Prince Collins Eselemo, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is also the grand patron of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), founder of the Warri National Congress (WNC), president-general of the Coastal Mandate and scion of the Eselemo Dynasty, Delta State. In this interview, the Ijaw-born Warri Boy speaks on the politics of Delta State, peace in Warri and unity between the Ijaw and Itsekiri. Excerpts:

By Chancel Bomadi Sunday

How is your party, the APC, faring as the main opposition party in Delta State?

Frankly speaking, our party the APC, is not well-organized in the state. Conventionally, when a governorship candidate of a party is coming from a particular senatorial district, it’s expected that the state party chairman should come from another senatorial district for the purpose of equity and inclusion in diversity. But, that’s not the case in Delta State. In the 2023 general elections when Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege was the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Sobotie, who is from the same Delta Central Senatorial District, was the party chairman, and who remains the chairman until now. Now, Ovedje Ogboru and Omo-Agege are coming out for the governorship of the party; how do you reconcile that? How do you get equity and inclusion in the party? What are you telling the Ijaw people in the party? What are you telling the Itsekiri people? What are you telling the Oshimili and Ndokwa people? Take for instance, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo’s presentation on Ogboru does not speak well about unity of the party. The presentation was a vehicle for further disunity among party members. In fact, I regretted the confrontation I had with my uncle, Chief Broderick Bozimo, over the 2023 governorship tussle between the Ijaw and Urhobo ethnic groups. I went against my uncle who was advocating and canvassing for Ijaw candidacy in the ruling PDP, while I countered his position using the full media in support of Urhobo candidacy, which was against the wish of the Ijaw and by the grace of God I won. More so, all political parties fielded Urhobo candidates as party flag bearers as a result. But, look at my regret, Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori is not performing and my party has remained an Urhobo APC. The party leadership should do the needful by restructuring the party without further delay.

As a Deltan you can see the ongoing beautiful works of Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori in the state, ongoing flyover bridges and road projects; what’s your view on the governor’s strides, as even opponents sometimes give accolades on good deeds of their rivals?

Let me key into that your nomenclature, “beautiful” and go further to substantiate in a more inclusive manner to describe the so-called infrastructural development of Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori. I think for want of proper definition, I will rather go by this way, ‘Gov. Sheriff’s government of beautiful irrelevances’.

Cuts in…How do you mean?

What I mean is simple; when you do things without being grounded on the legitimate content of what you are trying to do, it goes to show that you are not conversant with some legal intricacies that will enhance your government, to enable your government acquire a phenomenon that reconciles government efficiency and legitimacy. The authority that we have given the government through our ballots and our freedom are the four reconcilable democratic tendencies expected of a governor. Having not being able to achieve that amounts to a ‘government of beautiful irrelevances’.

Why can’t the opposition APC in the state, for once, appreciate genuine development effort of the ruling party, as it’s done in advance democracies?

Let me take it on these four pillars of democracy that the PDP-led state government is not being able to define or reconcile to better the lives of Deltans: 1. Legitimacy: The property on which these so-called omnibus flyovers that are being spoken of all over the place are built is not Delta State property. There is a Supreme Court position that tells Nigerians that any property, structure, edifice that is built on a land that does not belong to you belongs to the owner of that land. For want of ownership, the state government has a shortfall of the fact that it is not conversant with some of these legal intricacies, and I think I can apportion the blame predominantly to the Attorney-general of the state. That property in question is a property that was acquired by the Federal Government before the Land Use Decree was promulgated. The NNPC and NPA Warri were established and built in 1978, what that means is that, the Federal Government had acquired this land on which these Federal Government properties were built upon.

For instance, NPA Warri was acquired and compensation paid to Ogbuwangwe and Ogbe-Ijoh communities, the Army Barracks, the Navy Barracks, the Ekpan Police Barracks and the Ekpan Police Station, compensations were paid by the Federal Government to families from these communities in Uvwie local government area. The said land stretches from the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to Delta Steel Company (DSC), from a waterfront to another waterfront in kilometres of a stretch of road. That’s why you see the Federal Government property such as the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Conference Centre, PTI School Campus on the stretch. Now, the property surveyed and Environmental Assessment was properly done, started by General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) down to the General Olusegun Obasanjo-led military administration when the Land Use Decree was promulgated in 1978/79.

Having known this, you went ahead and insisted on that adventure to show showmanship with your beautiful irrelevances, putting up three flyovers from Effurun Roundabout to DSC Roundabout, which is a span of one kilometre, it’s unheard of. Worst of all, you are taking a flyover by the Ring Road that reduces traffic, it had never happened anywhere in the world. It can only go on a Ring Road then spread from the Ring Road, and that we know. Again, these bridges are built under high tension, and, of course, billions of naira already earmarked for the relocation of this high tension. These flyover bridges should be built in the Ijaw/Itsekiri populated creeks where they are needed. So, as far as I’m concerned, all that the state government has done there is biased and a showmanship of beautiful irrelevances. 2. Efficiency: There is shortfall of efficiency. By efficiency I mean when you do something that is efficient, it is projected at getting an economic advantage.

When you invest, you expect a profit and it has to fall within the limit of productivity. Now, the bridges are reducing the commercial activities of Warri metropolitan city. They are built for passengers coming from Lagos and Benin. Passengers would just fly over Uvwie in Warri and would find themselves in Patani and onward to Bayelsa and Rivers States, that’s all. The commercial activities at Effurun Roundabout are grounded. The cost of these projects is over a hundred billion, so tell me the commercial value of these bridges, I mean the dividends Deltans will reap from them? None! It’s rather than ease inter-state transport and which of course means there will be no toll gate for the state government to get some proceeds because the state is not the owner of the road on which these flyovers are built. The state government cannot commercialize the bridges because a similar situation happened in Lagos State when our President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the governor there. As governor he expanded the Lekki road and started collecting toll on the road when he was sued and the toll was stopped because it’s federal government road. 3. Our Mandate: The authority we have given to the government as Deltans is betrayed for misappropriating the state fund. Our mandate has been betrayed for misappropriating the state funds on irrelevant projects, spending billions to ease traffic. If the government had built pedestrian bridges to ease traffic on the said locations, one will understand. But spending over one hundred billion to ease traffic amounts to misappropriation and a waste of the state resources, which is a betrayal of the people’s mandate. The projects have only social value and not economic value and are counter-productive to the PDP campaign promises. So, I advise Gov. Oborevwori not to run a government of showmanship that is being orchestrated by political cumbours. The only thing the government would have done was to expand the road and construct a circular roundabout, which was the original plan of the federal government because the property belongs to it.

But, don’t you think the state government must have entered into an understanding with the Federal Government before embarking on these projects?

If that was done, it has to be approved by the state House of Assembly before signing the contract with Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. There was no such approval from the State Assembly.

What are your considerations when talking about the Itsekiri/Ijaw areas in the creeks being the suitable place for these infrastructures?

See, there is something very mystic about these two ethnic groups and their geographical location, something mystic that is causing a perpetual divorce in the relationship between Itsekiri and Ijaw people and which had hampered the development of their God-given terrain. I can tell you straight away that the marriage between Itsekiri and Ijaw will overwhelm any interest of any ethnic group in this country. More so, it will intimidate any tribe because God has domiciled these two tribes in a geographical expression that has a common ecology, common resources and almost common cultures. The Itsekiri and the Ijaws are so located by God Almighty in such away that they do not need any other people to go into a local or international business relations.

The shores and the terminals of this country are occupied by these people in the east and the west, as far as to Akwa-Ibom and Ondo States. In fact, it’s a dangerous grace that these two ethnic groups are endowed with by the Almighty God. But, there are some external forces that are trying hard to draw a line of disparity between the two tribes so that they can make do with their God-given resources, I think that should stop. Itsekiri/Ijaw produce more to our GDP or internal revenue, yet they suffer more. Ijaw and Itsekiri should unite and work on a common goal of developing their terrain. This is a wake call and I urge them not slumber any anymore. The government should do the needful by developing this part of the state. That was the more reason I praised and hailed the Olu of Warri when he tasked his elite subjects to go to the creeks and develop their villages, which is very, very fundamental. I was forced to establish an NGO known as the Warri National Congress, WNC, during the time of the Warri Crisis. The WNC was peopled by the Itsekiris, Urhobos and the Ijaws and we made sure we had a declaration over the crisis. A conference was convened which was chaired by the late Vice President of this country, Dr Alex Ekwueme. The conference was held at Akenjuwa Hall in Benin City and we made the Warri Declaration and protested round the nook and cranny of Warri, shouting peace, propagating peace and promoting peace. I, Tony Press and the late Okiemute Odje were in the forefront. Tony Press is an Itsekiri, Okiemute Odje an Urhobo and my very self an Ijaw. It did not stop there, the now Justice Oritsejafor and Moses Odibo were part of it, and others who had so much interest in the peace movement and we got the relative peace that we’re enjoying right now. As far as I’m concerned, as a Warri boy who happens to be an Ijaw man, you identify yourself as a true Wafferian and not as an Urhobo, Itsekiri or Ijaw.

When you talk about marriage between Itsekiri and Ijaw, how do mean? Marriage in what form?

What’s your perception of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government?

The government of President Tinubu is doing very good and I commend the president for his economic policies. President Tinubu has started restructuring Nigeria with his reforms. The restructuring Nigerians have been yearning for over the years has started already, which past administrations spent billions of naira organizing Constitutional Conferences but could not achieve it. The tax reforms, which are re-arranging VAT, are a nomenclature for restructuring, and you know it’s only 20% that is going to the centre, thus demystifying the centre. I want to state here that my performing heroes in the politics, which is based on their antecedents, are President Tinubu, Nuhu Ribadu, Nyesom Wike, Sen. Godswill Akpabio and the Minister of Works, David Umahi. We, the Coastal Mandate, will always defend these people against vengeful critics.