Chief Thompson Okorotie is one of the founding fathers of Bayelsa State. He was a national vice chairman of the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN, in the Second Republic and Majority Chief Whip in the old Rivers State House of Assembly. He also served as political adviser to the late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. In this interview with Tony Olutomiwa, the elder statesman, who is currently Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s Restoration Caucus speaks on the achievements of the state government, the last elections and implication for democracy and why it is difficult to find Dickson’s successor.
He also shares President Goodluck Jonathan’s assertion that he lost re-election because of his minority status.
How would you characterise the stewardship of the current administration in the state?
Well, I think in Bayelsa State, we are doing very well. The party, PDP, and His Excellency, Seriake Dickson, have been doing very well. If you’re resident here, you should be able to attest to it. This man has been wonderful. He has brought about landmark developments; he has taken roads to rural areas that had not seen roads in their lifetime. In a local government area where they have been expecting road for the past 40 years, he has just taken road there in January, from here to Ekeremor, as earlier done to the central senatorial district. The first one he did takes road to Nembe. And if you look at the educational sector, he has been so wonderful. I am saying this because that itself was the party’s campaign. The whole thing is about delivering service, keeping promises. When he started on February 14, 2012, he said he was declaring a state of emergency in education and that’s what he’s been doing. How has he done it? He set up the Ijaw National College, which have 1000 students from all over Ijawland, free education with boarding, free schools sandals, books and computers. Then in some of the local government areas, there are two of such boarding schools known as model secondary schools. The intake is 500 with the same facilities as we have in the Ijaw National College in Kaima. Then he did much more by establishing more universities. We met Niger Delta University, NDU, and then he has brought about the University of Africa, Toru-Orua and also established the Bayelsa Medical University. He further established the Bayelsa State Polytechnic and the Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education of which I am the chairman of the council. These are the issues that have characterized the folk type followership of Dickson. Many of us see him as a folk hero because he listens to the people and responsive to development concerns.
In the area of infrastructural development, there has been no governor like him. I have participated from the beginning till now, from 1998 when we started, I was one of the foundation members of the PDP who signed the original documents. And I became a political adviser to the late Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. From that time till now, I have been in one way or the other advised the governors. So I can categorically say that there’s no governor like him in the area of infrastructural development.
Now looking at the circumstances of the last elections, do you think the PDP can withstand the APC onslaught ahead of the governorship election later this year?
I don’t think you’re being fair to us. If you base your projection on our performance, where we won overwhelming majority of the state’s House of Assembly, why can’t you use that as basis to judge us if we can withstand APC or not? There are 24 seats, and then we have taken 19. So, that’s the story for you. Anyway, that’s the country for you regarding the circumstances you alluded to. But the situation is correcting itself. You have seen the number of states PDP has won; we won about 15 states, which tells you that even those figures they declared were false. We have said it repeatedly, you’re doing collation and saw that PDP was winning and then you say “inconclusive”. This has no valid ground in our constitution. To conclude, my reply to your question is that APC cannot be our match. This is a PDP state. Even the few they purportedly claim to have won were through brigandage and false documents which INEC unfortunately admitted. But we‘ll reclaim them at the tribunal.
Many believe that our democratic experience is not advancing as it should be and there are grounds to support this view, going by the reported irregularities and loss of lives during the last elections. What do you think is really wrong with our democracy?
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I think something is wrong with our kind of democracy and it’s unfortunate. First of all, we have not learnt our lessons. We have the experience. The country has lasted for this long, from parliamentary system, we moved into the presidential system and there’s supposed to be checks and balances but something went wrong. We established the institution called INEC, which is supposed to be independent but has not been allowed to do its work. When Goodluck Jonathan was there, he gave INEC free hands, largely independent, and that was why he allowed himself to be voted out, if I might use that word because he had the opportunity to do otherwise but he did not. That’s leadership, that’s patriotism. But those who are not that democratic have shown that they can bring military content into elections which are the most unfortunate part in the last elections. You see, the military cannot replace the voters and using them as a means of carting away ballot boxes and moving voting units to hidden locations to stuff and alter results is an aberration. And this is something we must do away with if our democracy must grow. If after spending close to 20 years in changing government through the ballot box, we should also perfect it by making sure that the card reader we are using should be given a chance to succeed. Because when you go to a voting unit and you thumbprint and even from the point that you’re recognised by the card reader, it has already shown in the server at the INEC headquarters. Now where is that result in the server? So, it’s a government that is fighting corruption that is also encouraging corruption. That’s what we have seen and I think that it is our responsibility to ensure that we move away from all this. I think INEC has tried its best but based on certain pressures, I think there were a few things they were not allowed to do independently. The point I am making is that they have to do something about their logistics in terms of transportation and security. The military should be far away from the voting units. Don’t forget that the military’s traditional responsibility is securing the borders of this country and defending the nation against external aggression. Even if you want the people to show psychologically that if the people do any nonsense there’s security, they should still be far away from the voting areas. It’s the police that have a role. So this abnormality has to be streamlined. It is interesting though that Mr. President said he would not interfere in helping any state, that he would allow democracy to take its course but he should have also allowed that to happen in his own election. For now, let’s see how the judiciary goes, the matter is subjudice now because the PDP candidate has already filed his petition at the tribunal and we look up to the judiciary in whom we still have confidence to do the needful.
So moving forward, we must do certain things about INEC. We must do what is right. Leave the politicians alone. Some people say politicians are the problem but I disagree. If you have an efficient electoral body, what can the politicians do? We should encourage free, fair and credible elections. Let the people line up and vote. Let us not snatch ballot boxes, let us not falsify results. These are the steps towards deepening our democracy. And of course, we must learn to be democratic. We have seen an administration that appoints directors in the NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) and all of them are from one area of the country. No single person from Ijawland, people who produce the oil are excluded and the constitution says you should give sense of belonging to all parts of the country, particularly in economic distribution. It’s in the constitution because I worked with that constitution for four years in the old Rivers State. And so, good governance is important. Even if you’re looking at peace, it is justice and good governance that bring about peace. Be fair to all, you’ll have less complaints. If you’re fair to all, we would be less divided. When you think that because you’re in control, you must give all to one zone, you’ve just created problem for yourself in the country.
Some people have alleged that inconclusive elections are now being used to subvert the will of the people. Do you subscribe to this view?
Of course! I mentioned it earlier that there is nothing called inconclusive election. And that situation has been decided upon in Osun State when Adeleke was declared the winner. He won fair and square. He won and somebody came to say “inconclusive” because they wanted to manipulate and they indeed manipulated and declared an APC candidate the winner. But the court has looked at the matter and decided that inconclusive election is alien to the Act of the constitution, so why not give it to him.
Governor Dickson is winding down now. If you’re to advise him, what kind of successor would you recommend?
Many of us are not happy in the sense that we are finding it difficult to find a successor. That’s the truth of the matter but God will help us. I am saying this because we do not want the state to go back to its regrettable past. We want somebody, who will be committed to the will of God and number two, somebody who will see good projects and continue with them in case he meets some of them uncompleted. Dickson met some uncompleted projects and completed them because he believes if you abandon a project because somebody else did it, you’ve only wasted government money. Like this Bayelsa Medical University, the 500-bed hospital was started by Alamieyeseigha but the succeeding government did not know what to do with it-they only used it as a conduit but Dickson now said this thing can be done properly and he has established a university based on it that’s about taking off now. I think that somebody taking over from him should be committed to development. Dickson did not run a flamboyant government; he was doing one thing or the other. The roads have gulped several billions of naira but somebody else could have channeled the money elsewhere. That’s the important point I am making, the critical difference. Dickson has been dedicated. So we are looking and praying to God to give us somebody like Dickson. He might not have excelled in every area but in infrastructural development, which is central, he has been outstanding. You see, if you have a road in place, you have opened up the area and then the electricity runs on the road and because of this, business starts.
It’s strange to hear from you that your party is finding it difficult to find a successor.
When I say finding it difficult to get a successor, we are talking about Dickson’s type of person. You see, governance is not easy at all. We are here in the state and we know the people. I’m not saying there are no people but concerned about certain qualities we are looking at. I just gave you some characteristics of the kind of person we want but difficult to find. This state has existed for 22 years and we’ve seen governance in different shapes. So I have my convictions.
How will you situate the relevance of the recently constituted environmental commission of inquiry in Bayelsa State?
It’s the best thing that Dickson has done because this s not political. It is at the foundation of the oppression and degradation of our environment and the disdain that the successive federal governments have placed on our people. So many local governments here produce oil and 40 percent of the nation’s oil comes from here. And some people will ask question: the money of derivation that goes to the place, what are they doing with it. Those who make such statements are quite blind to our realities because the jobs that are being done are glaring, people are seeing them. Not only that they do not understand that if you’re doing a job on a dry land in Sokoto, one kilometer of road here will cost ten times what they would spend in Sokoto because the foundation alone, sub-structure takes all the money because of the terrain. Let me tell you, that’s why God put oil and gas here so that they can use the money to develop but they have stolen it from us by force using the money to develop other places much more than here where God gave us the oil. You want to tell me that God made a mistake? So these are the issues. All the governor has done in a very creative and innovative style is to peacefully call the attention of the world to the problems so that we can have justice. When you have a land and the land is soaked with gas and oil, the farmland no longer produces; the fishes have run away into the ocean, what do you do? Yet nobody is doing anything about remediation.
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It is observed that the voice of former President Goodluck Jonathan is not loud enough in the politics of the state, even in national affairs. Do you think he’s tired?
No. He’s not tired. He’s playing his role. His style is different from others. He’s doing his best. Are you not seeing him? The other day he launched his book. Is that not a bold statement? How do you want him to act, even for a government that does not see anything good in him? He has somebody that is opposed to him and all of us. And I believe, too, that he has been very busy. Mind you, he has an international NGO. The world at large invites him to speak because of his international respect for the singular thing he did by voluntarily handing over power and averting war. Because those people, you win, it’s war, even in the victory that they had, they were killing people. Do you kill people for succeeding? So we are in a country of paradoxes.
In his book, “My Transition Hours”, the former president asserted that his ethnic status was why he lost re-election in 2015. Do you think this is a fair comment?
Sure, it was a fair comment; fair comment in the sense that because of the manipulation, the so-called majority tribe have lorded it over 360 tribes. Census is tilted, there are false figures. In the House of Representatives, we have only five members there. It is the equality that helps us to have 3 senators like others. While others have 44 local governments, we have 8 yet local government is a unit of revenue allocation. And then you gave small numbers because you’re somewhere allocating figures. So, if he has only one million votes why would he not fail? Even with all he had done for the North and other places. But we went ahead because we have allies who voted for us. Apart from that element of minority, the only area I would disagree with is that it was PDP that voted against itself in 2015.
There are those who believe President Jonathan didn’t do enough for his people in the Niger Delta and even at home in Bayelsa. Do you agree with this view?
I would ordinarily not comment on that. People are entitled to their views. That’s how I see it. I believe that he did his best but there were certain expectations. There are issues which people did not see. But we did not know what the difficulties were, especially in a situation where he was surrounding by people whom I believe he was unable to overcome. So let me say he did his best.
You served as Alamieyeseigha’s political adviser. Do you think the Niger Delta is missing him?
Yes, we are missing him but we are relieved that we saw Dickson as a replacement. For a situation we could not avoid, God took His decision but He also gave us one that could replace him. He’s doing what Alamieyeseigha was doing and much more.
Lastly, as someone who was close to Alamieyeseigha, how would you remember him?
All of us emember him so well. We have just returned from the wedding of his last son in Lagos. He remains evergreen in our memory. Governor Dickson raised an official delegation of 13 people to attend the wedding ceremony to honour him. He may be no more but we represented him. He was one of the most successful leaders in the Niger Delta and a true Ijaw leader.
