Supreme Court ruling won’t consume PDP —Udom Emmanuel

Governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel recently spoke to a select team of newsmen on the ongoing crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the politics of development in his state and the push for job creation, among others. Associate Editor, TAIWO ADISA, presents the excerpts:

How would you describe your performance in the last two years?

First nobody just wakes up and find himself in the position of being a leader. You build yourself up to become a leader through your experience. If you remember last time, I said there are two types of politicians; professionals in politics and professional politicians. For we who are professionals in politics, it means we’ve been prepared for leadership over time. You know your vision is limited to your exposure. So, I believe with the exposure that we’ve had over time, our training both in and out of the classroom and hands on experience, our interaction with the outside world across the globe and even the field of the masses, the grassroots, by the time you put all of them together, they contribute in different areas.

So, it’s all these things put together that actually make you prepared for the job. You are willing to make sacrifices; you are willing to push. In fact we are afraid to celebrate. You can’t even celebrate anything you do because you still believe you have a lot of ground to cover because of what you see. You talk about inside of me, am I being fulfilled? I just gave you an example of what will enable one to be fulfilled. I can’t feel really fulfilled. That’s why I said a job well done needs much more job to be done. I can only be fulfilled any day I just look at, I believe our per capita is also comparable to what others actually achieved outside this place because nobody has a monopoly of knowledge. Those per capital is in tens and hundreds of thousands of US Dollars, they don’t have a monopoly of knowledge.

Recently, the Minister for Science and Technology was quated to have said that by 2019, we will start producing pencil, but I just saw a slide showing that you are already producing pencils and toothpicks in your state. Is it that those things are produced mainly for people in Akwa Ibom?

You said a Minister said that by 2019, Nigeria will be producing pencils and toothpicks. Well, I didn’t hear the minister say so. But let me also say something here clearly. I’m not the one who brought out the statistics, but let me tell you what I heard about the statistics that Nigeria spent about N350 billion importing pencil. So, the question is, is producing pencil a wrong exercise? The answer is no.

If you pay a visit to Akwa-Ibom state, I have everything that it takes in terms of raw materials. I have the raw materials that you use in that pencil. Is it the bamboo, the wood, or is it the pieces of paper? You know with the new attention on environment, you can actually get used papers and produce pencil that will be more environment friendly too. There are so many things that they are now using to produce pencil. It’s not as difficult as you made it sound. If you don’t also want to make use of wood to produce this pencil, you make use of paper. Can you get technology from somewhere else, the answer is yes. You can actually share knowledge. But where you cannot, you can also borrow knowledge. What matters most is do you have the people, do you have the material?

The answer is yes. I’m one of those who believe that we can run these under small and medium enterprises scheme. These are entrepreneurial schemes that we are running for small and medium scale enterprises, because I don’t see them as a major exercise. It doesn’t actually pay us as a country to import a whole pencil when we have so much unemployment and so much of those things we can also use in making our own.

Coming to toothpick, any kind of bamboo, even from the raffia palm, all these things are in place. Some people even use it for firewood. So, why should I import toothpick when I can easily produce it?

It’s the same bamboo that I’m going to import from another place when I can actually create value for the same local woman who is cutting that bamboo for firewood. A man can also cut the same bamboo and use it to process toothpick, rather than importing it. That’s basic knowledge, nothing so special. It’s just for you to just look out and say what do I have and what I have is what I need. We just look at what we have and what we have, we can actually make something out of it.

Everything that we have has a value. The bamboo that we have all over our place, we don’t even plant it. It comes out of the ground naturally and people use it for firewood; people use it for different kinds of things. People use it as scaffold to build house and after that, it’s thrown off; whereas, it’s the same bamboo that can also be made use of. I don’t want to mention names – but even those small bamboo shoots, they even eat it. It’s a delicacy.  And what made them to eat it? Because of population explosion and food is scarce. So, why can’t the main bamboo tree now become a source of raw material? And even the raffia palm that we have all over the place in the swampy areas, that’s a major source of rubber materials. So, I don’t see a big deal in this. The only aspect I think we need to also look at as a people, as a country is the machines that process such; I think that’s where the main issue comes in. I think with time, Nigeria should be able to break into that also because I look at those machines, it can easily be fabricated by the people. It’s not that difficult. That’s why I say some of those technology we can also transfer. That’s how I look at those areas.

Some state governments who recently marked two years in office counted payment of salary as achievement. Is payment of salary also an achievement for you?

As much as you prepare for leadership, you know God also prepares you for serving the people at a point in time. I try to let people know that in time of recession, two things must be defined clearly in your headand you must be able to define and separate it and know what matters what point in time. There is a difference between cash and money. So, at period of recession, you must define what money can get for you and what cash can get. At times of recession, you won’t be able to get cash, but you can create money depending on what you are pursuing. I know many people say we still get highest revenue. Akwa Ibom produces almost 46 per cent of the entire oil this country produces. But, there was a time when we did not lift even a barrel of crude oil. So, you can imagine the impact of that on our revenue. So in recession, we must differentiate what you can do with cash and what you can do with money. I think for those that count payment of salaries as major achievement, yes it is because in a period of recession, what cash can do is an achievement. My workers work in on a particular day and they get alert, not just salaries but pensions. So, we take those things for granted. Once you differentiate between what cash and money can do, you will know where you are going to. I think that’s the edge we have over certain people who can’t create money. I think we can create money even in a period of recession, but we may not have cash. If you are looking at what cash can do, it will affect everybody. But if you look at what money can do, it may not affect everybody because it’s not everybody that has the capability and the capacity to create money during a recession.

Your government devotes a lot of attention to agriculture. How much of those projects are private driven to the extent that they can stand on their own, whether government is there or not?

Every project we’ve done so far. Are they sustainable? The answer is yes. Why because sense of ownership. For example, the coconut plantation we are doing, the communities own certain percentage of what we are doing there. So, there is that sense of ownership. Once we start earning revenue, some of the local government areas which are participating actively in this thing, a lot of people will be interested in being the local government chairman because of the sources of revenue. Ownership will be there. People protect what they own. Even when they don’t have the money, you give them certain percentage of shares from there. That is sustainable.

Secondly, we made these projects as pure business. Let me give you an example. What we did with cocoa, instead of us to start planting cocoa afresh, we started with the maintenance of the 26,000 hectares of cocoa that we have. All of them are individual ventures. As support from government, we first of all brought consultants who will show them the maintenance of that cocoa. So, what we did was, the government pays the consultants, the people who have knowledge. Knowledge is power.

Now, we are launching into improved seedlings for them to plant. In doing that, you could see that it flows from the hands of the people into government. So, government is just creating an enabling environment, depending on the kind of produce you are looking at. Like that of cocoa, we do that. But things like palm fruits and so on, we leave those in the hands of individuals. We just provide enabling environment. There are some that we need to bring the seeds, like maize farming. The problem that we had was that over the years, what we used to think were pests for corn plantation, they were not really pests. Research now shows that the seed that were planted are the great, great grandfather seed. How do you preserve seed in Africa? Once you harvest corn this year, those domestic consumptions you’ve finished, the remaining ones, people now put it in this clay pot and then dry it in front of fire to preserve it. Those things are losing value. After certain generation, when you plant it, it comes out as if they are being attacked by pest. So, what do we do? As government, we bought improved seeds in order to suck off those old seeds and then we give the seeds free. Anywhere in the world, government must subsidize the basic life of people. So, we bought the seeds for them. We also introduced two planting seasons in year. We believe if they plant twice in a year, in 24 months, we will have a cycle of four. So, within three to four years, we would have actually eliminated the old seeds from the system and there will be new ones. These new seeds have improved starch, improved vitamins and it’s also sweeter. It’s a sweet corn.

In terms of rice production, I know without even improved seedlings or anything, our yield is one of the best. So, we started with what I call a demonstration system of 10,000 of hectares that is solely into the private body who are coming to grow in. Once they start growing, we will set up a mill and they will process that. To also add to cocoa, we are also trying to bring a processing plant for the cocoa; why our people are not getting value for cocoa is because the flavour does not stay in the international market. What makes one particular type of cocoa different from the other is the flavour in the international market and that’s due to the drying system. Once you go and spread it under the sun, that drying process loses the flavour in the international market. So, we are now coming up with the latest technology in processing. These are the enabling environment that you create for people and that’s why I think it’s sustainable.

There was a time there were stories about you almost jumping the ship to the APC, due to report of issues you had with former Governor Godswill Akpabio. Recently, we heard of some rapprochement and the former governor declaring his support for you for second term. How close were you to joining the APC and how is the relationship now between you and Senator Akpabio?

You said I was jumping the ship. The answer is no. I’ve never considered that. It is unthinkable that a pillar of PDP like me will think of jumping the ship. In my entire lifestyle, I don’t jump ship.

I’m a very loyal person. The church I was born into by my grandfather is the church I’m still maintaining till today. I’ve not changed. I keep saying that nobody has a monopoly of God. That same man who can read that same bible and understand it, the same ministry is available for me too. I can also read to understand it. So, I also know what to do to find fragrance in my own worship service too that will also make my church sustainable also attract people. Not to talk of political parties. I can’t go anywhere. PDP is my blood. So, I can’t go anywhere outside PDP. PDP can never die. PDP is the largest party in Africa. Forget propaganda. PDP is the only party that if you enter any ward in all the 774 local governments in this country, and you mention PDP, nobody will ask you what you are referring to. In fact, PDP in my State is like a religion. PDP is the only place that you can see quality leaders. Anything you hear of and you still believe in Akwa Ibom is PDP. So, how do you expect my people to leave PDP? It’s one party that I know and that is PDP. I don’t know of any other party. Anywhere you see me, know that you’ve seen PDP.

Do I have issues with the former governor? I’m not aware of that, depending on what you call issues. You know there are two types of issues: issues of development. If you listened to my speech on democracy day, I said our politicking is pro-development. If you are talking that we are having issues of developing the state, of course, that’s how we do our politics. But if you say issues, I don’t know of any issue. The day I was voted into power, I was not voted to have negative issues. I was voted to have positive issues and those positive issues have been part of development of the people and resources of our state.

So, we don’t have any issue in the direction that you are looking at. Somebody told me one day that this is a banana peel and I said we won’t match that banana peel. So, when you read those things, just ignore. There have never been any issue and there will never be.

We have a very cordial relationship as expected. It’s left for you now to define as expected.

You were the Chairman of the PDP zoning Committee that zoned the National Chairmanship of the party to the North-East which was eventually zoned to Borno State. Do you see the emergence of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff on the platform of the PDP as a mistake as some stakeholders of the party have said?

I’m one person that if I take decisions, I don’t regret my decisions.

I took that decision at that point in time based on what was available for me. So, it was the best of judgment at that minute. Situations change. It’s only God that does not change. So, if situations have changed that could change the character of people, it doesn’t actually matter. So, you don’t sit back and regret over that.

The question now is that’s when your ingenuity in management of crisis comes in. How do you manage yourself out of that situation and remain unscathed? That’s where we are going towards and at the same time, we will go with the rule of law. So, it’s doesn’t call for me castigating somebody’s character. At the time we took that decision (about Sheriff), that was the best at that point in time.

Be rest assured that before Sherif was nominated to be the Chairman, we talked to the Governors’ Forum. We talked to so many other people. There was actually an interview process and everybody at that committee accepted that. At that point in time, was that the best decision to take? The answer is yes. Can that decision change in the next minute? The answer is yes. That’s why we are mere mortals. We are not God. So, we can take decisions today that might not look good to anybody in the next minute. But we must stand by that decision and manage ourselves out of that decision. That’s what differentiates between a man and who is not a man. So, when you hear people just sitting and criticizing, they are recruits in this field. They are not yet Generals because if you are a General, you should manage yourself out of that situation, not criticizing that situation.

When you are saying PDP produces best leaders, I mean elected leaders under the PDP platform. I mean people elected under platform. It’s like if you have a house, there is a difference between your biological son and an adopted son. Even though you might try to shareyour rights, biology and law and two different things. They don’t even belong in the same faculty.

Your party the PDP is factionalised, on which side do you belong and then we have heard many saying they would quit the party depending on who wins at the Supreme Court. What about you?

I belong to PDP, not any side. But at the same time, I belong to everybody. Once you are in PDP with all sincerity of purpose, you are my party member. As human beings, there is no way that we will expect to live in this life without minor hiccups; it’s not practicable. Anywhere you have two or three people, there are bound to be one or two issues. In PDP today for somebody to say if you go this way, he’s going that way, when you hear somebody talking that way, you know that he’s not a PDP person. Any PDP person will stay to build PDP.

Even Under sheriff?

It doesn’t matter. After Supreme Court judgment, the name will disappear. The party will remain. The day I was voted into office, I wasn’t voted as Udom Emmanuel. I was voted as PDP. So, people go to the polls to vote the party, not individuals. So, how come somebody will be talking about individuals and not the party? Once you see people talking like that, you know that they are not true party people. How comes it’s only in Nigeria that people just jump ship, probably because your party has lost election at the centre? Even some neighbouring countries here not to talk of developed world. If you are a Republican, you are a Republican for life. Somebody can even tie your party to your grandfather. Oh! That’s the family of Republican, that’s the family of Democrats. It’s only here that you can’t even determine where people belong to. But not me; I’m in PDP. Anywhere the judgment goes to, I remain PDP. I want somebody to look tomorrow and tell my children that you are from a family of PDP, not where you can’t pronounce certain name. I hear all kinds of name, but forget it. Nobody is going anywhere. Politics is about negotiations.

All those people who are creating those things, they are just looking for negotiations all of them. We will negotiate. But don’t ask me any faction I belong to. I belong to PDP and I will not leave PDP. When you hear people just jumping, today they here, the next day they are there, they are being greedy. When you see them, look into their face and tell them you are greedy man. You jumping from one place to another, you are greedy man. Tomorrow, the same people who jumped two years ago, you find that they are jumping to another place.

You will lose your legs in the cause of jumping. Judgment will not change the umbrella of our party. Judgment is just to decide who heads and all those things are just personal issues. It’s just individuals. Why must you follow individuals? The party should stand on its own; it should stand on the principles on which that party was founded and the mission of that party, not individuals. So, the party remains. Don’t let anybody deceive you.