By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, is the Leader of the Senate. He represents Cross River Central Senatorial District As a ranking senator who has utilized his position to attract projects to his state, he says, in this interview, that he has connected with his people and ready to render more services to them if re-elected.
*Ndoma Egba
Excerpts:
Cross River State government seems bent on stopping you from returning to the Senate in 2015. What is your problem with your state government?
I have no idea what the problem is. I have stated it again and again; I don’t have any known problem with His Excellency, the governor. But, there are government officials who want my seat and that sends a very clear message. I am privy to certain text messages inviting people to a meeting which came from government functionaries and they said they were under directives to invite them to the meeting. My attitude to it is that democracy is about the people. Democracy is government of the people, by the people and for the people. So I have connected with the people who are the main stakeholders in this project called democracy.
It appears that governors in collaboration with states PDP Chairmen are trying to alter the delegates lists ahead of the congress. What is your take?
I don’t know which primaries you are talking about because the primaries are yet to hold. What happened in Cross River is that they set up caucuses and the membership of the caucuses keeps changing according to their reading of the dynamics on the ground. If they think that the caucuses as composed were not going to achieve a particular result, they will change the membership, so, the membership was no longer as provided for in the Constitution of the PDP; it was dependent on the whims of those who have a particular result in mind.
I long ago protested in writing. I wrote to the state Chairman. I copied the National Chairman. I have not received any response. But because I have protested, I have raised issues about those caucuses; I decided to stay away so as not to validate what they are doing. So, as far as I am concerned, whatever I am doing is going to be guided strictly by the provisions of the PDP’s Constitution and the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It appears that many governors are against senators from their states from coming back to the Senate. What do you think is the reason for the acrimony between senators and their governors?
They (the governors) are in a better position to answer. In quite a number of cases, we are told that they want to come to the Senate, but if they have that ambition, it is only logical that we have this kind of disagreement but in a situation like mine, where the governor says he is not coming to the Senate, but you a lot of official presence in the activities of an aspirant, then your guess is as good as mine.
People are wondering, because you have been very close to Governor Liyel Imoke, at what point did you begin to have misunderstanding with him?
I don’t have any misunderstanding with my governor. Like I said earlier, I wish I know what the problem was; frankly speaking, I don’t have any misunderstanding. Nobody has told me what the issues are.
But there was this allegation that you were behind the coming out of one of the governorship aspirants on the platform of the PDP and it was alleged that you took the person to the Presidency and that angered your state governor.
I know that six persons have come to me to indicate their interest and I told all of them to go and talk to the governor who is the leader of the party and then come back to me. My message to all of them was the same.
Let us even assume that I have a candidate, how does that make him emerge? There is a process. He who becomes the governor of Cross River State is going to be determined by a process. So, this is just propaganda that has been recycled again and again. Okay, I have a constitutional right to have my own preferences, just like they don’t prefer me now. Apparently, I have the right not to prefer certain people, it is my right.
Is there any zoning arrangement or agreement, written or unwritten, concerning Cross River Central Senatorial District seat?
There has been zoning. We have this understanding; the Central Senatorial District is made up of two old local governments: Ikom and Obubra. Those two local governments are now six local governments-Old Ikom is now Ikom, Etung and Boki. Senator Matthew Mbu that I took over from is from Boki.
Hon Enoh is from Etung. So, we are all old Ikom people. Now, old Obubra has Obubra, Abi and Yakurr. The governor comes from Abi. Why was the Senate seat in old Ikom? It’s because in 1999, old Obubra produced the deputy governor; so, they gave the Senate seat to old Ikom.
The Senate remained in old Ikom because old Obubra produced the minister, who is the present governor. The Senate also remains in old Ikom because old Obubra, again, produced a governor in the present arrangement. So, old Ikom takes one, old Obubra takes another.
Now, they have come up with a new purported zoning arrangement; that they want to zone the Senate seat on the basis of federal constituencies. And what is their argument? Ikom and Boki are a federal constituency and they say Ikom has had, Boki has had. They say the governor was in the Senate from Abi and he’s governor today and so, Abi is out.
They also say Yakurr, which is in old Obubra has produced a governor in Clement Ebri. So, Yakurr is out. In their argument, only two local governments have not produced-Etung and Obubra, which is a federal constituency.
You can now see where the thing is going to; it’s like moving from an answer to the question. Now, Etung is the smaller local government in that federal constituency, but from 1999 till date, Etung has produced the House of Representatives member. The deputy governor, who is from Obubra, was impeached in 2001, the late John Okpa.
So, Obubra has been fallow from that time till date! So, if you are going to zone on the basis of equity, between these two local governments, Obubra is the one that has had nothing from 2001 till date. Why are you now zoning it to the local government that had something from 1999 till date? So, if you zone it to Obubra, you would have satisfied two things: maintained the old sharing arrangement and satisfied the federal constituency argument. But, I’m the senator representing Cross River Central, at what meeting was that decision taken that I was not there?
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