Dr. Dakuku Peterside, a former Director-General/CEO of Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), was also the candidate of the All Progressives Party (APC) in the last governorship election in Rivers State. In this interview by SAM NWAOKO, he speaks on the 2023 elections and issues around them.
You recently wrote that we are all masquerades one way or the other and you asked Nigerians to engage the political masquerades that are rearing their heads as 2023 elections are approaching. How do you advice that we engage these political masquerades beyond what we are already doing as Nigerians?
By that article, we were referring to persons who are putting themselves forward to contest for the post of the president and, maybe governors too. The contention I that article is that we should not wait for them to become the candidates of their political parties before engaging them, and that we should engage them continuously so that we can know their vision, their ides, their capacity and what they can offer so that we can make informed decisions on who to support and who not to support. The reason is that when they become candidates of their political parties, they now adorn the garb of their various political parties and we will not know the real person. Then they begin to talk about party manifesto. But, again, it is an individual that would occupy the office of the president or governor. We need to know whether he has the character or the competence and the experience, the vision, the drive and the motivation to deliver. The country is on the edge; it is at a challenging time. Anything other than the best is not good enough. So, we need to engage on a continuous basis.
We are already hearing the names of some ‘masquerades’. We have Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and others who have pointedly come out to say they are going to run for the office of the president. What else do you think Nigerians should require of people like that, or others like Atiku Abubakar, who are lurking in the shadows?
We are all political actors one way or the other. We have different roles to play in the political engagement either as voters, as party members or as citizens and we have different platforms to engage them. It could be through the social media; through that we can play an active role in shaping political opinion. It could also be through town various hall engagements; it could be personal outreach. We need to hear their own ideas, what they represent, how they intend to solve the numerous challenges of the country. We need to take advantage of the multiple platforms available to us as citizens to ask these aspirants what you are offering us.
When we look at it critically, from your summation, we didn’t seem to have engaged President Muhammadu Buhari very well in 2015?
The tendency is to allow the political class to select a candidate and present to us, but that limits our case. And in reality, we are limited to two persons: the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). But if we start engagement, it simply means that we are making inputs to the selection process before they become candidates of their political parties. Recall that (I am sorry to say this) when General Muhammadu Buhari became the candidate of the APC, it was slightly difficult to distinguish between the position of General Buhari and the position of his party, the APC. So many things which were assumed to be the position of President Buhari after he was elected, he simply said they were not his position. He never said it at any point in time. He never took that position and I don’t think it was deliberate. But because we didn’t engage enough, we allowed the delegates or the party apparatus to engage. The moment he emerged as the candidate, then we didn’t have the opportunity of engaging with the real General Buhari. We were now engaging with party spokesmen and women.
What about Rivers State… won’t some people say Dakuku Peterside is a masquerade, we should engage him? Is there another Dakuku Peterside that is coming out to contest the Rivers State governorship?
Recall that we said that we are all masquerades in one form or the other. Today, virtually all Nigerians wear mask; it might be to prevent infection with COVID. It may be for some other reasons that people are masquerades. So, if you say Dakuku Peterside is a masquerade, you may be making reference to the fact that I wear mask to protect myself from being infected with COVID. And so, I may not dispute that. If they say it is for political reasons, who am I to challenge them? I am not in a position to determine who is a masquerade or not. We are all masquerades in one form or the other.
You stand a big chance of emerging as the candidate of the APC in Rivers State. If you do, what do you intend to do differently should you go ahead to win the election?
The first thing is to say that I am putting myself forward to run for the office of governor. The second is that if it is thrust upon my shoulders to lead the battle of APC for the governorship of Rivers State, I will do many things differently, whether in running for the office or in serving as governor of Rivers State. Running for governor, first thing is to put the people at the centre of the aspiration. It will not be about the office but about the people of Rivers State. I would not be running to serve the party; I will be running on the platform of the party to serve the people of Rivers State. I will be running on the platform of the people on the manifesto and agenda of the party to realise the aspiration and the vision of the founding fathers of Rivers State. That I would do differently.
The second thing is that I would rely on the common good of the people of Rivers State to realise that aspiration. What it means is that we would get the aggregate aspiration of the yearnings of the people of Rivers State and make it the centre of that aspiration. Now, in government, it would be a different ball game. Today the government we have in Rivers State lacks focus. The people of Rivers State cannot relate with any vision other than the fact that the governor has done a few flyover bridges in the city of Port Harcourt. There is nothing else to identify the government with. No legacy, nothing to say that this is the bigger picture of what the government set out to achieve. We would run a government that would run on a clear cut vision; government that is populated by men and women who are competent men that have character and who are excellent. We would ensure that every Rivers man walks with his head high by the strength of our vision and the strength of our accomplishment and the courage with which we discharge that role.
In Rivers State today, the APC doesn’t seem to have that synergy. The party has not completely climbed out of that valley of disagreements which cost you the 2015 outing. In simple terms, how would you say the APC is faring in Rivers State today?
There is no political organisation where you can achieve 100 per cent unity because there are always divergent opinions of how things can be done. What makes it a political party is the ability to manage these divergent views and channel the energy to achieve a common goal. And so, APC Rivers is like any other political party, any other political family where you have divergent views; people believing that there are different ways we can achieve the same result. The important thing is that we are making efforts to harmonise views to ensure that we harmonise efforts to achieve a common goal. And the common goal is to have a government that works for the people of Rivers State. We have a government there today that has not been able to create employment for our people; a government that has not addressed education; a government that has not addressed healthcare; that has not built human capacity. There are no plans – the government is run from the breast pocket of somebody. The government has no clear cut agenda on anything, not housing, not transportation. They’ve not added one kilowatt of power in the over seven years they’ve been in office. And Rivers people are tired of a visionless government. If there is anything they want today, it is direction, hope and confidence that their government means well for them. And that is what APC is bringing to the table.
When you were in the House of Representatives, you were the Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream). Your committee worked on the Petroleum Industry Bill. Before it was signed into law and immediately after, there were complaints by Nigerians especially in the Niger Delta. Now that it has become the Petroleum Industry Act, was the billed signed what you had in mind when you set out?
Clearly, the current Petroleum Industry Act is not the same one I co-sponsored in 2011. Again, there is no way you would expect it to be that same because things have changed. There are different dynamics. But like they say, it is better to have the tail of the cow instead of losing the entire cow. What we have now, for me, is only a starting point. Recall that for close to 20 years, we have been struggling to reform the petroleum industry and we were not able to achieve that. So, for me, this is a first step. Laws are organic in nature, it would continue to be amended and reviewed from time to time. It is good to put this to practice and we would begin to identify the challenges, the loopholes and areas that need to be improved upon. I am convinced that the next National Assembly would revisit the Petroleum Industry Act so that it would serve the purpose for which it was designed and set out to achieve. This is not a true reflection of our own aspiration but you will never ever get 100 per cent of what you want.
Years ago, the time you served as the Chairman of Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area, you could not drive to Opobo. The same also applied to places like Ataba in Andoni. How is it now? What has changed?
You can drive to Opobo now. The first time I drove to Opobo was to go and campaign in 2015 and that was under the government of Right Honourable Rotimi Amaechi. Governor Nyesom Wike’s administration has been able to complete the last stretch of the road, about two koilometres… He has completed it and has made a lot of noise about it like the typical politician trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. I give him credit for completing the last two kilometers to Opobo town. The road was initiated by the government of Dr. Peter Odili and had completed a number of bridges before Governor Chibuike Amaechi took over and completed about 10 bridges in all and we were able to drive to most parts of Andoni and some parts of Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area. I feel excited that we have partially completed the road. The road to Opobo is still not completed till today. However, I feel excited that in my lifetime, in my generation I am a witness to the fact that people can drive to Opoboo town, after over 150 years. I know that more can be done in that area. The people expect the government would do more and I believe going forward, government will definitely do more. In all, im excited that we can drive to Opobo.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents
In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state… Iwuanyanwu hails Makinde Iwuanyanwu hails Makinde
Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train
The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report… Iwuanyanwu hails Makinde Iwuanyanwu hails Makinde
and then