Owelle Rochas Okorocha rode to power as governor of Imo State in 2011 on a wave of popular mandate. To justify the support of the electorate, he had to go the extra mile to bring democracy dividends to the people. In this interview with RAYMOND MORDI and NDIDI OKODILI, the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain speaks on a wide range of issues, particularly on why he has succeeded where others failed.
You just signed an agreement that ceded 70 per cent of revenue accruing to the state to workers. How is your government going to survive with the remaining 30 per cent?
I think this may perhaps be the only way out for many states weighed down with the burden of growing recurrent expenditures, not just Imo State. The agreement is a settlement for the imagined dispute – for there was really no dispute; we merely suspended non-productive workers, to get them to take their jobs seriously. So, they were not sacked, as widely reported.
What we did was to introduce the concession policy into the healthcare sector, having tried it at the Imo Concorde Hotel, which is now a five-star hotel; at water board, which it has worked successfully; at the Imo Palm Plantation, where it is working fine; and at the new diagnostic hospitals, where it is also working well. In fact, we belief the only way this state can survive is by introducing private sector spirit into the public sector. This is because in our culture, we don’t believe in government property; that is why we always want them destroyed all the time; patriotism is not in our people and it is only when people buy into it one way or the other that you achieve positive results.
But, when labour leaders felt that the policy was leading to the sacking of workers, they invited their leaders at the national level to come here, saying we were going to sack all the workers. It is not true. I told them that bringing back this people will not auger well for the system, because some of them do not contribute anything to the system. I am not opposed to their coming back; my problem is that I did not want to use tax payers’ money to continue to pay people who are not productive. But, since they fell under the category of civil and public servants, we can now share the resources of our land to take care of recurrent and capital expenditure. So, we agreed that all incomes that come in – be it internally generated revenue (IGR) or subvention from the Federation Account – must be shared into two, with labour taking 70 per cent and Imo State Government will take 30 per cent. We have a total workforce of 40,000. In other words, 40,000 people will take 70 per cent of the resources, while the remaining 4,960,000 will take the outstanding 30 per cent. I will make do with the remaining 30 per cent to finish up all my projects. In fact, with the 30 per cent, I will make Imo State better than it is today. So, I think it is a win-win situation. But, I hope they will be satisfied with their 70 per cent. It is a challenge; it will help them to work hard. It means that there salary will no longer be fixed; because the resources fluctuates and they will have to share it to go round. So, it is not correct that labour defeated the state government and it signed the agreement under pressure.
The truth is that I am pursuing what is in the interest of our people. We must begin to readjust our priorities. In fact, I’m worried that the only factory that works in this state is the stomach factory. Anywhere you see smoke rising, it must be one from pepper soup, smoke from goat meat and smoke from suya. There is no smoke from factories or industrial establishments. So, we are virtually eating up our future and the future of children yet unborn, by diverting all our resources to recurrent expenditures. We must make sacrifices now to make the future better.
Before now, what has been the ratio of recurrent to capital expenditure? Secondly, how are you going to survive on what will accrue to government coffers?
We have tried in our previous budgets to have 65 per cent recurrent and 35 per cent capital. But, we never achieved that ratio. In most cases, we end up with 81 per cent recurrent and 19 per cent capital. So, it has been a problem. In recent times, we did not even achieve 10 per cent capital, because the bailouts we received went into payment of salaries. So, with the 30 per cent, I will be able to pursue my capital projects, because I didn’t have such in the past four years. Cumulatively, the state must have earned about N285 billion in four years. Out of that amount, I could not lay my hands on N40 billion. Yet, I was able to build seven general hospitals with 100 beds each; one thousand kilometres of rural roads; 200 kilometres of 60 dualised roads (federal roads); 205 schools being built; total transformation of the city of Owerri; and of course free education at all levels. So, you can imagine if I had N200 billion in my coffers in four years, Imo State will have been totally transformed.
How did you manage to achieve all these?
It is like squeezing water out of rock. It is by applying wisdom and making sure that we monitor all projects on a regular basis. I think I have visited projects in the state more than all the governors that came before me put together. I can describe the level of completion of every project. I negotiate my contracts; I know what it costs to execute various types of projects, so I negotiate to get a good bargain. If I go by the normal way of executing contracts in Nigeria, our projects would gulp much more resources. Again, I’ve blocked all the loopholes of corruption and I have reduced personal funds; I don’t security votes. I’m proud to say that in the remaining four years, I will showcase thousands of projects; not boreholes, but serious projects that can only be commissioned by the President. If you come to Imo State then, you’ll miss your way.
What do you consider the prospects and challenges facing the state going forward?
I’m working as if there would be no governor after me. No governor will come and begin to think of building hospitals; adequate hospitals have been built. No governor will want to build schools; there are enough schools to service all the communities. The incoming governor can only renovate existing schools. No governor will come and build another Government House; I have put up a befitting one, including a governor’s lodge. I’m building two flyovers in strategic locations; no governor will build such again in the near future. I’ve taken care of traffic problems for the next 20 years, by opening up more roads; the current network of roads will serve the state well.
The only job that may be left for incoming governors will be to do more rural roads; even though we have done over a thousand kilometers of such roads. He will also have to battle with the issue of free education, because that is the only project that will continue to consume resources. We are building three universities at the moment. We have a college of education and one polytechnic. By the grace of God, if we complete all the projects we have in mind by the time we are handing over, the new governor will just come and ride on the glory of success. As I speak to you now, I am building an international cargo airport. We are hoping that international cargo will be coming to the state from all over the world. Besides, Imo State has the largest concentration of gas in Nigeria, apart from Bayelsa. But, the state has challenges because it is little landmass. Imo has solid surface where you can build structures that can make use of gas. So, we are building an industrial park, which will be a revolution that will turn Imo into China or Dubai in about 10 to 15 years. In the nearest future, Imo State does not need to go cap in hand, begging for subvention from the Federal Government. What we are doing now is just laying the foundation.
What are the challenges you expect in achieving what you have enumerated?
Well, I’ve been able to stop certain evil practices in government, like godfatherism, which has always kept every governor in bondage. So, godfatherism is gone. Two; government of a few for a few is gone in Imo State forever. The challenges are many, but quite a number of them have been dealt with; just a little thing here and there left. The issue of security has also been dealt with. If you recall, in the time past, the incidence of kidnapping and armed robbery were very high. All that are gone now, because of the measures we took, such as the setting up of Community Watch, a security network where we use the locals to catch the locals. That has worked tremendously and Imo is very peaceful day.
The only challenge I see is the fast growing population of Imo State. The state capital, Owerri, is the fastest growing city in Nigeria, outside Lagos. A lot of people are relocating to the city because of the infrastructure we have put in place; if you go round, over 500 houses, duplexes and hotels under construction at the moment. That would tell you the state of the economy of Imo State. There’s going to be a population explosion in the future, so we are going to up our game on related issues like security and waste management.
What’s your assessment of President Buhari so far?
President Buhari is doing what he was elected to do. Talking about the achievements of Buhari, one should look beyond infrastructural achievements. What Buhari has come to do is to sanitise this nation and he is doing it well by stabilizing the entire system, creating the basic foundation that successive governments will build on. We know that government is step by step. For now, the nation is wearing a new look, people now look at us differently outside the shores of the country. We are no longer moved by mere economic indices theoretically propounded in the past; we are now facing the realities of the time. Buhari will stabilize this country and from what we have seen so far he is doing that already. I don’t want to talk about things like power and water. Those are given, once there is good leadership, they will come on their own.
Given the drop in revenue and many states cannot pay salaries, what is the way forward for Nigeria?
To look inwards! Is there any state in Nigeria that cannot operate as a country, if allowed to do so? There are countries that are less than two million people in Europe. Why must we go cap in hand, begging every month for allocation from the centre? I think that’s an insult, making governors look like cashiers. The current situation will compel everyone to develop the resources in their states and create jobs, without depending on the Federal Government. That’s how I feel. I, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, have been successful in my business. Why won’t I succeed, as the chief executive of my state with over five million workforce.
We must decentralize authority and now is the time to do it. For instance, Lagos is a big state with a big IGR, so it can afford to increase salaries of workers. But, don’t take the same template to Zamfara State or Ebonyi State, because they do not have the same capacity. In the same vein, you cannot compel Imo State to pay the salaries paid in Lagos or elsewhere in the country. Such things should be allowed to evolve naturally.
Successive governments have been speaking of diversification of the economy and of the decentralization you’ve just spoken about. Why is it that they’ve not been able to achieve it?
It is because Nigerians have not been pushed to the wall. As an individual, when your parents are still alive and doing well, you might not see the reason to struggle. One of my prayers is for our oil to finish, so we can face realities. Oil does not speak a poor man’s language: it talks in dollars. So, our oil-based economy is one managed by outsiders, because dollars is a foreign currency. The key players in the industry are foreigners, we are just mere spectators. The only industry that speaks the naira language is agriculture; it is only when we come back to agriculture that a good number of Nigerians can be involved as key players. I want the oil price to fall beyond its present level, so that Nigerians can go back to the basis, which is agriculture.
The perception is that the Igbo are not in the mainstream of national politics for now. How will this affect the quest for Igbo presidency in 2019?
I am not comfortable with the idea of Igbo presidency, Hausa presidency or Yoruba presidency. I’m just tired and sick of hearing it. If we want to talk about presidency, let us talk about Nigerian presidency and he or she can come from any part of the country, as long as he is able to put food on the table of the common man. The same thing applies to governorship; the time has come when we should stop zoning the governorship to one part of a state or the other. Let the man with a lot vision and passion come forward for leadership, irrespective of his tribe and religion.
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo has been factionalised in recent times and this has affected the leadership of Igbos. How relevant is Ohanaeze at the moment?
I’m making frantic efforts to resolve the crisis in Ohanaeze. For the Igbos, Ohanaeze is very key. It is like an umbrella body for the entire Igbo nation. It is like when a wife and the children try to run faster than the husband/father in a household.
