BY OLALEKAN BILESANMI

Chief Tom Ikimi has seen it all in Nigeria’s politics since the short lived third republic when he was the National Chairman of the National Republic Convention.  Since the current political dispensation started in 1999, he has traversed all the major parties in the country  including the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).  Today, he is a leader of the PDP.  Ikimi, in this interview, speaks on the September 28 poll in Edo State.

Let us know why this election  in Edo State is the fiercest and  most politically heated since your very first such governorship contest in 1992 as National Chairman of the National Republican Convention, NRC. Why are the stakes for you suddenly higher? 

My dream of Nigerian  as a nation that is politically guided by a structure founded on two balanced political parties which provide viable alternative choices for our people has been partially fulfilled by the existence today of the PDP and the APC. I am proud to have played very prominent and historical roles in both parties. It was a very exciting experience for me to be the first elected National Chairman of the National Republican Convention, NRC, in 1990 -1992, during that very successful experiment of a two-party system in our country. Although  I was National Chairman and Edo , my home state, I did not pay any particular attention to the governorship election in the state, both in the party primaries as well as in the election itself. I considered the whole country to be my constituency and I was eventually very proud of our achievement when, in the overall outcome of the general elections, the NRC won 16 governorship out of the 30 states in the country at the time.

Throughout my tenure, I maintained a very healthy and cordial relationship with Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, my counterpart in the rival Social Democratic Party, SDP. I travelled the length and breadth of Nigeria freely, happily and unmolested. Unfortunately that innovative system came to an abrupt end. With the return of democratic dispensation in 1999,   the PDP won the governorship of Edo State. That lasted eight years, followed by another brief period  of just over a year.  My membership of the PDP at the time was short-lived   – from 2002 to sometime in 2005. I became increasingly uncomfortable with the way an ideologically fundamental core was being insinuated into the party’s operations, as though the PDP   was the sole party of Nigeria.

A democracy must permit an alternative party. My political quest became an earnest search for an alternative to the PDP in our infant democracy. I was, therefore, one of the two persons fundamentally responsible for the creation of the Action Congress (AC) which in 2007 admitted Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as a member and eventually the party’s governorship candidate. Everything happened virtually at the very last minute, preceding the governorship election of that year.     My colleagues and I fought a titanic battle to secure victory for the Action Congress and install Adams Oshiomhole as governor. Our team in that struggle was a formidable political family. We are still very much together today. One of the stars of the team is Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

Tell us what the critical issues are in the   election. Many say you have been a leader in both parties, the APC and the PDP at the national and state levels. Is this all about the political pride and ego of Ikimi and Oshiomhole?

Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has been in politics for about eight years altogether, which covers the whole period of his governorship. I have been in full-time  national politics at the highest levels, non- stop, for about 28 years now.  There is a vast difference  between the two of us. It is true that I have been a leader of both the PDP and the APC. In 2012, we successfully installed Oshiomhole for a second term. A critical issue in this election is to prevent a de facto third term governorship by Adams Oshiomhole through the back door.  We want a state in which all the three senatorial zones operate in harmony and have a  sense of belonging.

Some analysts say you want to end your active political career on a high note by ensuring  victory for your party at this governorship election after which you will bow out a satisfied politician and successful architect of immeasurable repute and fame. Any truth in this?

A victory by the PDP and the installation of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as the next governor of Edo will be the best thing to happen at this time for the state, the   South-South geo-political zone and indeed the whole country. Edo will breathe a  fresh air and embrace a new lease of life.  Edo people need to regain their position of excellence in so many spheres once again.

Among the lot of governorship candidates, only Pastor Ize-Iyamu has an agenda of reasoned policies. Virtually  all the notable political leaders and respected national elder statesmen of Edo State are in the PDP.   They are all in full support of our candidate. The victory will be a high note success for all of them in their political careers. With the entry of Pastor Osagie Ize- Iyamu and with the support of all our leaders we look forward to the restoration of Edo in sports once again. I thank God for preserving my life with His blessings of good health and physical strength. I do not intend to end my contributions of serving the nation and particularly Edo, the birth place of my ancestors. I am in fact energized by the warmth of reception accorded me   at various locations during this campaign.

You have been quoted as saying the result of the September 28 election in Edo  will shock Oshiomhole and his APC. What makes you so sure?

Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, I believe, is quite aware of how he got into power in 2007/8 and how he got re-elected  in 2012. Oshiomhole has no idea of how Etsako West,  his LGA, was created.   His  insulting of elders has not gone down well with the general public who are determined to pay him back on election day.

Your senatorial zone, Edo Central, allegedly suffered very serious neglect by the present government in the distribution of infrastructural and other development projects in the state. Has this influenced your current hardline position against Oshiomhole and the APC? 

Let me tell you my vision of Edo land. I see it as a homogeneous family in which we all should share and share alike. In 2007, I enthusiastically supported the zoning of the governorship seat to Edo North. Our reasoning was that Edo North had not been given a chance to govern the  state. Even after the election, when Professor Osariemen Osunbor from Esan land – my senatorial district of  Edo Central – was declared the winner,   I fought tooth and nail, shoulder to shoulder, along   with other colleagues, through the court process, to have Adams Oshiomhole declared the rightful winner notwithstanding his origin in Edo North.

This reasoning is in keeping with the lofty ideals of the founding fathers of Edo who wanted an ethnically homogeneous state in which the three legs of Edo North, Edo Central and Edo South  enjoy equal opportunity. We were most unlucky that in backing the outgoing governor, we chose a man who did not share our passion of homogeneity. Even so in  penalizing  Edo Central, Oshiomhole set a new standard all of  his own. The state which had always operated peacefully with the three top political positions of governor, deputy governor and Speaker rotated among the three senatorial zones  ended up through a series of manipulations, with governor in the  North and deputy governor and  Speaker to the South.  Oshiomhole soon revealed his true character of arch clannishness with an attitude that Edo Central, being the so-called least populated, could be sacrificed. Even in his senatorial district, he preferentially  favours  his local government at the expense of the other five.  The Esan people  in the five local governments  of Esan land  are not happy that they and their territory have suffered such neglect.

What would you say are the essential political advantages of Ize Iyamu over that of APC’s Godwin Obaseki. You must have some fears about your candidate, what are these? 

Ize Iyamu is a consummate politician who has endeared himself to a vast majority of the politicians in the state, and that is across both political parties. He is a qualified lawyer who has acquired good working experience in government as a former chief of staff and Secretary to Government. His  late father was a respected high chief of unblemished record in the Oba’s palace – the Esogban of Benin. Their family house, still standing, is an historic relic being the first storey-building –  Egedegenokaro – in Benin City. Ize-Iyamu, who was the Director-General of Adams Oshiomhole’s second term campaign organisation, is fully groomed, knows all the ropes and has submitted faultless documentation to INEC. Osagie Iyamu has personally led his own campaign to all the nooks and crannies of Edo and has interacted with all our peoples, big or small.

The political composition and alliances between the gladiators in Edo appear quite fluid and very mobile. At one time, it was Ogbemudia/Anenih/Igbinedion Vs Ikimi/Oshiomhole/others. Today, it is Ikimi/Igbinedion/Anenih Vs Oyegun/Oshiomhole/Ogbemudia. The question is whether the political landscape in Edo is determined by the agreements and disagreements between the personalities who constitute the leadership of the parties.

Over the past two and a half decades or so, I have related with the political leaders of our state within the framework of different circumstances and interests. These interests are sometimes influenced by leaders’ relationships in the wider national context. I have, therefore, had the privilege to work closely with most of our leaders under a variety of circumstances and at different times.

For instance, I   worked very closely with Dr Samuel Ogbemudia and Chief Gabriel Igbinedion in my days as National Chairman of the National Republican Convention. At that time, Chief Tony Anenih was in the Social Democratic Party, which eventually fielded Chief Odigie Oyegun as Edo  governorship candidate. I am aware that Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia is quietly retired now and not a member of the APC. He leads a group called EMM – Edo Mass Movement. Oshiomhole has not got the benefit of long-term relationships with any of these leaders. When I was a member of AC, ACN and APC, I was a leader in Edo. A primary issue then was to form a party that would stop the PDP becoming the sole party in Nigeria. The circumstances that connived to make Oyegun National Chairman of APC are very interesting. There were other contributing factors from outside the state.

All that was then. Today, Edo political leadership’s priority is overwhelmingly in favour of establishing harmony between the peoples of the three senatorial districts of our state.

After this hotly contested governorship election, should your candidate emerge victorious what promises, can we hold you and the PDP to?

The state will be in very safe political hands in which politicians will play their role, the executive and legislature will play their roles side by side. Ize Iyamu has campaigned round the state and every where he went he presented a document containing his agenda titled, The SIMPLE agenda.

S -Security and Social Welfare

I – Infrastructural Development

M- Manpower Development and Training

P – Public Private Partnership

L – Leadership By Example

E – Employment and Empowerment

I trust that as an astute, God-fearing politician, our candidate will keep faith with his pledge. During the Channels TV sponsored governorship debate, he made a pledge that he will restore Edo’s lost glory in sports.

What are you and other leaders of your party doing to ensure free, fair, violent free and acceptable elections? Why are there so many allegations and counter allegations of rigging and intentions to fraudulently win at all cost flying on both sides?

A free, fair and peaceful election can only be guaranteed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the security agencies comprising the police, the military, Department of State Security, DSS, and the para-military forces. INEC who had met several times with the security forces conveyed to all stakeholders that all was set to go for the election. The PDP is in the opposition and cannot influence the deployment of these forces. The PDP is set for a free, fair and peaceful election and we plead with President Muhamadu   Buhari to maintain his stance of neutrality.

Your party appears to be drifting at the national level.It is common knowledge that Sen. Alli Modu Sherrif, one of the major protagonists in the dispute at the national level, is you friend and political ally for nearly three decades now. How do you envisage that this crisis will be resolved early enough to have a united front for the 2019 national elections.

The PDP secured national power in 1999 right at the beginning of this political dispensation and held power continuously for 16 years. The loss of the presidential election in 2015 put the party into the opposition for the first time. Managing a party in opposition is much different from managing one in power. The process needed now is to cleanse the party leadership and democratically install one that is strong, dependable and capable to rebuild the party. The country is certainly now in dire need of a well structured, stable opposition party. The PDP has viable structures nationwide but  the process that brought in Ali Modu Sherrif as National Chairman was faulty. I was prepared to go along with him as National Chairman if it was for a specified brief period. I am afraid, I do not consider the actions of Ali Modu Sherrif since the first Port Harcourt Convention as the actions  of someone who has the deeper interest of the party at heart. How, for instance, could he adopt someone who participated and lost the governorship primary in Edo as candidate. All the critical structures of the party support the Caretaker Committee and I believe the matter will very soon be appropriately resolved .