A former deputy governor of Benue State, Chief Stephen Lawani, is one of those eyeing the senatorial seat in Benue South. In this interview, Lawani speaks on the defection of Governor Samuel Ortom from the APC to the PDP, saying that the governor’s alleged failure to meet the expectations of the people of the state in terms of infrastructural development pitched him against the leadership of the APC.

Excerpts:

Lawani

Governor Samuel Ortom just defected to the PDP from your party. How does this development affect your party in the state?

It will not affect our party because APC is deeply rooted in Benue without Ortom. In fact, it was because Ortom knew that we are not satisfied with the way he is running the state and may not get a second term that forced him out of the party. So we are not bothered. President Buhari will win in Benue and APC will retain the governorship after the 2019 general elections. Ortom or no Ortom cannot stop our victory. If you observe, all those defecting are doing so because they lost out in the politics of their various states and it is not different from Benue. Let me also say that the issue of people wanting to defect is a natural thing in politics. People come there with expectations and, when they don’t get what they want, they tend to leave.

Not everybody comes into politics to serve the people, many come for selfish interest and that is what is playing out now. Most of them are complaining because what they expected did not come and, to me, service to the people should be our primary aim. But I am happy this is coming at a time we have Comrade Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the party. This is a wise choice because I know Oshiomhole very well; when he was governor of Edo, I was deputy governor of Benue and I enjoyed working with him then. His wonderful contributions in the National Executive Council meetings and how he turned Edo around made him the best choice for this job. So I strongly believe he will do a wonderful job which he has started by winning Ekiti which was his first election. So I have no doubt that Oshiomhole will quell all the rebellion in the party and lead the party to victory in 2019.

Are you saying that implosion in APC will not affect the chances of President Buhari?

My position is that everything possible should be done to prevent the implosion as Oshiomhole is working hard to do. But, again, you can take a horse to the stream but you cannot force it to drink water. I support the effort being made by our National Chairman and President Buhari to stop people from defecting. I am happy that the leadership of the party is listening to their grievances and working hard to find solution. But, at the end of the day, some will stay while some will leave. It is unfortunate that these things are coming up now but I can tell you categorically that President Buhari will be re-elected. Never mind all the nonsense you read in the social media and most of the people on social media don’t even have voter cards. So we have no fear over Buhari’s re-election. As a person, not even the party, Buhari has over 10million votes. Then when you talk about party members who definitely will vote for their party, it will be over 15million votes and when you add everything together nobody can defeat him. What we are experiencing now as crisis is an attempt by some people to gain relevance in the system and to get better negotiation. But not as if it will affect the re-election of President Buhari.

And the killings in Benue will not affect the APC?

They are various explanations that have been given about the happenings in Benue, Taraba, Zamfara and Plateau. But these killings did not start under Buhari, it has been there even when Jonathan was President. I think the problem only increased and if not for the proactive actions of this President, things would have been worse. Let me also state that the killings are not the creation of the Federal Government. If you know how herdsmen behave, they are unforgiving and, when you hurt them ten years ago, they always come for revenge. Apart from that, we have discovered that there are criminal elements among them posing as herdsmen are perpetrating this evil. Intelligence is showing that people who feel that the anti-corruption war of the Federal Government is hitting them hard are fighting back using this criminal means to destroy the name of this administration. These politicians are sponsoring these killings but that is why we are appealing to security agencies to fish them out.

The opposition is sponsoring mayhem against this government. But I hope that the strategies being deployed by the Buhari administration to check the excesses of these miscreants will stop these killings. It is not true that the killings in Benue will affect the chances of the APC in Benue. That fear is coming from those who are not in the state that do not know what is happening. What happened was painful but we will explain to the people during our campaigns and they will understand when we tell them the truth. That will not be a problem because our people know those who are sincere in working for the people and the pretenders and I can tell you they will not vote on lies being told on social media.

Why do you want to go to the Senate?

This game of politics is service to the people. I was deputy governor but my boss former governor, Gabriel Suswan, had my ears, so I was able to serve my people very well. When I was deputy governor, I attracted roads to my area, gave the town a new look, water was provided. I did a good number of things not only in Oturkpo but other local government areas in my zone. And our people do not forget easily and that is why I am optimistic that they will remember what I did and give me the opportunity to service them again. I want to go there to serve my people. I contested in 1997 and won. Having served as deputy governor for eight years, I feel I should run for the Senate. So I am in the race and I believe that I will get the blessing of my party and fly their flag and deliver victory for the APC.

PDP is regrouping to take over power from the APC, do you have fears?

PDP lacks the capacity to win the 2019 general elections. How many states do they have? APC has 23 states and with the victory in Ekiti it is now 24. So even if one or two governors defect, APC will still be left with 23 states. So we have nothing to fear about, PDP will have to wait for another twenty years, not 2019.

You were a sportsman

I was a sportsman. I played for Nigeria under 23, then we called it academic football and also played cricket at the national level. I played in the Principals’ Cup. I participated in the West African University Games. But now I am getting old, so I concentrate on table tennis. I am also a supporter of the Nigeria Football team; in fact was supposed to be in Moscow for the World Cup to support our team but due to politics at home I was not able to make it.