Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, is not one to pass up an opportunity to market his state. He took time off during the World Economic Forum on Africa (WEFA) in Abuja to field questions from reporters on Channels TV, the broadcaster partner of the Forum. We produce hereunder his thoughts on investment in Delta State and the security challenges in the country.

Creating jobs

In terms of unemployment it’s not a Nigerian issue alone. If you followed the Obama re-election, the issue was more about unemployment; all over Europe we have that challenge. In fact presidents are losing elections because of the high rate of unemployment.

In Nigeria I think a lot of efforts are being made both at the federal and state levels. Any program that you have as a president or governor is geared towards reducing the pool of unemployed people. We’re trying to create jobs in all ways. Talking about infrastructure that is being dealt with at the federal and at state level.  Any action that we take as a government in Delta; the overall objective is how to create jobs for our teeming number of unemployed. We must accept that in the last few years there seems to be a population explosion in Nigeria and high rate of children being brought into the world too; it is a big challenge

Delta Beyond Oil

Our Delta Beyond Oil project is a life time project. We’re an oil producing state, and unfortunately a lot of our economic activities revolve around oil and gas alone. I keep using myself as an example, growing up in a local community that we neither had oil nor gas but we lived well; we were able to farm and fish, because of this we were able to eat three square meals a day and because of that we were not hungry and because we were not hungry we were not easily angry and because of this violence was very minimal but that’s not the situation today.

A lot of communities; especially the oil producing ones, have polluted soil, water and air and because of this they cannot even farm or fish. Because of this they’re not able to feed themselves; so they’re prone to hunger, anger and violence, so it’s a cycle.

For us, Delta Beyond Oil simply means let us use the money coming from oil to see how we can develop other areas of the economy because we’re not sure when the oil will finish. We’re lucky that today the price is still above a hundred dollars per barrel but it can crash to as low as $20 and that will affect the Nigerian economy.

What we’re doing in that regard is looking at the growth drivers and these are peace and security because without that it is difficult to talk about investors coming in. We’re also looking at infrastructure especially power, where we’re partnering with the federal government and some private investors that are buying assets at the federal level and also trying to generate our own.

A lot of people do not know that a lot has been going on two days before the WEF started and Delta State has been part of what is going on. We were able to sign an MOU with a Canadian firm, Sky power, who have signed an MOU with the federal government to deliver about 3000MW of electricity through solar and also signed a purchase agreement with the federal government to ensure that their investment is secure.

Out of the 3000MW, we as a state have signed 1000MW to be located in Delta and we know that some of that will enter the national grid and once it does you don’t know where it will be utilised. We’re also working with the Federal Government to ensure that at least 30-40 per cent of that is utilised within our state and that can come through captive power and working with the local governments; they will bring their equipment and manufacturing will be done in Delta. So that was what we signed. They’re now in Delta to acquire the land; their Minister of Investment and the Canadian ambassador were there together with our own minister of trade and investment, they were all there during the signing.

Infrastructure is very key; for transport infrastructure we’re developing two airports simultaneously in Asaba and Warri. We have a lot of economic roads that we’re constructing to ease the transportation of goods and services. We’re happy that the Federal Government has virtually completed the railway line to Aladja. We have sea ports that have been opened up; the Warri sea port is now more active than before as well as the Koko port.

So we have those infrastructures including the Warri industrial park that we’re developing. We have also the education of our people because you have to prepare them for the emerging industrial revolution; education from the Primary through to the Secondary school including skill acquisition.

In the area of health we’re also paying a lot of attention to that because you need a healthy workforce. We’re also doing some things in other areas like; water, public transport etc.

Restoring the steel company in Aladja

What happened to Aladja is a sad story. It’s a company that had about six companies there but unfortunately it went down and the Federal Government  privatised it to some Indians who started operation on only one of the rolling mills, but they also had issues and challenges and they left and it was handed over to AMCON. It is being given back to the Indians now because I had a meeting with the man in charge of AMCON. One of the things AMCON is doing now is that they’re paying attention to the locals because one of the challenges the Indians had was that they neglected the community and so with this new arrangement that is coming on; AMCON is ensuring that the communities are carried along. The people who bought it before are coming back.

Gaining investors’ confidence

Let me say this, in moving forward people talk about security issues as some of the challenges but more challenging is the investment protection; especially legal issues that will protect investment. We have a lot of countries that have security challenges but investors still flock there. Why is this so? It is because their investments are protected. One of the things we have to look at as a nation is the legal issue that will protect investments coming in because when the investments come in and there are issues what happens? A few weeks ago I was in UK and in a meeting with Chris Andrew who is more into investments and he was wondering why British investors are not coming into Nigeria because now we have more of Indians and the Chinese who have virtually taken over all the investment markets in Nigeria.

I think one of the issues he raised which we think we should work on is protection of investment of their nationals.  Yes when they come we say we’re dealing with security challenges but what about the legal issues. If you sign an MOU on a project, is it legally binding? That image of Nigeria has to be erased; that when you’re dealing with Nigerians or government in Nigeria you’re not even sure, even when you say you’re signing an MOU.

We must also be thinking of the market. As you know our population is quite high and can consume a lot, but I think we should look beyond our people consuming what we manufacture. We must look at how we can enter other markets; especially African markets. I believe Africa is a very strategic area for consumption of manufactured goods; I know there are transport challenges moving from one African country to another but I believe that we have a lot of African countries present at this forum  and it is one of the issues that will be discussed; how we can transport goods from one African country to another,  because if you say you’re manufacturing a lot of things here for instance; the European market will rather  buy from their own area or sometimes we have  the Chinese invading. So the real market is more on the African continent.

I do hope that as various leaders of the continent come together it will be a very major issue either movement by road, air, rail or sea; it has to be discussed because without that it will be difficult to say we have a trade relation with another African country. The African market is very ripe for us to patronise.

Issue of transportation

What we’re doing is to have a PPP, so far we buy the buses and currently we have about 700  18-seater  and  15 seater buses. For us as a state we believe that we should help our people by subsidising transportation so we give the buses to private individuals to run and of course we have the Delta Line. But what we do for the passengers, we pay 50 per cent of their fare and at the end of the month the various bodies that utilise the buses will let us know our percentage.

What that has done is that it has made it difficult for other private owners to jack up the cost of public transportation. It has also encouraged people to also use buses that are new because all our buses are new and some are air-conditioned. Why I’m emphasising this is that I think it’s important that we ensure our people are able to move around in adequate and cheap transportation service that will carry the locals around.

Investing in textile

The issue of the textile mill in Nigeria is a sad one. Every textile mill in Nigeria not only in my state went down.  What is remaining of the Asaba textile mill is more of the land; every other thing there is obsolete; so anybody coming to invest in the textile mill is coming to take over the land and that is the unfortunate story of our industries and that is why in our strategic planning in the state through our Economic Management Team headed by Rewane Bismarck; they have a strategy to see how they can resuscitate some industries. What they did was to get private investors to look at the industries; the Breweries at Ughelli we’re already discussing with Guinness; the rubber industry in Sapele. And so they’re looking for private investors to resuscitate the other industries including the Asaba Textile Mill. These people serve as a bridge. We have a law we put in place in 2007, we reviewed the law to ensure the protection of any investment.

Industrialising Delta State

What the Federal Government did was to privatise distribution and generation with the transmission being left with the Federal Government. We’re under the Benin distribution company which covers; Edo, Delta, Ondo,  and Ekiti states. We also try to buy into the Disco. Now the challenge that the Disco has is the quantity of power available for distribution and that is why we’re also trying to see how we can get more power. We have the new power plant which was also privatised and I must say that we’re impressed with those who bought the Ughelli power plant. From about 120 to 180 MW that it was generating before it was bought; they’re now generating about 400MW. The installed capacity is about 980MW but I know that they’ll go beyond that. There’s an improvement from when they bought it and now. To me, that’s a success story. We have two plants in the Sapele area; one is new and the other old which are also in the process of privatisation.

We also have the Agip plant that produces about 580MW  but unfortunately that will also enter the national grid. But with this solar one we’re doing we’re signing an agreement with the Federal Government that at least 400/500MW is utilised within Delta State coupled with our Independent power plant that is still under construction we  believe that in the next few years there’ll be enough power in Delta.

Don’t forget that around the Asaba axis the FG is also constructing some step down transformers that will ensure that all the challenges are solved.

Tourism  

Don’t forget that Delta State is a tourist destination. We’re looking at developing the tourist sites in collaboration with the private sector and one of such sites being developed is at Oleri, an investor has started developing the leisure park there and the zoo in Ogwashi-Uku is almost ready and they’re bringing in animals from East and South Africa. We also have other tourist sites like the Mungo Park, Nana museum, and other historical sites. Although they’re all Federal Government-owned but we’re working with them quietly to bring in investment and to attract tourists.

One of the issues that are important is the issue of hotels. A lot of five-star hotels are springing up between Asaba and Warri but as a medical doctor I can tell you that we’re interested in medical tourism. We’re developing our teaching hospital and also encouraging private investment in health care sector.

We have a laboratory in Warri for instance which is one of the high-flying laboratories in Nigeria today where you can take your samples to; the Fertility centre in Asaba that is privately owned. Let’s not forget that the most important resource we have in Delta is the human resource, starting from academic qualification to sports men and women, music, comedy, acting etc. we’re exploring how we can develop our youths here.

On the Terror Logjam

When we had the case of kidnap in one of our communities, the communities were behind the kidnappers, because they were giving the locals money and of course with that they’ll never tell you anything. With I think the government must do is to win the confidence of the locals so that they can get information from them.

North East Impasse and Respite

When this challenge started and we were still together at the Governor’s Forum discussing this issue, one of the things I put on the table then, was our experience in the Niger Delta. To a considerable extent we knew the people behind the crisis and we engaged them. In fact I had to go into the creeks severally to engage this people. You will recall that the President, who was the Vice President then, even went to the creeks. Pastors, religious leaders, in fact everyone was involved. They engaged these militants either directly; by going to the creeks, or by phone.

My colleagues said they do not have an idea of who these guys are and you cannot be engaging ghosts, so that for them wasn’t workable. But for me really efforts must be made to identify the people behind these problems because I’m not too convinced that for so many months we cannot identify the people behind a particular crisis. It’s like me being a governor in my state and for three to five months and I don’t have any link to the people causing the problem. Being able to identify them is key. You may not get the leader directly but at least you may get somebody who has access to someone who also has access to someone else who may know the leader. That communication and engagement is very important.

Security Council Meeting

I hope and pray that politicians face this matter. We’ll be talking to some of our colleagues who are not in the same party with us. I think to a large extent we seem to be cautioning ourselves because if you remember, some days back there were statements from political parties and leaders that were not very encouraging and to a large extent people are talking less now. I pray that we talk less in terms of the blame game for political interests and that we do not play that kind of politics because like I said we all have to know that no matter the political party you belong to nobody is free from terrorism. It’s not isolated to the North East alone, it can happen anywhere. The one that happened in Nyanya I’m sure it affected almost everyone because there were people from different states, and I know there were people from Delta State who were affected. That is why it is important that we all put our hands and heads together to fight terrorism.

Traditional rulers’ role

I don’t know how it is structured there but what we try to do in Delta is that we have a structure. It’s not having meetings with the traditional leaders and leaving it. There must be a structure that involves the various people, if the traditional ruler gets a call who does he call? Who does he report to or inform? Like the committee we formed using the Commissioner of Police; we have three traditional rulers in that committee from three Senatorial districts and they coordinate the other traditional rulers and of course from there they get directly in touch with the Commissioner of Police. I believe that if we have this kind of structure it will also work. If we have a call centre where people can call, it will also work. You see sometimes why some of these things are difficult or challenging is that people can also use it for mischief, calling when there’s no problem and they can also use it to set trap for you. All those are the risks involved but it does not mean that it shouldn’t be done. There has to be a link between who has that information and who has to have that information.

Use of Emergency numbers

We have emergency numbers for voice and texting. But the one of Chibok I don’t have the details and I cannot say if they have that kind of link but what I’m putting out here is what I really think should happen if we want to involve the locals, because it’s a big challenge who the locals give information to.

Knowing those we’re looking for

Sometimes I tell people this is another type of missing Malaysian plane. There’s a lot of mystery behind the missing girls. In fact some people are beginning to ask if the girls are actually missing. A lot of questions are being asked; there’s nothing straight forward about this matter. I believe that in the last one/two weeks some things are beginning to crystallise; the WAEC man that came; what he told the nation was very revealing and of course the principal and others. I think the security agencies are working very hard to sieve this information because it is also very important that you’re able to sieve the information gotten because when this kind of thing happens, you begin to get all sorts of information and working with the correct one becomes very important.

We are getting more information now than when the problem started because then people kept sealed  lips and some were even confused as to what to do. I think things are crystallising and we’re gradually getting to the end of this matter; I’m very hopeful.

Welfare of security agents     

Yes it did pop up at the Security Council Meeting; apart from the issue of welfare, the issue of numbers. Our security agencies are over stretched now because virtually all states in Nigeria now have soldiers. But you know that soldiers should not be too involved in internal peace keeping and we now have soldiers mounting road blocks. Even when a husband and wife are fighting the first security agent they want to call is the soldier. So they’re really overstretched and one of the things discussed and agreed upon, was the issue of getting more recruits into the security agencies; not just the army but also the police that is equally overstretched.

Investment in technology

People seem to underrate our security agencies; they’re much more than people think they are and are better than people think they are and doing a lot more than people think they are. I’m saying this because I’ve been involved in managing the Niger Delta crisis. It is much more difficult dealing with internal security challenges by the military, than dealing with external. If it’s a war between Nigeria and another country in fact I think it’s easier for them to deal with. We say we have our kids that are missing, that are in one forest or the other, if we go and comb that forest and in doing that we might kill the children we’re looking for. So you have to be careful. I believe that in terms of equipment they have much more than what we think they have but you know these are security issues so you cannot come out and begin to read out what you have and the strategies you’ll use and all that. Because of that they’re talking less, and people expect them to talk more and open up on what they’re doing but we must give them that benefit of the doubt once we know that they cannot say everything they’re doing or involved in because they’re security issues.

I want to plead with Nigerians to bear with them. These people are dying; and the police and Air force too are also dying. We must understand that these people are putting their lives on the line and the only way they can succeed is if we continue to encourage them.  There’s definitely room for improvement but we have to be courteous when we run them down.