Today, I addressed some members of the media and the Senate Press Corps on my views about the President’s nomination of Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN, as INEC Chairman. Everyone knows that the President has forwarded the name to the Senate, which has been read and referred accordingly, after approval by the National Council of State.
My views about the impartiality of INEC officials are well known, and that is the way it should be. I have listened to a number of commentators and made some inquiries, and I told journalists that, on the basis of the available evidence and facts, I will be voting to confirm or support the nomination of Professor Amupitan.
As a member of the Committee on Electoral Matters, I am aware of the controversies about his alleged membership of the President’s legal team in the last election petitions. I have made a lot of inquiries, and I have been told that the nominee was not a member of the President’s legal team, and that the name is being confused with another professor — Professor Osipitan — also a Professor of Law, but in Lagos, not the nominee, who is a Professor of Law in UNIJOS, although the names appear similar.
While requiring impartiality of nominees, as we have established, in the case of professionals, we should look beyond evidence of professional engagement or involvement and probe to discover partisan or political involvement. As lawyers, by their own professional calling and ethos, they are duty-bound to accept briefs from persons and parties who retain their services and are not tied to any particular politician or political party.
But in this case, what has been shown so far establishes that he wasn’t a member of the President’s legal team. Even if it were so, I would still have required further evidence of political or partisan involvement, in a political sense, not professionally. We can’t confine professionals like lawyers and doctors from attending to any set of politicians or political parties.
Furthermore, I consider refreshing the nomination of a Professor of Law of his standing, who is also, for the first time, a Senior Advocate appointed into this office at this critical period. While being a professor is evidence of scholarship, but may not be enough to speak for integrity, I believe that the additional consideration of being a Senior Advocate — the first in our history — speaks a lot. It gives an opportunity for the nominee, when confirmed, to be alive to the demands and to be alive to his place in history. And I believe he should be conscious of the judgment of men and God, and also of posterity.
Also today, I have been bombarded since morning when the news broke of the defection of the Governor of my state, His Excellency Senator Duoye Diri, who said he resigned from the PDP with his executives and 14 members of the PDP, out of the 17 PDP-elected members of the State House of Assembly. It is a major development in the politics of our state.
Our state, which has been in the PDP since 1999 till date, is now midway being donated to the APC free of charge. I’ve told all those who have been bombarding me with questions that I am not moving. I am still in the PDP. My life and values about constancy, consistency, principles, honour, and loyalty to people and causes have not changed.
I, more than anyone, since we lost in the 2015 presidential election, have been at the forefront, bearing the brunt in unspeakable terms of keeping the state PDP and fighting to elevate the governor and everyone else in the state to the current positions which they hold on the platform of the PDP.
It is unfortunate that my hand-picked successor, whose consideration was influenced mainly by the need to protect the values and ideals of the state and of the Ijaw Nation, sees things differently. The PDP has a special place in the history of Bayelsa, the Ijaw Nation, and the Niger Delta, and all so-called minorities and majority groups in Nigeria, as well as all faiths, because it is an inclusive platform.
The PDP gave my people an opportunity to be a Vice President, an Acting President, and a President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And I branded it, since 2015, as Governor, the party of the Ijaw Nation — the same way I branded Bayelsa the Jerusalem of the Ijaw Nation.
I believe that I, and other leaders and all products of the PDP, of Bayelsa and the Ijaw Nation, have a duty to show loyalty and steadfastness to the PDP to the very end.
I’m aware of the challenges in the party caused by the governors — the lack of leadership and focus of the governors and the members of the Working Committee who decided to tear the party to pieces on irrelevant issues, even up till now. But I believe that captains who are truly deserving of their ranks are the last to bail out. Any captain or pilot deserving of his rank and place must do everything to salvage a troubled ship or craft and must be the last to bail out. I believe that time has not come.
This was why, when the PDP lost in 2015, I devoted a lot of time as Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee, working with others to galvanize and reposition the party and all governors and leaders. We stood our ground to reorganize and save the party and position it for the 2019 election, which we believe we won.
To be fair to the Governor, he consulted me, and we have discussed several times, and on each occasion, I told him my position, based on my principles and values, which he knows. And these are the same values that I had in mind when I supported him above other equally worthy contestants, because of our collective involvement in the Ijaw movement and the Niger Delta struggle. His area, the smallest local government, had not produced a governor before, and he has been a part of my team since 2012.
It is unfortunate that he has taken this step, which he is at liberty to take. As I said, these days, you don’t know what is pursuing most of these governors and leaders defecting to the APC, or what they are pursuing. I wish him the best of luck.
I use this opportunity to call on all in Bayelsa to be calm and go about the politicking that will unfold from now till the 2027 elections peacefully. Even in the face of a crippling recession and an unprecedented federally backed opposition subversion, I did a lot to build peace and stability, and to take the state away from criminality and violence. And this Governor, to his credit, is also building on that foundation.
I enjoin all not to hide under the politicking that this will generate to undermine the peace that we have secured in Bayelsa for over 15 years. It is on account of my commitment to peace that, since leaving government, I have not made any comment, nor have I behaved as a godfather — putting pressure or even making demands or interfering — and that has brought us thus far, showing maturity and tolerance to this level.
I assure everyone in Bayelsa that I will continue to do that, even in this situation moving forward.
I commend the loyalty and steadfastness of all officials and leaders in the state who have decided to keep faith with the PDP in this trying time. I also commend the abiding loyalty of the people who, we know, constitute the organic membership and strength that the PDP has always enjoyed.
I will consult with other leaders of the party to begin the process of repositioning the PDP as the opposition that we have suddenly become.
HSD.
