Senator Gershom Bassey represents Cross River South Senatorial district in the Senate. Bassey was one leg of the famed tripod that also had former Governors Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke    that formed the power matrix in Cross River State between 1999 and 2007. The tale until few years ago was that the trio had an accord to rotate the governorship among them from 1999 to 2023.

However, following Duke and Imoke the script reportedly went awry just as the two former governors went into an open combat. In this interview, Senator Bassey gives an insider view of the relationship between Duke and Imoke among other issues. Excerpts:

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

What is the relationship now between you, Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke?

We have had our ups and down but generally we have told ourselves that we are in this thing together. So far, so good. You recall that His Excellency Governor Donald Duke left the party briefly some time ago but he came back and since then we have all worked together and he supported the party and we have been working together.

What particular effort did you make to reconcile Duke and Imoke when they quarrelled?

Gershom Bassey

Well, you know that in all relationships from time to time you will have agreements and you have disagreements. Sometimes the relationship is hot and sometimes it slightly cools off. We have had our ups and downs I think that we are mature enough to know that that is the nature of relationships.

Presently, how cordial is the relationship between Duke and Imoke presently?

I think it is okay, I saw them at the reception for President Muhammadu Buhari few days ago and they looked very warm to me.

What was the specific cause or causes of the disagreements?

Those are private and personal issues. You here, can you tell me the things you disagree with your closed friends, it is just a normal relationship.

 But the disagreement affected power rotation among three of you?

You are very interested in this relationship (laughs). Those are not the type of things we even discuss, we don’t discuss those types of things. When we discuss, we go to fundamentals as opposed to personal ambitions, we discus fundamentals and not personal issues.

The fundamentals were about the direction we want to move our state and the things that will take us to get there, those were the type of fundamentals we were discussing and not who has ambition and who doesn’t have ambition and all those as far as I am concerned are mundane things. It was after we had spelt out the fundamentals that we now decided to look at who could be the best to project the fundamentals because we realised that we needed power to get those things done and then we said look who among us is best suited to realise what we had set out to achieve at this particular time and so on.

But like I said those things are secondary, the most important thing is the basic things and the fundamentals and those are the type of things we usually discussed when we met.

But was there an agreement for the three of you to govern the state in turn?

(Cuts) No, there was no such agreement. Like I said those things are really secondary, whether it is me or you or the other, these were not the type of things we discussed.

Senator Liyel Imoke

I know people discus such type of things but we didn’t approach it like that at anytime.

In fact, Donald never had the ambition, Liyel never had the ambition and of course I never had the ambition. It was just a question of who was the best suited at the particular time to project our agenda and we all decided in 1999 that Donald was the best suited and we rallied around him for the governorship and then in 2007, we all agreed that Liyel was the best suited even though Liyel was a minister and had already committed himself to Obasanjo government, we had to drag him out of there to come and project the course, so that is the way it has always been.

So, the triumvirate how often do they meet now

Like a secret society (laughs). Though it is not a secret society please we are just friends, we are not like some secret societies that have their meetings at specific time and period, we don’t do that.

We are friends and we meet whenever we see ourselves.

You know we have a new governor now and all of us are committed to ensuring that Ben Ayade succeeds as the governor. I think that is what we need to do and when we talk that is what we talk about.

When did three of you sit down together last?

Ah ah, we don’t have a secretary that takes those things but I am sure when President Buhari visited Cross River we were together, I think it was on Tuesday, we were together.

Are you happy that when it was your turn to be governor according to your plan that you were denied?

Donald Duke

No, no, no. There wasn’t an issue of turn by turn. We are not running a feudal system, Cross River operates democracy just as Nigeria operates democracy. It was the turn of the North and we believe in the interest of social justice and fundamental fairness, every senatorial district should have a shot at the governorship and also in line with the constitution.

After the South where Donald and I come from had had its turn, the Central had its turn under Liyel and now the North is having its turn under Ayade. After the North we expect it come back to the south, I think we have got it right in Cross River.

So, will you be vying?

Governorship is not the only job in Nigeria if I want to remain in the public sector, there are many jobs. Our hope is that after Ben Ayade, first of all we have to make sure that Ben Ayade has a successful eight years in office and after that we hope we will find a quality governor that can also improve on what Ben Ayade has done from the South.