By Samuel Oyadongha

CHief Fred Agbedi is the Special Adviser to the Bayelsa State governor on Political Matters. In this interview in Yenogoa, he speaks on the strides of the present administration, the electoral space in Bayelsa and agitations on the state’s most famous son, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to seek a second term in office as president of Nigeria. Excerpts:

What is your assessment of the governance in Bayelsa State in the last one year?
Well, I am in government, so it depends on where my view is coming from. But the truth of the matter is that things have been well. We are seeing great signs of development going on and of course, Bayelsans are generally happier.

What’s your reaction to the accusation by the ‘Association of Governorship Candidates’ that the governor has become inaccessible since he assumed office and breached agreements reached with them prior to the governorship election?

As the Special Adviser on Political Matters to the Governor of this state, I want to state unequivocally that it is wrong for the people to constitute themselves as a group of former governorship candidates and that government is not creating access that will make them reach the government and that agreements were reached and the governor is reneging on them.

Governor Henry Seriake Dickson

Responsible politician
I don’t think that any reasonable and responsible politician who wants to lead his people, who feels that he has the capacity to mount the office governor of a state, to fly flag of a party using it as a vehicle to reach that maximum office to rule the people of a state will say he merely mortgaged that mandate given to him by his party because of certain negotiation, certain benefits that he is supposed to get at the end of the day.

That clearly is an indication your own intention was to really not lead the people but probably to have some kind of pecuniary benefits from the side. So, what are we talking about?

A number of former governorship candidates are getting appointments in this government. They are included in governance because they are Bayelsans and this government has opened all the doors of government to all Bayelsans whether you are of PDP extraction or not.

The PDP has always been accused of lacking internal democracy as witnessed in the recent council polls with allegations of imposition of candidates in virtually all the council areas?

This is not true; there were no imposition of candidates. The PDP is the only democratic party in Nigeria. That is the truth of the matter. PDP is the only party that organises party primaries, that nominates people into party offices and electoral offices for general elections. Take for example, have you ever heard of the other parties organizing primaries? Rather they just impose candidates and sponsor them for elections.

Let us look at the three local government councils in the state (Kolokuma-Opokuma, Sagbama and Ekeremor) that had court judgment late last year, two of the chairmen, (Sagbama and Kolokuma-Opokuma) were impeached and Ekeremor spared. Some claimed the impeachment of the chairmen was orchestrated by the state government what is your take on this?

Well, first of all, it is wrong to use the word that ‘Ekeremor was spared’. Ekeremor councillors also rose against their chairman and till date, as we are talking they are in court. Clearly, government had no hand in what happened. The fact remains and we have said it severally, the chairmen who the governor mandated that should be sworn in had their own councillors at the time they claimed that they were the candidates of the party.

So, when they had the judgment and were sworn in to assume office they also wanted to bring in on board their own councillors who were in court. So, largely you see that the councillors who came against them came against them in protection of their offices and that is why they had that running battle with their own councillors. Some of them instead of managing the councillors they met, like when Seriake Dickson came in as governor and there was a house of assembly in place.

They (chairmen) came with the feeling that these (councillors) were not their people and they cannot work with them.
They want to sideline and push them out and do things in their own way. Of course, what do you expect of the councillors? They will react and that was what happened. The government had nothing to do with the impeachment saga that happened in the local government councils.

2015 is gathering momentum and different interests are aligning and realigning…

(Cuts in) Of course, 2015 will come. President Goodluck Jonathan has a right to contest the election. Nothing good comes easy, he didn’t get the first tenure on a platter of gold and we know he is not going to get the second on a platter of gold.  We worked hard to get the first tenure, whether people are ganging up against him or not, it will eventually show who takes the day and by the Grace of God we know that our President will have his eight years and then somebody else will take on from there.

Is he contesting?
He is contesting. He has to. The decision is not his personal decision. We as a people, we as Ijaw people like other people expect that we have our eight years like any other person who mount that office will want eight years. As a people, as Ijaw people, we believe we will have our eight years. We will work for it, we will talk to all the tribes, all the zones in this country to please support us and give us that second mandate.