Chief Solomon Edojah is an APC leader from Ethiope East Local Government of Delta State. A former PDP stalwart in the state, Edojah who hails from Kokori, crossed over to the APC in 2014 and had since remained committed to the vision of the party. In this exclusive interview with our South South Bureau chief, John Oghojafor, he noted, among other things, that zoning of the governorship position has not done any good to the state rather, it has jettisoned the chances of having the best qualified Deltan as a governor. Excerpts:
Even while still basking in the euphoria of the Court of Appeal judgment that affirmed the chairmanship of Prophet Jones Erue-led exco in the state and many thought that the APC in the state will seize the opportunity to unite, suddenly, splinter groups started emerging first with Mainstream Delta APC (MDA) and then the Consolidated Delta APC (CDA) groups. What does this portend for the unity of the party in the state?
Let me start with the MDA, they are a class of failures because they don’t want to expand. They are failures because they were not enough to make a success. People like us came to join them but they said no, they don’t want us. How can a party win without people joining it, and you are failing, not that you are winning? If you are winning you can say okay, you have enough number to secure victory. So, that is why I call them a class of failures. Otherwise, what will make somebody like Chief O’tega Emerhor to begin to select. We have affirmed Prophet Jones, your person, as the state chairman of the party, all of us have affirmed him. You went ahead to form a splinter group called MDA. Rather than asking every other splinter group to close their structure, you went ahead to form your own. What do you want to achieve? You were offered something free of charge but you say no, you want to pay for it. Okay, pay now, you are postponing it till tomorrow. That is the situation in which Chief O’tega and his new found love with Okpohworo are. Have you seen a situation where a leader will form a pressure group against his own club that he is leading? Show me one. For instance, would Chief John Oyegun, the national leader of APC now go and form a pressure group against the structure of the party? It means he does not believe in the structure. So, Emerhor should answer the question: does he believe in the structure of the party? If yes why did he go ahead to form MDA? And instead of recruiting people into the party he is recruiting people into MDA.
But there is another pressure group, the Consolidated Delta APC (CDA) group formed by Engr. Hyacinth Enuha in Delta North. Are you saying that it is a consequence of the emergence of O’tega’s MDA?
If you who has been affirmed the leader of the party in the state after the Court of Appeal victory, would go and form a pressure group how can you stop somebody else from forming another splinter group? O’tega was instrumental to the formation of Delta Unity Group which I lead. He said we should form it because the court, as at then, has nullified the state leadership structure of the party led by Prophet Jones, and that we should form a group so that, come rain come sun, we should have a core group within the party. And that was done early last year and we have been moving around. Now, we have won in the court and your leadership has been affirmed, you went ahead to form another caucus group. So, how do you stop Enuha now from forming his own group? This is because you have demonstrated that you don’t have confidence in the party structure. And instead of recruiting people into the party structure, you are recruiting people into your MDA.
So, as a party in the state, where do you go from here?
As a party in the state, we have resolved to secure victory. They have not tasted victory before. They are happy with their state of failure. But we are not happy with that state of failure. So, we are forming a formidable group with one objective – victory for APC, not that of maintaining the status quo, so that I will be called a professional candidate, no. That is where we fell apart.
Would you specifically confirm that O’tega recognized the formation of the Delta Unity Group and still found it relevant before going ahead to form MDA?
The Delta Unity group has been in existence over a year ago. He, O’tega, said we should form it and he called it the core group of the party because as at that time, Jones-led exco has no legitimacy as the court has nullified his election. And so, O’tega said we should form a group and that is what we did. We, the group members visited Jones himself and he endorsed it. He even donated his vice chairman, Chief Cyril Ogodo to become my deputy chairman of the group. The group has been in existence since 2016 long before the Court of Appeal victory. But after the victory it was expected that we should be close down every former pressure group if O’tega believes in the reaffirmed Prophet Jones executive structure. If you, the leader, is forming a pressure group, it means that you don’t believe in the party structure in the state and so you are even giving chances for more splinter groups. So, you are busy factionalizing the party.
Against the backdrop of the increasing splinter factions in the APC, can you still reassure that the party will be able to inflict maximum damage on the ruling party in the state as to secure victory as you said?
The MDA is in minority, APC will win without them.
…How?
Because all other groups in the APC that believe in the unity of the party are more in number. Politics is a game of number.
When would the splinter groups in APC resolve their differences and focus to prepare for the battle with the PDP in the state?
The PDP has its own share of division. Now for us, the larger group within the APC which is determined to secure victory will not mind the dirty water within the system. We will filter the water and muscle our strength to secure victory for the party. Delta Unity, as our name typifies, is interested in unity, we are not interested in division. If we were not in existence before the Court of Appeal victory and the affirmation of Jones exco, we would not have constituted any pressure group. Our group was already in existence and Prophet Jones’ affirmation was a product of our effort. It was our effort that led to his exco; he believes in us, he donated his vice chairman to be an executive of our group and it shows that we are in the right course. We believe in the unity of the party and it is that unity that will secure victory for us. But for the people that are called a leader to go and form a pressure group against the party he is leading is preposterous, it is an aberration and it is unheard of.
Still, my question remains: how and when would you resolve the differences between the various splinter groups within your party to have a formidable force?
The solution lies on Delta Unity group. Delta Unity, people have seen through it and believe it is the only hope they have in APC. So, the likes of the Light of APC, are now talking with us; the Consolidated Delta APC group is also talking with us. So, we are now forming an amalgamation to secure victory for APC come 2019. Delta Unity’s goal is to secure unity; our goal is government house 2019; our goal is to unite the party; our goal is to drive the party in one direction.
It is being alleged that you initiated the idea of Delta Unity from your PDP background and has so far failed to collapse the structure as you moved into APC, and that is what is paving way for the formation of more pressure groups. How do you respond to that?
Is that the solution? When I came into the party in 2014, I met a factionalized party that cannot win election. I was a candidate of the party but I was ashamed to campaign when I saw how factionalized the party which led by O’tega was. And he did nothing to help the situation. The only solution I had in mind at that time was how to unite the party. So, as people of like mind, we now came together to say we cannot continue with this factionalized party. Let us set up a group that can propel and drive the propensity for unity. When we even secured the Court of Appeal victory, the opposition within the party wanted to appeal the judgment. If they had appealed we would have been in a mess. We knew what we did to make sure that the Chief Adolor Okotie-Eboh group did not appeal the judgment because if he had appealed this celebration would have been over. But because we believe in unity, we did everything to make sure the decision was not appealed. And so where we are today is a situation where anybody who does not believe in unity will be somewhere else. If you believe that through unity we will win election, you will come to us. That is the situation we have found ourselves now.
At the Abraka meeting held by Ogboru and co, though you were not there but you were introduced as one of the Light of APC supporters. If you had attended that meeting and you were requested to collapse your Delta Unity group to give way for the Light of APC, would have accepted it?
No, no, no. I was not invited to come and collapse any structure. I was invited because of the gospel we preach, we preach unity. So, any group which believes in unity will naturally invite me. We are not saying we are the ‘main’ people as a group claims. The people in that so-called ‘main’ group are too few to secure victory for the party. The APC house is bigger now to accommodate different tendencies. So, whenever any meaningful group that wants to secure victory is holding meetings, they will invite my group. They invited my group and we showed up because we believe in unity.
Delta Unity preaches unity, MDA preaches unity, Light of APC preaches winning together and the Consolidation Delta APC (CDA) also emphasizes unity. So, at what point would all these splinter groups achieve one united APC in Delta State?
We will come together, we will come together in Delta State. Our motto in Delta Unity is Unity. It is unlike that of the MDA which says they will dominate to win. Do you dominate in politics? Who do you want to dominate? Is it the people who have come to join you so that you will be promoted from the class of failure? Politics is a game of number. If the people who are coming to make you earn success are more than you, you allow them a space. You invited Ogboru to come into the party, now you don’t want to give him a space; you invited Ochei to come into the party, you don’t want to give him a space. Edojah has been in the party since, you don’t want to give him a space. How would you achieve success if you don’t want to give space for these people to ventilate their aspirations? You don’t want to engage them, you don’t want to talk to them. So, in summary, the only group that can tell you that they are preaching unity today is the Delta APC Unity group. We don’t discriminate. If today the MDA invite us to say they believe in unity, come, let’s work together, we are ready.
So, specifically, when are all the groups coming together as 2019 is just around the corner?
I can tell you that before December this year those who believe in the unity of the party will rally round us. They will rally round us to make sure we secure victory. Anybody working against the unity of the party will not belong to us.
While speaking at the Light of APC meeting in Abraka recently, a BoT member of the party, Chief Frank Kokori insinuated that Chief Great Ogboru will be the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the state. Is that the mindset of the party?
People are free to air their personal opinions. But for us in the Delta Unity group, we don’t have a candidate. We will come together as one body and say, ok, who is good enough for the governorship candidate of the party, who is good enough for the chairmanship of the party, we will all do that. But we have not done that now. So, for now, we don’t have a candidate.
Does the Delta Unity group believe in the governorship going to Delta Central under the APC in 2019? Or it should go to the North?
We believe in the governorship of APC extraction. Now, in defining that, we have also set a template. Whoever that wants to be the governor of Delta State on the platform of the APC must show us where he is going to harvest his votes with which he is going to defeat Okowa. If you don’t have where you will harvest your votes and you are hiding behind ethnicity, then you cannot make it in Delta APC. You must show us where you are going to harvest your votes with which you are going to remove Okowa from politics before we endorse you. So, if you cannot show us where you will get your votes, then count Delta Unity out because we are going to sit down and every position is going to be properly debated before we take decision. We have not decided but we have set a template that look, for you to become a governorship candidate of APC, you must show us your credentials. We must see it clearly where you are going to harvest majority of your votes. You can’t hide behind ethnicity, you can’t hide behind any formula of zoning because zoning has failed us woefully in Delta State. Delta Central has had it and we know what Delta Central is as we speak now. The South has had it, it is like a war-torn area as we speak now. The North are having it now and lack of performance has been trailing them. So, we have moved the template. Our next template now is: who is this person, what special qualities does he possess to govern the state, where is he going to harvest his votes? If he is just going to hide behind ethnicity and the so-called zoning formula, then he will not have our support.
In other words, you don’t believe in zoning of the governorship of Delta State at all?
We don’t believe in zoning at all because it has ruined Delta State. We cannot continue in that trajectory. That is the mindset of the Delta Unity group.
As a chieftain of the APC, what is your take on the continuous absence of Mr. President away from governance against the background of mounting protest in the country?
Those protesting are doing so against God. They are PDP-sponsored protest. How can you protest against God. The man is sick. And when he realized that he was sick he transferred power to ensure that there is no vacuum. That is different from the Late Yar’Adua situation. So, anybody that is protesting is protesting against God because the man has done that which is human, the rest is for God. So, asking him to return or resign is unheard of because the Constitution does not say so. What the Constitution asked him to do he has done it.
