Olorogun Adelabu Bodjor is the State Vice chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) representing the Delta Central Senatorial District of Delta State. He is a pioneer member of the APC in Delta State and has continued to remain a strategic leader of the party till date. In this exclusive interview with our South South Bureau chief, John Oghojafor, he expressed optimism of the readiness of the APC to capture the leadership of the state in 2019.
Excerpts:
For some time now not much political activities seem to be happening in the APC camp in the state, and as a result, many believe that the party has been sleeping, not just sleeping but actually snoring in the state. How would you react to that?
I think that is the biggest misconception anybody can think about. If you are talking about the party that is sleeping, reference should not be made to the APC because are beginning to see the vibrancy of the members of the party. I don’t know what you refer to as being sleepy or snoring. Is it the everyday meetings that you are hearing about or the emergence of various very very politically aggressive and roaring ready-to-go groups that are coming up in APC? Is that what you termed sleepy? If that is sleeping then APC had better sleep. I tell you, APC is roaring in the state.
If APC is roaring in the state as you said, how come nothing is coming from that end in terms of purposeful criticisms of some policies of the present administration in the state that are strangulating Deltans on a daily basis. Is it that the opposition is satisfied with what the PDP administration is offering?
APC as a formidable opposition in Delta State has always come up with very wonderful criticisms, constructive criticisms, things that have forced the governor to explain how he spends our money, the Paris Club refund fund and all that. APC has been talking about the flood that is ravaging the state, why it has become a perennial problem and the ineptitude of the present administration. Opposition is about bringing out the bad side of the government in power and that is exactly what the APC has been doing in Delta State. But if the present administration in Delta State is not mindful of the criticisms from the opposition and they are going ahead to do what they are doing as if nothing is happening, then it behoves of them to explain to Deltans why they have decided to leave us in this pitiable state.
Deltans have just celebrated the 26th Anniversary of the creation of the state. From your own perspective would you say the state has fared well over the years?
There is nothing to celebrate. As far as Delta State is concerned, there is nothing to celebrate. It is most unfortunate that since the advent of the present democratic dispensation in the state, there is absolutely nothing to celebrate. It is so painful that my state cannot point to one signature project that has been carried out from 1999 till date. It has taken the three administrations successively to continue to build one airport that is never completed. There is nothing that you can point out as one outstanding and beautiful thing in Delta State which you cannot find anywhere else or even comparable to whatever you can find anywhere else. It is a shame, it is a disgrace. There is nothing to celebrate. I don’t want to say that Delta State is cursed. We are not cursed. It is just that we have continued to recycle visionless leaders. And that is what APC is set to reverse.
The number one leader of APC in the country, talking about Mr. President, recently adjudged Governor Okowa as Press favourite. There have been jubilations in Gov. Okowa’s camp that Mr. President, with that comment, has recognized the governor’s achievement. What is your take on that?
So they could not read the lips of Mr. President. Mr. President was just mocking at the governor by telling him you are a television governor. What does it take to be addressed as a television and newspaper governor? That is the height of embarrassment, that all that Okowa has to show is his appearance on television and pages of newspapers. But there is nothing on ground to show for it. It is indeed a shame! The President was not praising him, rather he was actually mocking at him.
You have alluded to the vibrancy of different pressure groups in the APC. There is the Mainstream Delta APC, there is the Consolidated Delta APC, there is the Delta Unity and of course, recently, Ogboru came up with the Light of APC. They all appear to be in competition against each other for superiority and hunting for membership from among themselves. In the light of this, how and when will APC in Delta State become one united family?
Parties are formed and within the parties, groups emerged to feather their personal interests within the parties. Everybody is to work within the ambit of the law that governs the party. None of these groups that you have just mentioned has gone out of the way to do anything that is outside the constitution of the party. The constitution of the party is the fons et origo or the grundnorm of all laws that guide and direct the affairs of the party. So, every group you are seeing today in the party has just one goal in common and that goal is to work and deliver the state from the hands of the PDP. Therefore, if we are working for the same purpose, coming from different directions, we have a meeting point. That meeting point is Government House, Asaba. We will be there. As far as I’m concerned, there is no rancor, there is no division among the groups, all the groups are part and parcel of one great party, APC. I would even say that let more groups emerge. The more the merrier, together we will do it better.
It has been alleged that some top members of the State exco of the party either favour or are part of the exco of one of the pressure groups or the other within the state party structure. Would it be in the interest of the party for the national chairman of the APC, Chief John Oyegun for instance, to come down to form or favour a pressure group within the party structure which he leads?
I can tell you that my chairman, Prophet Jones Erue does not belong to any group and cannot belong to any group. He is for all the groups and he is for none of the groups. I make bold to say that my chairman did not put together any group neither is he thinking of putting together any group. Every group put together in the party are under his watch. They all will dovetail into the command and control of the organ of the party which is led by the chairman of the party and the state exco. So, if anybody is telling you that my chairman formed or is a part of any group within the party, tell him he does not know what he is saying.
….but it is being alleged that the state chairman of the party surrendered his deputy to be the deputy chairman of the group known as Delta Unity. How do you react to that?
Thank God you said it is an allegation. That allegation is not correct. No member of the state exco is having any link with any group. The state exco is for every group and, like I have said, the exco does not belong to any group.
As of today who is the leader of the APC in Delta State?
We have very many leaders in Delta State. I don’t want to ascribe leadership to one particular person. We have several leaders in Delta State. But the leader of the party as far as the state exco is concerned, is the chairman of the party in Delta State and he leads the party. He is the person of Prophet Jones Erue.
Now, going forward, what is your mindset about the governorship of the state in 2019 under the platform of the APC?
We cannot count our chicks before they are hatched. 2019 is still far away. We have the remaining part of this year left, we have the whole of 2018 left. When the time comes we will know where the pendulum swings.
Do you believe in zoning the governorship of the state?
Well, in as much as I’m not an apostle of zoning formula, but I also believe in equity and justice
