By Festus Ahon

MR. Abel Oshevire was a member of the Delta State House of Assembly and represented Ughelli North constituency II in the last Assembly. He also served in the administration of Chief James Onanefe Ibori (1999 – 2007) as Senior Special Assistant (Media) to the then Governor. In this interview, he spoke on some national and state issues of interest. Excerpts:

You failed to return to the House after obtaining the ticket of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN despite having first served on the platform of the PDP. Are you still in the ACN?

No, I am no more in the ACN. I went into the House of Assembly on the platform of the PDP. Some circumstances compelled me to leave the PDP to contest on the platform of the ACN. My time in the ACN, as I would always confess, was great. It is an experience I will cherish for a long time. I sincerely believe that my going to the ACN at the time I did was for a purpose and I think that purpose was achieved by the grace of God.

What is your reaction to the PDP’s victory in the Bayelsa gubernatorial election?
It was expected; it couldn’t have been otherwise. The truth is that in the entire South South States, PDP is in firm control. What caused the loss of PDP in Edo was the squabbling and infighting within the leadership of the party. The south south states are 100% PDP. Therefore, what happened in Bayelsa, apart from being a south south state, it is the home of the President. The President didn’t even need to go and campaign in Bayelsa. I think what he did by coming home was just to show how much he loved his people.

If the president had stayed back in Abuja and sent message to his people, they would still have come out enmasse to vote for the PDP. So like I said, it was only natural, and if it had been otherwise, that would have been a monumental catastrophe. I firmly believe that in most of the re-run elections, PDP will sweep the polls.

Uduaghan

In the entire East, PDP still remains the party to beat. In fact, in the six geopolitical zones, the west inclusive, PDP is the party that has the structure and experienced hands to win elections.

Having said that, I want to appeal to His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Henry Dickson to take the president’s admonition seriously. He should be in a hurry to deliver the dividends of democracy to Bayelsans. The people are hungry to see development in their state, which was why they rejected the former governor and settled for him.

What is your own assessment of Uduaghan’s administration, vis a vis his palliative measures following the partial removal of fuel subsidy?

First of all on the issue of the palliatives he has put in place, I think it is a good idea because transportation is core to our daily activities. So I think it is a very wise decision for the governor to immediately buy many buses to complement the ones already on ground. If you look at it properly, his government has invested so much on the area of transportation generally.

If we are to take stock of the number of buses the state government has bought within the Uduaghan period, I think they run into several hundreds. Virtually every second, somebody somewhere in any part of the state sees a Delta City bus or car on the road.

The governor should be highly commended for this. My only advice is that he should task his officials to monitor and ensure that the vehicles are put into maximum use so that the people can get the desired benefit. Given this high number of buses plying all the nook and cranny of the state, transport fares should be considerably reduced, particularly as the Governor has directed the state transport company not to increase fares.

Then on general infrastructural development, I will also say the governor is doing his best. There are some projects that he has embarked upon and which are very costly. Look at the Ughelli/Asaba road dualization, that is a huge project. Some people are saying there is no need for that road now; but for me, we should be looking ahead. We should not limit ourselves to just today.

There are complaints by people about standards of jobs generally. For me, the head of the government is not God. He cannot be everywhere at the same time. That is why he has people working with him. These people should be patriotic and dedicated and do their work conscientiously so that government projects and jobs are properly executed. Shoddy jobs are caused by lack of proper monitoring and supervision, or sometimes, connivance between government officials and contractors.

In a nutshell, I will say Governor Uduaghan is doing very well. But he should not relent; he should continue to strive and pray for God to give him the strength and wisdom to achieve the goals that he has set for himself and the state.