Buhari on course with nation’s economic recovery — Delta APC chairman, Erue

By Lucky Oji
Prophet Jones Ode Erue, is the chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Delta State. In this interview with Sunday Vanguard, the APC boss speaks of his party’s determination to take over power from the PDP in the state come 2019, Buhari’s strides in fulfilling his campaign promises and the party’s  achievements in the state.

Erue

Excerpts
Sir, why is your party, the APC in  Delta so determined to unseat the PDP in 2019?
Yes, the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Delta State, is taking over power from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in  2019, for obvious reasons. The PDP-led government in the past 16 years has had enormous opportunities to re-direct the socio-economic affairs of Delta State towards a path of hope and greatness. Sadly, it has succeeded in wasting the vast resources that the state accumulated during the over 16 years of financial buoyancy on“white elephant” projects and programmes that have had little or no bearing on the lives of ordinary citizens.
It is obvious today that many other states that are far less endowed, like Edo, Ogun and Cross River, are beginning to make a resurgence in various aspects of their socio-economic life. Some of these states have had the fortune of building on previous positive foundations created between 1999 and 2007,like in Cross River and Akwa-Ibom, or they have had the gut to change the “captain of their ship”, such as in Edo State,when they recognized that the “political boat” they were travelling in was capsizing.
Unfortunately, Delta has been entrapped since 1999 by the PDP while the government still manages to hoodwink a number of Deltans with “financial crumbs” while they continue to benefit immensely from their regime of waste, to the detriment of the people.
The PDP administration in Delta State from 1999 till date has definitely caused the people to lose huge amount of their financial resources running into hundreds of billions of Naira due to a combination of poor planning, weak resolve to develop the real sector and the cesspool of corruption that seemed to have pervaded the PDP-led administration in Delta State.
We recall how in 2001, following President Obasanjo’s approval of an international auction process for three national mobile network licences, Delta State government invested a total sum of $45m (in coalition with Lagos State government, other local banks and high network individuals) to facilitate the acquisition of a licence for Econet Wireless Nigeria Limited (EWN) through Delta State Ministry of Finance Incorporated and DTSG Ecoshare Limited. The overall cost of the Econet Wireless licence was $285m and it was the most expensive ever issued in Africa at the time.
Following wranglings in the boardroom that, as we have come to know today, was due to an alleged request for gratification by some key players in this investment which was not honoured by the management of Econet Wireless. EWN was eventually dropped as the operating partner, and their operating right was transferred to another company, V-mobile. It has been claimed that even the operator V-mobile was also later compelled to hurriedly divest from this transaction following formal complaints against them because of their compliance with this request for gratification.  Unfortunately, the PDP government has never properly explained to Delta State citizens whose stake was held in proxy by the government what exactly happened to this well-timed investment.
It may just have vanished into thin air. We are aware that Akwa-Ibom State government, though a much later investor into this transaction, eventually divested its stock and re-invested it in setting up the Akwa-Ibom airport project. Delta State on the contrary now has its investment in murky waters. It is instructive to note that ex-Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan was the SSG to ex-Governor James Ibori while these issues were being contrived. Subsequently, the present Governor Ifeanyi  Okowa took over as SSG to ex-Governor Uduaghan. The details of these transactions have never seen the light of day. This investment which ought to have been a bright opportunity for Delta  has been wasted.

Any other area of wastages?
Another subject of interest is the quantum of financial resources of the state that have been committed to the Warri Urban Water Supply project. This is a legacy project that was inherited from the military era, and it was revived in 1999 when present-day Governor Okowa was the Commissioner for Water Resources in the state. It has been suggested that an amount in excess of N15billion may have been further expended cumulatively on this project but that it only may have served as a conduit pipe as the project is still steeped in uncertainty and neither  is there a specific completion date in sight.
More recently, the PDP-led government again initiated an immense urban renewal exercise by approving a BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) project for Warri metropolis. This project was abandoned after a lot of state resources have been committed to it. The decision to dismantle this project was recently taken by the incumbent Governor,  Okowa, after a significant part of over N4 billion have been wasted on the  project.
It must be noted that the scarce resources that have been wasted on “white elephant projects” could have been better deployed to solve most of the problems that the previous PDP government have left unattended. The evidence is out there that the intra-city road infrastructure in many towns (Warri, Asaba, Sapele, Agbor, Kwale, Ughelli, etc) are largely dilapidated, and even the major inter-city road projects that have been under construction for many years are still on-going but have been suspended due to inadequacy of funds.
This continuous mismanagement of the commonwealth of Deltans is certainly a matter of serious concern to all well-meaning Deltans, to the extent that the present PDP-led administration of Governor Okowa had revealed, after he took office, that Delta State has literally been “mortgaged” with a whopping debt burden of N637 billion Naira. The state is therefore entrapped in colossal loans that we do not yet know why they were acquired nor how this heavy liability will be repaid because the state now receives a lesser statutory income due to the downward trend in the price of crude oil. Even if the loan repayment is deferred, it will simply attract further monetary interest.
No nation or state can survive such squandering of its financial resources.
We will emphasize that Delta State can still be redeemed but only by a “change” in government that drives a “change” in priorities, a“change” against wastages, “change” against corruption and finally“change”that leads to an enlargement of the socio-economic standing of the state with better focus on job creation, education, improved health services delivery, superior infrastructure, etc. In fact, there is still great hope and expectation for a new Delta, a glorious future that will become manifest when the present PDP administration in the state is eventually replaced by an APC government.
Evidently, the Delta State chapter of the APC under your chairmanship has witnessed tremendous reformation, consolidation, how were you able to achieve all that?
The current state executive of the Delta State chapter of our great party, the APC, came into existence through a successful state Congress held in April 2014. As you know the APC is an agglomeration of a number of political parties. Shortly after the congress, some members of one of the legacy parties who felt dissatisfied with the outcome of the exercise proceeded to court to challenge its veracity. And as we speak, the matter is still within our legal jurisdiction; therefore, I am constrained and cannot comment much further on it.
After the congress, we resolved to build a strong party based on consensus because we knew we were soon headed for an election. In as much as our attention was initially diverted by an extant legal challenge, we still had the legal standing to effectively carry out our political functions. The road we travelled has not been easy,both before and after the elections. However, we have stayed on course by always setting our agenda clearly, aggressively pursuing our pre-defined goals, staying true to our convictions and building on the strength of our members.
You may be aware that we contested the outcome of the last general election up to the Supreme Court because we felt we were deprived of our votes, but lost. Thereafter, we decided to consolidate our party further and our effort has culminated in other progressive parties with well-known heavyweights joining us to build  even a bigger political structure in the state. I am excited about the progress we have made so far, and I welcome all new members into our fold warmly. I continue to call on all our party members, including any aggrieved ones, to close ranks with us as we work together to strengthen our party and build a new ship that will rescue Delta State from the storms that has continued to batter it over the years.

It is being insinuated that the perceived crisis in the APC may hinder its chances in 2019, how true is that?

Like I just told you, APC in Delta State has continued to witness tremendous improvement since the last general election. We are growing from strength to strength daily. I am glad you said the crisis is perceived. There is no large house without some different sets of opinions, but the good thing is that we do have the means of resolving whatever differences that may arise; and we will stay on that course no matter how long it takes, to ensure that we work together to secure an upset in the general election that is due for 2019. And talking about crisis, you may have to look at what is going on in PDP today as the example for crisis; the party is in a mess already and in fact, may not even survive it. So, going forward, we are quite confident of our situation.
Just recently Chief Great Ogboru, Victor Ochei and other strong politicians in Delta state joined the APC, what does this  portend for your party?

As I mentioned earlier, we are quite happy to welcome such renowned political heavyweights and many other strong politicians into the APC family. We are not unconscious of the value they bring to their new family and we are grateful for their consideration. The good thing is that APC has a proper plan for integration and inclusion, and provides a level playing field for freedom of political expressions.
The President, Muhammadu Buhari has spent one year in office, how would you assess his performance, and would you advise Nigerians to support his administration?
President Muhammadu Buhari has been in office now for just over a year. As you know, he campaigned on a well-defined premise, and this included securing the country, growing her economy and fighting corruption, which according to him would kill us if we do not kill it first. Thus far he has kept faith with his promises and concentrated his effort in all these areas of our national life.
The evidence we have all come to see today is that our country had been in a rot.The recent revelations of the depth of corruption have been mind-boggling, and so far Mr President has taken on this challenge squarely and is now making significant progress. On security, we all know that the President has decimated Boko Haram sect in the North east; and now he is redirecting his effort to other segments of the country that have symptoms of insecurity which will soon end. On the area of the nation’s economy, I personally admit that it is an uphill task to jumpstart the economy that was already bastardized and will require a lot of effort.The federal government is focused on growing our economy into a multi-sectoral one, restoring financial stability as well as fiscal discipline such as through the use of TSA, stimulating foreign direct investments and checking corruption. These are all tools geared towards improving the economy, and we will get there in no time.
My advice would be for all Nigerians to continue to support President Buhari knowing that he is making steady progress on the economy, even as he is simultaneously tackling many other challenges within the country.