BAYELSA IS A FAILED STATE – AGBEDI

Agbedi & Gov Sylva
Honourable Fred Agbedi was Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] in Bayelsa State.  Now a gubernatorial aspirant for the party's ticket for the 2011 governorship election, Agbedi in an interview with Daily Sun in Abuja, dismissed the state under the leadership of  a sitting PDP governor, Timpre Sylva as  a failed state.

As former state chairman, he shared his experience, as he also offered insight into why PDP governors always want to appropriate the party structures in their states.

Excerpts:
Why are you in the race?
I am in the race to develop Bayelsa, to save the state, to serve the people of Bayelsa. That's why I am in the race.

But you are former PDP chairman in the state and you must have had a warm relationship with Governor Sylva. At what point did you part ways?

Would I say we parted ways? I was chairman, led the campaigns that brought him to power, as governor. Of course, you know the history, how he emerged.

The incumbent President was the governorship flagbearer of the party.

It was when he was nominated as vice presidential candidate that the ensuing politics produced Sylva as flagbearer and eventually, he was elected governor. Of course, as governor, early in 2007, I first realized that the government was failing and I opted to resign, but one of my leaders advised that I shouldn't.

A month or two after the governor orchestrated a process that pushed some of us out of office.

So, I don't want to say, precisely, whether I parted ways with the governor. It wasn't a matter of parting ways.  I saw early in the day that the government was going to fail and I really didn't want to be mentioned as one of those who participated in a failed government.

That was my understanding of my predicament in PDP, when Sylva came in as governor.

But you were in a position to advise him, when things weren't going well.

Of course, why did I opt to resign and was advised not to by some of my leaders? It was because I took a very frank advice, as to how to run the government and as to how the government was going and of course, he wasn't happy. Sometimes, he would say, you were reasoning like an old man and this is the era of youth, the digital era and I was reasoning like an old man! Of course, you know such a man wouldn't like to be given frank advice. He saw me as a Metusellah in the system.

He is an incumbent; these days when PDP governors have appropriated the party structures in their states. You want to get the party ticket from a sitting governor, who is also contesting.

How are you going to do it?
Well, it would be difficult, but I don't think it is impossible.  Of course, it wouldn't be the first time that power have been wrested from an incumbent. It has happened in Borno State, it happened in Kwara State, it happened in Anambra and Kano states. So, I don't think that it is an impossibility, it depends on what the people want, who they want to support and then, your own popularity among the people.

So, how popular are you in Bayelsa?
Of course, I consider myself popular to win election in Bayelsa, simply because the people know me for who I am. I have a character, I have exhibited transparency, I have exhibited sincerity and the people know that I can be trusted.

Those are the things that make you popular in any society you find yourself.  If the people can rely on you, then of course, that is the person the people believe and that's what I am in Bayelsa.

But there is the speculation that you are the candidate of President Jonathan; that all along, he had been using some of you to settle personal scores with Governor Sylva?

Well, people can say whatever they want to say, but I of course, Bayelsans know that I am capable of taking my own decisions and going according to what I feel that I should do at any given time. I am not being sponsored by anybody; I am not being sponsored by the President, or any other person, as they may speculate.

Of course, sometimes I see it is a divine call. Divine in the sense that either he had pushed me out of office the way he wanted by God's own design to prepare me to come back to run for election. So, I see it as a divine call. Not because anybody is sponsoring Fred Agbedi to run against Sylva. No, that's the way I see it.

I had contested, won elections to the House of Representatives, I served at local government level, at state level, I had run for the Senate, at least twice. So, I can as well run for the governorship of my state. And that's what I am doing.

You claimed you were pushed out. If that didn't happen, when you were party chairman, would you have been running today for the governorship ticket?

I don't understand what you mean by what happened? If he had not moved against you?

Of course, I told you, at the beginning that early into the government in 2007—of course, you know he was elected in 2007. By November—December, I had told a few friends that I was going to resign as chairman of the party, because I felt that the government was going to fail. The programs, activities that were carried out by the governor weren't the kind of activities and programs that were going to make up and endear our government and party to the people and I was already itching to leave.

I consulted a few people like I said. It wasn't because I was eager, but I was advised to rather stay and if possible, let them ease me out and I stay till about one or two months after, he did what he did.

So, it wasn't as if, because I was eager, but I had known early in the day that the governor was going to fail and of course, everybody knows that Bayelsa is a failed state.

Let me ask you this: you were former state chairman of PDP in Bayelsa Yes.

One of the reasons for the crises in PDP is the tendency by the incumbent to appropriate party secretariat. You were in charge of party secretariat. What was your experience like with the sitting governor then.

In the present political dispensation that's the greatest barrier to political parties and party officials. Governors, by whatever design, become leaders of the party and those who are at the national level would only listen to the governor, because probably, they believe that the governor knows, or being the only source of fund and some of these people believe the governor has the power of state that they are given.

So, there is always that feeling and there is always that thinking that if you are a party executive and you aren't working with your governor, then you aren't ready to serve.

You see, I was serving under Ahmadu Ali as national chairman and he would tell you, it is either that you are loyal to your governor, or you are out as chairman or whatever office you are holding.

So, the party has been sold to the governors and of course, some of us did say that it was a bad precedence, because you may be a governor today, tomorrow, you may no longer be one and if you fall into the same category of people, who are complaining and at that time you were governor, you had used it.

This is what has killed internal democracy. That time we weren't running internal democracy, the way it was supposed to be.

If you want to organize party congress and you give people the opportunity to contest, freely and be voted for, or voted against, whoever that emerges from that process automatically, he will know that he is there to serve the people. But in this case, you have governors that are referred to as leaders of the party, which isn't in the constitution of the party, but of course, because they control state power they now take charge of the party and dictate what happens and if you disagree, then you become an enemy of state. That's what is killing the present democracy.

Some of us, our desire is to separate government from party.

You have said, Sylva isn't performing. If you get the ticket, win election, what are those things you would bring into governance?

Fresh ideas.  There are certain basic things that the people need that as the leader, you need to provide for the people. If you aren't providing those things, then the people wouldn't be happy with you.

Take for example, the road to Bayelsa. It is a majorly riverine state and today, everybody is struggling to get to his community by boat.

If you have the opportunity to construct roads, bridges to the various communities and you aren't doing that, then, the people wouldn't be happy with you. That's the truth of the matter, because if they have a road standing across 10, 20 communities, they can easily take electricity through that road to the community. You can easily pipe water to those communities. All the doctors, teachers that are afraid of crossing the rivers and oceans that we have in our places to their point of duty, they will now drive in their own car to these places to work.

So, transportation would be less expensive. The stress of going to work and returning will not be there and then you would see development. Private people moving into the various localities to develop the communities by either purchasing lands, building offices, commercial houses and all that.

But if you don't, then those who are afraid of crossing the river will never want to risk their lives going to the next community.

So, Bayelsa as a state, priority for developmental project is road.

Then of course, in this modern era, we are talking of collaboration.

There are a lot of projects that government can encourage even the oil companies to come into partnership with it and execute without the government bearing the whole financial responsibility by itself.

Again, Niger Delta is getting totally insecure. Security is very, very important. I don't think that the most important security is you carrying guns all over place.No. Information is power. If you have an information based security, you will always know the black spot in all the communities and once you identified suck black spots, you would know how to counter them.

As far as I am concerned, that's the most important thing that we need to do in the Niger Delta. Not by carrying the long guns, the machine guns and all those things all over the place.

We are talking about employment. There are a lot of unemployed people in our region. But of course, some of us we have always tried to discourage the issue of what they call ghost workers.

Instead of  calling somebody a ghost worker and you pay him something, why not  let him do something and let him know that because of what I am doing that I am earning this money. But the moment you say, ''look we are going to pay you N40,000, just seat down at home; at the end of the month, come and collect your money.'' Of course, it would bring about laziness, idleness and because you have had more time to even plan evil. Yes, you have ample time and at the end of the month, you have money coming to you!

So, what is your business? But if you are engaged and you know that your salary is coming through that work you are doing from, either 7am to 6pm, by the time you come back home, you are thinking about how to relax with your family for the next day work.

So, as far as I am concerned, these are some of the issues we need to adresss.

But what's your specific programme for the youth?
Of course, we have government and we have the oil companies. One, if we train these youths on skill acquisition, they are going to be self employed. By the time you train them and they come out of training, they can now turn out something based on the skills that they have acquired. They can be useful to themselves.

Again, if you look at the oil companies, they also train people that they can employ. Not just train people and throw them into the labour pool. The oil companies should be made to train people and after the training absorb them to work with them.

But a situation, where you just say, ''oil companies are training people.'' After training them you give them, N100, 000 and by the time they finish that money they are back home. These are the kind of partnership we should be talking about. We should make them understand that you don't train people and come and dump them. If you want welder, train them as welders and absorb them; you want further training for these graduates, train them in such specialized areas and absorb them!

After all, the oil companies are operating in that environment. So, why not let them get full benefit in those companies? As government we always believe we can employ everybody, that's not possible. But the moment industries are created; they may not be the gigantic industries, but small scale and the people would be engaged.

Sometimes, you can start this and lease it out to certain category of people and then they can also employ people and pay back what government has given.

The people have to be encouraged and once you do that, they will also now encouraged themselves, to be able to be productive to themselves.

So, we are going to ensure that we don't just train people and dump them in their communities, or in the state without doing anything. The moment they are dumped for three, five months, they lost that skill completely and you see them going for self help. That's what is bringing some of them into the militancy and the challenges they are giving us as a region.

What makes you think you have the capacity to run the affairs of Bayelsa, as a governor?

What is capacity? First of all I am an adult, I am experienced, I have the educational qualification and I had served in various positions and in government and I think that over time, with my involvement in government, I believe that I can deliver the dividend of democracy.

On a final note, how would you  rate Jonathan's chances, in the contest for the PDP presidential ticket.

Some are of the opinion that his foot soldiers aren't doing enough?

Well, they are entitled to their opinion. And again, in politics, it is the result of the voting that would tell you whether somebody has done enough, or not.

Of course, you know that the campaign organization of Mr. President is going round the whole nation. They are touring the states, they are meeting with groups and that's how campaign is being done. If you sit at home, then you don't expect voters to work to you. But if you go to the people and talk to them, those who feel that your programs are good enough will support you and I know that Mr. President is going to win the election, because he is doing well as a president and his administration is attending to the challenges of the nation. There are quite remarkable changes that are happening  in the nation and I am sure because people are happy with him, they are going to return him to office.