Those who know Onimi Kabaka Brown attest to his pungency, forthrightness and assertiveness when it comes to salient issues affecting his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). He does not mince words when advancing his thoughts, making his point or advocating for due process, internal democracy and inclusivity in party affairs.  

The aspirant to the Bonny Constituency position in the Rivers State House of Assembly, scion of Rivers-born ace jazz musician, the late Easy Kabaka Brown, and chieftain of the APC in Bonny LGA spoke to Kristina Reports’ Publisher, Godswill Jumbo on the processes adopted by his party in arriving at candidates for the House of Assembly and House of Representatives slots, among other issues. Excerpts here…

Kristina Reports: Please introduce yourself…

Onimi Kabaka Brown: My name is Onimi Kabaka Brown. I am a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Bonny chapter.

Which ward?

Ward 5, Finima, which happens to be the largest ward in Bonny LGA.

Sometime ago, you said you want to contest for the House of Assembly position under the APC…

Yes, I am an aspirant under the APC for the Bonny Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly.

So, what happened today?

Okay, we were invited for a stakeholders meeting. Actually, the agenda of the meeting was supposed to be the visitation of one of the guber aspirants, Tonye Princewill, and harmonization of aspirants for the House of Representatives and the Rivers State House of Assembly seats. Now, in that process, the venue of the meeting was supposed to be at Hon. Omuso’s house but because of the concerns of some of the aspirants, which was made known to the leadership of the party, who saw reasons with us and had to move the meeting to Hon. Clinton Tolofari’s house for the sake of equity and justice. On getting there today, some of the aspirants, especially, we in the House of Assembly race, raised some concerns.

What were your concerns?  

Some of our fears don’t want to lose the 2023 elections, so we insisted on a transparent process for candidates to emerge and this process should be all inclusive but to our greatest surprise, it was just the ward chairmen and secretaries that were invited for this harmonization process which, to us as aspirants, is a process that has been skewed to favour a particular candidate.

Why do you think so?

It is because it is not all inclusive and the constitution of the leadership favours a particular candidate. We have noticed that over a year ago a promise has been made to a particular candidate that whatever he wants will be given to him. So, on that note, we then insisted that women leaders, youth leaders, vice chairmen of the party at the ward level and other excos at the ward level should be involved since Bonny is a peaceful place, we can organize our own primaries and bring out a popular candidate that will win the election for us come 2023. On that premise, we pleaded with the leadership to include these persons so that these persons can make the decisions and the popular candidate can emerge. So that at the end of the day the party will win the 2023 election. But to our greatest surprise, they insisted on going ahead with the process that is already skewed to favour a particular candidate. Myself, Hon. Onimi Kabaka Brown, Dabota Godswill Jumbo, and Fimie Green declined because the process is not transparent. There was hullabaloo for like 30 minutes to 45 minutes. At the end of the day, we left the place. So, we are saying to the Bonny people, we are saying to the electorates, we are saying to our leader, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi that he should look into the issue of Bonny APC because if we continue like this, we doubt if the party is going to win the 2023 election because of the people that made this decision.

When you were talking, you said only the ward chairmen and secretaries were invited, isn’t this consistent with the constitution of the APC?

That is the problem we have because I insisted the party should be given back to the people and who are the people, the delegates and if you look at the amended constitution of the APC, it states that all ward excos are automatic delegates in the State House of Assembly primaries. So, you cannot just call few people, just 24 persons.

So, does that imply that these ward excos are supposed to be part of the process determining who will be conferred with the party’s flag?

Yes, definitely. It may interest you to know that I come from the largest ward in Bonny LGA and I am an aspirant.

When you say the ‘largest ward’, how do you mean?

We have 29 units with over 12,000 votes which accounts for over 70 percent of the general Bonny votes. I insisted and I told the leadership today that before we would make any choice or any decision on any candidate, that the candidate must come with something to the table and for me as an aspirant, this is what I’m bringing to the table. I have insisted that if I am being made the candidate of the party, I am coming with the votes of ward 5 which happens to be the largest ward in the LGA. That is what I’m coming to the election with in the 2023 election. But in all these, the leaders ignored all these advice and decided to do what is best known to them; just 24 persons. As I am, I have stated it, I am not part of that process.

Is it true that the person who they eventually decided to pick as the candidate of the party comes from the same ward as the PDP leader in Bonny?

That is the same problem we are having because if you are being chosen as a candidate, first of all, you should be able to win your ward, and in this case, we know it is not feasible because the so-called purported kangaroo candidate they just brought out cannot even win his ward

Why do you say so?

It is because the leader of PDP in Bonny comes from that ward. So, do you expect other people to win the election for you? And he is a serving commissioner, that is our concern. The fortunes of the party in the coming election is our concern.

So, you think giving that the party leader of the PDP in Bonny LGA comes from that same ward, the PDP is not likely to lose that ward?

It is almost impossible for the PDP to lose that ward. But because the process already has been skewed to protect a particular candidate, we are worried about the fortunes of our party in Bonny LGA.

We need to ask at this point, the leader of the party in Bonny LGA is also the person that has been drafted to coordinate the governorship aspirant in the state that speaks to a lot of confidence being reposed in him. Now if this is happening in so many LGA what do you think that portends

We are not challenging the leadership of the party at the LGA.

But won’t people say he is not able to manage his LGA, how can he manage the governorship aspirants for the party in the State?

I wouldn’t want to delve into that but our concern is that the most popular and best candidate should be presented in the next elections.

Speak to the party leadership in the nation, President Buhari, Amaechi, others…

I want to use this medium to call on President Muhammadu Buhari, who is our father and leader of the party in the country, I want to use this opportunity to call on our own leader in the South-South, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who is a man of substance, integrity, and a man that believes in transparency. We want to call on him to look into the case of Bonny because at the rate at which we are going, we are bound to lose elections come 2023 if the right thing is not done. We are part of the process and we want a transparent open process where all stakeholders will be carried along.

When you say a transparent process – now, we know that the amended electoral act favoured the national assembly pushed for direct…and then the president back tracked on that and asked for that to be left out and con census candidate which some of the parties are already leveraging. Now when you say transparent process can you pls crystalize on that.

When I say transparent process, if you want to have a consensus, there should be a level playing field. In this case, there was no level playing field.

So, are you saying either you have an all-out direct primary or you follow the provisions of the APC constitution and convene all the ward excos to be part of the consensus formulation?

As a law-abiding citizen of this country, I stand by the constitution of the All Progressives Congress which states that all ward excos are delegates in the House of Assembly primary; all ward delegates.

So, if those ward excos are part of this process and they decide on this same candidate will you abide by the party decision?

Definitely, I will abide by the party’s decision.