Without Fighting Graft Buhari’s Govt Will Lose Credibility — Onokpasa

                          Mr. Jesutega Onokpasa,is a  chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Delta State, a lawyer and public affairs commentator.
 In this interview with Sunday Vanguard, he expresses his displeasure with the conduct of the April 11 governorship election in Delta State, his exit from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and his firm believe that President Muhammadu Buhari has the capacity to fight graft.


Excerpts

You have been accused of insisting that you will not recognize Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as Governor of Delta State. Why assume such an extreme position given your credentials as a detribalized  Deltan?

That Senator Okowa is the Governor of Delta for now is indisputable and I accept that reality regardless of how uncomfortable I am with it. However, I know that he became Governor through entirely underhanded means and as such, a usurper and illegitimate temporary occupant of Government House,

Do you have any problems with Okowa personally? You are known to have made some powerful arguments for equity and inclusive governance; why are you not willing to give Senator Okowa the benefit of doubt and support him as your Governor?

You are very wrong. Okowa may be the Governor of Delta State for now but that does not in any way make him my Governor as a person. No one is entitled to be anyone’s Governor without the permission or subscription of the electorate. We most certainly did not vote for Okowa. Our determination is to ensure that his illegal stay there is as brief as possible. As for my credentials as a detribalized Deltan, they are absolutely unassailable and completely irreproachable no matter what PDP spin doctors are out there saying. I accept a Governor from anywhere in so far as such person emerges legitimately.

Why did you actually join APC with such fervour?

As to fervor, I am a naturally faithful person; I am either with you or not with you and if ever I decide to turn my back on you, you will be the first to know because I will ensure I inform you that I am no longer with you. I am quite proud to support my party the APC. It was Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, Delta APC Governorship candidate who brought me in to the APC and convinced me to eschew sentiments and assess President Muhammadu Buhari, then APC Presidential candidate, dispassionately. I am quite proud of where I am and have no regrets for supporting my President, O’tega, and my party’s candidates when it mattered. I am equally proud that I am no longer associated with PDP, a party I feel totally ashamed to have ever supported.

You have been very vocal in insisting that President Bbuhari must tackle corruption. Is that what he was actually voted to do?

What else was he voted in for? All those loudmouthed pseudo-intellectuals suggesting that he was not voted to combat corruption are morally bankrupt apologists for a corrupt society in free fall. What are Mr. President’s credentials anyway if you remove anti-corruption from the mix? I concede and indeed insist that our President was voted in to do many things, one of which and indeed the most important of which, is fighting corruption. Those insisting he should ignore corruption are President Buhari’s worst enemies, conspiring to ensure he loses his credibility with the public in an era with lowered oil earnings. We need to fight corruption as an article of faith with the voting public who brought us to power and also to discourage corruption while mopping up stolen funds to augment government finances. Anyone with a contrary opinion is a despicable enemy of this government and an archenemy of the long-suffering Nigerian people.

Well your hero, President Buhari’s Government has been described as clueless and starting on a very shaky foundation like someone lost in the woods.

Our country has been lost in the woods for decades and our challenge is to find our way back to the right path. This government is barely a month old and PDP failures are complaining about what? What did they do for the sixteen years in power? They are the ones who led us into the woods and President Buhari is trying to get us out of there.