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From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Prince Ned Nwoko of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the Senator-elect for Delta north senatorial district. Having received his certificate of return, the former member of the House of Representatives spoke with journalists at Idumuje-Ugboko in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State, on the fast approaching Governorship and state House of Assembly elections, declaring that his party would win the governorship and majority seats at the House. He also spoke on the fall out of the presidential election and how he intend to provide adequate and quality representation for Anioma nation (Delta north) at the 10th National Assembly.
How do you feel about your election as Senator for Delta North and the challenge posed by the Labour Party to you and your party generally in Delta North?
Well, Anioma people spoke loudly enough, and my emergence was what was expected, anything else would have been a surprise. I campaigned, I was on this for over eight months, I made myself available for the people to know me more. We know that LP did not campaign, in fact, others did not campaign except APC at some point. So the fact that LP had a good outing was just part of the Obi phenomenon. But that was just for the presidential election, I don’t expect the same thing for the remaining elections. We, the PDP as a party is relatively in control at the state, and I expect the party to produce the governor and majority of the House of Assembly members. This would be the real grassroots election that is coming up in the next few days. As I said before, the presidential election has come and gone, we know what transpired and why LP seems to have had a good outing. So we are putting things in place to checkmate that.
Do you not think that the election would have been tougher had Nwaoboshi not been in prison?
It is a shame that Nwaoboshi is in prison, if he was out there, I am sure the election would have been better for me. As I have said severally, I don’t want to emerge by default, I don’t want to emerge in a system somebody would describe just the way you just mention it now. Nwaoboshi is not Ned Nwoko and Ned Nwoko is not Nwaoboshi, we all have our areas of influence, we all know what we are capable of doing. Anioma people know me and they also know him, and so they would have had to make a choice, and the choices are so glaring. I have no issue with Nwaoboshi being out, I was looking forward to him being out, as a matter of fact. That is why I never took anything for granted, I campaigned as if it was the last fight. There was nowhere I did not touch, there was nothing, I basically did what I thought was right not only with PDP members but all the other groups like NUT, community leaders, traditional rulers, market women, NULGE, you name them, there was no group I did not host. So I campaigned and I think I deserve the result I got.
What do you make of what is now called PDP, that is Ibori forming alliance with Omo-Agege of the APC, and the PDP as led by Okowa. These are two forces that are going to jam with LP on the other side. How do you see the battle?
At the end of the day, those resident in Delta would decide, it is not about Ibori or Okowa. Sheriff is the candidate for PDP and Omo-Agege is for APC. I know that the average Deltan can do anything possible to make sure that Tinubu does not take over Delta State, and that for them is more important than the names you are talking about. Election to the presidency has come and gone but we are all lamenting about it. Majority of the people could not have imagined Tinubu emerging but he has emerged and the battle has shifted to the courts. What we should be concerned about now is what do we need to do going forward. Do we need APC at the centre and APC here in Delta? You know what that means, those I have spoken with in the last few weeks both in APGA, SDP, Accord, one thing they all frown against is the possibility of Tinubu taking over Delta State. It also means that the resources of Delta will be available to fight the matter in court against LP and PDP; not only the resources, those who would emerge will be at his beck and call, just imagine how that works out; it means that even those who are clamouring for Obi would be at a huge disadvantage to the extent that they will stand no chance whatsoever of winning in court. Once Tinubu is sworn in, he will take over Nigeria, he becomes the president, and how do you defeat such a man in court. It is not just about him being sworn in as president, he will now have more states under his control, and these states will be the ones funding his litigation; whatever that needs to be done, they will do it, he does not need to do anything. If LP wins some states at governorship level and PDP wins, then the governors from these states will have to support the opposition in Abuja, and invariably help to manage the litigation that would ensue. So, I think that the average voter in Delta understands this, it is not about Ibori or Okowa or PDP2 as you call it, it is about the future, and what they know about Tinubu and what they don’t want to see happen. I think those are the determining factors.
Before the presidential election, LP was hardly regarded as a challenge but after the election, some people are still carrying over that mentality. Do you consider LP or APC as threats in Delta in the forthcoming governorship election?
If you had followed any of my campaigns or interviews before the elections, there was something I always said that LP would come third. I always maintained that but that LP is doing some damage to PDP because they are taking away votes from PDP and giving to somebody who would come third. By so doing, they are inadvertently, technically, making it possible for APC to win. This has been my summary all along, and it is still my position today, LP people are not going to produce the president. Yes LP and PDP have gone into some kind of alliance at the national level, so this is the time for that alliance to work. Where PDP is stronger or in control, LP should support them, and where LP has shown control like in the South-East, PDP should support them. Otherwise, going into this fight on our own and they go on their own, APC could still cause damage, nationally, but in Delta State, PDP will still win the governorship and majority of the House of Assembly.
A senator is being accused of concentrating most federal projects in his community, how are you going to ensure spread of the projects when you are sworn in?
I have a nationalistic outlook over things, I always do; you only need to go back to my bills when I was in the House of Representatives. I am not sectional. When it comes to making laws, I always look at those laws that would affect everybody – something like the minimum wage bill, disability allowance, subvention for young entrepreneurs, reforms within the judiciary, within the education sector – for me everything would be about Nigeria, always will be about Nigeria because we cannot build a nation by focusing on one part of the country. I am hopeful when we were given our certificates, we have a meeting as senators-elect, and I said I hope we were not going to go into the 10th Assembly on party line basis, that we must talk about Nigeria and Nigerians and what we have to do to address the issues raised by Obi followers, those issues that we also know, they have come to the fore now. So we must really address them. But when it comes to constituency projects, for example, that is exactly what it is, constituency project, I cover nine local government areas, and I must ensure that each area has a fair share of what is available to the senatorial district. Of course, there are some areas that require special attention like the Ndokwa nation because of the oil exploration, gas flaring, environmental degradation and the flood that affect riverine communities even from Oko axis all the way to Okpai, Aboh, going towards Warri. So one would need to look at things as it affects people generally. I am not oblivious of, for example the issue of the dredging of River Niger, it is something that I would tackle head on because we can’t be waiting for flood to come and properties and lives are lost every time. I am not going to be talking about dredging when it comes to my area, it is a national issue that must be addressed, I think about twelve states on the whole, from Benue down to Edo, Delta, Bayelsa and so on. My office is for Nigeria and Nigerians.
Looking back at the presidential, and the seeming inability of your party to reconcile at the national level, would you say the party has floundered again because in 2019, the party wanted to return to power after losing in 2015 but it did not work. Would you say the party floundered again in 2023?
Well, the matters are in court, and we have to wait for the outcome of the court hearings to come to any conclusions. We had a good outing, I have no doubt that those states where elections were rigged and manifestly rigged, the results in those states will be set aside and the right results announced. So anything can happen, it is not time to start blaming anybody in the party. Yes, there were issues even in APC; they had disagreement, and the PDP, yes, it always happens.
Apart from you saying that Obi will take PDP votes, you are also one of those who did not consider him as a force. In fact, you said those in the South-East will not come out to vote but we saw in the election that they were massively mobilised. So what actually played out?
Well, the fact remains that LP, yes they mobilised, we have seen the results but as many people have said, it is inconceivable that one party would have 97 per cent in one state, it is not possible even in the North. You can’t imagine Atiku getting 97 percent or Tinubu, you saw what happened in Lagos. So I think that to a large extent, there were massive riggings because there is no other explanation of how somebody could get 97 percent, these are hallmark of writing results. BVAS has failed because we went into the elections being upright, waiting for BVAS, results to be transmitted and all that but we did not know that they were going to write results manually and announce results the way they did. If INEC had lived up to their promise, I am sure the results would have been different.
