Senator Patrick Osakwe, a three-time member of the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly, represents Delta North Senatorial District. Recently, he defected from the Accord Party the platform
through which he was elected in 2007, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). When DOMINIC ADEWOLE met him, he explained why he took the decision. Osakwe also spoke on why he has buried his ambition to govern the state.
You recently dumped the Accord Party for the PDP, what informed that decision?
You will agree with me that it was circumstances beyond my control that forced me out of the PDP to Accord Party in the first place. Nothing would have made me leave PDP, because I built it from inception. I was a member of PDP from 1999 to 2007. I had to leave PDP to contest the election in 2007 and yet my people did not disappoint me, they voted for me. I felt that those circumstances that really warranted my leaving PDP are no longer there. I had to come back.
Is the circumstances attributed to your victory at the tribunal?
That was even the third time I am winning at the tribunal. We believe in the rule of law and any politician should know that the court is the last hope of the common man. The circumstance that made me leave PDP was so enormous that ordinarily one would have been frustrated from contesting the election. As you saw it happen, I made a decision and it paid off. Now I felt this is the right time to come back to where I rightly belong, I mean PDP.
What could have motivated your people to vote you into the Senate three consecutive times, judging from the array of politicians in your senatorial district?
First, love is one thing, then loyalty to the party and the system is another thing. We work like a team in Delta. We have one Governor, one government, one people. The moment you are loyal, even if by no fault of yours you are not able to achieve your ambition through a particular cause, people will advice you to find something else and they will support you. That was exactly what they displayed by voting for me irrespective of the fact that I contested under a party that was not known to the state at that time. Then apart from that, being in the Senate is not going there to make noise, you try as much as possible to target what you want and what your people want.
How do you know what your people want and be able to satisfy them?
For instance, I am planning to visit my nine local governments next year. Then I will tell them what I have been doing. I don?t want to tell them on the pages of newspapers what I did and what I have not done. In a chronological order, I will be able to itemize what I have done for my people since I entered the Senate and what I hope to do in the remaining part of my tenure. I will use the opportunity to thank them for the interest they have in me, the confidence, especially by voting for me in the 2007 election.
Don?t you think the visit may be interpreted to mean campaign for your re-election in 2011? But there is no election next year, so where is the ambition? Anybody who starts that now doesn?t know where he as going, by the time people will file out for campaigns he must have been tired. In election you have to plan properly. If you start too early you miss the point, if you start late you miss the point too. You must time whatever you do. I am already in the Senate. By the grace of God I will be there till 2011. I am not running for a governorship election and the presidential election. I just want to thank them because since I won my election in 2007 I have not been able to thank them for so many reasons. One of which is because I was in Accord Party and most people who voted for me would not have done that because of the party. They voted for me because I have been part and parcel of PDP family.
Now that I am back in PDP I can now thank them as a PDP stalwart and Senator. The people coming may see me as an Accord Party Senator, some PDP members may even feel reluctant to come there so that they will not be labeled with anti-party activities. But now both PDP and Accord Party members can come together since I am back to PDP. My people are very intelligent, anytime I want to make a move I don?t hide it and I tell them where I am going. I think my coming back to PDP has really facilitated my plans to visit them and thank them.
Can we say that your determination not to contest the governorship is a result of the adoption of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan for 2011 by Delta North members of PDP?
You cannot change a winning team in Delta. And anybody who wants to change a winning team is heading for the rock. The team is winning, it is working, then why change it. So the team should be allowed to do its eight years. I don?t think any right thinking Delta Northerner should think this is the right time to make a change in the state. As far as I am concerned the combination is a winning team which took off from the Ibori administration and they have kept the flag flying. They should be allowed their two terms and after then we can now think for who takes over from them.
As a Senator and a stakeholder in Delta North politics, what are you doing about the numerous socio-political organisations in the area resulting in conflict of interest?
Now God has made it, I am now in PDP. I always tell people that you must belong to a system. Those are interest groups. At the end of the day they may be working for the same goal, whether they are Anioma Political Forum, Uduaghan Vision and the rest of them. The more the merrier, at the end of the day they will come together to achieve one goal. I will use the little experience I have over the years to bring the various interest groups together in order to talk with one voice and define exactly what we want. We shall even use the platform to tell whoever is sworn in what Delta North wants. Politics is give and take. We shall sit down to make sure people from Delta North feel a sense of belonging.
Don?t you think your reunion with PDP will pose a threat to some party leaders and may result in power tussle and internal wrangling?
It is only God that makes leader. Anybody that claims to be a leader is leaving in a fools? paradise. It is what you do that makes you a leader and not your claim to be a leader. What are we struggling for? I was in PDP before them; I have been in the Senate since 1999. Leadership has categories and grade. I don?t see what we are dragging. If you attend any function or party people already know where you will seat. As a Senator I don?t think they will give me a back seat. Even if you are a leader they will not give you a seat that takes away my status. We are still in the game and we know ourselves as well. We knew what we were before all of us joined politics. Politics is just 10 years and some of us have been there before them, made impacts, created jobs all over the state. Not that you are in politics and you don?t know who is bigger than you, it is a problem we can handle, it is not a threat at all.
Why were some party leaders absent at the rally for your return to PDP?
There was no announcement, no invitation cards, but look at the crowd, not just the crowd, see the quality of the people. Forget about the number now, but the quality, that crowd you saw that day was the cream of Delta North politics. The who is who in Delta North was there. And those people there came of their own volition. That shows it is time for Delta North to come together, talk with one voice and get our fair share of both state and national cake. Without unity you cannot achieve that. You don?t go to an occasion where you do not like the celebrant.
Looking at the crowd, your coming back to PDP, your closeness with Chief James Ibori and Governor Uduaghan, there is an insinuation that you are being prepared for Governorship position in 2015.
2015 is miles and miles away. When you get to the bridge you plan how to cross it. Having stayed in the Senate from 1999 to date, God has given me a fair share of what I should have. If God still wants me to continue as a Senator so be it. But why should I be talking about being Governor in 2015. There are other people who should have a bite. The Senate is okay for me. I am quite comfortable and happy with that. The State House should also be meant for others. People helped me to remain in the Senate, time will come when I will also work to also make them achieve their own ambition, am I the only person in the state. I don?t think God approves ambitions like that. Somebody has to go, but definitely not Patrick Osakwe. I already have my fair share.
What if there is pressure?
There is no pressure. Pressure can only mount if you have your eye on it. No pressure will make you to take something that you forbid. I have said I would have had enough. Then I will work to install somebody. There are younger people. By then I would be 65years. And that is the right time for somebody to take over from me.
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