By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor, Dapo Akinrefon, Charles Kumolu & Gbenga Oke

…Says he’ll radicalise the Senate
Barrister Festus Keyamo, lawyer, activist and human rights crusader has come of age since 1992 when he burst into national consciousness as a baby lawyer from the tested and tried temple of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Since then he has trudged on the path of legal advocacy willy-nilly turning into one of the nation’s leading references in jurisprudence.

His landmark case on the capacity of the president to unilaterally appoint service chiefs is the latest in his court room victories that include the conviction of Chief Bode George, successful defence of Chief Ralph Uwazurike of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, the late Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, Chief Frank Kokori, Chief Moshood Abiola among others.

Keyamo who  recently ventured into the political fray in his native Delta State with an aspiration to contest the Delta Central senatorial seat made vacant by the death of Senator Pius Ewherido was in Vanguard Corporate headquarters in Lagos to ventilate his latest political notes. He spoke on issues concerning Delta and his senatorial bid to the crew of Vanguard Political Desk. Excerpts:

You were aspiring to be the next governor of Delta State. Have you changed course?

Well, it is not true that I changed course. I was aspiring to be governor of Delta State in 2015. We are not yet in 2015. So it is yet to be seen whether I have abandoned the project or not, it is just that this is 2013 and there is a vacancy now resulting out of the unfortunate demise of our able representative, Senator Pius Ewherido.

Keyamo

We all felt the loss and the pain of his passing, but there is a vacancy to be filled by that untimely death and it would afford me an opportunity to show my people my mettle in public office because one criticism against me has been perhaps I have not tried my hands in public office.

The criticism has always been that I have done so well in my private practice and private life, but I have not tried my hands in public office. So, it will afford me an opportunity just how much I can represent my people in public office. It is at that point that they will now decide whether I should go further and run for the governorship in 2015 or not. But I can tell you that we have never thought of dropping the ambition.

So will the people of Delta Central not be short changed by the fact that you would be using the Senate as a platform to actualise your governorship ambition?

Every public officer that does well is encouraged by the people to go further. We are saying that if you do well as a senator, people will encourage you to go further. In fact, we are not saying that once you are a senator, you must run for governor, we are only saying that this is an examination for you to write. What presents itself now is an examination for me to write.

So why have you decided to contest for the Delta Central Senatorial seat?
You can see that of all the aspirants, I am the only one that has brought out a comprehensive seven page memo as to why I want to run. There is nobody who has sat down to write anything like that. Others have done media interviews but nobody has sat down to produce a memo. I have done so. In that memo, I have outlined what I can do within the shortest space of time.

If you ask anybody who is educated in Delta Central or anybody who is even half educated in Delta central, I am not saying this because I am sitting down here, they will all tell you that of all the aspirants, none of them in terms of qualification, in terms of suitability for the job of senator, comes one mile near me.

And one is saying that with a lot of respect to the other aspirants because they have done well in their various fields. If we were not running for public office, we will all be proud of ourselves as kith and kin. So, we have all done well, we are eminent sons of Urhobo land, we are only looking for the person who is best suited. We are not trying to denigrate other people but the problem is that in this case, they will all agree, like I told you that none of them comes one mile near my achievements.

But are you not worried that state apparatus and resources could be used to back the PDP candidate?

If you see the pattern of politics in Delta Central, you will know that the era of money politics is gone. At the last election, even the one that Pius won, if you know the amount of money PDP deployed to Delta Central, if you are from Delta Central, you will know what I am talking about. In Ughelli alone, they pumped so much money and the PDP did not even get one third of the votes in Ughelli North.

But the opposition in Delta Central is divided now?
Without meaning to denigrate other people, I know about the APC and I know the party is the coalition of all opposition forces in the country now. So if you are in the opposition and you want to be a serious opposition, if you are not in APC, then you are unserious because all other parties who claim to be opposition are working for the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP).

Keyamo

That is truth of the matter. Labour Party is working for the PDP without denigrating them and other parties. They are working for the PDP. So if you want to be serious opposition now in this country, it is either you are in APC or you are in your house.

Have you heard in recent times that somebody from APC defected to another opposition party? But various prominent Deltans without mentioning names have been defecting from PDP and DPP to the APC, that is where everybody is coming to now.

Before the emergence of late Senator Pius Ewherido, Chief Great Ogboru was the uniting force in Delta Central and Delta State in general and he still remains in DPP, are you discounting his factor?

He is my big brother and I respect him very much. Apart from being my senior in Government College, Ughelli, he is also a big brother to me right now. So we give him all the respect and all the praise for what he has done in the past. However, in the dynamics of the struggle, there are times you may have to adopt a different strategy in going forward because if you do things same way over and over again and you expect change, it will not come.

So going forward now, if you ask the views of most Deltans now, they know they have to adopt a different strategy in moving forward to fight the PDP. If you talk of Great Ogboru, he was working within the DPP as a structure but when you talk of Ogboru as a human being, it was not that people were following him blindly, he was working within the structure that most people and elders supported in Delta Central and we acknowledge that and I can tell you that most of those elders are now in APC. So I will say my brother Ogboru should re-assess his position.

Considering Senator Pius Ewherido’s blue-print, what do you think he was able to achieve and what do you think you intend to achieve as a Senator?

Well, I have a blue-print of what I intend to achieve within the shortest time. First, the issue of consumer protection is very dear to my heart. We have inadequate laws to protect the consumers and I have said that is one thing I will push seriously in the Senate.

It is something that is very close to Unfair Contract Terms Act of 1977 in England. I want to bring it to this country because this happens everyday in Nigeria where people open drinks and see sediments inside, people buy products that give them runny stomach, there are all kinds of things going on now. I am very keen about the collapse of the Delta Steel Company in Aladja because the number of jobs that company can provide for the youths of Delta state is enormous.