The raging war between leaders of PDP in Edo State, and Governor Adams Oshiomhole, is far from being over, and the PDP chairman in the state, Dan Orbih, seizes every opportunity to make this clear. When Assistant Editor, North, CHUKS EHIRIM, cornered him in Abuja, he accused the governor of misgovernance and vowed that his party would continue to put him on his toes till he leaves office
As a major stakeholder in the Nigerian project, what is your view so far, judging from what is coming out of the National Conference?
Dan Orbih
All I would say is: so far so good. You know that the conference delegates come from diverse backgrounds; so that they can look at Nigeria’s problems and proffer solutions to some of the issues that have been bothering us as a nation. So, I think that when you have that number of people coming together to discuss, it is not always easy to take off.
For now, I think what they are concerned with is putting the framework in place, about how they will conduct their debates and take decisions. I don’t think there is much to worry about now.
Not even with the picture of ethnicity and religious posturing emanating from the delegates?
If you put people together to discuss, of course you should expect the type of things happening now. They are all coming from different backgrounds. I don’t see anything wrong for now. They have not even started debate on the main business; so, let us not get frightened because people are making some threats.
But the ordinary people in Nigeria are beginning to get worried, especially when prominent persons, first class traditional rulers, are making threats of possible pull-out from Nigeria. I want to know if you are not moved by such talks.
When people make pronouncements that are against the tide, definitely you will expect attention to be drawn by such individuals. But the issue here is that if one, out of how many people who are in the conference, is threatening to pull out, he did not say they are pulling out; he only said they have a place they can easily be accepted. Look at the number of people who are at that conference; you are not telling me that about two-third of members of the conference are talking about pulling out of Nigeria. He is entitled to his opinion. I don’t think that represents the opinion of the majority of members of the conference.
The South South delegates to the conference are pushing for 100 per cent resource control. What is your view on it?
I believe that before they took up the position of advocating for resource control, there must have been a lot of meetings, consultations and all that. I think that whatever position they are putting forward in respect of the South South is coming out of several deliberations that have been held in Calabar, Port Harcourt and other places, and I think they can carry on and speak on behalf of people of South South.
If they come out of the conference without getting what they want on resource control, how will you feel?
The most important thing here is that we are given an opportunity to discuss what we feel is dear to us and we are anxiously awaiting that at the end of the day, other people will listen and give us what we are asking that they should give us. But if they feel otherwise and if the reason why they are objecting to it is taken from the bigger picture, in the national interest, well, we will take it as one of the things we just have to accommodate as part of the Nigerian nation.
Let us come back to Edo State where you are the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). You are in opposition in Edo now. How strong is your party in the state, as the country prepares for a general election in 2015?
Let me put it in a very modest manner: I think we are doing very well, and I am quite satisfied with what the party has been able to achieve in terms of membership drive and consolidation of our position as we prepare for the next general election. In terms of membership drive, I tell you that a lot has happened in the last few months. Our position has been further strengthened by the failure of Adams Oshiomhole’s administration to deliver on his campaign promises.
You can see, out of three senators, we can say that PDP now, effectively, has two senators. And several other prominent leaders of the APC are now with us. We are just arranging for the national chairman, the vice president or the president – depending on their time – will come over to receive these members of APC who moved over to the PDP. So I think the chances of the party winning back the state are very bright and we will not relent on our efforts at winning back as many people as possible, so that, come the elections next year and the governorship election that will come later, we will take back the state.
Are you saying that the emergence of the APC does not pose a threat to your party?
It depends on which state you are talking about. In Edo State, there were two parties before now – ACN and PDP. So the question of parties coming together cannot affect the political equation of Edo. So, basically, it is the same situation of two parties.
How sincere are you in making this claim, that Oshiomhole has failed to deliver on his campaign promises? Other people from the state may not agree with you.
Let me just take it this way. When you look at the resources that have accrued to the state under Oshiomhole’s tenure, vis-a-vis the development he claims to have carried out, you will agree with me that the man has not delivered on his promise. In fact, over the past five years, what we witnessed in Edo is all talk but no action. We need to challenge him to point to the projects he started from inception, foundation to conclusion. All the things you are hearing is that he has renovated existing roads. Renovation of existing roads cannot be seen as a ground-breaking achievement anywhere in the world.
Let us look back to the time of Ambrose Alli was in government. Alli was the governor of the old Bendel State, and at the time he took over government, we had less than 200 secondary schools. But at the time he was leaving government, he made sure that almost every community in the state had secondary school. The driving principle of the man’s educational policy was predicated on the fact that no child of school age should go beyond five kilometres to attend school.
So, local governments that used to have about 17 schools got up to 70 schools. In terms of educational development, there is no how we can compare Oshiomhole’s government with the previous administrations, especially that of Alli who established two polytechnics, built one of the best universities in the country today (then Bendel State University, now Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma). He built Colleges of Education, engaged teachers, gave employment to more teachers, put in place in-service training programmes for teachers who could even travel to as far as Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, to do crash programmes for two years or degree programme and come back to continue teaching.
But under Oshiomhole, it is a different scenario. The few teachers who are there, he is insisting on doing competency test for them, so that he can sack them.
I was thinking that you are going to compare Oshiomhole’s performance to that of former PDP governors in the state, especially that of Lucky Igbinedion?
I am always not too interested in using Lucky’s administration in making this kind of comparison. If you talk to most people, even those who served in Lucky’s government who are working with Oshiomhole now, it is fashionable for them to condemn Lucky Igbinedion’s government. Most of those working with the present government in the state were part and parcel of Lucky’s government. Now, for reasons best known to them, they all are unanimous in saying that Lucky didn’t do well. That is their impression. So if the general impression is that Lucky did not do well, why must you compare Oshiomhole’s government with that of Lucky?
Compare Oshiomhole’s government with that of Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, Babatunde Fashola of Lagos, or even Delta that is our neighbour, then we can discuss on a serious note. Let us compare Oshiomhole with those who are doing well.
How would you assess Lucky Igbinedion’s administration, even when he is of your party?
The Lucky era, as far as I am concerned, is past. Whatever anybody is saying about him now will not help us. The greatest thing we can do for our state is to continue to put Oshiomhole on his toes because we don’t want a situation that we wait until he leaves before we start talking. Let us assess Oshiomhole’s era. So what can help in impacting on the welfare of the people now is for all active politicians to make sure that we put him on his toes. And so far, I think we are doing that.
In terms of workers’ welfare, this is the worst government we ever had in the state. I am sure if you are reading papers every day, you must have been coming across stories of strikes, either by doctors or civil servants. In fact, they have never had it so bad. And the most surprising thing is that this is a man who is coming from the background of labour union politics. One would have expected that he takes the welfare of workers seriously. But I can tell you; ask any worker who is engaged in the services of the government, he will tell you he had never had it so bad.
He talks about roads. Of course, he has made some attempts; let me say, conscious efforts to do something about existing roads. But I also don’t see it from the positive side.
So with this your low assessment of the performance of Oshiomhole, how come he won re-election? Is it that the people of Edo like to reward failure with a second chance?
That is a very interesting question. You see, when somebody is contesting an election – at least I have given you a foundation, that if you want to compare what he is doing with the man he took over from, people may say “this man has something to offer”. But now, looking back, a lot of people are full of regrets for giving him a second chance. One, he has destroyed the culture and tradition of our people. Each time you see Oshiomhole in a ceremony, he spends more than half of the time either abusing people who are senior to him or cursing them. That is not what the younger ones want to see in a governor who they want to take as a role model.
May be you are referring to the way he talks to Tony Anenih?
No, no, no. Forget about Anenih. Of course I heard him saying he takes delight in abusing those that people in the society respect. I keep advocating that when the National Assembly is amending the constitution, they should look at that aspect of our constitution that talks about the qualification for those who want to contest for various elective positions. If you look at that of the governorship, they went to the extent of saying primary school leaving certificate. And there is an aspect of that law that even said that once the person can communicate, can read and write. But I believe we have gone very far as a nation. They should, at least, make some amendments.
