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Comrade (Engr) Igbini Odafe Emmanuel is a mutual friend of the minister, Wike and Governor Fubara. For decades, he has been committed to peace, good governance, and progress in Rivers State. In this interview, he speaks on the aspiration of Rt. Hon. Kingsley Chinda to unseat incumbent Governor Fubara in the forthcoming Rivers State election. He had insisted before now that Fubara should be allowed two terms.
Excerpts:
The political situation in Rivers State is now so tense ahead of the APC governorship primaries. What is your take? Did you see this coming?
No. Honestly, I didn’t see this coming because, for the last three years, I have done everything to help bring about the peaceful resolution of the minor political disagreement that ensued between former Governor Wike and his political son, Governor Fubara, in 2023. I was in constant touch with both towards resolving the matter, but unfortunately just when peace was about to return, they allowed their common political enemies to come between them and escalated the situation to a full-blown crisis that regrettably consumed some innocent lives and led to the destruction of some public infrastructures. Not even the fatherly intervention of President Tinubu on two occasions could make them resolve their differences. This was quite unfortunate and was an insult to the president. It was disrespectful to his age and his exalted office as President of Nigeria.
I am sure it has come to your notice that Rt Hon. Kingsley Chinda, who was until last month the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and a member of PDP, has dumped PDP and become one of the leading governorship aspirants of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the forthcoming election in Rivers State. Do you see him having a chance against an incumbent governor, Fubara?
Yes, I am aware of his defection to APC and his vying for the office of governor of Rivers State under APC. I know him very well and very closely too, for over 20 years now. Honestly, I wish it was never a struggle between Chinda and Fubara because I have soft spots for both of them. However, since this is the reality we now find ourselves in, I will have no option but to choose one of them as my preferred aspirant, and that person is Chinda. For some compelling reasons, he has a good chance against Governor Fubara in this election. This is the bitter truth.
Why do you choose him above an incumbent governor, Fubara, whom a majority of Rivers people so love and have approval of his performance so far?
I have said earlier that there are very compelling reasons for my choice of Chinda. I would not want to be dragged into assessing the performance of my brother, Governor Fubara. Both men have their own large followers and supporters, so that is not part of my consideration in making my choice.
Let me shock you to hear that Rt. Hon. Kingsley Chinda played a very critical and major role in the success story of the making of Fubara governor by Wike. He was the one hosting critical and strategic meetings in his private home for the execution of campaigns and mobilisation for the election of Fubara as governor. Even after the election and at the Election Tribunal, Court of Appeal, and finally to the Supreme Court, he was part of the legal think tank raised by Wike to defend the electoral mandate of Fubara. Even when the unfortunate misunderstanding between Wike and Fubara began, he was one of the first persons Fubara called on the phone and pleaded with him to intervene. Chinda had to cut short his trip abroad to return to Port Harcourt to meet with Fubara and Wike to resolve the matter. I am telling you all this so as to enable us to appreciate who Chinda is and his cordial relationship with Fubara.
Many people didn’t know Hon. Chinda except recently when they saw him as a leading supporter of former Governor Wike since the political crisis began in Rivers in 2023. Who is this man, Hon. Chinda? Can he be trusted by the people of Rivers State to restore peace and take Rivers State to the next level of development? People suspect that he is a stooge for Wike; hence, he is being sponsored by Wike to unseat Fubara.
You are not exactly correct to say that many people don’t know Chinda. He is very popular and well known within Rivers State, the Niger Delta region, and beyond. He has been in the House of Representatives since 2007, where he has made lots of friends who see him as their leader of the minority political party. In the year 2019, he was overwhelmingly chosen by honourable members to be their minority leader, but the then leadership of the House and some political leaders of South South who had issues against Wike were not comfortable with the choice of Chinda; hence, he was not allowed to act in that position. I know this as a fact because I played a very crucial role in helping to calm the situation to allow for Hon. Ndudi Elumelu to serve as the minority leader. In 2023, Chinda was again overwhelmingly chosen to be minority leader.
In the 9th House of Representatives, Chinda was appointed as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, where he revolutionalised the age-old archaic system of using tons of documents and hard copies of files for the auditing of MDAs. This makes it very difficult to achieve good results; hence, he decided to introduce an electronic and online system on a real-time basis, which completely eliminates those tons of documents.
With his new electronic system, MDAs only need to send soft copies of whatever documents they wish to present in answering accounting queries issued to them. What is even more interesting is that they upload their soft copies into the committee’s website created by Chinda, and where the query and answer sessions are going on, they are streamed online and in real-time across the globe such that interested people watch from the comfort of their bedrooms or sitting rooms.
His innovation helped to easily detect fraud in the ministries, departments, and agencies of the federal government. It was a positive revolution that other committees of the National Assembly were eager to adopt.
On a personal note, Rt. Hon. Kingsley Chinda has been my legal counsel, friend, and true brother since the year 2000 when our paths first crossed. He took over from my first lawyer, Festus Keyamo, now SAN and minister, the pursuit and prosecution of my legal suits against the management and some PENGASSAN officials of TOTALENERGIES EP Nig. Ltd. for the unlawful and wrongful termination of my statutory employment in the year 2000 because of my uncompromising activities as a labour union activist. I was the labour leader then. Chinda diligently prosecuted my cases in court for over 10 years, and his representation was pro bono. I mean representing me for free! I paid no kobo. And since then, our relationship has grown to that of blood brothers. He is a very nice man, loving and supportive to people. He is a very humble, accessible, grassroots man but very intelligent and focused on getting set targets achieved.
He was a student union leader in his days at the university, where he suffered persecution for leading students in demand for the restoration of the June 12 mandate and the return of Nigeria to democracy. After his graduation he became a human rights, pro-Niger Delta, and environmental activist and was one of the lawyers of the Ijaw Youth Council under the leadership of Asari Dokubo and later Felix Theodore. The likes of Oronto Douglas were his friends and comrades. It was later, in about the year 2002 or 2003, that Nyesom Wike pleaded with him to join him to reform the Obio-Akpor Local Government Area in the capacity of legal adviser. That was when Wike was the chairman of the local government. It was Chinda who helped to completely bring about sanity, law and order, and orderliness in the council and stopped unlawful harassment of property developers and business owners by some youths.
After that, he was appointed into the cabinet of then-Governor Amaechi as commissioner for environment, where the state witnessed massive transformation and a cleaner environment. I am aware that he had initiated plans for the installation of incinerators for recycling tons of waste generated in the garden city of Port Harcourt and its environs.
We can’t end this interview without asking you what you think about the chance of President Tinubu’s bid for reelection given the strong opposition against him by other politicians.
You know that since the year 2022 I have adopted and supported him to be our president till 2031, and my position remains the same. In a straightforward answer to your question, President Tinubu welcomes opposition to his aspiration, which makes it better for constitutional democracy he strongly believes in, but that would not stop him from getting the mandate of the majority of Nigerians in 2027.
There are no doubts about some areas of the economy that need urgent review to drastically reduce the cost of living of Nigerians. The petroleum sector needs new hands to restore accountability and plug loopholes for looting of our oil wealth. He is a man of unique patriotic courage; hence, I so love him
