I’m Still the most Powerful Politician Today
By Godffery Azubike
Sunday, August 03, 2008
He was governor of Bayelsa State for more than six years. During that period, he became also known as the "governor general" of the Ijaw nation. It was apparently in recognition of the respect he enjoyed among them and his influence in the Niger Delta region. But Diepreye Alamieyeseigha's political fortunes tumbled down the hill and into the valley 2005 when he was arrested in London on his way out of hospital where he had surgery. He was eventually impeached on December 9, 2005, and arraigned over allegations of money laundering and theft. In this interview with Godffery Azubike, staff writer, at his country home in Bayelsa State, Alamieyeseigha goes down memory lane to explain the circumstances that led to his travails, especially his confrontation with Olusegun Obasanjo, then president. Excerpts:
Nwswatch: How has life been with you since you left as Governor of Bayelsa State?
Alamieyeseigha: Well.., mine is a long story. I didn’t leave office voluntarily. I was forcefully removed by Obasanjo from the office, and was incarcerated for two years I passed through the valley of the shadow of death. I saw death starring at me several times, but thank God I came out by the grace of God. Life has not been the same. You will recall I was removed on December 9, 2005. And from January 2006, the Niger Delta has never been the same. I came back into my region and what I saw makes me sad. Every social system is dislocated and bastardised. There is insecurity, kidnapping, hijacking, destruction of lives and properties, unprecedented in the history of Ijaw land; and I said if it is not arrested, there is no hope for our future generation. Our children are no longer going to school. Industries are folding up, expatriates are moving out of the region and relocating to Lagos. So, the economy of the region is being destroyed and commercial activities which my people are known for retarded. Standard of living is not getting better. These are major challenges I have.
When you called me last night I was just returning from the creeks. I went to Tombia where all of them gathered and I addressed them. I preached peace and sustainable development. I am very hopeful. Anywhere I go I am celebrated and received. The respect I receive from the region even when I was governor, I did not enjoy it. It is true. When you have something good in your hand you don’t value it until you lose it. The region has seen it. I am deriving the benefit of service to my people. I provided purposeful leadership. I did not force people, I did not kill people. So to answer your question directly, I am not idle. I am assisting government of the federal republic of Nigeria in the search for peace, and security in the Niger Delta; because without peace and security, there would
be no development in the area.
Newswatch: Is the role you are now playing in the region part of the deal with the federal government which led to your release?
Alamieyeseigha: I was just ordered to be released. I went through the process. I took that decision to go into negotiation. I accepted the option of "plea bargaining" because it was clear to me that if I stayed longer than necessary, I was going to lose my life, because severally, my life was attempted. Their plan was to actually kill me. Most people didn’t know that. My problem was not about corruption. The people fighting me control the media and they fed the media with all kinds of things to discredit me. Nigerians are funny people. Very, very funny indeed. The EFCC was bad. There was nothing Ribadu could not do on Obasanjo’s instruction. All the security services were deployed to kill one man. Ribadu went to the National Assembly, and in the hallowed chambers of the senate, he told the entire world that he recovered N50 billion from me. It was not hidden. It was recorded. Nobody was able to ask him; this N50 billion recovered from Alamieyeseigha, was it stacked in a house, or was it in the banking system? If it is so, which bank? Banks were looking for just N25 billion for consolidation. So if they recovered N50 billion from me, and it was in the banking system, it should have helped some bank to consolidate. It could even establish two banks. Now if it was in a house, where was it located and where was it taken to? If it is in a bank, it would have been yielding interest. So who is benefiting from that N50 billion investments? I did not work with the federal government. Whatever money I had stolen would have been from Bayelsa State government, because that was where I superintended as governor. Now, from that time to date, is it not enough to return that N50 billion to the state government that owns it? Where is the money? Nobody is asking that question. They even told the world that they recovered almost one million Pounds in different currencies in my house in London. Who was there? Nobody. They said they broke into my house and recovered that. Have they returned the money to Bayelsa State government? From September 15, 2005 to date, nobody is talking about that.
They told the world that I have a refinery in Ecuador. Nigerians believed them. Where is the refinery? Can somebody have a refinery and hide it in a foreign country? Don’t we have an embassy there that can easily find out. Couldn’t someone even try to find out whether in my life time I have been to Ecuador at all. I have not even been to Ecuador all my life. They told the world that I have a special wrist-watch and that it costs about two million Pounds. Where is that wrist-watch? Which company manufactured it, how was it paid for? Nobody is talking about that. But I am telling you today that all my travails was because of my decision to stand by people in the demand for justice. It was also because of my opposition to third term. Obasanjo told me that he was going to deal with me and Atiku. Because Atiku had told him that he was going to run with me as his vice-president. And Obasanjo said it would be over his dead body, and that he was not going to allow that to happen. I confronted him. That was the beginning of all this problem. He asked me, and asked why I wanted to take his job? I said which job? He told me he was not leaving in 2007. I told him he would have to leave and that my loyalty to him would end on 29 May, 2007. And that was the encounter that culminated in all my travails.
Look, I was just coming out of surgical operation, look at it (opens the site of the surgery). I was bleeding when Ribadu was at Heathrow Airport to identify me to be arrested. They succeeded because it all happened in London. You know what they did? They had told America and Britain that as long as I remained governor of Bayelsa State, they could not guarantee free flow of oil in the Niger Delta. So America said in the year 2015, 25 percent of the energy requirement by America will come from the gulf of Guinea. So, they said they didn’t want another Sadam Husein again. They would support any measure against him. So it was a joint conspiracy to take my life. But this God we serve is powerful. He saved me. But Nigerians became part of the euphoria to bring me down and somebody did not even ask, how can the attorney-general and minister of justice of a country go to another country to say his own national and a governor of a state should not be allowed to come back home. They should hold him there. You can read in between the lines. Where on earth does a sovereign nation go to another sovereign nation to do what they did. And do you know that when I was forcefully removed from office, Obasanjo ordered that I should be flown out to London that night. Most Nigerians do not know that they took me to the immigration 12 0’clock in the midnight to do passport. Passport was issued at twelve midnight, and they arm twisted British government to take me back, but the embassy refused to give them visa. They summoned them, threatened them, they refused.
Newswatch: You mean Obasanjo was forcing the British government to issue visa to evacuate you to London ?
Alamieyeseigha: Of course, he wrote the British Prime Minister a stinker asking why they allowed me to come back. He wrote them a letter. That is the extreme the president of a country could go. Obasanjo is the most corrupt human being on planet earth. It will be revealed gradually. Obasanjo is evil. I am saying it today there is no anti-Christ. Obasanjo is the anti-Christ, the Obasanjo I know. And I wish him goodluck.
Newswatch: What do you do as business?
Alamieyeseigha:I am not doing any business. I have told you, my concern now is peace in the Niger Delta region. Without peace, there will be no development.
Newswatch: You were expelled from the PDP. During the last re-run election in Bayelsa State you featured prominently at campaign rallies. Why were you doing that for the party that did not show concern for you during your travails?
Alamieyeseigha: When Obasanjo was in power, he behaved like a maximum ruler. People say Abacha was bad, but you can’t compare Abacha with Obasanjo. Yes, Abacha was corrupt but Obasanjo was hundred times more corrupt than Abacha. What we went through during the past eight years, you can’t compare it with when Abacha was in charge. Every leader has his good and bad side. Certain areas Obasanjo did well too, I am not totally condemning him, but when you aggregate the bad side and the good side, there is no way you can compare him with Abacha, the name he didn’t want to hear. Nobody could come out to say Obasanjo, what you are doing was bad. Anybody that said that was finished. That was the type of person he was. Of course, Obasanjo unilaterally expelled me from the PDP. But I am happy that all the leaders of the PDP agree that he does not own the PDP. They say they brought him to the party. They said as far as they are concerned, I am still a PDP member and that my name is still in the PDP register and PDP did not expel me. They have also told me that Obasanjo cannot come from Ogun State to dictate what should happen in Bayelsa State. I was the governor in that state for six and half years, I would have impacted on the people. In the next 40-50 years, I am telling it today, only my disciples will be governor. I have touched the lives of everybody, so I will always be a king maker there in the state. So I am happy with that role to ensure that people who take over the leadership of the state are credible and can take the state to the next level. And since the state is progressing, I have no regrets for all my actions.
Newswatch: You are satisfied with what Sylva is doing?
Alamieyeseigha: Yes, Sylva was my special adviser, political. I know everybody. So in an election I have every right to support the candidate of my choice.
Newswatch: But, both of them in that election re-run; Amgbare and Sylva are your boys. Why did you take side?
Alamieyeseigha: Amgbare is my cousin. The ticket he got as AC candidate was because of me, I would claim that I gave him the ticket. Nobody on this planet earth today will contradict that. The situation at the time I gave him that ticket has changed. I was in detention, both of them are my children, so at a point I said no, this is the direction. Amgbare stop.
Newswatch: Did he heed?
Alamieyeseigha: He didn’t heed. The result was very clear.
Newswatch: Is that why you campaigned for Sylva?
Alamieyeseigha: Look, there is no opposition in government house anywhere in the world. If you are playing politics, you must read in between the lines. It was very clear that at this point in time, we need a relationship with the centre. How would you feel where we have a vice-president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from the state and his own state is ruled by another party. It is not right.
Newswatch: In effect, you are saying that you have no grudges against PDP?
Alamieyeseigha: No. It’s not the party that expelled me. It was Obasanjo that expelled me so, why should I. Am I not more of PDP? Didn’t I put on their muffler; didn’t I pick up microphone and campaign? I did.
Newswatch: Before your travails began you were regarded as "governor general" of Ijaw nation. Has that position diminished in any way?
Alamieyeseigha: Not at all. Anywhere I go in Ijaw land, not only in Bayelsa State, I am celebrated, even in Ondo State. I am with the people, and I thank God for His grace.
Newswatch: Will you still come back into active politics in future?
Alamieyeseigha: It’s not necessary. I am happy with what I am doing. What do I really need? Leadership is a relay race. You complete your tenure and hand over the batton. Who in this country is as powerful as me in the political arena today? I have my former deputy governor as vice-president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So I have access to the villa at anytime, officially and unofficially. I take him as a younger brother.
Newswatch: Does he reciprocate?
Alamieyeseigha: If he has not accorded me that respect and recognition, I won’t be talking about him this way. Back to the state, it is also the same. And, of course, you have a president that was my colleague, a friend, somebody we all respect and, of course, I am a title holder in his place. I am the Ganuwa Katsina, so what else does a man want? Look, the way I am moving freely, let Obasanjo try it. I drive my self and so on.
Newswatch: What is the way forward on the Niger Delta crisis?
Alamieyeseigha: In the first place I was very, very astonished and disappointed by government’s nomination of Gambari to chair that type of summit. Why was he selected? Are we expecting United Nations to fund the development of the region? And, therefore, they wanted a representative of the UN to chair the summit? Or was it in his capacity as what? I don’t even understand. But I think we really don’t need a summit to solve Niger Delta crisis. We have enough literature. We have been holding conferences, summits, seminars from 1957 till today. So we have enough information about Niger Delta, and it is available to government. So what we need is really for the governors of the region to come out with short term, and long term priority projects of the area. Let the states of the region aggregate it, put it in one document and present it to government, say, through the office of the vice-president. Let the federal government also appoint people and let them sit down in a close room, not a conference, to harmonise their positions and see what government can do over time. They can come out with communiqué. Let Mr. President address the nation, and appoint implementation committee. Or through the office of the special duties minister to be driven by the vice-president, to implement it. And all this can be achieved in two weeks. Not the type of Obasanjo jamboree, calling everybody to Abuja to give them tea. He won’t even allow anybody to talk. He is the master of ceremony, he is the solicitor, defender and the judge. One man.
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