In this interview with Akpeji Charles of Naija247News, the former governor of Taraba state, Rev. Jolly T. Nyame, expressed dismay at the ongoing massive defection from PDP to APC. tmp_9346-index-862846872 Several years after your exodus from office as the former governor of Taraba state, you are yet to be pay all your entitlements. What do identified as the reason for the delay It is pathetic and I can only speculate as they have not given me any reasons. We’ve had other governors or acting governors and deputies who have left office and are enjoying their benefits. Some even paid themselves before leaving the office but I was been a gentleman and felt paying myself my entitlement before leaving office was not gentlemanly. I wanted someone else to pay me like every other pensioner. I never knew I was cheating myself. What is your position on the ongoing defections in the PDP to the APC It is very pathetic. When you have top PDP members defecting to the now ruling APC, then it calls for stock taking. It is even more worrisome that some people still seat in their offices as party officials and government functionaries and just wave this as nothing. It is a very bad for the party I can tell you that. I am most touched by the recent defection of the immediate past minister of labor Senator Joel Ikyena because I worked with him and I know what political weight he is. He is someone that has his way politically. He is a force you can always count on for results. You know he came from the very bottom of the ladder to the top and that makes him a core grassroots politician. So for him to defect to the APC and you have people in position try to make it look as nothing has happened, it is very pathetic. In the last elections, the PDP got a chunk of its votes from his homestead of Wukari, even when someone from the same Wukari was also vying for governorship. I know there must be a reason for his defection and I don’t want to hold brief for him but I passed through the same thing too. For instance, party congresses were held in this state last year up to the zonal congress and no one informed me about it. So when you have people that are not mature enough, they would feel slighted and would simply opt to move on. In as much as I am not comfortable with the development, I think the PDP needs to move out of her cocoon take post mortem of the developments leading to the last general election and up till this time. If that is not done, I can assure you that there is no future for the PDP anywhere. Look at what is happening in the state now preparatory to the council elections. If you can not organize primaries for local government elections, then there is problem. The issue of consensus candidate is wrong. People are not happy about it. It is as a result of this same issue that the governor is still battling for his mandate at the Supreme Court. Allow internal democracy to prevail. I however believe that the party would put its head together and correct some of these mistakes soon. Where do you see the new Mega party that is so rumored going and what is the implications of this development to the PDP since it seems to be an offshoot of the PDP. Well, the APC itself came up as a mega party. It was a merger of political parties who felt dissatisfied with the way PDP was handling the affairs of this country. In the end we all saw what happened. So this is the same thing is about to happen. It is no longer something new. That however, is not a guarantee that they would come and take over leadership as the APC did. It would of course provide for vibrant opposition which is healthy for any democracy globally. And like I said, the PDP would also learn her lessons and step up the game to meet the challenges hopefully. As the longest governor that pilots the affairs of the state People are not comfortable with your continue silence on the vices going on the state. Well, people who say that may do so base on their level of knowledge. I have been doing a lot just that I am not militant about it. But if my disposition to this position as an elder statesman is taken as cowardice, I may soon become militant about it. A lot of things happen in Taraba awkwardly. The entire money we got in eight years as a government is what Suntai got within a year. Subsequent governments after him too got a lot of funds. Unfortunately, the structures we put on ground before leaving office are still what you see around. No government has been able to build one more hospital, or any viable project. Some of the projects we started and could not complete before leaving are still there. The structures we put in place are very fast decay for lack of maintenance. I’ve always asked people to be patient with those in government but there is a limit to what they can take. People must also understand that my influence is to the extent that they are willing to listen and take corrections. There are times you would make efforts to reach out and nobody would listen to you. You can’t force yourself on the people, you know. And even when you see them and give them your advice, they are not obliged to take it. Of course as someone who ruled the state for about ten years, I should know the stare well enough to give viable solutions to those in government and I have been trying my best. Whether they take my advice or not is not within my power. But I’m sure time is going to come when all these would change. We noticed that some of the major structures you put in place such as the Stadium, Motel, Specialist Hospital and several others are presently facing decay.How do you feel when you see these projects? It pains me. I weep each time I see these structures in their current shape. When we built these things, we used the best of everything that was available at the time. Look at the motel for instance, it was furnished with the best furniture we could get at the time but today, things have fallen apart. You have grasses growing in some of the rooms. I was there to visit a guest recently and the main door to his room was not working. I mean, it is a mess. I did these things because I thought we would have subsequent governments with a maintenance culture. And for everything, we even had the spares in place. There were reserves of all the equipment on ground. The specialist hospital was fully equipped with spare equipment in place. Those spares were all sold. There are no more there. Those on ground are poorly maintained. Look at the stadium, we had hoped that these projects would boost the economic viability of the state and make it attractive to investors. The state government does not have to benefit from it directly. We hoped that they would be handed over to someone with the ability to manage them effectively to run and keep them afloat. The truth is that, the people coming in are bringing businesses and the people and ultimately the government would be better for it. We just noticed that your younger brother, Mr. Godwin is warming up to contest the governorship of the state in 2019. Are you aware of that? If yes, what is your take? Sure, I am aware of it. He is a matured person and is of age enough to take his decisions. He is my blood brother as you know, and my younger brother for that matter but so far as I am concerned, he is a man and can take his own decisions. For instance, I am in the PDP while he is in the APC. I can’t stop him if that is what he wants. Of course, in this case, I may not support him because he is in the opposition party and I can not support another party to win my party. But like I said about people defecting from the PDP, you ordinarily wouldn’t want to leave the house you have built and furnished well to go and start a new one, but when you are forced to, you would have no choice. I know that if it comes to it and I am left with no choice, I would go. The rumour presently going on in the state is that you are also jostling up to join the leagues of PDP defectors to APC. How true is that? If I am going to decamp to APC, nobody will stop me. I want you to understand that people don’t just decamp to other parties. When Danbaba made it unbearable for us in the PDP we decamped to ACN. There we contested the governorship fronting Joel Ikyena. Danbaba may not be there now to tell you anything but his deputy Sani Danladi is there. He is a gentleman and if you ask him he will tell you what happened. We gave them the fight of their lives. That is why my heart bleeds when you see people like Joel Ikyena leave the party to join the APC. We are talking about a time you had people like Vakki in the PDP, the likes of former Speaker Kente Josiah all in the PDP and now they are all in the APC. You have chains of other top shots who were in the PDP then, who made the PDP what it was and today, most of them have moved to the APC. You just have myself and few of my deputies that are still hanging around. For now, I am in PDP and I am still working for the PDP but if my hands are tied, there is nothing I can do. Just as we were forced out of the PDP then by Danbaba, if we are forced out now, we still may, at their own detriment. There is unprecedented suffering across the country and this current administration is still blaming the last regime. Where do you see this leading us? I think the blame game is over now. From what I have gathered, the 2017 budget would propel us out of recession and from my little experience as a village economist, the more you encourage people to produce, the better for the economy. People have to go more into production. Small, medium and big industries have to be put in place to herald a sustainable growth for the economy. We found ourselves in a recessed economy because we have just been buying without producing anything. So basically, this hardship should be over soon. Don’t forget that, now, more than ever, everyone is looking for ways of earning a living outside the government. Most people have returned to the farm and other sectors of the economy. This is good for us. I just hope that we would come out stronger than we ever were. Are you now saying that Joel Ikyena defection is a big blow to the PDP? Its not good for the party. It is not at all. Some novice may say that his exit means nothing thinking that there are other people on ground to do the magic but I am afraid they are wrong. Like I said, I worked with Joel Ikyena so I know what he is made of. You cannot find his kind in the whole area. If there is any, they should come out and let us see them. There is none. Remember Ikyena started from the bottom to the very top. His exit is bad for the party. Very bad. And I don’t think anyone should be comfortable with this. So, what is your candid opinion on the current agitations for cessation and the national structures? To be honest, I would never support cessation for any reason. I know that people from various zones have their reason to fight the fights they are fighting but I want to encourage one Nigeria. Federal government should be sensitive to the yearning of the people across boards. Then there should be decentralization of power from the federal to the component states. Of course there should be a certain remittance to the federal government but the states should be made more viable. They should be able to do something of their own. They should have some level of control over their resources. This would help every state to seat up. There is no state in this country that does not have enough resources to survive very well. They all do but these things are grossly underutilized. Take Taraba for example. Just last week, I got a huge lump of stone here. We took it somewhere and they said it is lead, and one of the best qualities. So in Taraba alone, there are so many resources that if the state government is allowed to explore, they’ll be able to do a lot and still remit to the federal government. What is happening in the south south and south east is pathetic. The people have to be taken care of. But I still believe that if we take a referendum now, most of the Ibos would not support it. We have to be one Nigeria but the current structure has to be done away with and the governments have to be sensitive to the plights of their people.