> When we conducted the
> election for our Man-Of-The-Year 2013
> which is usually carried out by our Board of Editors, the
> overwhelming majority
> of votes were in favour of Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, the
> Executive Governor of
> Delta State. It was not just his efforts in the passing year
> that won him the
> honour. He has run the affairs of the state for 78 months,
> largely succeeding
> in dousing the burning dichotomy between the two major
> sections of the state.
> Uduaghan’s innovations which were copied by other states
> include the Delta
> State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission
> (DESOPADEC). Nearly all the
> other oil producing states have established their own
> “PADEC” committees to
> ensure that oil producing areas get more from the riches of
> their land than
> ever before, thus reducing the youth unrest and violence in
> those areas.
>
> Uduaghan has also battled
> intense criminality in his state,
> particularly kidnapping, armed robbery, militancy and sea
> piracy in conjunction
> with the law enforcement agencies and the armed forces. He
> has thrown open the
> economy of the state and given free access to investors from
> within and outside
> the country in his fervent bid to prepare the state for the
> day when oil will
> no longer be its main income earner.
>
> The Delta State Chief has
> also been a great stabilising force in
> the politics of his state and the South-South Zone. He is an
> enthusiastic flag
> bearer to build a solid political bridge with the South East
> and indeed, all
> the zones of the country for the unity and stable progress
> of the nation.
>
>
>
> PROFILE:
>
>
> UDUAGHAN:
> A MAN OF VISION IN GOVERNMENT HOUSE
>
> on January 01, 2014
> / in Special
> Report 2:42
> am / Comments
>
> Tweet
>
>
> Growing up, the focus of
> the young Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan was
> to be an accountant. The potential for leadership that had
> been identified
> during his formative years had been expected to propel him
> towards top position
> in the corporate world.
>
> But somehow, fate in the
> form of parental
> counselling intervened and the young Emmanuel diverted into
> the field of
> medicine following secondary school education at the Federal
> Government
> College, Warri, Delta State.
>
> Emmanuel Eweta was born on October 22, 1954 to Chief Edmund
> and Mrs. Cecilia
> Uduaghan.
>
> The father was Itsekiri
> from Abigborodo, in Warri North Local
> Government Area of Delta State, and the mother was Ishan
> from Ubiaja in Esan
> South-East of Edo State. The mixed parentage was to play a
> large role, and
> indeed account for what would be recognized as Emmanuel
> Eweta Uduaghan’s
> amenable and open-minded disposition to all men, especially
> in a multi-ethnic
> setting like Delta State.
>
>
>
>
> His cosmopolitan outlook
> was also helped by his time at the
> Federal Government College, Warri, one of the initiatives of
> the Federal
> Government towards building unity across the country. At the
> school, he came
> across Nigerians from all parts of the country, a scenario
> that cemented his
> disposition towards looking at human beings and issues with
> a broad-based outlook.
>
> By the time he entered
> medical school in the University of Benin
> in 1975, the young student had set his mind towards
> achieving the best in the
> profession, having been ordered by his father out of his
> initial first
> professional love, accountancy.
>
> Uduaghan qualified as a
> medical doctor in 1980 and carried out
> his national youth service in Kwara State. The enthusiasm
> for service quickly
> manifested in the first year of his qualification as he was
> honoured as the
> most outstanding medical doctor in the set of medical
> doctors posted to the
> state in that service year.
>
> Following the service year,
> he was employed by the Delta Steel
> Company, DSC, Aladja where he also distinguished himself in
> service to the
> extent that he was honoured with the General Manager’s
> prize for Outstanding
> Service.
>
> His dedication to duty also
> propelled or advanced him in the
> hierarchy of the organisation as he was within six years of
> his employment,
> promoted to the position of Senior Medical Officer, a feat
> that was as at that
> time, unprecedented.
>
> He subsequently disengaged
> from the services of the Medical
> Centre of the DSC to establish a private medical facility,
> named Abode Clinic.
> It was named after his grandmother, under whom he grew up in
> Mosogar, Delta
> State. The legacy of the grandmother who took the young
> Emmanuel on his first
> day to the Baptist Mission Primary School was finally
> crystallised.
>
> Dr. Uduaghan had by this
> time started opening himself up to
> politics or trade unionism, having served as Secretary,
> Nigerian Medical
> Association (NMA), Warri, and also as Secretary, Association
> of Private Medical
> and Dental Practitioners, Warri Zone.
>
> His first contact with
> partisan politics was in the run up to
> the National Assembly elections of 1992 when he helped in
> mobilising support
> for his cousin, James Ibori who stood as a candidate in that
> election. Ibori
> lost that election, but paid compliments to Uduaghan for
> providing technical
> expertise which the candidate confessed after the election,
> would have helped
> him win only if he had taken them.
>
> At the restart of partisan
> politics in 1998, Uduaghan joined the
> Grassroots Democratic Movement, GDM and following the death
> of General Sanni
> Abacha, and the collapse of that democratisation process, he
> joined the newly
> formed Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
>
> He was appointed
> commissioner for health in the cabinet of Chief
> James Ibori at the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999,
> and held that
> position for the four years of the regime. His efforts in
> that office
> crystallised in the modernisation and rehabilitation of most
> of the hospitals
> in Delta State.
>
> His efforts were recognised
> by the National Association of
> Nigerian Students, NANS which honoured him as the best
> performing Commissioner
> for Health in the South-South geopolitical zone.
>
> Such commendations in part
> recommended him for promotion in the
> work place as he was lifted to the position of Secretary to
> the State
> Government at the commencement of the second term of the
> Ibori administration
> in June, 2003.
>
> His election as governor in
> 2007 was almost like a logical step
> given the dedication and deftness he brought to his duties
> as government
> scribe.
>
> Even though he fully served
> in the administration of Chief
> Ibori, Governor Uduaghan has not hidden his determination to
> answer his own
> name in the erection of his legacies.
>
> Where some would point to
> one, two, or three achievements as
> legacies, Dr. Uduaghan has allowed Deltans to pinpoint the
> touch of his
> administration on their lives. For some it is the
> restructuring of the
> transportation model through the Asaba Airport that has
> redesigned movement
> into and out of the state and changed business philosophy
> among entrepreneurs
> in the state.
>
> For some others it is the
> open access to education and the boost
> of education infrastructure that has seen the commissioning
> of 13 Model
> Secondary Schools and 54 Model Primary Schools and the
> enhancement of the
> intellectual fibre of students through incentives as the N5
> million per year
> post-graduate package for first class graduates, Dr.
> Uduaghan has increasingly
> shown himself as a man with a vision.
>
> For some others in the
> state, the legacy could be the maternal
> and child health initiative that picks and pays for a
> baby’s total well-being
> from conception to the age of five, which has helped crash
> the infant mortality
> rate in the state from 545 deaths in 100,000 births in 2007
> when he took office
> to 241 deaths in 100,000 births in 2012.
>
> Others may see the legacy
> of the
> administration in the establishment of some of the best
> health infrastructure
> in the country as evidenced by the state of the art Oghara
> Teaching Hospital,
> in Oghara.
>
> Many others admire his legacies in sports.
>
> Delta today, is arguably
> the foremost state in
> sports development.
>
> Underlining the successes of the Uduaghan administration in
> Delta State is
> vision; looking beyond the present. It is that kind of
> vision that is driving
> the administration’s passionate pursuit to position the
> state outside the
> perimeters of the shock from fluctuating oil
> revenue.
>
> The policy framed as Delta
> Beyond Oil encapsulates the three
> cardinal philosophy that was the hallmark of the Uduaghan
> administration at
> inception; human capital development, infrastructure
> development and peace and
> security. So far, Uduaghan has remained focused, patiently
> putting his legacies
> in the hearts of the people with a variety of positives that
> is the hallmark of
> a man with vision.
>
> For his visionary steps in
> governance, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta
> Uduaghan is the choice of Vanguard Editors as the Man of the
> Year, 2013.
>
>
>
>
>
> UDUAGHAN:
> BRINGING FORTH DELTA STATE
>
> on January 01, 2014
> / in Special
> Report 12:45
> am / Comments
>
> By Emmanuel Aziken,
> Political Editor
>
>
> The seed of transformation
> planted by Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan in
> Delta State did not appear at first dawn. Like a woman in
> pregnancy, Uduaghan’s
> manifestation started with some queasiness, the kind of
> early morning sickness
> associated with pregnant women before the shaping out of the
> tummy.
>
> Uduaghan’s blueprint for
> a greater Delta State was underpinned
> in three cardinal points, human capital development, peace
> and security and
> development of infrastructure.
>
> As a matter of fact, the
> touch of Dr. Uduaghan’s administration
> on the citizenry in Delta State starts from the womb, just
> after conception. At
> the first contact with the Delta health service, the unborn
> child and mother
> are provided with free medical service through the duration
> of pregnancy to the
> point of delivery, surgical or otherwise. Following
> delivery, the mother is
> guaranteed free post-natal care for the first six weeks
> after delivery, and for
> the new born child, a free medical coverage is provided for
> the first five
> years of life.
>
> The impact of this
> intervention in healthcare delivery has led
> to the remarkable fall in the infant mortality rate across
> Delta State from 545
> per 100,000 births in 2007, to 241 per 100,000 in
> 2012.
>
> The record which has been
> hailed across the country, and is now
> said to be the best in the country, was helped by the
> administration’s
> strategic initiative in putting consultation, treatment,
> laboratory
> investigations, free quality drugs and post natal care at
> the door step of the
> people of the state.
>
> Since the commencement of
> the programme in November 2007, more
> than 300,000 women have benefited from the programme with
> increasing influx of
> women from neighbouring states to Delta State to enjoy the
> free services.
>
> The free services are
> complemented with the abundance of
> specialists in many disciplines of maternal and child
> health.
>
> Those who have been gifted
> with good health and have not had the
> opportunity of visiting the hospitals are, however, not
> oblivious of the
> enhancement of the health infrastructure across the
> state.
>
> Most of the General
> Hospitals in the state have been upgraded
> into specialist hospitals with state of the art laboratory
> and diagnostic
> equipment.
>
> The Uduaghan administration
> took over the Eku Specialist
> Hospital from the Baptist Mission following the fall in
> standards and
> infrastructure in the mission hospital which was for
> decades, one of the
> leading reference hospitals in the state.
>
> The hospital has recently
> been rehabilitated and upgraded to a
> centre of excellence. Also upgraded to a centre of
> excellence is the Maternal
> and Child Health, MCH Centre in the Central Hospital,
> Warri.
>
> Perhaps, what has turned
> out to be one of the sterling successes
> in the provision of health infrastructure is the ultra
> modern Oghara Teaching
> Hospital, one of the best equipped medical institutions in
> the country today.
>
> The Teaching Hospital which
> was conceived by the preceding
> administration but completed by the Uduaghan administration
> is undoubtedly one
> of the enticing initiatives in the still evolving ambition
> of the
> administration to boost the economy of the state through
> medical tourism.
>
> It is envisaged that in the
> long run that outsiders flocking for
> medical treatment would bring a big boost to the economy of
> the state.
>
> From receiving attention in
> the womb to when it is born, the new
> born baby is catered for medically for the first five years
> in life until when
> the baby enters the school system.
>
> At that point, the Uduaghan
> administration intervenes in another
> form in the life of the child through the free education
> programme that is
> obtainable in all public owned primary and secondary
> schools.
>
> From 2007 when he took
> office, the Uduaghan administration has
> faithfully paid the fees of all students sitting for the
> Secondary School final
> examinations, a policy, the governor underpinned by the
> observation that some
> students even after going through the free school programme
> are unable to pay
> the fees demanded to sit for the National Examination
> Council, NECO and the
> West African Examinations Council, WASC exams.
>
> As part of his policy of
> reinventing education in Delta State,
> the administration has commenced a rehabilitation programme
> under which it has
> commissioned 13 Model Secondary Schools and 54 Model Primary
> Schools. The
> administration has also remodeled more than 18,000
> classrooms across the state.
>
> Though tertiary education
> is not wholly free, the administration
> has conceived schemes to soothe the pains of less privileged
> students through
> bursary and scholarship schemes for deserving students
> across the state.
>
> Recently, the
> administration has instituted a programme of
> boosting intellectual fecundity among indigenes of the state
> with the automatic
> placement of all first class graduates of the state origin
> in a scholarship
> package of N5 million each. As many as 185 students are
> currently benefiting
> from the scheme with a substantial proportion of the
> graduate students,
> studying abroad.
>
> Those who are not
> intellectually minded and fall out from the
> administration’s education programme are not total losers.
> Provided for them is
> the option of benefiting from the well applauded
> Micro-Credit Programme of the
> administration. The micro-credit programme was one of the
> first success stories
> of the Uduaghan administration.
>
> The Delta Micro-Credit
> Programme, DCMP was established on
> December 14, 2007 as a strategy towards empowering
> financially weak individuals
> in the society with a direct aim of alleviating poverty in
> the state.
>
> The DCMP which has now been
> transformed into the Ministry of
> Poverty Eradication collaborates with strategic partners
> including
> micro-finance banks and the Bank of Industry, BOI in
> directing knowledge, skill
> and capital towards the poor and the rural populace. The
> pro-poor initiative of
> the administration has so far captured 111,312 persons
> across the state spread
> across more than 10,000 groups.
>
> The success of Delta under
> Uduaghan in combating poverty is
> underlined by the recognition given the state by the Central
> Bank of Nigeria,
> CBN. For three straight years between 2009 and 2011 the
> state carted away the
> CBN top prize in micro-credit financing.
>
> Following the stretch of
> success and the state’s absence at the
> trophy presentations in 2012 and 2013, Governor Uduagahan
> was asked in an
> interview why the state was no longer winning the CBN
> competition. According to
> him, the state has now shifted its focus above winning
> awards towards wealth
> creation at the SME level.
>
> “At a time people thought
> our micro credit scheme was all about
> winning awards. We have moved the scheme now to small and
> medium scale
> enterprises. Most of the initial micro businesses have now
> become medium and
> small scale enterprises. And some are even exporting their
> products, some now
> have NAFDAC certification. Some even have outlets outside
> Nigeria,” the
> governor said.
>
> The CBN governor, Lamido
> Sanusi in giving his testimony of the
> success of the Delta micro-credit programme in 2011
> said:
>
> “We just awarded Delta
> State as one of the states where
> micro-finance has been effectively utilized to tackle
> poverty. We saw a cluster
> group that started with nothing, and now they are exporting
> to Europe”.
>
> The Uduaghan administration
> has also taken major initiatives in
> road infrastructure, rehabilitating and where not,
> reconstructing some of the
> major roads it inherited.
>
> The administration has also
> taken strategic steps in
> restructuring the transportation model within and outside
> the state. One of the
> most visible efforts in that direction was the decision to
> build an airport in
> Asaba, the state capital. That development also imparted
> largely in the
> economic bearing of the state especially in the state
> capital, boosting
> economic production in and around the state
> capital.
>
> The construction of an
> airport has also made Asaba and its
> environs an attractive venue for meetings, conferences and
> also, boosted the
> town’s attraction as a camp ground for the movie
> industry.
>
> The achievements of the
> Uduaghan administration in two of its
> key objectives of human capital and infrastructure
> development were tied to the
> third leg of the regime’s three point agenda, peace and
> security.
>
> Dr. Uduaghan in his nearly
> seven years in office has pursued
> peace passionately, putting personal and political
> preferences to the
> background.
>
> Dr. Uduaghan was an early
> advocate of the Amnesty Programme and
> has pursued peace with all stakeholders with a maturity that
> has calmed the
> tensions that hitherto characterized relations among the
> many ethnic groups in
> the state.
>
> No doubt, the Uduaghan
> administration has been challenged in the
> form of insecurity with kidnappings, robberies and pipeline
> vandalism. The
> administration has, however, responded with a heavy
> investment in reshaping the
> security infrastructure to match the evolving techniques of
> the underworld.
>
> The investments have
> largely paid off with drastically reduced
> breaches of the peace.
>
> That ambience has recently
> allowed the articulation of a new
> socio-economic policy by the administration with a gaze
> towards putting the
> state’s economy outside the shocks of oil
> revenue.
>
> The mantra in Delta State
> presently, is Delta Beyond Oil, a
> policy framework that focuses on positioning the state in
> good position to
> weather the vagaries of oil revenue.
>
> Of course Governor Uduaghan
> has not changed Delta State into an
> El Dorado, but few doubt his focus or his steadfastness
> towards making the
> state far better than he met it. The challenge of addressing
> infrastructure
> needs in the state with the highest number of urban towns,
> calming frayed
> nerves in a multi-ethnic state and leading a state with one
> of the highest
> collections of intellectuals are undoubtedly enormous. But
> Dr. Uduaghan has in
> the consideration of Vanguard editors made positive strides
> in these directions
> and hence his nomination as the Man of the Year,
> 2013.
>
>
>
> MY
> LEGACY IS WITH THE PEOPLE – UDUAGHAN
>
> on January 01, 2014
> / in Special
> Report 7:56
> am / Comments
>
> Interview by Ochereome
> Nnanna, Azu Akanwa & Emmanuel Aziken
>
>
> Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan
> was his affable self on Thursday,
> December 12, 2013 as he settled down with the team of
> Vanguard Editors for an
> interview in the Delta State Governor’s Lodge in
> Lagos.
>
> The interview, coming in
> the early evening after a series of
> appointments and meetings in Lagos, was no restraint to the
> governor, as he in
> one hour showed himself to be a man of details, rolling out
> facts and figures
> on his style, strategies and structures that made him
> Vanguard’s Man of the
> Year, 2013.
>
> Excerpts:
>
> WHAT CAN YOU REMEMBER ABOUT
> YOUR DAYS GROWING UP?
>
>
> First, I grew up in the
> village with my grandmother. I was just
> two years when my grandmother took me from my mother because
> my mother was
> falling ill, in and out, so my grandmother took me to a
> village called Mosogar
> in Ethiope West local government area.
>
> That is why I speak Urhobo
> very well. One interesting thing
> about that village was that it was a rural community, no
> road to the place and
> the only way of getting to the place at that time was to get
> to the river bank,
> enter the boat and cross the river from Sapele to the
> village. There was no
> road to the place, no pipe borne water, no electricity. The
> only thing that was
> there was the Baptist Primary School and the Baptist
> Church.
>
> The main occupation of the
> people was fishing and farming. When
> I got to the school age which averagely then was about six
> years, I was taken
> by my grandmother to the school to enrol and I was told to
> put my right hand
> over my head whether it could touch my left ear. But
> unfortunately for me that
> year I could not touch my left ear, so I was not taken. I
> cried, I cried very
> profusely, as my grandmother took me home.
>
>
>
>
> Gov. Uduaghan
>
> Somehow, one of the
> teachers noticed that I was crying. So, the
> next day he came to the house, apparently, his name was
> Emmanuel, and he told
> my grandmother that it was like I was very interested in
> school and my
> grandmother said yes, and the teacher now said that I should
> be following him,
> to school but that I would not be enrolled since I wasn’t
> qualified and he was
> then teaching in primary one.
>
> So when I get to the school
> he would put me at the door so while
> he was teaching the class I would be listening to him and I
> was also answering
> questions. So that was how that year I didn’t really go to
> school, and the next
> year when my hand reached I still started in primary one so
> it was like doing
> primary one twice. That was how I started school.
>
> SO THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER
> WHICH YOU WENT TO SCHOOL WERE NOT TOO
> DIFFERENT FROM THOSE OF PRESIDENT JONATHAN WHO DID NOT HAVE
> SHOES WHEN HE
> STARTED SCHOOLING.
>
> Not too far, but I had
> shoes. At least when we were going to
> church I remember I put on shoes. My father was a policeman
> and he used to buy
> clothes and bring for us. Anyway that was how I went to
> school but as I was
> growing up, about primary 3 I had now grown up to be able to
> go to farm. And
> the farming was of two types, rubber farming, that is rubber
> tapping and
> general farming which was to plant cassava, plant yam and
> all that.
>
> The rubber tapping was
> mainly for the men and the cassava
> planting was for the women. The men would wake up earlier,
> and there were three
> cock crows. The first cock crow will wake you up, the second
> one was to get
> ready and third was to enter the road. So by the third crow
> we were on our way
> to the rubber plantation and we would put on bush lamp and
> by the time they
> finished it would be daybreak.
>
> What they do is that there
> is a small cup into which they would
> tap the latex and the latex drops in to the cup. By day
> break, we would now go
> and look at our traps. We younger ones had these traps for
> catching rabbits and
> if there is a catch, we would take it and then re-set it,
> but if it doesn’t
> catch we would leave it, then we’ll go and join the
> women.
>
> They would have come to the
> farm by then and would have roasted
> the yam, plantain and with the palm oil that they brought,
> and that would be
> our first breakfast. If it was during school days, we would
> rush home and get
> ready and go to school and even with that we were always the
> first to get to
> school because my grandmother made sure of that. But when it
> is not a school
> day, after eating we would get back to the rubber plantation
> with a bucket and
> start emptying the various cups into the bucket. That was
> what our morning
> averagely looked like.
>
> Then later in the day, we
> would go to the river either to wash
> clothes or fish or just to swim or to play. The river was so
> clean and had a
> lot of fish; literally we could put our hands and catch a
> fish. Of course, in
> the evening it was story time, our grandmother would gather
> us to tell us stories
> or we would go to one elderly person in the village to tell
> us stories.
>
> But the thing about the
> village was that it was like a communal
> life, every adult male was every child’s father and every
> adult female was
> every child mother so if you committed an offense anybody
> seeing you will
> correct you but I don’t think that is happening now. That
> was my experience
> growing up.
>
> DID YOU EVER THINK THEN
> THAT YOU WOULD ONE DAY BECOME GOVERNOR?
>
>
> Did I know what a governor
> was? (laughter). I didn’t know what a
> governor was. All through my primary, secondary and even
> university, I never
> had political ambition, I was much more interested in my
> profession and I
> wanted to be a successful professional.
>
> AS A YOUNG MAN WHAT
> INSPIRED YOU?
>
>
> The truth is that when I
> was in secondary school what I wanted
> to become was an accountant, and in terms of academic
> activities in secondary
> school, I attended Federal Government College in Warri. In
> both art and science
> subjects I was averagely good. I told my father I wanted to
> become an accountant
> but my father was more interested in me becoming a doctor
> that was how I read
> medicine. I don’t really regret it. So when you talk of
> ambition, during
> secondary school what I wanted to become was an accountant,
> but when I now
> started reading medicine I wanted to become a good
> doctor.
>
> WHAT REALLY BROUGHT YOU
> INTO POLITICS?
>
>
> Actually it was James Ibori
> that I will say was my first
> encounter with politics. Now as a medical doctor practising,
> I was an arm chair
> politician in the sense that I was politically aware, I
> could discuss politics
> but I wasn’t a politician, I didn’t register in a
> political party and all that.
> So, when he came and got into politics, I just said let me
> help him to win
> election.
>
> But when he came, the kind
> of election he wanted to contest and
> the area he wanted to contest, I advised him that he would
> not win in that
> particular party but he said; well he has been assured and
> all that, but having
> gotten the ticket, I said OK, we ran around and he lost. But
> he now confessed
> that it was only the two of us that gave him the correct
> advice; every other
> person said he would win. Of course that is
> politics.
>
> It was a contest for the
> House of Representatives during the
> days of NRC and SDP. That was his first election. So when
> the GDM started, of
> course I got in to it naturally and then become active in
> PDP.
>
> AS THE GOVERNOR OF DELTA
> STATE WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER YOUR
> GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT?
>
> I don’t have any
> achievement that is great, greater, greatest if
> you want to put it that way.
>
> WELL, WE MEAN SOMETHING
> THAT YOU WOULD SAY BROKE SOME KIND OF
> BARRIER AND MOVED THE STATE FORWARD?
>
> I think everything moved it
> forward and let me turn the question
> around maybe you want to know what my legacy is. I don’t
> have a legacy.
>
> Like I say, politics is
> about human beings when I look at it
> professionally from my medical point of view and that is why
> there is a
> similarity between politics and medicine. Medicine is about
> human beings. When
> you come and see me as a doctor with malaria, when I treat
> you for that malaria
> you will remember me for the malaria I treated you. If he
> came with hernia and
> I operated the hernia he will say that doctor was the one
> that operated my
> hernia, then the other one will say he was the one that
> treated my malaria. And
> it is the same thing with politics, it will depend on what
> somebody is
> remembering you for.
>
> I will give you an example
> of a woman living in Ontisha. She
> used to fly from Benin to Lagos to see the children. One day
> I was at the Asaba
> Airport, the woman came to me and was praying, praying for
> me and I was just
> saying amen, amen. When she finished, she now told me the
> story that she used
> to fly from Benin and one day she was on her way and now had
> an accident and
> nobody knew where she was for three days until they
> eventually discovered that
> she was in the hospital and eventually got well. Since then,
> the fear of
> driving to Benin to fly to Lagos was so much in her that she
> could not go to
> see her children, but now that there is an airport in Asaba,
> she just drives to
> the airport and flies to Lagos. So for her, she would
> remember me forever for
> the airport.
>
> Now, there was this other
> woman who saw me as I was inspecting
> roads one day, she came and was trying to get hold of me,
> trying to come and
> embrace me but the security people stopped her and there was
> a child beside
> her. Then I told them to leave her and she came, she was
> holding me, singing
> and all that.
>
> What was the problem? The
> child had a condition that was treated
> free of charge for her, including a surgery that was done
> free of charge for
> her because of our under fives free health
> policy.
>
> SO YOU HAVE A FREE HEALTH
> POLICY?
>
>
> Yes, for under 5 year
> children. So the woman will remember me
> because of that. So if they ask her wetin Uduaghan do for
> you self, that is
> what she will say. Of course we also have a free health
> programme for pregnant
> women. A woman who before now had some children she
> delivered in a quack place
> because she could not pay the hospital bill but now has
> children who she
> delivered in our hospitals free of charge. Of course she has
> two sets of
> children, this one was born in one quack place outside the
> hospital while this
> one was born in the hospital, she can now have children in
> the hospital, so she
> will remember me for that.
>
> If you go to some of our
> communities there is Uduaghan’s bus
> because we have new buses that take people to rural places
> and people pay 50%
> of what is normally charged so those people will remember
> Uduaghan’s bus. So it
> depends on who is remembering you. So for me everything you
> do is important
> depending on whose life is being touched by what you have
> done. So, I don’t do
> things because this is what I want to do, everything is
> legacy for me.
>
> CAN YOU BE ABLE TO MEASURE
> THE IMPACT THAT THE ASABA AIRPORT HAS
> ADDED ECONOMICALLY TO DELTA STATE?
>
> It is very difficult to
> measure. Let me take two areas. As soon
> as we started the airport the cost of land in Asaba shot up
> seriously. You know
> if you were buying a thousand square metres before at 100
> naira, at the time we
> started the airport, that 100 naira had become 1,000 naira
> and now it could be
> like 10,000 naira that is for land.
>
> When you drive around
> Asaba, between the time we started the
> airport and now, the population in Asaba has grown, the
> businesses have
> increased, small scale businesses have increased, and most
> of the places that
> used to be residential, people have now turned them to
> offices. Now we have
> three, four, five star hotels coming looking for land, some
> have started
> building, and people from Onitsha bought a lot of the land
> and if you go round
> Asaba now you will see a lot of warehouses springing up. So
> commercial
> activities have increased tremendously as a result of the
> airport and
> everywhere, including places that used to be residential,
> are being turned into
> commercial places.
>
> CAN YOU TELL US THE MAJOR
> THRUST OF YOUR THREE POINT AGENDA?
>
>
> When we came in 2007, and
> assessing what we needed to do on
> ground, we narrowed everything to three key areas; peace and
> security,
> infrastructure development and human capital development.
> And this captured
> virtually everything we needed to do in government. Two,
> they are also
> interwoven. Without peace and security you cannot talk of
> developing
> infrastructure because without peace and security and with
> the problems we had
> in the Niger Delta there was no way anybody could go and
> start constructing
> roads or schools. And of course, you also require human
> capital development and
> so, the three of them were interwoven.
>
> But the ultimate goal of
> our three point agenda is to start
> developing an economy not totally dependent on oil, so we
> have tagged it, Delta
> beyond oil, having at the back of our mind, the issue of
> employment. The
> problem of unemployment is really the nightmare of anyone in
> this position,
> whether it is governor, president, or American
> president.
>
> We are trying to build an
> economy that is beyond oil and we have
> simplified Delta beyond oil, and what that simply means, is
> that whatever we
> are getting now in terms of funds from oil let us use it to
> develop the other
> areas so that when tomorrow if there are any problem with
> the oil revenue,
> whether the oil is not there or there is a shortfall in oil
> revenue, we would
> not have the kind of challenge we seem to be having
> now.
>
> Having that at the back of
> our mind, we set about developing
> infrastructure, infrastructure that will attract investments
> in certain key
> areas like agriculture, culture and tourism, solid minerals.
> That is how we
> embarked upon transport infrastructure which includes the
> airport and the
> dualisation of our major highways and the work with the
> Federal Government to
> develop our sea ports and to complete the Aladja railway
> line.
>
> Off course, we have started
> our own independent power plant and
> working with the Federal Government to complete the existing
> national
> independent power plant and we have invested heavily on
> that.
>
> We have also invested
> heavily on transmission equipment,
> distribution equipment like transformers. Hopefully by the
> time all these
> investments mature, the improved power in Delta…we also
> invested in the power
> plants that were sold, especially the ones that are in Delta
> and the Benin
> distribution facility. We did that so that we can have a lot
> of improvement in
> power supply.
>
> We have also invested in
> industrial zones and clusters, Warri Industrial
> Park and other parks that are springing up. But you know,
> these investments are
> quite heavy and are long term in nature and the way
> unemployment is in Nigeria,
> you need some quick wins and that is why as we are doing the
> long term, we are
> also doing the short term like our micro-credit scheme and
> in the agricultural
> area, we embarked on what we call YETA, Youth Employment
> Through Agriculture
> and setting them up and also helping existing farmers to
> improve upon their
> yield in both quality and quantity.
>
> Those are some of the
> things we have done as quick wins to
> ensure that our people are empowered. But having said that,
> don’t also forget
> the social infrastructure which will also help manpower
> development. In the
> area of education, we are working on our schools, improving
> the quality of our
> schools, the infrastructure, the quality of the teachers and
> off course, also
> making it free and accessible even to the poor.
>
> There is free education up
> to secondary school level and then at
> the university, we have increased our grants or bursary to
> university students
> by 100% and of course, and apart from other scholarship
> schemes we have at the
> university level, when you finish university and you get a
> first class, it is
> automatic scholarship (for postgraduate work) worth N5
> million a year. Many of
> the recipients are outside the country studying
> now.
>
> SO FAR, HOW MANY DO YOU
> HAVE UNDER THE SCHEME?
>
>
> So far, we have about
> 185.
>
>
> ARE THEY MANDATED TO COME
> BACK TO SERVE THE STATE WHEN THEY ARE
> DONE WITH THEIR STUDIES?
>
> We expect them to come back
> to serve the state but I also have
> this opinion that we should not restrain them if they have
> better job offers.
> For instance, a child we have sent to school who got a PhD
> and Mobil was doing
> a head hunt… I will not want him to come and be a civil
> servant when there is
> an offer for him from Mobil. One day that child might become
> the MD, but if you
> say that he must come and serve in Delta first, he would
> have lost that
> opportunity. If they don’t have job elsewhere and they
> want to come and serve
> in the state, fine.
>
> YOU MENTIONED MICRO CREDIT
> SCHEME, THERE WAS A TIME YOU WERE
> WINNING CBN AWARDS IN THAT SECTOR BUT YOU ARE NO LONGER.
> WHY?
>
> We are not interested in
> winning awards. So at a time people
> thought our micro credit scheme was all about winning
> awards.
>
> BUT TO WHAT EXTENT HAS THE
> SCHEME TOUCHED THE POPULACE?
>
>
> The stage we are in now, we
> have moved the scheme now to small
> and medium scale enterprises. That is what we are
> concentrating on now. Most of
> the initial micro businesses have grown to medium and small
> scale enterprises
> and even exporting their products. Some now have NAFDAC
> certification and are
> now exporting. Some even have outlets outside Nigeria. I
> believe that you can
> grow a business from the micro level to the macro level and
> many of the
> businesses in developed countries started as micro
> businesses.
>
> We are identifying those
> that have potentials and funding them
> more so that they can grow into big businesses.
>
> TO WHAT EXTENT HAS
> DESOPADEC HELPED IN ACHIEVING PEACE IN THE
> OIL PRODUCING AREAS OF THE STATE? WHAT WAS THE REASON FOR
> THE DISSOLUTION OF
> THE LAST BOARD?
>
> The law setting up
> DESOPADEC was started by my predecessor, but
> I started running the commission when I came in. The
> dissolution of the board
> was done last year. The law establishing it empowered me to
> nominate the board
> members and forward the list to the House of Assembly for
> clearance and
> approval. But after that, I am the person that the law gave
> the powers to also
> dissolve the board. I think they had some challenges and
> they were invited by
> the House of Assembly, whereupon the House dissolved the
> board. But we notified
> them that they did not have the legal right to do so. But
> they complained that
> the board was doing some things that were not right. We
> applied a political
> solution to it and I dissolved the board myself and set up a
> new one.
>
> HAVE THEY BEEN ABLE TO
> RESOLVE THE ISSUE THAT LED TO THE
> DISSOLUTION OF THE BOARD, TO ENSURE THAT THERE WILL NO
> LONGER BE CRISIS BETWEEN
> THE BOARD AND THE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF
> ASSEMBLY?
>
> Yes we have resolved the
> issues. Two members of the board did
> not come back. And I can say that so far so good, I am
> satisfied with what the
> board is doing now. So I can say that they are
> working.
>
> HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO
> STEM THE TIDE OF KIDNAPPING AND OTHER
> FORMS OF INSECURITY THAT ONCE BEDEVILLED THE STATE AND AT
> WHAT COST?
>
> Starting from the cost,
> nobody can tell you the cost of security
> because there are visible and invisible costs of maintaining
> security. The
> visible ones are the ones you see, while the invisible ones
> are the ones you
> cant see. For instance, if I have an informant somewhere, I
> cant tell you how
> much I pay the informant.
>
> SO, DO YOU HAVE
> INFORMANTS?
>
>
> There is no security
> conscious government that does not work
> with intelligence. You can monitor this house now without my
> knowing. You can
> monitor this house now without my knowing and can be paying
> somebody in this
> house and getting information about this house but will not
> disclose to anybody
> what you are paying the person.
>
> Kidnapping is a fallout of
> small arms that became readily
> available after major crises like the Niger Delta crisis. If
> you are able to
> settle Boko Haram crisis today, the arms and ammunition that
> would be available
> will easily fall into hands that would use them for other
> criminal activities.
> So kidnapping, piracy were fallouts of the Niger delta
> crisis and it became
> very challenging. But what we have done so far is to
> approach it in various
> ways like using intelligence, education and security. We
> tried to involve the
> traditional rulers, churches, communities and hotels in
> activities geared
> towards confronting kidnapping. And also, we identified
> places that are either
> hideout for the kidnappers or where they take their victims
> to.
>
> WHAT WERE THE CHALLENGES IN
> MANAGING A MULTI-CULTURAL STATE LIKE
> DELTA?
>
> I can say that it was
> challenging but, the bottom line is: be
> fair to all. Let everybody have a sense of belonging in
> terms of appointments,
> in terms of infrastructure distribution.
>
> Naturally some people will
> still feel that they are not getting
> as other people are getting, but it is to make them realise
> that there are some
> areas you would need to naturally need to pay more attention
> to. It is natural
> that you pay more attention to the state capital. It is also
> important that you
> pay more attention to a commercial area like
> Warri.
>
> So, if you notice, we have
> paid more attention to Asaba and now
> Warri also while not ignoring the other areas. It is not as
> if the grumbling is
> over, but it is not the way it used to be. But it to let
> them know that every
> part of the state is important and whatever we are doing in
> any part, has a
> relationship with other parts. For instance, the Asaba
> airport is not only
> utilized by Asaba people.
>
> Now, anybody going to Isoko
> area, I know they used to go through
> Warri, but now that there is Asaba Airport and we are
> dualising the Asaba/Warri
> road by the time we finish the dualisation, from Asaba to a
> place in Isoko area
> will take nothing more than forty five minutes. So,
> instead of that drive
> that takes you hours to Benin to catch a flight, you now can
> do that through
> Asaba.
>
> It is to make everyone
> understand that what we are doing in any
> part of the state is for the benefit of the whole state and
> one way or the
> other, the whole state benefits from it. So ethnic issues
> may not have been
> totally resolved, but it is much more reduced. Secondly,
> everybody now knows
> that because of my background, the ethnic group I come from,
> everybody has a
> sense of belonging, that anybody could be anything in Delta.
> You know at a
> point, some people were saying that only this group of
> people that could be
> governor or that. That I was able to be a governor, that
> means that anybody
> from any part of the state could as well become a
> governor.
>
> SO, DO YOU BELIEVE THAT
> WITH DELTA SOUTH AND DELTA CENTRAL
> HAVING PRODUCED THE GOVERNOR THAT IT IS NOW THE TURN OF
> DELTA NORTH TO PRODUCE
> THE NEXT GOVERNOR?
>
> Deltans will decide. Delta
> people will decide that.
>
>
> WHAT IS YOUR OWN PERSONAL
> OPINION ON THIS?
>
>
> My position is too
> sensitive for me to start airing my personal
> conviction. Deltans will sit down and decide whether this
> time it should go to
> the North or not.
>
> AS THE LEADER OF THE PARTY
> IN THE STATE, DO WE FORESEE YOU
> CONVENING A STAKEHOLDERS’ MEETING, TO TAKE A DECISION ON
> THE MATTER?
>
> As I move along, I am
> discussing. People are consulting me, I am
> consulting them and I will know that there is a
> gravitation.
>
> WHAT IS YOUR ASSESSMENT OF
> THE AMNESTY PROGRAMME?
>
>
> Reasonably, so far so good.
> There are grumblings here and there.
> Like anything human, people will grumble. There are some
> ethnic groups who are
> grumbling that they were not carried along, that the
> emphasis has been on those
> that carried arms and that what happens to those that did
> not carry arms.
>
> There are grumblings here
> and there, but I don’t regret being
> part of those who brought about the amnesty because I think
> it has achieved
> results.
>
> DO THE RECENT MEETINGS OF
> THE SOUTH-SOUTH AND SOUTH EAST
> GOVERNORS HAVE BEARING TOWARDS 2015?
>
> Even this interview has
> something to do with 2015! (laughter)
>
>
> Once two or more governors
> are gathered, there must be political
> undertones to it. But basically it was not for 2015, but
> really it was for
> economic integration of the two zones. We have a lot in
> common and we believe
> that we should come together and deal with issues that
> affect us on the
> economic side and also on the security side. We thought that
> coming together
> and seeing what we can do together on common issues like
> security.
>
> We also believe that since
> we produced the president that we
> should also give him the maximum support and make contact
> with our colleagues
> outside the zone to also encourage them to support the
> president.
>
> ARE YOU RULING OUT YOUR
> COLLEAGUES IN RIVERS AND EDO STATES FROM
> THIS PROCESS?
>
> Attending the meeting is a
> matter of choice. You decide on who
> you want to associate with. But whether they are there or
> not and when the
> programmes come out and you have not been attending but if
> you find out that
> our programmes will be beneficial to your state, you are
> free to adopt it. It
> is not necessarily their presence that matters.
>
> DO YOU THINK THAT THE
> DEFECTION OF FIVE GOVERNORS FROM YOUR
> PARTY AND SOME MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO THE APC,
> WOULD AFFECT THE
> FORTUNES OF THE PDP?
>
> No, no. The way PDP is, PDP
> is the only party that started out
> in 1998 that is still existing and bearing its name. Why I
> am saying so is that
> if you look through most wards in the whole Nigeria, you
> will either see the
> PDP as the number one party or as the number two party. So
> on ground, it
> is still a very, very strong party. At the grassroots, it is
> still a very
> strong party and it is a party that is going to beat
> nationally.
>
> Having said that there is
> no doubt that we have challenges and
> if you understand politics very well, you would know that if
> you lose one
> member from your party it is a problem. It is more if you
> lose one leader and
> so, no one is saying that the fact that these five governors
> are gone will not
> affect the party. Or that they should go to hell. We know
> that it is a
> challenge that we have lost five governors and we know the
> role of governors
> when it comes to elections but we also believe that we can
> still win elections
> if we do a few things.
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