NIMI WALSON-JACK, lawyer, criminologist and pro-democracy activist, tells Special Correspondent, JOE EZUMA, why he wants to be Rivers State governor in 2015.
Reasons for contesting Rivers governorship in 2015
Part of the reasons I want to run is, first, that vacancy exists. By our democratic calendar and experience, we are due for elections and people must step forward to run for public offices. Public office is public service. The only thing that we, as good men, can do is to do something; so we don’t just sit back and wait for some lion-hearted persons to run for public offices. So, that is one of the basic reasons; exercise of my rights as a citizen to vie for the highest offices in the state.
Nimi Walson Jack
Then, of course, there is a leadership vacuum. Everybody says it; the average Nigerian, the average Rivers person or resident complains about a leadership vacuum. I am running to provide leadership; leadership that can move the people, leadership that can persuade the people, leadership that can make the people go from where we are to where we all really want to be, leadership that will inspire development, and at the end of the day, leadership that can create prosperity in Rivers.
More fundamentally is the fact that, increasingly, we are becoming a fragmented state. Disunity has set in; the cracks of tribalism and its associates are there for us to see. We are running, so that we can have a governmental power and authority to unite our people. That is fundamental and that unity will set the stage for development – economic, social and political. But basically, I am qualified and competent to vie for the governorship of the state.
Running on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform against Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s All Progressives Congress (APC)
Membership of a political party is a personal decision. I have my views, ideas and position on the PDP. Indeed, I was a fan, not member, of the PDP in the sense that even when the present and past political leadership of the state wanted to start partisan politics (they were not really members of the PDP), I sold the PDP to them and they moved over from the then All Peoples Party (APP) to the PDP.
So, I have had a long interest in the PDP. This interest is not a fancy interest; it is rooted in the foundation of the PDP. So, if the governor decides, with some of his associates, to go to another party, that is their decision. I remain a member of the PDP.
Relationship with Amaechi
My relationship with Amaechi dates back to the days of the National Republican Convention (NRC). We were all members of the NRC, and then, eventually, we served the Rufus Ada-George/Peter Odili administration as special assistants. I was Special Assistant 1 and he was Special Assistant 2; we shared the same office. Yes, like many others, we have come a long way. Everybody in Rivers knew that I was not part of the subsequent Odili administration. For eight years, I was not part of the government.
When Amaechi became governor, he asked groups: civil society organisations, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the academic staff union, to nominate members to be appointed into an electoral commission he wanted to be independent. I was nominated by the civil society organisations. Amaechi did not nominate me, but he accepted my nomination and forwarded to the House of Assembly, which approved the nominations.
I worked with other individuals who were equally nominated, and our achievements in the electoral commission are there to speak for themselves. We changed the face of elections. We did not look like people who were influenced in any way. I am sure the two reports we wrote are all there for anybody to challenge our achievements and our assertions.
I also had the privilege of chairing the Education Summit, which developed the blueprint for the education sector in Rivers, and I am proud of this. Beyond that, I am sure you will not find my name in any other thing. So, I don’t want to deny our friendship.
There are people who are close, who had worked with people and once they run into trouble, they deny them. I cannot deny my friends. We took decisions in the interest of the people. We served the people and we intend to serve the people in higher capacities. That is why we are presenting ourselves. I don’t think that having served the people of Rivers under the Amaechi administration, I will now become a liability. That is not what democracy is all about.
Coping with riverine/upland dichotomy and zoning principle, coming from the same senatorial district with Odili
The tradition for division, sharing and allocation of political and public offices in Rivers is based on upland/riverine dichotomy, not senatorial districts. Senatorial districts are transient, they are fixed by the electoral map, and they can change at any time. So, sticking to senatorial districts will mean that indeed you will wake up one day and a group that has been in one senatorial district that produced the governor will find themselves in a new senatorial district and produce a governor again. But the riverine/upland dichotomy, which is natural and which we inherited, has no negative connotation in Rivers.
It cannot be changed because new rivers cannot be created; rivers are only created by Almighty God. So, we all know where we stand. Our fathers started it during the period of creation (of the state), when we were youths. That is what we met in Rivers. It has always remained like that. That is why you have a governor from the upland and you have a deputy from the riverine. Never have we had a governor from upland in one senatorial district and another one from upland in another senatorial district. It has never been done in Rivers. That is the first part of it.
The second part of it is that Governors Ada-George and Amaechi come from the same senatorial district. So, under the rules of adherence to senatorial districts, Amaechi should not have run, and could not have run, as governor of Rivers. But, Amaechi ran because Ada-George, who comes from the same senatorial district with him, is from the riverine.
So, we cannot change the goal post in the middle of the game. Two upland governors had served. It is only natural for the people of the riverine to demand that it goes to them. Let me say that in addition to that, my case is the foundation for the next electoral process. It does not deviate from the fact that the governor has to be competent and qualified. We have all it takes, not just the issue of senatorial district.
The other thing is that if you say the zoning for governorship is senatorial, have you observed in Rivers that all the deputy governors have come from the same senatorial district? So, why has that not been zoned? That just shows you that this senatorial district zoning is just the arrangement of the members of the political class because it suits their interest. But the majority of the Rivers people, including our fathers and mothers, who are alive know the right thing to do and they will do it when the time comes.
Continuing from Amaechi in the area of infrastructural development
On the issue of continuation, government is continuous; it helps development and saves a lot of time. Of course, like all governments, when, by the grace of God, I am elected and I assume office, we will look at existing programmes. There must be documents saying what they are all about and at what stages they are. Then, we will continue the ones that are in the best interest of the people and complete them. If there are programmes or activities that need to be re-assessed, we will do that. That is the essence of government. You don’t really have to re-invent the will for people to know that you can make do with what is on ground.
Definitely, there are many areas of the state economy, which have not even been touched, which we intend to look at. For example, the education sector today has infrastructure, but we still need content. We need the right quality of teachers. We need the right incentives for teachers. We need the right facilities within the school building itself, and not just infrastructure. We need the facilities to provide a conducive learning environment for the students. We need to put in place incentives for the students to feel comfortable to learn and perform well.
A technocrat succeeding Amaechi as governor
It is not a matter of thinking; it is a matter of what is right, whether people, the voters, will do the right thing. To be a technocrat is not a bad thing. A technocrat is a professional; he is an expert. He is good and competent in what he does. During the tenure of Olusegun Obasanjo as president, through the presidency of our brother, Goodluck Jonathan, we have gone in search of technocrats, and if you do assessment of performing ministers, they are the ones you have labelled technocrats. We went to bring them. I want to believe that Rivers people are tired of half-baked performances; they want people who can get the job done.
So, if it is on the basis of expertise, I have the confidence that politicians will support me as they are already supporting me. See, one thing some of us seem to forget is that politicians know who is good, and when you ask them to nominate people to get the job done, they nominate people that will do the right thing. So, give them that credit. That is the first aspect.
The second aspect of it is that the people who are just saying that I am just a technocrat and not a politician do not know that I am a politician. I joined politics at the age of 25. In 1988, I was a member of the Constituent Assembly. I was the national treasurer of one of the political parties that were formed but was not registered by President Ibrahim Babangida. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu was my party’s national chairman. Then, I was also a foundation member of the NRC, where I served as the party’s legal adviser here in Rivers. Of course, I was a Special Assistant to the Ada-George/Peter Odili administration. I represented the government and the party in very high profile meetings in Abuja, under the chairmanship of Tom Ikimi. So, I have been there. I was the Director-General of the Presidential Nomination Convention of the NRC at the Civic Centre in Port Harcourt.
Politicians of my age and above will not say I am not a politician. The difference is that I am also a professional and politics is not, for me, a means of livelihood. For me, politics is service. I come in to serve and I will go back to my profession. I am coming to serve; I am not like some politicians who see politics as bread and butter – breakfast and lunch thing. I have been in the consultation field for the past 12 months and I have consulted widely and I can assure you that, as we speak, I am backed by members of the political class.