2015: No third term for Bayelsa lawmakers

As elsewhere in the country, in Bayelsa politics is very much in the air and noth­ing is concentrating the minds of every­one right now like the 2015 elections. Political upstarts and the rest of the ambitious are ani­mating the political scene by seeking their own place in the sun. And so incumbents especially the do-nothing breed who populate their ranks are very much under threat, This is one reason some lawmakers representing Bayelsa State in the National Assembly are now fighting a battle for their political lives. Their hopes of
returning to their cosy seats in 2015 appear increasingly for­lorn due also to a peculiar set of circumstances.
Surprisingly, the lawmakers are fighting a gale of rejection from prominent members of their constituents. Political heavyweights, opinion lead­ers and elders from their senatorial districts have risen to challenge them. Such community leaders and influential members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) including some notable traditional rul­ers seem committed to scuttle the bids of the law­makers to return to the hallowed chambers in 2015. Most of the PDP elders in the state of President Goodluck Jonathan have insisted that the principle of zoning must be the yardstick for selecting their representatives in 2015. They argue that following the principle, none of the lawmakers was qualified to seek re -election in 2015. According to the re­ceived wisdom, the state’s seats in the National As­sembly are not the exclusive preserve of the incum­bent lawmakers. They posit that having held forth for two terms of eight years, the incumbent law­makers, in the interest of equity, peace and fairness should allow other zones in their senatorial districts to produce their next representatives.
They maintain that the angling for a third term by the incumbent representatives is propelled by greed and the desire to marginalise other zones thereby giving the impression that some local government areas in the state are superior to others.
To show their seriousness, the party elders at their various senatorial districts held meetings and ral­lies where decisions to deny the lawmakers return tickets were taken. Following the development, Senators Emmanuel Paulker (Bayelsa Central), Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa West) and Clever Ikisikpo (Bayelsa East) have been asked to kiss their third term ambitions goodbye. Also, their coun­terparts in the House of Representatives, Foingha Jephthah (Nembe/Brass),Henry Ofongo (Southern Ijaw), Warman Ogoriba (Yenegoa/Kolokuma- Opokuma), Dr. Stella Dorgu (Sagbama/Ekeremor) and Nadu Karibo (Ogbia), are being advised to seek other means of livelihood in 2015.
Bayelsa East
The senatorial district fired the first salvo. Elders and leaders of thought from the district assembled at the Ogbia Brotherhood hall to decide the fate of the incumbent federal legislators from their district. All the known leaders from the district were in at­tendance.
At the end of their deliberations, the elders and leaders of thought insisted that their seats in the National Assembly must be rotated among Ogbia, Nembe and Brass local government areas, which make up the district.
The stakeholders in a communique after their well-attended meeting asked persons occupying the seats to stop dreaming about re -election in 2015. As many as 95 leaders and elders were said to have en­dorsed the decision. Among prominent stakehold­ers who signed the communique are the Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral, John Jonah (retd); Leader of the state’s House of Assembly, Chief Victor Akpe; Paramount Ruler of Opume Kingdom, King A. J. Turner; Secretary to State Government Prof. Edmund Alison-Oguru, Senator Nimi Amange and George Fente.
They asked Ikisikpo, a two-term senator who hails from Ogbia Local Government Area to ab­dicate his seat since the position had been zoned to Brass Local Government Area. They ruled that Nadu Karibu, a two-term representative who is from Oloibiri axis in Ogbia should forego the posi­tion for someone from the Ayama axis of the same local government area.
Furthermore, the stakeholders barred Jephthah Foighan who hails from Nembe from returning saying the seat had been zoned to Brass Local Gov­ernment Area of the state.
They said: “We reaffirm the existing zoning sys­tem in the senatorial district. In view of the success of the rotation formula in the past election years, the next slot for the senatorial seat should go to Brass LGA. “The same also applied to the position of the member of the House of Representatives be­tween Nembe and Brass LGAs which should also rotate to Brass LGA.
“In the same vein, in Ogbia LGA, the position for the House of Representatives is also to move to Ayama axis as the Kolo Creek and Oloibiri groups have all taken their turns in the persons of Hon. Clever Ikisikpo and Hon. Nadu Karibo”, they said.
Bayelsa West
The dust raised by the decisions of the Bayelsa East stakeholders had yet to settle when “movers and shakers” in Bayelsa West Senatorial District convened their meeting. At the centre of their agen­da was the fate of their Senator, Heineken Lokpo­biri and their representative, Dr. Stella Dorgu.
The meeting preceded a rally organised at the Sagbama Council Park, Sagbama Town to endorse President Goodluck Jonathan for 2015 and Gov­ernor Seriake Dickson for 2016. Towards the end of the rally, the elders from the district announced their decision.
The pioneer chairman of the PDP in the state, Mr. Charles Dorgu, who hails from the district and the Chairman, Ekeremor LGA Restoration Caucus, Chief Thompson Okorotie, dropped the shocker during his remarks at the rally.
Dorgu said that the political leaders in the district had decided to uphold zoning of the National As­sembly seats in the interest of peace and harmony.
Following the new arrangement, he said it was the turn of Sagbama to produce a senator for two terms of four years and Ekeremor to produce the House of Representatives’ member for two terms.
Lokpobiri who has been occupying the senato­rial seat for two terms hails from Ekeremor Local Government Area while Dorgu, his counterpart from the lower chamber, is from Sagbama, the local government area of the governor. Dorgu re­placed Governor Seriake Dickson who was serv­ing his second term in the House of Representa­tives before he was elected the governor of the state. The Chairmen of Ekeremor and Sagbama Local Government Areas, Mr. Billy Tobiyei and Willy Oyadongha, respectively immediately up­held the decision. They called on indigenes of their various LGAs to remain committed to the zoning formula adopted by the political leaders, elders and stakeholders of the district.In their joint statement, the two council chairmen, described the zoning for­mula as a “unanimous decision of the people, most appropriate, timely and in the best interest of the unity, peaceful co-existence and political stability of the LGAs”.
They stressed that the senatorial and representa­tives positions and were for two tenures each and to be rotated between the two local government areas for purposes of equity, justice, fair play and brotherliness. They noted that zoning had been the practice since the inception of the present demo­cratic dispensation in 1999. They explained that the zoning formula informed the decision of the entire people to zone the senatorial seat to Ekeremor, af­ter Sagbama enjoyed it for two consecutive tenures between 1999 and 2007. They said the practice should be sustained in 2015. They urged youths of the senatorial district not to allow themselves to be used to cause any breach of the peace in the LGAs. But the Ekeremor and Sagbama Council chairmen, argued that the offices of the governor, the deputy governor and the Chief Judge are state offices and do not form any part of the zoning arrangement for National Assembly seats.
“The office(s) or position(s) of the Governor, the Deputy Governor and that of the Chief Judge which are state offices do not count and therefore do not form part of zoning arrangement when it comes to National Assembly seats,” they affirmed..
They also advised all well meaning indigenes of the Bayelsa West Senatorial District to remain calm and assured that the PDP would be prevailed upon to respect the long existing zoning formula. They said: “We further confirm and testify that the reso­lution read out by our political leaders and elders as well as stakeholders represented by Chief T.K.O Okorotie, and Engr. Charles Dorgu was made on behalf of all the citizens, political leaders, chiefs, opinion leaders/moulders, men, women and youths from the 26 electoral wards of Bayelsa West Sena­torial District of the PDP and other parties existing in the area”. We, the leaders and members of the Bayelsa Youth Assembly (Sagbama/Ekeremor) are constrained to write you on the inordinate ambition of Senator Heineken Lokpobiri to go for a third term in contravention of the already existing zon­ing formula. We write to alert Your Excellencies of the danger that may be lurking in the corner and the threat to peace in the zone if the distinguished Senator is not called to order.”
In a similar development, a prominent youth group in the zone under the aegis of the Bayelsa Youth Assembly threw its weight behind the zon­ing arrangement. In a letter to President Jonathan and Governor Dickson, the youths declared that on zoning they stood. They asked the two leaders to prevail on Senator Lokpobiri to respect the long ex­isting principle of zoning by allowing Sagbama to produce the next senator for the district and Ekere­mor to produce the House of Representatives’ seat.
In a five-point communique issued at the end of its congress in Ofoni community, Sagbama, the youths called on the President and the governor to prevail on the senator to drop his ambition in the spirit of fairness, equity, justice and good con­science. The assembly said: “The Congress is sur­prised that Senator Lokpobiri, who is a beneficiary of the zoning formula and has been elected a sena­tor twice through no power of his own, but with the support of the same elders and stakeholders, who took the decision at the Sagbama rally, is kicking against the zoning formula. “The Congress also wishes to call on all youth groups to throw their weight behind the elders and shun any attempt by Senator Lokpobiri to use them to disrupt the politi­cal equilibrium and peace in the Senatorial district.
“Furthermore, the group wants all elders, opin­ion leaders, political and traditional stakehold­ers as well as youths to note that positions of the president, the governor, the deputy governor and the chief judge do not count in the zoning of the National Assembly seats.
“Consequently, Senator Lokpobiri was allowed to contest and elected a senator when His Excel­lency Rt. Hon. Peremobowei Ebebi was Deputy Governor and Justice Kate Abiri was Chief Judge of the State.
“Similarly, Senator David Brigidi from Southern Ijaw was elected Senator Bayelsa Central twice while Chief D.S.P. Alamieyeseigha, who is also from the same LGA was Governor.
“Equally, the fact that, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, did not prevent Ogbia LGA from producing Sena­tor Clever Ikisikpo as Senator, based on the same zoning formula.”
Bayelsa Central
The demand for equity and fair play is resonating very much in this district as well. Following the agi­tations of the leaders in the district, Senator Paulker who hails from Yenagoa has been disqualified from returning to the Senate in 2015. The seat has been zoned to the Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Govern­ment Area. Also, the Kolokuma-Opokuma Federal Constituency seat has also been zoned out of the reach of the current holder, Ogoriba from Odi. By the new arrangement, the next representative is ex­pected to come from Epie/Attisa in Yenagoa. The stakeholders have also asked Ofongo who repre­sents Southern Ijaw Federal Constituency to look for another job in 2015.
Lawmakers fight back
The lawmakers are not taking the gale of rejection against them lying low.Supporters of the federal legislators especially from the east and west senato­rial districts have risen in defence of the lawmakers.
Stakeholders loyal to the lawmakers in the East Senatorial District and led by the Chairman of Ogbia Brotherhood, Chief Olord Basuo, gave the lawmakers return tickets to the National Assembly.
Basuo insisted that the move to replace the old lawmakers with new ones was detrimental to Jonathan’s political future. He did not exactly specify how. In his comment, a stakeholder and former Chairman of Ogbia Local Government Area, Chief Innocent Kaku, said all the lawmakers currently representing the district had performed creditably well. He said the lawmakers were also closely working with the President to achieve his transformation agenda. “Based on these facts, it is only proper to allow them to return to continue their good work after 2015,” he said. In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the stakeholders reaffirmed their support for the continuity of the lawmakers. The communique said: “As it is said, ‘experience is the best teacher’. We resolve that our current representatives are experienced in the leg­islative business. “It is our decision to give them another opportunity for effective representation, consolidation and impactful representation on max­imising the gains of democracy.
“We totally condemn in strong terms, the zoning arrangement by the ‘purported political stakehold­ers’ of the senatorial district. We advise that who­ever is having any political ambition should come and test their popularity at the primary election.”
Also defending the lawmakers from the Bayelsa West Senatorial District, some elders, leaders and representatives of the 26 wards in the area held an emergency meeting in Yenagoa and distanced them­selves from the zoning arrangement. They passed a vote of confidence in Lokpobiri and endorsed the senator for re-election. They argued: “We strongly observe that representation of Bayelsa West at the National Assembly at this critical moment should be dictated by cognate experience, proven track record of competence, capacity to attract infrastruc­tural development and bring about robust perspec­tives to help stabilize the polity in this crucial period of national history.
“Consequently we totally reject and unequivo­cally condemn the irrational resort to the matter of zoning in a rally which agenda did not include any­thing of the sort”.
Beyond the lawmakers’ ambitions.
But the lawmakers are up against strong opposi­tion and may indeed be swimming against the tide of their constituents’ opinions. The leader of the Bayelsa West Youth Assembly, Mr. Tule Minister, accused them of paying their surrogates to speak for them on their third term ambitions.
He accused the lawmakers of disloyalty to PDP and President Jonathan recalling how the legisla­tors opposed the President when Governor Dickson was running for the gubernatorial election in 2012.
He said: “These lawmakers are paying surro­gates to come and speak for them so that they can go back for a third term. They seem to forget that during the time when this governor was running for office even at the time when the President came at the last PDP rally, they were all in agreement and decided to come against their own party and against the President. Now, they are coming around to say that they love the President.