Ochereome Nnanna
17 August 2008
interview
On Wednesday, August 6th 2008, the grounds of the Government House in Umuahia were under invasion of sorts. Solidarity contingents from parts of Abia State virtually crippled government activities. "This is what we see everyday since the attempt on governor's life" said a top government official, "but this is democracy and you cannot tell people who have come to sympathise with you to stop coming". The bitter and long drawn electoral battle for the Government House of Abia State has taken a heavy toll. Theodore Ahamefula Orji, a medical doctor, retired civil servant and former electoral officer, speaks on this and other burning national issues in this encounter. Please read on.
WHY do you think anyone would like to target you for possible elimination? What does it mean to you? Have you ever passed through that kind of experience before? Perhaps during the civil war?
Well, Nnanna, it is not difficult to find out why. I was targeted out of jealousy because of my popularity. What other explanation can there be? They wanted to eliminate me for revenge. You know, this is Nigeria. Nigeria is not yet used to refined politics that is played outside this continent. We are still playing politics with bitterness. You know how and where it all started, even before the election.
Then the election took place and I won and we went to the tribunal. The opposition knows that we are popular and we are performing. We are surpassing them in all areas in terms of positive things. That is why they decided to do away with me but fortunately for me and unfortunately for them it did not work out. I have been wondering aloud at the opposition: if you kill me are you going to occupy this position? They will not. And they cannot because God is guiding us. The whole world saw how cruelly and wickedly they shot at my official car.
They expended all their bullets on that car, except that the car is bullet-proof. They could have killed my driver. They pulled out my driver and drove away with the car. Having found that I was not in the car, they now abandoned it and we took it back. I have never seen where armed robbers attack a governor's convoy. Are you attacking a governor's convoy, is it a bullion van which carries a lot of money? You will not see anybody in a governor's convoy except armed security forces. Since they were not looking for money they were looking for a human being and they were emboldened by the sophisticated arms they were given for the job.
What have the police done so far? They were heard saying that they have apprehended the culprits. Are you satisfied with steps they have taken so far?
The police are still doing their intensive investigation to make sure that they bring the perpetrators and their sponsors to book. They have been here to interview me. And they are interviewing a lot of people. From the outcome of the interviews they will know what to do. They will come out with reports as to whether what we are claiming and believing to be correct, which is that the governor was the target of that attack, is correct. It is not only the police but also the SSS and other security agencies are all working on it.
I had written to the Inspector General of Police, Director General of the SSS, National Security Adviser and the President. They are all working and we have faith in what they are doing.
What happened to you is a symptom of the security situation in Abia State and the nation at large. As the Chief Security Officer of the state, don't you agree that the state of security in this state is below expectation?
The security situation right now is not what it is supposed to be. The security situation here should be calm and under control. You see, criminals are devising so many new ways of going about their nefarious activities. Before now, there was nothing like kidnapping. You could talk about armed robbery, but now we have this thing called kidnapping.
Innovation in criminality
Gunmen will come and take the relations of big people in society and government officials as hostages and demand huge ransom. When you pay them they release the person. That is an innovation in criminality not only in Abia State but also in the whole nation. It is one of the fallouts of the crisis in the Niger Delta. What we are doing now is to face it squarely. We are facing it, and we are making tremendous progress...
Can you tell us what you have done?
Thank you. First and foremost, you know we have this joint military and police patrol. It is patrolling the whole state to face this situation. The state government has helped that patrol team by making available vehicles, communication gadgets, finance and any other thing that is possible within the competence of the state government, we have made them available to the teams, and they having been doing their best.
We have given the police, the army, the navy and SSS up to fifty patrol vehicles. Also we have carried out sensitisation programmes among the traditional rulers and ndi eze and among the youths in the villages that this crime must be fought, and that people have a duty in helping government to fight the crime. We also announced that if you give information that will lead to the apprehension of these criminals, that we shall give you a reward of one million naira. People have been coming forward with information that has been helping us.
You know what sells so much is bad news. When these criminals make a catch it makes all the news. But when we catch twenty or thirty of them and take them to court it is no news because that is what people expect of us to do as our duty, except if you take them to Abuja and show them on television. We also have a vigilante outfit approved by a law of the state House of Assembly.
These are young boys who are eager to serve the nation by providing security. They are working under the police. They go, get information, catch these criminals and hand them over to the law enforcement agencies. Where the police cannot reach they will reach. These are the ones I can say here now. The rest are strictly security matters which we don't have to expose.
This attack may be an offshoot of the delays in the election tribunal process. Don't you think it is taking too long to bring this matter to a close finally?
I think the reason this delay is taking place is that they want to do a thorough job. They have to do a job that will stand the test of time. I don't think they are deliberately delaying. To what end? I would have been happier if they were faster because it will mean that those who lost will go and prepare again while those won will have all the attention they need to face the work they have been mandated to do.
But I want everybody to join me and let us be patient and allow them to do a thorough job. You don't have to lose your patience and begin killing your opponent because eliminating me will not force the Honourbale Justices to award a verdict to you if you do not deserve it. It will not in any way pave the way for you to mount the seat of governor because the winning party must complete its term of office.
I am sure this delay is distracting you.
I have to admit to you that this thing causes unnecessary distraction. Any governor who has a case in the tribunal who wants to be sincere with you will tell you that this is an unnecessary distraction. I am a human being. When I remember it I feel it. But I know that God will bring the truth to the surface eventually. Those of us who have implicit confidence in God, and those who believe that our mandate is divine, the distraction is secondary. It has not made me to lose focus. The problem I have here is lack of funds.
If I had the funds that my colleagues in the other oil producing states have I will perform maximally. There are not enough funds for me to do what I have in mind to do.
As oil producing state one expects that with oil boom, excess crude accruals and Nigeria's exit from the debt of the Paris Club, you will not be complaining so bitterly about lack of funds?
Why I complain so much when I see you men of the media is that I want you to go and investigate and find out whether I am shouting wolf for nothing. The opposition says I have all the funds in the world, but here I am telling you that I am financially constrained, and you know the sources of our common revenue. Go and find out for yourself. You are correct to say that as an oil producing state I am supposed to be better than those who do not produce oil. Our debt profile is so high.
We are the highest debtors in Nigeria among the 36 states, and over ninety per cent of the debt was incurred when we were still part of old Imo State. Since 1999 we have been paying heavily. What is supposed to come to me for development I deploy it to debt servicing. If not for that debt I will be getting my real due, and I will not be complaining like this. I will not be complaining. The people elected me to perform, to build roads, hospitals, schools.
To give them the dividends of democracy. And if the money is not there they have elected me to go and find the money. Now, there were some oil wells that were recovered and given back to Abia State some time last year. A total of over 46 oil wells. Since that time we have not been paid one kobo for it. We are being crushed by our debt burden. So when you see excess crude oil money coming, other states smile home but I return to Umuahia empty handed because our share has been deducted at source to service our debt.
Judging performance
I cry home with nothing most of the time. If you want to judge my performance in Abia State, please judge pari-passu with what I receive. And not judging me with those people who get big money. You go to their states and see what they are doing and come here to see that it is not at the same level and then begin to judge me. No. Judge me based on what has come to me. And when you do that you will see that I have performed more than what I have been receiving. I promoted all workers to the next grade level.
I promoted every person working for Abia State, including teachers, and I paid the fifteen per cent salary increase. And I have been paying as and when due. The roads in Aba were bad. I have been renovating and building new ones. I have two big towns - Aba and Umuahia. If I had only one town like most states in the federation I will concentrate there. If you don't do Aba they will shout. If you don't do Umuahia they will shout. And the villages are there crying. Yet the funds to meet all the needs of everyone are simply not there.
You just mentioned in passing teachers. They just recently suspended their strike. Do you think by the time it is fully resolved and your teachers come to you for implementation, you can cope?
The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) made their agitation to the federal government. And the federal government took a stand on that issue. Then the governors' forum intervened and the problem has been shifted to the states. Obviously you know, states have to cut their coats according to their cloths. You have to bite off as you can chew. Any state that feels it is up to the financial implications of the salary increase is perfectly in order because that is worth doing. If I had the money and teachers demand so-so and-so, I will pay. But the mistake a state will make is to accept a salary structure that it cannot pay.
You will be in trouble because the time when you are unable to pay the teachers will show you. So, it is better, from the onset you make your stand very well known. On our own end, we have set up a committee to start discussion with them. We love our teachers. As I told you, we promoted all our workers and started paying them 15 percent salary increase. There is no better way to demonstrate your love for your workers than that. If you want to be at peace with your workers, pay them their salaries and allowances, and all is well. When the discussion is complete we will see what is involved and know how far the state government can go in carrying the additional burden.
I want you to define for me the outline of your educational agenda. Are you having free education at all levels in Abia State?
I have a policy which we are sustaining, which is tuition-free, compulsory education at primary and secondary levels. University is not free. But what we do is to give subvention to the universities so that things will be easier on our students. We give scholarships, loans and bursaries and we assist tertiary level students in many ways.
What about the youth who abandoned their educational pursuits and are in the markets? Any consideration for their continuing education?
Yes, we have the Work-to-Learn Programme, whereby students can work or be in the markets during the day time and go to school in the evening. There are some people who fell out of school for one reason or the other. There are many youths, especially boys in the markets who did not leave the school system of their own volition. Left to them they would not have fallen out. So we have programmes which have enabled people like that to finish their educational careers, some have completed their GCE. Some have even taken their university matriculation exams and gone to the universities.
Even those who were reluctant to go school in their youth have now grown up to see the benefits of education and people like that have embraced our work-to-learn programme. When you do that for three, four years you can take your GCE. If you succeed you take JAMB and go to the university. Many have done that. And we are happy to be part of putting many people back on the path to academic knowledge.
The man who is running that programme is not around now, and I could have given you the statistics of the so many people who have graduated from this programme.
Recently you went with the rest of the governors of the South East to see the President. Can you tell us what made the trip necessary?
Our mission was to go the president and express our feelings to him. We are elected governors representing our people. And also, we are the spokesmen of our own people. We went to the president and told him what is happening in the South East. We told him, for instance, that we want an additional state created from the South East when the constitutional amendment begins. Only the South East out of the other geopolitical zones has five states. Others have six each, while the North West has seven.
The South East is cheated in terms of state creation and this reflects in so many other economic and political ramifications. Most of the power sharing in this country is based on the number of states, local councils and population. The president appropriately told us that it is a constitutional issue that should be discussed with the National Assembly members. We told him we are doing that.
We only came to the president so that should there be any time he would have an opportunity to discuss with the National Assembly people, he should chip in a word of support because we know it will go a long way. We also told the president about the road situation in the South East. Most federal roads in the zone are bad and we have been complaining about this for ages. We mentioned some of them, which need to be worked on, dualised and made motorable because our people are very highly economically mobile. We also told President Yar' Adua about the menace of erosion in this part of the country. In Anambra, it is a disaster. In Abia, it is equally a disaster.
If you go to Abia State University at Uturu - in fact the whole of Isuikwuato Local Government Area is erosion-riddled. Towns and villages are disappearing and people are losing their homes and becoming refugees in their own hometowns. We asked him to declare this zone an emergency or disaster area because of the menace of erosion. We talked about the Niger Bridge, which is on the verge of collapse. We talked about the need to build another bridge and repair the existing one, which is one of its kind and a tourist attraction in Nigeria.
We also talked about fuel depots. In the whole of the South East we have only two fuel depots - the one in Osisioma Aba and the one in Enugu, and none of them is functional. The workers in these depots are now jobless and fuel has rarely been sold at official rates in the South East due to perennial acute scarcity. Yet, we are very close to the source of our oil resources and refineries. We have two official oil producing states in the South East and another state with its oil resources in reserve. Isn't it an irony that states that don't produce oil are the ones enjoying petroleum prices at official rates and petroleum products are always available?
The president noted that the problem came because of pipeline vandalisation and pilferages, but he also noted that there is a need to reactivate the two depots. We also talked about the energy problems. We were encouraged to bring in private investors to partner with us in the area of energy. We also mentioned how the gas pipelines were done in such a way not to favour the South East. He noted that also.
We mentioned about the coal mines in Enugu, which have been virtually abandoned. The Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Sullivan Chime, requested permission to bring in private investors to revive the coal mines, and the President gave his blessings. And the Enugu governor went away happy that the approval had been given him. We reminded him that our people have been marginalised in the federal government in terms of appointments. These were some of the things we discussed with him, and he was very receptive and promised he would give the South East a sense of belonging.
You have interacted with the president now for about fourteen months. Do you have any reason to believe that he does not treat non-PDP controlled states like yours fairly?
Yes, Nnanna, I have said several times that we have a different president. This is a president who does not take party affiliation into consideration when it comes to governance. He sees you as a governor first and foremost before party affiliation. He is a strong party man, but that does not becloud his sense of reality and judgement. He is a president that is fair and humble. And he listens and gives you advice on how to succeed.
He does not discriminate that you are PPA or AC or ANPP. When he goes on official assignments outside Nigeria he takes people from different parties with him. If he was a discriminatory president he will take people from his party alone. So, he is a fair president and a good man.
Finally, as a former electoral officer, can you proffer a few ideas on how Nigeria can have free and fair elections?
I have articulated my ideas on this matter and submitted to government. Let me say for the purpose of emphasis, until the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is actually made independent, without interference from government, Nigeria will continue to have the problems that emerge after every election.
INEC has to be financially free from the apron strings of any institution of government. It is only when they are fully severed from the government control that they can make decisions and stand by them and enforce them on politicians and political parties no matter who is involved. That is at least the starting point. Other ideas that follow with it are in my memo to the reform panel. But I believe that if INEC is free and independent, with time our electoral processes will begin to take the shape we all desire of it.
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