Dr. Wilson Omene is a chieftain of the All Progressives Party (APC) in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State. He was at Asaba on Friday August 7, 2017 where the party stakeholders met and inaugurated the state caucus and various Committees membership that will steer the affairs of the party towards a congress in the future. Omene in this exclusive interview with The New Diplomat’s John Oghojafor, applauded the success of the inauguration, stating among other things, that the party is set to capture the government in 2019. Excerpts:
How would you describe your party’s inauguration of caucus and committees’ membership in Asaba last Friday?
First, let me talk about the attendance of the meeting yesterday. You were there yesterday; you saw the crème de la crème of the party membership present. The likes of the Vice chairman of the party for South South, Ntufam Hilliard Eta, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, the Minister for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu, Chief Frank Kokori, Mrs. Harriman, Chief Ideh, Mr. Ede Dafinone, my humble self and several other prominent leaders from across the state were all present. So, the turn-out was very impressive. It was not just the turn-out in terms of numbers but in terms of quality of personalities that were present. I was amazed because it was the very first time after a prolonged absence of things like this since the 2015 election. So, being the first time, and the fact that the party has been plagued with a lot of problems which was not unusual, it was decided recently that enough is enough, let’s come together, work together and try to really effect a change. I was very impressed about the turn-out.
Then coming to talk about the importance of the meeting, it was nothing but to position the APC in Delta State to take over governance in 2019. Let us even put aside the very basic interest of wanting to be in power and let’s talk about the state of affairs in Delta for so many years now. One could excuse the first administration in 1999 because it inherited a lot of teething problems when it came into power. I’m not holding brief for the administration of Chief James Ibori, but there were huge teething problems which it inherited. So, one could excuse some of the observed defects in that administration because he inherited massive problems whereby the Ijaws could not speak to the Itsekiri, the Itsekiri could not speak to the Urhobos, the Isoko were just on their own. It was only in the Anioma that there existed a relative peace but not totally peaceful because the Ndokwa didn’t want to know about the other parts of the Delta North. So, there was massive problem that James Ibori inherited but gradually, he was able to pull everybody together. So we felt that the unity that Ibori brought to bear on everybody was enough for any succeeding government to harness and build upon. But that was not to be. Instead, what we have witnessed is huge debt over-hang with nothing on ground to show for it. And all of these revolve around the party called the PDP.
We now say fine, the Uduaghan era is gone, we are back to the same PDP again. Two years is gone, the situation in Delta State is getting worse. Let me give you an example. Look at the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC). There is nothing to write home about that institution that is set up to compensate the areas where the golden egg is being laid. Absolutely nothing to write home about it in terms of payment of contractors who had worked, in terms of ongoing projects, in terms of payment of staff salaries and most especially in terms of impacting positively on communities that are adversely affected by the activities of oil exploration. And I say this is a shame. Now, you can see that the PDP government is a government of fraud. And we cannot have such things and say that all is well. People like us were in the PDP. And of course, people would remind me that as a member of the PDP it was during my time that all the mess happened. And I tell them very simply, if you know you cannot beat them, then join them to change things within. And if you know you cannot change things within, then it does not make sense to remain with them to ensure you fight your way to effect a change from outside of the party.
Are you saying while you were with the PDP you tried but could not effect change from within?
Yes, it was not possible to effect a change within. It got to the extent that I became a Local Government chairman where people would to tell you, look, this is what we use to do here and if you deviate you run into problem. I took the risk to run into such problems. And the problems were really there, and they gave it to me. I was fed with all kinds of antagonisms but I said to myself, if you must continue with your good works, then you must go to an environment that can allow you do it. And when APC came on board I said yes, I think this is the right time for me to move because I already have the experience on how PDP has been running their government in a very terrible manner and how that change can be effected. So, if peradventure, APC can now take over the governance in Delta State, for example, and which we are already working towards, people like us already know the weakness of the PDP, how corrupt they are and how inept they are. So, the APC is the only political platform in Delta State today that can be referred to as credible opposition. We must build on it to change the governance of the state because the PDP has no any new idea again.
Let me even give you one analysis. The governor that is there now (Gov. Okowa) was a Commissioner in the state for eight good years. Then he became a Secretary to the State government (SSG) for four good years, then a Senator for another full term and now, Governor. My question is: what did you see that was wrong from 1999 to 2007 and up to 2011 that you could not exploit your own idea to effect a positive change in governance? This is because, if you were a loyal party member and to the people of Delta State, you were expected to have come up with this your smart ideas you claim you have now as a governor. You were expected to have brought them up in the State Executive Council meetings to effect good change in the previous government. If you had brought up those ideas and they were not considered then you were expected to resign but you did not. Now, you come up with what you called SMART. What is SMART? You must engage yourself in projects that will guarantee sustainability of food, shelter, health and education.
You were in PDP until December 2015 when you crossed over to the APC. Two years down the line and with the speed at which the APC is going, are you convinced that the party would be able to muscle enough energy to overthrow the PDP and create the change you have been talking about in the state?
Let me tell you that I’m very happy that the APC is almost overcoming the PDP’s tactics of destroying the opposition. I can tell you that certain persons in the APC are agents of the PDP. They are the people planted there by the PDP. They are those who criticize everything but would not offer any solution. They are the people who will complain that there is no money yet they cannot bring their own money to work for the party’s progress. However, there are a good number of members of the APC who, having fed up with the PDP’s style, left the party to join the APC. These ones know the tricks of the PDP and are gradually weakening its influence in the APC. So, the PDP is not having its way anymore. I give you one instance, the recently-concluded Warri South Constituency I House of Assembly bye-election. Prior to that election what we are used to was PDP scoring 50,000 or more votes. But how come they could not rig their way through in that bye-election and repeat those frivolous so-called ‘Sokoto’ votes? They scored slightly above 4,000 while APC scored above 2,000 votes. Before now, the PDP will allocate some few votes for the opposition after they had rigged their way through. But you could see what happened when the APC matched them in that bye-election. This was because some of those in the APC now have got the experience on how the PDP manipulates elections and had blocked some of their channels of rigging elections.
The APC is seen by many in the state as a sleeping party because it does not offer very critical opposition to the ruling party. For instance, for upward of two years, DESOPADEC has not executed one single project due to lack of fund. Yet, the government collects 13% derivation fund every month. Why is the APC not questioning the Okowa-led government to account for DESOPADEC fund?
Let me first of all agree with you that APC has been sleeping. I’d also acknowledge that it has not been easy for opposition to thrive in Delta State in view of the desperation of the PDP. As for DESOPADEC, someone told me that the problem has to do with the huge debt inherited by Okowa which are being deducted from the state allocation at source every month. My answer to that is that even if he gets zero allocation so what? He cannot convert the share of the 13% derivation fund which statutorily belongs to the oil bearing communities to settle debt incurred by the government on behalf of the entire state. This is not by way of administrative funding, rather it is statutory funding to DESOPADEC. So, if due to the financial rascality of Okowa’s government and previous regimes, you have plunged the state into huge debt, that is not the business of the oil-bearing communities and DESOPADEC funds. If, after setting aside the 50% of the 13% of the monthly derivation fund for DESOPADEC, there is nothing left for the government to pay salary, the governor has no legal authority to encroach into the Commission’s share of the derivation fund.
Let me tell you, we are already preparing and putting documents together to take this administration to court. Let them explain to Deltans how much they have received as 13% derivation fund so far from 2015 till date and how much of the 50% of that amount has so far been released to DESOPADEC.
The APC recently held a meeting of stakeholders and leaders at Asaba. What was the import of that meeting? Was the purpose achieved?
The purpose of that meeting was to forge a strong unity among the members of the party for the task ahead of us. The aim was to prepare a strong basis to ensure that we remove a very dirty government from running the affairs of Delta State. They might feel jittery or uncomfortable by what took place in APC recently, but that is their business. The APC is not after those who are in government presently. What we are after is how we can better the lives of the common Deltans, how good schools could be built, how we can deliver on health care to the people, how we can put food on the peoples table, how we can provide affordable transportation, etc. So, the purpose of that meeting was to galvanize and unite the APC structure in the state and you can testify that the meeting was a huge success with the calibre of personalities in attendance.
You could see that mortality rate has increased in Delta State due to poor attention to health care delivery by the government. What about education? Most if not all public schools in the state have become ‘miracle centres’ where they perpetrate examination malpractice and students come out with beautiful results which they cannot defend. There are instances of students with such brilliant results, 8As, 9As, who have rejected scholarships to further their education. They tell you, instead of scholarship, find me a job to do. I have experienced this situation many times until one confessed to me that if he is given scholarship to study further he may not be able to perform well academically. He confessed he got the result from a miracle centre.
Mrs. Veronica Ogbuagu came in at a time and tried to correct the situation but she became an enemy of the PDP. Where is Mrs. Ogbuagu today with those beautiful legacies that she tried to establish? She has been frustrated out of the PDP. Delta State used to be the very best as far as education is concerned. Others still feel we are doing very well in education, but unknown to them ‘miracle results’ or ‘miracle education’ has taken over Delta State. And these are the reasons why we have increasing cases of kidnapping, robbery, yahoo plus, 419, etc. They cannot use the results they have to go further. Those who managed to get into the Universities with those results come out half-baked. I asked a graduate of economics from a state university to differentiate between micro-economics and macro-economics. He said micro-economics is the smallest part of economics while macro-economics is largest part of economics – that was the answer one of them, a graduate of economics gave to me. So, these are the problems that PDP has created and are affecting our people.
Deltans are known to be very industrious and very intelligent. Why can’t our leaders put in place enduring structures that will guarantee good education, good health care delivery, good transportation network, a sound science and technologically-based economy, economy that will not be solely dependent on oil and good agricultural base to ensure adequate food for our people?
The immediate past administration came up with the idea of Delta Beyond Oil but it did not go beyond mere rhetoric. Unfortunately, the House of Assembly seems not to be living to its billing. And APC wants to change all of these. This was the message we tried to send out at the stakeholders and leaders meeting at Asaba recently.
Talking about capturing the state in 2019, some persons believe that the APC lacks financial wherewithal to match the PDP during election, especially against the background of how voters are swayed to cast their votes on the basis of catch and carry? What is your take on that?
Let me state this. It is only a mad man or somebody who is really blind that will not know that he is in a deep mess as a citizen of Delta State. Even if you are a very rich man, you are in a deep mess because people who know nothing are governing you and causing problems for the citizens of the state. A state that is so endowed cannot boast of one single industry that is generating employment for our teeming unemployed graduates. If it is a matter of expertise, we have thousands of Deltans who are professionals in various fields of endeavour making waves abroad who could be attracted home to turn our economy around for the better. So, if we cannot realize that PDP government in the state has plunged us into this abyss of economic disenfranchisement, then we are in trouble. Why do we really need money to vote this kind of government out? Why should Deltans want me to give them money to vote out this devil that has bedeviled them for over 18 years? Just a government of an individual and his cohorts and nobody cares? Are we so docile? So, we should not even be talking about money before this government that is known for its notoriety is shown the way out.
In Delta State we need state of emergency in the health sector, state of emergency on education, on food and transportation. So, what is left? Where local government workers have not received their salaries for upward of 14 months for job done; where primary school teachers continue to do their job even when they are being owed six months salaries and the governor can boldly say it is not his responsibility. It is very sad! I want to ask the governor, if the 25 local government areas of the state are removed from his schedule who then is he a governor to? Does he have a territory where he could claim he is a governor minus the 25 local government areas? Or is it the reason why he created the Capital City Development Authority? So, we shouldn’t ask for money to win the election and remove the government in 2019.
