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Tag: Delta

  • ‘Delta is safe for foreign investment, tourists’

    ‘Delta is safe for foreign investment, tourists’

    A former Delta State Commissioner for Information and Senior Special Assistant to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan on Foreign Affairs, Mr Oma Djebah, has said the state is safe for diplomats and foreign investors.

    Djebah spoke when the Political Secretary and Senior Political Adviser at the British High Commission, Abuja, Edward Dunn and Osaro Odemwingie visited the state at the weekend.

    He said: “Look at Seplat Nigeria that is in Sapele, people are talking about the security situation in Warri and its environs but Seplat is operating here and they have upgraded in their production capacity. Today, they are producing up to 62,000 barrels of oil per day, which is a huge success.

    “Look at the teaching hospital in Oghara, it is a huge success too because it is building the human capital development of the people. Look at what we are doing in the health sector. And all these have effect in crime and criminality. If you are healthy and strong, you will not have time for crime. If you are engaged you will not want to go and do crime.”

    Djebah noted that the state was not different from the situation in the United Kingdom during the Irish Resistance Army (IRA) era, adding that that the violence did not stop  foreign investors from setting up businesses in the UK.

    He urged the international community to be considerate when issuing travel warning and advice to visitors to the state and the Niger Delta.

    The team visited the Sapele office of indigenous oil firm, Seplat Nigeria Limited, where the management told them it had quadrupled production from facilities it acquired from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) within four years.

    Seplat’s Head of Community Affairs, Mr Godwin Obiuwvbi, told the visitors that the company increased production from the 14,000bpd it inherited in 2010 to 62,000bpd from OMLs 4, 38 and 41, adding that it is already targeting 100,000bpd before 2017.

    He said: “From four producing communities in 2010, we have increased to 10 and by 2017, we hope to reach 100,000pbd. This year we should get to 72,000 from there we will take it to 85,000 and in the next two, three years we will get 100,000bpd.”

    Obiuwevbi added that the three OMLs hold up to 500 million barrels, adding that the company, which recently listed on the London Stock Exchange, planned on acquiring additional oil wells and also revealed that Seplat is planning a massive investment in gas at the company Oben field in Edo state and LTF and green field development programmes in Amukpe, Sapele.

    Obiuwevbi, who was accompanied by the company’s Security Manager, Mr William Akolo, a former employee of SPDC, Tony Owumi and other top staff of the firm, said the company was bullish because since it commenced operation in 2010, it had experience “no significant disruption in operation”, adding that crude oil theft had also been drastically reduced.

    He said the robust Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) with host communities has complimented their internal security and build confidence across board, adding, “There were four MoU and a trust fund of N250 million down payments gave communities a stake and helped build confidence and trust.”

    The Commissioner for Oil and Gas, Mr Mofe Pirah, debunked the reasons given by SPDC for divesting from the facilities: “They said Delta State was not secured, you cannot do business in Delta State.”

    Pirah said the team was interested in knowing how Seplat managed to achieve so much and better SPDC in spite of the allegation of insecurity in the region, adding that it showed that there is something the local firm was doing that Shell did not do.

    Speaking with reporters after the two-day visit at Osubi Airport on his way to Abuja, Dunn expressed satisfaction with Uduaghan’s development drive, particularly in the education and health sector, where the governor had investment hugely in the past years.

    Odemwingie noted that the projects were first class and urged Deltans to support the government’s efforts by maintaining them.

    Djebah described  Uduaghan’s vision of Delta Beyond Oil as rightwards to keeping a lasting legacy for posterity in the state, stressing that the citizenries’ support is important to achieving the dream.

  • Haba! Delta NULGE and Service Commission

    Haba! Delta NULGE and Service Commission

    Local governments are supposed to be training ground for leaders and politicians for higher participation and exhibit professionalism in governance at the state and federal levels.  What one can see now is that the reverse is the case because of corruption and lackadaisical attitude of union executive members and the Local Government Service Commission in Delta State.  Like the popular saying, “born great but tied down”, the local government system, especially in Delta State, is in chains, even in the face of almost limitless prospects as engine room for massive grassroots development.

    During a short visit to one of the local government secretariats in the Delta Central, I observed with dismay and was further perplexed the way and manner staffers were moving from one office to another with hullabaloo, signifying that things were not in good shape. On enquiry, I was made to understand that workers are complaining seriously of the deductions of seven hundred naira (700.00) per month for ten months by the Nigerian Union of Local Governments Employees (NULGE Delta State).  I reliably gathered that the proceeds will be used to build a five-star hotel as guest house for employees of the twenty-five local governments in Delta.  I was flabbergasted. One may ask, is it fair to all? Is five-star hotel to be used as guest house by the employees of Delta State local government their priority?  Deducting workers salaries to build a five-star hotel by union is uncalled for.  Who gave the union the approval?  The executive arm of the Delta State government should not use NULGE as “ATM” that is, a way to siphon money. NULGE should be directed to stop such irregular deductions with speed and alacrity and concentrate on how to improve on workers welfare and avoid causing confusion in the twenty-five local governments of Delta State.

    This is done every four years. In some cases, workers will pay without seeing the ID or at the close of its expiration. The big question now is, are workers expected to pay for ID?  Was the money for Workers ID not budgeted for?  What is happening in the NULGE and the Local Government Service Commission of Delta State?  I wish Governor Uduaghan will take appropriate action because a stitch in time saves nine.  NULGE and the Local Government Service Commission must not become “ATM” to the state.  This is a dangerous dichotomy, indeed!  It is pregnant with meaning.

    Okwute Emmanuel Okwute,

    Warri, Delta State.

  • Group to EFCC: probe Delta PDP chair

    Group to EFCC: probe Delta PDP chair

    A group, Delta Patriotic Network (DPN), has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman in Delta State, Peter Nwaoboshi, for alleged corruption.

    The group alleged that Nwaoboshi used his office to amass illegal wealth.

    The petition by DPN’s National President Ojein Samuel; National Vice President Okotete Tony and National Secretary Oromoni Zuokumor, alleged that Nwaoboshi collected money from government agencies and received payments for contracts badly executed.

    The group also alleged that Nwaoboshi built two mansions in Asaba and Ibusa for over N1billion.

    The PDP Chairman said the petitioners were chasing dead issues, alleging “they are being used by some disgruntled politicians”.

    He said he welcomed investigation by any anti-graft agency, adding that he had nothing to hide as a politician and businessman.

    “All the issues they raised were investigated over three years ago by EFCC and I have been given a clean bill of health. I don’t have anything to hide and I’m ready for a fresh investigation.

    “I have been involved in genuine business and I am available for investigation.

    “But nobody should take them serious because they are idle and ready tools in the hands of some disgruntled politicians.”

  • Stalemate in Delta over $16b project

    Stalemate in Delta over $16b project

    On the beginning, it elicited excitement. It was a piece of good news that got many hopeful of a better tomorrow. Prayers were said for the initiator of what was seen as a marvelous project. But, no thanks to controversies of various hues, the Federal Government’s $16 billion Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Delta State is no longer good news. It has generated bad blood, bred hatred and made many fear blood-letting.

    The EPZ project shares home with the multibillion dollar Escravos Gas to Liquid project of Chevron Nigeria Limited. Analysts are concerned about the fate of the project. On one hand, they wonder if the project will ever be allowed to take off; on the other, they wonder if it will be allowed to function optimally and achieve its objectives.

    The project was not unconnected with a communal strife among the Itsekiri of the Ugborodo communities, which left several people killed or injured and properties worth millions of naira destroyed. Then the issue was who was going to represent host communities’ interests. This gave rise to two Itsekiri factions, which received funding from wealthy interested parties for arms and ammunition. The story of that bitter experience lasted several blistering months and the marks of the experience are still wounds, not scarred yet; a heavy cloud of seething resentment and distrust in Ugborodo.

     There is, however, a more ugly scenario gathering storm over and around the project, which if not well handled and properly dispelled, might consume more than just the multibillion dollar project, but might topple the delicate balance on which the Warri is based.  Just as the dust created by the Ugborodo communities’ strife were settling, stakeholders of the Ijaw communities in Warri Southwest started expressing displeasure over the handling of the project.       

     The nature of the relationship between the two ethnic groups, Ijaw and Itsekiri, is well known; they are neighbours in more than one local government area of the state. They share a lot in common, but again, they have been involved in a long-drawn strife, which claimed several lives and destroyed multimillion naira properties. The nature of their relationship has left most of the places where they cohabit to remain the all-time read spots of Delta State, where an unprovoked fight can easily break out.

     The Ijaw said the handlers of the project have skewed the process in favour of their Itsekiri neighbours. During the week, representatives of communities in Gbaramatu-Ijaw kingdom, led by Chief Godspower Gbenekama, the Benemowei of the kingdom, re-echoed the position of the Ijaw groups in Warri Southwest Council Area. The stakeholders, who addressed a news conference in Warri, alleged deliberate exclusion of the Ijaw in the preparation and near take-off of the project.

    Gbenekama said outstanding issues must be resolved before the take-off.  Their number one case against the project is the appellation tagged on it; ‘EPZ Ogidigben’. Ogidigben is an Itsekiri community in Ugborodo and is one of the many communities providing the large expanse for the EPZ. Ijaw people’s problem with this name is that it presupposes that the project ‘belongs’ to the Itsekiri.

    According to the representatives of Gbaramatu kingdom, including Mr. Godwin Akori, Hon Mathew Diofelo, Mr. Williams Tortor, Dr. Clement Tonfawei, Odudu Edward, Lucky Bebenimibo, Edwin Ayetonghan, Tangbe Andrew and Orubu Emmanuel,  this development is both dubious and dangerous. They said it was a similar issue that gave rise to the bitter Ijaw/Itsekiri war of the past. They added that it is dubious because the Ijaw are contributing more of the land being used.

    The people, who accused the Delta State government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of playing games capable of reigniting the bitter  Ijaw/Itsekiri strife of 1997 to 2004, demanded that the state government must set up two more interface committees for both Gbaramatu and Ogulagha kingdoms, for the sake of equity and peace. According to the group, more than ten communities of Gbaramatu Kingdom would be losing land to the project.

    They said:  “It is pertinent to state that the site for the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) is spread across lands and communities belonging to both the Ijaw of Gbaramatu and Ogulagha kingdoms and the Itsekiri of Ugborodo community. In fact, one can safely say that about 70 per cent of the land belongs to the Ijaws, contrary to the impression being bandied about by the Itsekiri and the Delta State government, under Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who is an Itsekiri man.

    “While the purpose of this news conference is not to take up the case of the Ogulagha Ijaw, we state without fear of contradiction that the bulk of the land is provided by the Ijaw and over ten Gbaramatu Ijaw communities namely; Ikpokpo, Atanba, Opuede, Opuede Bubor, Tebijor/Okpelama, Okerenkokogbene, Gan-ama, Oporoza community land, New Jerusalem, Joula and several others are hosts to the project

    “The people of Ikpokpo community, which is the site for the proposed seaport and entry port to the proposed EPZ project, will suffer the most because its entire land will be swallowed up by the project. What this means is that Ikpokpo will cease to exist. The people will become homeless and strangers in other communities, while only the bushes and the peripheries of Ugborodo communities of Madangho, Ajudaibo and Ogidigben, which the project is now named after, will be affected.”

    The Itsekiri, on the other hand, have long buttressed their ownership of a large portion of the land, citing several landmark court judgments and documents. An Itsekiri group, Warri Study Group, in an advertorial in a national daily of June 13, further highlighted this. The group described the Ijaw as their customary tenants.

    Gbenekama debunked the claim, saying: “Most of these cases referred to by the Warri Study Group are still being litigated upon while a number of them have been remitted back to the appellate court for trial to commence de novo. One of the court cases is presently before the Court of Appeal in Benin Division.

    “If the Gbaramatu Kingdom is their tenants, how much tenement rate have they paid to the Itsekiri of Ugborodo or any other Itsekiri community for that matter? If we are their neighbours, where do these neighbours live? The Ijaw of Gbaramatu are tenants to nobody. These assertions are very provocative and enough to cause a breach of the pace we currently enjoy in the area.”

    Gbenekama said while the Ijaw are not claiming sole ownership of the lands for the EPZ, they want their due to be given them.

    “The name of the project must be changed from EPZ Ogidigben to another name that reflects the joint ownership of the Ijaw and Itsekiri in the project. We align with GIBABU, as suggestion by the Gbaramatu Traditional Council of Chiefs. We totally reject the present name because of past experiences and antics of the Itsekiri of Ugborodo in bastardising our communities’ name.

    “We demand that two interface committees be set up for the Ijaw of Gbaramatu and those of Ogulagha respectively. We have a 23-man committee in place to negotiate Gbaramatu interest in the EPZ project. The committee’s list and names of members have since been submitted to the Delta State government and the NNPC.

    “In the interest of peace and unhindered operation in the area, the NNPC should immediately open up channel of discussion with the various Ijaw groups, especially the host communities of Gbramatu kingdom. If the NNPC has its own secret agenda to sideline the Ijaw and Gbaramatu people in particular, they should be aware that we are prepared and they will not have an easy ride.

    “NNPC should change the name as suggested above and have an MOU with the communities of Gbaramatu Kingdom before groundbreaking ceremony of the project.

    “We also demand that Julius Berger Nigeria Limited, henceforth, stop its wicked divide-and-rule antics in the EPZ project and carry the Ijaw along in whatever they are doing. We have written several letters to them on our position and have so far refused to open a channel for discussion. Enough is enough,” they said.

    He added: “How can the place take off without our demands being met?  I am telling you that my grandfather’s grave will be no more. He was buried in Ikpokpo, the seaport into the EPZ, a community which has lost its entire land to this project and they didn’t deem it worthy of being immortalised by naming the project after it. Ikpokpo is the entry port into the project. How can it takeoff? It’s not possible. It’s possible for them not to listen to our demands, it’s not possible.”

    Dates had been set in the past for President Goodluck Jonathan to perform the groundbreaking ceremony, but it had been shelved because of these disagreements. And the way things are, it does not look that the issues can be sorted out anytime soon. So, the stalemate stays.

  • Uduaghan: ante-natal free in Delta

    Uduaghan: ante-natal free in Delta

    Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan has warned expectant mothers not to pay for ante-natal services in any state-owned hospital.

    The governor gave the warning yesterday at the Mother-and-Child Centre of the Central Hospital, Warri.

    He said: “Ante-natal services are free in government hospitals. You are not to give money to anybody, you should not make any payment, even if it requires operation, it is free and your children who are five years and below have free medical attention.

    “You must come here and deliver your babies. Do not register for ante-natal and when it is time for delivery, you will go to meet one woman because everybody (nurses) you see here are professionals.

    “Keep your regular appointments so that you will have safe delivery. You must immunise your children, you must breast feed them.”

  • Photo: Doctors strike across Nigeria

    Photo: Doctors strike across Nigeria

  • Lawmaker calls for free council polls in Delta

    Member representing Burutu North Constituency at the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon Daniel Yingi, has urged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to ensure free and fair local government election.

    He spoke at the formal declaration of intention by a PDP councillorship aspirant to contest the Seimbiri Ward in Okpokunou town, Burutu, also charged all aspirants to go about the contest like sportsmen.

    Yingi advised his party to allow free, fair and credible primaries, allowing every man with an aspiration to test his popularity in the open, thereby allowing the people to choose those they best trust to represent them at the grassroots level.

    According to him “I am appealing to leaders in various wards not to interfere with the forthcoming council polls in the state by imposing unpopular candidates on the people. Let there be a level playing ground for all aspirants to test their popularity with the people to allow them choose their grassroots leaders”.

    He also appealed to aspirants to play the game with love and develop the spirit of sportsmanship by accepting defeat without bitterness. “Everybody cannot win at the same time. There must be losers and winners in every election. If today is not your turn, tomorrow could be yours. Therefore, do not make it a do or die affair” he said.

    In his address, the PDP ward chairman, Kelvin Adamu, lauded the leadership qualities of Chief Daniel Yingi, Dr. Sunday Ezonfade and others who have joined him to rule smoothly without any trouble in Seimbiri over the years.

    He assured the party leadership to always be transparent in the conduct of ward party primaries. He pledged to play a level playing ground for all the aspirants to exercise their popularity on the primary election ground and vowed not to be intimidated with an imposition of aspirant on the party at the local level by godfathers.

  • Niger Delta power firm spreads wings

    Niger Delta power firm spreads wings

    Still basking in the successful completion of the first phase of the National Integrated Power Project, the Niger Delta Power Holding is on the march again as it unveils plans to build 16 Hydro-Power Plants under the second phase of the scheme, write Muyiwa Lucas and Bola Olajuwon.

    The nation’s power sector is upbeat. This is courtesy of a wind of change currently blowing across the sector. Touted to be a hydra-headed problem that had defiled all logic, the involvement of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) in the National Independent Power Project (NIPP) appears to have restored hope of steady power supply in the country soon. This is further accentuated by the successful privatisation of seven of the 10 thermal plants it constructed, for which payments amounting to $5.7 billion, representing 80 per cent of the proceed, has been completed.

    This development has further given hope to the federal government’s promise of realising 10, 000 megawatts (MW) by December 2014, since the 10 NIPPs are expected to generate additional 5,454mw to the current estimated 4,500mw.This makes the NDPHC one of the best decisions government had made in a very long time.

    Now, riding on the back of this success, the NDPHC is set for another giant stride as it recently unveiled a proposal to set up16 Hydro-Power Plants (HPPs), in Abuja, to kick-start the second phase of the NIPP, thereby bringing another vista of relief to the nation’s power industry. This initiative, stakeholders in the sector said, is a positive step considering that the country’s existing dams such as Kanji, Shiroro and others, have descended into deplorable conditions.The HPPs, which will be in three different categories of small, medium and large, will be located in 11 states of the country.

    NDPHC’s Managing Director, Mr. James Abiodun Olotu,disclosed that the new projects had been approved by the National Economic Council for implementation. Olotu’s confidence of a successful HPP is buoyed by the experience garnered by the NDPHC in executing the first phase of the NIPP and a better understanding of the industry.

    The large hydro-power plants are Mambilla Dam HPP in Taraba State, with a capacity of 3,050 mw; Gurara II Dam HPP in Niger State, with 369mw capacity, and the only medium HPP with 40mw capacity will be sited in Itisi Dam, Kaduna State.The small HPPs, which capacities range from 0.3 mw to 10 mw, are to be constructed in Oyan Dam (10mw) and Ikere-Goje HPP in Ogun State (6.0mw); Bakolori Dam HPP, Zamfara State (3.0mw); Challawa Dam HPP in Kano State (7.5mw); and Tiga Dam HPP, also in Kano (10mw).Others are Kampe Dam HPP in Kogi State (0.5mw); Owena Dam HPP in Ondo State (O.45mw); Doma Dam HPP in Nasarawa State (1.0mw); Zobe Dam HPP in Katsina State (0.30mw); and Jibia Dam HPP also in Katsina (4.0mw).

    Others are Katsina-Ala Dam HPP in Benue State (4.0mw); Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria Dam HPP and Jado Dam in Adamawa State.

    The capacities of the last two dams is yet to be finalised.This new initiative is already generating huge interest amongst energy experts, who reason that the new HPPs will bring succour to Nigerians after unenviable history of unimpressive state of current power supply.

    Already, funding for the HPP would not be a challenge, unlike what happened in the first phase of the scheme. This is because a significant percentage of the proceeds from the $5.7 billion from the sale of the thermal stations would be used to finance the HPP. Besides, the Federal Government also assured that it would invest $10 billion in collaboration with power sector private investors to build the new hydro-power stations in the phase two of NIPP. These funding, therefore, provides a good springboard for the launch of the HPP.

    Indeed, this feat has watered down the conflicting views on the HPP by other critical stakeholders in the industry.

    While opposition to the earlier project was intense, the disposition to the new plan is subtle with those averse to the current move insisting that the country does not have the capacity to build power plants without the involvement of multinational firms.

    Such fears are however understandable given the fact that indigenous public enterprises have a penchant for failing in the discharge of their mandate to the people.

    Tomiwa Sogunro, an energy consultant, however believes that for the NDPHC to achieve its full objective, especially with regard to the HPP, certain bottlenecks must be cleared. One of this is the pending litigations over the sale of the remaining three power plants.He is right.

    Three out of the 10 power plants constructed under the first phase are yet to be concluded by way of NCP and NDPHC joint board approval on the outcome of the financial bid results.

    The delay is caused by law suits filed by certain individuals and organisations over issues which could be sorted out administratively.

    Although progress has been made in the ongoing discussions to end the legal disputes, Sogunwa is of the opinion that the issues involved should be speedily settled possibly out of the court.”Both the litigants and the courts should weigh and sway all decisions in favour of the privatisation process, which has been nationally and globally adjudged to be free, fair and transparent.

    Since the interim injunction is not a perpetual order, it needs being revisited to put the conclusion of the three transactions on course. This will ensure that the ongoing reform in the power sector does not attract negative perception and reception, which could dent the image of the country before the international community,” he appealed.

    Raymond Okeke, a businessman, said government must retain the confidence of foreign investors, especially the World Bank and other international organisations, which have keyed into the power sector reforms, so as not to lose out in the long run, and bring the efforts made so far to zero.

    But still, there are challenges ahead for the NDPHC. One of this is the inadequate supply and payment for the input by the end users, that is, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN.

    This is constituting a clog in the wheel of progress in optimising the capacity of the NIPPs. While assurances have been given that gas supply hiccups to the power plants are being addressed by the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, stakeholders are canvassing that since NDPHC pays commercial rate for gas used in generating power for TCN and sell at a not too profitable rate, then government should restructure the tariff arrangement to meet current realities, where TCN pays for power received from NDPHC.

    Importantly, the TCN should also be ready to liquidate its over N36 billion debt on gas to NIPP, as a further boost to encouraging investment in the sector.

    This move, it is believed, will serve as a means of restoring investors’ confidence in the process. The NIPP was conceived in 2004 as a fast-track public sector funded initiative that would add significant new generation capacity to Nigeria’s electricity supply system along with the electricity transmission, distribution and natural gas supply infrastructure.

    The initiative was dogged by the lack of confidence based on the country’s lack of experience in building thermal plants powered by gas. But government kept faith and the results are trickling in.

  • ‘Why Delta won’t stop demolishing illegal structures’

    ‘Why Delta won’t stop demolishing illegal structures’

    Delta State Commissioner of Environment Chief Frank Omare was the guest at the maiden edition of the ‘Searchlight on the State of the State’ hosted by the Warri Correspondent Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ). He fielded questions from reporters. BOLAJI OGUNDELE was there.

    What alternative places have you made for those displaced (during the demolition exercise) considering the economic hardship and what are you doing about some of your men alleged to be collecting bribes?

    We cannot allow people to continue to block government roads because they are poor, because they don’t have the means to have shops. If we do, they will just take over the whole place.

    Abroad, we have open market on Sundays, we are not against that. But the culture of continuing to block our roads, we should discourage it in its entirety. Who is a poor man? We have provided markets, let them go into those markets and start trading. As soon as you enter Sapele, there is a market, but half of the market is a dump site, another half is abandoned.

    The issue of bribe, he who alleges must prove. Why did you give bribe? It is because you are doing something wrong. If one is giving bribe, we have the social media, you can snap us, as we are taking the bribe. We are going to comb round again before the structures will take over. So, when you are building a block store where we have removed a caravan, you will tell us who gave you that approval. We mustn’t promote sentiment. Government policies and ideologies are always minority ideologies. Let us know that what government has put in place on the long run is the majority ideology.

    Delta State Forest Reserve has been encroached by a lot of them. What the ministry wants to do by next week we are using the media to inform that all those forest reserves that have been encroached upon by Deltans and non-Deltans should be evacuated immediately. If you go to Sapele Forest reserve, it is as if government does not own a land there. Why should you be building on government property? If you go to Agbor, Asaba, it’s all over and I cannot fold my hands. I will take the bullets on behalf of you; Deltans and the government of Delta State. Government must make a decision and government must take a position.

    Garbage removed from the gutters is beginning to litter the main roads, defacing Warri, what are you going to do about it?

    Government is not a charity organisation, you generate waste, you dump them in front of your gutters and you are asked to evacuate them. You should be punished for doing that. Thank God the governor of Delta state has taken the bold step in the area of environment.

    Some of the affected victims of the 2012 flooding have complained that they have not been given anything. Is this correct and what is the Delta state government doing in respect of the recent flood predicted for the Niger Delta Region?

    We have swamp boogies in the Delta South and Central Area, opening channels to major rivers. That is why after one hour of heavy rainfall, you see that all areas are flowing. That is one serious area the state government has been working on in the past three years.

    Secondly, if the money doesn’t get to you as the community leader, you will claim that nothing has happened, it is not charity money. I know the Chairman of the committee, Rtd Justice Tabai and I can vouch that they have done a thorough job and have reported to the government of Delta state. I am sure and I am happy that my governor did not touch the money. He set up a committee and released the money to the committee.

    We understand that one particular ethnic group is more affected in the demolition of the royal cemetery. Is that true?

    I don’t know which ethnic group. I am an Ijaw man, I am not commissioner of Ijaw ethnic nationality, I am a Commissioner of Delta State and I am given an assignment of the Delta state government, so it can affect any ethnic group or the Nigerian society. The most important question is if what Omare-led team has done is against the law. If it is not then what is the issue? As a matter of government policy, my recommendation after the task work is that those people who have laboured government and used taxpayers’ resources be arrested and prosecuted.

    Uvwie market has become a recurring decimal, what are you going to do about it? The Jigbale market still remains and caravans are still around, can Warri be clean?

    The attitude of the people has propelled me to do what I should do. You are aware that overtime I have gone to the Uvwie market, if you want a financial quantification of what government has put in to clean that place, it is enough to build this house, and there will be change. But what has happened, the people are adamant. They say, ‘this is our culture, our tradition’, and thank God the paramount ruler of Uvwie and other prominent people of Uvwie have condemned their actions.

    There is what we call the helicopter factor; when there is problem and you have tried all you can and it keeps returning. When twenty women, claiming poverty as excuse, will be matched to the Okere High College (Okere Prisons), they will know that government is serious, but that is what government is trying to avoid.

    Please, I want you to educate and tell them, so that tomorrow, they won’t ask me, ‘did you tell them’? They should stop embarrassing the people of Uvwie. Uvwie people are clean people. I have been there on market days, when they see me, they behave, but when I’m not there, they come out. Jigbale market and caravans, we are coming.

    Is the task force only for demolition of illegal structures and street trading? In some places, we see traders using umbrellas, what are you doing about it?

    The position of the task force is not for only illegal structures, we cart away waste. It is sad that people are just wicked to the government. Ask this, the efforts of Omare and his team, are they not enough for people to behave well? We are putting structures in place, even though it is slow.

    Some persons have admitted to doing wrong against the environment.

  • Ukah’s odyssey from hockey pitch to politics

    Ukah’s odyssey from hockey pitch to politics

    Ex-hockey international and immediate past President of Nigeria Hockey Federation (NHF), Mr. Patrick Ukah, recently celebrated his 50th birthday in Lagos. The entrepreneur, who started off with N2500 in 1973, speaks with TAIWO ALIMI on his experience as a sportsman, entrepreneur and more recently, politician.  

    Beginning

    I was born some 50 years ago on April 10, in Jos, so I can consider myself as one of the set of Nigerians called ‘The Jos Boys.’ I was born into the Ukah family in Okpanam in Udemili North LG of Delta State. Incidentally, my mum is also from the same local government. When the Civil War broke out, we went back to the village and somehow I found myself in Agbor with my mum’s older sister. So I grew up in Agbor and Auchi, schooled in Ife, Osun State and now I’m working in Lagos. I have some siblings (Tony, Chukwuma, Judith and Victor). I am married to Barrister Perp Ukah with three kids, Afoma, who is studying in the UK now, Funaya and Chukwumaziepele Patrick Ukah (Jnr). That is my simple and God-fearing Catholic family.

    I am, of course, an ardent hockey player, a game I love very much but because of the speed I can’t play it again, which made me to switch to golf. I love my golf too and how I wish I made contact with it at a very early age. For me, golf is it and my whole life revolves around it but that does not mean that I still don’t get around doing things in the area of hockey.

    Hockey

    Hockey caused a turnaround in my life and I am most appreciative to hockey. Way back in 1973, I was in Auchi at the All Saints Primary School and I was watching the television when I saw my cousin, Kenneth Adigwu, who was taking part in the march past for the Bendel Sports Festival and I began to wonder what life would be after finishing schooling. I was quite moved because he also started playing in Auchi under a coach called Benedith Epese. That made me take to the game and I made contact with some coaches then; Ben Ogiri, Vincent Osunde, who were coaches I met at an early age when I was in primary school. Because I was determined, I quickly surpassed even my expectations. Hockey became one game that showed me that I could actually go beyond home just doing sports in the school and the neighbourhood because I was a good footballer, played cricket, did sprint and high jump. I was an all-rounder and I think my daughter is taking after me. Within a short time, I became an integral part of the school and junior hockey and in 1975 was called to the junior camp.

    I think in 1979, the late Christian Okoh was the Bendel State hockey chief coach, and the list for the state hockey team to report to camp was released. I was not in it and I became quite upset. That was really when I started testing my faith in God. So, every morning after the usual prayer, I would go aside and pray to God and tell him I have to be in that camp. I am 50 now, so you can imagine in 1979 what was going through my mind. Miraculously as coach Okoh was going to resume camp, he came all the way from Benin, stopped at Auchi and told my mum’s older sister that I have been invited to the state camp and must go with him. So that was how the journey of Patrick Ukah started in big time hockey. Unfortunately, I was among the last set of players to be decamped but the experience of that camping really touched me and after that my life was never the same again. I later played in the Sports Festival for many states aside Bendel, like Oyo and Lagos states.

    And it was like that till 1983, when I received my first national call up and that was in the National Stadium Lagos. I wore the national colours and, like they say, the rest is history.

    I also played for many clubs, but the height of hockey club action was to play for Union Bank, which was like the model for hockey clubs then. I was working in the Nigerian Railways and played for the Union Bank hockey team. I was working in the audit department and was preparing to go to the university and would have qualified for study leave when Union Bank came, so I chose to resign my appointment with the Nigerian Railways because if I took the study leave I had to remain playing for them. So, in order not to lose that opportunity of playing for the Union Bank I submitted my letter of resignation. And from that year, 1983, Union Bank became the crack team and the team to beat. If you have not played for them you have not played hockey club in Nigeria. Union Bank used to travel all over the country to play big teams like Bauchi Flickers, Kano Flickers and El Kanemi Warriors to create awareness for hockey and many people would troop out to watch us and top Nigerians, like former governor Buba Marwa, Senator Buka Ibrahim and Senator Abdul Ningi, the current president of Nigeria Hockey Federation, were involved actively in the clubs. If you look at the growth of hockey that time you will be amazed. We travelled all over the country and hockey league was played on home-and-away basis. It was very popular.

    What I am saying in relation to my life is that hockey exposed me and prepared me for my interest in politics. It kindled my interest at an early age because I saw Nigeria in diversity. At an early age, I had gone to the nooks and crannies of this country and that got me prepared for politics even as a young man and it was hockey. All the places I have travelled to in the world – Europe, America – hockey exposed me to them and I am better for it today because with my background I may probably not have been able to go to all these places.

    Golf

    I would say that what hockey started in my life golf completed it. Golf tells your life story on a daily basis. It is a game of life. And that your life story, it’s either you learn from it and rectify or it would continue to punish you. So you learn every day. It is not that golf is, however, taking me away from hockey but I say what makes one complete in life is what golf has come to top up.

    Football

    I am also an ardent football supporter. If you like, take Bendel Insurance to Division 2, it is the number one club in Nigeria. And no matter the heart ache Arsene Wenger is giving us, Arsenal is my club any day. But as a sportsman, I love Real Madrid and Barcelona any day. But when they are both playing I don’t like one team to intimidate the other. So if you win one, let the other win also. And that is why I like the fact that Real won the Champions League.

    NHF President

    As president of the Nigeria Hockey Federation, I was happy but not as fulfilled as I would have loved to be, because as president I must have done certain things that some quarters did not like; but it was simply for the good of the game and nothing else. And throughout my tenure, history can tell that I grew a pattern. I brought in International Energy Insurance (IEI) and for four years we had the IEI League and you can look forward to it year in year out. With the little we got, we ensured that we did the Savannah Conference, Atlantic Conference and the national final. Then we did the Top Four. We got the players engaged and kept the calendar a bit busy and all we needed to do was step it up. I have done my bit and I know Senator Ningi, my friend and brother, will equally do his best. My only regret is that we never had the opportunity to play the Olympic qualifiers.

    Entrepreneur ability

    I would say I am a good example of what an SME stands for in Nigeria. My experience everyday tells me that if the government can actually look at how the SMEs can survive in this country, we can solve the problem of employment. Not paying lip service. There are lots of companies like us who have suffered with good ideas, who have suffered because of lack of support and who have suffered because of the policies that are existing; the capitalist policies that are existing and that have not helped us to grow.

    In 1994, my company was incorporated but I actually started pushing in 1993. I started by sharing office with two good friends – Demola Seriki and Tayo Akinkumi. Tayo used to have a company called Ventolite Ventures while I had Ventolite Sports Management Consultant. How did I arrive here? In the beginning, while in school, I desperately wanted to read law, so for so many years I did not get into the university because I did not meet the cut-off for law. Each year they would give me admission to study Physical and Health Education and I was turning it down. That was when I was working at the Nigerian Railways. I had some friends at the University of Ife and they were always telling me that I should sign up because God may just have a plan for me in that area, one of them is Segun Ogunnaike. So I ended up studying Physical and Health Education.

    When I finished it, I went for my Masters (MBA) and I chose Marketing; a case study of Guinness. How do we go beyond CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and how can we add value to corporate organisations’ participation in sports? was my final thesis. That has been in my heart and it is a problem that those of us in sports administration and business have not been able to trigger the various big-spending companies in Nigeria. It is either we are not thinking or we have no value to give. So I started thinking how the involvement of these companies in sports sponsorship can increase their bottom-line. You see that what is going on in this country is corporate bodies spending based on CSR. For example, check out Coca Cola and the World Cup. Any venue of the World Cup will have Coca Cola sales and it is going to be exclusive. On the long run, let us check the sales of Coca Cola over a period of time in association with FIFA and compare it with the World Cup budget and also compare it with the top of the mind that would come with it. So Nigerian sports have not been able to do that and that is the thing that drove me towards that area. So I saw this vacuum and fashioned my ideas and company to filling it.

    That further drove me to Lagos Business School where I did the Executive Programme and that changed my whole line of thinking. So what we do at Ventolite is marketing, using sports as a strategy.

    I started Ventolite with N2500, my monthly salary at Ripples as a manager, and I was so determined that I would make a difference. I remember that time that I went to meet Segun Odegbami in the prospect of doing it together with him. He looked at me when I finished speaking and said, ‘Patrick, I am doing a similar thing; if I was not, I would join you.’ But he encouraged me. Ventolite has done a lot with Guinness, Promasidor, Primary Sports Festival, JSK, Cadbury, Ogbe Hard Court and others I cannot remember now. There was no time anybody brought one big money into Ventolite, we just came as an SME with ideas, struggling, using who you know, keep pushing and you are lucky when you have a job. But it’s been difficult expanding the business because raising fund for an SME is difficult in Nigeria. It could be better if government can help us more.

    Look at a scenario where a bank has the authority to give up to a million naira (N1m) and you have to be able to pay in every 30 days interval. You find out that it is not easy because we are not selling tomatoes, where you can make your money on a daily basis. Some brands may not even pay you until 60 days.

    Politics

    Years back, Elder Solomon Ogba, the Delta State Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) told me to try and participate in the state’s politics and I just shrugged it off. But they say the time you wake up is your morning, I’ve woken up and I’m participating and will continue to participate to bringing change in my state. We need to pay more attention to the issue of governance. My kind of politics is like a philosophy and it is hinged on what the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, said: ‘Never be seen to be seating on the fence, be seen to be a participant.’ The problem we are having is because we don’t take active interest in governance, if we do, some of our bad leaders will not get away with what they do. Unrepentantly I’m a PDP member and my grassroots is my ward. I have run for election before; that is not foreclosed and when the time is ripe I will offer my services again. What is more important now is that in Delta State, let’s complete equity and fairness. I would be happy at 50 years plus to see a very credible person with integrity and love for Delta State, a peaceful man from Anioma extraction, become the next governor of Delta State. It is my wish and the birthday present I want and we are working towards it and it will happen. The other thing I would say is to appeal to my brothers from the Central and South that there is no contest about it; we have been able to produce our leader James Ibori from the Central, Governor Emmanuel Uduagha from the Central, can’t we see the solution of equity and fairness almost completed in an Anioma man being given the opportunity and after that anybody can be a governor of Delta State. It would be unfair for anybody to want to deny the Anioma people this opportunity. We are not saying we can do it alone. What we are saying is let’s be accommodated because we have also supported our brothers to rule Delta State. We have great brains that can do it too. For my own people, we should make sure we do not heat up the polity by thinking it is a do-or-die thing and let us pray to God that it will go in a most peaceful way.a