Why 13% derivation is not enough for Niger Delta – Senator Okowa

On June 27, 2011 · BY INALEGWU SHAIBU

Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, PDP, Delta North is a politician and a medical doctor, who has come to approach politics with the precision of a surgeon’s hands in the theatre room. His political experience has traversed the three tiers of government having been local government secretary of Ika Local Government Area of Delta State, chairman of Ika North Local Government Area, Commissioner in the James Ibori cabinet from 1999 to 2007 and then Secretary to the Delta State Government between 2007 and 2010. His election to the Senate last April made him among the few Nigerians to have packed experience in all tiers of government.  Born on July 8 1959 in Owa Alero in the present Ika North-East Local Government Area of Delta State, where he had his primary education, he was at the famous Edo College, Benin City between 1970 and 1976 from where he proceeded to read medicine at the University of Ibadan graduating in 1981 at the record age of 22. Upon his completion of the National Youth Service Corps in 1982; he worked briefly with the defunct Bendel State Hospitals Management Board as a Medical Officer before he went into private practice as Director, Victory Medical Centre, Igbanke in 1986. Dr. Okowa later set up the Victory Medical Centre, at Boji-Boji, Owa. A Knight of St. Christopher in the Anglican Communion, he has also been honoured as a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club International. Senator Okowa is married to Dame Edith Okowa and the union is blessed with four children. In this interview, he speaks on the politics of Niger- Delta,  Delta State and his constituency among others. Excerpts:

What does your constituency expect from you?

They have elected me to represent them. In the Senate we are expected to look into bills and make appropriations that will affect the people. I do know that there are certain projects that were started in my area which have not be funded. We will look into them to ensure that in the next few years they are brought to a quick completion. Beyond that they also anticipate that if they have a Senator, the Senator should be coming back home to brief them on what is going on in Abuja and the relationship between the Federal Government and the people of the senatorial district.
I intend as a Senator to run a proper constituency office where I can relate with the people and I also have promised them during my campaign that on a quarterly basis we will have a consultative meeting with a cross section of Delta Northerners where I can give them briefings and also take their opinions, which will definitely form the foundation of whatever representation I am giving to them at the Senate. Beyond that our people in Delta North Senatorial district for a long time now have been playing good politics, but we have not been able to unite and position ourselves properly in the politics of Delta State.
As the Senator from that zone, I appear to be the highest elected person in that zone. So it is my duty to put processes in place to unite the people for the bigger battle in politics ahead of 2015. And to that extent, I intend, which I have already started, to get the opinion leaders and the elders to team up together, to learn to stay together so that we can create a strong base through which we can talk to our people and make them to realize that united we will be able to stand in the politics of Delta State.
We have started to put something together. I need, obviously within the next four years, to keep that body stronger and also get opinion leaders to relate with the traditional institutions and relate with as many persons, both the political and non political class, the academic class, and the business class to stimulate their interest to get truly interested in the politics of the people.
They may not be interested in partisan politics but they should (be) in the general politics of Delta State because we need to reposition the people in Delta North particularly as we start looking into who govern Delta State in 2015. The other two senatorial districts have gotten governorship position, it is just this senatorial district that is left and that also is something I have at the back of my mind. I need to really work hard along with the people.
How do you intend to use the instrument of appropriation to benefit your people?
What I said about the Appropriation Act is that we need to put our eyes on the ground to be sure that those projects, which have been started by the Federal Government in our area are properly funded. But beyond that we have to be sure that there is federal presence in Delta North Senatorial District. To that extent, we need to look into what is in the book, but even ahead of that we shall relate with the various ministries and the departments to see what they can attract to our area.
However, I am from the Niger Delta and Delta State is one of the Niger Delta states. I feel very strongly as a person that there is need to increase the percentage of derivation as a person and as a Senator representing Delta North Senatorial District. Being part of Delta State, I think there is need to revisit the derivation formula because the Constitution provides for not less than 13 per cent therefore it does not actually mean to amend the Constitution by an Act of the National Assembly it is possible to increase the percentage because we need to truly develop the Niger Delta area.
We thank Mr. President for what he is doing as it concerns the handling of the amnesty programme and the boys. We must realise that there is need to develop infrastructure as quickly as possible. Everybody is happy that the boys are being engaged and something good is being seen, but there is need for infrastructure, which will actually grow the economy within that area.
As the economy grows, you are likely going to grow the health of the people, you are going to grow the education of the people and then you are going to improve on the social strata that you have within that area. Obviously these things need money and at the level at which we operate now at 13 per cent derivation is just not yet enough.
If you enter into the very core parts of Niger Delta area, particularly the riverine areas, you will find out that the people are living in extreme poverty and in very poor conditions. Conditions, I dare say you will not expect any human being to truly stay.
It requires a lot of money to develop that area, if you are going to develop any road in the riverine it may cost you up to twenty times what it will cost to build one kilometer road on dry land, but people don’t understand this. When you say 13 per cent has been given to them, there is enough money going to these states, you should also look at the quantum of money required to provide similar facilities elsewhere that it is not exactly the same.
So these are issues that we must look at in totality. We agreed that there is a need to grow the entire Nigeria, get everywhere develop, create some level of equity, but justice also demands that those who produce the goose through which you are able to make a living and able to develop this country deserve to live at the barest minimum, with the basic social infrastructure that we should ordinarily have.
But there is a general feeling that there is no need to increase 13 per cent derivation because there is no justification in terms of projects and development for the money collected so far by the state governments in the Niger Delta, how do you explain this?
We are not going to do it by force, it is going to be by dialogue and getting them to realise that is not just enough. People saw the pain the country went through when we had this challenge we did have but luckily the Yar’Adua government started the amnesty and then President Goodluck Jonathan came in to rescue and to sort out things. I am sure that nobody love what went wrong, because we lost a lot of resources, apart from losing the monetary resources, we were short of gas and therefore our power projects were threatened at that time.
You need to find out where these people live; how they live. It is just not the best. It is a question of convincing Nigeria on why we need to jack up the derivation, because you actually need to develop those places and make those people feel that they are part of this country, if we don’t do that we may not be able to manage the next few years. We are managing it for today and everybody is happy, but we need to create that conducive atmosphere for growth economically such that we are reassured that we are not going to have any form of repeat of whatever happened in the past.
You complained of not having produced governor yet from your Senatorial district, are you looking at that seat in 2015 after your spell in the Senate?
It is too early for anybody to start giving consideration to that. First, as the representative of the people, it is a fact that I need to keep my people together, work along and unite them so that we create that reasonable level of consciousness that in unity we’ll be able to stand by one of our own. We’ll be able to stand out and compete favourably with anyone from the other two senatorial districts as we move ahead.
On moral grounds too, realising that the other two senatorial districts have already had a shot on the governorship position and the Delta Central has had eight years and two years in the past that’s 10 years and Delta South from May 29 they’ll be going on for their second tenure, on moral grounds, Delta North should actually be the senatorial district that should have the governorship. But you understand that in politics, there is no real morality so we need to begin to prepare the ground so it’s not about self, it’s not about Dr Okowa, it’s not about somebody else, it is about the senatorial district, it is about the aspirations of the people and definitely not about me.
What is your take on the composition of the leadership most especially the Senate President?
Senator David Mark has my full backing. Senator Ike Ekweremadu has my full backing. If you watched, I have not been in the Senate before, but in the past four years, relate that past four years to our first eight years you will see that these two persons provided leadership of integrity, that leadership provided some level of humility and that leadership tended to involve everybody participating , a participatory leadership in which their colleagues within that tenure had a lot of confidence in them and they could carry everybody along in the day to day running of the affairs of the Senate.
I think that is important if we must grow at the rate at which we think that this country needs to grow because we need to run as fast as possible. David Mark and Ike Ekweremadu are bringing in a lot of experience to play in that leadership role that they are playing now; you cannot take it away from them. It is possible to be in the Senate four times without having the leadership quality, they are combining experience with administrative capacity that has been tested and I think that the stability they provided in the Sixth Senate is something that some of us will like to tap into as we move into the Seventh Senate. To that extent I back the leadership of both of them.
As we go further down the positions of the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President, there are many things we need to look into before giving positions to people, the issue of zoning is going to come in, the issue of capacity, because sometimes there is a  difference between experience and capacity, they are two different things. The issue of discipline and the profession you belong to matter in getting you to lead certain committees and other things.
It is common for Senators to abandon their constituencies once they are in Abuja, how do you intend to avoid being labeled as an Abuja Senator?
Dr. Okowa has always be a grassroots man. I can’t take myself away from grassroots politics. I enjoy being with my people and I believe that is the confidence they repose in me in ensuring, despite challenges during the elections, to get me to represent them at the Senate.
I will be coming back home as frequently as I can if I am going to be able to offer a representation that I earlier spoke about. It is about the people, it is about Nigeria, it is about Delta State and Delta North. But more so, it is about the people and therefore the people have to participate in it and if they are going to participate in it I must be with them as regularly as time permits. Obviously I will not be that kind of Senator that stays back in Abuja, I think I will enjoy the processes and the politics at home; I can’t afford to miss that.