Politicians Must Account For SURE-P Money, Otherwise The Masses Will Revolt – Biukeme

Alaowei Afro Biukeme, former Delta State governorship candidate of the Mega Peoples Progressive Party (MPPP) in the 2011 election and a Niger Delta Activist in this interview with the crew of National Reformer of Francis Sadhere and Christopher Odamah made it known that he is not happy with the management of the SURE-P money by some Transition Committee Chairmen in Delta State. Mass revolt, he said is coming soon against politicians he accused of sharing the SURE-P money among themselves. He also rained heavy knocks on President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. Find out why:

Please may we meet you?

My name is Alaowei Afro Biukeme of former Mega People’s Progressive Party, (MPPP) and former Delta State Governorship candidate of the party in 2007.

Are you satisfied with how the SURE-P money is being utilized by the various local Government councils in Delta State?

Corruption has gotten to a stage whereby you can no longer identify it in Nigeria. 2013 we had this subsidy. They said the subsidy system was corrupt and they want to use the subsidy money to give to the masses. But at the end of the day, the money is being shared by the same PDP politicians, especially in this Delta State. I want every local government transition committee chairman to account for whatever they have taken from SURE-P fund. Or they should re-introduce subsidy back and see how we can be able to survive since we are all corrupt. They should give proper account because I am sure that they are sharing money in Warri South. Because of this sharing of SURE-P money in Warri South, somebody was nearly beheaded at Warri  garage. In my local government in Bomadi, as I am talking to you now, they have not been able to give an account of how they shared the SURE-P money there. To me SURE-P is more corrupt than subsidy.

So how do we solve this problem?

The President is aware of the whole thing because he started the whole thing and he was not able to execute it properly. Up till this moment they have not been able to prosecute anybody on the subsidy issue. They are burying everything under the carpet. Give me one reason why we should continue to be under this kind of government. President Jonathan does not deserve a second term.

Why do you think the various local government chairmen have not been able to utilize the SURE-P money?

I am saying this because in your own local government you are supposed to be in your own ward when it comes to politics and that is how the SURE-P money is supposed to be utilized. You are supposed to go to your ward and get the dividends of what the federal government is sharing, which could either be in cash or infrastructures. But what they do now is that they share the money within themselves and we will not take that.

Are you going to take any legal action against any local government chairman that you think has misappropriated this money?

Definitely, I am going to court, especially with my local government chairman. I am taking Bomadi, Burutu and Patani local government chairmen to court so that they can tell us what they did with the SURE-P money.

Considering the kind of legal system we have in Nigeria, how confident are you that you are going to get justice?

The fact is that everything has its limits. Today we do not believe in the judiciary because we believe that ones you are in government you can control the judiciary. The people that are fighting may have no hand in the matter but they will be witch-hunted by either the ministry or the judiciary because when they take you to court they make sure that you are convicted by all means so that you cannot speak for the people. But this time around we are going to fight with every drop of our blood to make sure that we fight for those that are marginalized. This is our fund you are collecting but we are not seeing it. So I am very sure that this time around we are going to conquer the judiciary. As I am talking to you now, the man that was put in charge of SURE-P resigned to tell you the corruption level in SURE-P. People believe that President Jonathan is bringing the dividends of democracy to the people and we are not seeing it. So at the end of the day if you come out to convince the people to vote for this same man they will not come out.

So how are you sure that the transition committee chairmen actually received the money from the state government?

When we get to court they will testify to that. It is not my duty because I am not in charge. The man from Warri South West has been able to prove that he is spending SURE-P money and the man from Bomadi should prove how he is spending SURE-P money. So that means the state government is giving them the money and they are not spending the money. So we want to know how they are spending our money. I am saying all these because I know that the local government chairmen are receiving money from the state government and you know they are very close to the people. I am giving them just one week ultimatum and after that I taking them to court. What I am saying is that the people of Bomadi and Patani Local Government Areas have not benefitted from the SURE-P program. If they are going to share anything in Bomadi I am supposed to know because I am supposed to go to my unit and get the dividend and share to my ward. Even the people in my community do not know what is happening about SURE-P. It is only the local government chairmen and their caucus that are aware of SURE-P. But they are collecting SURE-P as allocation because the money is not meant for teachers.

So what you are saying is that the only thing that will make you happy is that the SURE-P money is released to the people in the grassroots?

I was told that they went and bought buses for my local government. Can they run transport system with SURE-P funds? These Funds are meant for the people at the grassroots.

What do you want them to use this SURE-P money for?

We have so many less privilege people that need this money to survive. Some people cannot afford to buy note books for their children to go to school. Up till now the free education programme has not been fully executed in Delta State unlike Rivers State and Imo State where they give you uniforms, bags and the rest of them. It is not so here. So we need these monies for the people to survive because that is the reason why this programme was introduced. But it has now been politicized. If you are not in PDP they will not share to you. We cannot keep sharing Federal allocations and SURE-P together. They are playing politics with the money and it should not be like that. If you are not a PDP man then there is no way they are going to give you money. They are training only PDP members so that they will be sharing the SURE-P money as they are sharing out allocations.

Do you think giving the people money will solve the problem?

It will because when they want to do any empowerment programme, all they do is invite the PDP woman leader, local government leaders and their cronnies and introduce these programmes to them and that is a corrupt system. This is what we are talking about. The money is for all of us. The only people that get involved in any empowerment programme are PDP people. I am a stakeholder in Burutu local government and I have contested as the Governor of this state. There are so many things they are doing that we are not aware of. It took me so much pain to contest for that position.

Now 2015 is around the corner and politics is being heat up and our man is there at the helm of affairs, President Jonathan is from the South/South and he still wants to contest. Would you throw your weight behind his re-election bid in 2015?

For me, I will not do that because the man is a total failure. Look at his administration today. Nothing is happening in the south/south. At the moment Ameachi might be crying at the Rivers level. But as a Delta man, and President of the Niger Delta Coastal communities, the coastal agitation has been defeated. When you hear about militant, there was no militant in Warri. Am I lying? The people from Warri went to the rural communities to fight for their rights. If you watch clearly, is there any militant camp in Warri? So, we the costal people are highly deprived. If up till now if we are not able to meet our agitation, I think in 2015 we will continue to remain in the same situation. So for me, I want somebody that will look at my coastal community to come and run for the position of the president come 2015. Goodluck does not deserve it because we did not agitate because of militancy. Now he is parading militants and taking care of them alone. I can count the number of militants he is taking care off. Was that our agitation? We agitated for development of the Niger Delta. But up till now there is no school, no electricity, no road, no housing, no hospital, but the oil allocation is still coming. Those monies are oil money and not Nigeria’s money. It is our Niger Delta money. But now we have the President from the Niger Delta and up till now we are not enjoying the dividends of democracy. So there is no need to vote for him to come back because he has spent almost 6 years in Aso Rock. Right now the Delta Steel Company (DSC) is not working, NPA Warri is not working. We do not have Airports or sea ports in Bayelsa. The local government areas in Bayelsa State still remain eight. Then what are the dividends of democracy that we are talking about. Is it no development? He has no reason to come back as President of this country. We will keep talking and fighting till God answers our prayers. The agitation will begin from February 2014. We are going to keep the militants aside and come back and agitate for our rights in a non-violent manner. We cannot continue to be silent because President Jonathan and his gang are doing nothing. If it is so then power should go back to the north.

Are you telling us that the Niger Delta Militants have been bought?

Yes! They have been bought because they are no longer fighting for the Niger Delta interest but their own selfish interest. So many contracts have been awarded to them. As for me, Goodluck’s government is corrupt;  he was the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State and went ahead to become the Governor, then Vice President and now President, yet we from the Niger Delta region are still agitating. It is a shame. After Boko Haram, the people will still come back to fight for their rights and he should not forget that. If for this six years he has been able to leave some legacies behind, it would have been better and we could see how we could vote for him again. To me he will not get any vote from the South/South.

Since you said militancy has failed, what do you think will work for the Niger Delta region?

The only thing that will work for us is non-violent protests. We will continue to carry our placards and tell the united nation that up till now we are not being developed. Sixty-five thousand naira is being paid to a group of persons to the detriment of the development of the Niger Delta. If the East/West road that you see is still creeping, what about the coastal communities, the people that have the oil and the ones that have the national cake. So to me he does not deserve a second chance.

Do you have a personal grudge with President Jonathan?

No, I do not have a personal grudge with him. He knows that I have been agitating for the survival of the people of the Niger Delta before his tenure and up till now there is nothing to show for it. I have been a fighter and an activist before I contested as governor of the state. He is aware that people are watching and that we are supposed to see the dividends of what we are struggling for. It is a shame that we are still agitating for development. We have been fighting to see how they can scrap NDDC, DESOPADEC and the rest of them because they have failed us. You see, these agencies are political means the government uses to assist their people. These agencies are meant for our own development. So much is giving to NDDC and we are not seeing any infrastructure on ground. Is that not painful? NDDC is only looking at the interest of politicians and they forget about the common man. They are only interested in tarring the road that leads to a politician’s house. We the people of South/South refused to be deceived. If he was a true South/South man, I do not think Amaechi will come out because Rivers State has nothing to show from the Federal Government. In the struggle we have a lot of factions all over South/South.  Jonathan is blessing those people that carried arms and leaving our old women and men with nothing. Militants are now blowing sirens everywhere while our struggle has been abandoned. We will continue to struggle and I tell you, in February the struggle will continue.

What should Nigerians expect in the month of February?

So many agitations will come out. We did not go out there to struggle for amnesty; we went out there to agitate for development. So if they have forgotten our agitation and they are facing amnesty then we should come out and agitate again. But this time it is going to be in a peaceful manner. We need infrastructures so that our youths who have graduated will get work. It is very shameful for you to graduate in Delta State University and go to Lagos to look for work. This is happening because there is nothing on ground. Apapa Port is congested yet we do not have one ship here in Warri Port. We have five sea ports in Delta State and we have our man in the helms of affairs from South/South and nothing is happening. People are busy buying oil blocks for themselves and their family and we are smiling and suffering. It does not work like that. The agitation must still go on. I am using this medium to appeal to all my brothers and sisters all over the world to come out and fight because we did not agitate for militancy. We agitated for the development of the Niger Delta region. We did not agitate so that you can be paying militants.

 

If you look at some of the appointment of President Goodluck Jonathan, most of his cabinet members are from the South/South. What do you have to say about this?

The man who claims to be in the Ministry of the Niger Delta Affair, Elder Godsday Orubebe has failed the people because his ministry has a lot of money to develop the Niger Delta Area. If you see what they are doing from Ore junction to Bomadi, everything has been abandoned, but millions of our oil money are being shared among themselves. If those people cannot tell the President what he is supposed to do, don’t you know that they have failed. Diezani has failed too. As I am talking to you now there is no Ijaw man that has licence to lift our crude. Just because of personal grievances, for two years now the Urhobo people do not have a minister. After Kenneth Gbagi I do not think we have any other one. Have we not failed? If the Northern man is doing this to us it will be better off than the man from South /South.

Now so much money has been going into agriculture. But let me ask you, who has commercial farm in Delta State. How many fertilizers are coming to the South/South? The allocation they have for agriculture is not from the oil money. And there is nothing to show for it. Now even the rubber farms have been abandoned because nobody is given them even fertilizers. The agriculture money is being shared to the Northern States. Even the Delta Beyond oil that they are talking about, we do not have anything to show for it. Do we have any produce that we could export? Now tell us, if you say President Jonathan has failed Nigerians, what is your assessment of Governor Uduaghan of Delta State?

Yes of course, I will say he has failed us too. Look at the Warri Industrial park, it is getting to six years now and there is nothing to show for it. The drainages are not working. Apart from the generator street lights that they are making money from the sale of diesel, nothing is working in Warri. So I will say that the Uduaghan government has failed. He has not even completed some of the Ibori projects he inherited. We are still crawling in Delta State. Does this means that nothing is coming to this state? Edo state publishes their allocations every month but in Delta State the story is different. They keep hiding the revenue allocation from the people. I have contested for the Governorship position in Delta State and I am going to contest again in 2015. I have a lot of supporters who will vote for me in 2015.

It is being speculated that 2015 election will be conducted in January 2015, how prepared are you to go for the election?

As I am talking to you my campaign team will be on ground by March this year. I am fully prepared to run for the governorship position in Delta Sate. For now I do not want to disclose the platform I will be running under, but I am leaving Mega People’s Progressive Party, MPPP, for another bigger party. When the time comes I will let you know under which party I am going to run.

The trend now is that if you are aggrieved, you run to APC, are you also going to run to APC?

Let me reveal something to you. APC may not even produce the next president because there are too many big heads there and at the end of the day the heads may be cut off. I do not think that even APC deserved the Presidency seat because we are seeing so many corrupt people from PDP moving over to APC. So, I am still watching and I do not think that APC is the option.

If you say APC cannot produce the next president, which other party do you think will give Nigerians a new president?

There are other parties that are coming up. Other parties will form a coalition that will even be stronger than the APC that we are talking about.

What if tomorrow you are called by Jonathan or Uduaghan for settlement, what will you do?

You should know me by now. The state has given me so many offers which I have rejected. I am not working for myself or anybody. What I am fighting for is how my people in the grassroots will be taken care of. What I am fighting for is how my people in the coastal areas, which I belong to will benefit from the dividends of democracy. As for me I am doing well.

Now shell has moved out of Delta State, what do you have to say about this?

Shell is still working partially in Delta State. Do you know why we did not benefit from Shell, it is because we do not expose what is wrong. We keep celebrating people who are corrupt. We have stakeholders. We are not talking about government alone. What about the various stakeholders in the communities that allowed Shell to go? We have about 400 people who are working in Shell and they are acquiring about three hundred thousand barrels every day whereas there were supposed to be about ten thousand people where these four hundred people are and yet we are silent. As I am talking to you now, Shell is still in Warri. If you go to Ogunu, you will see that the pipeline section, asset management and the rest of them are still there.

What is your New Year message to Deltans and Nigerians?

My New Year message for Deltans is that I wish them well for this New Year and I urge them to be patient because good governance is coming. But it will not be gotten from PDP and I wish all Nigerians the best.