**We have all it takes to stop PDP

**Why I won’t probe Okowa

By Juliet Umeh

Deputy Senate President and All Progressives Congress, APC, Delta State Governorship Candidate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, in this interview spoke on why he wants to govern Delta, his chances, and plans for the state, if elected.

How has the campaign to be the next governor of Delta State been?

It has been exciting, and as tough as we envisaged. We knew we had a chance, we felt the sitting governor has not done well and we believe that bias and remorse have set in because PDP has been in charge of governance for 24 years and the last eight years have been disastrous.

This is not my own position, it is the position of most of the citizenry in the state and that is because they have been able to do comparative analysis with sister states that are similarly situated in terms of receipt, FAAC, derivation and other payments such as short falls in derivation like President Muhammadu Buhar did recently.

The total sum that accrued to Delta in the past seven and half years including loans, and reimbursements from the Federal Government is about N4.2 trillion.

Our people are very angry. If you look around them, you will not be able to see anything on ground that is commensurate with those returns.

Warri, which was originally conceived to serve as the economic nerve centre or hub of the state when the state was created, is in a state of decay.

Asaba was meant to be administrative capital while Warri was an economic nerve centre. Most of us grew up in this town. The Warri we grew up in is a far better Warri than what we have today. The place is in a state of decay. If you go to our stadium, it is in total rot and in fact, there’s even an allegation that most of the equipment in that stadium were carted away to refurbish the one at Asaba.

If you come in here, the roads are in total state of disrepair and companies have fled and we say oh, that’s because of insecurity here. Insecurity is a national challenge but in addition to insecurity, we all have cases of extortion by non-government actors, who also happen to be actors in government. When you have companies who are interested in doing business here and come to set up and hire our people being tolled every now and then by the powerful individuals from the government, they will run away to where the environment is more conducive for business.

Unpaid pensions, gratuities

The civil servants here, some of them have served this state for eight to 10 years with the clear understanding that with the deduction from their salaries while in service that at their retirement, not only will they be entitled to their gratuity but they will also be paid their pension as at when due.

As we speak, some of them, eight, nine and 10 years out of government, have not been paid anything. Some of them have died, and some are dying, they protest every day. They are bitter because they know that so much money has come to the state. Their bitterness is fueled by the fact that they now believe that we are not a poor state, and we have never been a poor state considering all the receipts. Most people believe that the money is being channeled to the presidential campaign as opposed to deploying the resources to the beneficial use of the people most especially the pensioners.

Hike in varsity tuition fees

We have students whose tuition and other fees have gone up. When Dr Emmaneul Uduaghan left office the tuition and other levies imposed by tertiary institutions in the state was N45,000 but today it is N275, 000 and to even make matters worse, the state is not paying the national minimum wage. We are a rich State, most of the states in the North whose receipts are not even up to a quarter of Delta’s are paying minimum wage.

You are not paying minimum wage, you are increasing tuition fees for their wards and you expect them to go raise money to make these payments. So there’s a lot of bitterness.

Bad roads

There’s always this argument, oh the bad roads that we have here are federal roads and therefore the responsibility and obligation are the Federal Government’s.

I was in Imo State about six months ago where my friend, the governor, had constructed a major road, dualised with street lights and invited the president to commission it.

From the governor’s remarks, he said ‘this is a federal road, but it is the people of Imo state who ply the road.’

We have situations in most states over federal roads because the attention of the Federal Government is stretched, so it behoves state government to use state resources and then seek for reimbursement and the Buhari government has been good at approving these refunds. Even this governor picked up some refunds for roads done by former Governor Uduaghan.

If you go round right now, we have three major roads- the one leading to Port Harcourt which is the East/West road; Warri to Benin; another one from PTI traversing Agbor to Asaba, all federal roads; another one through Ughelli, Kwale to Asaba, another federal road. And they claimed that they have been constructing these roads for the past 16 years.

Wike had been doing these things in less than 10-11 months and paying Julius Berger, and seeking reimbursement.

So in all of these, people are very bitter, they believe that they should not be suffering in the midst of plenty. It will be a different ball game if the resources are not there; the resources are there but are not judiciously used.

So, for that reason, our message has resonated well because they are able to follow the case that we are making that this government has indeed received so much but there’s nothing on ground that is commensurate with that receipt.

How has PDP been able to be in power for 24 years?

This is the first time PDP is holding an election in Delta State. Before, we didn’t have strong opposition. I have everything it takes to challenge this governor. Yes, they have more resources because they control the treasury but we are not poor by any means, we have enough resources to give them a run for their money. On the other hand, I was also in PDP years back, the tricks they will play on others, they can’t play that on me.

On recurring borrowings by the state government

On the issue of borrowing, we are tired of it

The governor is getting away because of the rubber stamp House of Assembly, a rubber stamp speaker, who is willing to do the governor’s bidding at all times.

What have we done to checkmate this?

We orchestrated some litigation in court in the past to try stopping the loans. Of course, we knew we failed on the issue of locus we would have been required to prove interest and damages beyond what others are suffering and we lost in court.

On this last one, we couldn’t take it anymore, and we had to give issue a caveat.

Now, there’s an issue whether as a deputy senate president, and governorship candidate, one has the right or legal authority to issue a caveat in law.

But you must not forget the real essence of the caveat. I am a major stakeholder, and we are saying that you cannot advance a loan of N40 billion to an administration that will be leaving in less than four months. What are you going to be doing with that?

You have received so much and I think the last time we checked it was about N435 billion and it’s not as if those loans are tied to specific projects. We just know that this is a plan to channel all these funds into his presidential campaign.

We have been able to bring this to the consciousness of our people.

If Fidelity bank goes ahead to release that money to a government that has less than four months to go, we intend to do something about that loan, it shouldn’t be approved.

Will you probe Okowa?

I have been asked that question many times and I said I will not. I have my reasons. All we are asking is ‘please, stop stealing our money.’ We believe that there are enough resources to develop the state, if the resources are properly managed.

Of course, we are not happy that the future of Delta even children unborn is already mortgaged. But be that as it may, we still believe that going forward, we don’t need to put people in jail but we don’t want them to still our money anymore

Why leave your comfort zone, to run for governor against the party that has been in power for 24 years. What gives you the impression that you are going to win the election?

This is Delta State, there’s this misconception out there that it is PDP state, but it is not. The reason PDP has been getting away with ‘victories’ is because they have not really been confronted by a coordinated and powerful opposition. They will face me now; we are not just a party but a national party. I have defeated them twice. I defeated them in 2015, they stole my mandate, I was able to recover it. In 2019, I shot them down. The state is ripe and ready for me.

There’s so much resentment against this government and whatever this government represents. We believe that if an election is held today, we will win everywhere in the state.

What is your selling point?

I am not the first Senator from the state but I am the first Senator that touched the lives of everyone, every community and village in our senatorial district. In the past, senators celebrate and commission three, four, five projects that they have done. I can’t even count my projects. I set out to lit up the entire senatorial district as you are seeing street lights, they all came from me and we have this in every village, community and town.

To further boost power supply, we have provided transformers everywhere. In addition to that, even though it is not our obligation, we are reconstructing and renovating schools, building new classroom blocks, doing drainage and shore protection, and providing potable water.

In fact, I have more projects in Delta Central as a Senator than the governor has done, not to talk about the Federal Polytechnic that I attracted here, fully equipped and fully constructed.

I also bought National War College, and my people are very happy with me.

Now, my people have seen me, they have seen what I have done as a senator. If I were to commission projects, it will take me up to two to three years because that would mean going to every community to cut the tape, I can’t do that.

My campaign is very well received across the three senatorial districts, not just my zone.

By zoning arrangement, my zone is going to produce the next governor therefore, all the parties have their candidates from here, which will virtually entail the vote here being split and letting the other zones make the final call. But what is on ground now is that no vote here is being split. If elections were to be held in Delta Central, I don’t see how we will get anything less than 85 to 90 percent.

As a candidate, I went into the creeks. I saw the life people are living there, they are not living, they are existing and these are the people who produce the bulk of the wealth of this country.

When I went in there, I was asking myself, imagine a woman in any of those communities goes into complicated labour, it will take about five hours to get to the nearest hospital in Warri. So by the time the woman gets to Warri, it’s either she’s gone or the pregnancy is gone.

How much does it take to put something respectful to take care of the basic health needs in that area?

Not too long ago, the governor established three universities in one day, putting one in his village, another in Asaba, he merely converted a Polytechnic to university.

Now, the Ijaws and Itsekiri who provide the bulk of the wealth of the state, none in my senatorial zone, none in my local government. And the speaker could not ask questions. And the local government where he comes from is the most backward in the state, no banks, no tertiary institution.

I condemn our Itsekiri and Ijaw leaders who are running after the governor.

My plans

So what I intend to do is to be equitable, just and fair to everyone, I take it that this is our common patrimony, no ethnic nationality must be short-changed or favoured to the detriment of others.

I intend to bring a bill as soon as I come on board to amend the University of Delta Act, which the government established to expand it, to address the educational needs of the Itsekiri ethnic nationality. We also intend to set up another campus in the University of Delta to address the educational concerns of the Ijaw people. It’s going to be a full-fledged university. So it’s going to have specialised campuses with one VC and Provost to be running the campuses. That will bring equity and this agitations will stop because these people feel that they are second class citizens even though they have been the one generating wealth.

And then look at Warri, we intend to go into massive urban renewal, clean up the city. We will be coming up with an integrated transport system that will do away with Keke and everything you see on the road. We have become the Keke capital of Nigeria and we are not happy about that

The healthcare sector needs to be revamped. We are going to set up a teaching hospital at Ozare and make it the best in West Africa.

Tackling unemployment

On the issue of unemployment, why do we have unemployment here? You can attribute it to insecurity. That is why most of the companies are running away, in addition to the issue of illegal levies.

By virtue of my position as deputy Senate President, I have had the privilege to sit down with security agencies and I know the kind of investment that is required in that sector, some states have invested in those security devices and they are reaping it right now.

It may be a lot of money but as a matter of priority, I will rather put in six to eight billion naira in acquisition of these security devices that will allow me to have a look at the entire state to see what is going on, who is coming in, and what you are doing to assist in addressing the security concerns.

I want to get back the bulk of these companies that left and when they come, they will create jobs for our people.

I have spoken with Bola Ahmed Tinubu whom I believe will be the next President. In the course of our interactions, we have raised issues, the revamping and reopening of these Ports for us here, most especially the Warri Port and Sapele Port.

He is giving us commitment because he is a stakeholder in the state, his wife is from here. It is a battle I have been fighting for years. He has agreed to help us and we will boom and that will create jobs for our people.