Mr. Paul Odili is Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s Communication Manager. In this interview, he speaks on the performance of the Delta State government under Uduaghan and the fate of the newly registered All Progressive Party (APC) in the state. Excerpts:
Do you think the Uduaghan administration has made impact with its three- point agenda in the last six years?
The evidence of the success of the three-point agenda of Governor Uduaghan, in terms of peace and security, human-capital and infrastructural development, is very clear to everybody. On peace and security, when the administration came into office in 2007, the issue was the Niger Delta militancy and how much that was impacting on stability and the oil economy of the nation.
Delta State was targeted and was a major theatre of this struggle. The governor was one of those who forcefully promoted the strategy of engagement of repentant militants. He was the forerunner of the amnesty package. While some states were opting for confrontation, he opted for engagement approach as the right way to handle it. Eventually his position prevailed and the blueprint for their engagement was adopted during President Musa Yar’Adua’s government but was finally implemented by President Goodluck Jonathan.
So, clearly, he succeeded, and if you also remember that in those days when militancy was at its peak, oil production declined. Delta State federal allocation was quite low because the state is mainly an onshore oil producing state and was quite vulnerable. So, it made sense that the governor exerted himself to bring peace to the troubled region, if we were to recover from the economic losses we faced. In addition to that, the governor, in building peace, looked at the ethnic formation of the state and felt it was important that everybody should feel a sense of belonging and benefit from the dividends of democracy.
To that effect, he adopted a consensus approach in forming his administration’s programmes and projects. This has also led to intra-ethnic peace in Delta State. That in itself is an excellent performance. In terms of infrastructural development, anybody who has been to Delta State between 2007 and now will have no difficulty accepting that it is no longer business as usual but complete transformation of the state – roads, schools, hospitals, power.
But there are some issues with his infrastructure programme. Many people that I spoke to are not satisfied?
You know Delta is a complex state with high demand that all the projects being done should be delivered almost at once, which is not possible. Resources are scarce while needs are many. Let me give you an example. In the last six years, the government has constructed over 1,006 kilometer of roads in Delta. Yet the demand for roads and more roads continue. And government is not relenting in investing public money in the construction of roads to meet the state target of 5000 kilometre of paved roads by 2020.
Aside from roads, the Asaba International Airport is near completion, and this airport is easily the best in the country. The quality of work is superb. Work has also commenced at the Warri Airport, which is being built to international standard. The Independent Power Plant (IPP) is on-going, expected to be completed in 2014. Our model schools can now ranked among the best across the federation, if not Africa. As I speak to you now, well over 18,000 classrooms have been renovated or upgraded. So, you see that this is an administration that has focus.
The administration completed the Oghara Teaching Hospital, which was started by former Governor James Ibori, making that hospital today one of the best in the country. There is new Government House in Asaba and the Events Centre is there for all to see with its state-of-art facilities. So, you can see that this administration is undertaking massive projects that will impact positively on the people.
We also have the Warri Industrial Business Park, early site work has since commenced and soon enough there will be ground-breaking. There is the Ogidigbe Gas Based Industrial Park (GBI) which the government is doing in partnership with the Federal Government, through the NNPC. The GBI project is an estimated 18 billion dollar private sector funded investments in fertilizer, petrochemical and Central Process Facility (CPF). The GBI will reduce gas flare as gas is the primary raw material for the products in the industrial park.
Human capital development
Deltans are enjoying big bonanza in human-capital development. The state government has been faithful in implementing this agenda, with unwavering focus. We have free under-5 healthcare, free maternal services for pregnant women, education in Delta is virtually free, the scholarship scheme, the bursary allowances to Delta students in tertiary institutions and to graduates who have first class degree to study in any institution of their choice across the world; so, holistically, the government has a lot of interest in making Deltans feel good about themselves and at the same time benefit from the government they have voted for
Governor Uduaghan seems to have special interest in education, health and transportation. What do you think made him to attach so much importance to these sectors?
If you look critically at the administration, you will see that it pro-poor, pro-under privileged, pro-weak. In our society, the average household’s expenditure goes into a couple of things – food, housing, education, health. These are the essential things people spend a lot of their money on, on the average. So, the best thing for a government that really wants to cushion poverty is to focus on education of children who are the leaders of tomorrow, promote healthcare in particular for those who are economically weak, and subsidize transportation, which it has done by introducing massive transport scheme, which, on account of its popularity, is now called Uduaghan Bus. So when you have a government that helps you to cushion these demands, then you are helping the poor and the weak to survive and to have hope.
Has Delta State truly leapfrogged into economic greatness, given its policy on economic shift from over–dependence on oil?
The state cannot by magic wand leapfrogged into economic greatness overnight. Delta beyond oil is work in progress. The road-map of this initiative is to develop other sectors of the economy. It is too early to make any conclusion but the state is gradually moving towards a non-oil economy. It will
take time but the awareness and commitment is there. Governor Uduaghan will do his part; other administrations that will follow if they do their part will lead the state to attain greater heights. Governor Uduaghan has taken the bold step by driving and making public investments in major infrastructure and projects that will make it possible for the state to develop with or without oil. I have listed some of them already.
The newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC) has been launched in Delta State, It says the oil rich state is up for grabs from the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), come 2015. What is your take on this?
Where are they? Can they win election? Do you know what is funny about this APC thing? It is like ‘Abiku’ of a thing, or ‘Ogbanje’. You know APC behaves like the Ogbanje child. And the Ogbanje child is every parent’s worst nightmare. Every time you give birth to a child, that child dies and then you conceive again, the child dies, and again and again. Since 1999, it has been metamorphosing from one thing to another. Deltans don’t even know what APC stands for because there is no guarantee that you won’t see another group masquerading as APC. In many states now, the group is breaking up.
This is not the first time they are coming up with this merger thing but it has always failed. The best they have succeeded in doing is to keep changing their names, holding merger meetings and failing to wrest power. If you look at it critically, the alliance is breaking up. I don’t know how they tend to achieve their dream in Delta State especially considering how much the PDP administration is working to transform the state. When President Goodluck Jonathan says ‘by 2015, the opposition will have nothing to campaign’, it is like he has Delta State in mind.
Complaints have rented the air that the newly constructed mega schools that were built with tax-payers’ money and handed over to the missions are not affordable for the common man. Why is it like that?
That is not true. Yes, some schools, I think 40 of them, were handed over to the missions, their original owners. Remember theywere initially taken over by government; but government did not want to just return them in bad conditions because Deltans are the ones attending them, hence it underwent massive reconstruction including building new ones to replace the existing ones. As I said earlier, education is free in Delta State but mission schools are slightly different because they are clearly under the management of the missions. However even as every child should be given the opportunity to attend any school of their choice, there are so many solid public schools to select from.
Going by the zoning arrangement of the PDP in Delta State, do you think an Anioma son or daughter, from Delta North Senatorial District will succeed Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, come 2015?
I don’t see any reason why they should not. I know there is a gentleman’s agreement of rotation. I believe in the fullness of time, the party leaders will make the right decision to support that understanding. Equity demands that understanding should be respected.
Crack in the PDP, Rivers Governor Amaechi at loggerheads with party leaders. Where is your principal amidst this crisis, being a PDP governor and bearing in mind that whatever affects the part affects the whole?
My governor is a consensus builder. He is a PDP man to the core and has the interest of the nation at heart. The latest crisis is not new. If you reflect on the 14 years of democracy in Nigeria, this is virtually not new; people are only painting this one in different colouration to give it a semblance that this is strange. The only reason why anything that happens in PDP captures public imagination is because it is the largest party in the country and the party in power and running majority of the states in the country.
But I believe, as an individual, that it is part of the whole process of evolution towards a mature democracy. We are still struggling to build a strong political culture and this takes time. I believe that, eventually, the issues will be resolved one way or the other either through full reconciliation, partial reconciliation or there may be no reconciliation at all, these are possibilities. And I expect the party leaders and everyone involved will weigh all the options as each has its implications.
The opposition is clamouring for local government elections
Fine they can but the question is: if the election is slated for today, can they win? They are talking as if they can win. People just want to talk because they have the public space to say whatever catches their fancy. The chairman of the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) has come out to say few things are needed to be put in place before the election is conducted creditably. If the election is not well conducted, they will be the first to come out again to cry foul. This is not the first time we are conducting council elections in the state during the life of this administration. The governor is looking forward to credible council polls in the state, all they (opposition) need is to be patient with DSIEC to complete its preparations and come up with its time-table.
Your advice to Deltans
Deltans should continue to give us the chance, be patient while the projects mature and are rolled out one after the other. This is a government that has the interest of the masses at heart, and is working on people-oriented projects. The evidences of the good works have just started, we are determined to finish strong; the governor sleeps and wakes with one thing in mind: finishing strong, bracing the tape in a grand style. So, they should continue to support us.
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