It was Thursday morning, November 27th, 2014, words came to me that the appointment with Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, the Executive Governor of Delta State was for 9am, I thought it was too early for the governor to be at the office for 9am. But His Excellency was there at the appointed time. This interview took place right inside the new Government House, Asaba, Delta State built by Gov. Uduaghan’s administration. He walked in looking smart in a light blue ‘buba’ and ‘sokoto’, decked a black suede shoe, Gov. Uduaghan looks like the uncle next door. That is the simplicity and humility that has endeared him to a lot of people over the years in serving the good people of Delta State. In this interview with EJIRO ROMAN ADIGBO, he spoke on sundry issues. Read on…
You are one person that is always helping those that are against you. Take for instance, the case of late Kefee; she worked against you during the last guber campaign but you picked her hospital and burial bill. Why?
It’s because God forgives me always. Really there have been a lot of things I have done which I know he does not like, but he still forgives me, still promotes me. Really that’s the foundation of that philosophy. On a serious note I don’t believe that someone should be in need of help and you deny the person because you have not forgiven him. For me too it has been a source of blessing. If you have been able to help those who have one time been against you, I believe that God will bless you. It’s something that I grew up with and I picked it up also from my grandmother. My grandmother was a very strict woman but she never kept anything in mind, she will talk and shout, but it ends there. So that’s where I got that.
In another few months, you will be leaving your seat as governor, what will you miss most about governance as a governor?
I will miss the rumours, blackmail. I will miss them.
Despite the praises heaped on you in the media, there has been times when you received bad press, particularly those that are obnoxious, unpleasant, which one really touched you?
I don’t feel pain for any obnoxious thing that is written. I don’t feel pain. Each time every obnoxious thing is written about me, I feel pity for society. Really I do. I feel bad that for anybody who is in public office, people try to pull them down. I often take solace in the fact that it is not just specific to me, no matter how good you are there are people in the sidelines waiting to write bad things about you. Few days ago, I was just looking at certain things that have been written about President Obama, some cartoons too. These were really very bad attacks, terrible. Whenever I see those things I really say ah, no bi only me sef dey for this matter. But the ones really that I am not happy about is when people go to the extent of writing things that are not correct about my children. I take exception to those.
What would you say you wanted to do but you were not able to do for your people?
That’s a difficult one to answer because there are so many things one would have loved to do. But at the same time, you cannot do everything. I cannot put my finger on one particular thing. But for me I will say I have done my best and the rest is left for posterity to judge.
What would you point at as the most thrilling of all your achievements in the last eight years?
Oh, the most thrilling is the pregnant woman, who can have all the care and deliver free of charge at the government hospital. Really, that’s the most thrilling. I go on the streets and I see a woman come to me with a child shouting; “this is your child”, your pipkin. I will be wondering? She’ll go ahead like “I delivered in government hospital free”. Really for the whole day that woman has made my day. That’s one policy I am proud of, women deliver free in Delta State hospitals including Caesarian sections.
What is your plan after office?
I really have two; the short term one and the lifetime one. The lifetime one is to see how I can develop the leadership qualities in the young ones. I intend to establish an institute on leadership training. I think that if you start grooming leaders with the right patriotic zeal, you will ultimately grow a better Nigeria. On the short term, am in the senatorial race, whether it will work is another matter entirely (laughter).
You seem to have made Asaba the hub of the Nollywood film industry. How did you achieve that?
Yes, Asaba has become the hub for film making in Nigeria. You know I said it sometime ago that we planned to make Delta State the hub of the entertainment industry. It’s paying off as the industry has fallen in love with the state and Asaba in particular. Asaba is ok for their locations. Secondly, what we tried to do is negotiate with the hotels so they can get better rates from the hotels. I also hear Asaba people are more ready to give up their homes as locations. Unlike when you go to other towns, they’re not ready but people here are ready to let them use their homes.
One would have thought you will go home to rest after serving as commissioner, SSG and governor. Why are you going to the senate?
It’s still in line of service to my people. Really if I had my way what is most fundamental to me is to develop young leaders. But having spent all these years in government with all the contacts both in the country and internationally, I believe one should use the contacts in the senate to work with other people to see how we can make laws that will ensure democracy dividends to our people. First, I want to go for a legislation that will give equity shares to oil producing communities in those companies that are coming to drill oil. Take for instance if Shell was drilling oil in a particular community and the community has 5 or 10 percent equity, it means that they will get 10 percent of the profits that Shell has made. In five years, such a community will be heavily developed. Then two, from the Delta beyond oil initiative which we are developing, we are going to push to attract companies to our state. Many of these companies abroad do not want to come and invest because there is hardly any solid legislation to protect their investments. Israel is a country that has security challenges, South Africa has security challenges, Iraq has, but investors are rushing there.
Why are investors still going to those places?
Because there is legal protection for their investments which is almost non-existent in Nigeria. As a state, we tried to put up these legislation, but Nigeria as a whole, the federal government has a lot to do in this regard. It can only be done through the National Assembly and that is what I intend to push and thirdly and very critical and dear to my heart is environmental issues. We do not have adequate laws to protect our environment, to protect our people to very serious environmental damage that is being done to our people.
Are you satisfied with the current security arrangements and we learnt that several oil companies have left Warri, any hope for their return?
On the issue of security, we have done a lot. We have deployed a lot of resources into that are? But once in a while we still have flashes in some areas. You know security issues take quite some time to build. In the case of oil companies that left Warri, what has happened is that their oil wells are being bought by others. On a long term basis these companies are better run by smaller companies. They carry the communities along better than the big ones who throw their weight around. But the truth is that the oil is still there for someone to drill. It’s just left for the NNPC to sort out the issues because when they were leaving, NNPC through their NPDC thought that they could operate like the others, but so far it has not been easy. But it will soon be sorted out.