By Gbenga Oke
He is very fluent and speaks straight to the point on any issue that has to do with Rivers State. The passion with which he speaks is unmatched. Dr. Abiye Samuel Precious Sekibo, former SSG Rivers State (1999-2003) and former Transport Minister (2003-2007) is the governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the April 2011 election in Rivers State. He spoke to a select group of journalists in Abuja recently on Rivers politics, his ambition, chances and the way forward for the state. Excerpts:

Let’s review the process that led to your emergence as the ACN Rivers State guber candidate. Your major opponent, Dr. Abel Tariah is not satisfied with the processes, what are you doing to bring him and others back to the ACN fold?

I and Dr. Abel Tariah have met a couple of times since the conclusion of the primaries. He expressed his misgivings about a few things that happened in some places during the primaries, but he also agreed with me that they were not serious enough to nullify the results that were subsequently announced. Both of us are in touch and we are working together. He is a very senior, responsible member of our party. He is our leader in the party and it is my intention to work with him to ensure that ACN occupies the Brick House of Rivers State.

I also want to reach out, by extension to all those who feel aggrieved in one way or the other, to please come let’s work together because the issue on the table is beyond Dr. Abiye Sekibo. We are talking about the future of the people of Rivers, their children, grandchildren and generations yet unborn; ensuring that the foundation our fathers in Rivers State laid for us can be properly built upon. This is why I want to ask all those who feel aggrieved in one way or the other to come let’s reason together.

You have been a major critic of Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s governance and for this reason you have come out to run for the governorship. How do you intend to realise your ambition and programmes?

First, we want to bring governance back to the grassroots. Unfortunately for us, we have what we call a three_tier system of government. This means there is no foundation and that is really embarrassing. Why do I say so? You have government at the federal, state and local government levels but there is no governance going on at all in the communities and villages – that is a major problem – that is why we are grossly unable to develop as a nation. What we ought to do in Rivers is to bring governance down to the village and hamlet levels, so that we can say, “in village A of 200 people, governance is going on”.

When this is done we can build on what (Melford) Okilo started: decentralization of government through dissolution of power, bringing the power closer to the people. For instance, if you go to a place like Green Tiwoma, you will know that there is governance there. There must be a government structure in Green Tiwoma that takes care of the substantial needs of the people. Even if a hamlet has 50 people,
there should be some presence of government there. What the ACN hopes to do in Rivers, if voted into power, is to take the government down to the people at the grassroots, so that there is participation.

Every community Development Committee of every community in Rivers will have a direct input into how their community is run. When we aggregate this governance at the grassroots level, we then bring it to the ward level. We aggregate it at this point, then bring it to the local government level, then the state and up to the federal that is the kind of governance we want to institute in Rivers State and when we do that, all these issues of complaints and communal problems will come to an end, because we will be in touch with every single community be it a community of 50,000 or 20 people. Once there is a community, we will reach to them.

Most importantly, at the elite governance level, we will run an all_inclusive government. That is the most important thing. Nobody will be excluded from governance because the governor does not like his face. That is not what our constitution tells us and that is not right by the faith we profess as Christians. If someone criticizes you or doesn’t agree with you, he or she must be destroyed – that is what obtains in governance of Rivers State today. That is governance by vendetta and it is not the example we want to set for our children.

When the FG says, “We’re giving amnesty to militants,” the state government says, “No, we don’t recognize FG amnesty. I have no militants, just criminals so…” How did the FG discover them and give them amnesty in our state, while you, who claim to be the governor, is unaware? In other words, what the FG saw you didn’t see. That is no governance. Those are the things we want to do, to run an all-inclusive government, find out why people are unhappy and when you are wrong, stan
d to be corrected.

We hear you want to focus on the communal governance. How do you intend to go about it?

Exactly! We need to get back to the people because when there is dissociation between both levels of government and the people in the various hamlets, fishing ports, communities, etc; there is a problem. This is what we preach – government for the people.

Your views counter government’s statement through adverts as regards the wonderful things the governor is doing in Rivers State.

We say things the way they are. The people of Rivers who reside within know the truth. First, 90 per cent of all the projects he started are still uncompleted, three years going on. In these three years, the state has received from the federal allocation over N1tr. The recent white elephant project going on now called the mono_rail. We had the old UNIPORT Technology Hospital with everything complete, but the governor went in there and demolished the hospital with the story that he wanted to build another hospital therein.

Grasses have overtaken that place and till this day, the billions of naira sunk into the UPTH are no more. What that place would have added to our city in terms of helping out has been lost. The lives that would have been saved by that once functioning hospital have been lost forever.  You talked about the mono-rail. As a former minister of Transport, what do you have against the project?

First of all, mono_rail technology is overly expensive to build and maintain. The cost is not one that third world countries can afford. The rest of the world is running away from mono-rail to the light-rail system (which can easily run on existing rails and mass transit system along with the cars.)

I agree that there is a need for re-touching the transport system of Rivers State – absolutely – but we need professional planners to sit down and do what need to be done by getting people’s input.

What do you make of the arms importation  allegation against you?

I have heard that several times, it didn’t begin today. Since this government came to power, they have tried to hang some thing on my neck. I have never in my life been involved in importation of arms in whatever for, legal or illegal.Don’t forget that this is the same way through which they brought the Kayode Esho panel and tried to pay people to come testify at the panel and make all sorts of wild, unimaginable allegations against me.

Look, I was secretary to the Rivers State Government from 1999-2003 under Dr. Peter Odili and I can boldly say that those four years were the best years of Dr. Odili’s eight-year reign as governor of Rivers State. By his second term, I was no longer on the scene (by then I was Minister of Transport and was more in Abuja).

The evil that befell our people, the militancy, cultism, all those killings of that period – must fall squarely on the shoulders of all those in government at that time (whether as lawmakers, commissioners or in any other capacity) who sat there, saw these things happenings but never joined the governor in condemning them, never said a word, moved or table a motion in the state Assembly to condemn what was going on.

Likewise, those who today run the government of Rivers must be held accountable for what it has become. They must not shift the blame. In the past they have tended to shift the blame (just like they did with the Kayode Esho panel, shifting blame away from themselves). How can you accuse the man who was absent during the fight that he is the one fighting.