What is your reaction to the defection of the former governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, to the All Progressives Congress (APC)?
We are still close. Once in a while we interact, discuss and exchange telephone calls. As I have always said, politics is a matter of the mind; you have your personal conviction why you are in politics. It is essentially an opportunity to render service. I want to believe that His Excellency, the former governor of the state, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, believes he still has something to offer the people of Delta South Senatorial District. And if he had weighed this within his mind, it is for him to decide where he feels his intention would be better served.
It is possible he has weighed the option in PDP and found out that the party may not be favourable to him in seeking that office. Going to the APC, maybe that is where he finds a saviour. But if I were to advise him personally, maybe I would advise against such movement. He being a father of the political party in the state and one of the senior members of the party and somebody who has held the position of governor for eight years, I would have advised otherwise. But the passion for service comes in different forms. If he sees that his people feel he can get it from that platform [APC], there is nothing anybody can do to dissuade him from going there. Much as I would have advised him against defecting to another political party to contest, I think the best I can do is to wish him well in whatever he seems to do.
Recall how Governor Uduaghan dumped you at the last minute shortly before the PDP governorship primaries in 2015, after it was clear that he had groomed you for over eight years to take over from him. How did you feel about the ladder being kicked off your feet by your former boss then?
For everything, there is always a plus and minus. In seeking public office, especially through the ballot box, from the outset, it is always odious; either one wins or loses. So for me as a person, even when we were going for campaign then, I kept assuring myself that if it was God’s wish for me to get there, He would make it happen; and if it did happen, I would utilise the opportunity to serve His people.
A lot of things happened which one cannot go out there to celebrate. Nevertheless, for me and my family, we are happy that I am alive to recount the story. When I look back and think of what happened, I give glory to God. For years after, we are still here; we didn’t get the ticket I wanted, not because we were deficient or because the public found something wrong with us.
We went into that contest with a lot of confidence and believed that we wanted to serve and people showed goodwill. For me, we came out of the contest carrying the same level of goodwill. So, nothing was spoiled. We will continue to live and pray that any opportunity He gives is the one we will use to serve Him and humanity better.
So you don’t have any grievance against Uduaghan?
No, not at all. In fact, I have to counsel people on issues of this nature. That is why I still maintain deep relationship with him and even send goodwill messages to him on occasions each time he celebrates. People frown on me for taking the issue lightly, but I always remind them of how the man, Uduaghan, elevated me from my position as a director to the positions of a Permanent Secretary and a commissioner in the state and even gave me the temerity to contest in the governorship election in Delta state. So, if he exposed me to governance at different (high) levels for that matter, which became a benefit to me, why will I now hold a grudge against him because he failed to present me as a governorship candidate of a political party? I have more to thank him for.
The opposition APC has been embroiled in crisis in Delta State, with some people describing the crisis as a blessing to PDP Delta?
As a member of PDP, I will also want a situation where we can return our party to power. I know that the APC runs the Federal Government and in most cases people believe that that father position has an impact in the other tiers of government. But for us in PDP in Delta State, we have a blessing of God. I think God is a Deltan, because judging from what is happening in the country, I would always pray that our people would have nothing to do with APC.
In Delta State, first, we are happy to have the person of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa and his political strategy for alleviating the poverty of the people of the state. When one finds somebody under very dire economic situation soldering on to provide all these facilities for his people, the people can only pray that he enjoys more time and opportunities to render that service. Secondly, we have the kind of opposition in Delta State in an APC that has not been able to put its house in order. I want to assure that if we maximise what is happening in APC, it would appear that God has answered our prayer in PDP. A house that cannot unite itself cannot achieve anything. I know the APC has court cases all over the country; we pray it will continue that way until the election. Maybe after we had won, they would start organising themselves.
You are the chairman of the Delta State Pensions Board and there seems to be too much agitation by pensioners in the state. What is really going on?
The issue of pension and pension payment has become a major challenge in the country. In Delta State, we have two different schemes that are running concurrently. One is the old defined fund where government contributes 100 per cent of the workers’ entitlement. That was the only one existing before 2004. When the new pension reform came into existence in Delta State, we made our own law to fall into that scheme in 2007.
Under the old scheme, people retired and waited endlessly for several years to receive their pension. Sometimes, some of them died while waiting. In some cases, people became old and sickly and were unable to enjoy the fruit of their labour. Why? The burden was heavy on both the federal and state governments and the budgetary provision was hardly sufficient to meet up. The state then decided to inaugurate the new one, which is the contributory pension where the employer and employees contribute something to build up. So, when we came on board few months ago, we had problems arriving at the outstanding arrears that are due to pensioners. The government was supposed to have made some savings over a period of three years, which should have been invested. And after the three years, the value of the savings together with interest that must have accrued would have been utilised to continue the payment of retirees’ entitlement.
The expectation was that there would be no encumbrances. Unfortunately, the calculations that were made did not work out because they were failures, as the contributions that were supposed to be made were not made. So, the debt started building up and when people retired, the fund was not there for them to be paid. When we came in we have two major challenges. One was the accrued pension, the one that government was supposed to have contributed into the peoples’ account before the inception of the new pension law. That one amounted to N32b when I came in as the chairman of the board.
In addition to that, we had the issue of the pensioners agitating for harmonisation. What we are paying now and what we are calculating as our debt is based on N7,500 minimum wage. Between that time and 2011, there was salary increase. So, there was agitation for harmonisation of pension entitlements from N7,500 to N18,000 (the minimum wage); that also is another arm of the problem. Now, pensioners are agitating that their pension right should be paid as quickly as possible. Even those who had been paid are agitating for the payment of their arrears emanating from the harmonisation. Although the state government has appointed a consultant to carry out the calculation of their entitlement, the report that was submitted has not been able to satisfy the position of the pensioners because they feel something was wrong with what was being canvassed as their entitlement.
So we had, ourselves, gone back and front. And those who are out there and have collected their money, they have continued to agitate for their money to be paid based on the new calculation. These are some of the problems we inherited. Now we are trying to pay up what we owe as their accrued right. We are also trying to determine what the value of the harmonisation would be. So if you ask me what the value is, I may not be able to answer but I know it is something that runs into tens of billions of naira.
What is the situation now?
We are doing the best we can under the present circumstances. For a couple of years before this administration, no fund was committed to the payment of the approved right. From 2017, the state governor has started releasing the sum of N150 million every month for the payment. Consequently, the amount was increased to N300 million monthly and two months ago. Listening to pressure from the beneficiaries and appeals from our own side, the governor decided to increase it again.
and then