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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Senator John Kojo Brambiafa, one of the founding fathers of Bayelsa State from Sagbama Local Government represented Bayelsa West in the fifth and sixth Senate and chaired the Senate Committee on Niger Delta. Due to what he considered as irreconcilable differences with the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he left for the All Progressive Congress(APC) in 2018 where he believes he can contribute to the development of the state.
In this interview, Senator Brambiafa canvassed for more time for President Muhammadu Buhari from Nigerians, assuring that he would get things right before the end of his tenure. He spoke on various issues in this interview.
What made you to migrate from the PDP to APC?
Life is not static. If you find out that where you are is not convenient, you move to where it is more convenient for you. And that is how politics is particularly in this country because we are not doing things right in this country. When you talk about party, party is supposed to be based on ideologies. If you think one party has the ideology you carry, you join it. But with the coming of some governors, they deviate and because they are governors, they sideline you and there is no reason you would remain in the party to play politics. In Nigeria, a lot of people move because of ideological differences. That is what it is and that was what was responsible for my moving from PDP to APC.
Don’t mind what is happening in APC. APC is a party we should respect more than anything else. APC is going to carry this country to the next level. I believe that.
With the state of affairs in the country, with the state of insecurity you are still saying APC would carry the country to the next level, which level again?
These entire insecurity problems started with the PDP. The way the PDP handled the problems, it escalated and we are now seeing the dimension it has got to now; it is not a thing of the party but a thing of leadership. Look at President Buhari, he is doing his best and he is going to get it right; we should just give him time. There are a lot of things he is working on.
How much more time should the people give him; he has less than two years left?
Before he leaves office, he is going to get it right. There has been improvement with the change in the leadership of the armed forces. Armed robbery and kidnapping cases are getting less and they would get less as we go on. With the new leadership in the armed forces, they would get it right.
What is your assessment of the Senate, compared to the time you were in the Senate?
We saw what happened recently. The Senate said they do not want electronic transfer of election results. But after that, they decided to look at the situation again and came to the conclusion that they are serving the people. And the people wish that there should be electronic transfer of results. The Senate had no option than to reverse it.
However, you can’t compare one Senate to the other because the circumstances are not the same. The quality of members is also not the same. Certainly, things cannot be the same. Overall, the Senate is serving Nigerians.
What is the future of APC in Bayelsa?
The conduct of the recent election of congresses is impressive. Look at the turn out of the congresses, it tells you that people in Bayelsa are still rooting for the party. I was personally flabbergasted with the love the people have for the party. APC has what it takes to win the governorship election in the state. My advice to party members is they should hold on to the APC. It does not matter that the party is not in government because as the party is not in government, it is going to be different.
You are one of the founding fathers of Bayelsa, how would you rate development in the state 25 years after its creation?
Since Governor Douye Diri assumed leadership, this is the first time I am coming to the state. If we want to quantify, I would say we have been unlucky with governance. Bayelsa State is the most unlucky state. I have been to other states that were created with Bayelsa; development is there. Here, we are still struggling with one road. Though the Airport is a good project, I used it and felt very proud. We should give credit to former governor Henry Seriake Dickson for that airport. That said, I would insist that we have been very unlucky governance-wise. Other states are better than us and we have more money than those states better than us.
