Chidi Lloyd
Chidi Lloyd is the Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly. In this interview with CHUKWUDI AKASIKE, he speaks on the postponement of the 2015 elections and other issues
What is the current situation in the Rivers State House of Assembly after the crisis that led to the closure of the Assembly complex?
The state House of Assembly is really up and doing. You will recall that after the crisis, it became impossible for the House to sit at the designated place, which is the complex because of the destruction that took place on July 9, 2013. We had an e-House with computers and all that. So, during the fracas, all that were destroyed and there was a need to carry out urgent repairs of facilities in the House. However, the state cannot wait for that to happen;
we then leveraged on the provisions of the law that gives the leadership of the Assembly the power to agree with the governor on a particular place to sit until when renovation works are completed in the complex. So, we decided to move to the old auditorium of the Government House; that is where the House currently sits. The constitution says that such a resolution must be gazetted and all that we have done. So, we have been working. Since 2013, the House has been sitting, more so when a Federal High Court had also given a judgement saying that nothing precludes the House from sitting because the House sat on the day of the fracas and passed the amendment to the Appropriation Law. By the High Court judgement, the House considered it necessary to sit. The judgement came sometime in October or November, 2013. So, we are sitting.What is the current situation in the Rivers State House of Assembly after the crisis that led to the closure of the Assembly complex?
The state House of Assembly is really up and doing. You will recall that after the crisis, it became impossible for the House to sit at the designated place, which is the complex because of the destruction that took place on July 9, 2013. We had an e-House with computers and all that. So, during the fracas, all that were destroyed and there was a need to carry out urgent repairs of facilities in the House. However, the state cannot wait for that to happen;
But the state Peoples Democratic Party and the five anti-Governor Rotimi Amaechi lawmakers are strongly opposed to the holding of session in a place different from the House of Assembly complex?
I have said at different fora that I would not want to refer to those colleagues of mine as five anti-Amaechi lawmakers. They are not anti-Amaechi. I prefer to refer to them as legislators who hold contrary views to those of the majority. There is nothing that makes them anti-Amaechi because it is not a personal thing; there are policies of government on which they have contrary views and they have the rights to hold such contrary views. But most importantly, what did the majority say on the floor of the Assembly? Most people too, unfortunately for us, do not even know the demands of the office they seek to be elected to. As a legislator, you know that you are entitled to your views. But the position of the House is what the majority of the House says. So, it does not matter whether you hold a contrary view and this postulation has been made clear even by the Supreme Court in Adesanya Vs. Senate of the Federal Republic. It doesn’t matter how they feel, but I don’t like referring to them as anti-Amaechi lawmakers because they are not one; they are legislators who hold contrary views to those of the majority.
But the five lawmakers are saying that any decision made outside the Assembly complex cannot be binding.
That is why I even find it very funny. What are the pedigrees of these legislators you are talking about? Most of those legislators were former drivers in companies and providence just put them where they are now. Some of them saw the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the first time as members of the House of Assembly. So, when the Constitution says this is what is obtainable and a member, who for no fault of anybody, did not go to school, holds a contrary opinion, what should I bother myself with? It is what the constitution says. Does the constitution say that you can sit anywhere else? What does the constitution say you should do? Hold a session and pass a resolution, gazette same. Is that what the constitution says? Yes! That is what Chidi Lloyd should be bothered about as a doctoral student of Law and I have been in the legislature for a third term. So, I should be a doyen and when I talk on legislative matters, I talk authoritatively.
As the Majority Leader of the House, what is your response to the outcry of these five lawmakers that they have not been paid their allowances?
You see, even the Bible says a labourer is worthy of his wages. So, that answers it. Have they laboured? That should be the question. Rivers State Government is even magnanimous to continue to pay them salaries for not working. And as patriots that they claim they are, should they really sign for the salaries that were paid into their accounts? I thought that they should have refunded the salaries because they are some form of nationalists. They did not get allowances because allowances are for those who participate in the day-to-day running of the Assembly. I think they too know that they don’t deserve to be paid allowances.
Some said you always defend the state governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, on all issues even when he is on the wrong path.
That is not true. It may be coming from those who do not know my legislative pedigree. You recall that there was a time in this state when Governor Amaechi asked for some funds to be appropriated to the Greater Port Harcourt Agency. Then it was not an agency and I was the one who opposed it on the floor of the House. I called my colleagues’ attention to the fact that we could not appropriate money to an agency that did not exist. And my colleagues agreed. The Rivers State Government did the needful, brought the Greater Port Harcourt Agency bill, which was eventually passed to law and we appropriated that money.
You are a member of the APC and your party appears to be a child of circumstance. Do you think the APC has what it takes to win Rivers in the next general elections?
People are quick to forget how we left the PDP. Did we live the PDP on our own volition? A group of people, who own the house, said they don’t want you. When the members of the All Progressives Congress to which Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Bisi Akande and others saw what was going on, they said look, let us woo Rotimi Amaechi and they came to Port Harcourt sometime in October 2013. The governor of Rivers State said he was not ready to leave the PDP, but should there be any reason to leave, he would tell the President and inform the people of the state because it was the mandate of the PDP that brought us to power. No sooner than he finished that speech, a man who paraded himself as a political adviser to Mr. President, one Ahmed Gulak, dismissed the Governor of Rivers State, saying that he (Amaechi) did not need to tell the President if he wanted to leave the party. But because the Constitution of Nigeria says you must belong to political parties, we made ourselves available to the APC.
Do you have any regret leaving PDP?
No! The best thing that can happen to this state is the decision of the governor and above all, I can see the hand of God in what is going on, even the blind can see it and the deaf can feel it. Amaechi and we, his followers, have no regret dumping the PDP.
But the PDP is saying that APC is not popular in the state.
Just wait; we are not the one who asked for the postponement of the election. It could have been over by Saturday, February 14, 2015. But for whatever reason, they said that they were not ready. They want to bring back the Chibok girls in six weeks; they are going to stamp out insurgency in six weeks and we are waiting. They thought they could set a trap for the APC and expect that we would react. The leadership of our party has said six weeks, no problem.
Don’t you think the postponement of the election will adversely affect the APC, especially as it concerns financing its campaigns?
Even the Electoral Act specified the particular amount a candidate should spend. Now, what is going on in Nigeria is some form of revolution and it has nothing to do with money. The people have resolved, can’t you see? Is it the APC that made naira to become N210 to a dollar? So, if you feel the pain, do you need someone to tell you? Can’t you see that Nigerians, more than ever before, are picking up their permanent voter cards and participating in the electoral process? Can’t you see the rallies? There is no electricity, no place in Nigeria where you have constant light. So, it is not about money. What has just happened (postponement of the election), to my estimation, is postponing the dooms day. It will come and will not change the expectations of Nigerians. Nigerians have resolved and are ready to vote. INEC has said that it is prepared for the elections and I believe in the competency of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to conduct the general elections. Security is not in his hands and if you look at the crisis of 2011, it will only take a responsible chief executive like Jega to take the decision he has taken.
Former Police Commissioner in Rivers State, Mr. Joseph Mbu, said he tamed the lion of Rivers, apparently referring to the state governor. What is your view on that?
What he said he tamed was a lion and as at the last time I checked, the Governor of Rivers State is not an animal. So, he knows what lion he tamed and what zoo. In all honesty, has he really been able to tame the lion? We have also heard what has happened in other states where he presided over as police boss. The AIT worker that was arrested without recourse to the law; was he Governor Amaechi? I am sure he has also tamed the hyenas and the tigers in Lagos State.
BY CHUKWUDI AKASIKE
