By Lucky Oji

Mr. Michael Ejueyitsi Tidi, a Niger Delta activist of Itsekiri stock, an erstwhile candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria, acn, for the Delta State House of Assembly in 2011, and currently, member, Media/Publicity Committee of Delta State Peoples Democratic Party, pdp, Campaign Organisation, in this interview with Sunday Vanguard, speaks of his interest in the protection of itsekiri ethnic nationality, controversies surrounding his loyalty to the pdp and support for the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Mr. Michael Ejueyitsi Tidi

Excerpts

Certain people have described you as controversial in the politics of Itsekiri land and Delta State in general. What do you have to say about this?

Anyone who chooses to describe me as controversial is just playing to the gallery and being most disingenuous. How can anyone legitimately describe me as controversial? I am not controversial. I am just a young detribalized Itsekiri man who will do anything for the good and greatness of the great, noble and ancient Itsekiri race and go the extra mile in deepening inter-ethnic harmony in Warri and Delta State as a whole. If that is what amounts to being controversial, I am proud to say I am positively controversial in that case..

You have been described as being disloyal to Governor Uduaghan having once decamped from PDP. In fact, it is alleged that you had to be begged to return to the party.

Governor Uduaghan is my elder brother and I have never been disloyal to him. As they say, blood is thicker than water so it cannot be my fellow Itsekiri man that I will ever be disloyal to. I have been most unfairly treated in my own party, the PDP and to this very day, I have not been compensated by the party, by way of contracts or political appointment. I had met with His Excellency, our amiable Governor on two occasions over the past four years wherein he solemnly promised to adequately reintegrate me and my loyal supporters into the party. It is on record that I have not gotten any appointment from His Excellency. In fact, the only appointment I got was from Hon. Victor Ochei, Speaker emeritus of the Delta State House of Assembly. I ended up losing it due to the unfair resignation of Ochei and up till now, no member of the PDP can stand before me and say that His Excellency has compensated me in anyway. My return to the party was not as a result of any monetary inducement from party leaders. The fact that I remain a staunch member of the party is in fact a testament to my loyalty and discipline.

Are you therefore saying that you have not benefited anything from the Governor,contrary to rumours making the rounds?

Even His Excellency knows that I have not in any way been compensated. I won an election fair and square in Warri South Local Government Area and was duly returned the elected member of the Delta State House of Assembly, from Warri South Constituency 1, in the 2011 elections. Absolutely everyone in Warri knows this. I was most heinously rigged out of my mandate and denied the opportunity of providing my beloved constituency with the quality leadership it deserved.

Why then have you aligned your formidable structure with Omawumi Udoh of PDP?

It is most shocking to me how my beloved tribe, the Itsekiris have been treated in the present dispensation. Nevertheless, I remain a loyal party man and believe that there is still hope for us under PDP. Since Omawumi Udoh is our candidate I am willing to support her in the spirit of Itsekiri solidarity as well as party loyalty consistent with the norms of our great party, the PDP.

Your supporters in Warri and environs have of late been complaining about the selective empowerment of certain persons in Delta. What is your take on this?

Why should they not complain? A situation whereby thugs and persons of questionable character are being empowered and appointed to high offices at the expense of genuine intellectuals who have the interest of the common people at heart, do you expect people to keep quiet? I am a Master’s Degree holder and presently a PhD student at the prestigious premier University of Ibadan. Whereby, hooligans, nitwits, sycophants and bootlickers are being empowered to the detriment of genuine patriots, do you really expect the common people whose future is at stake to stay silent?

Some people have wondered why you are not supporting certain candidates they would ordinarily had expected you to align your formidable structure with.

In our tradition, it is the person who calls you a person that you equally call a person. Anyone who wants my support is free to call on me but I am certainly not going cap-in-hand from house to house like a hungry man looking for whom to support. That is certainly not the Itsekiri way and proudly Itsekiri is who I am.

Your supporters have been accused of causing a political storm in Warri insisting that if you are not the next member of the Delta State House of Assembly from Warri South Constituency 1, they will bluntly refuse to work for the PDP.

I have amicably resolved that issue with my supporters. To be fair to them, they were quite entitled to be angry in the first place. Having won the election hands down in 2011, decamped from the party and returned, natural justice, equity and good conscience should have dictated to my beloved party, the PDP that I have an incontestable right of first refusal for the ticket of Warri South Constituency 1. I deserve the PDP ticket for Warri South Constituency 1 but since my party has chosen to give it to my sister, Omawumi Udoh, I am, with all sense of political maturity, prepared to assist her in getting to the House.

What informed your decision to align your structure with that of Senator James Manager for the purpose his Senatorial election.

Like I said before, all over the Niger Delta, and perhaps everywhere else in this world for that matter, it is who calls you that you answer. It is quite painful what my beloved Itsekiris have suffered in the present dispensation. Nevertheless, those contesting against Manager, how serious are they? We do not even see them campaigning in their own constituencies. Senator Manager on his part has been campaigning in every nook and cranny of Delta South, traversing Itsekiri, Isoko, Urhobo, and his own Ijaw areas of his senatorial district, ensuring that everyone is given a sense of belonging in Delta South. If Manager is willing to treat Itsekiris as his fellow brothers and sisters, going from house to house, diligently and humbly persuading absolutely every tribe in the senatorial district to vote for him and we the Itsekiris who are hungry for an Itsekiri Senator hardly see our own brothers who are contesting for the Senate on ground, apparently behaving as if they have already won the election, political pragmatism simply dictates that they are not serious. If there was a serious Itsekiri contender, I would most certainly have voted for him, indeed regardless of party loyalty. Since there seems to be none, I am left with no choice but to support Manager, who from all indication remains the detribalized Deltan most of us have always known him to be.           You recently wrote an article in the Vanguard in which you strongly criticized fiery lawyer and public affairs commentator, Barr. Jesutega Onokpasa for abandoning his party, the PDP, and working for APC candidates. Many people were taken aback that given your relationship with him, you would have published such a strongly worded article against him.

In the first place, Barr. Onokpasa is my elder brother. Even though I am Itsekiri and he is Urhobo, our relationship is like that of an elder and a younger brother born of the same parents. In fact, I actually informed Barr. Onokpasa that I was publishing an articled against him in the papers out of respect and to his credit, he assured me that as a lawyer he would protect my right to criticize him any time, any day. I am entitled to defend, campaign and project my candidate. My candidates for the 2015 elections unwaveringly remain President Goodluck Jonathan for President and Senator Ifeanyi Okowa for the governorship of Delta State, and Barr. Kingsley Otuaro for the Deputy governorship of Delta State.

Unlike Barr. Onokpasa, who allowed himself to be frustrated out of the PDP by those who despite their pretense do not even wish our next Governor, Senator Okowa well, I remain a loyal party man, and ironically I learnt part of my unyielding sense of loyalty from him. I was rather taken aback that he is now the one championing the cause against Senator Okowa. In spite of the seemingly gang up against His Excellencies, President Goodluck Jonathan and Senator Okowa PDP will still win these elections.