Engr Sunday Andrew Opoke, Ebonyi PDP Guber Aspirant.
In this interview, the Ebonyi State Governorship Aspirant under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Evangelist Engr Sunday Andrew Opoke (PhD) spoke on his 2023 ambition, his action plans and other issues that affect the state. He said, the Ebonyi people need a governor who has a special interest in creating wealth through industrialisation and entrepreneurship to ensure their critical engagement in varied domains, getting closer to God, and having a robust security system through technological advancement, among other human prospects, VICTOR NWEGEDE writes from Abakaliki.
EXCERPTS:
Sir, as one of the main aspirants for the Ebonyi State governorship seat under the platform of the PDP, can you tell us your motives, how far you have gone and your magic plan that will signpost your administration to be different from the previous ones in the state?
The race has been wonderful. Let me start from whom I'm. When I introduced my name, I said I'm an Evangelist of an Anglican Communion of the Cathedral of the All Saints. I'm also an ambassador for many universities in America, Nigeria, United Kingdom. I'm a professional, my Bachelor's degree is in Geology in Nigeria, my MSc in Petroleum Engineering in the United Kingdom, and my PhD is in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering in the USA and that's my education.
My background
As a professional, I'm a consultant, the first and only indigenous Water Consultant in Ebonyi State. I consult for the Federal Republic of Zambia, Federal Republic of Uganda, Federal Republic of Utopia, and the Federal Republic of Kenya. So these countries even if they change their Presidents will still invite me. I consult their water sectors. I used to be General Manager for Ebonyi Water Use Supply and Sanitation Agency but I have resigned my appointment. So, in this dimension of Water, Environment and Earth Science I'm a Professional.
Why coming on Board
I want to remind the Press, Ebonyians, Nigerians and other people across the world that Ebonyi State was created out of divine intervention. A lot of people like Akanu Ibiam, Martins Nwanchor Elechi, Ofor Nwali and many others did their best for Ebonyi State to be created but unfortunately, the agitation couldn't create Ebonyi State.
Already, there was a Muslim man who was a Director of one Muslim school in Uwunna, Afikpo. He was a friend of Sani Abacha. Abacha has severally been in Ebonyi before he became the President of Nigeria. When he was on board, the issue of the agitation came up again, especially on the creation of the state, Ebonyi couldn't make it, but, because he has been here several times, he saw Ebonyi among the listed ones, and he signed his signature on top of it and said Ebonyi must be created - that's how it came to be. No other states had such divine intervention except Ebonyi. It is because we came on that platform of divine intervention, we are very happy that God is interested in us. The leadership of the state has always witnessed at a certain level some degree of what we can call quality leadership.
Though what we have is not good enough, we can do much more. There are a lot of things going wrong but it's a time like this that we can correct them. Those of us who have travelled far and near can understand that the systems that work elsewhere, are not working in this part of the world.
We have some capacities - strength, and natural resources that can make it work, but let me start with why I came on board. What I think is if we do it in a time like this, Ebonyi will move higher.
First of all, we will look at wealth creation. If I come on board as a governor, I have two major assignments. To create wealth for the people and to connect God to His people and the people to God Himself. If I do this my job is finished.
In wealth Creation: How I'm going to do it? In wealth creation, I look at first, urban-rural migration. What I called urban-rural migration is that whatever happens in the urban should also be happening in the rural communities. Why I don't like to do a local content campaign, like road, water, electricity, hospital, and school is because, at the end of the 21st century, we shouldn't be talking about a thing like that. Those things are the rights of the people. Though not judiciary rights but they are the right of the people.
When you give the people what is their rights does not mean that you have done beyond expectation, because governance is all about welfare and security. In welfare - the people should be happy. When they have a good road, they will be happy. When they have electricity, they will be happy. When they have a sound and quality education system, they will be happy. But those things I mentioned are the rights of the people, you don't suppose to deny people their rights.
So, I'm coming on board to do something different, inclusive of those people's rights, by giving them, whatever those things that are due to them without any interference. Just like I said earlier, anybody who came on board to contest the election and begins to shout roads, so that people can clap for him or her, is doing a local content campaign.
What I do mean? If I came on board as governor of Ebonyi State, I will use what we have to create wealth. I will industrialize the state. When I said industrialization, just like a lot of politicians are promising to industrialize this state, we should ask them what type of industrialisation are they talking about? I'm talking about production, processing, and packaging. It's a type of industrialisation I'm talking about.
In production, every local government should have a product of its own produces only by itself in Nigeria. So that people can come from far and near for the product. If every local government has two or three factories which it specialises on, even if it's within the South East region of Nigeria, it's still a very big business.
For instance, in Ebonyi State as an Earth scientist, we have a lot of solid minerals, like lead, zinc, limestone, and many more. If we have an electronic company or battery producing company in Ebonyi State, it's going to be a good business because the battery is produced from lead, and we have enough of these resources, we have the industry domesticated in Ebonyi State.
My idea is that if we bring in the industries that can access local materials and with that unemployment will be a thing of the past.
For me, when I say, wealth creation, we should think of building a system where people don't need government. The government should be run by those who have no opportunity in other sectors. In developed nations, people that work for the government are those who have no opportunity in other sectors. But we have industries and factories where you work and generate wealth by yourself. There will be no need for seeking a government-paid job. It's only the poor people who work for the government but in this place, everything is centred on the government. We are going to be decentralised by doing a lot of things to make sure people don't depend on the government alone.
Why people especially the youths are manipulated into thuggery and a lot of vices is because they depend on the government. Any economy that is government based is poor. The economy people propose for now is PPP - Private Public Partnership Driven Economy - where private people are allowed to operate, with the government (public) and then the legislation will be directing everybody. This is because the government has no business in doing business, but to direct according to the legislation.
What do I mean, that government has no business in doing business? If the government wants to dig boreholes and build this and that, we should be able to know that government is not good at management.
Production - this's the aspect of industrialisation we are talking about. When we talk about processing and packaging, we have agricultural products and we know 80 or 90 per cent of farms in Ebonyi. We have raw materials - agricultural products should be well processed and packaged for exportation. Or we bring such companies that focus on processing and packaging, it's going be a very big industry so that those who are into farming and other different aspects of the agricultural business will benefit.
In Nigeria, we have an example, Kaduna was developed by the assemblage of Peugeot. That's what developed Kaduna State. If we do something like that to develop Ebonyi State, it won't be bad. Today in Ebonyi State, there is no place a young man, who had finished school and hasn't had an opportunity for the main job, will wake up in the morning and go for hustle. What developed Lagos State is as you are entering you will see something to do even if they don't know your name. There are factories, companies and industries, people can work to make money while waiting for a better day. If we do in Ebonyi, what Lagos has done, it won't be a bad idea.
Let's look at Anambra State. Why is it Anambra seems to be the only Nigeria state, that's so unique. Let me estimate that Nigeria has close to or a bit above 51 private jets but Anambra state has 41. Can you see the state has 80 per cent of the private jets in the country as wealth because for one to have a private jet is not a small thing? If Anambra State has such several private jets, there is something they have done.
We also talk about technology transfer. Why Africa is backwards in terms of technology transfer, is because there are things we cannot do without technology. How do I intend to do that? I intend to do that, from 0 to 45 years of our youths will be distributed to the different parts of the world. If you want to do a mechanic you can learn in Bengeon. If you want to do tailoring, there is a place you learn it in Singapore, you want to do MSc, PhD, and I'm telling you that I will distribute 60 per cent of our youths to the different parts of the world.
Our intention is not just to go and learn that but learn the technology that backs up that, so when you come back, we will be able to bargain with other nations in terms of technology.
Why these things are not happening here? It is because the technology used is being controlled from the outside. I have lived in England for several years. I have lived in the traffic light, by 2 pm you jump into a traffic light, tomorrow you are getting an invitation from the police. And if they check you through a psychiatrist, and found out that you are sound, they will imprison you for one or two months. But here, you can see people trying to grab defaulters of traffic light rules, and this is all local.
We need to build a robust monitoring system anywhere you are in our dear state. People know that there are crops of armed robbery here and with only the fingerprint, the camera, will chase them to wherever they came from because if they insist on coming, they will be arrested. This we called a robust security system because as a consultant to some counties in Africa, two countries are just like one state in Nigeria. For instance, Zambia is about 16 million people. When I met with the President of Zambia, he asked me how do you think I solve the Zambia water problem? As a small country of 16 million people, just Ebonyi and Lagos inhabitants can make up Zambia.
So, what I'm saying is that if you go to those small countries, they have a constant power supply, water supply, good road network, hospital, education, are working and why can't these work here. If those things begin to work, we stop talking about the United Kingdom, the USA,
We are looking at making Ebonyi State a country inside a country, where everything is working for other states should come to learn from us. It's possible but it has to be purposeful, it has to have a road map - the developmental road map.
It was only Musa Yar'Adua's administration in Nigeria that introduced such a road map for development, but it disappears immediately after his departure to eternity. In developed nations, they have development plans annually to know where we started, where we are, where we are going and what we are going to do, so that somebody in Inikiri in Benue, Effium in Ebonyi should know when to have road, and nobody should campaign to build roads for them. They should know when they have light, water and other basic amenities which I called a local content campaign because you know it's coming and it will come.
We also intend in looking at some specific sectors like health and education. These sectors have a way of creating wealth. It's said a healthy man is a wealthy man. Health is wealth. As you are entering the United Kingdom, they will give you NIC- National Insurance Card and if you are sick, the nearest hospital, and go there for treatment if you like to settle with the doctor. Can't such a thing happen here? Even if we can't start with megafund, we can start with our local women. They have no money but are being charged to the hospital for delivery. They go to local medical attendants to deliver and many of them die there. The health sector is one sector that must be critically looked into. The education sector is a critical sector that must be looked into because education is the skeleton of the system.
Look at our civil service - it is one of the systems which have entirely collapsed. As a system, if anything happens at one end will push the other end and it will collapse. We should know that civil service is a skeleton of the government operation. If you are coming on board as a governor, and you said, you are doing direct labour, and you bring anybody claiming that you are doing direct labour, it means when EFCC comes, they will arrest you.
If you say you are doing direct labour in the ministry of health and use the staff of the ministry of health, the same things are applicable in the ministry of water resources and others - that's what we consider as direct labour. You shouldn't call your relatives from the village to do as if it's part of the contract procedure.
So, what we are saying is that system should be made to work especially civil service, among others. If it's working the system will be healthy, and when the system is healthy, everybody will be happy.
Other areas, we are going to look at are the communal clashes, that are happening here and there. It has truncated our peace. What are we going to do, to make people live peacefully? Do you know the causes of the communal clashes? When people are ideal, not well engaged in handling boundaries not well defined, when people are not allowed to exercise their cultural rights, and there are interferences. We are going to look at this area because any moment a communal clash breaks out, you will not know whom it will affect.
There are so many areas we have a lot of things to do but we have a big plan to ensure the lifestyles of people in Ebonyi will change under my watch. We are going to share the people into three lifestyles. People will live within day lifestyle, some in night lifestyle and others live the mixed lifestyle.
We are going to have industries working here the day and night, if anybody came from China, Morocco or Singapore, to establish a company, we must tell the person, it must be day and night. If you can't run your factory day and night, please don't come to Ebonyi, because there will be traffic both during the day and night hours.
So, why is everybody poor? Everybody wakes up in the morning, people will as from 8 am struggling to get limited resources and from 6 pm, they go back their houses, but if you see a place where somebody can come to a particular shop and do night work or business and go back homily with meaningful wage. Another person will still come and work on the same spot and make a good living at different times. That's the wealth creation we are talking about. If you look at yourself, God designs everybody, God does not want anyone to be poor. Every aspect of the body is meant to use to get money. If you develop your mouth, you will eat, if you develop your hands, you put foods on the table, develop your brain and legs, and you pay your bills and feed well, but we need to establish a healthy environment, for people to develop themselves to become celebrities and international recognised investors. We will be looking at you as not just coming from Ebonyi State but doing a healthy competition with other neighbouring States.
We don't just look at Enugu, and Anambra, and tell them that overtaking is allowed. What are those things we will put on the table to make these things happen? We are already aware that Ebonyi State is one of the poorest states in Nigeria. So, how are we going to come out of it? If everybody is in civil service or appointed as one commissioner or Special Adviser or Assistant, one this or that, even though the appointment is as good as like that, we need to look beyond that.
I want to ask you a question that will shock you. Why is it that when everybody has become everything, everybody comes back to poverty? We are not talking about those who have not tasted power. Some people tasted power, they served as a local government chairman, House of Representatives, Senators, being everything, some were governors and yet you have come back to poverty.
There are fundamental issues we have to resolve in Ebonyi because in other states they are not like that, they move on, non-stop to the progress! I know you can bear me witness, I know these people. One day, I gathered former members of the House of Assembly, you know when they were in the House, they slept in the best of hotels, best of women, drove the best cars, disturbed your village people because they have money in their pockets but now, look at how they look as if they are roasted. What's happening? It's not a cash issue but our poverty is mental poverty. The worst level of poverty is mental poverty.
So, why I said, I will look at the youths and know how they can generate wealth and money for themselves. I have a template. When I came back from England, in England I contested an election, I won as president of the international students over the years. People came to see me as a black man, being a president, because no black man, has tasted the seat. When I was contesting the election, everything works against me - poverty, colour, country, if say Nigeria, if you say Igboman, no! no! and every other thing I had, worked against me, but I designed a strategy and later, I won the position. The people came and saw a black man who is a president for over 100years. After my tenure, my friend in Dubai said that he knew our people are poor, that if I have anybody to send to Dubai, because he has a big company, on their arrival at the airport, he would come to pick them up for jobs.
They used to pay N2.5 to N7 million, for documentation, flight and feedings. I just sent my family people, and friends to Dubai, and he welcomed and gave them jobs.
Now, from 2014, I have sent seven people, I have recovered three but four of them are still there, and they are all doing well, the money I spent, they have given beyond my expectations like gifts but some people have put between N5 to N10 million to people still they are complaining.
That's why we want to dispatch our youths to different countries, to go and test what others are doing and I will give them direction.
In England, there is what people called a thinking room. The intelligent people are put there. They stay in the thinking room to monitor the economy and this was done to create a healthy relationship with France and UK, among different countries.
If we don't do it with our young men, and we continue piloting government and the public resources as a family business, it will dry one day. If you don't do anything to make sure individuals thrive without government, there are going to be a lot of problems.
Gentlemen of the press, I want to assure you that if we have the opportunity we are going to embark on wealth creation.
The water problem in Ebonyi
The water problem of Ebonyi State is very simple. Three major problems have not allowed the water problems to be solved. First, you can't put a square peg in a round hole and expects a miracle. When you appoint a commissioner, people into the water sector, some who can't spell water, and you want them to do miracles.
It takes professionalism, experience and expertise, probably passion to add to it, to drive the sector. It's because the water sector is not like the power sector, where you can put the transformer, step it up and step it down, and the light will show.
Until we begin to look at the water sector to its use professionally, in that sector, I don't think potable water will be accessible. Look at political will, for instance, I used to be General Manager of the Ebonyi State Water Use Supply and Sanitation Agency, but from 2015 till date, I have not been given one kobo, when I'm water solution to many countries.
So, when they began to know that I'm a solution to many countries, they started looking down and said, I will disappear. So, there's a need to give a political will to the water sector, because the infrastructure is there. We have the Oferekpe water scheme, the Okawu water scheme and in fact, the Juju Hill is enough to supply water to the entire Abakaliki metropolitan area. It's because the white men that designed it there, designed it with a gravitational principle, that it doesn't need power before it supplies water to the people. Only Juju Hill here will supply the entire city with water, but if you go there, it's just like a living skeleton.
Look at Oferekpe and Ezzillo Water Schemes, for example, if you design a water scheme, in a professional standard, you involved the professionals. There should be a return pipe, if you go that of Ezzillo, it's only one pipe that passes across the communities to the city and no return pipes. If the water drop, the community people can break the pipe to collect the water, and then the pressure will drop. There is a problem but if they have a supply pipe, the reservoir will begin to return to those places. Whenever the government don't use an expert to do the work, you don't expect miracles.
The Oferekpe water scheme that sank 50 per cent of former Governor Martin Elechi's administrative money in Ebonyi, has up till now no booster station, no return pipe, and you expect miracles to happen. Until they begin to use experts, create political will, and understand the principle that water is not just to come and manage attitudinal change ministry, the problem will not stop.
The solution is what I said before I resigned. For all the things I wrote, no one naira was approved. From that, the agencies collapsed, and the ministry was supposed to be supervising not implementing, when you come to the ministry of water resources, you will do this and this, whereas there are agencies, so, in the next administration, whether I'm the one or not to be the governor we should understand that ministry supposed to be supervising not implementing.
My ambition in 2023, is not to go back
In my ambition to become governor of Ebonyi State in 2023, under the platform of PDP, I remember that Napoleon Hill said: "the worse death is not that life escapes from the body, it's what dies in a man while he lives on." If one has ambition and it dies, while you are living, is a very terrible death, whether I fit in or I don't fit in, I have ambition, I have aspiration, and when you stop aspiring, you start expiring. I'm fully in the race, and by God on our side, I shall win.
