Barrister Jah’sWill Onyemah-Iwe is a Warri-based legal practitioner and he hails from Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State. He is a member of the People Democratic Party (PDP) and he picked councillorship nomination form the forth coming Delta State Local polls. In this interview with our crew of TEJIRI EBIKEME/FRANCIS SADHERE, he kicked against the alleged hand picking of one Mr. Okorote Clement Enubuzor for the Councillorship position of Ward 13, Ndokwa East Local Government Area of the state, claiming that he is the duly qualified person and vowed to fight the alleged injustice done to him till the end. Read on;
Why do you want to serve your people?
I believe that the local government should be made to function properly by depending on internally generated revenue instead of waiting for government all the time. The local government is not moribund as people make it to be. It is the operation that makes it moribund. I believe that if the local government is made to be active, it will relief the pressure from the state governments. So these are the reasons that formed my ideology that the operation of local government should not be different from every other thing. It is not by going to the local government to make money. We come from a very terrible terrain and the terrain has gone ahead to create high levels of poverty within the system and in other to salvage the situation, we must put policies in place. These policies are policies that can only be done through legislative process. For example, if you go to the local government councils today, there is a high rate of felling of trees. Almost all the trees in the bush have been destroyed. The question I always ask is do these people actually pay royalty to the local government? The answer is no. So, through what means will these local government councils use to do the small developments that is required of them. They must create an intelligent way of generating revenue. We cannot continue to rely on the federal government allocations. There must be a driving force, and this driving force must emanate from a proper instrument in place. Once these instruments are not in place, the local government becomes moribund. The expenses of local government increases by the day and people are crying that there are no jobs. So we want to put policies in place and say look, local government can do things that are independent. For example, we can partner with the multinational agencies. We must formulate policies that will enhance the overall development of the local government – developing the human and the infrastructures in the local government.
How do you hope to fight this fight since you have lost out from the October 25th PDP elections?
You see, political participation is a gradual thing. I have been a steadfast member of PDP. We all struggled for the ticket and we have seen a lot of anomalies that I would not want to raise here. I am fighting for justice and you know justice is a two way thing. But I am saying that justice will surely prevail. In the law court, when issues are obvious, you cannot subvert them. So I believe that at the end of the struggle, despite the fact that I have not been elected, with the instrument of law, justice will come to stay. I strongly believe this because I know that PDP is a disciplined party that will want to uphold the rule of law. And I know that PDP will not also want to encourage gross criminality. I will not want to preempt what the court will say but I know that in not too distant time, justice will prevail.
Are you saying that you are in court already?
I am in court with the two aspirants that contested the primaries with me and there are obvious reasons why I actually went to court. The two aspirants are Bright Chinedu Enubuzor and Mr. Okorote Clement Enubuzor. I am out to fight for justice in order for me to contest in the forthcoming Delta State local government elections. Mr. Okorote Clement Enubuzor having not resigned from his position as a public/civil servant thirty (30) days before August 7, 2014, being the scheduled date for PDP primary election is disqualified and not competent to contest the councillorship position or represent PDP in Ward 13, Ndokwa East local Government Area of Delta State in the Councillorship and Local Government Chairmanship election. Mr. Okorote Clement Enubuzor, having falsely declared in his nomination form 2252-Code PD/003 to be a businessman and a farmer, denying his appointment as a Civil Servant, while still in active service with the Ndokwa East Local Government Education Authority Board, therefore disqualified and not competent to contest the councillorship position. The same thing also apply to Mr. Bright Chinedu Enubuzor having not resigned as a public/civil servant or shown evidence of resignation and having falsely declared in his Nomination form 1322-Code PD/003 to have resigned on the 30th day of June, 2014 while still in active service is disqualified.
Why are you in Court?
I am in court to fight for justice. When DSIEC published the date for the Delta State Local government polls a lot of political jamborees started. PDP started selling forms to political aspirants who want to vie for political positions. However, we heard that there was a directive from the head of PDP and somewhere along the line we find out there was a deviant from what it ought to be. They however agreed to conduct the elections and we all bought forms and went through the screening process and all that. But to my greatest chagrined and bewilderment, they just picked somebody and they attempted to impose him on the people. I felt that it is not right and if we cannot check it and once it has come to stay, it will bedeviled the entire system and we cannot get what it takes to practice democracy. We believe that democracy should be practiced in the way it is supposed to be practiced. People should be given fair participation to test their popularity.
If you do not get justice at the end of the day, what are you going to do?
You see, justice is of two ways and it is not subjective and is relative. To me, if at the end of the day the court ruled otherwise, I believe justice is on the other side. But if at the end of the day the issues I canvassed are germane, I believe that justice should have come to my side. So whichever way it takes, it will not deter me from realizing my ambition – after all Abraham Lincoln said, “I did it once and I failed, I will do it again at the upper level.” So if I fail, tomorrow I will take further steps to do it again and someday some time, I will actually achieve my dreams. It does not matter how many times a man falls, but the ability of a man to rise that matters. I have a dream of serving my people. But if this dream is not achieved at this instant, in the near future – because in this struggle we must keep faith with alive and keep faith and hope alive to see that we must attain what we want to attain.
What is your message to your party, the PDP?
I have always said that the right things should be done and I will not encourage iniquity. By the time we put round pegs in round holes, things will be the way they ought to be. It makes the party to be more virile when people are allowed to test their popularity in the platform. It gives a sense of belonging, participation and aspirants will actually know how much the people love them. It gives them the opportunity to access how popular they are and how participatory they can be in the political terrain. It also gives them the opportunity of talking to the people and letting the people know who they are. But if that is not the case, they will not know the caliber of persons representing them and at the end of the day, nothing will go to the people.
