By Chioma Gabriel, Deputy Editor
PROFESSOR Sam Oyovbaire was the Minister of Information in the defunct regime of General Ibrahim Babanginda and is perceived in political circles as an arch-apostle of IBB, especially in the latter’s new quest to assume power again in 2011 as President.
In this encounter, he answers questions on the political issues of the day.
Excerpts:

There have been calls for President Jonathan to contest 2011 Presidential election and even recently, some Northern governors said he should go for it but the argument on zoning seems to be an impediment. Should he contest?

Let set the record straight. Number one, the constitution of Nigeria allows everybody without any criminal records or any indictment by the judiciary to contest election. That you cannot deny any Nigerian especially with the new provision for independent candidates. When this provision becomes law, one does not need to be on the platform of any political party to contest election.

Secondly, I am a member of the PDP and I have been around for a long time. I attended all the national conventions.  I have the constitution of the PDP, the founding constitution and the two others which were amended. One was amended 2001 and the other 2006.

The amended constitution states that anybody can contest election but he has to respect the provisions of zoning and rotation. And if  we go by the principles of equity and justice, I can tell you that this struggle for zoning was  originated, promoted and organised by the minority, because we have looked at the way the three major tribes  were going and the fact that the possibility of a minority being a ruler of this country at the national level was very slim.

A typical example is the Idoma ethnic group. It would be difficult to imagine that  somebody of an Idoma nationality could ever become the governor of Benue State except by zoning. So, zoning is a tool of the minority to ensure justice, equity and fairness. Zoning allows anybody of any tribe to be the candidate of his party. Each party has a constitution guiding it. The relevant sections of 2001 and 2006 amended PDP constitution states it clearly in section 7 subsection 2(c).

You can refer to it because I don’t want to go into story telling. It is for the leadership of the party to decide on the amendment of  party constitution if we want to jettison zoning.

Different members of the PDP say different things on this issue of PDP constitution. Some would say it’s an agreement over tea and coffee.

I  am a teacher and a politician and I am telling you what the constitution says . It is not what I think or what you think. It is not a gentleman’s agreement but the constitutional  provisions of the party. That was why I quoted the exact constitutional provisions in the 2001 and 2006 of the  PDP constitution as amended.

You can argue on the basis of expediency or opportunity or whatever kind of   position of argument, I have no quarrel about that but nobody should confuse what is written in black and white. I  shouldn’t begin to say that zoning is a gentleman’s agreement because I feel it is my turn and tomorrow, when it is not my turn, I will return to begin to say a different thing. It shouldn’t  be that way.
Recently, the South-South leaders  gave President Jonathan the support to contest 2011 Presidential election. Are you not part of this decision?

I was present at the South-South stakeholders meeting on Monday. I sat there throughout. I listened to the speeches of our leaders. Although I too is a leader, I didn’t speak but I listened to all of them. Some of us from the South-South can speak from the position of expediency, that this is what is good for us.

There are many arguments; that South-South, or Niger-Delta produce more than 90% of the resources of this country, and we have been left behind and other arguments which are well documented. And these are arguments of expediency because this was what dominated the arguments of the day.

There is this argument that the incumbent had a joint ticket with the late President Yar’Adua. Is there no circumstantial provisions in the PDP constitution in a situation like this ?

There is no such provision in the constitution. If you have a governor, and a deputy governor and because they come together, if the governor leaves and the deputy governor comes over and decides to continue  with the programme of the governor  there is nothing that can be done about that. You know the late Murtala Muhammed, the former head of state; after his assassination  Obasanjo took over.

It was to propagate the programme of  Murtala Muhammed because he was cut short. And Obasanjo took over and when he concluded Murtala’s tenure he handed over. That was the military era. But we are under a democracy and this is a system of rules and regulations, and rule of law.

And so, when people are putting up arguments, they shouldn’t jump from one to the other. There is a law in PDP and these things are put down in black and white. Ordinarily, it is okay for me, a man from Delta State to see another from Bayelsa contesting and winning Presidency of this country. But the argument I’m making is not about that. I’m making a different kind of argument.

What is your argument?

The summary of my argument is that it may be expedient for you to argue. I don’t want to use the word opportunity. It is expedient for you to argue along the line the South-South leaders argued and then mobilise support for your line of argument but what is written down in the PDP constitution is written down in black and white.

Would you subscribe to Jonathan’s Presidency in 2011?

I thought you are talking to me on basis of principle. Are you one of those rooting for supporters and supporters club? I have told you my position. In as much as I would like a man from my zone to become the President of this country in 2011, I would want it to be done according to rules. So, if you are asking if I’m supporting Jonathan, I’m not against anybody.

So, you would rather go by the rules of the PDP constitution?

The constitution of the country allows anybody to contest election. But the constitution of the party creates room for zoning formula and has certain stipulations. It is left for the leadership of my party to come to terms with the resolution of conflicts like this. We have a Board of Trustees, we have the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party to polish the decisions of the party. The leadership directs all of us who are members and followers of  PDP.

But it seems PDP is speaking from the two sides of the mouth. The former national chairman, Ogbulafor said that zoning continues to the North but Nwodo said zoning is dumped only to say he was misquoted the next day. What is the situation really?

Please don’t drag me to a situation that I will criticise the leadership of my party. Whatever Ogbulafor has said or whatever Nwodo has said and the retraction of what they have said  belongs to them. It is left for you as a journalist to study what they have said and not for me to pass a judgement on the highly esteemed leaders of my party.

What’s your view on  former leaders planning to come back to rule again instead of encouraging the younger generation to vie for positions of leadership?

People don’t encourage people to get power. People ask for power. We are in a democracy. You work within it and get power. You don’t tell an old man to go and persuade his son to go and claim power. It is left for my son to work within the rules of my family.

As long as I’m alive, I want leadership of my family. I want you to know that all over the world, people come and go, leaders come and go. It is the problems of a society at a particular point in time that will necessitate whether those who have been there before can come back or not. As long as there is nothing in the constitution that says that those who have led the country should not come back to vie for power again, I see no problem.

To be more precise, I’m talking about people like Atiku abubakar who has been there, Generals Babangida and Buhari. Some people are throwing sour grapes at the generals saying they should give way. What do you think sir?

I don’t see anything that will stop any of these people you have mentioned from contesting elections. But it is left for you as a party member not to vote for them in the primaries. It is left for you as a voter not to vote them in during the elections. But you cannot stop them from aspiring to be whatever they want to be.

There have been arguments for and against postponement of elections to enable the new INEC be properly prepared  to conduct elections. Is this postponement necessary?

I don’t think that we should extend elections or swearing in of newly elected leaders beyond the stipulated tenure or date in the constitution.The constitution clearly stipulates how the elections will take place and when. There is nothing on the ground that will justify the postponement of any election. We should follow the constitution of Nigeria in our conduct of elections. As at now, the newly  amended constitution has not taken effect and has not become law.

We are still using the 1999 constitution. We should not encourage that debate for postponement; the international community should understand this. We should go by our constitution and discourage the people spearheading this campaign.

Are you IBB’s boy?

How can a man of almost 70 years be called a boy? IBB and I are the same age. So, how can I be a boy of my age mate? It’s just like somebody calling you a girl of your school mate. It’s not fair. If you want to ask me questions on IBB, go straight to the point.