Leading governorship aspirant in Delta State, Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi, has called on oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region, to move to the various Host Communities.
In this interview, the gubernatorial hopeful, equally spoke on the 2023 presidency, the crashing naira to dollar and the menace of insecurity that has bedevilled the country since the president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Excerpt:
Haven just been conferred with the Chieftaincy title of Aare-Atunluse of Akure Kingdom, What does it potent for you?
I am the Aare Atunluse of ancient empire of Akure, founded 1180BC. The reason why I reciprocated the honour, I have never met the Deji of Akure in my life till Friday night, 11:00 O’clock, I have never spoken to him. When I saw that letter, it reminded me of what a proper nation ought to be and ought to do.
A nation by itself, is supposed to look for good and great people with integrity and character. Irrespective whether it is your father, mother, broth or your sister. Integrity and character does not give room for mediocrity.
So, when I saw the letter of Deji of Akure, I was jolted. The reason why you saw the fanfare and the happiness with which I took the title.
Haven have titles and make it very clear. All the titles I have, let me start from the very first. The late Orodje of Okpe, a father figure, a former policeman, appreciating what I am and what I stood for when I flew him with his wife and son to London, during his downstate. When he came back from London, he sent for me and said Kenneth, I want to do you something but I don’t want you to refuse and I said what?
He said I am going to give you a title in December during my title period. I kept quiet. That period came, he named me the Ochuko of Okpe people and Kingdom.
The second one that was very impressing, is the Ovie of Ughelli kingdom. I was in my house then in Jakpa road when I was told by my security that a king is at the gate wanting to see me. I said a king? I said I don’t know any king, what king is coming here?
I said open. So, they went and opened and he came in. That was the first time that I saw him. On like the Ohworode, whom I knew as a small boy.
He said I have come to give you a title and he said the title I am giving you is the Oja Re Urhobo Rherhi of Urhobo people.
I felt very proud. A great man of integrity and character. He still lives, may his reign last for as long as God allows him.
The third one was the Ovie of Olomu, who is the oldest man in Delta State today as a traditional ruler. Because of my antecedents, the way I do things and himself has travelled, I have helped him medically and what have you. For the sake of it, he says he wants to give me a title and he pleaded with me not to reject it. That is how he gave me Atane Ru (When you speak, you do it).
Then of course, the Okobaro of Uwhiewen kingdom. That one in itself was a little easier because of the way we met and way he became a king. I was the first Chief of his in Uwhiewen he made a Chief on giving him a staff of office. He gave me a title as Ame of Uwhiewen kingdom.
It is no longer history that I am from Oginibo paternally and maternally, I am from Jesse. The king of Jesse will give me a title on the 23rd of this month in Jesse.
You know obviously that I am the Baagbemo of Lagos, Akiolu, the current king being my former student and the Ugoaeze Amaka of Ubulu-Uku kingdom, where my wife is from. I think after this one from Jesse, I will cap it but there is a major problem, I think the Emir of Lafia, will not agree. So that one is a done deal but after that one as much as possible is ended.
Is not that I am going to acquire Chiefs no. I just wanted to tell you that they were all given to me out of honour and some of them are people I cannot say no to. It is like this Deji’s own, you all saw the letter.
Now, put it very squarely, Nigeria, is not going to break, Nigeria will not break. If you saw the culture yesterday, you saw Igbo people, Yoruba, Hausa people there. We live together, if anything at all, the enemies of Nigeria are the government themselves, using them to placate themselves for them to quell the people for them to be able to exploit the people.
Nigeria, as a people, we do not have enemies within ourselves. That is why the Deji of Akure can come and give me title, the Emir of Lafia can come all the way here to come and honour me, the man Akiolu of Lagos can. So we have lived the life in such a manner that we as a people, we have no problem.
If there is any problem in Nigeria, is the government. What ought to be beautiful, what ought to be the happiest thing of our life is our population. Population anywhere in the world is a money spinner, is an economic driver but all of that we are touring with, hence we are where we are today in government.
Were you to ask me, I am very pained as a man who has done security in all my life where my strength is from. All the people running from PDP to APC, they are not APC members. They are PDP members in blood, soul and body and they are all going to work for PDP.
PDP is going to produce the next president in Nigeria, because we have… If you don’t marry two wives, they say, you do not know which one is better. Is you to marry two wives and see the difference.
What is your take on the nation’s economy, especially the skyrocketing food prices and the crashing naira?
When I left as minister in Nigeria, haven created 13 universities within one year, we left at a N156 to a dollar. That is when I left government and it was maintained, it snowball within themselves.
You have the skimmishes of Boko Haram or what have you but it was not in the magnitude of what we are talking about today. Nobody impregnated our mothers, wives, sisters in their villages on the guise that they are herdsmen. Nobody thought of the magnitude of these gun touting, this been lood seeking drunkenness, nobody thought about it.
We as Nigerians must bring ourselves to thought and coreect immediately what the solution is, before machineries or government of nations other than or nation comes to correct it for us. No government in the world would want to tour with Nigeria, the way Nigeria, is today because the population of Nigeria, will explode the world were we to allow it to get out of hand the way we are going.
So, I can assure us that Nigeria will not break, just like what happened in 2015, if you remember vividly, I was telling Jonathan and I granted interview to Vanguard at a time. If you followed what happened, all these people they are going to use SSS and EFCC to threatened that if you don’t join APC, we will jail you. All of them are not APC members, they are PDP members that will come back.
And you will have a situation in the next election where they who thought they are force people by their own thinking to join APC, they will be bearing APC in the day and the night, they are PDP members.
Exactly what happened to Jonathan, after the mirage of blackmail against Jonathan at a time, everybody even though they are PDP, they voted for Buhari believing that Buhari has a six point agenda or a seven point agenda or whatever agenda.
But everybody in the State today have come to see that it is all a ruse. He talked of security within how many days, there is no security, it has gone worse. He talked of food availability, food has become out of the reach of the people.
When we left a bag of rice was N15, 000. Today, a bag of rice is N36, 000. What about garri, common food of the poor man. When we left pour water was N5.00 but now pour water is how much? So between you and I, nothing of they thought of the supposed poor man is being considered today in Nigeria, where then do we go?
Name one area, is it in the Nigerian military where we have politicized the situation. Is it Custom, is it Airfoce, is it Navy, is it the police. To he whole thing has bastardized. I recall during Obasanjo’s government, we have what they call a federal character in place but today, is gone. During Jonathan, in fact, Federal Character was even was in favour of the north.
Today it is all thrown to the dust, nothing. Everybody is living under one threat or the other as a result of investment that was striving. We became the second or third country in the world with the fastest growing investment, if you recall. Today, all the investments have retrogress, they have gone.
So, what I am saying is that we must have a common free economy situation to allow the State to thrive. Again, my advocacy is that, we should as a people sit-down to reverse a number of things that was left for us by the Colonia masters that are no longer applicable to live and Soviet of today.
We must avoid a second reoccurrence of ENDSARS if we understand what the implications are for us as a people. We must avoid it because the youths are tired, the youths are crying, the youths need to be looked after, the youth need to be provided for.
We don’t have a demography of how many youths we have per local government, Ward, State. Buhari does not have any. So, finally and most importantly, I believe that the north and the south or the south and the north should sit down irrespective of this game of political shift and what have you and come to a consensus as to how we want to take power from this dead situation of no governance back to PDP.
And how we want to keep the minds of the greatest of our persons in PDP including those ones who are PDP in the night and APC in the day vis-a-vis, how we can bring our best to come and manage the affairs of the country.
If not, to waste any further time other than 2023 to write it right, we are finished as a people. It will be disastrous, we cannot afford another mistake.
Now, if you take people for instance, who are the people that are acceptable in the nation. Here you have a man like Okowa. Whether you like it or not, he appeals to the north, south west and east because of his open nature as a person. We are looking for real leaders that will bring help to the helpless, that will bring peace to the country.
I Know a lot of them who are my friends from the north but at the end of the day, we need to settle down and reach a consensus as to how Nigeria will be greater than we met it. The unfortunate situation from 2015 up till now of the government atthe center leaves so much to be desired and we must come together to correct it.
Whether north, east, south or west. As a people, this country belongs to us. God is not foolish when he said this is our own. We should make sure we make it better.
President Muhammadu Buhari has sent the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to the National Assembly for review. What we be your suggestions?
It is very simple, my advise to the people of the National Assembly who have hitherto failed not to look at the historical perspective of country to have passed such a watered and worthless PIB, that is why I refused to coment all this while, it was not going to fly. You cannot by gun want to takeover what the people have been given by God.
So, that particular PIB was not going to see the light of day because first and foremost, you need to collect the money, crude oil, gas for you to be able to say you want to share and percentage them. Soz if the people whom God has given these wealth in the first place, if it pleases God, God would have placed it in Lagos, Kaduna, Kastina, but it pleased God to put it in the Niger Delta knowing that we are helpless.
As a way of God wanting to support us as his children, he gave us these wealth. So, you cannot be saying you are giving them and saying you are helping them, they are the ones helping the country and we must get it right and I want to thank Mr. President for being sensible, knowing that that is a time bomb.
It is not going to work because at the end of the day, those people who sat down there and are being blown by air conditioner brought about by the wealth of the people and saying we give them five percent, they are talking rubbish. I am sorry to use the word.
They must review the PIB in favour of the communities and create a council that will manage it on behalf of the community with the companies that are operating within the perimeter of that place for It to be sensible. I don’t see anything less than 20/25 percent that will be meaningful in my opinion. Because at the end of the day, they should make do with 75 percent which is more than enough but at least, give them 25 percent. Once you do that you are creating peace.
How will Relocation of company’s operational headquarters to the Niger Delta impact positively on the economy of the various region?
Then, number two, all the companies, if our area is good for you to exploit the oil, the gas and whatever is there, move the company there. Let them relocate to the people, let them stay with them. You don’t have any oil company or anybody operating in Texas, going to live in New York and paying tax to New York but expecting the oil in Texas, it doesn’t work that way.
It is about time people start respecting our people. Let those companies before it is too long, move to their areas of production for them to see peace, for them to believe. We don’t want to go back to the days of cutting pipes, we don’t want to the days of destroying anything. Let us sit on a round table and negotiate.
What is Mobile doing in Lagos? What money do they make from Lagos? What is Chevron doing in Lekki Lagos? They are tapping their oil. Let the government provide them adequate security like they can get in Lagos and move.
And in any case, I had made a proposal when I was a minister. If Chevron move to Delta, we own 69 percent of all the drills government should allow them build an international airport and land their aircraft directly here and it is same custom in Lagos are Nigerians.
The custom in Delta are Nigerians and if course, development will start flowing. The people will have a sense of belonging with Chevron, they would want to support them because they want to succeed.
They will license their vehicles here, they will get drivers here, they will get cooks here. So, the economy will evolve. Move Mobile headquarters to Eket, sell the property they have in Lagos. Let government take their 60 percent and they take their 40 percent and relocate to Eket. Let the people of Eket enjoy the benefits of what He I’d has identify them with and gives to them.
So, the PIB must go further in the amendment. Let Shell move totally to Port Harcourt. What are they doing in Lagos? If you calculate, which we did at some point, the money which they spent on aircraft movement of their staff within Lagos and their various locations of operation, the country is bleeding. Whose money it is?
It is the oil producing communities money that they are spending. Do you Know how many aircraft comes from Lagos everyday to Escravos? Bringing workers in and out, not staying with the people but their oil is good for you to carry, their gas is good for you to carry, it is not going to happen.
The PIB must be totally reviewed. I incidentally muted this idea with Deziani at a time and Jonathan when I was a minster. Let Agip move to Bayelsa, get an airport for them. These whole idea of people flying from Bayelsa to Lagos to Abuja to fly out of the country, is a nonestarter.
The PIB is a lasting peace document that must be corrected very well by Buhari, for it to work.
