•Says Niger-Delta can’t pressure Buhari now
•Buhari has performed in six weeks
NIger-Delta Leader, activist and Igba of Warri, Chief Rita Lori-Ogbebor, is not happy with the state of affairs in the Niger-Delta in spite of the efforts of the Federal Government to develop the region through the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ministry of Niger-Delta Affairs and Amnesty programme that will end in December. In this interview, he lamented that these agencies performed poorly, adding that the region is so poor now and the leaders cannot pressure President Muhammadu Buhari for palliatives because their brother, former President Goodluck Jonathan, just left power.
According to her, Dr Jonathan tried his best for the region but the Niger-Delta failed him. She also assessed President Buhari’s performance so far and awarded him high marks especially on power supply, security and management of the economy. However, she stressed the need for restructuring of the polity into fiscal federalism to enable each zone develop at its own pace.
By Clifford Ndujihe
Assessment of President Buhari so far
President Buhari has done very well. The state of the nation before he took over was very precarious. Before President Buhari took over, there was a huge problem in this country. Today, we thank God that that bad wind is over. I knew that I had to run around talking to heads of states, talking to people who should be taking certain actions, and today we thank God that that bad wind is over. Gratitude to all the churches, from what happened, I know that God hears prayers. When you see what is going on in other African countries like Sudan, one trembles.
So, given all the problems on ground and circumstances before Buhari came, one has to say well-done. Whether you like it or not, Buhari is a soldier. We all knew his antecedents. He has really mellowed by the situation, advice and listening to people.
Buhari is used to central management; that is, as a soldier, he sits and dishes out instructions and he expects that all the other commanders will obey. But it is not so now. He now knows that if he says anything, the smallest person in a village can question him, so he knows he has to change.
Buhari name is a force that is helping the country. His name alone tells you that there is no nonsense, don’t do any rubbish and that helped immediately. From the day he won, there was an aura all over the country. There was a kind of peace that removed the fear that people like us had. As mothers, some of us thought that we were going to be running around with our children in bushes and people were preparing themselves to find a place to run to.
So, we were all very worried. But his name struck fear that ‘look, if he wins, you have to behave yourself.’ He won. The name alone started working for him before he started.
Then, the second thing is that people started respecting themselves by going to return stolen money on their own. If Buhari were somebody else, he will go and start borrowing money. The Western powers were quoted to have said they were going to help Nigeria and with that, if he were somebody else, he would have gone to start borrowing money, but he didn’t. He looked for money to bail out the states that were owing backlog of salaries.
The third thing Buhari has done is power supply. Do you notice that the situation has improved? We all have noticed the improvement in power supply.
Power supply
CHIEF RITA LORI-OGBEBOR
Light is one of the problems that this country has. If Buhari has been able to improve light and has paid salaries, is that not enough? I can talk because I am an industrialist. I know that a lot of companies closed down and we were on very shaky ground because of light.
On controversy over the source of the bailout fund
I heard the PDP saying that the money he used for the bailout was part of the money saved by the Jonathan administration. If that is true, most of the states were PDP states. Why couldn’t they pay for months? Why couldn’t pay especially when they were going for elections? It is because the money was not there.
On comments that ex President Goodluck Jonathan averted that danger by conceding defeat even while they were still compiling the election result
Jonathan, himself, as a person, deep down is a good person but he was surrounded by people who didn’t think well for the country; he was surrounded by people who were working for themselves and their families. So, Jonathan’s heart is not the heart of a politician. His heart is that of a teacher. And they took advantage of it but Jonathan himself knew towards the end that he had been fooled by his so called friends.
And he knew that he was going to endanger himself and the whole country, and that heart of a teacher took over and he conceded to the advice of real stakeholders of this country.
On comments that President Buhari has performed below par in fighting insecurity
Buhari has just been here for six weeks. He has to find his way. Like I told you, there were precarious situations on ground which he himself has to overcome before performing. Don’t forget that this fellow came before and within a short period, he was torpedoed.
Let us talk about Boko Haram, in those days, our soldiers were dying, they were being killed and they were running away. Then, mercenaries were fighting for us. Can you imagine Chad fighting for us? Later, we had to pump in money. The government had to inject money because of politics. The emphasis was that they should do what they could because of the coming election.
It is a different scenario today. Today, our own soldiers are fighting. When you see explosions in remote areas, it means that the main force of the Boko Haram is being reduced. So, what they do is to go as suicide bombers in isolated places, which means their fighting force is being reduced.
Fighting force
I will be afraid if our soldiers are still running away but that our soldiers are now confronting them and reducing their strength. One hopes that soon Buhari will be able to do something.
On the impression that people are suffering more now under Buhari’s watch
It is not Buhari who squandered the money in the country. The money was in the hands of politicians, who used it for election. All the money owed by the different states that Buhari has just paid now, is it Buhari who made the states to owe it?
In fact, I must tell you I have never seen any government like the past government. This is why I keep emphasizing that I am a journalist, an industrialist, a mother and a traditional ruler. In all these I am dealing with people, we are the ones who pay salaries. How many companies closed down at the time before the election? How many companies were working? People like us were just managing to pay our workers. I think what Buhari did not do was to arrest all of them to account for that money.
But he can’t arrest a sitting governor
Yes, but some of the governors are out now. And there are a lot of people he could have arrested but he changed from the Buhari we know to a political Buhari. In spite of his military background, he is listening to a lot of people who are now putting pressure on him not to fight for the money. The man is in real trouble because many of his advisers should also be probed.
On the poor state of Niger-Delta region
I fought former President Olusegun Obasanjo openly for 13 per cent derivation. We said to them, ‘create institutions to look after the Niger Delta, not to appoint one man, make him a minister and say he is the one to look after the Niger-Delta. So they created the NDDC. Let NNDC come and tell me what they have done.
East-West road
They said NDDC is not doing enough. We said create the ministry of the Niger-Delta Affairs. What has the ministry done?
Before the election, the minister of Niger-Delta Affairs came and said he had done the East-West road. I said it will be very good, I will be able to convince my women to vote for you. Give us a date we will go and see the road and on the road we will campaign for you. He left and never came back.
I fought for 13 percent derivation. I carried placards in Abuja, that the money should be given to us. I took (former Delta State Governor, James) Ibori to court for eight years because of this fund. When Ibori was about leaving office, he created the Delta State Oil Minerals Producing Areas development Commission (DESOPADEC).
The NNDC and DESOPADEC should give us account. If people say they want to fight Buhari because of these funds, the question Buhari will ask them is, was Jonathan and your brothers not there? They just left the place, why didn’t you fight them over these funds?
Now let me tell you, it is not that Jonathan didn’t try for the people of the Niger Delta, but we all failed Jonathan.
The Amnesty was a good programme. Jonathan continued with the Amnesty programme and even expanded it. Where is the fruit of the amnesty today? All we hear is that (Kingsley) Kuku sent some people all over the world to study, that for every former militant, whether you go to school or not, you get N65, 000 every month. How long do you think the Federal Government will continue to pay that?
The amnesty programme is said to be ending this December and some people are saying, no, it must not end, that there is going to be trouble. Which trouble? Because of all these problems, the Niger Delta has no money. They should ask the leaders, especially those who managed the funds.
Her assessment of Niger-Delta governors over the years
For me I don’t talk about things I don’t know. I don’t even know their names because they have not performed. If you ask me today, the governors I can tell you their names, I can tell you about Fashola, because he performed for me to see.
On comments that Lagos was a federal territory and was developed by the Federal Government over the years
The Federal government can’t go and develop the Niger-Delta. It can only create institutions to develop the area.
These people in the Niger Delta didn’t help Jonathan. As a person, Jonathan tried. If somebody can give his people money, N65, 000 a month, what do you expect him to do for you again? Even though, you are an illiterate, for all the period he was there and they were getting that N65, 000, they can use it to start a petty trade.
Now there is no more money and the amnesty programme is coming to an end this December, and some persons are asking me to go and fight on their behalf. If I go to fight, Buhari will ask me, was your son not there?
The leaders of the Niger Delta didn’t help the region. They have neglected the Niger Delta people. Even the ex-militant leaders have beautiful buildings in Abuja and Lagos, they drive expensive cars but have forgotten the Niger Delta and its suffering people.
It’s so pathetic that the nation is so poor now, that Buhari will have to take time to face the problem headlong. We are so poor now that cultism, kidnapping and armed robbery have returned in the region. It’s a pity.
On clamour for restructuring and true federalism
Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari . Photo by Abayomi Adeshida
At the end of the day, that’s going to be the answer. We were doing it regionally before the military coup. Then, the regions were competing. After the coup, the soldiers who were already used to central command found it easier to embrace unitary government. Until we have fiscal federalism, this system of government that we have can’t work.
If for instance, each governor knows that the onus lies on his shoulder to cater for his people, he will work hard. Before, when we were Midwest, we were a very rich people. We had rubber. The rubbers are still available if you go to Benin today. Timber is still there. We would have been very rich in our forest resources. Had we continued, by now, we could have also done research on trees that grow within a short period. Today, we would have been a different country but everybody’s attention is on oil.
What do you think the President should do with the national confab report?
The national confab was actually asking for fiscal federalism. At the end of the day, that was what we gained. With the present generation of politicians, there will always be trouble. Can you imagine, in that confab, people were still struggling for states, how are you going to feed your people?
Workers’ salaries
People are not thinking about the country, they are only thinking of themselves. When 36 states can’t pay workers salaries, where will the 18 more states recommended by the confab get money to pay salaries and run the states? You think we will continue like this, so that one state or a group of states will continue to feed the whole country? It can’t work that way.
So, what I must ask Buhari to do is that he must take a look at that confab and face it squarely. If he thinks at the moment, that the country is so weak, one has to depend on the other, they must create infrastructures that will give those states happiness.
Every bird must fly. All of them will continue to go their different ways to expand. However, there are some who want to remain where they are. Goodluck to them. But those who are ambitious and want to work, give them the privilege to develop themselves, to avoid these trouble we are experiencing in this country. The country is so big, so we all have different abilities for development. Some can’t develop but you can’t keep others waiting.
