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From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
In this interview, All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart in Delta State, Chief Ayiri Emami, speaks on the political climate in the south-south region, defections by governors in the area and other burning issues affecting the region.
Excerpts:
There is a sudden gale of defections into the APC by governors in the south-south region. What is responsible for this? Is the ruling party taking over of the region in 2027?
On the issue of the taking over of South-South by APC, before today, you know I’m a true supporter of Asiwaju. I don’t just support because of money; I support because of my conviction that Asiwaju will turn things around. Because the way the nation was going, some of us knew that the nation was going to sink. So, some of us were the low voices. We were almost crucified in the Niger Delta region when we were supporting Asiwaju but we thank God. The most important thing in life is when you are convinced and you have a belief; you follow that belief. You know, a lot of people don’t have ideology in terms of political leaning and how they live. But some of us still manage to have our own personal ideology and belief. So, I believe in the man. I believe in his person and I believe in his virtue because as a young man, I have sat with him. I have listened to him and I had seen him performed as governor. But then in our region, you know, people just believe in who will give to them. A lot of people were fighting Asiwaju, not that Asiwaju was not a good person but they were fighting him that he knows too much. I have several conversations with a lot of people from my region. They will tell you, oh, we prefer people from the north because they don’t know more about our area. But I don’t think that there’s any story we want to tell Asiwaju about our region that he won’t understand. So, I now find out that those of them fighting that they don’t want Asiwaju, if you ask them what Asiwaju actually did, they don’t have one reason. They will tell you let us be with northerners they don’t know much about our area.
However, I am happy today with his impressive performance in our region. Some of the promises he made to us that he will make Warri Port work and you know, from the Buhari era, we had been going to the Villa but you can see, in two years, he has voted money for the Port now and even the Omadino- Escravos roads that will pass through Gbaramatu . So, a lot of work are going on now. And when people see that, he actually had our interests, I think those are the convictions about his policies that made the governors from the South -South to say ‘no, if we didn’t support him before now, now the man is doing what is going to favour us, so there is a need to support him.’ I think his performance, gave the conviction to those people. So, for me, I’m happy that they are coming because the type of work I was doing in 2022, 2023, I’m going to be more relaxed now that the governors are with us.
Those that were not wearing Asiwaju’s cap before, they are the ones wearing it day and night now. So, I’m happy. Then I used to wear it. If I go to clubs, some people would stone me. If I go anywhere, they hit me. So, I’m happy now seeing people wear Asiwaju’s shirt, his cap in the region.
We might have some difficulties, some challenges today, but they were not caused by Asiwaju. If you say it is caused by Asiwaju, come, I will tell you what happened to me during the past administration, even when I was in APC. But I don’t want to talk because we’re all in the same party. So, you can see some people, they can’t bear it. They don’t have the patience. Eight years, I didn’t benefit from federal, nor benefit from state. But one was moving. But today, we are seeing one or two developments coming around our area. So, that’s enough. That alone is enough for South -South governors and any governor to defect, having seen that the man is a progressive person. Those were some of the things I saw in him that made me to support Asiwaju.
We were told that when the current governor of Delta State came to APC, many of you didn’t welcome him. What is the state of the party now, and how much in-roads do you think Asiwaju will make in the region and the state in 2027?
Yes, this question is a very good one. You said when the present governor was coming to join the APC in Delta, a lot of people did not welcome him. I was not part of it. I, Ayiri Emami, was not part of it because first, my interest is the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria. And if the man said he’s coming to support Mr. President, who am I to say I’m not going to support him? I only have a little difference with him. The difference was that if you are coming, those that you met there, please try and carry them along. That was just my issue. And that’s why I said, I was not part of those that were going to tell Asiwaju that the governor that is coming, is not welcome. As of today, I know there are a lot of talks among the leaders to ensure that everybody work together. So, I have never gone to Mr. President to try to stop Governor Sheriff because I would rather look for the interest of the President and support it. In 2023, I did not support Sheriff. I supported Ovie Omo Agege but Sheriff won. But Mr. President too won the election. So today, Sheriff is supporting Mr. President, so I have no choice than to support Sheriff.
Are you saying that the LP has no foothold in Delta State?
No, I said Labour Party is ‘all’ party. Any aggrieved politician in any party is a potential LP person, because I try to check those who were in LP and realised they are either APC or PDP. It doesn’t have structure but aggrieved people from APC, PDP anywhere. They are just aggrieved, they don’t know why they’re going to LP.
How do you assess the performance of the Niger Delta Development Commission, since Tinubu came?
If I want to talk about NDCC, some people will say it’s because Samuel Ogbuku, the Managing Director, is my friend but if he isn’t performing, I will come out and say what you are doing is wrong. But I think for the first time, NDDC has a proper vision and a structure and because of the leadership of the NDDC, the chairman and the MD, I think they are doing very well. This is the first time you can see pocket of projects across the region and commissioning of meaningful projects like the Omadino-Escravos road. The initiative came through the NDDC, a joint venture with some oil companies – Chevron, NNPC and now the state government – so we can have road from Warri to Escravos and you know what that means. So, it takes a very good leader to have that kind of vision. What we used to know about NDDC before now, is that all our money used to end up in Abuja. But today, I think the young man is equally galvanising support for Mr. President, through whatever he’s doing. This is the first time you will see the board chairman and the MD working together as one. And I think our youth too, are very happy.
So, if he’s performing, where is the call for his removal and the allegations of plotting against the president coming from?
You know, let me tell you, and I will use myself as an example. My younger brother got involved in some shady deal of cannabis. As I speak with you today, I don’t know any NDLEA officer. The reason why I don’t know any NDLEA officer is because I don’t get myself involved. I can know a military officer because of our terrain – insecurity in our area. But I don’t have anything to do with NDLEA. But if you look all over the media houses, social media, they are saying he is Ayiri’s brother. So, when somebody has affinity somewhere, people try to take advantage. For instance, I saw what a very close friend of mine posted. I was in my house trying to go and see Mr. President and my driver was not around. I said, okay, my younger brother should take me there. When we got there, they said is he your younger brother? Let him come in. After I finished my discussion, we took a photograph and he was in the same photograph with Mr. President. When that unfortunate incident happened, a lot of people said ‘oh, Mr President is a drug baron and Ayiri have been carrying this boy with private jet all over.’ And I knew nothing about that. It was surprising to me that my brother got involved. And I said, he should face the law. I did not pay my money or anything. I said, this young man wants to destroy my name.
I know people that were fighting over this local government and ward delineation in Warri Federal Constituency and that was the only avenue through which they thought they could get back at me. So, if today they say Sylva is linked to coup plotting. What do you expect politicians to say next? Politicians will tell you, “Oh, he is Sam’s friend!” I used myself as a typical example. In fact, some called me that they want to put the thing on television to get at me. Nobody mentioned his name. I said, whether you mention my name, God in heaven knows that I have no link to that. And I don’t get myself involved in illegality. I have had an opportunity to do illegal bunkering in this country. I have all it takes to do it. I have the facility – barges. I have money. But I told my friends who are partaking in those businesses that I’m not going to be part of it. Somebody came to me and said, ‘you have this barge. I’m going to pay you N7 million a night.’ But if I take the facility to Chevron, Chevron was going to pay me N1.5 million a month. And I took my barge to Chevron. And the man was saying, why are you doing this? You don’t understand. I said, well, leave this matter. But I built this barge then for more than N60 million. Today to build those barges, you’re going to spend almost N1 billion, for you to build those barges right now. I said, so I’m not going to get myself involved. I spoke to the guy. We discussed, we argued and I convinced myself that I was not going to be part of it. If you go to my community, they will tell you Ayiri is the one that used to call Navy when they are doing illegal bunkering.
The first problem I have in my community is going against illegality. Although if I see something that I don’t like, I can fight it, you don’t come and oppress me. Less than two weeks after that discussion, Navy were all over the river, seizing and blowing them up. I was watching TV with my wife. Navy was saying, ‘oh, we seized this barge.’ I used my phone and called my guy. I said, how far? So, for me, I have a deeper opportunity to do shady deals to make money but I choose not to do it because I have to position myself to fight for my people. Being in politics is not because of myself. It’s because of my people. So sometimes money doesn’t persuade me. I try as much as possible to get myself off shady, and dirty business.
The surge in oil production. What is responsible for that?
As you can see, there are a lot of companies working at the moment and the federal government is paying them and the companies too engaged a lot of people from the communities around the Niger Delta, both the young and everybody. Not only those that are doing the job are beneficiaries, there are some persons staying at home – old women and stipends are being paid to them the way governments outside the country takes care of old people. So, if you for instance you go to my village now and you want to do illegal bunkering, immediately an old woman sees smoke, she will be the one to come in because she knows that is where she is getting her benefit. People breaking the pipe, the one that they do on high sea, I think there are limits to all those things now. So, I think the surveillance companies are actually working. I think that is the reason we are getting high production.
What would you have to say about the state of PDP, do you see the Ibadan convention reviving the party?
I’m not a member of PDP and so sometimes I don’t like poke-nosing, I like to concentrate on my own party. If PDP is going down, it is to my advantage. If I have a way to ensure that PDP dies so that I will have less stress, I will do it. I pray that PDP doesn’t get revived.
Don’t you think that your position is selfish?
Even God said love yourself before you love your neighbour. If you get into a flight, you have to wear the mask for yourself before helping others. So, if PDP is dying, why would I go and resurrect them and we are in the same race?
What is your take on the controversy surrounding the stadium project in Delta State?
I will never get myself involved in it because the man behind it, he’s not my friend. He used to be my brother but as somebody that used to speak the truth, I will say what I know. When Amaju Pinnick came with that project on a courtesy to the then Olu of Warri and said he wanted to site this stadium in Ugborodu, I told him, I was speaking to him as a brother and a friend. Then I said, let me suggest something to you, if you want this project in a remote area, like what you’ve explained, people want this thing to get nearer to the community, nearer to the people where they don’t have access, take this project to Itsekiri where the logistics issue is closer, just about 10 minutes to Warri. The money you are talking about you will use all the money for logistics.
I was sharing my experience with him. Sand filling by Chevron will take a lot of money. They have to put a lot sand before it will settle. As chairman of Itsekiri regional development council, I had almost a similar experience. Chevron said we should start levelling sand so that people can start building and the money in the account was about 1.6 million US dollars. So, in that account, you will sign, Chevron will sign, and government will sign. But for you to carry out any job, it’s Chevron that will come with their engineer to go with our own consultant to go and see how they will achieve the job. So, there’s more or little way you can defraud or do anything funny about the money. So, they went to the field with Chevron engineer and they came back to report that to get that sand filling alone, taking equipment from Warri and everything, they are going to spend 1.5 million dollars. And what was in the account? 1.6 million dollars. And I was the chairman. And I know my community. Tomorrow if they call and say, Ayiri what did you do with the money? I say I used it to level sand. You will see all over the social media that Ayiri has taken the money. So I went to Chevron and said, my tenure is going to expire next year. Please, you go and exercise patience. When I leave office, someone else becomes chairman, you can do the job. Not less than two months later, someone wrote to EFCC and police that Ayiri has ‘eaten’ the 1.6 million dollars in that account. It was all over the social media in Nigeria, all over newspaper, without verification. Uduaghan (then Delta governor) called me. He was in the security council and called me. I said hello sir. He said, “Ayiri is it true that the $1.6 million in that account, you and your friends shared the money?” I said sir, please call Ecobank. The money is there. He called and said the money is there. While the money was still there, people in my community were carrying rumours that I had taken the money and that caused crisis in the community. Full crisis. Because of those that hate me, that crisis lasted for three years and the money was in the account. So, passing through this experience and everything, I told my friend then and my brother that this money that you are bringing, the area you want to build the stadium, for you first of all to cut that sand, I know how much will go. It’s very close to water. You have to do some protection. So, at the end of the day, you have this contractor, the two of you will quarrel. It’s now up to how many years now? They are everywhere, fighting, accusing Amaju Pinnick of allegedly misappropriating money. As we speak today, I don’t talk to Amaju. I don’t see any reason why I would talk to him. But when you asked me this question, I had to speak on it. I’m telling you that the terrain and the money they brought, Amaju just wanted to say, oh, I did the stadium in the community. I don’t know what you want to showcase to people when you know that the fund in question cannot do the project. So today the project becomes an abandoned project. It was a fantastic idea. So some of us knew that money was not enough for the project.
