The declaration of state of emergency in Rivers State and the suspension of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Ngozi Odu, and all elected members of the state assembly has continued to generate reactions. The Chairman of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Ambassador Godknows Igali, in this interview with Channels Television, says the Niger Delta group was shocked by the President’s decision because it came while they were still making peace moves between Governor Fubara and the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, who are in the centre of the controversy, as directed by the President himself. He also spoke on the way forward now that the President has taken the decision which has also gotten the approval of the National Assembly.

Enjoy the excerpts…

We know that at the time of the declaration by the President, PANDEF had reacted well. He’s given a seal an approval, some amendments done, but some of the contending issues were still allowed and approved. What’s the take of PANDEF, sir?

First and foremost, we would like to state that PANDEF as a body comprised of very senior citizens of this country and a law-abiding body will follow whatever is legitimate and has been decided by the government and approved by the National Assembly. Our interest on this matter has been the fact that beyond court judgments, beyond legal disputations, there’s always an option and room for peace, dialogue, and amicable resolution.

We’ve been on this, since the latter part of last year, from October last year. We’ve been trying to conciliate, mediate, and make peace between the two sides, and we’re making some fair level of progress. I cannot say it was 100%, but there was progress. On each day, there was an improvement.

When we met the president on the 11th of March, the President was briefed by a delegation, a very top-level delegation of traditional rulers, former governors, former members of presiding officers of the National Assembly, and so on. The President was briefed on the progress that has been made. And I think where we had a slight surprise was the fact that we had told the President that this is what we are doing.

And the President encouraged PANDEF and said, oh, when he saw the calibre of people, I’m happy you’re doing this. Tell the governor to go and obey the Supreme Court judgment, and you continue with your peace efforts and get back to me on it. So, I think that is where the Board of trustees and the exco of PANDEF felt a little bit surprised that this effort was made and then before we could get back to the President, a state of emergency was declared.

Well, now that the state of emergency has been declared and the National Assembly has also confirmed it, it is to call on the people of Rivers State to continue to be law-abiding, to be peaceful because the National Assembly has also said that there will be negotiation, there will be discussions, they will set up groups that will try to intermediate and reconciliation which means that there’s still option for peaceful resolution, and we will encourage that peaceful resolution because by the end of the day, we want a win-win situation for the people of Rivers State.

It should be a win-win, it should not be a winner takes it all, it should be the two sides coming to an amicable solution. In my preliminary remarks, let me conclude by saying that all conflict situations in the world as we are seeing, for example, in the Middle East and even Ukraine and Russia, negotiations, dialogue, and conference tables solve it all. So, let us all be open to discussion and we believe in the institutions of this country. It is not our place to start riding them and let us move forward and see how we can get an amicable solution to this problem that has lingered.

Well, the tone is quite different, Ambassador. I must admit from the communique that was issued after that emergency meeting, the board of trustees, which I understand was signed not by only you, we had Alfred Diete-Spiff, Obong Victor Attah, and others signing that statement. In that communique, the state of emergency proclamation was vehemently rejected. In fact, it was called a betrayal of the Niger Delta people and an unprecedented assault on democracy. So, what has changed now?

Nothing has changed. What I would like to reiterate is that it came as a surprise to us because if a president gives you a directive, the office of the president we hold the entire esteem, and we’re given a directive that you go and try your best and get back to me.

It came as a surprise to us that while that process was on, while the process of trying to get the assembly members for the governor to present his budget was still on this happened. In matters of this nature, you have your initial reactions. When you reevaluate, you take further steps. If you look at the end of that communique, we said PANDEF will continue to review what is happening and take further decisions. For now, we will urge peace.

Do you still consider it unconstitutional and politically motivated as was said in that communique?

Well, the lawyers are debating on the legality and otherwise of some of these steps, and they also are discussing them. That’s why we concluded by saying that PANDEF will continue to watch this situation and will take any further legal steps in this matter. For now, what is important is that we should all be committed to peace and see how we can move forward.

Some would say that some Niger Delta elders were present at that meeting. They didn’t object at that meeting, but then they went back and started setting Fubara against that political intervention by Mr. President. If that was what transpired at that time, what will be different this time giving the committee that the National Assembly has approved to provide a political intervention, you know, to the warring parties in this Rivers political crisis? What would be different this time?

Well, I would like to reiterate again, the fact that when you have conflicts of this nature, political conflicts, similar conflicts, positions keep changing, decisions are taken, and people go back and review their decisions and keep talking. You judge until you’re able to arrive at the point where all parties come to full understanding.

Yes, Mr. President did very well, tried to give his own fatherly intervention at the beginning. And then after they left, the two parties in various ways tried to comply. It is totally untrue, totally unfair, and would not be correct to say that the governor reneged. There was a decision in that meeting that said the governor should go and withdraw the court case.

If you go through the facts, he withdrew the court case, which has now become an albatross because some subsequent judgments are based on the fact that he withdrew the court case, which was the main issue in contention, and the other parties had the case still alive, and judgment was passed against him. So, those mistakes have been made on both sides, but If you keep looking at the rear mirror, you get a crash.

The attitude of PANDEF is always forward-looking, and that was why when we saw that progress was so snail pace, in October last year, we considered a committee made up of very senior Nigerians, the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, three former governors and 3 former leaders of the Senate to broker peace. We did not have to start going back to say, okay, you made this mistake, you made that mistake. It was a matter of talking towards arriving at a peaceful resolution. What has changed is the fact that since that time, the state of emergency has been made.

Since that time, the Senate of the country and the House of Reps have allowed what the President has done, an administrator has been appointed. The governor has been told along with his deputy and the assembly to step aside to give a basis for a discussion for more dialogue to arrive at a give and take option. I think we should focus more on what has happened now. If the lawyers want to continue to look at the legality, well, it’s okay. It’s good that the country is established based on the rule of law which the President emphasized.

The law must rule at all times, so we leave that to the lawyers. For us, the initial reaction of PANDEF was the fact that we were surprised that a state of emergency was declared because we were given a charge. A presidential charge in a temporary setting in any country is the highest charge anybody can give you. When a President tells you, go and do this, you take it almost as a command. And that is what the Peace Committee was still doing when the state of emergency was declared. And that was why we reacted in the manner we reacted, and that is quite appropriate and so legitimate as it is.

Going forward for us, it is for all parties to work with whichever committee is considered towards discussions for peace. We will give them all the support by encouraging the community leaders, encouraging the leaders of Rivers State and other stakeholders to work towards peace, and encouraging our young people not to take the law into their hands.

Some would say that godfatherism is at the heart of these political crises. If you were to convene that committee today and PANDEF was invited to the table, what would PANDEF be recommending as a way to ensure lasting peace in the reverse political crisis, bearing in mind that fodfatherism is a key factor that is fuelling the feud?

I think that godfatherism is a cancer. Godfatherism is an anathema to proper democratic consolidation and shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere in our country in the state-building process, whether it is in Rivers, it is in any other state, we shouldn’t encourage godfatherism. What is important now, what’s before us, is what they call a fait accompli. Something has been done by the highest political office in the country, the chief executive of the country, the president. The next thing is that the National Assembly has concurred with him. The only option left for any party they want is to go to court.

But for us, as a body, we are a body that is formed to promote dialogue, to promote, the reign of peace in the region and also defending, of course, the people.

A template has been established, and that template is that go and talk about how we can arrive at a peaceful resolution to this problem. If that option was not there, PANDEF would have reacted totally differently.

But the option has been created. It is what we were doing already, we were already on the verge of arriving somewhere. Let me say this, and I think Nigerians need to know, that at the beginning when PANDEF got involved, the two sides did not want to talk to each other. And finally, the Committee of Elders succeeded in talking to the two sides. They met people who were very close to the governor. They met with the governor himself twice. Then they also met with the very close people to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and the two sides agreed that okay let us arrange for the two principals to meet at a neutral ground.

And then we had already started working on that, on a place where both of them can meet face to face. I can put it out that we had approached one of the governors in the South who is very detached from this matter to host, and he had accepted to host. So, we’re looking forward to that process. When we went to the President and reported this process to him, and he said, okay, let the governor obey the court judgment, you go and continue your good work. He thanked the elders. I must say also, the president was very civil, very receptive to the people that went. I don’t know why the report that came out from the statehouse showed as if people were not properly received, not at all. (Channels TV)