2023: Nigeria not ripe for Muslim-Muslim ticket
Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, a lawyer, was political adviser to former Delta State Governor, James Ibori and chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state. He was elected to represent Delta North in the 8th and 9th Senate. Recently, the chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs dumped the PDP for the All Progressives Congress, APC.
In this interview with Vanguard, he speaks on his APC senatorial ticketfor the 2023 poll, the emergence of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State as the running mate to PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his rejection of Muslim- Muslim ticket, and the rising popularity of the Labour Party Presidential Candidate and former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, among other salient issues.
By Henry Umoru, Assistant Politics Editor
You are back from Delta after the senatorial primary election, how did it go?
Let me thank the leadership of APC both at the national and state level and also my senatorial district for finding me worthy to return unopposed. It was a very interesting primary, I contested alone and I am very grateful. It went very well.
What are you looking up to ahead of 2023 with regard to Delta North Senatorial District?
They are going to witness a very big fight. In my senatorial district, the governor and the vice presidential candidate of the PDP, the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, and the Deputy Governorship candidate of PDP, and many other candidates are from there. It is going to be a very interesting contest.
Are you really a happy man leaving the PDP, a party you started, built, and helped to nurture?
The answer to the question is embodied in the statement of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, SMBLF led Elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, everything I said and I told the people about Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, it is now that people are now realizing that I was telling them the truth, that this man can betray you at any time, that he is power drunk.
How can you host a meeting of the South-South Forum, 48 hours after that you were in Minna campaigning to be the vice president? He moved on a chartered flight to Minna to meet the former president and lobby to be the Vice President, and he was deceiving his fellow governors.
And look at the defence he is putting, that his party decided to throw the contest open and then a presidential candidate emerged. First of all, did he vote for a Southerner, did the Delta delegates vote for a Southerner? At least, I kept my own side of the agreement that we should all vote for a Southern presidential candidate.
At the convention ground, he directed Delta delegates to vote for Atiku because he had a pact with him.
When I met Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, he said, ‘Distinguished, why did you leave our party? I am not happy with you.’ I said, ‘the things I saw you will still see them.’ When we went with the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, he was not happy with me when he saw me, he said, ‘Distinguished, how can you do this?’ I said your ‘Excellency, what I saw you will see it.’ I think I am happy he has seen it.
What is your level of consultation ahead of 2023 to come back to the Senate?
Everything I have is from God, I will keep on telling people and I want to repeat, I am not a desperate human being. I never knew that I would get up to the level of being among the 109 Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is God that elevated me to this place.
I became the chairman of PDP; I was invited to be chairman. I was the secretary of PDP; I was invited to be secretary. I was the chairman of Raw Materials Research and Development Council; I was in my house when they called me that they had made me the chairman. I was a member of NEXIM Bank, I was in my house when they called me to be one of the non-executive directors of the bank; and so many positions I have held. Even this Senate, I was on my own when I was invited, my then governor, Ibori sent them to tell me to go and run for the Senate.
So, in terms of level of consultation, the people of Delta North know me and I know them. They know what I can do, my capacity, and credibility. So I am not a name that they will say who is he in Delta State? I have done my best. I was the chairman of NDDC.
I will campaign with what I have done not what I am going to do. I will first of all say this is what I have done and this is what I will do. There is no local government in Delta North that does not have my presence. In fact there is no ward in Delta North that does not have my presence. So, if the people still feel not satisfied then it is for them to judge.
As a ranking senator are you not worried that many of your colleagues are leaving the APC you just joined for the PDP you left?
Just like many people also came in, some people are leaving APC. That is the fall out of the primaries. I have made it clear for those who care to know, there were problems with the processes of the primary. First of all you can’t blame the present executive because the delegates were already elected before they assumed office so you can’t blame them. I believe that they should have been firm in certain decisions.
So, I don’t think that it is going to affect the fortunes of the party. I have been around for over 40 years in active politics, I have sat down and calculated the politics of the area and it is clear to me that APC will win. The only threat as at now is not PDP, it is Labour Party by my assessment. Vanguard
