.
Supreme Court verdict: Those who think they’ve broken my spirit, I’m sorry to disappoint you ― Atiku
At what point did you disconnect from Governor Dickson?
I will say l disconnected myself from Dickson; he disconnected himself from not only me but from the people. That is why you can see the avalanche of movements. So, it’s not an Enegesi thing. There is a mass movement from those who are not even politicians. If you go to the streets and villages of Bayelsa even from the illiterate market woman. Let me tell you something, whether we like it or not, in this country, especially the South, there is a political evolution. The electorate are becoming more enlightened every day. So, when you discuss politics with them, the way they perceive is not the way our fathers and mothers perceived years ago. In every community you go, there are graduates and children who have gone to school and they can read and write. With the help of the social media, they follow events unfolding. They lend voice, they interact, they argue, they want to know exactly what is going on and what is good for them. So, there is a lot of enlightenment.
So, if you are still behaving primitively and you are governing a people and you think they don’t know what is expected of government, then there is going to be a revulsion. You can’t enter my village now and you see a group of boys or girls discussing and you talk to them and they will not understand. They will because in the midst of them are graduates. Some have first degrees. Some have gone to secondary school. They speak, read and understand English. They understand what governance is now. Gone are those days when politicians would come with a bag of rice and tell the people, ‘Oh, l will do this and that and the people would believe you.’
All the big names in Ogbia, where former President Goodluck Jonathan comes from, have left the PDP for the APC. What do you think is playing out?
There is nothing playing out. The former president knows what is going on, not because he sanctioned it. We are all grown-up individuals and we know what is good for our people. We have very high regard and respect for President Jonathan as a father, as a friend and as a leader of this country. We in Ogbia, even if we find ourselves in different political parties today, it doesn’t remove that respect and regards we have for him. Let me be frank with you, I never wanted to speak during the APC rally at Ogbia town. I restrained myself because if l had done, even (APC national chairman), Adams Oshomhole would have been shocked by what would have come out of my mouth. I would have descended to the arena to be at the same level with Dickson when he talked to the people but I said ‘no, let me dignify myself. Goodluck Jonathan will not be surprised if we, the Ogbia elite, speak out because it is not him; it is about Dickson, who has no single regard for Johnathan and the Ogbia people.’ The highest level of disdain is how Dickson holds the Ogbia people, and these are the people who made him.
So, you can see what is playing out now. It’s a total rejection of his attitude. If you can disrespect us, then we don’t have you in mind and so, we pathways. God created Jonathan a different mould. Maybe, that’s why God elevated him so rapidly; that, as a leader, he can absorb, having attained that kind of height. He has that kind of thick skin that even when his people are being insulted, he will just look at you and laugh. But the people behind him are really feeling it. That is the revolution. I’m a leader in my own right; a former national officer of the PDP. From the inception of the party, I have always been a member of its national council. As the state chairman, by the constitution, l was a member of the National Executive Committee I left and became a national ex-officio twice and then a national deputy treasurer. So, it’s not about Jonathan. It’s about the protection of our identity and pride as a people. A people that have contributed immensely to the political development of Bayelsa.
What kind of language did he use against your people?
Let’s not even ask about words, what about the development of the people. You drove to Ogbia. How is the road? In 2012, there was a serious flood in Bayelsa state. Let’s say in the whole of the country and in Bayelsa, being a littoral state that we are below sea level, there was heavy flooding. Bayelsa was caught off; Ogbia was caught off. The only road and bridge that was linking the state capital to Ogbia and Nembe was caught off. I personally went and met the governor and told him, ‘The flood has come down, can you please come and rehabilitate this road for our people?’ He told me twice that he was not going to do it. I went to him a third time, do you know what he told me? Then, Goodluck Jonathan was president. He said, ‘Go and tell your president to come and do his road.’ Quote me! Then I said. ‘Look, doesn’t he know that I have access to the president?’
So, one of those weekends, I had access to Mr President on a dinner table with his ministers and service chiefs and all that, and we were discussing about our environment. The president is a scientist, l am a scientist. So, l now delivered the message that Dickson gave to me. I said ‘Sir, we are now discussing about our environment. I met the governor and told him that the only road we have has been washed away by the flood and he (Dickson) asked me to tell you to come and do your road.’ The president could not believe it. The whole table was quiet. Then, he said, ‘Well, is the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) not there? Tell the chiefs in the area and write to FEMA, ask them to come and rehabilitate the road. After all, there are no federal roads in Bayelsa State.’
The next day l came up with a letter. A copy of that letter is still with me. Then the letter was approved by Mr President for FERMA to rehabilitate the road up to this village. I was coming from Abuja when the contract was awarded by FERMA to Niger CAT. The then commissioner for works, who is now a senator and running mate to his party then went on the radio and said Dickson had started rehabilitating the Ogbia road. I got angry and I went off there. It took Jonathan to calm me down and l wrote Dickson off. He tried to take credit on the radio that his government had started rehabilitating the Ogbia-Imiringi-Etegwe road. I said no. It was then FERMA was directed to put their signpost that they were the one rehabilitating the road. If we talk of light, the only government’s presence here was the Melford Okilo gas turbine, which was giving electricity to the people free of charge. We have about 22 megawatts rotting there; dilapidated by wilful negligence or neglect by the current state administration because it is in Ogbia land. So, it is not just abuse. We are talking about body language and of course, in utterances. You saw on the podium during the rally how somebody was giving a breakdown of how Dickson has abused the Ogbia Brotherhood. So, if you rule a people with that level of disdain, then you don’t deserve their friendship; you don’t deserve their company and you don’t deserve their respect.
So, if the governor should come to Ogbia for campaign, what do you think will happen?
Nobody is going to stop him; he will campaign just like we will go to Toru-Orua to campaign. He won’t stop us; we won’t stop him but at the end of the election, the outcome will show. I just left the PDP; there are still PDP members. It is not everybody that will follow me. But we are going to swell the ranks of the APC. If he comes, of course, he won’t come to my house because I am no longer under the umbrella with him. When the APC comes, they will bring the broom and I will go and sweep the streets off.
You just left the PDP, if Dickson puts a call to you now, what are the kind of things you are going to tell him?
I will tell him that I’m sorry I am no more under the umbrella. We will meet on the election day.
What do you think would happen on the day? Have you forgotten that Dickson is still in government?
What happened in Imo State? Rochas Okoroacha was a governor. What happened in Ekiti State? Ayo Fayose was a governor. What happened in Ondo State? Governors have been in office and their parties have been losing elections. I have just told you that the electorate is becoming more enlightened every day. The electorate expects of government the dividends of democracy to be delivered to them and if you don’t, with the Permanent Voter Card (PVC), they will show you a Red card. It’s happening. It’s not peculiar in Bayelsa State. We are developing as a democracy. Although the elements of primitively and the military thing are still there, they are gradually wearing off. After our generation and maybe the generation immediately after us, it will hinge on delivery. If you cannot deliver, the generation to come will not give you that trust to lead them. So, it is not about the power of incumbency. Goodluck Jonathan was a president with all the paraphernalia of office and the power of incumbency but he lost.
and then