Visit
the Ibusa web
site
Mr.
Peter Okocha, a renowned businessman, contested the 2007 governorship election
in
Now,
as the 2015 election inches closer, Okocha is back in the race as one of the
aspirants on the PDP’s platform from Delta North where the candidate is
favoured to come from. He is very confident that he remains the best material
for Government House, Asaba during an interview with a select team of
journalists at Ibusa in Oshimili North Local Government Area of the state.
Okocha was very audacious that he would win the party’s primary as well as the
general election. He spoke to PAUL OSUYI.
Excerpts!
Why
I am in 2015 governorship race
It
is the passion for service. As you are aware, seven years ago, I was one of
those, apart from Obielum that started our quest for aspiration as the next
governor of
My
passion for service having not worked for government or for anybody and
believing that only the best is good for Delta State made me to throw myself
into the murky waters of politics. Most people would say politics is dirty and
not good but politics is the only avenue that you can reach your people and make
their lives better. My concern generally is simple, that I am 62 and in eight
years time I will become probably one of the oldest men around and looking back
with the life that we had lived, what would we say we have bequeathed to our
children. With this rising insurgency due to unemployment, youth restiveness, if
we turn 90 or 100 where would we be? Where most of you are better than me is
that my children carry three passports – British, Nigerian and American –
and if we don’t do things right and make this place attractive enough for
them, they have the right and privilege to port out. They can go to another
country and survive with the kind of education and life I have been able to give
to them.
If
that happens that means I will be a lonely old man. But if we make this place
comfortable enough and give them the best that life can provide, they will stay.
We have the resources; our eco-system is not different from that of
Power
shift to Delta north
I
am not offering myself because I from Delta North (Anioma nation). I am running
for the governor because I believe I have the capacity to succeed the incumbent
but people say that there is understanding. That understanding should be looked
into. If providence and destiny made it such that somebody from central emerged
for eight years and after that providence and destiny made somebody from south
to emerge as governor, I am asking also that the same providence and destiny
should also make it possible for somebody in the north to emerge in 2015. But
outside equity and fair play, I believe that this state should be ruled by the
best. First of all let that providence play it role and after that let it be
thrown open and the best should emerge because that is the only way we can grow
a healthy state.
Let
individuals come forward and tell us what they can do and not just shouting the
party slogan and manifesto. It is healthy that we have over 15 aspirants but
journalists should scrutinise us so that before the primaries the number would
reduce to about three. Let me emphasise that I am not running because I am from
Delta north, much as I believe that we have some understanding that whatever
process made it possible for James to emerge in Delta central and for Emma to
emerge in Delta south, I think it is only fair that whatever process that made
it possible should also make it possible for anybody from Delta north to emerge.
However, let me make it clear that I am not an ardent advocate that power must
shift because it is the turn of the north. I believe that the north has the best
and the brightest that would give this state the best leadership that it
deserves.
Return
to PDP
In
2007 I was screened out. They said I was corrupt but I have never worked for
anybody but that is what I called the antics of politics of elimination of good
people through what I call unorthodox means, through things that cannot be
proven and they say party is supreme. Of course, I got angry and went to Action
Congress (AC), as it was then called, where my deputy resigned and part of the
judgment was that I had no deputy. So after two or three of court sessions, I
lost the case and I decided to go back to business that is what happened. Here I
am again after seven years throwing myself again into politics. I came back to
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
I
came back about three years ago. I would run on PDP and win the primary under
PDP and I will contest the general election under PDP and I will govern for
eight years under PDP. Those that may be aggrieved can port to other parties
because we are the foundation members. I think we have passed through a process
of evolution in the party either for good or not so good. Except something is
tested, you cannot condemn it. I believe that the party has learnt and in about
15 or 16 years in our rebranding that we have moved from point A to point B for
better, so I think that whatever happens would be a better process than what
happened many years back.
Atiku
and I
I
was never a political godson to Atiku Abubakar, he is my personal friend. I was
already a multi-millionaire when I met Atiku, then he was in Customs. I already
owned a vessel when I met Atiku in 1982. So, how can a government official be my
godfather? I don’t have any godfather. Those I would probably call my
godfathers are E.K. Clark and Sam Ogbemudia because when I came back to this
state as an orphan, they gave me scholarship when they never knew me at the
time. That is the kind of empowerment that I would subscribe to and not the one
of buying bikes and rice to people like our legislators do. They educated my
mind and that made me what I am today. Atiku is my friend today, tomorrow and
next tomorrow, he had never been my godfather and I have never been his godson,
politically, economically or otherwise. We have mutual respect for each other
and we love each other. The fact that he is in APC and I am in PDP does not mean
that we are enemies, we just have different political views. He left PDP because
he subscribes to a different political ideology but PDP’s ideology suits me.
It does not mean that we are not Nigerians. I remain in PDP while he has moved
to the APC and we are friends.
Governance
and business
Business
has levels, you have to know that. Now two of my managing directors are my sons,
I probably would not have given politics full time about 10 years ago because I
had no business successors. I studied business, I have never worked for anybody,
I had no father to work for. I live and breathe business, I built my own house
with my own bare hands, I built my business. Ask those that were governors what
they did before becoming governor; I am sure the answer is blowing in the wind.
It is easy to declare in your code of conduct bureau certificate that you have
N9 billion because you anticipate to steal N9 billion. If I declare N9 billion
it is N9 billion because I can show for it. If I declare N100 billion it is N100
billion because I have something to show it. And they are physical and not
imaginary. Mine are real, you can feel, you can touch and you can value.
After
eight years I will not be poor but I would have retired because I am on my way
to retirement. I am 62, in three years time I will be 65, technically I would
have retired. So the business I had run for 34 years, which my children have
inherited, should pension me. Besides, sometimes I bring them business ideas and
ask them to pay me as consultant. When a manager does not manage well, his
resources dwindle. I am a manager and I manage well. Our biggest problem is that
90 per cent of our politicians do not have employment outside politics and in
the era of uncertainty, they are thrown out. That is not life, any politician
who cannot leave office on Friday and resume in his personal office on Monday
and be earning a living is not qualified to be in politics. When that is done,
it will attract the best in politics; it will not be a do-or-die affair. It is a
do-or-die affair because your breakfast, lunch and dinner are in politics. You
never had a car until you became a political office holder; you never built a
house until you became a political office holder; you never married until you
became a political office holder. So, you are living in the past and by the time
you get to the present, the four years are over and you will end up not serving
the people because you used the period to resurrect yourself economically. That
is why antecedent matters a lot in this governorship race. I always classify
myself as a manager of resources and not like the typical politician who had no
other job.
Source:
http://sunnewsonline.com
Visit
the Ibusa web
site