Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South
IT came as a surprise to this reporter, who was sightseeing at Asaba, Delta State capital, penultimate Saturday, January 2, 2012, when he saw workers at the office of the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Delta State, Comrade Ovuozourie Macaulay.

As the Christmas and New Year celebrations were still on and it was Saturday, a non-working day, his curiosity was aroused as all the government offices he passed earlier that day were under lock and key.

The reporter introduced himself to the cops around and luckily, Macaulay, a one –time chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, and Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in the state picked his call. “Hello Emma, are you saying you are here? Come up please if you are here. , I am in the office.”

The encounter was revealing but quite striking is the relationship the SSG has with his eight-year-old last child. Hear him, “You see, when she wakes up in the morning, no matter what happens, she must come and knock on my door and must pray with me before she goes to school. She does not miss it. It is like a bond we have.”

The SSG also speaks on how his life as a rubber tapper, days as hawker of akara (beans cake) and onions seller and lots more. Excerpt:

You work on Saturday evenings! Do you really have time for yourself?

The job of a Secretary to the State Government, SSG, is not a tea party. If you decide to find time for your siesta on a daily basis, then, the job will suffer. Today is Saturday, as you observed. But this is my second session in the office. I came in first today at 10.00 am in the morning.

I worked till past 2.00 pm attending to issues of state, holding meetings and consultations. Then, I went home to have lunch and I am back to office now, and when I go is only determined by when I feel I have done enough to keep the state safe.

So the issue of whether I have time for myself is out of it. What I am thinking of now is how much time I have for this job. It is a job that will last for four years by the will of God and the principal, who put me here being satisfied with my conduct. It is not life-time thing.

How was it growing up?
I have never hidden the fact that I come from a very poor background, but it is a disciplined home. In growing up, I have done what most people did not do or would not do, I lost my father before I was 12 years. I am the first son of my family – a family of five and I have the responsibility to stand by my mother to get basic education and educate my younger ones.

In the course of my growing up, I have had the cause to tap rubber. I had cause to sell rubber. I have cause to hawk akara. I sold onions at Ughelli market. I used to go the market to help my mother to sell onions and it was one of our means of livelihood.

I have been interested in farming because my grandfather was a great farmer and I am still farming till date. I am one person in this state, if not the single highest farm holder, I think I should say third. I produce my own palm oil. I rear pigs. I have poultry. I produce turkey. Well that is now, but in growing up, indiscipline is not part of my upbringing, but I legitimately worked hard to earn a living.

I remember in those days of Burutu market in Warri, I was one of those who used to buy strong drinks from Okumagba Layout and go and sell at Essi Layout. And when the Warri port was in full swing, I was one of those who also went there to buy things, sneak into town and sell. The only setback I had was that I did not get my university education at the time most of my mates got theirs. I got my education in piecemeal but today, I am a proud holder of a master’s degree that I can defend anywhere, any day.

What is the turning point in your life?

The turning point in my life I will say was my involvement in activism and I went into that because I did not want people to go through what I had gone through. I was one vocal voice in place of work in the then Bendel Television, Benin City, where I established the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, chapel. I was one person who used to confront management.

Today, people will tell you that anywhere I have worked as Commissioner, I never allowed my workers to share a bag of rice and this is because it is one of the things that caused my promotion for seven years in the then Bendel Television because I challenged management why my general manager, he is late now, would cart away 10 bags of rice, and make four people share one bag of rice.

As I said, that wasn’t fair and I fought it. So today, I don’t go back on it. If I can go home with two bags of rice, my cleaner in the office should go home with a bag of rice.

He or she even deserves it more than me. So I will say my going into unionism also helped a lot in my life because the more I became deeper in it, the more I saw the oppression of the ordinary people and the more determined I was in fighting this oppression.

Finally, maybe, as I used to tell people, I did not leave the civil service after my 20 years as a broadcast journalist just because I wanted to leave the service. Far from it.
I left because I felt it was a point I no longer had challenges in the field of broadcast journalism and most of the norms they taught as journalists were no longer being practised and I didn’t want to be involved in commercial journalism.

Sorry to say it, but that is what informed my voluntary retirement. And when I retired, I started a private practice. My office was at 105 Nnebisi Road, Asaba. But three months after, the former governor of the state, Chief James Ibori invited me to be part of governance and I carried the same spirit into governance. Most of you will testify that I did not come into the government wearing tie and suit.

I came into government to resolve the seven-year-old Warri ethnic crisis, that was the challenge I was given.

The crisis was seven years old. When I was appointed in November, 2003, I took up the challenge and by the grace of God, from the cooperation I got from the then governor, then SSG, who is now the governor, I did not only arrest the crisis, I brought peace to Warri. I brought night life back to Warri and today, internal revenue we generate in this state is largely because peace returned to Warri.

When I was appointed, Shell and Chevron were not at work in the state. But I did everything to make them resume operations. For three years, I never wore suit. I was with the boys in the ghettos and I only came to Asaba when there was Executive Council meetings.

I resettled the youths who were used for the Warri crisis and I can say this was really a turning point because from my poverty life, I went into broadcast journalism, lived the life of an activist, retired 20 years after on my own volition, and a young man invited me, saying, Macaulay, please go and help resolve Warri crisis. That was the word Ibori gave me and I went to work.

Power rotation

While there, we started the fight for the minorities to have a share of Government House on the grounds that power must rotate. Our belief was that every Deltan must be given a sense of belonging; Government House belongs to all us and that struggle yielded result and that is what we are seeing today. There is never end to struggles.
I want to use the word, hang out, and I suppose you know what I mean, but question is: do you hang out at all?

I don’t hang out, naturally, I am not a very social person…