Imprisonment: How Obasanjo, Ribadu framed me up – DSP Alamieyeseigha

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North & Levinus Nwabughiogu

His story evokes emotions as he told it. He sat on his sofa in his large sitting room telling it. For the first time since he was impeached in December 2005, subsequently incarcerated, freed and finally granted a state pardon by President Goodluck Jonathan on March 12, 2013, he has not told the story of his travails.

But in this meeting with a Vanguard team of two last week after several unfruitful attempts in the last four months, the former governor of Bayelsa State and Governor-General of Ijaw Nation in the Niger delta, Chief  Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha, popularly called DSP opened up in a manner that will stun anyone who is familiar with his ordeals. For instance, there is this widely held impression that he returned to Nigeria during those trying days disguised as a woman and that he embezzled billions of Naira.

But here, Alamaesigha, who is also a delegate at the on-going National Conference said all were blatant lies against him. He fingered former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the mastermind of his dilemma.

He also, did not spare the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Malam Nuhu Ribadu. But on a more humane note, Alamaesigha said that late former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was his man Friday who saved him from the pangs of death.   Excerpt:
His take on the National Conference

The conference has been very eventful and educative. Quite frankly, one is more appreciative of the country-Nigeria.

Clearly, what I personally observed is that we do not know this country very well. People placed in position of responsibility must take time out to go round this country. They must know the geography of this country so that when people are talking about desertification, they will understand. When we are talking about gully erosion, people will understand. When we talk of environmental degradation as a result of oil exploration and exploitation, they will understand. When people say, they can’t have drinking water, they will understand because it is polluted.

When peoples’ livelihood is destroyed, you will understand. When people talk about ocean surge, they will understand because when you talk about onshore/offshore, unless you ask people like us whose platforms that were once on land are right now in the deep sea. They have been eaten off by the ocean. Bayelsa state has the longest coast line, 203 kilometers open to the Atlantic, all the villages around the bank of the Atlantic Ocean, most of them have been wiped out.

You hear of Kolama 1, Kolama 2. When you hear 2, that means 1 has been wiped out. When we tell people that every two years, you have to change the roof of your house because of acid rain, you will not appreciate. To construct one kilometer of road is about a billion Naira in the typical Niger Delta, we are not talking of political Niger Delta. This oil we are getting; the money we are sharing from this oil is in the swamps. So, it is important we educate ourselves the more.

Now, how has the conference helped in addressing these issues?

Yes, when people are educated, they have sympathy for what you are saying. So, in this country, our major problem is not understanding one another.

If we understand the peculiar problems, then you can negotiate. Give or take, we are our brothers keepers. We can collectively solve problems confronting a particular area but where you don’t know, everybody will not be arguing from the position of strength. But there is an agreement somehow. So, it is a very good opportunity.

Is the agreement between the north and the south as it were?

I do not want to divide this country along north and south. First and foremost, we are all Nigerians and we are gathered to solve Nigerian problem. The north is not a block that is problem free. There are a lot of minorities that are suffering. They are being marginalized in terms of appointments and development. But they are within the geographical area called the north.

His take on the derivation controversy

(Fetching and reading from a script) This is my intervention on derivation at the conference. It says the Economic foundation of federalism in a multinational country like Nigeria is the enjoyment of autonomy by the federating units, that is the states, as was the practice between 1964 to 1969 in Nigeria.

This practice was truncated by the military regimes for the expediency of resource needs to prosecute the Nigerian civil war and was not reversed at the end of the civil war in 1970. Instead, it was promoted to the point where the federal government was vested with total powers to expropriate and control the natural resources of the federating units.

In consequence therefore, the federal government neglected to develop and exploit the various natural resources t in all the 36 states and the federal capital territory of Nigeria.

Solid minerals ranging from gold, coal, marble, bitumen, etc, are found in commercial quantities in all the geopolitical zones. This means every state has the capacity to survive on its natural resources apart from depending on the non renewable crude oil and gas.

The general misconception is that people think resource control is applicable to only oil and gas found in the Niger Delta. Thus, whenever the issue of resource ownership and control is raised in Nigeria, the generality of the people are uncomfortable and often oppose it as if the survival of this country depends on oil and gas.

Countries like Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, etc do not have minerals or solid minerals but have very robust economy. Those demanding for ownership and control of their natural resources are not greedy. These are necessary measures for the development and exploitation of the abandoned critical natural and human resources.

The development will not only increase the over all wealth of Nigeria but also make for a sensible long range and carefully programmed exploitation of our oil reserves to preserve, protect and safeguard the environment from further degradation.

The entire country will benefit from it through job creation, contracts, trades, industry and social service. This is what this type of fiscal federalism has done for the United states of America whose constitution we have adopted but ignored to operate it properly through a suffocating military imposed unitary constitution of 1999.

I wish to remind the honorable conference that whereas the United States of America has oil and gas far more than Nigeria, its economy depends on agriculture, manufacturing, industry and technology. It is for this reason that every delegate should support the need for states to own and control their resources and pay a negotiated tax to the federal government in the spirit of fiscal federalism.

I recommend a system in which the federating states will have 100 % ownership and control of their natural and other strategic resources. This principle is based on the firm belief that all states and sections of this country are abundantly endowed in mineral and non-mineral resources that should be owned and exploited by the states and communities where they are found.

Two: an interim bridging arrangement be considered whereby each federating state should start with 50 % of derivation and gradually move up in a phase and coordinated manner until the 100% bench mark is attained. The transition period should be between 5 and 10 years.

Three: During the transition years, a trust fund of 4.5 % as agreed by conference be established to develop other minerals, agriculture, industry and other commercial enterprises that will enable all states and regions of the country to become economically strong and competitive. The 4.5 percent devoted to the trust fund shall be negotiated with the revenue distributing states in the sprit of equity, unity, fraternity and national cooperation. This is my intervention.

The committee has recommended status quo on derivation and we know why. That committee was badly constituted. Only 6 members were from the south. The rest came from the north.

In which country of the world is this kind of fiscal federalism, which is like 100 percent resource ownership actively practiced now?

Every state in America is independent. In fact, Los Angeles is the fourth largest economy in the world but it is just a state.

With your experience in politics, governance and everything, what really worries you about Nigeria today?

It is national security. That bothers me because there is no way a country can develop and attract foreign investments without peace in the country. And I feel very bad. People are running away from this country. With our level of development, we cannot be on our own.

We need people from outside to assist us. But with what is happening, you can only invest in a place where you expect a return on investment. If the risk is so high, nobody will come and invest and that is the problem. The three northern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, in the next 20 years, they will not recover. Already, we are hearing that the rate of school dropout is already 75 percent now. Those states are finished.

But we have a government and security agencies in place to solve this insecurity problem. Would be it right to say that the present government has failed or that it inherited the problem?

Terrorism is global. Only a few countries in this world are in peace now. It just that it is new to us. And our military is not trained in that type of warfare. We are used to conventional warfare. Your enemy is at the other side. You are on this this side.

Whoever that has superior training and fire power overruns the enemy. But we are now fighting asymmetric, kinetic warfare. The enemy is within us. So, conventional tactics cannot work and we must have a robust anti-terrorism agency. A national anti-terrorism agency has to be created.

So, in other words, this is not this administration’s making ?

No. It right now has international dimension. It is not just Nigeria. Where is the fund coming from? Where are they getting the sophisticated weapons? We have people that have created safe haven for these people to operate. When we had problems in the Niger Delta, there was no militant camp that I, Alamaesigha did not sleep.

I went round: from Ondo State through Edo to Delta, to Bayelsa to Rivers state. There is no militant camp that I did not go to persuade them to drop their arms. It is not happening in the north. They have all ran away from their places. They are all in Abuja. So, they want Mr. President to carry a riffle and go to  Chibok or Sambisa forest? Haba!

Some school of thought has it that the development has a religious connotation. Some also believe it is political. Last week, a group of northern Christain elders gathered in Abuja and declared that enough is enough in the killing of Christians. How may you react?

To me, they are killing more Muslims than Christians. That is the way I am seeing it because any moving object that comes across them, they kill. So, I don’t subscribe to people saying it is religion.

But their leader threatens jihad

Somebody explained in the conference that it all started in Yobe. There was no development, people were hungry. So these young men including Shekau came together and said look, let us come together and help ourselves. So, in the process, they reasoned that all those around them that could eat three square meals are those educated from the west.

Those that have boreholes are those educated from the west. Those that have vehicles are educated from the west. So, they see them as oppressors. That was the beginning. That was why they said they don’t want western education because it is an oppressive system.

Is there any difference between the 2005 political reforms conference and the present one?

In 2005 conference, I was a player as a governor. I was indirectly controlling my delegates from Niger Delta. I gave them an agenda. Go and get this for us and that was why they walked out when it became apparent that they wouldn’t get what they wanted.

Now, the composition of that is different. This one, delegates were carefully selected. In terms of spread, quality of the delegate, every region, nationality, civil society organizations selected their best.  So, in terms of intellectual content, it is not lacking. Two: Mr. President did not indicate any interest. There is no no-go area. He left it open apart from the indivisibility and indissolubility of the country. But in 2005, Obasanjo was interested. He had his foot soldiers.

He wanted third term. So, so many meanings were read into it. That was a problem. They also came with very useful recommendations then but because of the third term agenda which he is denying even at this old age, nothing came out of it.
Talking about former President Olusegun Obasanjo, have you seen him since you left jail? Did you greet him?

Yes, I have seen him. I have pardoned him for the simple reason that Goodluck Jonathan is the president of Nigeria.

How you feel knowing that the same Obasanjo you said was behind your travail also facilitated the presidency of a Niger Deltan?

I have forgiven him. Everything. I know more but I don’t want to go to the public domain yet. When I decide to write my book, it is going to make an interesting reading because most people don’t know that man called Obasanjo. I know him.

President Jonathan was your deputy. As someone who worked very closely with you, you know him better than any other person. Do you think he has all it takes to run a complex society like Nigeria?

Let me tell you. From the beginning, our brothers from the north had a mindset that he should not rule. That is the problem. And they promised that they will make Nigeria ungovernable. That is the foundation of all the crises.

And they took it to a certain level and they longer have the capacity to control it. Which President in this country is more qualified than Goodluck Jonathan? If you sit down and catalogue what President Jonathan had done in this country within this period, no head of state, no president has done half of what Jonathan has done.

Will you support him if he decides to run in 2015?

Of course, I am in the forefront. Maybe you have not heard of G2G, Goodluck to Goodluck project. I am the chairman, Board of  Trustees. I am midwifing it. I am driving it. He will win hands down. We are waiting for him to declare.

But what if tomorrow, Mr. President decides not to run, will the people of Niger Delta compel him to run?

If the north is saying that it is their turn, why can’t we also from the south demand that we have not completed our tenure? It is beyond an individual. So, he should not even think about it. After 2019, you can say you don’t want to run. But for 2015, he must run o. We are going to carry placards.

What happens if he picks the forms, runs in the election and loses, will you still carry placards?

If Nigerians reject him, we will accept it in good faith but I know he has a pan-Nigerian mandate and he must be allowed to exercise his right and by the Grace of God, Nigerians will vote for him because in their heart of hearts, Nigerians know who Goodluck is to them.

On speculations that he has senate ambition

God forbids. Me, to go back to Bayelsa state? It is impossible.

Why do you say so?

That is my personal decision. Ah! They are all my boys. I should go and contest against my products? Alamaesigha is an institution. All the people you hear: commissioners, senators, this and that, they have all passed through me. So, I cannot go to Bayelsa state to contest. Is it not only one and the half years that was left? What did I forget that I want to go and do?

How did you feel when your name was mentioned for presidential pardon?

People criticized it. But It was politics. They don’t know even what happened. They don’t know and it is ignorance. So, I will forgive them.

President Jonathan did not just come out to grant me pardon. Of course, if President Jonathan did not give me pardon, who else will give me pardon in the first place? No apology. But it all started during Yar’Adua’s time. Atiku Abubakar, Vice President; Orji Kalu, governor Abia; James Ibori, Delta; Lucky Igbenedion, Edo; and Bafarawa, Sokoto, visited me in Dubai when I was in the hospital. I have just done angiography. So I had iron in my groin. I couldn’t even walk.

When they left, Nuhu Ribadu, the former EFCC chairman went to Dubai, generated a letter purported to have come from Dubai government that I am declared persona non grata. That I was planning to overthrow the government of Nigeria from Dubai. I was in the hospital. They now sent security men from here to go and whisk me away from Dubai and bring me to Nigeria under that condition I was. In the night when they brought me and put me in detention at 15 Awolowo road, Ikoyi, around after 12, this Lamorde that is now EFCC chairman was the Director of Operations then. He brought a phone to me that Mr. President wants to speak to me. I sad no I wasn’t going to speak to him.

They insisted that it is Mr. President, you must speak to him. So, I picked the phone from him. I said Umoru, why are you calling me? For God sake, I don’t want to talk to you. He said “Ganuwa, I am your friend o. I am now the president of Nigeria. It is not Obasanjo again o. They will kill you o. I have more information and if you think anything will happen, nothing will happen. After two weeks, you will be forgotten.”

These were his exact words. That your people will be the first to even send CVs for appointment and you will be forgotten. Have you forgotten how my senior brother was killed? Shehu that was number two citizen? Do Nigerians remember Shehu again? You know it.

You are a former military man. You know how my senior brother was killed. It is the family that is suffering. I cannot be president of this country and see you my friend, a title holder in my emirate, Ganuwa Katsina die…. Whatever they are asking for, give them and walk out. I am going to grant you pardon. Come and help me solve Niger Delta problem.

“The Niger Delta problem isat the height of it. They don’t have solution. Come and help me solve it because all the militants are crying that you should be brought out. But I know how stubborn you are. You are worse than me. I am going to send your younger brother to you to plead with you.” So, he sent Goodluck Jonathan to Lagos. I was taken to him and it was conveyed. I slept over it and my health condition was also very bad. So, I said I accepted. Let me go and treat myself.

What did you accept?

Whatever they were going to slam against me. They now reframed their charges: failure to declare assets in EFCC form. So, they now took me to court the following morning. This thing we are talking about was in about how many minutes. Initially, when they read the charges, I said no. They said Chelsea hotel, that was their star charge, belongs to me. That is fallacy. It is not true. Yes, I was the governor. I saw proposal. I don’t even know the owner.

It was 2 billion Naira. I looked at our budget, we have only 1.5 billion. I said okay, let us pay the 1.5 billion. The 500 million, let us put it in the following year’s budget. So, 1.5 billion was paid remaining 500 million. I was not there to pay the 500 million but it was budgeted for.

When I left, Goodluck Jonathan paid the 500 million. If it was for me, will Goodluck as governor pay for an individual asset? It is not possible. So, I said no. The Judge had to even rise for them to talk to me. I later agreed. So, they sentenced me. They took me to Ikoyi prison.

Having served the tenure, I was now asked to go. So, I returned home. In the night, President Yar’Adua also called me again to come to Abuja. I said I would try but my health is not good. I still managed to go. He wanted to grant me pardon and appoint me Minister of Niger Delta immediately to go and solve the Niger Delta problem. He said he would announce it immediately.

I said no, sir, allow me to go back and remove the iron in my groin. Give me three weeks. When I come back, I will be ready to do anything you want me to do. But meanwhile, let me go back to Dubai. He said which Dubai? You were deported. He did not know that letter was cooked by Nuhu Ribadu. I said no, I was not deported by Dubai government. It was Nuhu Ribadu that generated that letter.

So, he said what? You see, some people don’t know why Ribadu was removed. Yar’Adua said Ganuwa, if you go to Dubai and come back, I will bath Nuhu Ribadu with cold water. Of course I went to Dubai and came back. That was the beginning of Ribadu’s problem. There is one big man that was also removed. I have not called his name. He was dropped because a letter passed through him.

Then Yayale became secretary to the federal government. Yar’Adua now asked me to write for clemency and give it Yayale. Before Kingibe was removed, Yar’Adua asked me to go to him to inform JTF in the Niger Delta that I was going round and that I should be assisted. That was when I started moving from one camp to the other. Any camp I went, there was a guard of honour.

So, why were you not appointed again because eventually they appointed another person?

Yes, you know what happened? There was a security report again, the whole thing that created my problem with Obasanjo, that Atiku was going to nominate me as his running mate.

The same story again. They cooked it again that I was going to run with Atiku against him and my younger brother. So, Umoru said Atiku is stronger than him and that I am stronger than my younger brother. Let’s wait till we get nomination. Bad belly! I cannot on this planet contest against my younger brother.

What do I want? So, that was what happened. And it had to because the process was on for the pardon. The pardon had to come before the appointment. So, Goodluck only implemented what had been decided in the process he was also involved and it followed due process. It went through prerogative of mercy to the council of states and all that.

The Ijaw community saw you as their father because you were so powerful then as Governor-General of Ijaw nation. With all of these, are you still being seen that way in the Niger delta community now?

By the grace of God, they have even made me more popular. I move freely. I drive myself. I don’t need a retinue of aides because my people protect me. You can’t throw stone at me in the Niger delta.  It is not possible but for His Grace.

If you recollect the crowd when I came back, that crowd; it is not only Bayelsa people but the whole Niger delta gathered. From Yeneagoa where my helicopter landed at the government to Amasoma took 5 hours. Ordinarily, it was 25 minutes journey. We thank God.

But you were said to have disguised as a woman?

Again, that is a lie. Governor-General cannot and will never disguise as a woman to come back to my own country.

So, it was all cooked up?

Just wait for my book. Who brought me back to Nigeria. Did I have wings to fly. They know it, how I came to Nigeria. They know. But it is unfortunate that people are suppressing the truth. They drew a woman, and put  Egele ( traditional pot), computer graphics on me and they did not deny. Under it, they said, it as graphics. People were not reading the footnote. They wanted to sell their paper.

 

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Imprisonment: How Obasanjo, Ribadu framed me up – DSP Alamieyeseigha