Chief Ayiri Emami is a founding chieftain of the All Progressives Congress APC in Delta state. He was the Deputy Director, Election Planning and Monitoring of the Presidential Campaign Committee for the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election in 2019. In this interview, he speaks on the sufferings of his people in the Niger Delta, reminds President Bola Tinubu of his promises to them, urges INEC to reconsider its handling of the constituency delineation in Warri and posits that Nigerians must hold their governors accountable just as they are holding the president. He says while two years is not enough to reset the country, President Tinubu needs to reshuffle his cabinet ahead of 2027, concluding that only about five ministers are actually efficient.
By Ismail Shuaib, ABUJA
The issue of Constituency delineation seems to be generating ethnic tensions in your state. What are the concerns?
There is a Supreme Court ruling that the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC should delineate Warri Federal Constituency. None of us went against it, but you have to do it religiously with the law — the Electoral Act. But in a situation where you come, you will now begin to allocate, take somebody’s Ward to another, we will not agree, because those are the injustices one actually complained about. But coming to implementation, somebody who had two Wards is now having 10 Wards, he is having 14 Wards. Somebody who had four Wards is having 14. Somebody who has six, you are reducing it!
Why am I faulting INEC? If the Supreme Court says do delineation, you can equally write to the Supreme Court because the instrument for the delineation is not a projected census. You cannot use projected census and the last census that was done was not taken. So you (INEC) can tell the Supreme Court and say, “these are some of the issues why I cannot carry out this delineation now.” But you just went, tried to favour some persons. Even, those who went to court are protesting now. The Ogbe- Ijoh and some people, they are protesting because what they allocated to them was not what they were expecting.
In our local government, Warri South, if you want to use it as a state, you will know that you have three cities. You have the Ogbe- Ijoh you have the Gbaramatu, you have the Ogbodu and the Orere. Now Ogbe-Ijoh is very populated because you have road. It is very close to Orude. From their one Ward, you gave them two. Then Gbaramatu, far close to my place in Escravos which had two Wards, you make them 10. What is the justification? And we are not saying we are going to fight because of this, but INEC must do the needful. And we have told everybody, we have told Mr President, we have told everybody who cares to know that INEC must do the needful or they should investigate that committee that was set up by INEC.
Everybody has representation by ethnic nationality in the National Assembly. Do you know that Warri Federal Constituency is the only place the Itsekiri can contest? But the Ijaw have Burutu, Patani, Bomadi; the Uhrobos have Ughelli. The only place we are confined to is the Warri Federal Constituency. Tompolo’s people, if they wake up tomorrow, they can go and contest in Burutu. That is why you see, the deputy governor, Monday Onyeme, Kingsley Otuaro can go to Burutu, but Ayiri Emami cannot go to Burutu. They will want to say, you are talking about ownership . Lagos is there. The Igbos are many in Lagos, does it mean that the Igbo own Lagos? If we want election, we will go and talk to them. The Yoruba talk to them. Is that not so? What they are trying to do is another genocide on the Itsekiri people, total cleansing of our tribe, not having any representation in anything.
We have a way we used to do our things before today. In my local government, we are the ones who used to go for the House of Assembly. But we just thought, ‘oh we have been living together, this time, give it to someone else’ and it has almost become a curse to us. Today, he is the one that is pushing that this Ward, they must do it this way. But we are crying out. The needle might be very small, but to swallow it is always very difficult. That is what I can tell you and the Constitution makes provisions for how to secure the minorities. We must live, we must survive.
What are your expectations from Tinubu?
When he came to campaign, he assured us that he will fix the Omadino-Escravos road for us. I have met him several times over that issue. The NDDC and Chevron — his own is just to supervise to see that they come together and do the road. And while he was campaigning, too he told us that the EPZ, the Ogidigben project — that project was on during Jonathan’s administration.
Why we can’t join Atiku’s coalition
They were about awarding the sand filling when they had their coalition and all of us followed that line, and Buhari won. Immediately Buhari won, the money that was allocated to that place they used it for the AKK Gas pipeline. That is why some of us today cannot just wake up and say we want to go and support the North, because a lot of us from the South joined to say we are one Nigeria, we didn’t like the way Jonathan was ruling. Now, Asiwaju promised us, he traveled to China, he met with the company and I think the leadership of the company is supposed to come next month to meet with Asiwaju to see how they can go about that project. They are forming coalition again. So, anytime they want to invest something tangible in our area, that is when our people will go and join them to form coalition. When they get into the office now, they will take the money to do another thing. I am not saying that they should not take anything to the North but the ones in our place, do it. So this is the reason why some of us will not even think about this coalition.
There is hunger and anger in the land. What is the way forward for the Tinubu administration?
To me, it has to do more with inward investments. First, if we can get the issue of insurgency in the Northeast, the issue of banditry and the rest, people can go back to the farm. Definitely, we will have our food. Those of us from the South South are majorly into fishing. Maybe they bring some palliatives that can cushion the effect of the fuel price so that we will go back to our normal business. I think those things will cushion the sufferings in the Niger Delta. Like I was discussing with some people, if the boat we use for fishing can be converted to CNG, it will solve some of our problems.
Cabinet reshuffle
Some of these palliatives can be put in place, but the president is already doing that. If he can fix our roads, which I think the Minister for Works is trying his best. And I also think that he has to reshuffle his cabinet so that he can have some vibrant people that will go and do the jobs. Because it is not Tinubu who will go everywhere to do the job, it is the people you assign portfolios to. A lot of people are sluggish, weak and I don’t think they are even thinking well. Not more than four, five, ministers are very active. Sometimes, it is not all about the president.
Fixation on FG
A lot of these governors, I don’t think they are helping the situation. So, that puts a lot of pressure on the federal government. If the federal government has taken off subsidy and the money is being paid to the state governments, the states are supposed to look at what the needs of their people are, but I think the state governors don’t care. So, everybody now focuses on the federal government. But I will suggest that the President puts an eye on what is going on in each of the states, since the allocations are being adequately sent back home to them. I don’t think the state governments are doing enough. It is not by doing bridges and roads alone. Without welfare, there will be hunger.
Are you not worried that the gale of defections into the APC could lead to an implosion? In your state for instance, there are reports that some foundation members like the former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege are disenchanted and likely to quit.
People like Omo-Agege, I know I can speak categorically about him, he doesn’t have any plan to leave. But one thing I know some of us will not accept is a situation where you come in and say you want to push us out. We will not agree to it. That might cause another chaos. Nobody will leave. I will not cook or work, then somebody will come and say, Ayiri, this time you want to push me out. Nobody! I don’t believe anybody can push me out. If I decide to step aside, that is a different issue. I am always very reasonable. If I met somebody, somewhere, I will try as much as possible to see how we can work together, but a situation where you will come and say no and you want to lord it on us, I don’t think Asiwaju believes in that kind of politics because he is a politician, he knows what that means.
What is the situation in Delta now, since the governor joined you?
The governor and the leadership then, somebody like Ovie Omo-Agege, what I am expecting is that they should sit and work out an acceptable formula, but that has not happened.
The APC party chairman in Delta, if he knows what he is doing, is supposed to unite everybody. So those are the people causing confusion in that state.
The way people complained about Ovie, I stood by him because I know that those who caused the confusion are the ones praise-singing the governor now. If not, they are the ones who are supposed to say, oh, Mr Governor, you are coming, you are welcome, but this is our structure. You cannot take some people for a meeting where Keyamo goes there and starts saying those who are not in this room are comedians. To me, those things are offensive.
So what’s the way out?
I still believe that the governor should be magnanimous enough to ensure he calls the people. There is nobody who is not important. He should relate well with everyone. The governor is my friend, but if you are not doing what you are supposed to do, I will not follow you. I am one of the closest persons to him, but politically, we had not been talking. It was just when the president won that we started talking. We were not talking because he was on the other side while I was on this side. We started aligning after Asiwaju won the presidency. That was two years ago.
Don’t you think the coalition can take advantage of this disagreement?.
That is why we need to work fast. Because sometimes too, people might be in your party and work against you, which is very dangerous.
