Anthony Chuks Obuh retired as permanent secretary in Delta State to seek the ticket of the PDP to contest as governor of the state. He explains his ambition and defends the tag of “anointed candidate” used to describe him.
You are aspiring to contest as governor of Delta State. But many say you are the anointed candidate of Governor Uduaghan, is that a plus for you or a minus?
On the issue of anointment, if they say I have been anointed by some political interests, support groups, youth communities and all of that, it is okay and I think that is what politicians seeking public offices look up to. Those saying so, I think have attempted to get such anointment without success. They have also mentioned some name to say such names have anointed me. But let me tell you there is nobody that has the constitutional right to give or deny support for any individual. They even said the governor has anointed me but I have never discussed anointment with the governor; he has never declared that he has anointed me; even the chairman of PDP in Delta State has issued a statement.
At 57 years where I am going to is closer than where I’m coming from. I have worked for 32 years, nobody has said that out of the 32 years I have been inclined to doing wrong or bad things. Now is the time for me to look for a name, a name that can never fade, that can make me to be a consultant to people who will come to seek public office. I am determined to leave a lasting legacy of a leader that will be remembered in history. That is my determination.
Do you have the experience to run as governor?
We formed the Project Uduaghan International (PUI), through that support group we were able to work behind the scenes for the present governor and again I was part of the transition committee that prepared his eventual takeover of office. Along the line you begin to see that certain things that will add value to the lives of the people may be hindered not because the policies are not good or because the leadership does not completely understand what to do, but at every point in time it is necessary that you have to harness the effort of a good number of people within the system to ensure that you achieve success.
If you do not understand the system or what the problems are, the tendency for you is to begin to do blame game. I know how to harness the potentials because I have been in the system and addressing them will not be a problem. And looking at the number of persons who are around, from my personal assessment, I know they do not have the kind of understanding and exposure that I have and that places me at an advantage.
If you look at the fact that by 2015 the position of the governor will become vacant and all of us are looking at a situation where somebody can take over and continue to run the development of our state, continue to utilise all the opportunities that are available and continue to build what we consider to be the advantages that are already on ground, it is only somebody who understands the system thoroughly that can do that.
So in my mind, I have continued to assess the situation and to consider my suitability for that work. It is not something that was done overnight. But something that grew with me, becoming a permanent secretary is not something I just woke up one morning and said oh God just make me permanent secretary, I subjected myself to training, to understanding the system so that when I have the opportunity I could do well.
So the aspiration to become a governor is a combination of well thought out plan within me on how I feel the defect within governance can be addressed and I believe that I stand in the position to be able to address those defects because I know what our advantages and talents are.
So what are your plans for the state?
First is to let you know that our policy is to ensure we push the economy of Delta beyond oil. That is to say we know that what we have now as our greater advantage and resource that we will one day no-longer enjoy that status.
I believe enough has not been done through agriculture. We still continue to witness waste arising from our inability to preserve and utilise our harvest. At harvest time, if you visit our farming communities you will be sorry for the farmers because what they have wasted in the whole year working for would be lost just because they are unable to preserve, store or process them or add value and get greater benefit out of it.
That will be a major challenge I intend to confront when given the opportunity because we need to build the lives of people. We intend to explore the full value chain of agriculture and develop it for the benefit of our people. Every community in Delta State has comparative advantage in terms of the crops they will grow in the communities. We will ensure that the farmers are encouraged to produce more and what they have as excess at harvest period are mopped up and do not regret what they produce beyond their consumption.
Unemployment is a problem that is plaguing the whole world, not just Nigeria not to talk of Delta State. But for us in Delta, we see it as a major challenge. And part of this challenge is that our graduates, whether from secondary, polytechnics, or university level are not properly equipped to be independent. What you see is that everybody graduates and the next day they are asking of employment from the government. We should grow beyond the level of looking for employment from the government, people should have the skill that can make them independent, engage themselves and indeed employ other persons. So we are going to improve our educational system and produce people who can be entrepreneurs even as they are coming out of schools. We will give them life engaging skills that can make them independent and employable whether they want to join other companies or want to start businesses of their own.
For those who have businesses and they want a sponsor, capital has always been a big problem. Our micro and medium scale enterprises are all groaning under the pain of lack of finance to fund their investments. Our challenge will be that we will ensure that they have access to cheap funds, access to long term loans that will help them invest and watch their investment grow, rather than go to commercial banks where the loans they get the interest rate swallows up both the profit and capital. So these are areas we intend to address and we intend to put our hearts and spirit into it to ensure that it benefits the people as quickly as possible.
What would be your attitude towards DESOPADEC?
The Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) was set up by an Act of the Delta State Government in 2007 to execute a clear mandate. As stated in Section 13 (1) of its enabling law, the commission shall “receive and administer exclusively 50 percent of the 13 percent oil derivation fund accruing to the Delta State Government for the rehabilitation and development of oil producing areas in the state, and other development projects as may be determined from time to time by the commission. Since the government started funding DESOPADEC, youth restiveness has been reduced. If elected by the grace of God I will continue on this path and ensure that projects aimed at addressing specific problems within these oil producing communities are given maximum attention, if people have what they require in the rural and riverine communities they will not migrate to the cities to look for jobs that are not available. So we will ensure that funding of DESOPADEC does not cease.
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