By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South

FORMER Chairman of Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, Rev Sam Ken, has said the former governor of the state, Chief James Ibori, who was recently released from London Prison, United Kingdom, for money laundering, transformed many lives in the state and he would dance uncovered like the Biblical David to celebrate him.

Rev Ken, still bed-ridden after a life threatening automobile accident in 2014 on his way to the House of Representatives, Abuja, for an engagement on the 2011 Bonga Oil Spill, said in an encounter with Saturday Vanguard:  “As for Ibori’s release, if not for my present condition, I would have done more than what a renowned politician in this state, said he planned to do. I will dance naked in the market place if God had allowed me to be physically fit now.”

•Rev Sam Ken

“I would have danced with my head on the floor and my legs in the air, concerning the release of a titan, because the man is a colossus, a rare breed. Leaders have come and gone. In my 56 years around Nigeria’s political history, I have not seen a man apart from Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who has built the lives of people the way Ibori has done,” he continued.

His words: “Surely, every politician in Delta State is a product of Ibori’s humane leadership. Virtually all of them were nobody, I say this without apology, but, today, they are all men who are standing on their two feet and can be counted anytime in this state; both financially and otherwise. I am not aware of any other ruler that has built the lives of people; Ibori has built the present core of leaders in this state.”

Rev Ken added: “Beyond that, his foray into development takes a man with very strange visionary endowment to establish the numbers of polytechnics that he established. It looks conical at inception, but today, they are all operating well and has helped reduced the frustration of Deltans in their pursuit for tertiary education.”

“Look at the world class medical facility, I mean the University Teaching Hospital at Oghara, but go beyond that, look at the impossible things that he did. There are two tribes in this state that the federal government described as difficult terrain, Ijaw and Itsekiri. By their natural positioning, communication within these geographical locations was practically impossible, except through marine means, which are expensive and time consuming. But Ibori came and did what former President Olusegun Obasanjo refused to do. He built bridges that no Federal Government had ever agreed to do.

“Their usual refrain is ‘it is a difficult terrain’ to develop, but Ibori built Patani Bridge that makes it possible to connect other communities up to Bayelsa state. He built Omadino Bridge that opened another opportunity, Ibori has really tried in all ways and he should be praised and given befitting welcome,” he said.

If he would dance naked to celebrate Ibori jailed for corruption, how does he see the anti-corruption fight of President Muhammadu Buhari? Rev Ken exploded:  “When we talk about corruption on a general note, sadly, I have not seen any fight against corruption; I am only seeing some dramatization of a pre-conceived mindset. And, that is just to embarrass a few people and put fear in the minds of a great number of people, particularly the opposition.”

No war against corruption yet

“Why do I say this, what President Buhari has done so far cannot by any standard be regarded as a fight against corruption? I have been in government and when I was chairman of Warri South-West Local Government, initially I went in with the decision which I can describe as a ‘parroting’.

“And I carried out my anti-corruption war without attacking anybody. All I did was to stop corruption. Yesterday is gone and today is here. I did not go in there with the mind of fighting anybody and monthly allocation came in two days before we were sworn in. Shallow- minded people would want to know how the allocation is being spent, but they forgot that it was not my personal allocation, but allocation of the people. So, why will I be so anxious about allocation? I was waiting for the allocation of my tenure, but like I said, I amended those things that will facilitate corruption and to ensure that corruption did not take place any more. And, that was how I was able to fight corruption during my tenure.

“It is not a matter of becoming a threat to everybody and, picking up a few people and making life unbearable for them, their families and their relations, with the intention of creating an impression as if there is a war on corruption. There is no war on corruption. If you watch, everything is still the same till date. I know how corruption is executed, so, I have tried to look at local, state and federal to see those means in which corruption is carried out; how it has been addressed or talked.

In fact, nothing like that has happened; all we had was a media blitz, with very minute action directed at a few of the immediate past actors. Also, with unnecessary picking up of anybody who was in government that criticizes the present administration,” he said.

Rev Ken stated: “So, the corruption war as far as I am concerned is selective, theatrical and deceptive. Its selectiveness is appalling because, it is directed at the former administration.

The present government is composed of very corrupt individuals. If Buhari is who we though he was, there are so many people in his administration that would not have gotten near the corridors of power, but the Ali Babas of yesterday are the one running the show now and then, you say you are pursuing corrupt people.”

“And it is the same corrupt people that are running the government. So, what kind of drama are we being forced to watch, even at a great cost because Nigerian are suffering. Sadly, these individuals, including the president seems not to know how to run government because virtually all the actions they have taken to manage the economy have given negative result that we are now at a quagmire and it is indeed regrettable.

“If this is a kind of change that we are clamoring for then we need to re-examine that so-called change whether we are going the right way,” he enthused.

 Nigeria ruled by last eleven

On the N7.2 trillion Budget proposals for 2017, he quipped:  “Well, President Buhari has presented a budget of N7.2 trillion and the details we have seen. First, the money of financing the budget is not even there. In fact, it is laughable on how a man plan to live his life and he came up with a grandeur programme when he does not even have the money to back it up. So, on that front alone, the budget is a failure. I read economics, Nigeria would not have been a pauper nation if not that we are always led by the last eleven.”

“And, what do I mean by last eleven? You know in sports, there is a first eleven, and second eleven and we can continue the degradation like that until we get to the last eleven. Nigeria unfortunately happens to be run not by the first or second sadly, the country is always run by the last eleven. Whereas, God has been so kind to us and blessed us with a lot of natural resources that we should be one of the greatest nation on the face of the earth. We do not need a kobo from anybody if this country is run properly.

“Bring the Americans to run this country and, they will rule the world. Bring the French, the Germans, the Briton to run this country and they will rule the world. Because these countries that run the affairs of the world are not as endowed as Nigeria,  neither in human or natural resources because it has been provided that most of the best brains that run facilities in institutions in the United States are Nigerians. So, we have a very high cerebral endowment. There is no state in this country out of the thirty-six, and the federal capital territory, that does not have at least one natural mineral resource that can be exploited to make enough finances to run that state,” he asserted.

Budget of pains

The former council boss said: “So, for us to talk about borrowing money, either locally or to foreign to run our budget in 2017 it shows how wacko our leaders are. It is not a budget that is going to bring any change or, it may bring change to increase the pains of Nigerians.”

“The Bible says he who go a borrowing, goes a sorrowing. So, if God can say that the man that borrows will face sorrows, then where lays our hope that there is a budget for 2017 that will change the fortune of this country. The hope is not there at all,” he added.