‘Politics should be like sports; when you lose, you shake your opponent’s hand and life goes on’

David Ogba Onuoha Bourdex is a businessman and chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). He was the party’s Senatorial candidate for Abia North Senatorial District in the 2015 general election. In this interview with our Correspondent, UDOKA AGWU, in Umuahia, Abia State, Bourdex spoke on his future ambition in 2019; why he is seeking the senatorial office, his contributions to the development of his community, among other issues. Excerpts:
Rumours making the rounds in the political sphere of Abia State are that you have concluded plans to defect to the All Progressive Congress (APC); is there any iota of truth in the rumours?

Well, you called them rumours and that is what they are. There will always be rumours especially when a politician is involved. The first rumour was that I had defected to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The second one is that I am now in the All Progressive Congress (APC). You called it rumour and that is what it is. But I have always told everyone that I am a Board of Trustees (BoT) member of the APGA.

What difference would your presence had made if you were in the Red Chambers of the National Assembly as a senator which you contested for in the 2015 general election?

My people are not seeing any dividend of democracy. We have been two years into this administration in the country and nothing has changed in Abia North Senatorial District. We are not seeing any road network being undertaken. We don’t see electricity being improved upon. We don’t see the lives of the people being improved upon. We don’t see our schools being rehabilitated. And those are the things that would have changed. We don’t see anyone heaving a sigh of relief in the sense that what the people voted for had been actualised. So, that is the difference I would have made because I have the reach, I have the contact and I have the wherewithal.

Would you say that those at the National Assembly don’t have such reach and contact?

Some of them went there to look for what to eat. And that is where I am different from them. And before they begin to work for the masses, their immediate concern will be how to recover the money they spent during the campaign and then begin to prepare for 2019.

If given the opportunity, will you run again for the Senate in 2019?

Yes, I will run again. Definitely yes, I will.

Going by recent utterances and body language of some members of your party, it appears as if they are disenchanted with its governorship candidate in the 2015 general election, Alex Oti. What is your take here?

To be honest with you I am not aware of that. There will always be people who will have disagreement with somebody. There will always be people who will have their own opinion. But as far as I can tell and from what I see on ground, our governorship candidate in the person of Alex Oti is still very popular in the state. So I don’t agree that there are a lot of disenchantments against him by the people.

You were at the Government House to pay a congratulatory visit to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu when he won at the Supreme Court against Uche Ogah. What message did that visit convey?

The message I passed was very simple. We are politicians and not enemies. And the fact that the court has affirmed him as the governor of the state does not change our position as a different political parties. But it does affirm that we have only one governor now. And since the state is our collective heritage, it is also our collective responsibility to encourage him to work for the citizenry.

So that was the message I was passing that people should come together and support him for the well being of the state so that he will be able to have that conducive working environment that a leader will need to perform, so that if he does not perform we will now be standing on legitimate ground to now complain that he did not do anything. But if we go all out and fight him and make the state ungovernable for him then we will have no right to begin to complain from your comfort zone. Since he has been affirmed as the governor it is the duty of every indigene of the state to give him the support so that he can work because you cannot change anything. There is nothing you can do about it. He is already the governor. That is the message I was passing. Politics should be like sports. When you lose, you shake the hand of your opponent and then life goes on.

Did you attempt to shake Ohuabunwa’s hand after he was declared as winner of the senatorial election?

Emm… to be honest with you I have not seen him since he became a senator. And if I were him, I would have visited my opponents. Because all the time he was in the House of Representatives I was supporting him. I gave him money. I went to Arochukwu several times just to give him support. So he is a friend. And there were also occasions when he had helped me in business dealings by introducing me to somebody that did something for me. So I don’t forget that. And while preparing for my Ime Uche (traditional retirement) ceremony last year I sent him two cards – one to his office in Lagos and the other to his house in Arochukwu. I then followed it up with phone calls. I called him three good times but he did not pick the calls. I sent him a text message, he never replied. So, yes, if I did not have spirit of sportsmanship, I wouldn’t have done all those things. So that went beyond congratulating him, even though I didn’t have the right to do so because he rigged the election. But I still reached out to him, extended a hand of friendship to him but he rebuffed it.

Your party appears to be losing the vigour and steam with which it campaigned in the last general election in the state; why is it so?

This is not campaign period. Wait until the campaign starts again then I will see whether you will tell me our party is losing the vigour and steam or not.

What is the idea behind and vision of Bourdex Events Centre Abiriba which by all consideration is of five-star standard?

I always do my things differently. And I also like to leave a mark in everything I do. The centre was not planned. It was a spur of the moment decision that I just took because anybody who has been to my house in Abiriba will see that the topography of the place is such that it is very much sloppy that you cannot put canopies that will take the large number of invitees that I was expecting. And because of that, I approached my friend who has a land beside the house to give me the place so that I could level it and prepare it for the ceremony, but he refused. When that failed I now took a last minute decision and said why do I want to border with this when I have a football field in front of my house? Why don’t I just go there and build a befitting place to host the crowd that I expected to come? And so it was just like that. That was in the middle of November already when the ceremony was supposed to hold on December 28. So, I called Lagos and brought down all my engineers and all the workers that were needed for that job and they came and we worked day and night and in 45 days, we achieved what you see there.

At what cost of the project?

The cost was close to N200 million. Though we didn’t have a budget when we started, but we just kept going. So that is the thing. It wasn’t about cost; it was about retiring in style and making a statement that we are still here in spite of what people thought. They thought they had taken all my money during the campaign, but I told them no, that they had only scratched the surface.

What message do you have for your supporters who have been straining their ears to hear from you after the general election and the way forward?

The message I have for them is that they should stay where they are. What we went through during the election including the re-run was a learning period. Now we have seen where we made mistakes and we are going to correct them. I want them to stay where they are, keep organising all those who are not yet in our party to come and join us. Abia State wants APGA. We won all the elections in the state in 2015 and everybody knows that and most people knew what happened. In fact, my message to them is that they should not lose hope. They should begin to organise themselves at their different units, ward, and local government areas for the fight ahead. So that is the message I have for them.

Just last week, the membership of your party in the state House of Assembly was depleted by one from nine when the member representing Aba South State Constituency defected to the PDP. What would you like to tell others?

I would advise them to remember how they got to where they are today in the first place. I would also tell them to know that the young ones are watching them and that it is always good to be grateful to the hands that helped you when you needed help. I don’t believe running from one party to another is a good thing for any politician or anybody at all. For instance, in business, one of the very important rules to success is that you must identify what you are good at and stick to it. If you won election on the platform of APGA for goodness sake, stay there and build that foundation, nurture it, preserve it. Build your foundation in such a way that those who took you there, will again to do it in 2019. So that is what I will advise those who are still in APGA to remain and remember how they got there in the first place. The truth of the matter is that if you defect from a party to another, you are not very likely to carry all your supporters with you to the new party; some will refuse to go with you. That is the truth of the matter. And if you begin to lose some of your supporters two years to election, then you know what that means.

According to our records, you have bagged many awards and honours both locally and internationally. One of them was your installation as a patron of the Christian Men Organisation (CMO) of St Dominic Catholic Church, Yaba Lagos, in Archdiocese of Lagos. What does the honour mean to you?

It means a great deal to me because you remember in the Holy Bible, there is this statement by Jesus Christ that man should not live by bread alone. So while we are talking politics and talking APGA we must remain close to the Most High. The recognition by the organisation means a lot to me. It gives me hope that while I am pursuing worldly things I am not losing on the spiritual side.