“I AM A PHILANTHROPIST BY NATURE” – VICTOR OCHEI

The Speaker of Delta state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei bares his mind on myriad of national issues, including politics, security and the Anioma call to governance, in this interview conducted by Huhuonline.com Publisher, Emmanuel Emeke Asiwe and Editor, Albert Ograka.

Huhuonline.com : Who is Victor Ochei, What makes him thick? You are still a businessman and also speaker of the House of Assembly. How are you able to balance these two ropes and how are you thus far been able to avoid conflict of interests in terms of business plan (doing business with the state) and still being the head of the state Assembly?

Hon. Ochei : I am Victor Ochei, Speaker of the state House of Assembly and I like to describe myself in many parts. First, I am an engineer by training; it cannot divorce me from what I’m trained to do. Secondly, I am a businessman by profession, I like to make money and that I must enjoy my profession and so I’ll be good at it. Thirdly, I am a philanthropist by nature, it is natural with me, and I am a politician by calling. I believe I’m called to serve and it’s not because it’s a means to an end. Unfortunately, that is what politics appears to be like these days. Everybody sees it like a means to an end but not for me as a person because there are other means I can use to achieve my ends. So the only reason why I’ve been in this is to serve and the calling to serve your people and that is what it is to me.

And so stemming from that, how do I balance the interest of being a businessman and at the same time a politician. There is this parlance that goes that when your politics is improving; your business is going down. I’m a man who is determined to take both up at the same time, so my business and my politics go up at the same time. There is no law in the constitution that bars you from doing business even if you are a politician but the truth remains that you should be able to know where to draw the line. Nothing stops you from having shares in any business but as long as I’m not in day-to-day running in my business, so I can have time to do legislative work that I have been able to define clearly and directed my interests in my former obligation so I can have time to face the job of being the Speaker of the state.

So far, so good God has been gracious and one has carried on very well and I’m not sure I have any conflict to deal with because right now I’m focussed in just my job as speaker of the House.

Huhuonline.com : You head the legislative arm of government in the state. Considering your close relationship with the governor, are you able to perform your oversight functions (acting as check and balance)? Or is your House a rubber stamp?

Hon. Ochei : (Cuts in) Oh! Very well. (Laughs) That is what most people like to ask and I keep asking why. You see Nigerian democracy is such that if the legislative arm is at peace with the executive arm, you see them as a rubber stamp but they want them to be at war fighting and fighting the governor, and they would say yes, the House of Assembly is working. But let me ask you a question, at the end of the day what are you set to achieve? To play to the gallery that you are fighting the executive or because you want to check them and ensure that things are done rightly? I think the later would be the answer. What we want is do it properly, and you can do it properly without necessarily putting up a fight.

I think it is democratically amateur to start entering into disagreements with the executive, simply because you want to prove a point and I’m one of those who, we have been doing our job silently.

And when you people say they don’t see us doing oversight functions simply because, maybe in the executive arm, people want to play to the gallery, go carrying cameras. I think that is what is playing to the gallery, wanting to show the public that you are working. So if after all that is done and you have not done anything, so what basically have you done? But when you quietly take note, we do a lot of unscheduled visits to project sites and even looking into the ministries and the books of the executive to know if they are keeping in line with what the appropriation law which the House passed, we do all of that but we don’t have to go to the press all the time because when you do that you’ve exposed the fact that you are coming and the man whom you are coming to check will keep his books clean, so at the end of the day you see nothing… I find it funny when they say am I being able to do my work very well. I do my work effectively.

There was a time this same House took a resolution, we adjourn sine-die until the Governor calls the contractors back to work. The question was there to ask. You are in the legislative arm; you have the right to call the contractors. In one breath it looks like yes, it’s true but the truth is as the legislative arm, we have no business with the contractors because it is the executive arm that engage them and is giving them the jobs to do, therefore it’s the executive who can also call those contractors to work, otherwise we would be forced to come and hit you the executive to get them to work… That is the basic thinking behind it but in a s much as that was done, this is where your question comes, when you did that just to ensure that everybody is up and working right….what went out in the public and political circles were that the House under the Speaker’s leadership wants to overthrow the governor, he wants to prove to the governor that he is this and that. Meanwhile that is not the intention but that is what people want to see and it is not right. I think that it is politically amateur to believe that until a House of Assembly or National Assembly is at war with the executive arm, then they are not a rubber stamp. No, far from it but the truth is that we’ve been doing our job effectively. In fact the cordial relationship with the executive makes our job a lot easier and that is why they are not seeing the rancour and when they don’t see the rancour they get angry and say we are rubber stamps. Sometime they say we’ve collected money to keep our mouths shut.

Huhuonline.com : How far can you sustain this cordiality, considering the understanding between the executive and the state legislature?

Hon. Ochei : Yes, we have kept a very cordial working relationship with the executive in the past one year and I tell you that the executive does appreciate the fact that we are doing our work effectively. In the history of Delta state, we were the first to pass our Appropriation Bill in the country in the same financial year, so that we could keep the ground running in the New Year. The 2012 Appropriation law was signed on 5 th of January this year which is about the first by any governor in the country. The idea behind this is we believe we should develop a trendy pattern where the executive arm would be able assess them by assessing them properly. When you prepare a budget in March and it comes to effect in May, one whole quarter is gone. How do you now run the budget? So you only run the budget for three quarters. We need to be able to measure performance based on how these things are done in the four quarters and so that’s the idea we have behind making sure that the budget came out the first time in the first few days of the new year so that we can actually kick-start the state on a good footing. So, we hope as a House to sustain this relationship by ensuring that when we see the executive going wrong, we would always alert them. By alerting them, the only reason why you will get to hear in the public is when we have told them in quiet and they don’t want to listen, then we would have to prove to the world that we have told them and they are not ready to listen, so let it be known that we have done our part. Otherwise we tell them quietly and I’m sure they will correct most of these…and they have done quite a lot by correcting anything we have pointed out to them, so in my own opinion, there is a complete separation of power, but they complement each other very well and we’ve been working very cordially with the executive arm.

Huhuonline.com : You just talked about separation of power. Don’t you think the kind of government we run in Nigeria is too expensive?

Hon. Ochei : Yes, it is expensive but what other options are there? The parliamentary system, if you want the parliamentary system, would you be able to run it that in itself is also going to be very expensive. No system of government is quite easy because then you have the councillors down and of course the mayors and chairmen. The only difference there is just the President has a whole lot of aides and all that but we must define a convenient structure that suits us and then the only other reason why I think it is heady is because we concentrates a lot of power in the centre which should not be for a Federal Republic, as much as possible, if we reduce the powers at the centre, all of these would also reduce drastically, the cost of governance will also reduce but I also do not believe that the number of Ministries we have, for instance in Abuja should be there. I don’t know what the Ministry of Agriculture should be doing in Abuja, Agric is not done in Abuja, neither will you tell me about culture and tourism. Tourism can be because of course it is a national issue, in developing tourism potentials is no a national problem. It should be given to the states to do that and come up with things that can help boost them.

Huhuonline.com : Despite your claims that you are first to pass the Appropriation law in Nigeria, there are still a number of unfinished projects in Delta state, like the Independent Power Plant (IPP), Asaba International Airport, Ughelli/Asaba road dualization, Delta Leisure Park, new Govt House among others, would you say that the 2012 budget which you passed will ensure sustainable development?

Hon. Ochei : (Cuts in) Do you mean sustainable with regards to the project you just mentioned? Of course the 2012 Appropriation law provides for all of those projects you have taken down. But also what you have not looked at is the duration of the projects, how long were they supposed to be finished, in one year, two years, four years or five and six years. The leisure park is an engagement with a foreign firm who are investing their money but we are also providing basic sites and services which they expect the state government to do because they are investing their money here, it’s quite commendable. The IPP project is on-going and it takes time, even the NIPP which the former President Olusegun Obasanjo started, how many of them have come into place, how many years after he has left office? So, these things are not like that. If you look at them they actually have to take quite some time and what I want to implore Deltans is that we need to be a little more patient with programmes of government. It’s not it starts today and it finishes tomorrow because everybody believes if you get mobilized, they start screaming. When do you now want the job to be done? It has to be done and to get it done will take some time, so allow us time but all the projects you mentioned, I can assure you that the 2012 Appropriation law provided adequately for them. It is believed within the ambit of the law; the House of Assembly believes they should be able to execute them within this financial year.

Huhuonline.com : Earlier you talked about the Assembly asking the Governor to call contractors back to work, but there are certain projects that Deltans are a little bit worried about, like the building of domes in Asaba and Warri even when money have been given to the contractors and up till now nothing is on ground in Warri.

Hon. Ochei : When they say monies have been given to contractors, I am aware that sometime for reasons of exigencies, funds for certain projects are kept in an escrow account and it does not necessarily mean that the contractor has accessed the money. It can be kept in an escrow account, sometimes the journalists will say they have paid the contractor but by the time you ask the contractor and he says no, you will now look like you’ve been misinformed. So some of these things happen like that. I know they’ve had issues with sites where the projects could be sited and for some reasons…that is what take some time to be resolved but the one in Asaba is been in use already.

Huhuonline.com : Now, in terms of security which has become a major challenge in Nigeria, what do you think is the panacea for Nigeria and Delta state to secure the citizenry against possible threat to their peace and well-being? Remember Delta state was record high in kidnap incidences of relations to prominent politicians including your own younger brother. Are there legislative Bills propounded by the House to bring perpetrators of the criminal act to justice?

Hon. Ochei : Yes. Security issue have come to a point where it has become embarrassing but I’m sure why the public have been really more lenient is because that even those at the top echelon were not spared, like you clearly stated, my younger brother, a Senator’s father, the Political Adviser to the Governor’s mother….all of these persons have been victims. So, it is not as if those at the top, they are keeping them shielded so that they don’t hit them as well but Delta state House of Assembly before now had passed the law but the law was not assented to and so it lacked in that session. We now came back to this session which a Bill (Anti-terrorism and anti-kidnapping Bill) has gone through the second reading and which I’m sure in another two weeks will be passed into law where we will ensured that in the proposal in the Bill…the offence of kidnapping and terrorism will now be punishable with capital punishment.

We intend to ensure that it will help deter the menace but so far so good, a lot have been done by the executive arm by ensuring that the former Officer In Charge of anti-kidnapping who was actually the king-pin, you can imagine when a thief is actually the head of the anti-thieves, will he catch himself, that was the major problem why the issues heightened as a lot of young ones, a lot more persons were recruited by him because he assured them that they were never going to get caught because he was in charge but nemesis caught up with him, today he’s behind bars. The whole thing has changed and we are sure of getting somewhere and we will definitely get somewhere. You will agree with me that the menace of kidnappings in Delta state have drastically reduced and that no society is completely rid of crime and we will try as much as possible to rid the state of criminals. That’s what I can assure you.

Huhuonline.com : Does it not bring to question the judgement of whoever hired that man in the first place, because if you hire a thief to catch a thief, whoever hired him should also bear the brunt?

Hon. Ochei : Well, the Nigeria Police Force is not a state government organ. It is a Federal Government organ. That is why people are agitating and clamouring for the state police because in the state police we will know who you are. The man in question is not from Delta state, he is from Edo state but he has lived here so long that he can afford to put up a cartel of these miscreants. Now, he’s a police top officer, for all agent and purpose I’m not holding brief for the Commissioner of Police or whoever must have assigned him to that beat, but the truth is he expects that the man at that level should be a responsible officer who should fight on the path of the law and protect the citizenry. Here you are the man is not fighting on the path of the law; he’s rather the one who is ensuring that people die. Meanwhile you are being paid by the tax money of the persons who you’re vilifying, so this is the issue, so would you now blame for instance, whoever superior that must have sent him there because the man sent him there believing that from what I can appraise of him, on the …work, he’s a diligent officer but little would he know that despite what you see on the smokescreen, the many atrocities the guy commits. I’m not holding brief for them but I think with regards to security, they are doing well and we do hope that they will rid the society soon of all those elements.

Huhuonline.com : You achieved a major breakthrough in the House when you introduced the Biometrics screening for the Assembly workforce. What informed that decision?

Hon. Ochei : Yeah! What informed it is that when I came on board, the House of Assembly is supposed to be a place that is quite functional, when you come into the offices and you see you have an x-number of staff, meanwhile when you come in you will see x-minus so many. And the jobs these persons are supposed to do you don’t see them there but at the end of the month they collect salaries. Now, the question, the Bible says that labourer is worthy of his wages. Now, if you flip that statement, it also says that the employer is worthy of the services of the employed. Therefore why should I, if you are worthy of my wages, then I should be worthy of your services. So, a lot of persons, the kind of system they run is such that you are a staff, whether you come to work or you don’t come to work, at the end of the month they are going to prepare your salary to the computer centre and your pay is processed to your account, so whether you come to work or you don’t come to work, you have been in Port-Harcourt and your salary runs there because you walk into your bank in Port-Harcourt for the money without working and they were getting very comfortable with that… I said no, I don’t have a problem, I’m not going to start by sacking you, I’m going to start by ensuring that you come to work and if you enjoy that salary, if you like it at all, come and register that you came to work, if you don’t the machine knows that you did not come because you thumbprint and if you don’t come, so be it, you’re gone. That is the simple logic behind it and it has yielded a whole lot of results.

Huhuonline.com : There are some other administrative and infrastructure changes, like the removal of the Clerk of the House and the Assembly complex wearing a befitting look. Can you explain the reasons behind this? Do these infrastructure developments at the Assembly Complex affect your finances and who is directly responsible for the execution in monetary terms?

Hon. Ochei : Normally, don’t forget that when I came on board as Speaker, it was already mid-year and the budget had been done, so it wasn’t as if there were some extra money and I had to go and budget for myself without working. It’s only in application of the fund and what I see of it. We had the style before which we used to do, we would say okay, we want to, for instance we have money for capital development, we will decide to say okay create small clusters of projects and give to people so that people can benefit from them thereof and when we realised that that has been going on and we were not getting any tangible development because except I have to take from my pocket and many other things and I’m not likely to be welcome substandard projects, secondly there is no synergy in the projects you are doing because everybody gets it in small piece, so Mr. A may not finish at the same time with Mr. B, therefore you ignore the beauty of the total cumulative duty that would come out as accruable at the end of the project because you cannot determine when any man will finish his own. That in itself created some kind of problems, so we decided in our wisdom to edge that style, so now whatever …you earmark a certain amount. If we can get one or two or three major companies that has the competence to do these projects and we give them, we believe this amount can cover those much and I’m sure that has helped us tremendously It has given the House a new look and so much has been done, but you see because we so much believe in government contract and somehow the public believes it’s so inflated. When you see the volume of work done, you will infer that, have you not eaten into your finances. My brother the answer is no because we just applied our own funds in a more judicious manner. That was why you saw the whole lot that has been achieved in that so short a time.

Huhuonline.com : What major challenges do you face as Speaker of a House earlier believed to have been bedevilled by intrigues among its members and how do you intend to carry on with the House leadership and other representatives, considering their diverse interests?

Hon. Ochei : Yeah! Just like you said before now, that the House was bedevilled by many intrigues and those intrigues were because we had a mono-party. I mean we were almost one party House but this time it’s a diverse party House and the House is still one. That is to tell you that well, to God be the glory, the grace of God, to our administrative prowess, we’ve been able to manage every interest together because there’s nothing as good as putting your interests on the table and we discuss it, if it works well with mine there is no problem, if it does not then we find a common ground and I think that is one thing I’ve been able to achieve among my colleagues, transparency. I suggest myself to say, go and check anywhere. You must run an open door system. There is nothing that is done here that is hidden, in fact …you must follow the due process and let it be seen that this is what you were doing. The moment that is done and your colleagues can trust you with their finances and all of that, you will have no fear, you can go to sleep because they trust you and so long as you don’t disappoint them, they have no reason to clamour and there is no special intrigues they want to play on you. Now the bottom line is well, they come to do their work as legislators and you also protect their pecuniary interests that come as a follow up to the work they do, why would they want anything to harm you? They won’t want to hurt you in anyway.

Huhuonline.com : Apart from the House of Assembly Service Commission, the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) as a union seems to also form a challenge in meeting up with workers’ welfare. How do you manage your legislative business with the Commission and the Union?

Hon. Ochei : The Commission by law is the employer of all the staff of the House of Assembly; therefore I do not have to manage them. By the creation of law they are in the executive arm, they are not part of the legislative arm but we feel we want to take them over because they are our Commission, they will become a part of the legislature but really they are not, the legislature is a different arm and they now look at their own business differently as well. I don’t see that as an issue but PASAN as parliamentary staffs are among the staffs who are employed by the Commission. I want to believe some are committed to parliamentary duties, I do not know if a cleaner would call himself a member of the parliamentary staff because he works in the legislature but if it confers on him or her the title of a parliamentary staff by virtue of the fact that as a cleaner he works in the legislature then so be it. I think that issue is better handled by the House of Assembly Service Commission but I can tell you that I have a very cordial working relationship with the staff because as much as possible make things work for them.

Huhuonline.com : How do you view the clamour by the Anioma people of Delta North over the need to produce a governor come 2015? Do you think it’s feasible in a state with such diverse ethnic groupings?

Hon. Ochei : Well, the best I can tell is that the clamour is very legitimate. And on grounds of equity, if you sit down to look at the state where you have Delta Central that has produced governors twice and now Delta South is producing twice, for equity sake it’s only natural that Delta North should be given the opportunity also to produce theirs and so there’s no reason for anyone to think that that clamouring is a call that is rather ambitious. For me, I think it’s the next call in the right direction and so there is nothing wrong and it’s very much achievable in whatever light anybody would want to look at it. Whether some come up by saying they are not united, there has never been a time when any particular ethnic group would not and they are all united for one person. It has never happened. So its democracy if they are not united, by the time we operate the system, by the time the system seek to say we need to protect our own, I think it’s going to the North. Every other Senatorial District would fall in place, that’s how we will fall in round in the state. I do not think there is going to be any difference now.

Huhuonline.com : You have secured an intimidating profile among your peers and politicians in Delta North. How do you intend to grapple with the tendency that you may participate in the 2015 governorship poll if called upon by your people?

Hon. Ochei : (Cuts in) If called upon. Well when the time comes, if and when that time comes and I’m adjudged to have performed in the assignment they have given to me now, when the time comes, first, I’ll say the time would take care of itself but as a person, naturally speaking, we would pray to God to grant us the gift of life and good health. Those are a lot of parameters which determines that and I should be able to say yes, I want to accede to their call or decline. But for now I’m concentrating on making the best of the little assignment they have given to me to discharge and I want to discharge these duties to the best of my ability and knowledge.

Huhuonline.com : Recently you vied the Chairmanship of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria which is now headed by Garba Inuwa. What is your vision for the Nigerian legislature?

Hon. Ochei : My vision for the Nigerian legislature is simple. The Nigerian legislature is one very strong stakeholder in the Nigerian polity but if you do not assert yourself, you will be relegated because take it or leave it, powers to, for instance, alter the constitution lies with the National Assembly even when that happens and you keep on screaming, if the state legislature do not give you the go ahead, you cannot pass that into law, so we have become an integral venue … if positively speaking, my vision is to ensure that we keep a virile state legislature by ensuring that the Speakers come together in a forum where their voice can be very strong, and can be heard in the polity ….as we speak on burning issues that concerns this country. That was the vision that I had but I will still give all my support to Garba Inuwa, who defeated me…he is a maverick politician, I give it to him. I pledge my support for him and that’s the beauty of democracy.

Huhuonline.com : Are the Governors’ and the Speakers’ forum constitutional?

Hon. Ochei : The Governors’ and Speakers’ forum are not constitutional, they are associations. The governors are elected in their individual states just like the Speakers are elected too in their states. So if they said okay, we are all governors and colleagues, let’s have a forum where just us can sit down and discuss some issues bothering us, irrespective of our individual matters in our respective states, we should come together as a forum and address issues bothering across the country, the same with the Speakers, you know what? We are Speakers, let us come together and also discuss matters affecting the country, so the Speakers’ forum is the same thing as Governors’ forum.

Huhuonline.com : Or are they like pressure groups?

Hon. Ochei : Who are you pressuring, yourselves? It’s not like a pressure group but a group where people can come together to say this is affecting us and if we have a collective interest, we can go as a group and collectively clamour for it. Like one of the burning issues right now for the Speakers is that of financial autonomy, which Bill has just gone through the second stage at the National Assembly. The expectation is that when it is time to alter the Nigerian constitution again and that clause comes up, I’m sure most Nigerian legislators would vote it into law and it has to become part of the constitution. That is one clamour they come together because it’s been collective. Whether you are from one state in the South South or North East, if it’s something that affects you all collectively, then you talk about it. Only recently the governors came together to address the security situation in the country, security is not the exclusive reserve of one man who lives in the North where Boko Haram is more prevalent, it is also affecting the man in the East. So they needed to come together we really need to come together as a body since it is affecting all of us and let us find the solution that will solve all these problems. It became the same way that the Conference of Speakers came together to summon a common front on issues that is affecting us.

SOURCE: TNV (The Nigerian Voice).