There’ll be no fresh Ijaw – Itsekiri fight
Famed for his taciturn but tactical approach to governance and even now, politics, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State is like a long distance athlete determined not to collapse at the end of the race. It is not surprising that the mantra among close aides of the governor is on Finishing Strong.
It is thus not surprising that with many of his colleagues fully devoted to the politics of transition, the administration is still on its feet ensuring that testimonials won in various sectors, notably in its micro-credit scheme are not concealed by the fogs and fumes of politicking.
Mid morning last Saturday, Dr. Uduaghan took out time in the new Government House building, one of the legacies of his administration, to respond to questions fielded by a team of visiting journalists on the pace and pattern of his administration. Excerpts:
By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor
YOU were once quoted as saying that you don’t know who will succeed you but that you know who will not succeed you, who are those that will not succeed you?
I know those who will not succeed me; those who have not picked forms will not succeed me, so my prediction was right. Some were moving around even before the whistle was blown but eventually they did not pick forms, so those ones will not succeed me. Those who have picked the form and have declared, one of them will succeed me.
Anointed candidates
If you want to talk about anointed candidates, I have 16 anointed candidates, so we have agreed that they are going to do six months each over eight years because I don’t have one anointed candidate.
On a more serious note, the wish of everyone, whether you are governor or an editor, is that whoever succeeds you should continue from where you are stopping. I think it is the wish of everybody. Now, what we have experienced over the years is that some government come and put aside the works of the previous governments.
For instance, we are talking about Delta State Beyond Oil today; I’m not praying that whoever will come and take over from me will say Delta Beyond Oil is nonsense because the reality is on ground now. We are even talking about Nigeria beyond oil. Everybody is now talking about the alternative to oil and we have been singing this song for the past seven and half years and then somebody will come tomorrow and say it is not a good economic strategy, let us jettison it and say let us go back to depend on oil budget which is no longer there.
That is what I meant when I was talking about successor. I was just praying that somebody who will take over from me will continue from where I stop because when I took over from the previous administration, I continued and completed projects that he started.
Why do you think some governors are trying to arm-twist the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mua’zu with court cases and don’t you think the PDP governors are playing God in terms of the emergence of party candidates?
As for arm-twisting the PDP National Chairman and court cases, what I can say is that I don’t know of any governor who is behind the court cases. And we feel sad; because my colleagues and I are talking. We feel sad because the party’s national chairman, who is a former governor and as such our colleague – senior colleague in terms of governorship – that people are subjecting him to the kind of thing that is happening, we feel sad that he is going through this kind of embarrassment.
In fact, two weeks ago, there was an alarm that he has been taken to court in Delta State but of course there was no record that he was taken to court here. It is a kind of propaganda to pitch the governors against the PDP national chairman.
Responsibility on governors
Then the issue of playing God; I don’t think the governors are playing God. The party structure puts a lot of responsibility on governors in terms of organising the party at the state level, in terms of funding the party and of course in terms of ensuring that the party wins at the state level. And if you expect me to win for the party at the state, as a governor I must be interested in who is running for which seat – it must be someone that the party can market to win elections.
And it is not an individual thing, really. It is party thing. Who becomes the party’s governorship candidate; it is the party at the state level that will decide.
The governors cannot really impose candidates. what really happens is that when people are not able to get their ways, the easiest person they can blackmail is the governor – that the governor has done this or that but when they also have challenges in running the party, the person they run to is also the governor. So I guess that is what is happening; governors cannot play God.
I’m sure you know that in some other parties, they play more god than the PDP. I’ve heard some governors of the other parties in some states just announcing governorship candidates without primaries and heavens are not falling – we haven’t seen any protests. If that were done in the PDP, I’m sure people will make a lot of noise.
There is growing apprehension that the Ijaw/Itsekiri conflict thought to have been settled by you would burst into another conflict. Are you not worried?
Concerning the Ijaw and Itsekiri crisis; now let me assure you – the problem of Itsekiri, Itsekiri and Urhobo has been on before some of us were born and we are still having flashes. But one thing is that we have been able to provide a forum for discussion, to reduce the tendency for violence. And that is one of the strategies we are trying to use. Even in the EPZ matter the two ethnic groups and the community leaders are discussing, both in Delta and in Abuja.
So there is no room for fight. Of course, because of the economic benefits of the EPZ, a lot of community interests are involved. So what you are seeing is community interests for the project, it is just that there is little understanding of the overall benefits of the project and that is what we are trying to tell the communities that what you are quarrelling over is just crumb compared to the bigger benefits of the project. And I think we are getting somewhere.
Complex nature of relationships
And I must use this opportunity to thank Mr. President, who has been very understanding. And also, the minister of petroleum; they have been quite understanding, and fortunately, they are from this zone so they understand some of the complex nature of the relationship in this area.
I tell you, there will be no fight.
Why are most second term governors inching to go to the Senate?
Sometimes ago, the senators embarked on a protest over their futures; that some of them will not be coming back to the National Assembly because the governors have taken charge and the governors are also coming to the Senate. There were agreements.
I want you to tell us in specific terms if you were privy to that agreement that the senators will be getting slots and I also want to know why virtually all the PDP retiring governors are going into the Senate. Why the choice of senate. I also learned that you are going into the Senate, how are you discussing the issue with Senator Manager.
Then on the last note, is the financial status of the state. Most of the states are finding it difficult to survive – paying salaries they resort to loans. I don’t’ know what the situation is in Delta State?
On the issue of governors and the Senate, really each state has its own peculiarity. It is not as the whole thing is being lumped together. There are some governors who are finishing but who are not going to the Senate. I think there are about 18 or 19 governors that are finishing this year and so far about nine have indicated that they are going to the Senate. The others have not.
Yes, I have indicated that I’m going into the senate but I believe that there is something I can offer – a lot I can offer. But what I know has been happening is that some senators have been assessed only on the empowerment they give to the people once in a year. At the end of the year you gather people, gather tricycles, motor cycles and be assessed on that, but I think being a member of any legislature is beyond that.
Yes, that is empowerment but it is which anybody can give but there is also the issue of attracting federal government projects to your area by people at the National Assembly and I don’t know anybody who can have more reach than a previous governor. Being a governor of Delta State for eight years has given you a lot of exposures for you to know a lot people outside the state – at the federal level; even internationally.
As a governor, one of the things I have tried to do is to work with my 3-point agenda on security, infrastructural and human capital development.
Why did we have the Delta crisis? It is the issue of underdevelopment, marginalisation and all that.
Really, I want to pursue, working with others, if I get there, what I want to do is to ensure that there is legislation on equity participation of communities in various parts of the Niger Delta region. The second thing I want to pursue is also from my experience of pursuing companies and industries in actualising our Delta Beyond Oil vision. I also noticed that we do not have adequate laws that give confidence to investors.
Israel is not the safest place in the world and South Africa is not the safest place in the world but investors keep going there. So it is not so much about security but some much about the safety of their investments – legal protection of their investments and that is one thing that they have challenges with in Nigeria.
Environmental activities
Then very importantly is the issue of environmental protection and environmental activities. Being a state that has suffered a lot of environmental damages, I know that there are so many things that the government can do if the appropriate laws are there to regulate our environment.
And I believe that there must be laws to achieve that. So those are my interests in the Senate. Being able to go there and put these things on the table and convince my colleagues. So I already have a 3-point agenda for going into the Senate.
Some Itsekiri elders in the state recently placed an advertorial complaining about some issues in the state, how are you addressing the issues they raised?
Yes, I saw the advert – I saw the letter. Some of them are my leaders; some of them are my age mates and some are younger than me but they are leaders of thought and I have a lot of respect for them. The issues they raised, I have noted them. The only thing I disagree with them is that they started by saying they don’t have access to me – they have a lot of access to me. They are the group that I have visited most as a governor of this state. And in actual fact, three months ago, they summoned me to Warri and within 24 hours I met with some of them over a market we are constructing in Warri that would have caused ethnic crisis and we resolved it. So they have access to me.
How has the Delta Beyond Oil initiative being doing?
Delta Beyond oil simply means looking at other areas of our economy apart from depending totally on oil and so we are looking at the area of agriculture, manufacturing and tourism, and I must say the that agricultural progress in this state is very encouraging. We have the federal government working with us.
Micro-credit scheme
We also have the state organs working and we also have individual farmers that are working. But more interesting that Delta Beyond Oil are the immediate gains; the low housing scheme, which we are actualising through micro credit scheme being supported by the Central Bank.
We learned that the state has been constructing federal government roads, so how much are you expecting from the federal government as repayment?
Yes, we have done some federal government roads and the last bill we sent to them was N40bn. I don’t know whether they will make any refund or not. That is where we are on federal government roads.
Do you see the PDP winning the forthcoming elections given the robust opposition by the opposition APC?
The answer is yes. Yes, the APC members are organising during the day, but PDP is organising both day and night. So that is the advantage of the PDP over APC. PDP will win. That is just it. We are working very hard. Let me not tell you our strategy but we will win. We have done our mathematics. We are trying to plot the areas where there are challenges and we are dealing with them. But we’ll win.
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