The Ologbotsere of Warri and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta state, Chief Ayiri Emami, in this interview says the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must enaure fairness in the ongoing implemention of Supreme Court judgement in the delineation of Warri Federal Constituency. He also bears his mind on the recent defection of some governors into the All Progressives Congress (APC). Excerpts:
President Bola Tinubu has spent two years in office, how would you assess his performance?
I think the President started trying to put up some policies and you know, when you don’t have a good foundation, it is always very difficult to have a proper building on top. I think the foundation and the structure laid by the past leaders are not good enough. So what he is battling with now is what he met on the ground, and some of those things people said, oh, Tinubu has inflicted hardship on us. The hardship, like what I used to say, was not caused by Tinubu. So far so good. He has tried his best trying to fix one or two by taking off subsidy. And the backlash of the subsidy (removal) is what we are all experiencing, including the rich and the poor. There’s nobody that is exempted. But so far, he’s trying his best. I can say it’s pretty good, it’s a little bit slow, but I think we are getting there.
There is a lot of hunger in the land. What do you think the administration can do to ameliorate this poverty and to get sympathy of the electorate ahead of 2027?
To me, it’s to do more inward investment. First, if we can get the issue of insurgency in the North-east, the issue of banditry and the rest, people can go back to the farm. Definitely, we’ll have our food. Those of us from the South-South are majorly into fishing. Maybe they bring some palliatives that can cushion the effect of the fuel price so that we will go back to our normal business. Like I was discussing with some people, if the boat we use for fishing can be converted to CNG, it will solve some of our problems. I also think that he has to reshuffle his cabinet so that he can have some vibrant people that will do the job. Because it’s not Tinubu that will go everywhere to do the job. Not more than four, five, ministers are very active. Sometimes, it is not all about the president.
I think there seems to be a lot of fixation on the federal government. With the withdrawal of subsidy, state governments have received almost triple or more than triple monthly allocation of what they used to receive before the removal of subsidy, but Nigerians are still complaining?
A lot of these governors, I don’t think they are helping the situation, that puts a lot of pressure on the federal government. If the federal government has taken off subsidy and the money is being allocated to the state governments, the state government is supposed to look at what are the needs of people in each of the states. But I think the state governments don’t care, so everybody now focuses on the federal government. But I would suggest that the President put an eye on what is going on in each of the states. I don’t think the state governments are doing enough. It’s not by building bridges, without welfare, there will be hunger.
In the last few months, a number of opposition governors have defected to APC, we have in Delta, we have in Akwa Ibom. Do you think this is genuine and do you think it is enough to garner votes for APC in 2027?
If Asiwaju is doing well, and the governors see that this is the way to go, it’s a welcome development. To me, governors moving into APC is not a bad one.
Are you threatened by the ongoing opposition viz-a-viz coalition that is becoming formidable?
Competitions are necessary in anything. If you don’t have people to compete with, it makes you feel very lazy. So having a proper opposition coming will make us wake up. The things we are supposed to do that we’re not doing. People need to criticise whatever you’re doing. Some of us are used to criticism so that we would definitely see how to correct ourselves. But once those ones are not there, you will think you are doing too well. So oppositions are welcome, but I know that the opposition cannot defeat us.
As you bask in the euphoria of defections of governors, there are also people who are worried that this gale of the defection could lead to an implosion within the APC itself. There are people that they met on the ground who are already feeling disenchanted. Take Delta for instance, the news is all over the place that the likes of Omo-Agege are likely to leave. People like Omo-Agege, I can speak categorically about it, he doesn’t have a plan to leave. But one thing I know some of us will not accept is a situation when you come in and say you want to pull us out, we’ll not agree to it. That might cause another chaos. Nobody will leave. People like me were almost killed because of APC in our community. I know a lot of people that were killed because they are associated with APC. The state government dealt with them, their businesses were grounded because they were affiliated with APC.
What’s the present situation in Delta now since the governor joined you?
The governor and the then leadership, like somebody like Ovie Omo-Agege, what I’m expecting is that they should sit, meet and see a working formula, but that has not happened. The APC party chairman in Delta is supposed to unite everybody. These were people that Ovie single handedly put together to ensure that they built up a party. I was actually against Ovie then because I said you cannot be running for governor, at the same time you have a party chairman from your place. Normally, if you are having a governor from the central, the chairmanship comes to the South, the deputy governor goes to the North. Everything they wanted then, they wanted it to go to Central, even up to NDDC. But today, the way people complained about Ovie, I stood by him because I know that those that caused the confusion are the one licking the ass of the governor now.
So what’s the way out?
I still believe that the governor should be magnanimous enough to ensure he called the people. There is nobody that is not important. The governor is my friend, but if you are not doing what you are supposed to do, I will not follow you. Even if he’s going to be the leader, as the Constitution says, he has to do the right thing.
Don’t you think the coalition can take advantage of this disagreement?.
That’s why we need to work fast. Because sometimes too, people might be in your party and work against you, which is very dangerous.
The issue of Constituency delineation seems to be generating ethnic tension in your state, what are the concerns?
There’s a Supreme Court ruling that they should delineate Warri Federal Constituency. None of us went against it, but you have to do it religiously with the law — the Electoral Act. But in a situation where you come, you now begin to allocate, take somebody’s Ward to another, we will not agree, because those are the injustices one actually complained about. Why I am faulting INEC, if the Supreme Court says do delineation, you can equally write to the Supreme Court because the instrument for the delineation is not a projected census. You can’t use projected census and the last census that was done was not taken. So you (INEC) can tell the supreme court and said these are some of the issues why I cannot carry out this delineation now. The Ogbijo and some people are protesting because what they allocated to them was not what they were expecting. In our local government in Warri South local government, you have the Ogbijor, you have the Gbaramatu, you have the Ogbodu and the Orere. Now Ogbijor is very populated because you have a road to Ogbijor. It’s very close to Orude. From their one Ward, you gave them two. Then Gbaramatu, far from my place in Escravo, which has two Wards, you make them 10. What is the justification? Nobody has a monopoly of violence. And we are not saying we are going to fight because of this, but INEC must do the needful. And we’ve told everybody, we’ve told Mr. President, we’ve told everybody that cares to know that INEC must do the needful or they should investigate that committee set up by INEC, what actually they did for us to avert the crisis that erupted in 1996, 2003 before we could manage ourselves.
Everybody has representation by ethnic nationality in the National Assembly. Do you know that Warri federal constituency is the only place the Ishekiri can contest, but the Ijaw have Brutu, Patani, Bomadi.; the Uhrobos have Ughelli. The only place we are confined to is the Warri federal constituency. What they are trying to do is to is another genocide on the Ishekiri people, total cleansing of our tribe, not having any representation in anything. The needle might be very small, but to swallow it is always very difficult. That’s what I tell you. And the Constitution provides how to secure the minorities. We must live, we must survive.
What are your expectations from Tinubu, the entire South-south region?
When he came to campaign, he assured us that he will do the Omadina-Escravo’s road for us. I have met him several times over that issue. The NDDC and Chevron — his own is just to supervise to see that they come together and do the road. And while he was campaigning too, he told us that the Epizel, the Ogidigben project — that project was on during Jonathan (administration). They were about awarding the sand filling when they had their coalition, and all of us followed that line, and Buhari won. Immediately, Buhari won the money that was allocated to that place they used it for the AKK pipeline project. Now, Asiwaju promised us, he traveled to China, he met with the company and I think the leadership of the company is supposed to come next month to meet with Asiwaju to see how they can go about that project. They are forming a coalition again. So anytime they want to invest something tangible in our area, that’s when our people will go and join them to form a coalition. When they get into the office now, they will take the money… I don’t say they should not take anything to the North but the one in our place, do it. So the reason why some of us will not even think about this coalition.