Nigeria’s Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri says that he has told President Muhammadu Buhari that he would not want to return as a minister in his cabinet.

Speaking on Sunday when he appeared on Channels TV, Lokpibiri said he had learnt a lot from Buhari’s leadership style and would instead contest the Bayelsa State governorship race.

He said: “I met the President a few days ago and I told him that I want to run for governorship in Bayelsa having thanked him for appointing me as a minister.

“I have learnt so much under him in the four years than what I learnt as a parliamentarian for 12 years. I want to take that experience back home and see how we can build a Bayelsa beyond oil.

“Sylva (Timipre) is not my godfather. When I was speaker in 1999 he was Special Assistant to Alamieyeseigha. When I came to the Senate, he became governor.

“Yes, I must concede he came into APC and might have facilitated my appointment as minister but that does not make him my godfather. In 2007 when he got elected as governor, I got elected as Senator. In 2007, I was with Timi Alaibe and that was how I got the ticket.

“In 2011, we worked together even when former president Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Seriake Dickson were fighting him. I worked for him and not Dickson.

“The APC governorship ticket would not divide us. As far as I am concerned, it is going to be a family affair. We might go into primaries and whoever wins would fly the party’s flag and I believe I am going to win.”