Hon. Preye Aganaba contested senatorial election in 2015 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa state and later ran for the governorship ticket on the party but lost to this former governor Timi Preye Sylva. In this interview with BODE OLAGOKE, he speaks on the crisis rocking his state chapter, why Nigerians should ignore quite notice and reasons why President Muhammadu Buhar will win again in 2019, among other issues.
On Bayelsa’s APC crisis
I don’t think the Bayelsa APC Is in crisis, but it depends from where you are looking at it. In a political party, people have their different views and different interest and so, it is inevitable that different issues should arise. Eventually, however, those issues are always resolved politically and somehow we are getting to a point of resolving the issues in Bayelsa APC. The pioneer chairman of the APC in the state is a good man who put in a lot to the establishment of the APC in Bayelsa state. The same thing with the former governor, Timipre Sylva without whom the APC in Bayelsa state might not have been a reality. Everybody contributed their quota. There are bound to be issues and I wish and hope that those issues are resolved. Right now, there is an Acting Chairman in the state and we are looking at how to rebuild the party and move forward from there. What is happening is all politics and at the end of the day, a solution will be found, steps will be taken. But what we have for now is an acting chairman whose mandate is to rebuild the party and gather everybody together.
Does that mean that the former chairman has agreed to work with the acting chairman?
Even though he has not agreed, there is hierarchy of power in a political party. If the NWC has met and concluded that it was the best decision for now, then, I believe that everybody should tow that line. That may not necessarily mean that the aggrieved parties will go home and sleep, of course, they are still making their case, but for now, we have an acting chairman whose mandate is to build the party and gather all party faithfuls together.
What about the allegation of anti-party allegation against the former chairman?
That is not true. I paid for the first APC secretariat in 2013 with my personal cash as their was scarcity of funds then in the party and that was the secretariat we used for the general elections in 2015. The property we now moved to from there is being claimed by the Bayelsa state government alleging that the property belongs to the state government. But that matter is in court. So, I am not aware that Governor Dickson is funding anything in APC.
There was a time when the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Timi Frank and the former governor, Timipre Silva had issues. Has the party been able to deal with this issue?
I don’t think there were any personal issues between Timi Frank and former Governor Sylva. I am sure it is all about interest and at the end of the day people were sent down to resolve those interests. I don’t think there are still issues because the bulk of them, as I was aware, were resolved behind the scene.
You are close to the Minister of Transportation. In recent times there appears to be issues between him and Senator Abe and we learnt that the issue has to do with the choice of candidate for the 2015 governorship election. What is really the issue between these two?
I don’t think there are any issues in Rivers state because if there were, at the time the governorship candidate was brought out in 2015, you would have seen those issues playing out. Most of the issues are media creations. If there are issues, I would have been aware because I am very close to most of the actors in Rivers state. There is a lot going on right now and most of the things you get to read in the press on Rivers state are not true.
But there were physical clashes during the congress.
I think the congress matter is being handled by the NWC. I don’t have any information about that. But in most states, there were issues with the congresses. It is all about interest. You go for an election and your interest is not carried along but that does not mean that people have problems. For example, In my local government we big wigs like myself, Timi Alaibe and others who, in their own right, want to be delegates. But it doesn’t mean that if one of us don’t get to be a delegate there is a problem. It is all about interest.
Are you not worried that this interest is tearing the APC apart?
I have so much confidence in this party. From our first congress here in Abuja to the day we demonstrated to shut down the police headquarters to our presidential primaries in lagos, I was there and I saw APC leaders coupled together something that Nigerians never thought could come out of an opposition political party. I have confidence in the leadership of this party to resolve every issue.
There is problem in virtually every state chapter of the party on one hand and internal wrangling within the party hierarchy in the other. Are you still really convinced that the party will put up a good show in 2019?
In my own opinion, I think we had more issues putting this party together in 2013 than we have today. Maybe because we are in government, everybody is seeing what is going on. There were lots of issues in 2013/2014, but the leaders were still able to put this party together and go into an election. If you remember, in Kano, Shekarau was the leader of the APC and when Kwankwaso moved in, he was made the leader and that turned into a crisis. It happened in Rivers state. The current SSG in Wike’s government was the person leading the APC and when we moved in, there were issues. It happened in almost every state, even in Edo state with Tom Ikimi leaving the party. We had all these issues. I remember going into our first congress to elect our national chairman. We almost postponed it and Tom Ikimi left the party that very day. We almost shifted the congress. I was with our leaders, moving from house to house and we were able to bring everybody together to go for that congress to elect our current national chairman. Maybe because we are in government, everybody is seeing what is going on. Meetings are going on and very soon, you will see most of these thing being resolved.
Are you satisfied with the current NWC?
Don’t forget that this NWC took an opposition party into government, that is something that has never happened in the history of this country. There is no way one can begin to look down on them now because of certain issues going on. So, I will say we are satisfied. I don’t think anybody who can trace our history can cast aspersions on members of the NWC.
We know that the tenure of this NWC expires next year…
Anything can happen and we are not certain. They can do an extension
If the party, in its wisdom, decided to retain the position of National Chairman in the south south, will you support the current chairman to continue in that position?
These are hypothetical questions. When we get to the bridge, we will cross it. But the NWC has done well by moving us from an opposition party to a party in government. There is no way you can cancel that feat. We were part of the decision making process in the south south that met and eventually settled on Oyegun who was one of the three candidates. He is our candidate and I don’t know if that will change any time soon.
One of the things Nigerians will be looking at in making a decision in 2019 is the performance of the party. Are you satisfied with what the APC has done so far as a government?
Government wise, I think we have done well, but we may not be where we ought to be and that could be because we did not know that the country was where it was when we got into power. But we have done well. A few days ago, the story of Nigeria getting out of recession was all over the news, the prices of basic foodstuffs is going down. I get a minimum of 20 hours light per day. I am not too bothered about the economy because its in good hands, but perhaps by the politics within the various zones. That is what will determine the outcome of the next election. The APC with Buhari will win that election, but to what margin is what I cannot say. We will also do well in the National Assembly elections. During the party presidential primary, the campaign slogan for Buhari was 12 million assured votes and I don’t think that one vote has left kitty.
Considering the health of the President and other factors, would you encourage the president to re contest? Do you think he can still win?
If President Buhari runs for election today, he is going to win. I don’t think the President is as ill as the cynics are trying to sell. Like every other human being, he can fall sick. The problem is that because he is in government and he is President, there are lots of stories. But he is back and healthy. I don’t think that for now the APC has any other choice than to field him. People are free to contest the primary, of course. I was in the convention committee and we had a free and fair primary in Lagos and he won with more than half of the votes.
There are calls on the President to rejig his cabinet in other to move the country forward. If you are to advice him, what will you be tell him?
I will ask him to come back home and get those people who campaigned for him based on the promises of the APC People believed before they went along campaigning for him. It will require people not waiting for him to give directive before things are done because you have people who believed in you, worked with you and are now with you in government. So, they already know where we are coming from and the consequences of not keeping to our campaign promises. When somebody gets something without working for it, he tends to not value it and that sometimes creates a disconnect between the government and the people.
Everywhere you go in the country, it is the same complain. As a national party. How do you think the APC can carry everybody along in the interest of national development and equity?
From what I know, there are efforts to resolve most of these issues that people complain about. Whether you like it or not, we are going into a major election soon and we cannot do that with a divided house. I saw leaders of this party couple together a dysfunctional system, put it together, went into an election and won. I still believe in the ability of the leaders of this party to put it together before 2019.
What is your view on the clamour for restructuring?
I am from the south south. One of the things that attracted us to the APC in 2013 was devolution of power, creation of state police, restructuring in very vague terms. These were thing we have heard right from when we were teenagers, that these were the things that would fix our region. Naturally, these things made the APC attractive to some of us. It is encouraging our party has set up a committee to advice the party on how to go about it because you can say you want to restructure, but if you don’t build a framework for it, you will not get anywhere with it. I am sure that the committee will come up with a framework and I hope it is established on time so that it will not be another campaign weapon.
What us your own personal opinion
The restructuring most Nigerians are talking about is very vague. But what I talked about is devolution of power to states, resource control, state police and people should not forget that the biggest problem in Nigeria today is failure of governance. If you do restructuring and move the whole power to local government, if governance fails, restructuring will have no effect on the people. So, as an Ijaw person from the Niger Delta, we have always canvassed for our issues and those issues cut across party lines. But most times, some people attempt to use party colouration to make demands. Some of the persons making demands for restructuring are doing it not out of patriotic or genuine motifs but for superficial and political reasons. But devolution of some powers to state government and local government, resource control and state police are the three basic things I think we should concern ourselves with when we talk about restructuring.
The Niger Delta agitators have joined the fray of issuing quit notice. What is your view about this?
In 2013, when we were about going to establish the APC in Bayelsa, we had a lot of resistance from the state government and the police. The Ijaw Youth Council issued a statement asking us not to come to Bayelsa state because it was, according to them, going to create crisis in the state. The state police command refused to give us police protection and we came to Abuja here and they gave us police and we went to Bayelsa to open our state secretariat. Most of these calls are all political calls. I have been involved in the issues of the region and for me it is best to discountenance it.
