By Tunde Oso

Olise Imegwu, former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly and a founding member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, recently defected from the umbrella party to the All Progressives Congress, APC. In this interview, the Ndokwa East Delta State-born politician explains the crisis in the Delta State Chapter of the PDP, which led to his defection, and maintained it’s up to Nigerians to make the 2023 poll is credible. Excerpts:

Assess INEC’s preparations towards a free and fair elections?

So far, so good. However, it is up to Nigerians to ensure that the 2023 election is credible. The voters should shun money and vote credible candidates into office. INEC should do it transparently and be truly independent. Law enforcement agencies must not allow themselves to be used for purposes other than maintaining law and order. The Judiciary must place justice over and above monetary considerations. The political Parties and their candidates must not engage in violence, thuggery and vote buying.

As a pioneer member of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, why did you exit the umbrella party?

It is true that I was a pioneer member alongside Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Chief James Ibori, our leader at the time, Prof. Samuel Oyebvaire, Senator James Manager and Peter Nwaoboshi, Chief Humphrey Iweriebor, Chief Mrs. Nkem Okwuofu, to mention a few. From P.T.I to Palmgrove Hotel, Warri, we assembled as National Conveners to form the first PDP State Executive Committee where Senators James Manager and Nwaoboshi emerged as Chairman and Secretary, respectively. Since then it has been hope, patience, disappointments, perseverance and betrayal…I was elected and 12 years in office as a state legislator and Speaker.

I was suspended for 3 months for leading my people on a protest against our neglect and marginalization and also removed from office as a Speaker in the strangest manner. Things got to a head when I was to seek the mandate of my Federal Constituency to represent them in the House of Representatives. At the primary election at Ogume in Ndokwa West LGA, I noticed that it has been rigged before it began, I left with my supporters and joined the Democratic People’s Party (DPP). In the general election that followed, I won and was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives.

My stay there was short-lived when the PDP elements got me removed through the court. The PDP State Executive Committee, led by Sen. Peter Nwaoboshi, pleaded that I return to the party and promised to give me my place in the party. Since then it has been from one victimisation to the other to the point that an order from the above stripped me of my position as a leader in my ward and no longer invited to ward leadership meetings.

At what point did you deem it plausible to defect to the APC?

At this point, I decided that since an order from the above has so ostracised me, a one-time founding father of PDP in the state, a State Caucus member, a former Speaker and House of Representatives member, it was time to take another pathway to actualise my vision for my people. My letter of resignation is a synopsis of this condition.

Is the umbrella party still what the founding fathers envisaged?

PDP is not what it used to be when I first joined it in 1998/99. At the time, competence, objectivity, pragmatic representation were its centerpiece. However, nowadays, what matters now is blind loyalty, cult-like type. Pragmatic representation and policy adventurism are replaced by the almighty order from the above even to the detriment of your conscience, the party, your people, clan, community and state. My bad experiences as stated above, particularly as synthesized in my resignation letter, is a proof.

Why do you choose APC?

Why not APC? My choice of APC was fuelled by their proven show of interests and concerns for my people in Ndokwa, particularly Ndokwa East LGA. For example, the Aboh Polytechnic approved, awarded and built to lintel level was abandoned by the current PDP government with the excuse of lack of funds. Meanwhile, only recently the government approved and established 3 universities at Owa Elero, Ika North East, Ozoro, Isoko North and Asaba, Oshimili South LGAs. But an APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari got the bill for the Federal University of Agriculture and Technology passed in both Houses of the National Assembly and awaiting the President’s signature.

DSP Senators Ovie Omogege and Peter Nwaoboshi, in this respect, have discharged their duties as lawmakers and that is a sign and proof that if given the opportunity to take over power in Delta State, the party will continue from where it stopped with the said university and do more. What else do I need than having my Ndokwa in the global map of nations with tertiary institutions on their soil? Politics is a game of interests, and here my interest is that of the masses of Ndokwa people.

Explain the difference between APC and others?

One major difference and an overriding one for that matter is their belief and commitment to the principle of representational equity/justice and the willingness to bring developmental programmes to communities, even in non-APC states, who are neglected and marginalized.

What values are you bringing to your new party, the APC?

As an American-trained democrat, I will bring the values of purposeful representation, pragmatic representation and people-centered activism to the front and center stage of the authorities in government.

What hope do you have in your new party?
Hope is eternal, we must keep it alive. Human beings as you know are very subjective and indeterminate. God is above.

Assess the present administration as it concerns the yearnings of Ndokwa people?
It depends on who you ask. To be fair and do justice to the question, I will confine my answer to Ndokwa East LGA. The LGA is the largest oil producing area in Delta North, in relative terms not much or do I say no major project was embarked upon or completed in the LGA when compared to other areas as Ika North East, Oshimili South, Aniocha North, non-oil producing LGAs as officially known on DPR records. To answer your question as it relates to Ndokwa East LGA and by extension Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal Constituency.

Do you think PDP will miss you?

Except the party leaders begin urgently to have a radical change from their docility and slave mentality. Their blind, foolish and cult-like loyalty has turned them into ward-lords rather than Ndokwa, state and national leaders. Ndokwa leaders, who are supposed to be the drivers to rescue her people from marginalization by successive administration have allowed themselves to be reduced to ward level leadership to the point that you can’t find one that can speak for his LGA talk less of speaking for Ndokwa as a whole. They are captives to ward contracts, Ward political and delegates’ appointments, Ward exco officers, worst still captive to the order from the above even at the detriment of their people.

Hope for better Ndokwa can only come if these can muster the courage and take advantage of the prevailing political culture in Nigeria and move enmasse to APC to seek a better future for her people.