THE PRESIDENCY PERSECUTED ME BECAUSE OF IBORI — UDUAGHAN

There is nothing you do
in government that is not incorporated into the three broad agenda of peace and
security, infrastructural development and human capital development. Along the
line, we drew a fresh vision from there, which is Delta Beyond Oil.

That is, coordinated
efforts to take Delta State beyond the oil and gas economy such that life will
still flow in abundance in the state if oil ceases to flow tomorrow.

Ultimately, the overall
objective of our Three-Point Agenda and Delta Beyond Oil is to deal with the
challenges of unemployment, which has become a global disease.

Most of the crisis in
the word today is because of unemployment. Yes, we are an oil producing state,
but we were ardent at developing the other areas of the economy, especially
agriculture, culture and tourism, in which we have comparative strength in
Delta.

So far, so good, we are
still very much on course. The happy news is that we have achieved the
foundation of a Delta State that will not entirely depend on oil.

With the emergence of
Senator Okowa as your successor at the polls, can you vouch that he will key
into your agenda for the state, even with the fact that you are from the same
party? I have listened to him and read his plan; everything he is saying is also
about a Delta beyond oil.

His focus area is going
to be agriculture. You know he was a former Commissioner of Agriculture, so he
is on a familiar terrain. He is going to focus on mechanized agriculture.

In addition to our Warri
industrial business park, he has also talked about having a mainly agricultural
industrial business park. Two, he is also talking about training our youths in
skilled development and that again is preparing our people for Delta beyond
oil.

What we have achieved is
to put this theme in everybody’s consciousness that this oil will one day dry
up or the price will be so low it will affect our economy. And today, the
reality is staring us in the face.

The price of oil has
dropped drastically. Recently, I was listening to the Minister of Finance,
Prof. Okonjo-Iweala, talking about Nigeria beyond oil. So, it is a vision every
Nigerian will have to key into going forward. How do you feel about the power
shift to Delta North in spite of the many complexities in the state? I feel
happy and fulfilled.

Delta has a lot of
ethnic groups; we have the large ones, the biggest being the Urhobo ethnic
group. What has happened before now is that both the Central and the South in
the various governorship elections have had their chance and what was left was
Delta North.

Now, it has been
realized through a very complex and complicated process, which one day I will
explain better, it has been realized. I am happy every Deltan has accepted it
and that has solved a major problem in Delta.

The problem of sense of
belonging has been tackled and I am leaving the state in peace. If you notice,
among all the politically volatile states, Delta has been cool in the last
election.

Maybe you will let us
into some of the complications in achieving this; a lot of people will want to
hear part of the story now. It is not easy to just get up and say it must go to
Delta North but the truth must be told.

Once you search your
conscience and you notice that this is what is right, not many people will
agree with you and accept it, but you just have to stay on the right path. In
achieving this, you have to be able to maneuver your way through the delicate
web of ethnic interest. The Urhobos for instance, were still agitating against
it, especially the UPU (Urhobo Progress Union).

You don’t just tell
them, go to hell.You will have to carry them along and that was what I tried to
do. At a point, many people would have accused me of tilting more towards what
UPU wanted but it was all part of a strategy to carry everybody along.

And I think it worked.
Driving it down, this rotation of power at the state level was so perfect but
it wasn’t the case in the Senatorial zones, which was why you were edged out of
the Senatorial ticket in the South.

Why did you accept the
manipulations that played out? When you are managing difficult situations, you
try as much as possible not to open too many fronts for fighting.

At the state level, I
had power rotation to manage and then this similar situation at the Senatorial
level. Somehow, the one at the state level did not involve me personally but I
was personally involved in who goes to the Senate in Delta South.

I have managed the
security situation in Delta State for the past 16 years, first as Secretary to
the State Government, Commissioner for Health and as Governor.

I am aware of some of
the things that can cause eruption and one of such things is politics if not
carefully managed. My first agenda as governor is peace and security.

I have managed the state
to a level where we have considerable stability. Regarding the Delta South Senatorial
seat, it came to a point where I had to decide between my personal ambition and
the peace and security of the state because the campaign for the Senatorial
election had unfortunately moved to an ethnic contest between Ijaws and
Itsekiris.

Ordinarily, one would
have expected that it would be the turn of the Itsekiris having regards that
Isoko and Ijaw had had opportunities to represent the zone in the Senate.

But for some reasons,
some elements just insisted an Ijaw man still have to continue. If I had
insisted, it would have caused eruption. Don’t forget that in 2003, there was a
similar incident involving Warri area in the House of Reps election where some
Ijaws in Warri said it had to be an Ijaw man and some Itsekiris said no. It
caused one of the major crisis in that axis.

Houses and farmlands
were burnt, including a local government headquarters. Children were thrown
into raging fire. I was around and I saw everything happen. I didn’t want a
repeat of that because of my personal ambition.

We believe that four
years is very short. If we don’t get it now, we can get it in another four
years. It may not be me but definitely an Itsekiri person. I had to drop my
ambition for the sake of peace and security. And with the benefit of hindsight
now, I think God guided me to do that. At least, the eruption that would have
occurred was avoided which afforded me more time to manage the politics at the
state level. You know after the PDP primaries, I had the mandate to put the
party together.

It gave me time to mend
fences; that was why we were able to win in Delta. You have shown a unique
example of sacrifice for the sake of peace, don’t you think you have to do more
by way of advocacy for people to bury their personal ambition because in the
emerging Okowa equation, the Isokos have got nothing and the Ijaws are still
everywhere Up there, a lot of talking to and advocacy will be done. One of the
things I will get involved with once I leave office is putting Delta South
together.

No one ethnic group
should be a super star over other ethnic groups. Every ethnic group will have a
sense of belonging. It was like that before but today, somehow, there are
grumblings in that Senatorial district.

A lot of speculations
were rife in the social media during the heat of the power rotation tussle, why
didn’t you decamp to the APC since your fellow governors that felt shortchanged
the way you were unfairly treated decamped? PDP has done a lot for me. I am a
PDP loyalist and I will remain one to the core. I don’t believe that decamping
is the solution to the problems of Nigeria.

I came on the platform
of PDP and I should not leave it in tatters. Secondly, every decision I take as
a governor, I put my ethnic group interest first. I am an Itsekiri man, one of
the smallest ethnic groups that have had some skirmishes with both the Ijaws
and Urhobos at different times.

It was important to me
to consider deeply how my decisions will affect the Itsekiri person. Decamping
to APC would have pitched the Itsekiris against the Ijaws because the President
is an Ijaw man and it would be seen that I am antagonistic to the President’s
cause and it would start another round of crisis.

I can protect myself,
but a lot of my people would have been negatively exposed to harassment. There
are some local things you must put into consideration before making such
decisions.

Talking about finishing
strong, which is one of your slogans, it is about a month more to finishing
your tenure. Where are the strong points? For me, the strongest point in finishing
strong is that Delta State is more peaceful than I met it.

I will tell you a story
of a friend who came from Abuja to stay in Warri recently. He alighted from the
plane and took an airport taxi to get to my place.

On the way, he was
asking the driver the major thing this governor has done in your state and the
driver said, Oga, people might talk about other things like schools and roads
but the major thing for me is that today, I am driving you to his house and I
am not afraid on the road.

For that driver and many
others, peace is more important. There was a time that once it was 6pm, we
would all run indoors.

We still have challenges
on security issues, we still have some youth cultism and armed robbery going
on, but things are better than they were in the past, especially the ethnic
relationship.

An Itsekiri man can go
to an Ijaw village without being afraid. In fact, they have started marrying
each other again. As an elder of the PDP, what actually happened that from
being a super party and largest party in Africa, it crashed down into a
minority party just after 16 years? I believe this loss started in 2011 after
President Jonathan’s election.

It happened at three
different levels. One is the level of elders and leaders of the party – the
National Working Committee (NWC) and executives of the party. The other bloc is
that of the governors and the third part is the Presidency; people around the
President, who work in the presidency and who are his close friends.

After 2011, some elders
and members of the NWC apparently sat down and felt the governors had become
too powerful in the party. The strength of PDP from inception, revolved around
the governors.

One thing that keeps a
party going is the funding and the governors were the ones funding the party,
even during elections and Obasanjo recognized that. But some of these elders
felt governors were too powerful and wanted to reduce their powers. Working
with the National Assembly members, they started doing all sorts of things.

Unfortunately, Chief
Bamanga Tukur became chairman of the party and he was the arrowhead of the
plan, sending queries to governors and signing such queries as CEO of the
party.

It didn’t go down well
with some governors and the crisis started building up. It built up to an
extent that some governors were upset and it was one of the reasons the seven
governors walked out at the party convention in Abuja.

Almost at that same
time, there was this external perception even among ordinary Nigerians that
Nigerian governors were too strong and it was accepted to break their ranks
through the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF).

And so, the crisis in
the NGF started, it was fueled from outside and the forum broke up. Among us
the governors, we allowed ourselves to be influenced from outside. While a
handful governors walked out of the PDP, others remained in the party.

But I should add that as
PDP governors, we did not also manage the situation very well. Yes, as a
governor, you have interest in who takes over from you and who becomes a
National Assembly member, but we did not do it in a democratic manner. So much
so that the choice of governors were forced on members of the party and this
was not acceptable to the party and many moved away from PDP.

Were you able to
democratize the process in Delta State? What we did in Delta was novel. I
didn’t limit myself to one person, but people did not understand that hence
they thought that I was for one person. Actually, I had four people shortlisted
and anyone of these four that emerged from the primaries would have had my
blessing.

So, I provided a
level-playing field at the primaries by ensuring that every leader in the party
was involved in selection of the delegates. Nobody was upset. We sat down with
the local government leaders to look at those that would be delegates. That
alone was able to reduce the tension in the party, and at the primary, we had a
free and fair process.

Even when some people
wanted to disrupt the exercise, I moved security to forestall it. At night,
while counting was going on, some people wanted to switch off the power
generating set, I got intelligence and countered their move.

In the end, the most
popular candidate emerged and once you allowed the most popular candidate to
emerge, there would be peace. But that did not happen in many states and there
were a lot of break-ups, which till date are affecting the PDP at the national
and at the state levels. That’s the aspect of the governors.

The third area is that
of the presidency – Some appointees in the Presidency, family members and
friends of the President or people from same ethnic group with him somehow
became a problem.

We must understand that
the President has a lot of powers, which are not exercised by him alone.
Sometimes, a mere photograph in which you and the President appear together can
be used to do a lot of things. Some people around him misused these powers by
elbowing people out.

There were people who
wanted to genuinely help but they were elbowed out and kept away. Some decided
to sidon and look, others moved to another party.

These factors, which
started from 2011 put together, eventually led us to where we are today. At a
point, the current chairman came and he was called the game changer and all
that, but he also had his own issues and by the time we were going into the
elections, it would have been a miracle if we had won.

Underlying all these was
the arrogance of power. As a party, we became arrogant, saying we would rule
for 60 years and that we were super strong and ended up misusing our strength.
Secondly, there were people who were not really sincere; people who held
critical positions but were not working for the party.

They pretended to work
for the party and by the time we realized, it was already too late. That is my
own analysis of what really happened. As a

scientist, you would
agree that the law of gravity cannot be abridged.

A falling object must
get to the base degree. We assume now that the PDP has fallen to the ground,
how do you intend to gather the momentum to put it up again? Unfortunately, even
after the loss, one is still seeing that arrogance going on.

All the elections have
ended and we will now have time to reflect. It is time for us to sit down and
do some analysis of what happened and be honest to ourselves.

If we are honest to
ourselves, even if it is just three or four members that are remaining, we can
build the party again. APC is where it is today because one person was very
prominent in building the party to what it is today and the person started from
one state, Lagos, spread to some parts of the Southwest and today they are at
the national level.

So, if we are able to
get a few people that are sincere and honest to the cause, we will get back up
and I think there are such men who can rebuild the party.

Personally, are you one
of the honest men to build the PDP or you might still jump out? No, no, no, no!
The issue of jumping to the APC is not on my thoughts for now.

I am not thinking about
it at all. Politically, as a person, my area of focus and emphasis is how to
build young people for leadership as I am leaving office. Nigeria has invested
a lot in me from Commissioner to SSG to governor.

I have a lot of
experiences in me and I won’t want them to get lost. I have had successes and
failure and I want to use both experiences to build up the young generation,
who will become stronger than I am.

One of the challenges we
have, as a nation today is that young persons who are coming up to take up
political positions have not been mentored. In developed democracies, most of
the people who come forward to take up positions must have been mentored before
being thrown into the ring.

Coming back to the issue
of thee party itself, I will get involved deeply but not as an arrowhead. There
are people of like-minds that will come together and we will rebuild the party.

Without a strong
opposition, APC cannot move Nigeria forward. That is the truth. APC is made of
people from different political backgrounds and ideology. Even the issue of
zoning political offices is already causing problem, which is good because it
will make them sit up.

Is it true that you are
scheming to become the National Chairman of the PDP? Or put differently, will
you accept the position if you are offered? Noooooooooo! I have not attended
any meeting and I have not discussed that with anyone. In any case, that is not
my ambition.

However, I will not be
blackmailed into not expressing my mind on what I believe led us to where we
are as a party. If you look at the map of Nigeria today and you look at the
areas APC is occupying, you will find out that the South-South and Southeast
have being isolated.

Except for Taraba and
Gombe, the map is somehow frightening, what is your own take at the new
structure? I laugh when I hear people say the biggest challenges before Buhari
are corruption and economy. For me, those are not the biggest challenges before
him. The biggest challenge is giving every segment of Nigeria a sense of
belonging, especially the South-south and the Southeast. He must bring them on
board. Why did Boko Haram get inflamed? Boko Haram was there before Jonathan
came. But it became inflamed because the people of that area started having the
feeling of being abandoned.

When the armed struggle
started, there was a subtle encouragement by even the political leaders of
those areas because they kept saying our people are not empowered while Niger
Delta people are being empowered. Those things were being said. I attended
meetings where we eventually had to talk hard to each other to correct the
impression.

Both the leaders and fighters
of these areas had the feeling that they were being cheated and treated
unfairly. I told some of them that as a governor in the Niger Delta, I went
into the creeks to try and see if I could engage these militants that were
fighting at the time. They said yes, it was easy for me to go into the creeks
but their own challenge was how to empower the boys who were hungry so that
they could stop fighting.

Those were the initial
reactions we got. What I am saying is that the President-elect when he becomes
President must ensure that the South-south and Southeast are brought on board
to have a sense of belonging. If not, we might be creating another avenue for
uprising, which is a very challenging security situation. Before now, the other
parts of the country, specifically the North, have been so angry about the
resources going to the Niger Delta.

They mentioned
specifically the 13 percent, Niger Delta ministry, NDDC and the Amnesty
Programme. Can there be a likelihood of resurgence in militancy in the Niger
Delta, especially if some of these structures are one way or the other altered?
It is possible. And that is why I say we have to be careful so that this does
not pose a major challenge to Buhari. When you treat regions like conquered
territories, it doesn’t take rocket science to forecast an uprising, especially
now that we still have a lot of youths that are not engaged and who can easily
be recruited for any uprising. We should not have a repeat of the last four
years where a certain part of the country did not have a sense of belonging.

Within the context of
the misuse of power, are you not persuaded that the governors have actually
become too powerful in Nigeria? There are checks and balances for any governor.
Maybe people have not used it to keep the governor in line.

The major source of any
threat for the governor is the House of Assembly. Have we used the House of
Assembly properly? Maybe not; and why? It starts from the selection of people
who go to the Assembly. What is the quality of the people who go to the House
of Assembly? The answer is with all of us. We should take more interest in who
goes into the House.

Let move back from
national politics to your eight-year administration. As you take your exit, are
there things you will be leaving undone? For instance, there are two road
projects that are so central to Delta State, the road from Asaba through Kwale
to Ughelli and the one from Agbor, Abraka to Warri.

Are you pained that you
would not be able to deliver these roads as you had wished? Apart from these,
are there other regrets? I don’t call them regrets. If I had another
opportunity, I would probably have done it slightly different. Now, the major
road is a 149-kilometre road, almost the same distance from Lagos to Ibadan. It
is quite a long road for any state government to embark on. From Asaba to
Ughelli is 149km. It is actually a Federal Government road and I had to get the
necessary clearance before going into it so that my refund can be processed
later. They didn’t allow us initially but after about two years, we decided to
go ahead with it whether we got refunds or not.

Because it was so long,
I thought it was better to give it to three contractors. We gave the middle
section, which had a bridge to an international firm CCECC, the other end,
which is the Asaba end was given to an indigenous firm.

Unfortunately, where we
really have the challenge is the indigenous contractors. If I had to do it
again, probably, I would not give the contract to indigenous firms. We have a
major challenge at the Asaba end.

The Amukpe to Eku road
is a Federal Government road but I don’t think they have awarded it. From my
experience, I will say we still have challenges from our indigenous contractors
for major jobs.

They seem not to be
getting their acts together to handle major jobs. That is one thing I would
have done differently if I had another chance. That is, to pay more attention
to the big international firms who have the capacity to deliver on major jobs.
For me, one of the challenges I had when I started was fear of the big
contractors.

I wanted to deal
directly with Julius Berger but they were not ready to come to Delta because of
the crisis at that time. How do you reconcile that with the desire to empower
local people?

I mean, how do you
balance good governance with political patronage? Our people seem to have a
wrong perception of political patronage. People believe that political
patronage is bringing out the money and sharing it. That is, give out the
contracts and allow people to collect money whether the jobs are done or not.

Our people must start to
build capacity. There are people, who over the years, have been contractors to
the military and civilians but have not built enough capacity to handle big
jobs. Secondly, in empowering our people, officials in the various ministries,
who make assessment, should be able to advise the government correctly on who
has capacity to do what.

Sometimes, as a governor
and for political reasons, you may want to force a contractor on a project even
when your advisers advised against it. In other words, as governors and top
officials, we should also learn to respect the advice of the professionals in
government.

My advice is whoever
that is coming should work with the professionals who are the experts and who
can give a correct assessment of a contractor’s competence.

Even if we sponsor a
contractor, it is our job as political leaders to ensure such contractors have
the capacity. By May 29, you would have been 16 clear years in government. In a
nutshell, what are the things you have learnt in government? (Laughs) It’s a
lot. One is the fact that human beings are different.

You have to be at alert
and watch the people you are dealing with, especially people close to you,
because they are the ones that can harm you most. I keep reminding people that
what killed Julius Caesar is not the stabbing but the realization of the person
who stabbed him, when he turned and saw it was Brutus. Same as Ikemefuna in
Things Fall Apart.

What killed Ikemefuna
was not the injury Okonkwo inflicted on him but the fact that the person that
delivered the matchet stroke, that is Okonkwo, was one he called a father and
to whom he was running for protection.

So, it is really the
person close to you that can make you succeed or fail. It is one of the things
leaders need to be aware of. But in dealing with that, leaders need to keep
their eyes open. In any leadership position, as you move to build or rebuild,
you will always have resistance from people. I read the Bible a lot to get some
leadership knowledge because the Bible has a compilation of great leaders. One
of the people I have read over and over again to learn a few things from is
Nehemiah.

He was able to manage
opposition very well in Tobiah and Sanballat. Those were constant opposition.
But he was able to rebuild the wall despite the opposition. You must be able to
manage the situation although challenges can come in different ways and forms
from within and outside your team. Could that be the reason you were able to
manage the opposition posed by Chief EK Clark?

I really don’t want to
bring in those issues now, especially on Elder Clark. How did the relationship
with your predecessor affect you in office? Chief James Ibori is my cousin; we
grew up together though I am older than he is. We didn’t see ourselves as
cousins but as blood brothers. His mother was more of my real mother than my
biological mother.

All these fathers and
mothers that tied us together are all dead, so I am like a big brother. We were
brought up in such a way not to harm or hurt each other. We might have
differences, but it could be settled.

One person’s pain is the
other person’s pain. That is how we are till today. Many may not understand
this. So, when he was having his problems and challenges, they were also my
problems and challenges.

People expected me at a
point to dump him and do one thing or the other to worsen his situation. A lot
of overtures were made in this regard, which I can’t say here. But I kept
telling them, if I did anything harmful to him, our parents in their grave
would not be happy.

I just refused and
because of that, I also passed through certain pains. I was persecuted from
those who really wanted him nailed even before the UK trial.

This is the worst that
can happen to him and we are all passing through the pain as family and blood
relations. Yes, it had some effect on me. There are people who distrust me,
especially around the Presidency because of James Ibori’s problem. You are
leaving behind Warri not as an oil community but as an industrial park because
the oil giants have left.

Does this pain you?
Shell has moved away but the oil is still there. Why we felt the exit of Shell
was because of the way NNPC (Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation) handled
matters. For instance, Seplat, which came after Shell had left, is doing very
well in the Sapele area. When Shell left, these other oil firms like Seplat
were supposed to move in and operate the way Shell was doing but what happened
was that NPDC (Nigeria Petroleum Development Company), which is an arm of NNPC,
started operating the fields that Shell left behind. NPDC is a government
outfit and they behave like government. Whether they work or not, they get
their salary.

Their attitude has been
very negative which explains why a lot of the oil wells left behind by Shell
have been abandoned. Nobody is operating them. We must have policies that are
beneficial to the people. Today, the stealing of oil from Seplat field is very
minimal. If all those fields were operated properly, nobody would have felt the
effect of Shell’s departure.

But I am happy with the
feelers from the new government that the industry would be properly monitored
and administered by those who have the capacity. The Warri Industrial Business
Park is on course but it will take quite some time. The infrastructure is being
put in place. We just signed a deal with a firm that will generate about
15megawatts of electricity to power the park and some areas of Warri. The
strength of the Southwest for instance is the fact that their best live amongst
them and the best from other areas live in the Southwest.

What can you do beyond
government to attract your best back home to live among the people? There is no
doubt that in terms of development and capacity, the Southwest is far ahead.
Even you are in the Southwest too because that is where the action is. The
Southwest as personified by Lagos started developing since 1861 and everything
started gravitating towards the region. One of the things that can get Niger
Delta up is if the oil firms can move their headquarters close to where they
are operating.

To bring people back
home, we must make the environment friendly and we have started well in the
area of peace and security. One of the things that will open up the Niger Delta
is the development or rehabilitation of existing port facilities. In Delta
alone, we have Warri, Sapele, Koko and Burutu. Why are the ports in Delta
comatose? The biggest challenges about the Delta ports are the entry points.
The Escravos channel for instance is shallow and requires a lot of dredging.

And to that, we need at
least $1 billion, which is huge. The most viable way is to have a deep seaport
at the mouth of the Escravos estuary and that is what this current EPZ project
may achieve if we are able to get it right because one of the components of the
project is the development of a deep seaport. If that is done, the story will
change.

Looking back, will you
consider the Asaba Airport as one of the things you will be remembered for?
Yes, it is one of our biggest projects quite alright. But about what I will be
remembered for, it depends. You that use the airport will remember me for the
Asaba airport but the woman in the village will remember me more if she is able
to go to the hospital nearest to her and get medical help. The Airport is one
of our star projects. It is fully utilized because it is serving a major part
of the Southeast.

Asaba as the capital is
still an issue in Delta politics It is an issue that won’t go away so soon.
Historically, among those of us in politics now, I think I was one of the first
persons that built a house in Asaba. Most of the others refused to build houses
in Asaba, even though they were working in Asaba. They would work till Friday,
and then go to either Benin or Warri or Sapele for the weekend. Recently, I met
someone in Delta Central who told me he has never slept in Asaba and he will
never do that.

He is a top lawyer and
once he gets cases, he just goes and returns because he is still emotional
about the location of Asaba as the state capital. Some elderly people still
have such feeling, although they are now coming to Asaba to do businesses.
Altogether, majority of Deltans have accepted Asaba as the capital. That is why
we have sited necessary infrastructure there because it has come to stay.
Anybody that is bringing it up now is only bringing it up for mention sake.

Despite the fact that we
have had so many medical doctors as governors, health in Nigeria is still a
huge challenge. People still troop to India for medical attention. How do we
get out of this? First, the issue of people going abroad, sometimes, is more of
perception. There are a lot of things that can be treated in Nigeria that
people are still taking abroad. Even women are going abroad to deliver; it is
not as if they cannot deliver here, but because they want their children to
have foreign passports.

The Governor of Kogi
State for instance was treated in Abuja when he had that accident. We have a
lot of hospitals, especially in the private sector that are doing fantastic
jobs. Having said this let me add that we still have a lot of gaps to fill.
There are three things mainly. One, is the issue of

Culled from Guardian