By Ikenna Asomba & Ediri Ejoh

The name Chief (Mrs.) Rita Lori-Ogbebor is synonymous with humanitarian works. The Igba of Warri (Irojowo) and Chairman/CEO, Rita Lori Hotels, in this interview, speaks on his life as an unrepentant protester against the ills of the society.

For sometime now, you have not been commenting on national issues, as you were some years back. What are your reasons?

In those days when I was younger, we used to protest for our children. We protested when there was strike in the education sector, we protested for our children to go to school. But those children we protested for to go to school are now the ones in various offices of leadership. They saw us when we were on the road protesting for them. But they got there now and have forgotten what we fought for. So are you still saying, as a grand mother and a great-grand mother now, I should still be on the road protesting? No, I have handed them over to God.

Governance is what we don’t have and that is what has brought us to this level. Governance is not politics. They are two different things entirely. Politics only helps you to get to where you can govern, but what you do with it when you are in elective position is governance. We lack good, selfless governance in this country today. Today, people like us are tired and frustrated. Recently, some persons came to me to ask why I have not been talking for some time and I replied, ‘what should I say now that I am old?’ I have been talking over the years and have led by good example with my contributions to a better Nigeria.

You witnessed the days of the founding fathers. What was Nigeria like then?

CHIEF RITA LORI-OGBEBOR

When we were younger, we prided ourselves as Nigerians before the international community. Like in the United Kingdom then, we had the Nigerian House. The Western Nigeria also had their liaison office where their children go to when they had problems. We also had the Eastern and Northern Nigeria House where the children from the eastern and northern extraction go to when they had problems. Is there anything like that today? No. If you have problems today in the UK as a Nigerian and you get killed, Nigeria is not going to take any action. That is the kind of government we have today, and it is a pity.

It is unfortunate that people like us worked so hard to ensure our children get the best of education; now, they are the ones at the helm of affairs, but are governing badly. Today, one who claims to be a doctor is not behaving like one, but behaving like a thug. The profession we have today is politics. Old ones like us don’t know what to do again, but just to keep quiet and watch.

The Federal Government just announced austerity measures. What is your take?

Since this announcement, the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been trying to defend government’s actions. I am sure she had wished she was defending the country truly and sincerely the way the country is. According to her statement, Nigeria will not crumble due to the falling oil price in the global market, because Nigeria had some money in reserves to cushion the austerity measures. What I was expecting her to say is that Nigeria will not have a free fall or the austerity measures would not sink the country because we have other resources outside crude oil.

In my younger days, during the days of Azikiwe, Awolowo, Sardauna of Sokoto, Tafawa Balewa, among others, there was no oil, but we faired better. Those structures that gave us stability and life are still existing today. Timber in the then Mid-west, which is today’s Edo and Delta, is still there. The trees still grow, as we cut them down. Unfortunately, with the advent of the regime of oil dependence; people no longer plant roots, everybody wants his share of the national oil cake.

The rubber trees have been left to grow and wither away. My father had one of the biggest rubber plantation inside the Niger Delta and you would be surprised, it is surrounded by swamp when you go there.

Also, taking a look at the amount of money we spend importing fishes, whereas our waters are still there and there are fishes in them, you will marvel. We have quite a good number of elephant schools of fisheries and yet we have not developed that sector. It is sad that we don’t invest in that sector. It is sad that the amount of money used in importing fishes is quite equivalent to our oil proceeds. If our seas are left to be ravaged by foreign vessels and then brought back to the country to be resold to us, it means we don’t have hope. I believe if that problem can be tackled, government would not be relying on the money in its reserves to cushion our problems. I don’t expect her (Okonjo-Iweala) to forget the cocoa seasons when Lagos used to be blocked. I remember when trailers moved cocoa from the West and the North to Apapa port. The outrageous gridlock witnessed in Apapa today, as a result of petroleum transportation, was peculiar to cocoa and groundnut, transportation back then.

I had wished she remembered these resources that are in this country. If that has been developed, we would not have been speaking about money in the reserves to sustain the country. Our ports today are congested and the Apapa port is the greatest commercial port in this country and yet we have nothing to show for that.

Also, if we had looked at these resources including our minerals, we would be confident even with the problem with crude oil. I had wished, government was able and confidently say that the resources are able to sustain the country. Specifically, I don’t think that speaking is what we need now, but affirming to ourselves the position we are today, while forging a way forward in these trying times.

The way out?

Good governance is the way out. Good governance can only be exercised by people who are selfless. How do you call a bricklayer to come and build a house, when he cannot differentiate between a six and nine inches block? If you are eager to build a house, your first port of call is an architect, then the second is to ask how it is done. But if you don’t have the money to build a house, you will be disinterested in discussions of building a house. So, the problem with Nigeria today is that those people leading are people who don’t have the interest of the people at heart. They don’t have the interest of the country at heart.

The politics they are playing is how to take the resources the country has and convert it to theirs. They believe when they get there, the permanent secretaries are there to teach them how to go about things. They believe the civil servants are there who will tell them what to do. The fact remains, if you don’t have the interest of the people and the country at heart, you cannot govern. Politics is different from governance. Ability to govern takes in everything. You must have the experience to deliver, the power of implementation must be there. All of us in this country, we talk a lot without the vision, interest and power of implementation.