The Nation Newspaper

Category: Niger Delta

  • Dickson, Miss Oyintarila is still waiting

    He took steps which showed he was willing to help. But months have rolled by and Miss Ekade Oyintarila, who as a youth corps member, participated in the last voter registration exercise during which she had an accident, has not heard from her governor, Seriake Dickson. He promised he was going to help her get out of the small room at Akenfa, a suburb in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital where she is now confined.

    The 27-year-old graduate of Economics from the Niger Delta University (NDU), told Niger Delta Report: “Sometimes, I even get tempted to commit suicide because of the situation I found myself. I have tried suicide not once. When I became a graduate, I felt I had achieved one of my dreams in life. I got my NYSC letter and went to camp and came out . What I wanted to do after my youth service was to get a good job, be useful to the society, my family and myself.

    “I had an accident. On the last day of the preview, we submitted all our computers, tools they (INEC) gave to us and also collected our allowances. Actually, I was on the way to collect the allowances when I had the accident.

    “I later discovered myself in an ambulance. I asked the man with me what happened. He told me it was an accident. He asked me of my people’s address. It was only my father’s phone number that I could remember off by heart then.

    “He called my dad immediately and I spoke to him. My father asked me not to worry, that I was going to be okay. That was the last thing I remembered. I went back into a coma.

    “I was at the recovery ward, the former President of INC  was even in the same ward with me and some government officials were coming to see him. I tried to get their attention –to let them know what was happening to me and that I needed help-nobody was willing to help.”

    She wrote Dickson. The governor received the letter and sent a reply dated August 15, last year. Dickson followed up by sending  Commissioner for Health Dr. Anapurere Awoli to visit Oyintarila and assess her condition. The commissioner visited the family and rekindled the hope of the victim.

    However, several months have gone by, Oyintarila’s hope is hanging.

    The commissioner said he forwarded a memo of his recommendations on the victim’s condition to the governor on August 21, last year.

    A November 12, last year letter by Miss Oyintarila thanked the governor for sending his commissioner to her. She reminded the governor that the file of her case had been sent to his table.

    She begged: “His Excellency, l now have a renewed hope that l can walk again as my file is on your table for approval. I am a hard-working girl. I was serving my nation Nigeria on INEC assignment as a corps member when l had an accident.

    “But NYSC and INEC abandoned me at my critical time in hospital and now. Most of my colleagues are all working now but l am still on crutches. Please, sir, help me so that l can go for the final surgery in India to enable me walk and work and contribute my services to the Restoration Agenda.”

    Dickson seems to hold the key to Miss Oyintarila walking again. She is waiting  and we beg, once again : please make her walk, your Excellency.

  • Job creation takes centrestage in Bayelsa

    Job creation takes centrestage in Bayelsa

    The Director-General, Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Arunma Oteh, was among big names at the recently concluded International Conference on Small, Medium Scale Enterprises which was held at the Banquet Hall, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

    The conference, 20th in series, was organised by the World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises (WASME). The President of WASME, Alhaji Babale Girei and the United Nations Aids Ambassador and Chairman/Co-Founder of Africa Rising Foundation, Mr. Ndaba Mandela, were there.

    It attracted captains of industries, entrepreneurs and some world business leaders from within and outside the state. It was the second time Nigeria hosted such global event and the first time the international business gathering was held in the Niger Delta region.

    Ms Oteh was not a mere observer. The DG and SEC played significant roles at the conference. She was unhappy at the endemic nature of poverty and unemployment in Niger Delta and Nigeria. She dwelled on SMEs as a potent tool in curbing the embarrassing poverty and unemployment levels in the country.

    Her position and recommendations were incisive, direct and educative. She observes that SMEs are critical importance to the growth and development of a nation especially countries with significant employment and income distribution challenges.

    According to her SMEs do not only contribute to GDP growth and creation of decent jobs, they also enable inclusive growth due to the broad-base population participating in the economy. Globally, SMEs account for over 95 per cent of the business population, constitute between 60 to 70 per cent of employment and contribute between 60 to 50 per cent to GDP.

    Ms Oteh observes that governments worldwide are increasingly recognising that SMEs are drivers of entrepreneurship, growth and job creation as well as an effective tool for poverty alleviation and inclusive growth.

    She explains that such realisation informed the Federal Government to establish the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in 2003 to promote the development of micro, small and medium enterprises in the economy.

    She further lauded Dickson for according SMEs their pride of place in the state through a number of initiatives such as appointing a special adviser on SMEs and dedicating a special fund of N20bn for small businesses.”

    But the DG identifies some challenges of SMEs in the country – lack of robust business incubation systems. She asks states including Bayelsa to move from SME-support to effective business incubation system, which speeds up the process of starting and growing companies and provides entrepreneurs with expertise networks and tools needed to make their ventures successful.

    She cited the examples of Isreal, United States of America and Brazil as countries where incubation programmes and the ecosystem they engender have helped to diversify economies, commercialise technologies, create jobs and build wealth.

    She noted that through SMEs, Israel has attracted venture capital all over the world adding that Isreal, a country smaller than Bayelsa, has more companies listed on NASDAQ than the whole of Europe and invented some of the widely used technologies in the world.

    Ms  Oteh said the USA has remained a role model for countries seeing to boost SMEs contributions to their economies. She recalls that as far back as 1953, USA enacted the Small Business Investment Act which set up the Small Business Administration (SBA) to deliver loans, loan guarantees, contracts, counseling    and other forms of support to SMEs.

    “One of the earliest incubation centres to benefit from such support is located around the South Bay portion of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California, the area we today refer to as Silicon Valley.

    “Silicon Valley today remains an enduring ecosystem for the development of SMEs into large and successful companies comprising 33 universities and colleges, three government agencies and hundreds of venture capital funds all working in synergy to support start-ups”, she said.

    In Brazil, she said SMEs represent 98 per cent of existing companies, employ about 60 per cent of the active population and contribute a quarter of the Brazilian GDP.

    Ms Oteh added hat Nigeria has understood the importance of SMEs observing that through MSMEs, many programmes and initiatives have been launched at various levels to spur the development of small businesses. She names them as the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP), the Youth Enteprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWiN), the N220b CBN MSMEs fund and the innovative $15million venture capital fund targeting software developers set up by the Ministry of Communication Technology.

    In the capital market she says SEC is conscious of the importance of SMEs. She says the commission is working very hard to build a world-class market that supports, nurtures and enables them to continue growing.

    She said: “We are very excited that His Excellency Honourable Dickson has made entrepreneurship, small and medium scale enterprise a key pillar for his restoration programme for Bayelsa State. We believe that with the way that he is tackling this initiative, Bayelsa state has the ecosystem to become Nigeria’s Silicon .

    “It has the ecosystem to become Africa’s Dubai given what we have seen and heard today that the governor and his team are doing. We feel that this should be emulated across the nation and it is quite similar to what his Excellency President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is doing at the Federal level.

    “I have no doubt that given what we have seen at this 20th annual conference on Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises that there is no doubt that Bayelsa state will be an example for other states to emulate.

    “Bayelsa state has a youthful population, so there are things for the older people, there are also things for the younger people to do. This is a state that God has blessed in many ways with oil and gas and with sea around it.

    “So fisheries is an important sector, agro businesses is also important. there are many areas where you can have many good businesses. So, I am glad that the government is providing this support, and also drawing attention to the business opportunities that you can have in Bayelsa.”

    In his address, Dickson identified lack of access to finance and skills as major challenges militating against the growth of small businesses in the state.

    He announced government’s desire to inject N20b into Small and Medium Enterprises development, which he said would be further expanded to the tune of N30 billion.

    He said a bill would be forwarded to the State House of Assembly to provide a legal framework for the establishment of an SMEs Trust Fund.

    According to him, the move is to guarantee the security of the funds for stakeholders and develop a robust SMEs programme for the empowerment of the people.

    Dickson, who hailed WASME for granting Bayelsa the hosting right, said the conference was taking place at a period, when efforts were being intensified to diversify the economy beyond the oil and gas era.

    Enumerating efforts made by his administration for wealth creation and poverty reduction in the state, Dickson said with the Bayelsa Geographical Information System (BGIS) in place, the citizens could easily access finance with their assets.

    Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, represented by the Director-General, SMEDAN, Alhaji Bature Masari, commended the state’s untiring efforts at developing the entrepreneurship and building the capacity of enterprises in the state.

    He noted that SMEs provide employment opportunities to 32.4 million Nigerians and stressed the need for all stakeholders to tackle the problems facing the sector.

    The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Dickson on SMEs, Mr. Ebiekure Eradiri, remarked that, the government has created an SMEs database to effectively manage the sub sector.

    In a keynote address, the United Nations Aids Ambassador and Chairman/Co-Founder of Africa Rising Foundation, Mr. Ndaba Mandela, said Africa Rising is an organization dedicated to creating a conducive environment for entrepreneurs to thrive in the continent.

    According to him, SME is the centre of any economy and the foundation is established to ensure, that young people have access to technology and information to empower themselves and take full advantage of the opportunities that exist.

    “Where opportunities do not exist, the foundation creates them. Africa is rising, has helped to groom young minds, so that their dreams will soar beyond reality and Africa can prosper.”

  • My battle with bursary racketeers, by Eghagha

    My battle with bursary racketeers, by Eghagha

    Delta Stage Commissioner for Higher Education Prof Hope Eghagha, in this interview, speaks of his endless battles against fraud in the Delta State Bursary and Scholarship Board, a parastatal under his ministry. ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA and BLESSING OLISA met him. 

    Since his assumption of office, the Delta State Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof Hope Eghagha, has not had a dull moment. He was once kidnapped and taken away for days.  The professor of English from the University of Lagos (UNILAG) has also had his reputation at stake over allegations of fraud in the Bursary and Scholarship Board, a portfolio under his ministry. He is accused of teaming up with the Executive Secretary of the board to inject up to 23,000 fake names that were paid bursaries at the expense of genuine beneficiaries.

    But Eghagha says his hands are clean. His impeccable academic profile, he insists, is there for all to see.

    “I almost regretted coming to public service. As a lecturer in UNILAG, I never changed scores for students. I did not come to government so as to defraud by putting fake names on the list.”

    Speaking to The Nation in his office in Delta State, Eghagha put the blames on students who engaged in rackets. He said the reluctance of the board to prosecute racketeers led to the table being turned against his ministry.

    Eghagha said he neither facilitated the recruitment of an incompetent software provider to the board, nor introduced e-payment as against the erstwhile manual payment system, all in an effort to defraud the board.

    He said due to the bad reputation the board had earned over the years, he was left with no choice than overhaul the parastatal. Eghagha also recounted how, having blocked the loophole, he got approval to increase the bursary from N10, 000 to N20, 000 per students.

    He said: “Our people have an adage that if you catch a thief from your farm and you don’t call him a thief, he will call you a thief. To start with, I met the consultant that was doing the job here when I came. So to say I brought him in is not true at all. Two, the e-payment was introduced to curb fraud in the system.

    “I taught in UNILAG before I came in to office, and I can tell you confidently that none of my kids enjoyed the bursary. When I resumed on January 2, 2009, I found out that money had been released by the state government but most students never got them. Two days after, students came here and protested that they had not been paid their bursaries. I then sat them down, listened to them and asked them questions. Some of those people that protested then are being employed by the state government now, and they are now the ones fighting those racketeers.”

    “So upon his discovery, what step did he take next?” our reporters asked.

    “I then decided we had to reform the scholarship board and particularly the bursary system. That accounts for the e-payment system whereby we deal directly with the students. The board advertises, and students respond this time not by proxies. Each student fills in his or her particular on a form we have provided on the board’s website.”

    In spite of the e-payment, Eghagha expressed surprise that students still infiltrated the website. He corroborated his finding by showing our reporters a heap of fake names, some registering with different name but same account number. However, to convince the public those students that got the bursary were not ghosts, he said the board decided to publish their names in national dailies every year.

    “We decided to publish the names because each year, some people will tell their parents that they didn’t get money. Publishing the names was my initiative because we wanted to tell the public that these students that we pay were not ghosts. Some of them get paid and claimed they were not paid.

    “Many of them did not know we were going to scrutinise the process. So, the first year we published everybody names that these are Delta State students. There was somebody who registered over 100 times. So that is the battle we have been fighting since then,” he lamented

    He said some students, who could not afford to go through the rigour associated with the prerequisites of the bursary, decided to do it through proxies.

    “There are some students that have not yet been paid because they used the old bank account numbers. In some cases, the name of the accounts did not match the applicants of the bursary. The board has their statistics. Since I’ve come here, any year any students wasn’t paid, it is either the students did not register properly or that there was an error. Students send me SMS making one complaint or the other and I would get back to the board to say: ‘look into this case’.”

    Explaining how the 23,000 fake names came about, Eghagha said the fake names were discovered shortly after his first time as commissioner in 2011. However, his suggestion to have the racketeers arrested and prosecuted was turned down by the board’s leadership who felt such action might provoke reactions from parents.

    “Unfortunately at that time, we didn’t envisage this backlash. So, when I was reappointed in June same year, the matter came up again, and I presented to the state executive the 23,000 fake names that were tracked and we were able to save some money for government. I then called for a media briefing, but to my surprise, students came here two days later protesting that the board injected fake names,” he added.

    When asked whether the board made further attempt to investigate owners of the bank accounts, Eghagha said it is not the board’s responsibility to do that. Eghagha challenged security agencies to spread their dragnet to banks where those accounts are domiciled, and let management of those banks provide more information as regards their true owners.

    “If a student opens an account anywhere, it is not our business. But when he or she comes to register for bursaries, and we found out that this person uses different names but one bank account that has been used 300 times, he or she is automatically disqualified. Some of them didn’t know we would check, they thought we would just pay. For instance, we sent officials to Jos, they came back with 600 passport photographs belonging to 600 people, four per person. Some of the students even tried to intimidate our officials. These are students who perpetrate this crime,” Eghagha said.

    The greatest achievement under his watch, Eghagha stressed, is that for the first time, the board was able save back into government coffers money that would have gone into wrong hands?

    “Like for the first year, about 600 million was released (by government). By the time we were through with the bursary, we couldn’t exhaust the money and I had to refund the outstanding to government treasury. For year 2009/2010, the approved sum was 514 million, beneficiaries were 24000. Actual amount plus administrative charges came to 434 million. So we saved 80million and I declared this to the executive; and I said next year, give us less 80 million. In 2010/2011 approved amount was N643 million, beneficiaries are 28,000; and actual amount was N481 million, and saving was N172million which I declared this to the executive. Except mischievous persons, anybody in government who knows what I’m doing will just laugh.”

    Aside the amount expended on bursaries, Eghagha said the board has to meet administrative charges, which some students consider questionable.

     “Sometimes students act out of ignorance,” Eghagha lamented, “For instance, when you have N600 million and you pay 200,000 students amounting to N400 million, students will ask you the remaining N200.000. But we have administrative charges. We do publicity, people travel, and all that. So, you find that that every year about N80million goes into logistics.”

    Eghagha said in his determination to demonstrate more openness, the ongoing 2012/2013 bursary, is being done in collaboration with JAMB to nip infiltrators’ plan in the bud.

    “So, when I found out that even with the e- system, we were still having problems. I then got permission from the government to approach JAMB. We told JAMB to conduct the process and give us a final list. JAMB then went round institutions nationwide to verify for us. That was what we did this year; and as soon as we started paying, those racketeers started fighting because no kobo could leak out.

    “Now from the report I’ve gotten from JAMB, the number of infiltrators has dropped drastically.  The infiltrators, our findings show, were from the polytechnics, which we did not ask JAMB to screen. But next year, it’s either JAMB or nothing,” Eghagha concluded.

  • 30 Risonpalm ex-workers dead

    30 Risonpalm ex-workers dead

    They sweated and toiled for 30 years. Some gave 35 years of their lives but their hard work and labour may have now ended almost in vain. That is the hard fate of the disengaged workers of the defunct Risonpalm Limited, a palm oil establishment of the Rivers State government that has now been taken over by a foreign investor.

    Two fruitless years after begging for their gratuities and unpaid entitlements, the disengaged workers took their complaints to the Rivers State Government House. It was a desperate move to draw attention of the lawmakers to their plight and helplessness.

    Most of them had worked close to 35 years before the company was sold to SIAT Nigeria Limited, a palm oil producing company in Rivers State. They said the terms and conditions of employment provided that they work for up to 40 years in the company before retirement.

    The deal provided that in the prevailing situation, where they were compelled to  retire after 20 or 35 years, the company would pay them for the remaining years until they get to the normal retiring age. And such employee would be entitled to allowances, gratuity and other entitlements specified in the condition of office.

    It was, therefore, surprising and disheartening for the embattled workers that none of these benefits or entitlements was given to them when the company compulsorily disengaged them from service.

    The 3,000 disengaged workers  last weekend took their protest to the Rivers State Government House. The government broke its long silence.

    Some of the aggrieved workers, who spoke with Niger Delta Report, said over 30 of their members had died of high blood pressure and other related ailments they  developed due to their deplorable living condition after their disengagement. They said the non-payment of their entitlements after serving the company for 20-35 years have worsened their living condition, adding that they were not only living in abject poverty, but were dying of lack.

    Mr. Job Amadi, who put in over 25 years before his disengagement, said: “It has been so rough with me coping with the challenges of life, since we were forced to disengage. Feeding my children has been another horrible experience. Most of us today, our children are no longer going to school. Some of our wives are no longer living with us because of hardship. These are things that have led to the death of our members. The young ones among us today are those who come to represent their late fathers, mothers or relatives. This is the condition we have found ourselves.”

    Mrs. Ngozi Welekwe said she joined the company at the age of 22, lamenting that over 30 years later (she would be 55 later this month), she has nothing to show for the years she worked with the company.

    “Look at me; I am 55 years old this month. All I am saying is that the government should consider us and give us our money. I know the governor will have mercy on us. He is our brother. All of us are Rivers people. We are not strangers.”

    For Godknows Okpara, who lost his right leg in service of the company, the story was even more pathetic. He said his employers left him to his fate after the accident, which he suffered while on active duty.

    “The money I spent treating myself was from my pocket, though the company did not sack me; I was asked to continue with my work despite my condition.

    “The whole thing started when I was deployed to H22 to go and supervise the workers; unfortunately, my motorcycle got punctured; so, I decided to trek for several kilometers on palm lane. Few days later, my leg became swollen and I could not use it to walk until I was asked to amputate it.

    “When the Commissioner for Agriculture visited us at the company, he told us that they were planning to sell the company and that we should not panic that our entitlements and benefits are with him. So, we were happy while hearing that from him but we didn’t know it will turn out this way.”

    Chief Jude Woka, who led the protesters to Government House, said they were running out of patience, as all avenues for dialogue initiated with their former employer failed to yield any result. He alleged that of N4.9billion owed them only N165 million was paid by the Commissioner of Agriculture, who is SIAT’s sole administrator.

    He said: “We have informed the company of our plight, having made several efforts to ensure that the entitlement owed to us is paid. The non-payment of our outstanding retirement benefits has brought untold us hardship.

    We have agreed that SIAT must pay the remaining balance owed the disengaged workers or the company operation will be disrupted by our endless protest which will be carried out by next month”

    Addressing the protesters at Rivers State Government House, the Chief of Staff, Mr Tony Okocha, said the government was sympathetic to their plight, assuring: “We are going to ensure that we solve your problems. You are Rivers indigenes I don’t see the reason why you will not get your entitlements.  Give us little time and your money will be paid.”

     

  • How society, govt caused militancy, by Amaechi

    How society, govt caused militancy, by Amaechi

    Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, during the inauguration of Port Harcourt as the World Book Capital 2014, spoke with reporters on his administration’s commitment to education  and other issues. BISI OLANIYI was there. 

    Is it true that the Rivers State government is indebted?

    Why have you not seen the name of Rivers State among the states that owe banks in the country? I was talking to one of my friends who works in a bank and I said please, I need you people to approve our N100 billion bond, because we have borrowed a total of N280 billion and we have repaid down to N80 billion and will finish the payment by June this year. Then, we will be free from debts, but I still need N100 billion bond to complete our ongoing projects.

    Are you not surprised that if you borrow N200 or N300 billion, you should be on the list of indebted states? The reason why we are not is because once the money comes, we say take the one we owe you and put the rest on projects. At times, in Government House (Port Harcourt), there will not be food to eat. If we are so indebted, why are banks chasing us around? We want to give you money, despite all the noise the opposition is making. It is because they see the way we pay.

    We receive about N8 billion from Internally-Generated revenue (IGR). We pay all to the banks. The reason why we receive N8 billion is because we blocked all the holes where people receive money and share among themselves in government.

    In fact, if we had met government the way it was before the militancy, we should be making at least N11 billion. The reason why it is ordinary N8 billion is because so many people had left Rivers state. If they had come back, we should be doing N11 to N13 billion. No money for the governor. Do not give money to any big man. Let us use it to work.

    Even if we take the N100 billion bond and decide to use our IGR, in one year, we have paid you the N100 billion, because in one year, N8 billion will give you N96 billion. So, you are left with N4 billion. When they say I will leave the state heavily indebted, it means somebody is not observing what is going on. They should call for our books.

    Will you return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which you left in 2013 for the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), because the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, your former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and the Director-General of Amaechi Campaign Organisation in 2011, said at Omoku in Rivers State that you were begging to come back to the PDP?

    No, I am not returning to the PDP. That man (Wike), they should check him whether he is okay. I have finished with the PDP. I have told them. I made a promise that if they return the Kalabari oil wells, we will see how it goes, but until that happens.

    Beyond the oil wells, I have told them, they have approached me, if they want, I will call the names of those that approached me, but that is not an issue. There are issues that are fundamentally different between me, the PDP and the APC. If I am a progressive, It must be seen in the type of life I live, in what I do, how I relate with people and the type of governance. We introduced popular free education, gave laptops to children to take home. There so many things we are doing that are contrary to the ideologies of the PDP, but they are wonderful men and women.

    Are you begging to return to the PDP, as alleged by the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike?

    I said people should ignore him (Wike). Are you sure that if I tell the PDP’s leaders that I am coming back in ten days, they will not send a dance party here? One problem with leadership in Nigeria is that when you are a President, a governor or a minister; what you say must be factual. You cannot be part of gossip.

    So, that young man (Wike), who claims to be the Minister of State for Education, who does not know what it means to be a minister, is saying I am begging to come back to the PDP. What is PDP? I beg you, please do not ever ask me question about that young man (Wike), because I will not answer you.

    Port Harcourt is the World Book Capital between April 23, 2014 and April 22, 2015. How has it been?

    Most times, when they congratulate my friend and sister, Koko Kalango (Project Director of Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014), I say to myself, she is doing well, but they should not forget that the Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014 is a Rivers state government project.

    I like the fact that she is also showing prominently, because at the end, when we leave office, she will be able to stand on her own and start up with the relationship she has built with the Rivers state government.

    I ran into Koko Kalango by accident. She asked me to come and read to the children. She was doing her book reading programme. She invited the former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, and wanted me to read to the children, which I did.

    I said to her, I wanted you to do one assignment for me: to organise an annual literary festival, to be sponsored by the Rivers state government.

    I reminded my good friend (Kalango) some weeks ago that she got so frustrated that one time, she came to me and said: “I do not want to continue anymore, I want to stop,” and I said no, you cannot just abandon it like that. I told her to do that for me for two or three years. So that we can establish a structure for the literary festival, that will be independent of government.

    Within the one year, we made success. An indication that God wanted to bless her and a lot of things happened. First is that it has moved from the Garden City Literary Festival to Port Harcourt Book Festival. It has also moved on for us to contemplate establishing a book centre, worth N3.5 billion, not owned by the government, but by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), called the Garden City Literary Association.

    The NGO has got land, close to the Golf Course in Port Harcourt and has commenced the construction of the library. I hope other constructions will also commence. That is the first transformation.

    The second transformation is somewhere along line, she (Kalango) brought the idea of competing for the World Book Capital and I said that will not be a bad idea. So, we funded her to compete and we won the nomination. It was wonderful that she did that.

    When she came to me and said we won, I asked her what the World Book Capital is all about and she explained that it is like the Kane Festival by film makers and that is what it is to book readers. She said we should take charge and begin to prepare for 2014.

    Since then, we have gone to several book fairs. I was at the London Book Fair, but I was not able to go to the Frankfurt Book Fair. So, we are trying to create our own book fair, where our writers will write more and the printers will print more.

    What are your administration’s plans for the Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014?

    The Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014 will end on April 22, 2015 and we will hand over to South Korea. We budgeted nearly N4 billion for the Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014, which commenced on April 23, 2014.

    We are building libraries, but I call them reading rooms, in the city of Port Harcourt. They are about seven and we are having 23 in all the local government areas. We will equip and furnish the libraries. The book centre we are building, privately, it does not belong to the Rivers state government, it belongs to an NGO, because Shell (the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited) and others are funding it.

    What benefit will the Rivers State Government derive from having Port Harcourt as the World Book Capital 2014?

    It is about perception. We have been able to put structures on the ground and make books available for people to read. Which means, we will spend more money in the area of education, but what will the state benefit from the global level? How we are able to position ourselves and how much we are able to tell people we have changed and we are no longer the city you used to know about criminality and all that, but now a state that is focusing on academics, books and technology and all that?

    At the local level, we must let people know that we are building seven libraries. I call them reading rooms. Why I call them reading rooms is because I have seen them in the United Kingdom. They are big enough to be libraries, they have the books you are looking for, as it is in the libraries and they have tables and chairs and other facilities. Those ones we will try to establish before we go.

    So, we will not have to go to Bernard Carr (in Port Harcourt) to read. You know we actually have a library near D-Line (also in Port Harcourt), which the Federal Government took over and it is abandoned. The Rivers state government tried to take it over one time and we were blackmailed. So, we left it again for them. When Shell (SPDC) completes the private library it is building for the NGO, I do not think anyone will complain about the standard of the library and the reading rooms we will have scattered all over the place.

    Will it be right to state that your administration’s efforts in education is responsible for nominating Port Harcourt as the World Book Capital 2014?

    I suspect it is one of the reasons they awarded us that. They looked at the level of achievements in the area of education. We have done quite a lot in the area of education. Even in the area of power.

    We have about four power stations. First of all, that of the Federal Government has gone comatose. We have not been able to carry out maintenance work for some time now and everybody is harassing me to bring money for the maintenance of our generating capacity.

    Basically, I will go and look for money for them next week. We sold, but people have not yet taken possession. Once we sign the agreement, our hands are off. You generate your own power. Most people forget that there are other areas and what everybody is saying is education.

    We have completed seven of the model secondary schools, but why we have not opened the doors for the public is because we need at least N800 million per school. We need to pay school fees for all the children and buy every other thing. Remember, we said, bring your child naked. We clothe them and feed them for nine months in a year; send them back for three months on vacation.

    We want to begin the construction of the university (new Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) at the Greater Port Harcourt City), because we want to pursue primary, secondary and tertiary education. It is worrisome when you produce wonderful children that use computer in the primary schools and you see them to secondary schools that do not use computer. What do we do?

    The seven model secondary schools completed so far cannot take all the children that will graduate from the primary schools. They cannot. So, we need to do something. We are trying to renovate the old secondary schools and even when we finish renovating them, we need to equip them with ICT and all that, so that they can transfer that knowledge that they have. If we do not do those things in the secondary education, it means that the children will lose all they learnt in the primary education. How many universities in Nigeria are ICT compliant?

    So, if they go to one local university that does not have all these things, then they may also lose the knowledge they have acquired in the primary and secondary education. That is why we are building a new university, to make sure we do not lose what we have learnt in the primary and secondary schools.

    We need to establish a standard first and that was why we appointed Prof. Otonti Nduka as the Chairman of our Quality Assurance Department. We want to first and foremost establish the standard we are looking for. Then, we will get others to comply with our standard.

    How do you ensure that high quality and experienced teachers are recruited in your schools to maintain standard, considering the fact that some of the newly-recruited teachers are poorly trained, without studying education?

    No, I do not think that you are completely right. We did training for the people who were employed as teachers. I will find out from the Commissioner for Education (in Rivers State), because they need to put an instruction that all of them must obtain minimum of NCE.

    If you have a Bachelor of Arts in Literature, you will not know how to teach Literature. What we are saying is that you have to have a Bachelor of Arts in Education Literature. We did not get enough. We got a large number of qualified teachers, who had gone to either College of Education or University of Education. Those without such qualifications, the way to go about it is that within their six months of employment, they should get an NCE or a Diploma in Education, just to get the basic rudimentary knowledge of education. Then, they can teach.

    What are your expectations of the new writers, considering the fact that most of them are detached from their environment or reality?

    Most of you look at Literature in the manner Shakespeare wrote Literature, which he described as dancing with flowers, when your house is burning with hunger. From what you are saying, I do not think Prof. Wole Soyinka belong to that school. If you look at the way he creates his words, you will think he belongs to the people that believe in the literariness of Literature.

    Literature has to do with the way you arrange your words, arrange your sentences and the manipulation of words and comparison to people like Chinua Achebe, who just wanted to tell the story or comparison to people like Ngugi Wa Thong O, who does not just want to tell the story, but to tell the story from a particular perspective, to change the world positively.

    I have no expectation from the new writers that are emerging, but to create employment and reduce poverty ravaging the country. We are in a country where you and I will be here one day, trying to eat food, but you see people rushing, not to eat the food, but to eat you and I.

    If you do not want them to eat you and I, then we must start now, to utilise the available resources available to the state, to empower people, create opportunities for Nigerians, who live here, not only Rivers people.

    If you listened to the first argument I had with the elders, I said I had nothing against the Protestants, the born-again churches. I support them. Even though people criticise them for the material tendencies that emanate from their preaching, but you must realise that they are also avenues for employment.

    Do you know how many pastors that they have recruited that are now employed? There are those who were not called, but called themselves to the service of God, but they create employment. You see, as they open one branch to another, they create employment for people, by appointing people to head the branches.

    What are your administration’s plans to sustain the achievements recorded in the education sector and do more before the expiration of your tenure on May 29, 2015?

    You cannot plan education without first and foremost knowing what it will cost you to do so. Take the primary education for instance, we had a budget, even the secondary education.  We had a budget of N166 billion for the 24 model secondary schools. Then, it was N4.1 billion. Now, it is N4.5 billion.

    I have forgotten what was the cost of the 750 model primary schools we intended to build. We did not envisage the kind of economic hardship we found ourselves in. We did not envisage that we will have large appetite for projects. I realised that people were urging me to stop and stop. We were strategic. We knew that there will be so many problems to address.

    Take Diobu (in Port Harcourt) for instance; when you go to D-Line (also in Port Harcourt), you will see the wonderful projects that we are doing (roads). We are extending that to Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt. The Diobu people are saying we have to come and do something in Diobu. When I saw the bill, it was huge.

    We have an economic and business plan, but it was linked to socialist realities and the socialist realities were informed by the security crises that we had. I met children who told me they were arrested, their siblings were withdrawn from school and two days after, they were driven away from the houses they were staying. Then, I saw my friends with their Range Rovers, my age-mates, about 18, 19 years, driving around town with girls and I asked them, how did you get this money to buy these cars? They said come and be initiated and I got initiated and I started shooting gun. The society and government are 80 per cent responsible for the so-called Niger Delta militancy, which I referred to as crime.
    I realised that there are social elements that need to be addressed, to enable parents ease the burden of life and one of it is education. So, we said we will bear the burden through free education and free healthcare.
    In some states, when they say free education, they just pay teachers’ salaries and that is all, but we decided to approach the schools and pay all the fees, so that the children could go to school.

  • Kids’ abductors on the loose in Calabar

    Kids’ abductors on the loose in Calabar

    Parents in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, are living in fear. Reason: kidnappers are targeting children. It has assumed a frightening dimension. The targets are children under 12, irrespective of whether they are from rich or poor families. These little ones are not abducted for money. There will be no strange phone calls to family members negotiating ransom and the modus operandi of exchange. Once abducted they are never seen again!

    Several theories, from abduction for rituals, trafficking and sale to childless couples, have been worked up to explain this strange development which is on the increase.

    Many a parent now takes extra precautions to save their children from the hands of these men of darkness, whose activities are painting the city in bad light.

    A Single mother of three children, aged four to 10, told our reporter: “I now pray double about the safety of my children. Whenever I am not with them, for instance when they go to school my mind is never at rest until I see them again, safe and sound. Personally I have also taken precautions on my own to ensure their safety. I don’t let them play around the house anymore. Now I ensure they are always indoors if there is nothing necessary to take them outside. It has become a worrisome situation and we are praying they should do something urgently about it. We know Calabar as a peaceful place devoid of all these kinds of things. Now we don’t know what is happening.”

    David, a resident of Ikot Ansa in Calabar Municipality, narrated a case of where a child who was supposed to be dedicated on a Sunday was abducted the night before.

    He said: “It was a really unfortunate development. The family it happened to is one that I am close to. Every arrangement had been made for the dedication. The food and drinks were ready, the camera man had been paid to cover the event, invitations had been sent out and every arrangement had been made for the dedication to go on. Unfortunately when everyone woke up in the morning, the baby was nowhere to be found.

    “Someone had come in and abducted the child. The baby could not have crawled away because it could not crawl yet and besides it was on a bed. The mother has been in a coma and the father is hysterical. It is such an unfortunate development.”

    Recently, it was reported of how a four-year old boy, Effiong, son of a bank security man and a fried yam seller was abducted at the Ekorinim axis of Calabar in a car with no registration number.

    Also, earlier this year, a three year old boy, Victor, was snatched by an unknown persons in a church during service.

    A couple of weeks ago, the Atakpa Police Station in Calabar attracted a mammoth crowd. They were people who had gathered to catch a glimpse of some persons arrested for allegedly attempting to kidnap four little girls.

    It was gathered that the children, aged between four to six were hawking sachet water on the street when the attempt was made by some men inside a vehicle to snatch them.

    Alarm was raised by people nearby and the police intervened  to save the children.

    Police Public Relations officer, Hogan Bassey, confirmed the development saying investigation was on-going.

    Worried by the development, a member of the State House of Assembly, Ngim Okpo, brought a motion of Urgent Public Interest “on the increasing incidents of child snatching where in recent times, have been several reported cases of kidnapping of innocent children by some unscrupulous elements for alleged ritual purposes”.

    He called on the House to pass a resolution to compel “relevant government agencies to sensitize members of the public against falling prey”.

    Also, the State Security Adviser, Rekpene Bassey, has advised members of the public to take notice of this emerging threat to the safety and security of their children and wards.

    He advised parents against sending children on errands without the company of adults or grown-ups; he also advised children against straying out of the home without the notice of their parents and children who trek to school alone even when they are not old enough should not be left on their own.

    He said: “There are also instances where children are snatched from the arms of their mothers or guardians by abductors who pretend to offer them lift in their cars; others are abducted right from their homes while their parents are not at home or in another part of the house.

    “Abductors seem to be having a field day while our children are no longer safe, even in the privacy of our own homes. This is a very disturbing development which must be checked.

    “Parents must cooperate with the police and other security agencies by giving them useful information about suspected criminals wherever they are found within their vicinity or anywhere else.  The Commissioner of Police has been alerted about this development and requested to notify all police formations in the state capital and direct the DPOs to stamp out this new menace.”

    No doubt, parents and guardians seek end to the menace.

  • Ex-militant chief battles oil theft

    He was one of the notorious militant leaders in Niger Delta  during the heyday of militancy. He commanded a famous camp known as the Amabulu Federated Community (AFC) located in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

    But “General” Felix Timilaemi has since abandoned arms struggle having embraced the amnesty programme of the Federal Government. As a fully repentant militant leader, the former creek general is disturbed at the increasing cases of economic sabotage in the region.

    Timilaemi is unhappy that Ekeremor, his local government area, is one of the hotbeds of illegal oil bunkering, illicit refining of petroleum products, pipeline vandalism and other criminal activities relating to oil theft.

    In fact, he is pained not only because the Federal Government is losing significant revenue to the activities of oil thieves, but also the ecology and the environment of the region is under threat and may soon become extinct.

    Already, the waters have changed colour through contamination by oil slicks from vandalised pipelines; the mangroves are mangled and rendered lifeless by fire and thick dark smokes bellowing from illegal refineries and the air has become poisonous through crude cooking of crude oil.

    To arrest the situation, the ex-creek warlord has embarked on a personal crusade to stop oil theft in his local government area. Niger Delta Report visited Ekeremor and discovered that Timilaemi has constituted a small army  patrolling the creeks to identify and destroy illegal refineries.

    The ex-creek warlord has already destroyed 30 illegal refineries and 12 boats used by oil thieves in the council.

    His troops comprise 240 youths who were formerly members of his camp but later embraced amnesty. Everyday, the youths in group of different speedboats patrol the creeks to clamp down on illegal refineries, identify broken pipelines and impound Cotonou boats used for oil theft activities.

    Speaking to Niger Delta Report, Timilaemei lamented the environmental hazard caused by oil theft and illegal refineries in communities of Ekeremor.

    He believes that with minimal support from the government and oil companies, his one-man crusade will completely eradicate the menace.

    “Using military operations only cannot stop economic sabotage. People like me who understand their terrains and who are passionate about the Nigerian economy should be engaged to fight this monster in our communities.

    “As a patriotic citizen of this country and a true son of Ekeremor, l believe that we need to help this country and also preserve our environment. So, l have taken it upon myself to bring  illegal oil bunkering (kpo-fire) to a minimal level.

    “ I have destroyed illegal refinery camps in Ekanghende creek, burnt boats and ensured that the two points where the vandals connect their hose on Shell’s pipes were clamped.

    “Pipeline vandalism in this area is becoming too serious that I have to take it upon myself. This is a one-man crusade against oil theft, illegal refinery and oil bunkery. There are a lot of environmental hazard in this area and I took it upon myself to put a stop to it. We must completely stop it,” he said.

    The creek general rued the worsening economy of the council which he blamed on pipeline vandalism. He observed that the people of the area known for their fishing occupation could no longer thrive in the business.

    He observed that different species of fish which are averse to crude oil had disappeared from the waterways.  “People are now jobless. They cannot get any fish in the river because our waters are polluted by crude oil,” he cried.

    He said people should take collective responsibility instead of always heaping blames on the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) which is operating in the council. He also called on the government to show seriousness in the war against oil theft by involving the communities.

    According to him, it has got to a level where government should come to the aid of the people to prevent further deaths. He said Shell and government should partner with him insisting that under his watch no pipeline would be broken and no illegal refinery would operate in any community within the council.

    Felix, however, noted that persons engaged in oil theft were hungry and jobless. He said decentralising the war against oil theft by establishing community task force would help to engage some of the youths.

    “We are the indigenes of this community and we know our people. We know our boys and we know how we can tackle them. The best thing we should do is to get these people involved. Let’s bring the boys together, sensitise them to say bye-bye to oil theft,” he insisted.

    He  assured the federal and state government of a radical change in Ekeremor, stressing his readiness to destroy any camp establish to destroy the economy of Nigeria.

    Explaining their operations, he said: “This is the only place we have. We don’t have any other place to go. We have burnt many properties. They have even tried to penetrate and buy us over to get those properties and we say no. What we have decided to do at the moment is to get those properties and burn them off.”

    Timilaemi called on Shell to  begin skill acquisition programmes in the various communities to engage the youths and take them away from the streets.

    He warned oil thieves to stay away from the council and vowed to burn their vessels if they ventured into the area. “I wont compromise my position because l wont allow people to destroy our environment and render our economy useless,” he said.

    He has some words for community folks engaged in oil theft. He said: “There is no progress in oil theft instead there are many dangers. I advise every man and woman to desist from oil theft, it won’t help you, it will damage your future.”

    A member of the Council of Chiefs in Ekeremor, Chief Amagono Dunyin, said the elders were behind Temilaemi in his  crusade to end the menace. He maintained that the chiefs frown at illegal bunkering.

    “The vandals come into the council from different areas to carry out their activities. We are urging General Felix  and his boys to ensure they stop the illegal activities in the environment.”

  • Dawn in the creeks as U.S. partners Niger Delta youths

    Dawn in the creeks as U.S. partners Niger Delta youths

    Mention Niger Delta and the images that come to mind are crude oil, oil theft and illegal bunkering , but a project bankrolled by the American government is creating a new Niger Delta using the medium of film-making, writes Precious Igbonwelundu

    It gulped about $4 million. So, it was understandable that expectations were high as viewers matched into the cinema hall of SilverBird Galleria for the premiere of Dawn in the Creeks, a baby of the United Department for Conflict and Stabilisation Operations.

    The series bears the touch of ace director Jeta Amata and 21 young people drawn from three communities, including Nembe in Bayelsa State and Ozoro in Delta State, who have resolved to rebrand the region with their stories.

    The screen opened with Amata’s search for “the ambassadors of peace” in the creeks. The audience was carried through the journey of the short-listing and the reasons each of the 21 youth was selected.

    They looked unrefined like the crude oil and hardly believed anything positive could come out of the exercise but one month later, having shot and premiered their own movies; these lads now see life beyond violence.

    Dawn in the Creeks is a combination of three television series, including Save our Souls and Truce written, produced and directed by the 21 youngsters in groups of seven.

    It is a reality TV series that follows teams of Niger Delta youth as they embark on a journey to create films in the Nollywood style, showcasing stories of non-violent transformation in their communities.

    It portrays the horrible and pitiful lifestyle an average Niger Deltan is subjected to ranging from water and food pollution, cultism as well as negligence by multinational oil companies operating there in connivance with the traditional rulers.

    It also shows how illegal bunkering led best friends to become arch enemies, unleashing terror and bloodbath on opposing camps destroying living and non-living things.

    Shot in the various communities, each of the short films that make up Dawn in the Creeks portrayed the natural day-to-day activities in the regions -dredging, fishing, trading, language and farming.

    But beyond the scramble and battles for survival, the films portrayed communal love and strength; it showcased the need for the people to resolve conflicts peacefully and be their brothers’ keepers.

    The short films, which were shown for about 15 minutes each, kept the audience, including wife of Rivers Governor, Mrs. Judith Amaechi,  Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilisation Operations Frederick Barton and US Ambassador to Nigeria James Entwistle thrilled, especially because the young film makers were able to accomplish them with just a month’s training.

    But what motivated these youngsters to such venture?

    According to the director of Truce, Stephen Moses, his group’s story was inspired by their resolve to make the youth in the region and Nigeria shun violence.

    “There are things every human knows he or she can do but without the means to deliver, the dream will die. Honestly, when this opportunity came, I did not believe it. I thought it was one of those lies but when at the end of the training I saw myself an improved and better person, I could not help but thank God I did not miss it.

    “Our message basically is projecting a Niger Delta that is violence-free. We want our youth to know that they can make their points, resolve issues without violence.

    “Also, we also want them to know through our films that there are many resourceful things they can do to earn a living without engaging in illegality and violence,” he said.

    For the producer, Lisa Otuma, her ultimate goal is to rebrand Niger Delta and let the world see the new Niger Delta that is violence-free.

    “Our region has over the years earned negative reputation and so, we want to rewrite our story. We want to tell our stories ourselves for the world to know we are peaceful people and can live in peace,” she said.

    Similarly, the Director, Save our Souls, Vincent Akporero, said he was happy to be part of the project because he wanted to be seen as a role model.

    “We want to impact positively on our generation. We do not want to be seen as villains but as worthy role models. We are using our movie to tell our people that we do not have to fight and kill ourselves. We do not have to destroy pipelines and kidnap people. Life is not all about violence and we must learn to settle our differences peacefully,” he said.

    To Amata, his interest in the project was fuelled by his love to affect lives.

    “There is nothing like going to the grassroots, meeting and connecting with these people really touched me. It is so amazing that they could touch me the way they did.

    “The project will continue because each group has been provided with equipment and money to start off and tell important stories.

    “We have just started. This is like a pilot programme and by July, we will show the entire series of how they were screened and selected and then, we will go immediately into the seasons.

    “We are mandated to do three seasons within 12 months and I trust they will deliver.

    “They will learn new initiatives and ways to market their films along the line. That is how I do my business. I learn new ways of marketing and selling my films and I am impacting it on them and so they have no choice than to succeed,” he said.

     Reactions

    Reeling with excitement, Mrs. Amaechi hailed the talents of the film makers, commending them for their drive to make a difference through entertainment.

    “I believe that someday, the Niger Delta will be known to the world for its famous films. I saw wonderful talents in display and I know that Niger Delta is a beautiful place.

    “I was thrilled and I know they will go places with the necessary guides. This opportunity has shown that we have great men and women who can make the world a better place,” she said.

    Entwistle, who could not hide his excitement, told The Nation that he was proud the U.S. was part of the success story.

    “I believe in Nigeria. We had thought of something we can do to reduce violence as well as reform election behaviours of the youth. But, this is so great that the young Nigerians did their films to tell their stories in order to use same to preach peace and security.

    “Yes, the U.S. is sponsoring but the content is 100 per cent Nigerian. We hope that in the future, we will be able to step away to have Nigerians come in and sponsor such projects.

    “We spent about $4million on the project but what matters is that we are supporting Nigerian youths to preach the message of peace through their own stories.

    “Aside sponsoring these films in the region, the U.S. is doing a lot in Nigeria. In the Middle Belt and North, we are trying to promote mediation and reconciliation,” said Entwistle.

    To the U.S. Consul General Jerry Hawkins, the project was aimed at showing the world that there was a lot of possibilities in the Niger Delta. He described Dawn in the Creeks as a combination of Nollywood, Hollywood and diplomacy, adding that he was hopeful the youngsters would become agents of change in the region.

    Chairman, SilverBird Group, Ben Bruce described the project as a way forward to greater things in the region.

    He said with such empowerment, the youths would be engaged and would also create jobs and make money.

    “It is about taking individuals out of nothingness, idleness and empowering them to create employment as well.  It is a step in the right direction and we need multinationals to follow suit. Once you support and empower the people, crime level will drop,” said Bruce.

    Former Managing Director, Nigeria Films Corporation, Afolabi Adesanya, said it was exciting to see the young generation finding its voice, images and narrating its stories.

    “It is a turnaround from the violent era of militancy that we witnessed in the region. I am thrilled to see young people looking inwards to see what they can do to change their communities for good without government support.

    “This can only make their communities better with strengthened bonds among the people. The films are true reflection of happenings in the region. We are beginning to witness a paradigm. Shift towards internal conflict resolution and it is only the people who through their telling their stories, can make that happen,” he said.

     

  • Nigeria has been unfair to Isoko Nation, says Ifowodo

    Nigeria has been unfair to Isoko Nation, says Ifowodo

    Dr Ogaga Ifowodo, a lawyer and human rights/political activist recently informed his Isoko people of his intention to represent them in the House of Representatives on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He told BOLAJI OGUNDELE in this interview why he joined the race.

    What was that gathering a moment ago all about?

    It was to declare publicly my intension to enter the race for the Federal House of Representatives to represent the Isoko Federal Constituency. The Isoko people have only one representative and I intend to be that representative.

    They have a representative until now, why would they need another one in place of the current occupier?

    It’s obvious, I don’t think he has represented the Isoko people well, there is nothing we can say or that can be attributed as a gain or benefit from the federal government that his representation has made possible, nothing. In fact, the loudest cry out of Isoko land right now is that of extreme marginalisation, to the point of near ostracization, as if we are not part of Nigeria, like what is part of Nigeria in Isoko land is its oil and gas, not the people, not the land, but the oil and gas and which is of course piped away under our feet and the one that cannot be piped away is flared into the air to further pollute the atmosphere. In terms of the people and the land in Isoko, here’s no federal presence, it’s as if we are not part of Nigerian and if a representative of the Isoko people in the federal legislature has not been able to draw attention to this, then he’s not been doing a good job, obviously someone else needs to do that job.

    What do you think you will be doing differently if your people decide to send you to the House of Representatives?

    Of course, it automatically means that I will be a louder, more effective advocate of the people to redress the injustice, the long running injustice being done to Isoko land. I can list a whole lot of things being done to Isoko land; Isoko is almost being excluded from the amnesty programme, which leads to the training of youths of the Niger Delta to develop their human capacity, acquire skills that can make them productive and responsible citizens. You can go through the list of all the people who have been benefitting, may be you’ll find a handful, but even there, within what is meant for the Niger Delta, Isoko is being excluded. I know that the job of a member of the House of Representatives is not limited to his constituency because it’s a national law making body, I am a lawyer of 23 years standing at the bar, I’m a human rights and democracy activist, I’m a writer and scholar, I think I know what it takes to make good laws for the country. I’ve been a public commentator right from my days as a student and I currently write a column for Vanguard every fortnight so I have been deeply entrenched in the issues of Nigeria right from the start, you will only say I am only now turning my attention to so called local issues, but all politics is local, you cannot separate the local from the global. You cannot separate the absence of good drinking water in Oleh from the absence of good drinking water in Kafanchan. You cannot separate insecurity in Ozoro from insecurity in Yobe or Mubi. So all local issues are in the end global, it is only now that I’m actually drawing my attention to the local issue, knowing full well that they are also global. But I am fully conscious of the fact that as a member of the National Assembly, my duty is not only to my community, but to the whole of Nigeria and I am sure that under any standard objective measurement, I will be the best candidate to occupy that seat.

    Before we start about what will you will be doing when you get there, let us talk about the process of getting there. Nigeria’s politics depends very much on money, they say, are you ready to spend money the way of Nigerian politics?

    One of the reasons why I’m going into this race is that I hope, by my campaign, to point towards the direction where our politics should go. I hope to show that if you involve the people, you don’t necessarily need to rob the bank or loot the treasury to the bottom before you can be elected to office, in fact the truth is that money politics does not really work. What we have seen is that the will of the people is never allowed to be expressed; people vote one way and fictitious results are announced somewhere else or they prevent voting all together, snatch ballot boxes, cause confusion, hire thugs who will be shooting on that day and scare people away, they thumbprint the ballot papers and announce results.

    If you allow the will of the people to prevail, as we saw with June 12, as we have seen in pockets of elections here and there, money becomes a factor, but not the determining factor and it is a factor because we know to move from point A to point B you will buy petrol, you will pay to print posters. You will do some other things which money must necessarily do. If it’s only that kind of money that you spend, we will not say it’s moneybag politics, it’s just the necessary amount of money you need to spend. However, I’m fully aware that our politics has been so corrupted and sometimes you can’t blame the people; they vote for a candidate and just four years the candidate has become a multi-millionaire and when time comes again, the people will say ‘we voted for you and all you did was becoming a millionaire’. So in a way, it’s a certain kind of demanding something back and it’s their money that has been stolen.

    The only message I have for those who will come under the influence of money politics is ‘if they bring their money they have stolen from you, take it, prepare yourself a good meal, eat it, but then go to the polling booth and vote your conscience. I can assure you that in my campaign, we will rely on ordinary people, people who want change in Nigeria, who will be willing to contribute their money to the campaign and they can only contribute only as much as we need to do the necessary work of organising, not to buy votes, that’s not what our money will spent on.

    You have chosen to vie on the platform of the APC and they say around here that the South-South is exclusively PDP, what do you hope to do to turn the table?

    That is a fiction, a myth; that idea that Delta state is a PDP stronghold. If you know how all the elections have gone, they have been very contentious, even going as far as the tribunals and the Court of Appeal. So that already tells you that it is not a place where PDP can come and have a landslide. We also know that the PDP is a rigging machine – that is the only way they get to power, they don’t win free and fair elections, not only in Delta state, everywhere. May be now and then there are good candidates and they win free and fair, but in general the PDP has been a huge votes rigging machine and this is not only me saying that; after every election monitors will issue their reports, after 2003 it was deemed as a joke, even Yar’adua himself admitted it and that was why his promise was to set up an electoral reform commission, which he did and Justice Uwais issued a fine and brilliant report on how to save our polity from the rigging machine called the PDP. Of course, I know that other parties rig, but it’s the party in power that takes the biggest blame for rigging.

    We saw what happened to the Justice Uwais report; they cherry picked it, selected the ones they wanted and left the meat of it and threw it away. Delta state is not a PDP fortress, late Senator Ewerhido won from a minority party, the DPP. But speaking for Isoko land, I can assure you that Isoko land is far more progressive than that and that they will resist any attempt to rig this election and that if their will is freely expressed then the APC will have what will amount to a landslide because APC stands for change, the people of Isoko land, whom I’m going to represent as Isoko Federal Constituency, are yearning, pining, dying for change and they will go with the APC

  • ‘Why IYC is seen as a wing of PDP’

    ‘Why IYC is seen as a wing of PDP’

    Eric Omare, a lawyer and spokesperson of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), speaks on the growing influence of the Ijaw in the Niger Delta and other issues affecting the region. SHOLA O’NEIL met him.

    The election that brought the Udengs Eradiri-led exco was dogged by controversy; what is the situation now?

    The election into the IYC in October 2013 was inconclusive. Some persons went ahead and declared some of the candidates as winners, which resulted in several protests. The national leadership of the Ijaw National Congress, under late Senator Tari Sekibo nullified that election. That nullification was confirmed by Chief Edwin Clark, in a leadership meeting in Abuja. Thereafter, the leadership of Ijaw nation mandated the Adviser to President Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs, Hon Kingsley Kuku, Commissioner for Ijaw National Affairs, Dr Felix Tuodolor and Elder TK Ogoriba to lead a process to conduct another election. That election was done in February 2014 and new leadership emerged under Comrade Udengs Eradiri and I also emerged as the spokesperson. Peace has returned to the IYC.

    On the use of money to influence outcome of the election

    The problem is that in recent times some people seem to look at the IYC as a political wing and extension of the ruling party (PDP) with a view to using the platform to achieve their political aims and support their candidates in an election. I think that is the reason why there have been a lot of issues regarding the election. Ordinarily, IYC election, like any struggle organisation, ought not to be affected with money. But now there seems to be a lot of money involved in the election. This present leadership is already reacting to that by way of initiating a review process, which will substantially address the issue of campaign funding. Money will no longer be an issue at the conclusion of the constitution review process.

    What is the relationship between the IYC and other ethnic youth bodies in the Niger Delta?

    The foundation of the IYC is the Kaiama Declaration and one of the articles of that declaration is to extend arm of friendship to other ethnic nationalities. The founding fathers of the IYC realise the fact that we cannot achieve resource control or self-determination without working with other ethnic nationalities. From the onset we realised that there is need for IYC to work with other ethnic groups. Part of the things the new leadership is doing is to reach out to other ethnic nationalities in the region with a view to addressing some of the issues affecting the region. For example, one of the most tropical issues now is oil theft. You cannot address it without involving other ethnic nationalities such as the Itsekiri, Urhobos, Ikwerres, Ogonis etc because the oil facilities are not only in Ijaw land; they are in other ethnic nationalities. So you need everybody involved.

    There is suspicion that Ijaw youths are exerting undue influence to the detriment of other ethnic nationalities in the region because an Ijaw man is the President and the amnesty programme is being heavily tilted in your favour.

    Yes, there have been such complaints but you have to look at it in the context of what is happening and how we got to where we are. The complaint is basically arising from the benefits from the amnesty programme. But if you go back to the history of militancy in the Niger Delta, you will agree with me that militancy was mainly an Ijaw affair. We appreciate the contribution of other ethnic nationalities but the arm struggle was more of an Ijaw affair and the essence of the amnesty programme was to rehabilitate those who took up arms. There was supposed to be a component of the programme that would take care of nonviolent agitators who didn’t take up arms but it seems that the attention for now are those that took up arms and those are mainly Ijaws. I do not think there is any deliberate effort to marginalise other ethnic nationalities.

    Are you impressed with the execution of the amnesty programme, the process and outcome?

    In my view, the amnesty programme is a success in many ramifications. It is a success in respect to bringing peace in the Niger Delta; in cases of oil facilities sabotage and oil production has also increased. A lot of people that ordinarily would not have had the opportunity of obtaining education or training in various forms have now obtained those trainings. In my view, the amnesty programme under the leadership of Hon Kingsley Kuku seems to be the only measure between the government and the Niger Delta people. If not because of the amnesty programme, I don’t think majority of our people would have had the impact of the Goodluck President…

    The gains of the programme are being eroded by the illegal bunkering and shut-ins because of vandalism and sabotages.

    I agree with you that some the gains of the amnesty programme are being taken away by oil theft. When we assumed office one of the issues we take very seriously is oil theft. We believe that it cannot be resolved by mainly saving Mr A, B or C is responsible. We have to adopt a holistic solution. I followed proceedings of the Delta State Oil and Gas conference on oil theft and I think stakeholders correctly identified the causes and actors – communities, security agencies and multinationals.  Recently, Mr President said in Holland that the Federal Government has budgeted $1 billion to address the issue, but we think it is not enough to budget N1bn, you must engage the relevant stakeholders for it to have the required effect, like the amnesty programme. In the days ahead, the IYC will come out with its position with other ethnic nationalities. Once the stakeholders agree that it most stop and the right steps are taken, the issue will be addressed.