BY DAPO AKINREFON

MR.KEMELA Okara, is aspiring to become the governor of Bayelsa State come 2012. He is contesting on platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.  Okara studied law at the Middlesex University, London after which he was called to the Bar of England and Wales at the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn in 1989. He was admitted as a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the same year. In this interview, he explains why he is gunning for the plum job and how he intends to bring about positive transformation to Bayelsa. Excerpts:

YOUR aspiration is on the platform of the ACN. Why?

I looked at the political terrain in my state and I was convinced that the party in my heart that seems progressive in terms  of its orientation and doing things that would actually lead to the betterment of the people is ACN. So, I took that decision even though I am from the state that has had 12 years of unbroken rule by PDP. If we work together on a progressive platform we can actually change the place.

What gives you the confidence that you can govern Bayelsa State?

Coming from a private sector, I know what it takes to run and manage a business. Looking at Bayelsa State, in this year alone the state has received over N1.3trillion from Federal Allocation. If you put that side by side you would know that we are talking about the smallest state in the federation with a population of 1.7million people.

When you put this side by side and look at level of development in the state you will see that there are a lot of problems in the state. Only 43 per cent of Bayelsans actually finished secondary school. When you look at the amnesty programmes, you will know that majority of those who are undergoing training under the amnesty programmes are from Bayelsa State, the smallest state in the country.

Okara

Why? Because many of them, who don’t have access to gainful employment ended up reacting to the society. Militancy is reaction to some of it, because you feel there is no hope and opportunity for you, so you go to the extreme to react in order to get the attention of the society. What I am trying to paint is that we have a state that has plenty in the midst of poverty.

Are you ready to step down for another aspirant if you are not chosen?

I am not going to step down for anybody because I didn’t go into politics to step down. I don’t believe in politics of step down because it is an aberration in Nigerian politics. The risk in stepping down is that you risk getting across to people you have been talking to as though that was your agenda from the beginning.

You run what I call credibility risk. Nigerians many times have been disappointed by people who come to make many promises and later for one reason or the other change their mind. I am very mindful of that and very sensitive of the need not to appear as if stepping down for a candidate was my agenda from the beginning. I am not in this race to step down for anybody.

If anybody wants to run on the platform of the ACN let them subject themselves to the party process. If they win, I will be the first person to doff my hat.

I am not going to step down because stepping down is not the best approach. The best approach is to go through the primary and to lose gallantly. Whatever we may say of the PDP, one thing I admire of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is that he went back to the party and subjected himself to the party presidential primary without stepping down. It is better to lose gallantly than stepping down.

What are programmes for Bayelsa State?

I have five major areas which I want to focus on. They are education, employment and creating a lot of self-employed people, health care, environment and infrastructure.

How would you handle the issue of youth restiveness if you become governor?

There are many things that cause youth restiveness and one of them is poor education because if somebody is not properly educated he cannot get a gainful employment. The second thing is to ensure that we create an enabling economic environment. One of the things we are going to do is to ensure that in each local government area of the state we set up a micro finance bank that is unique to that local government.

We would provide capital and the micro finance target is women and young people who would want to go through entrepreneur class because we know that the economic engine of any country is in the small and medium scale sector, not in the big industries.

The micro finance bank would ensure that in each local government area we are looking at businesses we can support. I believe that when some people see that some people are succeeding because we are training them and we are providing capitals for them there would be an orientation among the youths for them to also succeed in life.