Samson Raphael Osagie is the APC member representing Uhunmwonde/Orhionmwon Federal Constituency and the Minority Whip of the House of Representatives. He spoke with Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia on the challenges facing the Niger Delta Ministry, his obligations and abandoned constituency projects and why he believes he should be the next senator representing Edo South at the Senate come 2015 after spending almost 16 years as a lawmaker in the state and National Assembly. Excerpts:
Some of the constituency projects you reportedly initiated have packed up. A typical case is the borehole project in your community, Uruokhuosa in Uhunmwonde Local Government Area. Please tell us what went wrong?
Because of lack of maintenance, the borehole is not working as at today but I can tell you that when it was commissioned, it was in a good working condition. I mean the citizens really appreciated it. I had to take the responsibility of maintaining it by providing diesel to run it for up to four years. As at 2006, I wrote the local government council at Ehor to take it over. I think what the council did was to buy diesel once. I tried to engage the community to take it over for maintenance – servicing it and buying diesel. It was just one of the many that I initiated in the locality as a constituency project and it was going to be difficult for me to continue to maintain them on a personal level on a permanent basis. Even when I advanced money to community leaders for this purpose, it was mismanaged and that is why the borehole is in the state it has found itself today. So the borehole I sank as a member of the Edo State Assembly has finally packed up. I have boreholes in two communities near Uruokhuosa. For one of them, the community took the responsibility for the borehole maintenance and employed somebody for the purpose and I can tell you that apart from my initial support they have never called me for maintenance. So for Uruokhuosa, at the time the borehole came, the community which is my father’s community had no water. So it was their felt need at the time. It still is. I have personally spent money to sink three additional boreholes in the community with support from Benin-Owina River Development Authority to no avail. I am working on a fourth one.
Cast your mind back to the Benin Abraka road project which is very critical to your constituency. You have been in the National Assembly for over half a decade and your predecessor glossed over the bad state of the road. What efforts have you made to get this road rehabilitated? At a time we heard contract was awarded but as we speak work is yet to commence on the road project. What is really the situation on the road?
I initiated the Benin – Abraka road with a colleague of mine when I was on the committee on Niger Delta Affairs; when the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs was created. It was on the same day we initiated the development of the Gelegele seaport. We decided to include the development of the seaport in the first budget of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. But before the budget was concluded, I sought the consent of my colleague to quickly include the expansion of the Benin-Abraka road. I did this because I feared if at the end of the day the Government failed to execute the project, we would not have lost out completely. And I was justified at the end of one year. We put N500 million for the seaport and I asked for a N100 million for the design of the dualization of the Benin – Abraka road. At the end of the year, the Ministry said the seaport was outside their purview. Instead, they wanted to design the road. Luckily for us, the following year, Orhionmwon got a Minister in Chris Ogiemwonyi and I went to him and told him all about the road. He was Minister of State for Works. Shortly after his appointment I left the PDP for the ACN and with his intervention, contract for the road was awarded. The problem with the road is that the Ministry of Niger Delta is almost a failed ministry. I have written severally to them because they have refused to mobilise the contractors to site. Its even more painful that late President Yar’Adua created the ministry and the amnesty programme to douse the tension in the Niger Delta and the Presidency is now headed by a Niger Deltan, yet the ministry is not being properly funded. They fund the amnesty office rather than the ministry which mandate is to carry out development project in the Niger Delta region. As at today you can’t point vividly to the achievements of that ministry.
What guarantees are there that the plight of the Benin-Abraka road would not be replicated on the Benin-Akure-Ifon?
The Benin-Akure-Ifon road is under the Federal Ministry of Works. And I think its situation will be different because the current Minister is from Edo. In the case of the Abraka road, it was not directly under Ogiemwonyi’s ministry but the Niger Delta. So he needed to beg his colleague minister for the contract to be awarded. Continuing with the job when he has left office became a problem. Do you know that this road was on the 2012 budget of this same Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs for the sum of N1billion. The man just refused to fund or award the contract. Orubebe was Minister for Niger Delta then. He just refused and I discussed with him before saying I have this project. So the point I am trying to make it that lack of funding is what is defeating our projects and that is why you have a lot of abandoned projects all over the place. I had to approach the Minister for Works and his initial commitment and the flag off thereafter is an indication that this is one road that will not go the same way like the Benin – Abraka road.
I presume that every Nigerian who is part of your constituency should elicit your concern or rather sympathy or empathy. In 2011, Engineer Ayo Omorogbe was shot and killed as he aspired to contest the seat of House of Representatives which you now occupy. Have you by any chance extended an olive branch to his family ever since?
Before he died, I recall recommending him for appointment into the NDDC. And when he was going to marry I was called and I attended the marriage. When he had a baby I recall he came to me and I also gave him some money, thank God it was a cheque. It is still a painful thing until today. His death is as painful as my being fingered in the allegation. I find it curious each time I think about it, how I could possibly go to the family and give assistance. Because if a man I assisted so much, I could be fingered during his death, of what significance would my intervention – how will my intention to assist the family be interpreted? It will be misconstrued. It’s a very painful thing and there is nothing I could have done in the circumstance. Although some of the family members have come to apologise to me because they now know the truth. But that does not mean that it is not one matter that I feel worried and concerned about.
You once raised the issue of a Nigerian who was killed in Spain at the National Assembly. Was it because he was a member of your constituency?
Let me say that as we speak the recognition and the awareness that we now have about the role of government in the welfare of citizens, especially those abroad, can be traced to that motion I moved in July 2007, barely one month I was elected into office. Osamuyi Aikpifanyi was a member of my constituency in the first place. He was a Nigerian from Edo State. He was one of those youths who left Nigeria to overseas in search of greener pastures. He died at the point of deportation. The impetus I had to take up his matter in the National Assembly was the circumstances surrounding his death. My investigations was that he was to be deported in a very dehumanising condition. He was not a thief but was alleged to have violated immigration regulations and was to be deported. He was put in a sack and it would have been better to put him in prison. They were going to carry him as a cargo and he died. Cognizance of the fact that there are many of our people living abroad, I used the motion to draw national attention to this incident to show to the world that we are an endangered species.
Are you disturbed about the lingering crisis on the Edo/Delta border, involving Iguelaba/Jesse residents? What have you done in this regard?
The issue of Iguelaba/Jesse crises and the problem of oil well in Edo being credited to Delta State or any other for that matter has been on for quite a while. I recall that the two state governments have engaged each other over the issue, however it goes down to the politics of oil exploration. The worrisome aspect of it is that oil flow stations are located in Delta State whereas the oil wells are located in Edo. It is basically technological; this politics I talk about as oil companies tell you that the they cannot site flow stations here in Edo because the quantity of oil is not enough compared to Delta so they are forced to transport them, using pipelines there. Now the policies of the revenue is different. This is supposed to be part of the duties of the Revenue Mobilization and Final Commissioner. Unfortunately, states are not their brothers’ keeper. In the past, it used to be that in order to decline your oil revenue, you must be influential. Recall the episode between Cross Rivers and Akwa-Ibom and how the four lost over 76 oil wells, making Akwa-Ibom the richest state in Nigeria today.There are several issues involving Deltans and Edolites who have lived together and have lived peacefully.
I believe Delta people in the locality must respect existing traditional boundary lines. This is the key to resolving the crisis. The point I am making is that we must have a defined boundary between Edo and Delta. The crises has become endemic and encroachment is persistent because of the oil revenue. The National Boundary Commission has done a lot in this regard but the parties are not accepting and abiding with the decisions reached. What is needed in for all stakeholders to agree on the way forward.
Some are of the opinion that having been in politics as a lawmaker for 16 years by 2015 you should aspire to serve as governor not as a senator. What is your take on this?
I believe that God gives power and if you look at the history of how people emerge as governors, it is either they were not prepared for it or by divine providence. I am not averse to becoming Governor of Edo State but right now it is not my ambition, I can’t tell about the future. At this time, I will be more comfortable crowning my legislative career as a Senator. I have had the rare privilege among the lot since 1999 among all those we started together of being the only one in Edo South Senatorial district still making laws for our people. I believe it is not a bad idea to advance this career to the highest level, more so when I have become so experienced in the parliament. If I get to the Senate I will get precedence over a number of persons who will come and meet me there; even former governors in terms of law-making. Because I am not just a member of the House of Representatives, I am a Principal Officer of the House. And that comes with a lot of advantages for my constituency. One, given the experience and ranking, I would have more privileges of becoming a committee chairman or a Principal Officer that can attract more development to my constituency. I have attributed more development in the last three years as a Principal Officer than the previous twelve years at the State House of Assembly and the House of Representatives as a legislature. That is the truth, it is politics of the parliament. So it is to the advantage of my Senatorial District that among the lot asking for it, there is none that has my record. Some may have served three tenures in the House of Representatives but to the extent that they were not part of the Leadership cadre of the House, they cannot have the same kind of experience and expertise that I have.
Many of your opponents say your district in the Benin zone has produced two Senators in Danjuma and Owie and that it is the turn of old Oredo/Egor/Ikpoba Okha, this time around. Do you agree?
Democracy does not discriminate against the constitutional right of any citizen to contest for a public office. You cannot say that because my forefather was a senator, I cannot aspire to be a senator. In America, from where we copied our democracy, the Bush family, a father and a son were Presidents of the United States. The point I want to make is that it was coincidental that Daisy Danjuma and Senator Roland Owie were Senators and hailed from Uhumwonde. There was no time Edo South people sat down and decided that Uhunmwonde should produce the Senator. There was no time they also decided that Uzamere should be Senator. Otherwise, the time Uzamere left Oredo for Ovia, he would have lost it. He would have become unqualified. While opponents will like to use that as a point against me, my message to Edo South people is we cannot sacrifice merit on the altar of zoning otherwise you will produce morons, mediocre, at the expense of excellence. So I am qualified, I have all it takes. I am more experienced to be the Senator for Edo South in 2015. I am yet to hear those who are aspiring say, they are more qualified than me.
