Nigerians will witness growth in all sectors —Ogiemwonyi

The Minister of State for Works, Chief Chris Ogiemwonyi, in this interview with FRIDAY OLOKOR in Abuja, bares his mind on the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and the April general elections among other issues. Excerpts:

The general elections were said to be free and fair, but there are still complaints in some quarters. Do you expect many petitions at the tribunals this time?

We all know that the elections were free and fair, as such, this time around, there will be fewer cases in the tribunals compared to the previous elections. We don’t expect much litigation because it was one of the freest and fairest elections in the nation’s political history.

But some political parties such as the Congress for Progressive Change have gone to the Election Petitions Tribunal.

No. These are a few instances; some people have made up their mind that they have to win by all means. But what came out of the election was that the best candidates won. It is a question of advising our people to learn that when they go to battle — you either win or lose. If you lose, be a gallant loser. This is my advice for those who are crying when there is no cause to cry. So for our friends in CPC, I will urge them to believe the best candidate won.

The Peoples Democratic Party of which you are a stakeholder performed very poorly in some states, especially in the South West. What are the chances of the party reclaiming its fading glory in subsequent elections in the South West and other areas where it performed poorly?

If you ask me as a person, I will answer it but differently as a member of the PDP. As a person, the only way to reclaim the glory of the PDP in the South West is to practice more internal democracy. Let your candidates emerge through free and fair elections (primaries) within the party. I saw some cases, even in my state, local government and ward. Talking about Edo State, the massive failure we witnessed was due to the people we featured. What we are saying the PDP in Edo State needs is to do proper restructuring, refocusing and repositioning. What we are going to do is to allow the best candidate to emerge, irrespective of sentiments. We will always try to feature our first eleven. We saw some states in the South-West where they featured their third eleven instead of their first eleven.

Why did the PDP perform woefully in the National Assembly election in Edo State?

By poor performance, you mean we won one out of the three senatorial seats; same also for the House of Representatives. I think one or two factors contributed to that. The first has to do with the issue of money politics. I was not in Benin but I read in the newspapers that the state governor donated SUVs plus cash to some senior citizens. We in the PDP do not have that type of money. However, I equally believe that people voted based on those they believed in and on track records. You can’t blame the people, they voted according to their conscience. The only thing I know is that Mr. President did so much for Edo State. As a result they voted for him.

It was recently reported that you had been banished by the Benin monarch, Oba Erediauwa. What was your offence?

You used the word, banished. If I were banished, I wouldn’t be going to Benin every weekend. But to set the records straight, I have a father-son relationship with the monarch. So it is not true, he talked to me in his usual way like a father will address his son, urging me to put more effort to get the Benin Expressway on course in terms of maintenance. You will recall and this is where I am so pleased, that the monarch is somebody that went through public service, knowing fully well that as a minister, it is the funds that are available to me that I will utilise. We are so glad that Mr. President said in his campaign address when he came to Benin that he took full responsibility for the level of funds available to the Ministry of Works. He also promised that we could look for alternatives, private-public sector partnership to complete the project.

People feel that the Independent National Electoral Commission did well under Prof. Attahiru Jega. Could INEC be given a pass mark , given the complaints during and after the elections?

As an engineer, what I do most times is to look at issues critically in terms of looking back at the past, present and the future. The best way to judge INEC is from where we are coming from. If you look at where we are coming from, you will agree with me that things have happened. In terms of score card, we must give INEC 95 per cent. That is my own assessment. Things we used to hear happen at polling booths such as ballot snatching, massive thumb printing and bloodshed were reduced. We can only count a couple of them, unlike what it used to be. I would say that from all indications, putting things to analysis, Jega has done very well, that is the truth.

It has been exactly a year that this administration came to power. What are the achievements of the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration?

One, water supply. Water is life. Many people would have realised that the dams, before the advent of this administration had been in a very poor state-Guroyo Dam, Owena Dam and many others. But today, one year after, there has been massive rehabilitation of these dams. Two, power. Again, people might be comparing us to other countries like South Africa as regards our power output. But looking at where we are coming from, there is now stability. It has to grow in terms of megawatts. Three, look at infrastructure. I don’t care what people say about roads. Don’t forget that our country is so massive with 34,000 kilometres of paved roads to be managed by government. People tend to compare us with Ghana which has fewer roads. But, here we have 34,000 kilometres which government has to maintain. We also have to construct new ones. Where we have problems is where there is heavy rainfall as in South-West and South- East. Yes, there are challenges but we are facing them. It is not so much in the northern states where we have stable soil. Four, education. Again, this is one government which, within one year established nine new federal universities while approval was granted to four private universities. As a country, we should expose our people. We hear of Boko Haram which abhors western education. Those people need massive orientation and the only way to do that is through either adult education or open university system. Five, our health sector. Again, people will query where we are today. But my own assessment is the stability in the sector. This administration has taken so many key areas. Six, how about the spate of kidnapping in Abia State? Peace has long returned to the area. But a year ago, it was AK 47 to AK 47. But today, there is peace in Abia and commercial activities have picked up. We tend to forget all these achievements. These were serious issues before this present administration came on board. But my happiness for this administration is that most of these things have stabilised. In the next three years we will start seeing growth which is good enough.

You said that government has many roads to maintain. Are you saying that government does not have funds to maintain them?

Before I came on board as a Minister of State, I saw things the way you are seeing it now. But I now realise the funds accruable to government all have to go through the key sectors. If you see it that way, the fund we have is inadequate. So it behoves government to be judicious and prudent in spending. Now talking about the roads, if you equally realise the numerous roads we have, government alone cannot do it. Even in the United States, they do more of Public Private Partnership where you call in an experienced contractor with enough funds as is the case now in Lekki, Lagos State. The state government cannot do it alone. They asked a company to come in and join them. That is the thing we will see in a few years ahead. Since government resources are attached to so many sectors, we should encourage private sector partnership. The roads, airports and others are important. The private sector should be encouraged to come in where government feels there are viable projects.

One of the worst roads in Nigeria is the one that leads to the seaports in Lagos and has generated much concern. Are you bothered at all?

We are bothered. If you realise, myself and Sanusi Daggash (Minister of Works) had to first appeal to our people to stop parking on the roads. The roads are not parking spaces; they are supposed to be roads. What we have realised is that they do maintenance of those vehicles on the roads. That is the beginning of the problems. Once you jack up a tyre and there is a small pothole, there will be crisis. But the problem on that road is man-made. But what we have resolved is that come next dry season, we will commence fixing of that road. People should equally desist from using that road as a parking space. We are worried and that is why we are making plans to address it during the dry season.