‘Cross River PDP has zoned guber seat to North’

The Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Larry Odey,  is one of the aspirants to the office of Governor of Cross River State. He spoke on his ambition and other critical issues affecting the state. Excerpts.

Weekly Trust:  It is no longer news that you are gunning for the office of the Governor of Cross River State in 2015. What informed your decision to contest?
Hon. Larry Odey:   I have the motivation to offer service and it is good that this is happening in my time and I believe a lot has happened in the last couple of months in our state building up to 2015, particularly in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which is my party.
We have tried to look closely at the principle of zoning and we recognize that we have three senatorial districts, two out of the three as it were, have benefited and the party thought for equity

and fairness, the third Senatorial district, which is the north, should be given an opportunity to go for that office. With that understanding, the large caucus of the PDP met towards the end of the year, zoned the governorship to the north, and it has been formalized at the level of the enlarged caucus of the PDP in Cross River State not by any court of law any way, but based primarily on understanding realizing and appreciating that for equity, justice and fairness we need to respect that. Having done that and by the special grace of God I come from the north, which gives me the platform and reason to contest.
Here I have been able to jump the first hurdle and having been around too and still serving and working closely with our leaders in the party and in government and, above all, believing that I do not lack in capacity to offer service at that level. I am offering myself and I have started doing that by commencing consultations, which I started in December to meet our leaders across the state.
Primarily, the motivation is to serve and I believe that our state is peculiar; we don’t have all that our sister states have, but we are rich in human resources and we believe that working together with our leaders and followers, we will continue to manage ourselves and our little resources in the way and manner that we will still be able to create the necessary impact, provide welfare, security for our people and take our state to the next level that we expect it to be between now and 2020.
WT: How do you intend to brave the odds considering the fact that there are other aspirants, who are also well connected politically, and who also has the financial muscle to go all the way?
Odey:   I don’t know what you mean by well connected, but I am well connected to God Almighty and that is my source of strength. I am equally well connected to my party members and the people of Cross River State and there lay my strength by the special grace of God. It is all about politics, it is all about democracy and the choice of the people, and it is all about how well one is able to market himself, it is all about trust and confidence. I am not looking at who and who are in the race and how well connected they are.  I believe in what my vision is and what I will be able to do for my people. I welcome everyone who thinks he or she has something to offer and at the appropriate time. The PDP family through consensus or through the ballot will come out with someone by God grace that will have what it takes to truly take our state and our people to the next level.
WT: Will you say that having been in that office in 2012 gives you an edge over other aspirants?     
Odey:   Of course, it does or you don’t think so? I believe it does because they say the taste of the pudding is in the eating. I have been there and I know how it works. Short as it may have been, the spirit is already inculcated and I think that I know the terrain to a great extent, I know the beauty of it, I know the challenge that lies there, I have seen the enormity of it; I believe it is not beyond me. I can tell you yes having been there and through a very challenging time and I think I only wish for a change of baton from Imoke to Odey by the grace of God.
WT: If by the grace of God you eventually emerge governor of the state, what will you do differently?  
 Odey:   I will sustain the momentum and create other avenues that will make us to achieve the same purpose, which is to put food on the table of our people; to put smiles on their faces and to make education accessible to our people. I will also create a private-sector driven economy and aid the people to get the facilities that they require to be able to create businesses and support government to build the state economy. We are going to work together to expand and move forward. These are the things that we will do differently. We will try to move up from where we are to greater heights.
WT: What is your relationship like with other aspirants?
Odey:  We need to build confidence so that no one feels that he has lost out at the end of the day. If it is not me, I will support whoever emerges, but let me not feel that mine has come to an end and vice-versa. By the grace of God we are talking and this confidence building is very important.
WT: What has been the achievement of the Cross River State House of Assembly in 2013 legislative year?
Odey: The year 2013 was a beautiful year for us Cross Riverians,  beautiful in the sense that we started well and ended well with no major crisis to lament over.  We in the parliament don’t look at the year in terms of January to December; we look at it from the legislative perspective which is from June to another June as our legislative year. We haven’t fared badly and we are trying to do our best from our own arm of government, so we give the necessary support to other arms of government so that we have success at the end of the day. We work collectively with other arms to achieve our aims which is providing for the welfare, security and other needs of our people.
WT: How many bills have been passed into law in the 2013 legislative year?    
Odey:   We have   passed eight bills into law outside the appropriation bill. We are addressing some now and it is important that I mention that this is one assembly that you have a couple of private member bills. In the last assembly, incidentally, we had just two in four years but in two years we have had three already. Right now we have one that we are working on and they are all at second reading stages now, and in a short while we will be passing them into law. This assembly is quite active and vibrant and members are ever ready to work.
WT: There are lots of complaints from the business community in the state over double taxation. What has the House done to streamline the activities of numerous tax collectors?
Odey: We are deliberately as a government trying to grow our economy. In the absence of oil, we look back at some areas we believe we have comparative advantage; where we believe we are naturally endowed and explore all of these. But one thing you need to understand is that all over the world citizens who have attained certain age in life, who are self-employed or employed by government must pay some form of tax. For instance,  Gambia economy is a tax economy and that is their primary source of revenue and they do that and the people are happy because they see results of the taxes they pay and that is what we are trying to do in Cross River State. We are not limiting ourselves to whatever we get from the federation account, because we know what we get from the federation account cannot give us what we are doing in the state, but we believe that if our economy must strive, we should all be fully engaged in the process of making our economy to thrive. Everyone who is doing any form of business in Cross River must be captured in the tax system to the extent that you give your little. I certainly frowned at double taxation; I won’t be able to make a clear statement on that because it is something I need to look at and also cause the appropriate committee in the House to look at, But taxes are defined, the local government by their own law have their taxes which they expect the citizens to pay; the state government have their taxes but let they be streamlined in such a manner that it doesn’t appear double.

http://www.weeklytrust.com.ng/index.php/politics/16466-cross-river-pdp-has-zoned-guber-seat-to-north