By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, Niger-Delta
FORMER chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger-Delta, Senator Fred Brume is one of the respected politicians in Delta State, but recently , he quit his position as deputy chairman of  the Delta Elders, Leaders and Stakeholders Forum (DELSF), led by former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark. Senator Brume, for the first time, since he dumped the DELSF  took  time off, Tuesday, in Warri to speak with  Saturday Vanguard. Excerpt.

The impression that is portrayed outside is that elders and leaders of  Delta state are at  war  with Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. You are one of  the elders.  Please can we know the true position of things?

That is not completely true. At the conclusion of elections in 2007 and  immediately before the elections, it  was a body of elders and stakeholders that became a voice of  the opposition in the state. I call it a voice of opposition; it can also be the voice of people seeking righteousness in elections. That body was headed by Chief Edwin Clark and I became his deputy.

Now, we protested the way that democratic elections were held in Delta state, we could have protested in same way in several other parts of the country, but, because we came from Delta state, we focused on Delta state, we felt that elections were not carried out in a way to enable the electorate determine who leads them. So we protested what became a fraudulent type of  election and at the end of  the day, our protest can only make meaning within the laws that  were prevailing, which means that we have to take cases to the court.

We did this and for us, as a body, we lost several encounters and after the elections, some of us started to question the desirability of just remaining the voice of opposition even when the courts have made their ruling and at that stage, you  will say that the Delta Elders, Leaders and Stakeholders Forum began to split into camps.
For me, for instance, I felt that  we should operate on a senatorial level because within the senatorial zones, you could  voice your concerns with the government as you may please. As a matter of  fact, I spoke to Chief Clark that I now felt it was better that we pursue the relationship with government on a platform of constructive engagement.

The governor is our son, a son of  Chief Clark, my own son, he grew  up after his medical school under me at the Delta Steel Company (DSC), Ovwian-Aladja, where I had been positioned to employ him and he did a good job. So, I thought we should approach the matter on the platform of  constructive engagement  to get him to do things that we felt were better for the people of  Delta state rather than appear to be outside the window, throwing stones at those in the house.

Why did you split?

One thing that happened is that Chief Clark was not happy that the governor decided to pay a sudden visit to me here in my residence where you are speaking to me now. He (Clark) questioned why the governor should come to visit me, why I should even receive him and I found this rather curious because he (himself) does not mind when the governor visits him and that kind of  brought about a certain departure of our approach to the government in Delta state.

So, the elders were not as whole now  waging war against the governor or against the state, as you have questioned, but, rather a group of  the elders, particularly from Delta Central and I know that some elders from Delta North were keen on following the same path. We now opted to engage the government in a relationship of constructive dialogue.

So it is not exactly the case that elders of  Delta state are waging war against Uduaghan. As a matter of  fact, in order to counter our existence and  vociferous position, a body of elders  who were pro the state government and who were members of  the PDP constituted themselves into a PDP Elders Forum and they are pursuing a policy of  promoting and uplifting the government.

As far as Delta Central is concerned, my own group of elders, initially started some dialogue with them but we found out that they are PDP strictly speaking, whereas, my own group of elders is non-partisan. Therefore, we continued our separate existence but in all, the elders in Delta state were not necessarily speaking with one voice.

Secondly, you will not say that all of  them are waging war against the state government. However, we often stood in the position to render constructive advice when the occasion demanded, but, not throwing stones from outside the window.

You said the opposition by the elders was as a result of the April 14, 2007 election, but, it started after the primaries at Ogwashi-Uku, months earlier. However, if it’s actually over the election, which was flawed nationwide, not just in the state, why are the elders still bent on throwing stones?

That is an interesting question and interesting observation. It is true that some criticisms of  the government then started from the primaries, as we working towards the primaries. But at that time, we have not called ourselves and elders forum in that sense. It became more strongly so after the primaries and more after the elections. The main concern  has to do with the election and issue of succession  in Delta state.

The elections  were over, courts were the normal places to settle it and like you  very rightly discerned, after these things, the whole essence of  the opposition of the elders should have withered away. So one has the right to wonder whether there was something there beyond the mere election that was at the bottom of  the kind of opposition given by the elders.

In some way, you can say that the issue of impropriety, the issue of corruption, which were part and parcel of  the election could be extrapolated and extended to cover corruption generally, so you could deduce that  wise that the cause of  the elders shifted from election per se, shifted from supposed  impropriety in the primaries, from the corrupt  manner in which elections were said to have been held to a wider concern  with corruption generally and at the bottom of  this, one could discern  the issue of   who governs Delta state.

It was no more simply of election had come and gone but  who is it that is governing the state and for how  long will such people continue to govern the state and when will they  shift or when  would governorship move to different sponsorship. I think that was the matter in contention.

But there was power shift from Delta Central to Delta South in 2007 after the former though Ibori  held  power for eight years. Why was the Delta Elders Forum not satisfied with that, but, rather, it focused on Uduaghan as an individual?

Yes, there was  power shift to the South from Delta Central but some people felt that the way and manner the power shift took place, the election process  was faulty. So, they  were not immediately satisfied with the power shift. Secondly, the power that shifted from Delta Central to Delta South has some family connectedness. Eh, it was generally acknowledged that the new governor who hails from Delta South has some family or birth relationship with the former governor who is from Delta Central.

I must say straightaway that this is not uncharacteristic of  the people of  Delta Central. In our Warri community or even Sapele, where the various ethnic groups impinge, Itsekeiri, Urhobo, Ijaw, Isoko, Igbo, even Esan, there were inter-marriages and  we were referred to more or less as Warri boys or Sapele boys  without asking too many questions, as to which particular ethnic group one came from.

It was very often the case that  you have a  well-to-do Urhobo man who probably have about three or four wives- an Urhobo wife, Ijaw  wife, Itsekiri wife and it was, therefore, often the case that you can have a man like Governor Uduaghan, whose mother is Esan, whose father is Itsekiri, whose aunty is married to an Urhobo man and, therefore, he will have first cousin being an Urhobo man.

So, you have a typical Deltan who can wear so many tribal colours and in actual fact, I do not see anything wrong here. To my mind, it is something that will promote unity amongst  the people if properly handled. But the question you  raised is that there was power shift from Delta Central to Delta South, why are people not  satisfied, why did  they not embrace this power shift?

I think some people may not have completely embraced it because they wanted the power to shift, perhaps to their own ethnic groups. I think this appears to be the clear possibility because in Delta South, the four ethnic groups there – Isoko, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Urhobo, I guess each one may have wanted to have a piece of  the action but if they are all grouped together in one senatorial zone, one will think that if power has shifted to them, they will accept it like that but it was not exactly so.

Can I know exactly the reasons for your bowing out as deputy chairman to Chief Clark in DELSF and from all that have transpired. Are there things you have a better understanding of now than before concerning the agitation by the elders?

Eh, yes, the agitation  was based on certain values, certain principles, which I support generally. We want a government that  will respect the electorate, we want a government that will not dabble in too much corruption, we wanted a government that will promote and seek the progress of the people in a visibly high manner.

The agitation had this common platform but as you have asked, in due course, when  I, personally felt that the election was over and our contentions in the law court have gone far enough and we should now begin to work together one way or the other to see how  the electorate, people of the state can have a better governance through mature advice and input, it was at that stage I felt enough is enough of  just wanting to be in opposition almost as if it’s just for the sake of  it.

But the thing that started to disturb me is the fact that the ethnic factor was beginning to rear its head beyond what I thought would  be desirable. It seemed as if  some people were pursuing some of  these things, if not for ethnic reasons, then, I would say self-centred reasons. That  was  the only answer I saw,  the situation where because the governor decided to visit me at home and had breakfast  with a multitude of  people from this area, my leader became so angry but would not mind having the governor also visit him.

So, what is the reason for this? As I once had reason to say in the past, impropriety in elections seem to cut across the country  and corruption  was present in so many of  the governments and yet, Nigeria and  business of governance continued, even as bodies set up to wage  war against corruption, EFCC, ICPC  were doing their jobs. So, I started to feel uncomfortable with some things and, therefore, felt that I should do those things that I was more comfortable with.

As an Urhobo leader, I believe you must have heard some of your people saying the present government has not impacted on the ethnic group, do you think this is the truth?

Ah, any government can be criticized if you so choose. And sometimes, people do so out of inadequate information. As far as I can see and I have observed, the Uduaghan government has made good impact across the state and also in Delta Central.  I remember when I came to Warri one night and  drove  into Effuru and saw  the lights and decorations and the improvement that have taken place. It was something that I will not easily forget. I observed  that such improvements took place at Asaba and other places in the state.

What I have observed of  Uduaghan and his government is that several of the capital projects, which the former government did or were doing have been continued with. That is why for instance, we are going to see the commissioning of  the Delta State Teaching Hospital at Oghara on Saturday and the President of  Nigeria is expected to commission the project. It was not exactly started by Governor Uduaghan’s  government but he went ahead to complete it.

In the same way, we have seen bridges started by the former government: there is the Ughoton-Madangho bridge  and we have seen the roadways started in various parts of the state being completed. And in Delta Central, we have also seen efforts made by the government to promote the completion of  roads in Ughelli, that is Ughelli intra-city dualization and the Ughelli-Asaba dualization and I am  witness to mega projects that have been initiated by Uduaghan administration that touched on Delta Central.

For instance, the Osubi International Airport, which they have started work on was taken on by the government even as they are building the Asaba International Airport. Both of  them  were expected  to serve different commercial zones and packaged to serve different users and clientele. I  was driving by recently and I saw  the railway project coming from Ajaokuta and Itakpe going to Delta Steel Company and Warri.

Although, one may argue that it is a federal project, I know that it was the constant pressure and encouragement from the governor that brought about the revival of  the project and made the contractor, Julius Berger to agree to come back to this area at all after the negative experiences that made them to pull out of the East-West Road. The state government has also embarked on such other projects that are futuristic.

His programme to open up the ports in Delta Central and South is a bold one. He wants Sapele, Sapele, Aladja, Koko, Burutu, Warri  ports to boom again  and it had also strived to create safety on the waterways. I see the long-term projects as benefitting  Delta Central and other districts. I am privileged to know and I am a witness to the support the governor gave to the take off of  the Federal University of Technology, Effurun in Delta Central.

For me, I have seen the Uduaghan administration focusing a lot on major capital projects of  long-term nature and such capital projects. I have seen him as someone trying to drive a vision that will transform the state as a whole. I cannot point out any area of  neglect that  was targeted at Delt a Central and I do know  that the funds available to the present government are much  less compared to what was the case in the previous government.

I mean on the basis of  derivation income alone, the state has  fallen  from the level of  being the number one producer and  beneficiary to something  being number four or number three when it’s trying to improve and the budget, revenue that came has virtually been halved. In the days when we were riding high, the state government could make a monthly revenue of  up  to 7 billion from federal allocation and all  that, but, now if  they can get N4 billion (laughs),  they are very happy.

Are you saying that in terms of qualification to rule the state and performance, Uduaghan has tried thus far, contrary to stand of the Clark group?

Well, everybody may have his or her own reason for opposing a government or even a person. One will not want to quarrel with that but as I have just mentioned, Dr. Uduaghan is an intelligent young man. From the beginning, he showed exceptional academic ability, which was why he went to study in one of our best federal government colleges and studied medicine when he finished. You have to be an  intellectual to read medicine and because of  his good records, we were happy to employ people like him.

There was a time I focused attention on the very best in sciences and engineering, so he joined the crop, not only himself, but also  the present chief executive of  Ekiti state, Governor Oni  was a chemical engineer who I also engaged in DSC. We believe that  we had a good crop of Nigerians in our bid to transform the country to a new age of industrialization.