Prince Tonye T.J.T Princewill is a member of the PDP
and a key player
in the politics of Rivers State. After a long period of
silence, the
young man who quite easily has one of the most
respected voices in not only Rivers state but the Niger Delta Spoke on his
relationship with
president Jonathan and Amaechi, his view on the
battle between them,
the 2015 governorship race and a plethora of other
issues that affect our region. Excerpts You’ve been silent for a while. Why? Sometimes in life we need to listen more than we talk.
As you rightly
observed, I have been doing a lot more listening
lately. My political
career is just beginning and so I have a lot to learn. I
have seen a lot of mistakes that I Tonye Princewill cannot afford to
make. And it
is only by watching the people dancing in the town
square that I have
been able to see their backs. I have resisted the
temptation to join them because neither side are short of sycophants.
There are no
vacancies in that department. And since I am not a
sycophant, I want
to continue look either of them in the eye and tell
them the truth. And what is this truth? None of them are saints. All of
us are
sinners. So we all need peace. I am an advocate for
peace, but in the
meantime I am taking a lesson in how not to play
politics. What is your position on the Amaechi /Jonathan saga?
Whose side are you on? I am not taking sides. If all of us take sides, who will
work for
peace? There is still plenty of time to make peace
between now and
2015 so allow me to preach my peace and avoid
trying to make me a warrior. When the time to fight comes, if it does, we
will see who the
true warriors are. 2007 is still fresh in our memories. I
laugh at
those people who are looking for Amaechi or Mr
President to make them Governor or Minister or LGA chairmen and whatever.
Their hope is that
their side will win and that since in PDP politics it is the
winner
who takes all, they will decide who gets what, where
and when. This time they will be in for a big shock. Neither of them
alone will
produce the next Governor. God will do that and he
will use people who
do not have big names, so blind loyalty which hides
the truth is a recipe for disaster. Count me out of that. They must
work together. They have both made mistakes and are still making
them. My
responsibility as a son of the soil is to tell them the truth
and find
a way out of the mess. Since I am fortunate enough to
have their ear, I tell them what they don’t want to hear. I blame my
friend and
brother Amaechi for this mess but where Amaechi
erred, the President
should have called him aside and told him so and as an
older brother he should have forgiven him. Do you know what
Amaechi has done for
this President when nobody gave him any notice? And
on the other side,
do we know what Wike has done for this Governor?
They have all at one time or the other conspired against me and many
others. Now they want
me to fight their war? I won’t. They should go and
settle or else, God
will settle them. In 2008, Amaechi and Wike conspired against me for
the Local
government elections, the LGA structure we see today
was “engineered”
into place by these same people fighting each other
today. In 2011, Amaechi refused to work with Atiku but went to work
for Goodluck
against my friendly advice. When he won and
Jonathan won, did they
look in my direction? Please let me have peace.
Amaechi won the Governor’s forum election, intimidating him is
unnecessary and counter
productive even if he is not totally innocent. The
sacking of the Obio
Akpor council was wrong as was the refusal to
recognise the Felix Obuah led PDP in the state. What goes around comes
around. I have told
Amaechi this. What happened when a parallel PDP
was formed in Rivers
state? To be fair, both Amaechi and Atiku have listened to
me when I have
given advice. They were both ready to work with
Jonathan even when it
appeared that he was not willing to work with them.
At first when I sat with the President, he acknowledged the need to
build bridges with
them. I can only think that there are people around
him who saw advice
like mine through a jaundiced lense and proceeded to
act counter to it. Go to the streets of Port Harcourt and ask people.
They will say
Amaechi and Tonye are twins. How? Why? Go today
and ask people they
will say Atiku is my father. I will follow him to the
grave. How? Why? My loyalty is to the people. The poorer they are, the
more loyal I am.
What will benefit them is what I will advocate for. In 2011, I advocated Atiku. For now, we watch but I
refuse to fight
Jonathan so Sule Lamido can be my President. Is
Lamido a better option
for my people? Currently peace between these
children of God (Amaechi and Mr President) is what will benefit my people. I will
work for
peace. Not take sides and call one side a saint and the
other side a
sinner. People don’t like to look well before they talk. I
do. Man no be God is what I will say. 2015 is not by power, it is by
faith. The
child that does not want his mother to sleep will not
sleep either. We
abused Obasanjo, God gave us Yaradua, we cried and
lamented, he died on us and along came Jonathan. Some of us including
those who voted
for him only two years ago are abusing him too. Ask
yourselves, who
next? Sule Lamido? No way. Our leaders should quickly move away from the
current politics towards
the politics of persuasion before they make enemies
out of potential
friends. Re 2015, Amaechi is not Mr President’s
problem or vice versa. Fighting each other will not work. Nobody should
underestimate
anybody. Even Atiku. If you can’t even attempt to win
my vote by
simple persuasion, how can you lead me? Are you going to run in 2015? Yes. It appears I will. Things have to be done right but
it appears
that all I need, to do what has to be done, is either in
place or will
be. Initially I was concerned about the moral and
financial support but that is no longer a concern for me. The next step is
to consult
more widely, identify real leaders old and new and
engage our youth
even more. Unless they are central to what I am
doing, I will not succeed. People who know me know that I have a
passion for youths and
women, especially rural women. Orphans and
disabled people will also
enjoy my government too but my focus will be JOBS,
JOBS, JOBS. That affects every household. If Ikwerre and Ogonis have the population, how will
you win? That is the same question my Governor asked me on
January 6th, 2012.
“By the hand of God” is my answer. It will take a
miracle for me to
win and that is why I have to contest. Rivers state
needs a miracle. I expect Ogonis and Ikwerres will not look at me just as
a Kalabari man
but more as a people’s man just the same way I look
at all of us as
Rivers people. We need people who can bring us
together not pull us apart. Just the other day, I heard someone say that I
will make
history as the first Kalabari Governor. I said to the
person while
that may be true, I prefer to make history because of
where I will take Rivers state and not because of where I come
from within it. To win we must reach out to all, majorities and
minorities. In the end
we must bring out our best. Many people will agree
that they have had
sons and daughters representing them before now
and yet crises and poverty have not gone away, it has even increased. So
Rivers people
know who cares about them even when there is no
election and who opens
their door when there is nothing to gain. They will not
forget. They know who has the ideas and who represents change
you can trust because
they know the Prince will and that the Prince means
well. I don’t have
the political baggage of the others, I have no cult
affiliations and have never had I have done all I have done from my
own pocket without
even a political office. They know what I will do if I do
attain more. My message to my Kalabari brothers and sisters is that
they should
talk to their neighbours and make them see what they
see. Politics
should be about persuasion not power. Numbers are
irrelevant in the eyes of God, otherwise Odili would never have been
Governor. Our
upland brothers know fairness when they see it but if
you try to
dictate fairness its name changes to intimidation and
nobody will be intimidated in 2015. The state belongs to all of us. You have been outside PH quite a lot, is that how you
will rule Rivers state? No. Like I said it is deliberate. Since you have asked so
bluntly let
me open up to you. 95% of my income does not come
from Rivers state.
Amaechi my friend knows that I do not disturb him for
money and that I go about my business irrespective of what is going on.
Schools and
hospitals were given to political friends and enemies to
execute all
over the state, he didn’t give me any, refused to give
my political allies and in the end all I had to boast of was the single
contract I
did in 2007 finished in 2008 and didn’t get paid for till
2011. This
contract was given to all governorship candidates in
2007 that decided to work with Amaechi at the time even though I
probably spent more on
the 2007 election than all of them put together. I am a
net looser so
far in this government and I doubt anyone in my
position has brought more into this state and taken less out. That comes
with its
consequences. But I am not bitter. My time will come.
To keep afloat I
have to keep my businesses afloat and since many of
them are outside the state, I have to be outside the state. Also and more importantly, I wanted to improve my
relationship with
God and so I took time out to fellowship with him and
get to know him
one on one. This has involved a rigorous fasting and
prayer routine which sometimes made me think I was going to die
but now I am stronger
than I have ever been and physically much more fit.
So my reason for
my absence is not as a habit but for a purpose. It has
also shown me who can survive without me and yet still stay focused.
So all in all
it has been a revelation. What of the political structure needed to win elections? Only a greedy man wants to rely on himself alone for
victory maybe
because he wants to chop alone. I cannot do this
alone. Government is
big. I can only occupy one position so we need a team.
My job is to find that team. The structure that will win the election
will respect
local interests, community interests and state
dynamics. Let us not
sit down in one place and write a new story for each
community where one already exists. My job is not to build a structure
from scratch
but to bring together other structures into one big one.
Political
structures, religious bodies, youth groups, women
groups, the disabled, market women, unemployed graduates,
community organisations,
etc. I will lead but I cannot do it alone. A leader needs
generals and
that is what I am busy looking for now. Politics is too
important to be left to politicians alone. Our structure will make
politicians of
non politicians. It is never too late to learn something
new. I
entered politics in 2006 and ran for Governor in 2007.
What structure did I use to defeat Sgt Awuse and shake PDP? What
structure did
Fashola use to win Lagos and what structure did
Goodluck Jonathan use
to win the Presidency? God gives structures. Has Jonathan done well? Yes. In certain areas he has, but in certain areas he
needs a lot more
work. I think as far as recent Presidents go, he is
better than both
Yar Adua and Obasanjo and IBB and Abacha but for
this time, this is not good enough. He can do better. Especially in the
politics. Where
we are today could have been avoided. I wouldn’t
want to say more than
that for now. The President knows my views on this.
Judgement will come at the end of the tenure so he still has his destiny
in his
hands. Has Amaechi done well? Same difference. He is the best since Diete Spiff
without a doubt in
my mind but he has not done well in some areas.
Especially in the
politics. Before the political space became heated I felt
he was drifting a little but now it is clear to me that
governance has been
sacrificed at the altar of politics. This is typical politics
and so I
predicted it. It could have been avoided but the
Governor was the Chairman of the forum and that tied his hands. If he
hadn’t been,
maybe we wouldn’t be here today. But he is so here
we are. Let us see
what happens before full time. This is only the
beginning of the second half and just like the President, Amaechi is a
child of God so
anything can happen. What do you think of Wike? I think he is the best politician amongst them. He is less
interested
in what you think about him and more interested in
getting results. He
is an asset to any team and right now the President is
using it to his advantage just as Amaechi has used it to his benefit in
the past. He
has served others in the past and may harbour
ambitions for others to
serve him in the future. You can’t deny him that. My
job is to make sure that when the dust settles, we are not fighting
each other. Wike
is somebody I will not fight unless I have to. I begged
the Governor
to settle with him when this first started but I do not
believe that he exhausted the options for peace. Maybe he felt that
there was no
point. I disagree. Tell us about PDM PDM is the mother of PDP and to cut a long story short
because I know
where you are going, it decided recently at a meeting
of its national
executive management committee to move away
from remaining a movement to becoming a party. For two main reasons. 1. PDP
was drifting and
needed to be reminded that people had options and 2.
We heard that
some unscrupulous elements were planning to do
likewise and register the party so we the custodians decided to beat them to
it. Even though we have given PDM life, some of us have
remained inside
the PDP because becoming a political party in Nigeria
is not going to
be business as usual just because you have a
certificate. it needs to have a clearly defined position on major issues, tell
Nigerians how it
will be different and show the youths how much
better it is than PDP
or APC. Also I believe that it should concentrate on
grassroots politics for now and remove its eyes from a
Presidential election till
2019. It can fight for elections at state and local levels
but support
any of the other two at Presidential level if they set a
people’s agenda PDM can subscribe to. These are the tasks and
considerations
before the new leadership of the PDM. We await their final position but I remain inclined to a
PDM/PDP
alliance than a PDM/APC one. But you never know.
Registration has
commenced online at www.pdm.ng . The first political
party in Nigeria to do so exactly one month after INEC registered it.
Amazing. Manual
registration commences shortly. No more hoarding of
party cards as is
currently the case. PDP and others need to take note. If you become Governor, what will you do different? I will never underestimate anybody, I will find peace
wherever it
hides for the sake of my people’s development and I
will learn from
others who came before me. Odili, Omehia and
Amaechi have a lot to teach me about what not to do and I will be willing to
learn a lot from
their examples

Good political strategy by TP.
Better to be neutral abi? Just in case.
Btw, I used to admire TP a lot because he was the only one i know that stood up against Odili.
To me Tonye as governor in 2015 will be a million times better than Wike or any of the Sekibos.