‘The Political Battle in Bayelsa is Between Brothers’
Nseobong Okon-Ekong discusses the vagaries of governance and politics in Bayelsa State with David Alagoa, one of the contestants for the Peoples Democratic Party governorship ticket in the 2019 election
Not many people knew you before the Peoples Democratic Party governorship primary in Bayelsa, where did you emerge from?
I studied diplomatic studies at KO University in England; I have since worked formally in a company called IPCO International Petroleum Company. I started off as a Procurement Manager went on to be the Administration Manager in Port Harcourt and eventually got promoted and transferred to Lagos where I became the Corporate Administration Manager. I actually took over that position from Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha who was the last Administration Manager before me.
I worked there for six years and I moved on to a company called Intels, it’s an abbreviation of Integrated Logistics company in Onne. It is more or less the same sort of job but this time it was called the Government and Public Affairs Manager. I moved on to be the Deputy General Manager Community Services which was a promotion and then eventually ending up as GM Community Services. I resigned in 2018 and since then I’ve been in politics. Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was our chairman. I was part of his presidential campaign. Not formally, but of course I was running around the country with him and then after that finished, I came into Bayelsa and ran the gubernatorial race and here I am today.
Looking at your resume, some of your degrees were obtained in Diplomatic studies in England. You studied Diplomatic Law and Practice, Politics of International Economic Relations and Strategic studies, how do these relate to politics?
Whatever is happening politically internationally in the micro it also happens in the state and in local government so really you are learning about systems so whatever system you learn, if you are leaning about security for example and you are talking about international security in terms of the US and Russia for example. That model also translates itself down to whatever models you are looking at even up to the local government level. So once you are learning about systems you now apply whatever is learnt in whatever system into or whatever context you like so it’s all related clearly.
You contested the Peoples Democratic Party governorship ticket.That was your first attempt in politics what gave you the motivation to venture into the murky waters of politics was it the fact that you had Alamiesiegha as a God-father or is it your name Alagoa that propelled you to join politics?
I am not sure I had a godfather. What I did was I had been in the private sector for the best part of 25years and I now got to a stage where I was GM, it’s a multinational company it is very sure that as a Nigerian you are not going to go beyond that and since I have been in the private sector and the only place I have not worked in is the public sector. I now saw that as an opportunity that could afford me the advantage of bringing my 25 years in the private sector into this new dimension that I am into. It was a career move from what I was used and an opportunity to serve and make a difference.
Different reaction greeted the outcome of the PDP guber primaries, what was your initial reaction at the outcome of the primaries?
I was in support of it. In fact I had collapsed my structure into his Excellency Governor Diri so it was only enough to pray that he wins. Of course, he won because he was clearly the most popular candidate.
At what point did you decide to work with him?
I think to answer that, you have to look at the dynamics of what happened before the primaries. There were 21 of us and we were all hoping that any one of us will become governor. As things went along we now heard from the incumbent governor at the time that three will be nominated. From then, it became clear that three cannot be in focus. If you think otherwise you may probably be deceiving yourself. Any of the three became an option to work with. What made me move towards His Excellency the governor was his humanity, the very fact that he was accessible. Three of them were there, none of them had ever come to talk to me, and none of them thought it important with all due respect to the others, His Excellency did that.
I am interested in your assessment of him, what are the things you saw in him aside being a humble and accessible person?
His humility. Sometimes when we have meetings, he will endeavor to greet everyone. Some will come and make extremely arrogant statements during the interviews but he will smile.
The only court case that came out of the guber primaries was the one that was instituted by Chief Timi Alaibe and at the end of it all the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the incumbent governor Senator Douye Diri. However there have been some fallout from that judgement with the governor himself rejecting the congratulatory message that was offer to him by Alaibe and asking for a more acceptable posture from him at this point what comes first, is it personal interest or the state interest?
You also can not remove the personal. By my understanding, these two people have been very good friends from the past. If I have been loyal to you for example and I have done everything to please you and at the point at which I believe something is coming in my favour I would naturally expect that you will say oh, because it is you I might perhaps do it this way.
From my observation, that didn’t happen and so there must clearly be an element of, I was never appreciated. Or maybe there is an element of who is he any way, where is he coming from. Whatever it is, as much as we have this two divergent personal interest, there is indeed a common interest. You know that this battle was an internal battle in terms of party. I think there is a much better way to say we are brothers and let’s move forward.