2015: Jonathan made no commitment to the North – Orubebe

on MAY 13, 2012 · in POLITICS

By WALE AKINOLA

The Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, joins the debate on whether or not President Goodluck Jonathan should seek re-election in 2015, saying the issue is for Nigerians to decide. The minister also speaks on the mandate of his ministry, Boko Haram and the politics of his home state, Delta.

Can you identify some of your achievements as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs?
Our mandate as given by this government is to fast track development in the Niger Delta and coordinate developmental activities in the region and provide a new thinking, new frameworks on the way forward for peace and security in the Niger Delta. That was why when the ministry was created the first thing we did was to work with all the security agencies, the state governors and local government chairmen to bring to pass the current peace we are enjoying in the Niger Delta.

The ministry led the delegation, went round all the creeks of the Niger Delta and eventually amnesty came. Today, every Nigerian knows about the benefits of amnesty as a programme. As a ministry, we have also put up a programme for youths generally in the region, providing some sorts of engagement for the non-militant youths in the Niger Delta and so far about 721 youths are being trained within and outside the country, some in oil and gas, some in maritime, some in agriculture, tourism and ICT.

Now talking about the East/West Road, it is a project that was awarded in 2006 and then it was in the hands of the Federal Ministry of Works. But by 2009, the government felt that there was need to fast track the completion of the project. Subsequently, the project was transferred to our ministry. As at that time, it was 10 per cent completion but a lot of things were not right with the project, it was when we took over that the issues of designing and feasibility study were taken care of. The budgeting for the project started effectively from 2009. That is why as a ministry we have backlog of liabilities and activities concerning the road. But today, the project has budget head and Mr. President has directed that it has to be completed by December 2014.

Right now, most of the youths from the Niger Delta and other parts of the country are trained outside Nigeria and the thinking of the ministry is that we would save a lot of money and also add to development if the youths are trained within the country. And so the ministry is constructing nine world-class training centres in the nine states of the region, one in each of the states. We have also done a lot of environmental and erosion projects, a good number of them have been completed.

We also have other adjoining road projects, about eight of them, that have reached advanced stages of completion. And then, most importantly, the ministry is today working with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), various stakeholders and development partners. We are providing development frameworks and the essence is to ensure that the activities and the resources of the various development agencies and governments are harnessed so that we avoid wastage and duplication of projects.

President Goodluck Jonathan

What are the new projects your ministry will embark upon this year?
As a ministry we are not likely to do new projects this year. Our concentration is on how we are going to
complete the projects that we started in 2009/2011. Our desire is to complete these projects
How do you feel when you are being accused of non-performance by some stakeholders in the region despite these achievements you have enumerated?

I appreciate the concern of people that are making comments. Expectedly, anybody from the Niger Delta and even Nigeria expect certain visible things must be seen now. But people must also realise that development takes time. This ministry came into being in 2009 and of course, there has to be planning, there has to be activities. And these projects must start from somewhere. As I said, it will take some time but I believe that as from late 2013, when most of these projects would be commissioned, people will then appreciate what we are doing.

Do you have the required funding for the execution of the mandate of the ministry?
No ministry has the required funding. What is important is planning and utilizing effectively what you have in your hand. But as a ministry, we are going out with what we have and expect that by the new thinking, the way we are working with the development partners and others because the reality of the issue is that the government alone cannot develop the Niger Delta and so we are bringing in development partners and we are working together under the leadership of the UNDP.

What are the challenges facing the ministry?
The challenges are quite enormous. The first challenge I can tell you is probably the development of the area in terms of what contractors face in our various sites. Most of the time, we are intervening for contractors to go and work. I think that there is need for all stakeholders to appeal to our people to allow contractors to work in our sites. Of course the issue of funds is another challenge, reasonable funds are needed for the development of the Niger Delta. The funds are not enough, that is a very big challenge.

The other one is the terrain of the Niger Delta, it is a very harsh terrain and so a lot of funds are needed for the development of the area. Whereas it is easy to do certain projects in other areas, it is difficult in the Niger Delta. For instance if you are constructing a road, you first of all, you have to develop an earth road before you can think of constructing the main asphalt road that they are expecting. These are some of the artificial and natural challenges that we are facing in the ministry.

There was this idea of bringing the NDDC under your ministry. Has the idea been jettisoned?
You know recently the President put up a committee, the Oronsaye Committee and the committee is rationalizing agencies and what have you and I think that some of these issues that are pending will be resolved by the time the government starts to implement the white that will come out of the committee’s recommendations.

There are still pockets of agitations in the Niger Delta, especially by some militants who claimed that they were not absorbed into the amnesty programme after they have disarmed. Is there anything being planned to accommodate them?

Godsday Orubebe

I think that two things are fundamental here. We must get them very clear. If something is not good, we must say it is not good, if something is good, we must say it is good. If something is not right, you must say it is not right and if it is right, you must say it is right. The amnesty programme today is being supervised by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta but because I have followed it up from the beginning, I know a lot about the amnesty programme. When amnesty was announced, there was a time frame that was given and within that time frame, people were expected to buy into it.

Most of the people who are agitating here and there today are people who did not buy into the amnesty programme as at that time. So, number one, they are not part of the amnesty programme. If for any reason they never declared before the time, I think they should appeal in a way to the government instead of creating problems.   And I want to add that everybody from the Niger Delta today must be thanking God and be praying for Mr. President because this is an opportunity that is very rare.

If you don’t allow development to take place in that place, if you don’t allow peace to reign in that place to enable development and productive activities to take place after this time, we probably may not have the opportunity to regret.  Today, we have a president from the region, this is the time all of us must join hands with him, pray for him to be able to make the needed reasonable contributions towards the development of the Niger Delta and Nigeria generally.

How do you react to the views of some sections of the Niger Delta that the region is yet to gain anything from Jonathan’s presidency?
The views are wrong. Even at the level of the ministry, I just highlighted certain things to you, other ministries are doing their own. There are a lot that is being done in the Niger Delta. Take for instance education, we have one additional federal university in the region. We have a number of polytechnics that have been established in the Niger Delta. People sit down, just in their homes and probably when they want something and they have not got it, they speak from their personal in terests.

So many things are being put in place and as I always said it is not a question where within one month, you sleep and wake up and you see the kind of development you have in London in a place. It takes time. There is no country in the world that has developed within a short period. Development is a gradual process and I think that people should allow Mr. President to develop the region.

How do you react to the view that Jonathan is too slow?
When people talk about slow, how do you describe somebody being slow? The crash programme we have run in this country have always taken us nowhere. In this country, we have gone into projects without planning, without articulating what we should do, the benefits available from projects. We have always rushed into everything. That is why today we have not got power in Nigeria after spending billions of dollars.

But Mr. President has said that anything we want to do in this country must be done well, we have to plan towards it, we have to know how we are going to do it and we have to know who should do it.   My appeal to Nigerians is that we must have patience and understand the transformation agenda of Mr. President and I am very definite that under the leadership of Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria will come out of the woods.

Leaders of some ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta have accused the Federal Government of treating the region as being synonymous with the Ijaw with all major appointments and projects being given to only the Ijaw group. Specifically, the Itsekiri ethnic group has accused your ministry in particular of not putting any project in their area. How do you react to this?

That probably may be the thinking of some few persons who probably on a personal note want to criticize the government because in one form or the other as individuals they did not get benefit from government. In Delta State, take for instance, the Itsekiri area that you mentioned when we came on board, the first state office for the Ministry of Niger Delta was earmarked for the Itsekiri area.

That project was initiated for that place and the budget and everything were sent to the National Assembly. It came back without a vote,  that is why that project was not done. There are environmental and canalization projects that are going on in Itsekiri axis of the Niger Delta. . The ministry has tried as much as possible to reflect generally every area.
Now the government of Goodluck Jonathan has the Petroleum University in Effurun, that is not in the Ijaw area. Every federal ministry is doing projects in so many areas in the Niger Delta.

What about appointment into key positions? They talked about the appointment of Ijaw persons as ministers of petroleum and Niger Delta Affairs.

I come from Delta State and a minister is supposed to come from Bayelsa State. And so if a minister from Bayelsa State is an Ijaw and a minister from Delta State is an Ijaw, we should not be treated as the same people. Every minister is treated on the basis of the state that he comes from. There are other areas where you have the same tribe  in all the offices. For goodness sake, we are only two Ijaw people. If you want to use the word tribe, we are only two Ijaw people and we have 42 ministers. We have had situations where Ijaw people were not ministers and we did not complain. The important thing is that we should see ourselves as one and work with one another for the development of the region.

The Urhobo ethnic nationality in Delta State is also complaining that your ministerial slot ought to have been given to an Urhobo man this time around. Their argument is that the Ijaw have got a slot in Bayelsa State. Are you aware of this?
Why? What are the reasons?

We are talking about state. When the Ijaw people were not governors of Delta State and an Urhobo man became governor of the state, we worked with them. We did not complain. We worked for them and we voted for them.  Are you satisfied with the level of peace in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State now? I am reasonably satisfied with the peace that we now enjoy in the PDP in Delta State and I think the governor has done very well. We have agreed to work with the governor and frankly too I think we have altogether worked very well. I think what is important now is for us to build on what we have found and in moving forward, building a very solid cooperation so that peace will continue to reign in the state.

Are you aware that some members are still aggrieved by the outcome of the reconciliation? For instance your former colleague in the federal cabinet, Chief Kenneth Gbagi and yourself have engaged in verbal altercations over the outcome of the congress.

Gbagi has no business complaining because during the congress I went to my ward but he did not go to his ward. He did not go to his local government. He was not found anywhere. Anybody who did not participate in the congresses, in the election, has no business to complain. We all agree to work together and if Gbagi was not there, it is unfortunate. PDP cannot wait for him. But today I can tell you that we are working very well with the governor and we are moving PDP forward in Delta State.

With the fact that you still have some aggrieved persons within the party, what is the way forward?
Today, we have the state executive in place, it is their duty to work round everybody to ensure permanent peace. PDP is a very big family, it is in the interest of all of us to see that the state executive works with everybody, brings everybody on board for the larger PDP.

Are you not bothered that Boko Haram is overwhelming the Federal Government and it is becoming an embarrassment to this country?

What I will say is that we have a national problem and I think that it is time that the whole country should file behind Mr. President to ensure that the crisis is resolved and I think that it is a wake- up call for everybody to understand that it not about sitting at a place and accusing the government of not doing anything. I think that it is a problem for everybody and we are all expected to play one role or the other to see that the problem is put behind us. Every household leader, every local government leader, every state leader and every national leader should be concerned about it.

Boko Haram is a new phenomenon that has come to play and government is doing everything it can to see that it comes to an end. My position is that we should work together as brothers to ensure that there is peace in this country. That is the only way we can move forward and I think that the security agencies are doing their best to ensure that the issue of Boko Haram is put behind us.

Do you share the views of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Owoye Azazi, that the Boko Haram was rooted in the undemocratic practices in PDP and response to the rumoured 2015 second term aspiration of President Jonathan?

I think they are clear issues. Boko Haram started long before Dr. Jonathan became President. While President Yar’Adua was alive, Boko Haram was in existence. It has got nothing to do with 2015. That time that Boko Haram came up, what were they fighting for?  When President Yar’Adua was on board and Boko Haram came up, was there anything like 2015? There was nothing like 2015. Boko Haram started during the time of President Yar’Adua.

As at that time there was no issue of 2015 and for anybody to say it is because of 2015 that Boko Haram came into being is total fallacy, it is not true. They have their own programmes and agenda, it is a mere coincidence that it is happening at this time but Mr. President is on top of the situation and very soon it will be a thing of the past.

Will the issue of Boko Haram likely  affect the chances of a South/South person angling for the presidency of the country in 2015?

I think we should separate the crisis and 2015. 2015 is purely a political issue, it has got nothing to do with the crisis and the political issues in Nigeria are always defined by the desire of the people to have good government and I think Nigeria has come of age and what Nigerians appreciate is to have good government. Let us separate these things. In 2015, Nigerians are looking towards having a president they can trust, a president that can deliver, that is what Nigerians are looking for. Nigerians are not looking for a sectional president anymore, they want a president that can put food on the table of the poor, a president that can listen to the people.

Does Jonathan fit into this?
Yes, of course, he is. It is the people that will decide.

If you say Jonathan fits and a lot of Nigerians believe that the country is drifting under his watch………
Drifting to where? We have always had crisis in this country. This is not the first time we are having this type of crisis. We have had crisis of various dimensions, some in the West, some in the East, some in the Niger Delta and now in the North. I don’t think this is the first time we are having this kind of serious crisis in Nigeria.

We have had crisis in Nigeria when oil production went down to almost a zero level. That was a very serious economic crisis that we had but we overcame it. We have the crisis of OPC, we have crisis of MASSOB in the East, Maitsaine in the North etc. I don’t think Nigeria is drifting. I think that it is one of these crises and we will overcome it and Mr. President is on top of the situation.

Some ex-militant leaders in the Niger Delta are in the vanguard of a second term campaign for Jonathan. Specifically, Asari Dokubo and Government Ekpemukpolo, alias Tompolo, have insisted that Jonathan has the right to seek re-election. Do you share the same sentiments and do you believe they are doing the right thing?

As a journalist what do you think of it?
But it is your opinion that I am asking for. What is your opinion?

You as a journalist who is open to the law of the land, does it stop Jonathan if he wants to? It is two things we must get clear from here. Every Nigerian is entitled to run for the presidency of this country. Every Nigerian when you fit into the regulations that are set for somebody to run for the presidency , now the constitution allows President Jonathan to run for a second term but the issue of whether he will run or he will not run is a personal decision. But the constitution permits him to run in 2015 if he wants to run. But it is a personal issue.

The decision is personal to him. He has not told any Nigerian, he has not told anybody that he wants to run in 2015. Today, Mr. President is faced with the burden of how to provide power for this country, to fix our roads, to develop agriculture to a reasonable level, to provide food on the table of the poor, to move Nigeria from where we are, that is the burden of Mr. President. He is bothered about how he can achieve these for Nigerians. He has not told anybody about 2015.

Do you support the ex-militant leaders that Jonathan can contest 2015?
He has the right if he wishes. He is not stopped by the constitution but that is his personal decision.

Are you aware of any commitment by President Jonathan to any individual or group, especially in the North, before the 2011 election, that he would not seek a second term ticket in 2015?

I am not aware of any commitment he made to anybody or group but all what I know when he decided to run for presidency in 2011 he called us together and told us that he was running for the presidency of this country for 2011. So, we mobilised ourselves and worked for him and today he is there. That is the story. I don’t know about any meeting anywhere where he made commitment to anybody or any group. I am not aware of that.

SOURCE: Vanguard Newspaper, 13 MAY 2012. http://www.vanguardngr.com/