FOR seven months since he assumed office, on May 29, 2015, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State found it easier said than done to hold an interactive session with journalists because of duty exigencies and distractions posed by the inflexible challenge to his victory. From the Delta State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal to the Appeal Court in Benin City, the Supreme Court finally laid the matter to rest, last Tuesday, and, 24 hours later, Okowa, who acted contrite for the delay, was talking to reporters. Sunday Vanguard was there. Excerpts:
What is your take on the Federal Government’s move to cancel the Maritime University in Okerenkoko?
I believe all Deltans were excited when the issue of the Nigerian Maritime University came up towards the end of the last administration. I believe too that Nigeria needs more than one maritime university, so it would not be right to scrap the only one we have at the moment because we need a lot of this in Nigeria so that we will be able to train our people in various aspects of the maritime industry.
We are already talking with Okerenkoko community. I received a delegation from them and I am expecting a letter from them to deliver to Mr. President so that the state and the community could seek audience with the President concerning the issue.
I do not know if the whole of the story has been told the President, the only thing that we need to know is whether it has been fully established by law because I do not think that it would be right after all the expenditure made by the Federal Government to stop such an institution from being in existence. It would be a big loss to the Federal Government, but we would continue to take it up in our discussion with the Presidency.
Why did you ask your two major political opponents, Chief Great Ogboru and Olorogun O’Tega Emerhor, to apologize to Deltans?
I did state that, for me, I have forgiven them because we all knew that we were in an election. Ahead of the April election, we were busy campaigning every day, but my two brothers were busy struggling in one senatorial district on who will control the votes there.
They were not really campaigning and they wanted to be governor and not senator. I did speak at that time while we were on campaign that if they wanted to be senator, then they could struggle for who will control the votes of the Urhobo. However, they wanted to be governor over all Deltans and, therefore, it was not right for somebody who wants to be governor to limit himself to an ethnic struggle; I did say that.
Therefore, we campaigned and we won convincingly. Even in Delta Central, we won more Urhobo votes than they did because the people believed in us. But they decided to go to the tribunal; after that, I appealed to them; they went to the Appeal Court, they lost; I made an appeal that it was time for us to talk, they went to the Supreme Court, but thank God for the justice system and the rule of law which has now prevailed.
It is only fair, realizing that Deltans trooped out en-masse to make the right choice and the popular choice was declared. Therefore, for them to have taken us through this level of distraction, they set Delta State aback. Obviously, whether we like it or not, it was a distraction; so I thought they should apologize to Deltans. Nevertheless, they are my brothers and I am going to say so. It is my belief that they collaborate with this government to continue to offer the best for Delta. We need the partnership of all, but it is necessary that when you have taken the people for a ride, you should offer apology to them.
You seem to have abandoned the Warri Government House Annex. Is that correct?
I have not abandoned Warri, we are under a lot of pressure more than you can imagine. Apart from the conference that we came for at the Petroleum Training Institute, I have never visited Warri on official duty. Every other visit was on social function and, when I am on social function, I try to avoid journalists because I do not want to make a lot of noise about that. When I am going for someone’s birthday, I should not be having the whole air of government around me because I am going for birthday.
However, I did say, in the course of this year when I was congratulating the Olu of Warri, that we have given instructions for the rehabilitation of the Governor’s Lodge in Warri and, by the grace of God, it will be operational soon, so that I can also come in and spend some days there. It is in my interest and the interest of this government that we have it out there.
I am very sceptical to come in as governor with all the people going with me and I am in an hotel with them, sometimes it may not be the best. I am eventually going to create a lot of scene in that hotel, that is why you find me come to Warri and return almost immediately, but you will see me more as soon as that lodge is completed.
What are you doing about the security challenge in Warri?
We are very mindful of the shootings in Warri; it has even been more in Ekpan area, although involving other parts of Uvwie and we are working a lot concerning that. We have a strategy that would not be right for me to speak out to the media for now. I will not let you know what we are doing because we will be setting ourselves back.
What happened at Shoprite, Warri, is very unfortunate. I do not think any of us would have prayed for that. Initially, I did not believe that people could actually go to the extent they went because, when I heard about it, I was thinking it was one of those things, but when I saw the footage, because the CCT cameras captured everything with all the persons involved, I had a rethink.
Before the police declared some people wanted, they have their reason. People talk about victimization, but it is very unfortunate they just talk. However, by the time the matter actually goes to court, because they have been trying to avoid facing the law by going to court to ask the court to stop the police from arresting them; the time those things are presented in court, clearly there will be no place for them to run to.
There is this rumour making the rounds that you want to ban tricycle (Keke) from operating in Asaba for buses and taxis to takeover. Is it true?
The phase out of ‘keke’, I must tell you, we do not have that plan, definitely not for now and I do believe that the keke is very useful now. Ours is to continue to concentrate within the limits of our resources in developing our roads; we are ensuring that we are able to make minimum roads available for our transport system.
The buses are of impact, the taxis are of impact and the keke is quite useful. The only thing we are talking about is that, at night, in some localities, in some township, we will restrict the usage of keke because some criminals are beginning to use either motor bikes or keke to do very dangerous things, but we do not have an intention to ban it.
The Biafrans are claiming that Anioma is part of their territory. How do you react?
We have always criticised Biafra agitation. We were never part of the South-East and, obviously, we are not part of them. We may speak the same language, but we were never part of the South East. We were part of the Mid West, we were part of Bendel, we are now in Delta State and we are Deltans.
There is speculation that the Senate earmarked N43billion to purchase official cars. As a former senator, what is your take?
I believe that this is more about the press. I do not believe so and the Senate President has confirmed that N43billion was not put there for vehicles. I do know that because of oversight functions, once in four years, they actually advance vehicles to members because you do not expect them to be flogging their private vehicles all the time.
If you do the calculation, one per senator, one per House of Rep member, it will not go anywhere near that and the Senate President has said it. Even the total allocation to the National Assembly as a whole, I am aware has dropped from N150 billion, it is N115 billion in this budget.
Therefore, I do not think that would have been possible when there is drastic deduction in the money to the National Assembly.
Moreover, that money includes many things; we should understand that it is also a government of its own. Not just about the 360 members and 109 senators, you have staff complement. If the House of Assembly here with just 29 members, has its House of Assembly Commission, what about the National Assembly with the huge number of people, 469 elected persons with the complementary staff and with the staff of the commission, everybody, there is a lot of expenditure going on there.
However, if you look at the totality of the budget, N115 billion, out of N6 trillion budget, is obviously less than two percent. So it is good that we have all the information but you know, sometimes when the media hold something, they hold unto it very strongly, but would not even go to crosscheck the budget; the budget is still an appropriation, so we can still crosscheck it, but from the information I have, that is not true.
What was the actual debt profile you inherited?
There was debt in terms of quantum of cash and there were debts that were also there because of contractual agreements that the state had entered into. That actually is still the situation, we have had to restructure the physical debt, which was over N100 billion.
I think about N60 billion has been restructured in terms of physical debts, but, unfortunately, we have not been able to have any success yet in restructuring the money borrowed on bond. That is the N50 billion bond that was floated and we are still in the process of having to pay high monthly rate for the bond which is in the range of N1.98 billion million monthly to service the bond and that will continue till 2018.
We have restructured the other one and, even with the restructuring, we have to pay about N919 million monthly and that will go on for several years. It is restructured over 20 years, there is nothing hidden, so you can see for yourself. Now, with other issues, we are still paying about N2.90billon in servicing existing debts that is available, and that is a lot of challenge now that the revenues have gone low.
We heard that there was a dispute between you and former Governor Uduaghan and you and former Governor Ibori had to reconcile both of you in London. How true is the claim?
Reconciliation between Okowa and Uduaghan; this is very funny. In the first instance, I do not have any problem with former Governor Uduaghan. Uduaghan is my friend, he has been my friend, we have been in this state together since 1998 before we came into government and you people know it. We have been friends and we will remain friends. We may have had our differences before the primaries but after the primaries, you saw us work together in the elections and we have remained so.
He calls me regularly; he offers me advice. Like even yesterday (Tuesday), he called me and we talked. Therefore, there was no question of a difference between us that would warrant anybody going to London to our former Governor Ibori to reconcile us. You see, these are some of the very terrible rumours peddled around.
That is why I have always made an appeal that there was need to crosscheck whatever is going on. You are aware he visited me at the lodge. If there is any issue between a man and a man, you can talk to us but the real thing is that there is no issue between both of us, none. When he came in, it was to offer advice. The wife had visited me twice in the Government House. Therefore, we have had no issues not to talk of somebody setting out to reconcile us.
Why are you embarking on too many political appointments in the face of dwindling allocation?
You cannot say that because there are dwindling funds, you cannot make basic appointments. You find out recently that I just appointed members of several boards. The law creates those offices and, actually, failure to make those appointments is failure to obey the law. For instance, the Governing Councils, by law; you cannot appoint any Provost, Vice Chancellor, and Rector of an institution without the Governing Councils.
Some of our institutions have been running for several years without Governing Councils and people have been functioning as Acting Provost in the Collages of Educations for so long. Is actually flattering the law but, as much as possible, even when there is restriction as a result of dwindling funds, we must obey the rules when it comes to institutions of governance.
The only thing we can do is to find ways to ensure the limitations of what they spend. Members of the board are part time except in some statutory agencies where you will need to have some members stand in day -to -day like in SUBEB, the Post Primary Education Board and the Civil Service Commission; but the failure to constitute the board is failure to obey the law, so is important to do that.
However, for the other Assistants in government, it is not going to be possible for me to function everywhere. Delta State is a difficult state to govern and you need many people to help you; that actually has made it necessary to make several appointments.
Fulani herdsmen have posed security challenges to our communities. What is the state government doing about this?
I believe this is a national problem and it is coming to the fore on daily basis, particularly once we enter the dry season and the Fulani men do not have water in the northern part, all they do is to migrate to the southern part. It is a national problem because we do not have grazing reserves, we should actually have grazing reserves and they are not supposed to be roaming around every bush, every farm; but unfortunately we do not have those facilities in place and it is becoming difficult to hold them back because they are going all out nationally. In addition, unfortunately, some of them are even armed and that is creating a problem everywhere, not only in Delta. I understand that out of the 36 states of the federation, about 30states are involved and we are talking about it nationally.
On our own part here, we have the office of the Secretary to the State Government, SSG and the Commissioner of Police; we even have to appoint a Special Assistant of Hausa and Fulani stock, who is helping us to manage the issues. All I will appeal is for patience among our various communities. We can only continue to engage with them that they do not go beyond what they are doing now.
Our kings have under kidnappers siege; are you providing security for them or not and what is the state of the Delta State Vigilante law?
The issue of kidnapping is not just an issue restricted to Delta State. In addition, with all kinds of people coming in now, there has been an investigation into the death of the royal father of Ubulu-Uku, it was a very unfortunate incident. Preliminary investigation shows that the kidnappers are not actually from Delta State, because all those arrested so far from the tracking are actually from the North.
There are obvious issues in that place, but they have released the second monarch that was kidnapped two days ago (Monday). We are doing our best and we will continue to do our best.
Unfortunately, Nigerians are beginning to see kidnapping as a means of livelihood and is springing up all over the country far beyond the South -South and far beyond the South East into the South West and the rest; and is very regrettable. We will continue to do the best we can.
On the Delta State Vigilante Law, as passed, there is an issue, we are studying that law because it is not functional and we do not want to have a law that is not functional. The Commissioner of Police has some reservations about certain aspects of the law. We are looking into that part, and, as soon as we sort out that part, which I have set up a committee to look into, we will do an amendment, make it functional state and then implement it as amended.
What is the state of the Asaba International Airport?
The Asaba Airport, I do not want to delve into issues of the past. I have talked about it, among other projects that we met and all of that. What we are doing now is to get the runway reconstructed in a manner that it will accommodate all sizes of aircraft.
I can only comment on what we have now, that contract is a little over N5 billion and that contract was awarded before I came in. It was awarded in May, last year, but we have also tested the figure and we know that the NCAA actually gave the consultant, who did the costing, to the Delta State Government and it falls within acceptable values.
Sometimes, you may not just compare our airports and the size of money we have spent to other airports. That airport, before now, the runway was about 60 meters wide; I am not aware of airports all over the country that are up to 60 meters wide, even all over the world.
So the initial problem was an over the construction and, in that process, we lost some value because the runway was not properly done. However, the runway is being reconstructed in such a manner that it puts it in a functional and dependable state.
Also, realize that the runway was 3.4km long and recognize that the site of the airport, I believe, was initially wrong and that has made it more expensive, because even to bring down the hills for clearer vision is also costing the government billions of naira. So if we had chosen a different site, we would not have gone through the level of expenditure that we are going through. So when you are comparing two levels of cost, I am not holding brief for the previous administration, it is like comparing a constructing a road in Asaba and a road in the creek, it is not going to be the same cost.
I was just asking somebody- a road through Ayakoromor with the bridges that would take us to Burutu, and he gave me an estimate of N34billion, but such road, if it was to be in the town here, with such length of road will not cost up to N5billion. This is because you would have to go into many bridges, many trees and then the soil nature is not also the same. So is not just doing an excavation of just a meter before constructing, in some places you have to do an excavation of up to five meters before constructing.
Therefore, you have to look at the relativity factor not just going to do an assessment. Nevertheless, what we are doing now is to mend the runway, which will also involve the fencing and a few minor works; so it is not mere reconstruction.
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