Lagos — The National Vice-Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the South-South zone, Chief Edet Nkpubre in this interview with Chuks Okocha comments on some issues affecting his home state, Akwa Ibom, South-South PDP and the newly created Niger Delta Affairs Ministry among others

Let us start by asking for your views on the budget allocation to the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry. As a stakeholder in the Niger Delta, do you consider that amount enough to cater for the years of long neglect?

First of all, I think that the people of the South-South should appreciate the fact that the ministry has been established to take care of Niger Delta problems, the needs of the people, to repair the deprivation suffered over the years. The budget allocation is not good enough but you don't solve the problem of the Niger Delta with a year budget. People are complaining; I am one of those people who believe that the allocation is not enough. We have a listening president. When this budget is approved, we will normally call for what they call supplementary budget. A listening president could bring in more to augment what we have here in the initial budget to solve the problems of the Niger Delta. The year 2010 would also probably take care of some of the problems. But the important thing is that people of the Niger Delta have voiced their complaint very loudly that what you allocated for us in 2009 will not be enough to solve the problems we have on ground in the Niger Delta.

Still on the Niger Delta, since Chief Ufot Ekaette was announced as the Minister, there have been complaints from the youths. As the chairman of the zone what is happening there?

The little problem that we have is not an organised problem, it is not like the Niger Delta youth, or the South-South youth has come together and everybody says we don't want Ufot Ekaette, they are a faction and this faction, I tell you they are in minority. Majority of the youth see the need for an experienced and tested hand like Ekaette to lay foundation for a new ministry like that to take off. He has served this country in many capacities and he has served very creditably. I believe people should not personalised Niger Delta because of this appointment. We want to stay as a union, otherwise we will not be able to fight, agitate for our needs from the federal government. Niger Delta, South-South should speak with one voice and I believe people should support Ufot Ekaette and I believe he will do well.

The argument against Ufot Ekaette is that he was for eight years the secretary to the government of the federation, that he did nothing, so what can he do now?

Secretary to the government? Is that the ministry, he is not the president of the country. The little we have in the South-South might have been influenced by him. He was just a secretary to the government and to me he was appointed to serve the government and that he did. He did not run a ministry for you to assess that his ministry did not perform. He did not run a parastatal for you to assess that the parastatal did not perform. That is my own personal opinion really.

You recently suggested that in the staffing of the newly created Niger Delta Ministry, 70 percent of the staff should come from the Niger Delta as a panacea for solving unemployment within the zone. Why did you make that suggestion?

I know as a federal Ministry, you need to go through the Ministerial Public Service Commission, but this ministry is created to solve the Niger Delta problems in terms of unemployment and having commitment to the interest of the people. There is nothing wrong for federal government developing that proposal to make sure that bulk of the staff of the Ministry come from the Niger Delta zone. There is nothing wrong with that. To give them the sense of belonging, they should make people feel that this is our Ministry; it is to solve our problem. If you bring other people form other states to dominate that Ministry, people of the South-South will see it as another ploy which would not solve their problems. Bring them in, let them be part of it, it will be good for the country and for the Niger Delta.

Let me take you away from Niger Delta. How has the problem of parallel congresses in PDP been solved against the background of the recommendation by INEC that there should be fresh congresses in the affected states?

When INEC says there should be a fresh congress, my position has always been this is a party election not INEC election. That whatever is the agreement we have, instead of going for a fresh congress, we will be able to sit down and negotiate, harmonise and we move on in peace. We have done that in other states. So, Bayelsa would not have been a different issue. There was no parallel congress in Bayelsa, there was consensus and when you mean consensus, you won't have 100 percent agreement, so there was division, that division was reported to the party and the party decided to move in. And fortunately, the Vice President being from that state facilitated a reconciliation and an agreement was reached to settle the issue of congress in Bayelsa. That agreement is what we are trying to make sure that it is implemented. At least put it down on table, review it and see how we can go. Agreement was reached, and that agreement we are discussing how we will implement it, so that everybody will be happy.

This agreement so far is not acceptable to the members of the National Assembly from the State?

It is. The complaint they have is really how to implement the agreement. The demand today is to implement that agreement and we have been talking. I think it is not beyond the capacity of the zonal executive to handle, and if we cannot, the party has the capacity to handle it. But surely, a fresh congress is not what they advocate.

And in Edo State what is the update?

The other faction is in court, we have been working behind the scene to make sure they come out of court; we don't want to wait till the court judgement comes. I have discussed before coming to Abuja on having a meeting with Chief Anenih, to share from his experience and I have discussed with Prof. Osunbor, Chief Ogbemudia on how we can move Edo State party forward. After 19th which we are in holiday, I think I will come back and make more contact. For now, Edo State is in court

Why is it that the PDP does not want to conduct fresh congresses, is it that PDP is afraid of elections?

Not really. You know how volatile it is in some of these violent prone areas. We conducted election in Jos, you know what happened. If tension is so much and you foresee crisis and you have alternative to handover without putting lives at risk, I think the alternative we have will be more peaceful and more acceptable to the people. And nobody even in Bayelsa, nobody is calling for a fresh congress, all they are saying is that let us sit down and negotiate.

Militancy is almost getting out of hand in the Niger Delta. Will it not affect the efforts of trying to make the region peaceful?

My assessment is that the problem is reducing. It is not as bad as it was during the tail end of Obasanjo regime. Probably because the Vice President is from there, because they have seen the genuine concern of this present administration to solve the problems of the Niger Delta, probably because this government has set up a committee which has made very strong recommendations towards solving the problems of the Niger Delta and the youths are listening too. If the recommendations of that committee are implemented. I guess we might be on a way out of the present Niger Delta but you can't have these things stopped overnight. Criminality, some people are benefiting from it. Kidnapping, some people are making money, hostage-taking, robbery, storming or pirating, people are making money from all these. It will be a gradual process for these things to ease out.

In your state, Akwa-Ibom, what is the relationship between the former governor, Victor Attah and the present governor, Godswill Akpabio. Are they still at loggerheads in the state?

I think the problem in Akwa Ibom is that since the former governor could not install his candidate and another candidate emerged which was acceptable to the majority. He is still not happy that he could not install. It is not that Akpabio is bad or anything or not performing well, it is because it was not his own candidate and it doesn't have to be his own candidate for peace to reign in Akwa-Ibom. Government of Akwa Ibom is on ground. There are efforts to make sure that it reaches out to Victor Attah for peace to reign.

Is Victor Attah ready for peace?

We will approach him before we know. When we approach him formally, then we will know whether he is ready for peace. But for now, the way he is fighting the congress, fighting for the control of the party which has been finally settled gives us some doubt whether that peace will come very easy, but we will make our own effort and wait for his own response. Attah performed very well in Akwa-Ibom; he laid the foundation; he should not allow what he has done to be rubbished. He is the father who created Akwa-Ibom today; he should be there as an elder-statesman to give advice as at when it is necessary, in that respect he should and not trying to control the state. As a father, stay there and advice, leave the ground for the younger ones that will give you the respect that you deserve. I believe that is the kind of role I would have loved to see Chief Attah perform in Akwa-Ibom. If you look at where we are coming from, he is one of those who brought so much from the onshore-offshore dichotomy. His problem with Obasanjo arose because of his approach to this battle. The whole of South-South is aware of the benefit. He should not rubbish that in that respect by struggling to control the party in the state. He should remain a father.