‘PDP can’t win in 2019’

Olorogun O’tega Emerhor was the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State in the 2015 elections. In this interview with BOLAJI OGUNDELE, he speaks on the progress so far made by the APC-led Federal Government, the chances of his party in future elections and other issues.

In your own estimation, how well have we fared as a nation in 57 years?

First we must thank God that the country is 57 year old, but truly in the life span of a country, as in human beings, 57 is young, compared to other countries. However, Nigeria has gone through a lot in 57 years and from all our collective experience, and knowing the diversity of the people that make Nigeria up, I think we have reasons to celebrate, that in spite of the difficulties, Nigeria is still together. We’ve experienced a lot, we have learnt a lot from the experiences and though things may look tough, there are Nigerians and leaders who are committed to seeing the country get better.

What’s your expert opinion, are we truly out of recession, even as the market prices still remain high?

The way to look at the economy is to look at where you were before and where you are now. Look also at the potential of the country you are talking about. If you look at what we could be, we are not where we should, but if you look at where we are coming from, where the APC government took this country from two and half years ago, the depth of recession that was lurking behind because of the policies employed, because of how our resources had been managed, the evidence of it was out there that all Nigerians could say we were really in trouble. That’s how to look at it.

Coming from that, we were running an economy that was being fed by corruption; corruption was running the economy just the way a tap runs, so when that tap was shut, the economy took a hit and because the blood stream, which was the corruption, was not there, a new way to survive had to be developed and that came with pains and that was mainly why we were in a recession. Now the system has corrected itself up to a point, government too has acted, you see what has happened to our exchange rate; it went so high and after so much intervention and the propping up of agriculture and many other actions taken by government, you’ll see that we are crawling out of recession to positive now. But even the president acknowledged it that he will only accept that we are out of recession when the ordinary people begin to feel comfortable and I think that is a sign of a good leader.

Technically, by statistics and calculations, we can say we are out of recession, but as the income of individuals improve; are they finding it easier to buy stuff, can they confess that things are now going on very well. No. At the individual level, it is still tough, but the macro level, the national level, has to turn first, that is what has happened and the impact on individuals will drag for a while, but surely it will show up.

With the PDP’s recent regrouping and restrategising, do you think the APC will be able to retain the presidency after the 2019 general election?

We are facing different scenarios. The PDP were like armed robbers who came to your house, who did not only steal everything, but also removed the roof of the house and the rains are now on you. That’s what happened to Nigeria. Now, APC came in, drove the armed robbers out of the house, tried to restore some of the stolen items and the house is now roofed and Nigerians are still saying that although you have re-roofed the house, we are still not living with the luxury we had before the PDP came because, even if the PDP came to rob, some of the robbery still rubbed off on us. I think that’s where we are. But let me point out that Nigerians are diligent and intelligent people, they will not give the country back to armed robbers, I can tell you that. Even though the PDP has regrouped, Nigerians will remember where that had taken them to and cannot forget that easily. Who do you think Nigerians will work for; a man who is trying to restore things or the pillager? Yes, they’ve been delayed, it’s not been as smooth as itshould be, but I believe that before 2019 it will have become very obvious like we have crept out of recession, things will begin to happen that Nigerians will now realize that though it’s been slow, though it has dragged on, but we are facing the right direction. We are not where we were before, let’s give these APC people another chance to consolidate on this turn around that they are doing.

You can see the reception that the president received when he came back from his medical leave. Nigerians have now realized that he’s been doing a good job  and thank God sincerely that He has saved his life, he’s back to continue to move this ‘rickety vehicle’ from where it is to where it is going.

Do you think the fear that the APC may fail Nigerians is out of place?

A lot of the seeming division you see in the Delta state APC is not unusual and a lot of it is overstated and much of it is also the act of those we are opposed to, trying to ignite and amplify seeming division, just to show to the world that we are not ready to throw them out. What has happened; they stole the election in 2015, the core of the APC that worked for that election still remain intact in Delta APC. They realized that with more strength and with more people coming in, the APC will be stronger. That core opened the door and very powerful other political opposition figures came in to join in APC. You are aware Great Ogboru led the whole group of former Labour Party in the party. Honourable Victor Ochei led another group into the party. Recently you must be aware of Cairo Ojuigboh leading almost half of PDP into the APC.

When people come together like that, there has to be some form of integration, power sharing, a fair way of ensuring participation by everybody so these issues, some time, can create tension, even with best of parties. At the national level the APC is a conglomeration of different political parties and it’s been well managed, but at the state level we are getting there. We had issues with our state executive council; a group went to court, but now we have settled all of that. The issue of groups; yes there are pressure groups in the party, but that in itself is strength because these pressure groups are also standing behind individuals that have intentions to either run for positions in 2019n or take some positions within the party. This is normal in democracy, there must be internal contests and people must look for those with like minds to work with in order to create advantage for themselves, but people interpret this as additional division within the party. I also lead a group called the Mainstream Delta APC (MDA), our objective is to bring all people of like minds, with whom we can all work in the same direction, in terms of picking a candidate that will be governor, in terms of picking candidates for the state executive council. This is without prejudice to what Light of Labour people, who came to join us, will prefer or what any other group will prefer and we are reaching out like you saw this afternoon, the Adolor group has come and we are talking, we want to enlarge our group and create an alliance that can help us be stronger within the party. There are also some individual interests within the party and as long as things are done within the guidelines of the party and everybody submit themselves to the supremacy of the party, everything will work well.

For the Okowa and PDP, if they still believe that we are divided we will want them to continue in that belief, but they will realize that we are not, but waxing stronger and preparing for the battle that is ahead. We pray that the advantages of rigging and all that that used to be created by the system won’t be there, that we’ll have a level playing ground. We now have a fair umpire, we now have a federal government that is ready to have a real election. Deltans will vote for good governance, which they have not had in 18 years.

Is it true that the APC has zoned it’s governorship slot to the North Senatorial District. If it is true, what informed the decision and is it a generally accepted decision?

There’s no understanding that the party will zone governorship to the north, but in Delta state, during more than 18 years that the PDP has run the state, they have put a system in place wherein Delta Central has done 8 years, Delta South has done 8 years and currently Delta North is doing 4 years. For us as APC, we must be smart, we are a political party and we want to take over  government, if this is what is existing in the state we must know that it exists, we must recognize it and we must put it in our calculations if we want to win the state and I think that’s what APC is prepared to do. Let me tell you straight; APC plans to win the governorship in 2019 and zoning or whatever will not stop us. Like in MDA, we have tabled this matter and we said we are going to be smart about it. If we put all calculations in place and the best way to win the governorship is taking it to the north, we will do it. If there’s another way to win the governorship without taking is to the north, we will do it, but we’ll make the smart decision and that’s what we want to do. The bottom line is APC will do a free and fair primary and someone is going to emerge as the governorship candidate and that someone, from what I know, I’ve discussed with my colleagues, my leaders and other people, will be somebody who by all calculations will help us to win the governorship.

The council elections are round the corner. Do you see the APC making any impact?

The key thing about local government elections is who is organizing it, unfortunately the National Assembly is still processing the law that will take it off the hands of state governors. From experience and in all the states where the governors set up the electoral bodies, opposition have not fared too well. We don’t believe the case will be different in Delta state, we don’t believe they’ll provide a level playing field for the election. But we are politicians, we must still go there and try our best. If we have a level playing field, they can’t win, they know that and from the recent law that they just passed, trying to give a short time for preparation because that have the benefit of knowledge, they are already preparing their candidates, so they are trying to scramble us into that time frame so that we won’t have enough time to mobilize. Even if it was just that we can still beat them; if they’ll allow DSIEC to be independent, to really bring the materials to the units and they allow us to have a proper election and they don’t go about snatching ballot boxes and end up writing results, they know we will beat them. What I can say is that we will be there to contest the election with them.

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