PDP in the governorship and state House of Assembly elections. In this interview, the party chieftain maintained that Deltans made the right choice by electing Sheriff Oborevwori as governor.
It has been one month of the Oborevwori administration, how would you rate his actions and appointments so far?
I think he has started well, the few people he needed to start with in terms of administration of activities, he made those choices early enough. For example, on May 29, he appointed his Chief Press Secretary which is very important, and then thereafter, he also appointed the Secretary to State Government (SSG), Senior Political Adviser and the Chief of Staff. These are key people needed to run the administration to start with. I think the choices are very good because if you look at their pedigree, experience and all that, you discover that the choices were quite in order. The SSG, Kingsley Emu, for instance, has been in the system. He is a seasoned banker, an investment expert and technocrat as well. He has been in the system for quite some time and knows virtually how the government works. Then Festus Ahon is your colleague, he has been with Vanguard over the years, and he has that experience to cope. Senator Emmanuel Agwuariavwodo is one of our great political leaders, he was a member of the House of Representatives, a senator, and former Managing Director (MD) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). So you can see that they are all square pegs in square holes. Away from that, he has also gone on inspection of some ongoing projects started by the immediate past administration, the Ughelli-Asaba road that has been under construction for sometime. He also visited Warri where he inspected the stadium and gave his word that the stadium would be upgraded to a standard that is befitting of a commercial city like Warri. He also made some pronouncements, urging the local government chairmen not to overtax the people due to the harsh economy and the removal of fuel subsidy; the economy is biting harder on the people. So he has told them to make sure that there is no double taxation, which means he has that feeling for the masses, and that is quite important. I think just yesterday, he sent a proposal to the House of Assembly for the approval of about N40 billion to offset local government pensions in the state. And that is a very bold step because these are some of the promises he made during campaigns under the M.O.R.E agenda. He said he was going to make sure that the pension crisis is taken care of once and for all both for the state and local government. He has started with the local government and as the government takes shape, the state would also be dealt with so that we do not have the issue of pending arrears of pensions. I also see that doggedness, somebody with the political will to bring about a change that is quite unique in terms of standard project delivery because he has been able to send a signal to the contractors that projects must be executed according to standard, and that he is not going to commission any project that does not meet the required standard. What that means is that he is going to follow with regular inspection of the projects just like Okowa did during his tenure. So I think he has started well, in the next few weeks when the government will take proper shape with the appointments of more aides, he will do well.
The loan of N40 billion, is it not too early to start taking loan because that was a major criticism against the immediate past administration?
The economic hardship suffered by local government pensioners in Delta State, cannot be overemphasized, occasioned by the inability of the third tier of government to meet their obligations in years past. It has been confirmed that a whopping sum of N51 billion is owed retired local government workers by the 25 local government councils in the state since 2016. The state government under the leadership of immediate past governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, assisted in no small measure to reduce the huge arrears. He also discussed extensively with the Delta State chapter of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), on how to defray the outstanding N51 billion. And during his campaigns as governorship candidate of the PDP, the incumbent governor, Elder Oborevwori, assured pensioners that if elected, his administration will do whatever it takes to ensure that backlog of pensions were paid, considering the severe economic hardship in the country occasioned by the misrule of the APC national government. At a recent meeting with ALGON, government reached an agreement with the body, and it was further agreed that a N40 billion credit facility be obtained from Zenith Bank PLC, to settle a substantial part of pension arrears, with a proviso that each local government will have to voluntarily without duress sign legal documents, as well as an irrevocable undertaking that its part of the credit facility should be deducted by installments at source from the federal allocations every month at a reasonable interest rate to Zenith Bank. It is therefore crystal clear that the N40 billion credit facility approved by the state House of Assembly shall be repaid by the beneficiary local governments within a period of time from their share of monthly allocations, not a debt directly affecting the Delta State treasury, and not a loan to be repaid by the state government. Local government pensions has nothing to do with the state government; it is under the Local Government Staff Pension Bureau, making it the sole responsibility of the third tier of government, while the state government is responsible for the payment of pension of retired state civil servants. In the same vein, the Federal Government pays pension of retired federal civil servants. Payment of backlog of pensions does not require any element of politics and all well meaning Deltans must encourage government to do whatever it takes to make pensioners happy. This is the way to go.
From his appointments, people are saying that it is a confirmation of the views of the opposition that Okowa was seeking a third term through Oborevwori. Deltans are saying that the man will not be in charge in the next four years.
This is a political system; in politics, you don’t flush out all members of the party after one administration and take in new members. Once you are in politics, you are in politics. And it is those in the political system that are active, that are contributing meaningfully to governance and the party are the people that normally run every government. Emu they refer to as Okowa’s man, served in Uduaghan’s administration.
But he was sacked because of his support for Okowa ahead of the primaries in 2014…
… So you claim, but I have not heard that version of it. But at least, you have been able to establish that he was in the Uduaghan administration, that also makes him an Uduaghan man whether he was sacked or not, otherwise what yardstick did Uduaghan use to appoint him.
He was a nominee of Okowa for Ika North-East…
… Who said so? Okowa is not the only person in Ika North-East, there are other leaders and political stakeholders in that locality, only one person in the local government cannot make it. If the whole of Ika North-East say today that they don’t need Okowa again as their leader, all of them in unison, he is gone, he alone cannot do it. In fact, Okowa’s ward chairman can put him in very serious problems that might even ruin his political career. Just ward chairman if he has the support of his members at that level. You remember what happened to Oshiomhole in Edo State, a whole party national chairman was brought to his knees by just ward chairman and his team. He is just struggling now to come out of it by becoming a senator, he messed up his career. That is to tell you the strength of politics, it is not about one person. If Okowa says this is the man that is going for Ika North-East and the other leaders say no, Okowa will step him down and go for the popular candidate. So it is not true that the people so far appointed are Okowa’s men. Agwuariavwodo has been there, he was in the National Assembly in the same political party. He was in Uduaghan’s administration, he was with Ibori. He was Special Adviser to Okowa for first and second tenure. Just like Senator Ighoyota Amori who served in Ibori, Uduaghan and Okowa administrations. So anybody coming up with such a story is not being sincere because these were the same men who mobilised the people to campaign massively. Emu was a strategic member of the campaign council, he was the sub-committee chairman of research and planning. Agwuariavwodo was our political caucus leader, mobilising and giving us strategies on how we should go about the election. You don’t have people who have laboured so much and have been in the system, worked so hard for the success of the party to be thrown out? So Oborevwori definitely is not Okowa’s stooge, he is not doing Okowa’s third tenure, there is nothing like that. Those were just political gimmicks that were cooked up by the APC campaign propagandists. If David Edevbie had won the election, would they have said he is coming to serve Ibori’s third term because Ibori was actually the one pushing him? Up till now, Ibori is not in our party, he has gone away to APC.
Now that Ibori is not in the PDP, don’t you see that as a threat particularly in subsequent elections?
Threat, how? You are a leader because the people consider you to be their leader. You are not a leader when the people say you are no longer their leader even though you are still carrying the toga of a leader.
Are you saying that he is just floating up there?
Floating up there, he is interacting with his colleagues of 1999 – 2007 former governors; he has the right to fraternise with them politically. But we are talking about home grown politics here, we are talking about Delta. Now, before the presidential election, he invited leaders of the eight local governments of Delta Central to his house at Oghara. He told us that he was still in the party and that he is supporting the candidates of the party. He actually donated N4 million each to the local governments to support the elections. After that meeting, he called a meeting of the Ethiope federal constituency, you know the daughter ran under PDP for that constituency. I was also there at that meeting. He told us that all the rumours we were hearing that he is angry with Oborevwori, that he is leaving the party were not true. That he is going to work for the candidates of the party in the elections. That as a matter of fact, he would have left the PDP when he returned from London because he was vulnerable then, that they called him to Abuja and they were threatening him. That if he did not join APC when he was vulnerable, is it now that he is strong and back to full time politics, that he will be leaving the PDP to join APC? That it was not going to happen, that leaders of the Ethiope federal constituency should go and deliver his daughter, Erhiatake.
He assured that his daughter will do one tenure at the Green Chambers and that after the four years, the next Rep will come from Ethiope East local government because the two localities make up the constituency. We were very happy. In fact, Sunny Emeyese who did one tenure in the House of Representatives, stood and said you are our lion, supposing your daughter finishes one tenure and you say she should do another term, nobody will be able to challenge you. He said no that it must be one tenure, that it should be recorded. We clapped for him, he entertained us and we left. That meeting was held barely one week before the election. We have to go back and re-adjust to deliver his daughter against the incumbent, Ben Igbakpa who moved to the NNPP. In all the units, she won. In fact, Igbakpa is still angry with some of us today, saying that those of us who are his friends abandoned him. But it was not a case of being abandoned because for me, Fred Latimore Oghenesivbie, I don’t do anti-party with anybody. If I am in a party, I am in a party. I will not work for any candidate of another political party. I have not done it before and I will not do it. So I told Igbakpa that I liked what he did for my constituency, he brought the Federal University of Education to Isiokolo, Kokori, my own town, that was enough for me to have supported him if he did not leave the party to join NNPP. So what happened? Immediately after the presidential election, Erhiatake Ibori went to Abuja, collected her Certificate of Return, and then the Iboris went haywire. Having collected the certificate, she believed that her case was settled; they can now implement that APC agenda. Before we knew it, we saw some of his followers on the streets with vehicles saying vote for Omo-Agege, Omo-Agege for governor, Ibori said Omo-Agege is the one going. They sent the video to me, I saw it, forwarded it to some people and people were also forwarding the same video to me. I tried to reach Ibori to confirm if he was behind it, there was no response. Before we knew it, everywhere was on fire. And to confirm the story that he actually worked for APC, today Ethiope West is being represented at the state House of Assembly by an APC member.
Are you saying that Ibori betrayed PDP?
He betrayed us. If Ibori did not betray us, PDP would have won the House of Assembly seat for Ethiope West
But the PDP won the area for the governorship…
To what extent is that now if the whole of Ethiope East is being represented at the House of Assembly by APC member; to what extent can we say that mathematics holds? What happened was that quite a number of people decided to vote for Oborevwori because they know his pedigree to perform; he has a lot of fans in Ethiope West, people who believe in him. So when Ibori came to meet them to deliver Omo-Agege in the council, they rejected him, saying that it must be Oborevwori for governor and that they can give him the House of Assembly. And they gave him the House of Assembly because he knows that as a leader going to APC, if his locality is not APC, he would have no voice to speak at the national level. Now he can sit before the president to say that his local government, Ethiope West, is APC. How? Member of the state House of Assembly is APC. So, he betrayed us, and with that it will be very difficult for him to earn the trust of those who he betrayed in the last election.
You were in the heart of the campaigns, Deltans are still wondering how your principal was able to make peace with Ogboru who for the very first congratulated the winner of election. How did this happen?
Respect is earned and not demanded. When you put yourself in a position where people should respect you, they will respect you. And when you also respect people, it is natural that they would also respect you as well. If you look at the governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, he is a very humble person, he is humble to a fault especially when you happen to his elder; he does not consider the office he occupies, he humbly greets you as an elder. And before the elections, he had said that it was not a do or die affair, that whoever wins, takes it but we should all maintain peace and focus on issues-based campaigns. Throughout the elections, Oborevwori did not insult anybody, he never made derogatory statements against anybody. In the campaigns, he brought a new dimension to electioneering campaigns by starting with consultation around the three senatorial districts. After the consultation, he started the ward to ward campaigns to enable him hear directly from the people at the grassroots about their needs. In each ward, he interacted with the leaders and elders. And those things they said they want were documented. After that, he went from local government to local government. After that, we did unit to unit campaigns and then from community to community and from door to door campaigns.