Gov. Uduaghan of Delta State has taken the state to a higher level and has not relented in his efforts in bringing dividends of democracy to the grassroots. He spoke on his plan to build a leadership training institute in the state. Excerpts…

Your second term as governor will end next year. What next?

Well, I have very many options, but the one that I think is closest to my heart is to impart the knowledge I have acquired to the younger people. So, I’m trying to put up a leadership training institute where I can bring in some young persons, young graduates, young school leavers and impart some of the knowledge I have acquired, personal ones and some other lessons I have also acquired and some experience; leadership development generally. Because some of us get to office without any leadership experience or training, and we learn on the job, but I believe that if we have a way of imparting to the younger ones, they will have more experience by the time they are starting and they will be better positioned. That’s what I’m mainly trying to do in office. Of course, one will still be involved in one or two other political activities.

So, how would you want to be remembered?

I believe it depends on who is remembering me. For somebody who used to drive to Benin before getting a plane to go to either Abuja or Lagos, or used to drive to Enugu from Asaba before getting a plane, but can now fly to Asaba and out of Asaba, that person will remember me for the effort. Now, for a woman who could not deliver her child in the hospital because she could not afford it; maybe the woman would have four children, and probably had two, and when we came she was supposed to be delivered of the last two in government’s hospital without paying any money.

Of course, she will remember me for that opportunity of being able to deliver her babies in the hospital without money being a challenge. Now, for parents who before now could not send their children to school because of the problem of school fees, of course, those parents will remember me for the opportunity afforded their children to go to school because we have now taken the responsibility of the school fees off the parents. For a young graduate who made a first class from the university and was able to have a postgraduate training after that, because we are going to pay his postgraduate school fees, N5million a year; that young person, after acquiring a PhD, will always remember the administration that made it possible for him or her to acquire that kind of knowledge.

So, that’s why I said it depends on the individual. Every activity and every programme has an impact on individuals in different ways. What we are trying to do is to put up programmes that will affect the lives of the people. But one thing about programmes is that we do not just focus on the upper class, we also focus on the lower class; that’s why we have our free maternity and free ante-natal clinic, free eye treatment that’s why we have our micro-credit scheme, that’s why we have our free public transport scheme – the bus scheme – in which we pay 50 per cent of the fare of the passenger. So we try also to deal with the lower class of the society.

In addressing your legacy, and with the benefit of hind-sight, are there things you would probably have done better or wouldn’t have done at all?

Things I wouldn’t have done at all? Virtually, everything that we did, looking back now, there’s always room for improvement. Just as I keep saying, you just take each day as it comes, and sometimes when you plan, you meet challenges ahead, especially financial challenges. There are some contracts that have been awarded to some contractors, with the benefit of hindsight, we wouldn’t have given those contractors those contracts at all; some of them we had to revoke and re-award. So, we have those experiences and that’s why I really want to well. I went to the North and somebody was asking me, when I said I’m the governor of Delta State, how is Eku Hospital? That’s the kind of knowledge people have about the hospital and its popularity. And so, for me, we needed to look at it and change it and make it better. So that’s why we took it up, renovated it, rehabilitated it, re-equipped it and we are also restarting it so that it will meet the best standard of health care delivery.

We also heard that you participated in some surgeries.

What happened was that I did anaesthesia. I specialised in anaesthesia, so when the kidney transplant was taking place, I joined the team of anaesthetists. I was at the theatre with them.

There was something significant about that; it meant that you had not lost your skills.

Of course, I try to keep in touch generally in medicine as much as possible. Let me say this, if you ask me which calling

I love more, politics or medical practice, I would say medical practice. 1 tell you, I still miss medical practice. I love the profession, and if I have to come back to life again and I’m asked what I want to be, I would say I want to work in the hospital. The hospital setting somehow makes you appreciate the wonders of God, if you appreciate life, because a patient that comes to you today in pains, feeling ill and all that, and you do one or two things and the next day you see the change in the person. The person is happy, appreciative; people appreciate you and appreciate God more. So, you feel fulfilled, which makes it a fulfilling profession.

Speaking about human capital development, you have laid much emphasis on that aspect of governance. How would you say your concern has been reflected in terms of policies and execution of policies?

Let me explain what we have done in terms of human capital development. We look at human capital development from the day of conception to the day the person enters the grave, which is assuming that every average person lives to about 70 or thereabout. That’s how we have looked at life, and we have planned our programmes in various stages. Now, starting from the day of conception to the first nine months, that’s a precarious stage for any human being, you are still in the mother’s womb. Yes, there’s protection by the womb, but you need to take care of the mother who is carrying the pregnancy, and also indirectly take care of the baby inside.

That’s where the ante-natal care comes in. And if the woman does not have access to modern health care, there’s the danger of either losing the woman or losing the baby at that stage. And so that’s why we have said every woman should have access to health care, whether you have the money or not; that’s why we say it’s free maternal health care. Although it’s cost-free, we pay for it. Then on delivery, I must emphasise that during that period of nine months, if the delivery has to do with caesarean section, the operation is done free of charge. Then from delivery to the first five years, it’s also a precarious stage for any human being; that’s when children can pick up diseases and resistance is not also very good.

To ensure that we have a healthy set of children, we also have put in place free health care for under-five, so that when they are sick, instead of their mothers running to the chemist or herbalist, they can go to the hospital and get quality health care. And then after five years, you start talking about schooling for the child – primary school, secondary school – if you don’t have money to fund that, it will be difficult for the child. So, we said that let them have free primary and free secondary schools, and we will even pay for WAEC and NECO. And then thereafter, we have tertiary institutions where we have a lot of scholarship schemes, and then-if you are intelligent and have a first class, we can also send you for postgraduate training. And then after the schooling, the next challenge is work, getting employed, which is, for now, about the biggest challenge because the rate of unemployment worldwide is quite high.

We have many presidents who are losing elections because of unemployment and that’s why we are pursuing vigorously our Delta Beyond Oil programme; a programme that we believe will improve the employment opportunities for our young ones and even our women, and even for support for some of the elderly persons. The programme is quite comprehensive; it ensures that employment opportunities are available from the micro-level to the macro-level. We have our micro-credit scheme which we regard as a programme that will bring immediate benefit to the beneficiaries. To the very macro ones, which are the big industries that we believe will be established with time as we improve on infrastructure, as we improve on human capital and as we improve on peace and security people will come and invest and provide employment opportunities for our young ones. So, I believe if we get a lot more persons employed, the rest of their lives can be taken care of. That’s in a nutshell how we talk about our human capital development programme; from the day of conception to old age.

It’s very impressive; but what about sustainability? You are going to leave office very soon. What if your successor is not on the same page? What will happen to this impressive vision?

There are programmes that have a life of their own, and it’s difficult for you to say let me put it aside. It’s like saying let me remove air from the atmosphere so that people cannot breathe. I believe that, overtime, some programmes have taken a life of their own; that it’s difficult for anybody coming now to remove it. The free maternal health care, for instance, I don’t know how you want to say you will remove the free maternal health care m Delta State; of course the women will fight you. I don’t know how you want to say people should start paying school fees again after being used to not paying school fees.

Even our Delta Beyond Oil programme which we are marketing now, talking of the primary and secondary schools programme for it, because we want, from primary school, our Children to know that there are other areas of economic activities beyond oil. That programme is starting. Whether I am there or not, these programmes have assumed a life of their own. Thank God it’s democracy; people can vote you in or vote you out. If you say you don’t want these programmes and it’s affecting them negatively; of course, they have a way of removing you. So, that’s the position.

There are well-founded fears of possible break-up of the country. Do you entertain such fears too?

No, no, I don’t have a fear of break-up. What is happening now, really, is not the fear of a break-up for me, because I move around in this country a lot and I talk to people. And one thing I do know is that Nigerians love the country Nigeria, because every aspect, one way or the other, is benefitting from the other area. There is some synergy in what is happening in Nigeria.

The Niger Delta is oil-producing and the proceeds from oil-production are beneficial to other aspects of the country. We have the North bringing agriculture, cattle rearing and others and they bring the cattle down this way and we are benefitting from it. And, of course, we have the West well-known in the area of education, providing the opportunities for others to learn and have a good education. So, we have this kind of synergy in this country and I think, generally, every Nigerian wants to remain in Nigeria.

But having said that, every aspect, every part of Nigeria also has some challenges that we wish these challenges are looked at, and I believe that is the very essence of the National Conference that we are having. So, we are hoping that with the National Conference, we have people from every part of this country; we have stakeholders who are looking at issues and there will be give and take. The North, what are your challenges, what would you want? Let us meet you half way. Niger Delta, let us meet you half way, and others. If there’s that give and take, I’m not sure there will be a break-up.

The Boko Haram challenge, really, I don’t see it leading into a break-up. Why I am saying so is that if you look at the activities of the Boko Haram, there’s no religious basis; it’s not as if the Muslims are supporting Boko Haram. In fact, they are also victims of Boko Haram. There’s no regional basis because who are the people that are being killed? They are mainly from the northern region. So, I just see a group of fundamentalists whose brains have been turned upside down trying to eliminate whoever they see, not bothering whether they are from the North, West or South, not bothering whether they are Muslims or Christians. When you look at the way they are operating, you cannot pin down that these people are against this type of persons. I don’t see that leading to a break-up.

On the abducted Chibok girls, what do you think the Federal Government has left undone?

I know that the Federal Government is doing its best.

International communities are coming. I also know that that kind of kidnapping can be very challenging, challenging in the sense of the terrain and because of the sophistication. Some things are very difficult to understand. I’m sure that before the Malaysian plane disappeared, nobody in this world would have believed that a plane can disappear without trace; we have all the technology in this world and would have thought that could not happen, but it has happened. I also see the issue of these Chibok girls as a very big challenge, not just to Nigeria but the rest of the world.

My appeal is let’s not politicise it; let us work together as a united people to look for these girls. I think sometimes when there’s some political colouration to the issue, it’s wrong from all sides if anybody will now play politics with such an issue. We must be united, we must stop playing games because that’s the only way we can have a breakthrough for the girls.

It’s good to hear you being optimistic about Nigeria’s unity. I would like to ask, how much of Nigeria’s problems are due to revenue sharing and how much have to do with lack of social conscience among the political elite?

A lot has to do with revenue sharing and also a lot has to do with lack of social conscience among the elite. On the issue of revenue sharing, I believe that it has been skewed in favour of the federal government. We have a lot more money going to the Federal Government and less going to the states and the local government councils.

Now, what we have suggested is that more money should go to the states and local government councils, and the Federal Government should offload some of the responsibilities they are taking up now. Issues of primary schools, secondary schools, primary health care, secondary health care; why should the Federal Government be involved in building a primary healthcare centre in one remote village that they don’t have control over? Who is going to staff and run it?

These are the things we are asking the Federal Government to remove its hands from and let the states and local governments handle that. But in doing that, the sharing formula leaves them with 30 per cent. Out the 30 per cent that’s left, they have 25 per cent for the payment of salaries. So, what’s left at the end of the day is five per cent.

So, sometimes when we blame the local government chairmen for non-performance, we must look at some of the reasons for their non-performance. We must look at the way the revenue is being shared, the responsibilities that are being given to the various tiers of government, we must look at them, if not, we will continue to have problems. Apart from that, I also believe, because I come from an oil-producing state, the kind of terrain we are in and the environmental damage that is occurring as a result of oil-related activities, more money should come to the oil-producing states.

I have been able to deal with the issues of environmental challenges, I have been able to deal with other developmental challenges that will enhance more production of oil and also enhance economic development in other areas. Because right now, we-need to diversify from oil, but to be able to diversify, we need money to deal with the entire structure which is, of course, very key to diversification; of course we are talking of human capital development. So, in terms of revenue sharing, if we look at these areas we will have an improvement.

Then as to the second one, which you called social conscience, I also believe that as Nigerians, we need to stretch ourselves to do some deep reflection. What you call social conscience now I will simply put it as attitude. We need to have an attitudinal change in everything we are doing, whether you are a political elite or a political thug (general laughter), a teacher working in the school, a hospital worker, a journalist; whatever you are, we need to stretch our conscience and see how we can have attitudinal change. If we do that, I am sure some of the challenges we are having now we will be able to deal with them. Yes, the political elite are in control in terms of social con-science, but we need to look at our whole attitude generally.

Now, I am trying to organise a workshop or summit on anger management. We are a country today and virtually everybody is angry with the other person. People are angry with the president, they are angry with PDP, and with APC, one ethnic person is angry with the other ethnic person. You are driving on the road and one driver is angry with the other driver, Okada rider is angry with the police and the police are angry. So we are a country where virtually every person is angry with the other person. So, what is happening? We need to sit down and look at why are people angry? Why are we angry with each other? When you read 10 columnists, you will see that eight are writing out of anger (general laughter). We just get angry with one another.

Talking about revenue sharing, northern delegates to the ongoing National Conference were reported to have advocated that non-oil-producing states deserved a greater share of oil revenue and that the current 13 per cent derivation being paid to oil-producing states should be slashed. What’s your reaction to this?

Talking of the first one, which a1so brings up the issue of anger, if you look at the build up to that issue of 13 per cent, I think that committee, it took them long in reaching a decision which they called compromise decision. There was so much anger during the debate. But I think it would be unfortunate if we say we want to reduce the 13 per cent. Ideally, we are talking of derivation from which they would pay tax.

To your tents oh Israel, whatever comes from your land you benefit from it, pay tax; that’s what is done in most places. But we have moved from that stage of what I call 100 per cent derivation. Some of us are saying let it be 50 per cent derivation to the oil-producing areas and they should pay tax to the Federal Government. But if you are saying it should be less than 13 per cent, then you are probably inviting trouble.

How have you been able to reduce crises among the ethnic groups in the state?

In Delta, for now the ethnic harmony is better than what it used to be. And I believe some of our programmes are responsible for it and what we have tried to do is to ensure that every ethnic group reasonably gets what is its due. We try not to give one ethnic group more than what it should have, but they are still grumbling. But things are better and I feel there’s still a lot of room for improvement. We have also seen as a state that we benefit more when we are together than when we are divided. At the times when we used to ‘have ethnic crises and other ethnic fights, people were losing their properties, losing lives and it did not benefit in any way. Peop1e have generally agreed that we want to move forward as one united state.

From your perspective, can you offer some ideas, maybe one or two, about how you think the country’s potential can be realised from the angle of governance?

First of all, let me say this: there’s an improvement on actualising our potential. There’s, however, a lot of room to do more. But a lot is being done also. It’s just that we as a nation are very impatient somehow and we do not appreciate that it took so many years of damage to the country, and one day of damage will require years of repair. You can pull this house down within a few minutes but to rebuild it might take you some years. And I think that’s what is happening; there are so many years of damage to the country and it will take a lot more years to recover. The recovery stage is still on but it will take some time to recover. There’s some improvement on a lot of our infrastructure.

I know the critical area is the issue of power. But the structure that is in town now will ensure that there’s an improvement in the power sector; privatising some parts of the power sector will ensure there’s generally an improvement. A lot of work is going on, the roads and major highways. I still come back to what you called social conscience; that iS the attitude. God put natural resources in Nigeria and now put human beings that are quite challenging in terms of attitude.

Singapore and Israel don’t have natural resources as much as we; we have natural resources in abundance but equally have human beings whose attitude has to be dealt with. It is in us to make up our minds that we want to build a nation or we want to destroy a nation. If we make up our minds that we want to build a nation, then we must work together to build a nation, but if we make up our minds we don t want to build a nation or we want to remain stagnant, then we will continue to have the challenges that we have.

 – Courtesy: The Nation