Chief Ighoyota Amori is a PDP leader in Delta State. He hails from Mosogar in Ethiope West Local Government Area of the State. At the moment he is the foremost aspirant for the Delta Central Senatorial Seat in the National Assembly for the forthcoming 2019 election. In this interview, Chief Amori assured the Urhobo people of an efficient and effective representation in the Senate just as he disclosed that neither the governor nor the former governor, Chief James Ibori has endorsed his senatorial aspiration. He also expressed support for the position of the National Assembly that their inputs in the 2018 budget is in the interest of Nigerians.
Excerpts:
The governor of the state, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has just visited your community today. Although, the visit was for a religious programme, you played an active role in the preparation for the governor’s visit. What was your presentation to him at the occasion?
We thank God for a successful ceremony and the visit of our governor. We appreciate his coming and we also appreciate the presence of the dignitaries that accompanied him in his visit to our community today. We also appreciate His Royal Majesty and all his chiefs and all the Committee members who turned up to receive the governor. We want to also thank Rev. Gideon Oyibo for establishing the institution, the Meaningful Life Institute of Evangelism and Church Management. Looking at the location of the institute you will notice that it is devoid of any urban attraction. For the governor to have agreed to come to a place like that we are really grateful to him.
One thing that was clear is that the institute is a non-profit organization and the school has graduated its first intakes today while some matriculated. It is not easy for people to want to come to such a rural place but it is all the work of God. We thank the governor, we thank the proprietor, we thank the students and we thank all those that came to grace the occasion today. The Community is very proud of them, the Community is proud of Rev. Gideon Oyibo who is a son of the soil, the Community is also proud of the King and the kingdom and all the chiefs that came to grace the occasion. This, in a way, has lifted our spirit.
We believe that with the establishment of the institution, our people will be closer to God than before. And like I remarked in my speech, if you look at the location of the school, this is a village that was booming in the past but because of urban migration everybody left the village to the town. But gradually, people are returning to the village and with the establishment of the institute, the place has come back to its past glory and I know it is going that for a school that has the grace of God to be established in such a place, will definitely attract development and bring spiritual up-liftment. For that we cannot express enough our joy. That ground today has been specially anointed by God and the presence of the governor.
Before now there has been rumours that the governor has tacitly endorsed you as the PDP senatorial candidate for Delta Central especially considering your close relationship with him. Today, after his visit to the graduation/matriculation ceremony of Meaningful Life Institute of Evangelism and Church Management, you played host to the governor in your country home in Mosogar. Does that confirm the rumoured tacit endorsement of your senatorial ambition by the governor?
The governor has not endorsed me. I don’t think the way the politics is going today, the governor will openly come out to endorse anybody. The governor is the father of all and he cannot afford to openly endorse anybody. But like in any election where the governor has to cast his vote, if he has to cast it for somebody. The governor has not endorsed anybody either for House of Assembly, for House of Reps, for Senate or for the President of this country. It is not in the interest of the polity for any governor to openly endorse any aspirant. The governor may have the person he is supporting in mind but at this point, the governor cannot endorse anybody. Just like when you have so many people contesting for governorship, people who are in position may not be able to openly come out to endorse a governorship aspirant. Just like we are now, we have so many presidential aspirants, if you are in an official position, you may not be able to endorse anyone. You may first of all welcome all the aspirants. But that does not mean that when it comes to casting your vote or having your mind on somebody, you may not support that person. There are so many ways of supporting an aspirant. The governor may have his preferred aspirant in mind but openly, he will not endorse anybody. That will kill the spirit of any competitive election.
This is not the first time the governor has come here. So, his coming today does not amount to endorsing me as a candidate of the party. God has endorsed me already and when the time comes, it will be clear to everybody that I have been endorsed by God and not the governor. Of course, the governor has not said that he has endorsed anybody.
In the course of your consultation, you have visited political leaders, elders and stakeholders of the party across the nooks and crannies of Delta Central. What has been your impression and how would you assess their responses to your message to them on your senatorial ambition?
Well, the people have been very receptive to me and my gospel to them has received a lot of tremendous support. And from my own assessment of the responses to my appeal, it has not been different from what I have experienced before. The same enthusiasm, the same response, if not even better now than before. This gives me sufficient confidence to believe that it is a done deal. This is because you can use the morning to determine the day. I am not a stranger in this contest, I am not a stranger in the politics of this state and the country, I know when you are being appreciated and when you are being received. That is what I have seen in the course of my consultation. The reasons are not far-fetched. If you are a man of the people, you are a man of the people. My antecedents are there; they are so pronounced. What people would spend money to do my goodwill will do it for me. And in politics people deal with people whom they know they can trust, people they know that in the past they have not disappointed them, people they know that can bring the dividends of democracy to them, people who have been tested and trusted. And I believe that these qualities are all in me.
I have been with these people before party politics and at the beginning of party politics since 1998 till date. If I’m not acceptable to them, I don’t think I would have even ventured to contest. But I’m so sure that I have not wronged anybody in the past. I have worked within the level of my ability and my record is there for everybody to see. I believe that I’m accepted.
The leader of the PDP in Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori has been around for some time now. And all those who are aspiring to the Delta Central Senatorial seat on the platform of the party have been his loyal and close associates. What can you say is his body language towards you and other aspirants in terms of choice and endorsement?
Well, I’m not James Ibori and I can’t say anything about his body language but you know who I’m and who James Ibori is. So, that will tell you his body language. You don’t need any oracle to tell you. If you know me and you know James Ibori you will know that we are both given birth to the same day but I’m the eldest. So, that alone is enough for you to go and, probably, draw your conclusion. Who are those contesting with me really? Who are they? Somehow, I don’t want to blow my trumpet. But for the very little you know of me or whatever you know of me, you can place us side by and see. The senatorial seat is not for joke; it is not an article for sale; it is something that has to do not just with an individual but the entire Urhobo nation. It’s not just for leisure or something for somebody to experiment. It’s serious business. It is not a matter for some people to think if it can either be purchased or you experiment with it. It is not just about me as a person but it is about the entire Urhobo nation; it is about the effect on the entire Urhobo nation. So, let us not just think. It is not a Councillorship election; it is a more serious business. It goes beyond just your face or your money. It’s a very serious business. So, let us not, probably, comment on it further.
You were at the Senate, though briefly. Considering what is happening between the National Assembly and the Executive currently especially on the issue of the 2018 budget, would you support the explanation by the Senate leadership that it is in the interest of Nigerians?
Well, it is in the interest of Nigerians. I’m sure you will be surprised for me to say that what is happening between the legislature and executive is in the interest of Nigerians. You know, the type of democracy we have now is called nascent democracy. We need to be properly processed before we get there. We are not there yet. What you are seeing now – the dichotomy between the executive and legislature is a product of the newness of our democracy. So, this thing will continue for a long time. You see, we are practicing democracy; because we are practicing it, we will continue to practice it until we get to perfection. Probably, what we experience this year, we may not experience it next year. Let me give you a small example: in the past democratic dispensation, we heard of something like six members of a House of Assembly impeaching a governor, (a good example was in Oyo State), as against the position of over thirty members of the House of Assembly. We heard of House of legislators being moved away from Bayelsa State to Abuja, quartered in Abuja and impeaching a governor. We heard of all that happened in Plateau State and then we heard of third term agenda. That was democracy in action but today, such thing cannot happen again. And all these examples I have mentioned, they were fights between the executive and the legislature.
Now, we are hearing of the executive submitting budget to the National Assembly, and the National Assembly doing their work by appropriating it and sending it back to the Executive that this is the way we think it should be because that is their function. And the executive reacting, saying no, this is not the budget we submitted to you. The budget we submitted to you should have been returned the way we sent it. So, what is the function of the National Assembly? This is not a military regime. So, it is going to take time for them to appreciate that you as the executive, you have the right to prepare the budget and submit, we as the legislators have the right to appropriate the budget and send it back to you for assent. If you like assent to it, if you like, leave it. These are the defined functions of the National Assembly and the Executive. Now, it is not dawn on the Executive yet that the legislators have this power. A time will come when the Supreme Court will adjudicate on it and give a final position on this. I know they have already done it. The National Assembly is not a rubber stamp.
Now, also, the executive will take six, seven or eight months to prepare a budget but they want the National Assembly to pass it within two months or so. No, you can’t prepare such a document of about two and three thousand pages or so and you want the National Assembly to rush it. Meanwhile, if you scrutinize, if you use political binoculars to look at the budget you will see repetitions, padding upon padding and duplications. So, the National Assembly will not just go there and rubber stamp what has been budgeted. You can see the purchase of secretarial materials this year, purchase of 2000 computers this year in one particular office. The following year, you will see it repeated. So, if the National Assembly does not employ a third eye, it will keep on like that. That is why the National Assembly is there. The executive believes that whatever they present the National Assembly must accept it. It cannot be so. We must do our work. We have a duty to do oversight function and that is what we are doing.
Besides, the executive sits down and prepare a budget for the country without recourse or reference to the legislators who are representatives of the people. No inputs from the legislators. Meanwhile, they are representing their constituencies. They executive will tell you we have ministers. In the whole of Delta Central now who is the minister representing the area in the executive. We don’t have a minister. So, when you don’t have a minister representing your area, what do you do? Will you allow your area to be cheated? So, that is why we must fall back on the legislators representing federal constituencies, representing senatorial districts, for their inputs if not their areas will be cheated. For example, I’m from Mosogar. Before budgets are prepared, who will remember Mosogar? I’m from Ethiope West Local Government Area, we don’t have any minister. Who will remember Ethiope West when the executive is preparing the budget? Even for Delta Central, we don’t have any minister. Who will remember us? So, the federal budget will be passed without any input from Delta Central. The only way Delta Central can have input in the federal budget is through our own legislators in the National Assembly. And that is what the executive does not like. But the National Assembly will continue to be there. It also applies to the states. So, the solution is that the executive and the legislature must work together if not the disagreement will continue. That is why I said that what is happening now is in the interest of the country. There must be this disagreement first before we come to agreement.
What the Urhobos expecting when you get there?
I would say that Urhobos are expecting a lot from me when I get there and I will work within the limit of my capacity to do the best I can to attract development to the Urhobo people, to bring peace and tranquility to the Urhobo people, to make laws that are not anti-Urhobo, to protect the Urhobo interest, to ensure that the Urhobos are reckoned with in the comity of nations, that the Urhobos are not cheated, that they have adequate representation in terms of geographical spread and in terms of democratic dividends that the Urhobos are not left out; that Urhobos are present in every department of governance at the federal level. This is all, I believe, I can do apart from standing in for Nigeria as a nation. But the Urhobos come first.
