The only thing I have regretted and lost sleep on is bringing Sheriff to PDP, says Wike

He may very well qualify as the most embattled governor in the ongoing dispensation. Almost every victory he had recorded in the 2015 general elections, including his own election as governor, has been challenged, re-evaluated and re-validated. In the end, Governor Nyesom Wike has managed to stand tall as the ultimate champion of the Rivers electoral battles. He spoke exclusively to THE GUARDIAN in Port Harcourt on his challenges and prospects. Excerpts

Outside the road infrastructure, are you giving attention to schemes like the school programme, especially the model school that was started by your predecessor; the farm project, housing project and power projects. Are you giving thoughts to this bouquet of other social infrastructure with equal attention?
Apart from the road network, we are also focusing on the health sector, particularly the tertiary institutions. Before now, almost all our general hospitals were comatose. As I speak to you today, we have almost completed the total renovation of 13 general hospitals in all the three senatorial districts. Before I came, the last administration started what we call zonal hospitals that will probably do what general hospitals used to do.

Unfortunately, contracts were awarded and contractors abandoned the projects. We realized that governance is a continuum; we cannot allow the projects to die, especially since public funds are involved. As I speak to you, work has gone far in these zonal hospitals. We did not end at that, those who brought up the idea of zonal hospitals did not make provision for doctors’ residents. As I speak, we have awarded contracts for the building of doctors and nurses’ quarters so that they can stay close to where the hospital is.

There was what is called Niger Delta regional mother and child hospital, which was started by the state government but in agreement with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The total money earmarked for that contract was N1.6 billion. The state government had released their own funds to NDDC, about N800 million. NDDC has paid about N400 million to the contractor but have not matched up with their own money. We still have our own money remaining with the NDDC, about N400 million. That project was abandoned.

When I came on board, I said no. I requested for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), looked at it and asked the NDDC to give us back our money. We want to fund the hospital on our own. That process is still ongoing and NDDC is yet to refund our money. That is what we are doing about the health sector for now.

In education, when you say model schools, for me, school is not just about the structures without the equipment and the teachers. The previous administration started demolishing the primary schools to set up what you call model schools as per the structure. There was contract to have 500 of such schools, for eight years, they finished only about a hundred. Three hundred of such schools have been overgrown with grass. These are schools that you don’t need to bring down, but renovate them, equip them and train teachers.

They said they were going to build the model secondary schools in each local government. As I speak to you, the only one that was built was in Enekuro. Some Indians handled that one and we are paying N800 million a year. As at the time we came, they owed them N1.5 billion. What kind of system are we running? Don’t we have private schools in Nigeria doing well that can even come and run the schools?

Why do we have to bring Indians to do that? I said I wont continue with such bogus waste. So we converted it to a Continuing Education Center. We are trying to bring back the boarding system, one in Iyemiri Grammar School, one in Rivers South, two in Rivers East to test run the idea. From there, government will be encouraged to go further. I didn’t start by going to demolish all the schools in the local government to replace with my boarding system.

In terms of university, of course you know University of Science and Technology has been renamed Rivers State University. We have laid the foundation for a medical school. Scholarships were awarded to our children overseas, I have no problem with that but at the time these scholarships were awarded in 2013, the state was getting N20 billion a month. Today, we get around N5 billion and the salary bill is about N6 billion a month, how do we pay? We decided to look at those courses that we don’t need and which we have here, not courses like English, Accountancy. It doesn’t make sense spending foreign exchange overseas for somebody to read Religion, Philosophy etc. we told them come back home, we will give you scholarships to study those courses in Nigeria. The state owes about N4 billion and we have paid about N1.5 billion out of the overseas scholarship debt.

When Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) was set up, the template was that oil companies would contribute to the funding of the scheme. Today, Shell is not contributing; no oil company is contributing, so how do you want me to fund them. It is not easy for us today given the state of the country’s economy. We have to go the way of Public Private Partnership (PPP).

In agriculture, we are encouraging our people to go beyond subsistence farming by providing them access to land with C-of-O (Certificate of Occupancy) and make them co-owners of the farm. So many investors have come, some into rubber plantation.

On housing, you talked about the housing project in partnership with First Bank. I don’t like to criticize but it is so painful. People just come with all kinds of ideas that cannot stand the test of time. As at the time we came, look at the security, but we thank God for where we are today. The little skirmishes recorded have just been the over-politicization of security matters by the powers that be who are not willing to work with us.

Two projects are particularly interesting; one preceded your immediate predecessor. There is a shopping mall at Aba road and the massive landmark called the monorail, what exactly is the state of those projects, are they abandoned?
Let me start with the mall. We have brought people to look at it and they are saying that the way the mall was structured; it cannot pass for a standard mall today. We need to bring it down and start to rebuild and you know how difficult it is for government, having put in such amount of money. It is so painful. We have not decided on what to do but we are still hoping we can get an investor that can do an onward execution of the project to create employment and attract other development.

On the monorail, it is what it is. The state government has spent over N45 billion by the previous administration for a 1.5km project and you ask yourself what sense does that make? And from feasibility study, we will need nothing less than N20 billion to complete it. Where will I get the money from, what is the traffic it would be conveying to expend so much on such a little distance. Just because he has travelled overseas and has seen monorail, he wanted to be known as the governor who brought monorail to Nigeria. You forget that economics do not work that way. With the scarcity of resources we have, it is difficult for us to even contemplate going on with the project.

Surprisingly, you are doing so much even with the paucity of funds. What is the secret, how are you coming around some of these projects?
The secret is commitment and prudent management of the little you get. I discovered that so many of the contracts awarded were over-inflated. If I don’t have money, I won’t award any contract. If I get for example, six or seven billion from the federation account and the salary wage bill is about six billion, I make sure from the little that is left and from internally generated revenue, we pay contractors every month no matter how little to keep the work going. So they are happy that every month, money is coming in. As I finish with one project, I move on to another one and the cycle continues. That’s the only magic I have.

Are you saying that you are not in anyway exposed to loans that will mortgage the state for years to come?
Not at all, go and check. If I take loan, I tie it to our IGR. First of all, we were owing pensioners six months at the time I came, workers were owed about four months, I paid all. We took loan from Access Bank; we will finish paying it by February or March next year. Zenith Bank loan, we will finish by October next year. This is exclusive of the ones they owed before we came. We had to take bonds to enable us restructure the loan of the previous administration for about 30 years, which other states in similar circumstances also did.

Your coming in was attended by one major controversy. Rivers politics runs on the basis of ethnic balancing, your predecessor and so many people felt that after Amaechi, no other person from Ikwerre should come forward. Are you still on that path that anybody from anywhere can take over from you?
If you ask me from my selfish point of view, it should be on the basis of what you have to offer the people. But again, as an opposition party when Amaechi moved to All Progressives Congress (APC), the opposition wanted to get into power and win election. That was the basis of the controversy then. The party felt I was the candidate that could swing the votes and challenge the previous government in winning election for us. I am not against any ethnic group or senatorial district per se, but as an opposition, you want to get into power and it cannot be by the criteria set by the ruling party. It is only when you are in power, you can say this is the way we are going to do it.

There is one other issue about Rivers; this Greater Port Harcourt city is a massive project. What has become of the project?
Like I said, from the conception of a project from day one, you must have at the back of your mind what you want and the cost benefit analysis. There is nothing wrong in planning for the expansion of a highly populated city, but it should be sold to the people first for them to buy into it. Everything about the project was just a scam. For eight years, there was no development in the project site after spending over N50 billion on it.

Going forward, what should be done to the project? Are you leaving it at that or you want to refocus the idea?
We have appointed a new management, they are working on it now, trying to woo investors and get people to buy into the project. It is not easy as it is now. There are even no roads in the Greater Port Harcourt city they are talking about. With the recession the country is facing, how many people will want to put down their money now for such start-up project?

You are in PDP and we have APC-led Federal Government, and some of the roads you are doing are federal roads. What is the understanding between you and the Federal Government?
I am doing it for the people. Even if the Federal Government wants to reimburse, they wont do it because they don’t like Rivers State. They want Rivers to suffer because it is a PDP state but I won’t allow my people to suffer. If I wait for Federal Government, I won’t work. The body language of the present administration is that they don’t like anything that has to do with the Niger Delta. That is the truth of the matter.

The state of the PDP is something to worry about and you are one of the key stakeholders of the party; are there really plans to come around the crisis by floating another party or how do you want to move forward with this Markafi/Sheriff logjam?
I like to get to the bridge before I cross it but I just believe Sheriff will not be my chairman. In any stage in one’s life, you have setbacks and challenges. What is important is for you to be firm, organize yourself and plan how to overcome those challenges. I believe in Markafi, I believe in going to the Supreme Court. The issue is that certain pronouncements have been made. We don’t know what tomorrow will be as we await the final pronouncement from the court. If we stop at this level and say lets leave it, it becomes the law.

So, for the benefit of society, let us watch and allow the final court to make a pronouncement and that becomes the position of the law on such issues. That is the only way we can grow. Yes, I was one of those that brought Sheriff. If there is one thing I have regretted and on which I have never had a good sleep, it is about Sheriff. I will not make comments now. I pray to Almighty God that justice would be done. I am hopeful because I believe in the judiciary. It is only thereafter, will I make a statement about PDP.

Recently there was a policy statement that the oil majors operating in the Niger Delta should relocate their head offices from Lagos and Abuja to the Niger Delta. Are you making any effort to fast track that initiative since you are going to be one of the direct beneficiaries?

It is a good policy statement even though we were not consulted to deliberate on the policy framework. Any way, it doesn’t matter, we are happy with it, it is what we are expecting; but making statements and same coming to reality are different things. Let’s believe as they have said so, they will put machineries in motion to actualize that.

Still on the Niger Delta, there have been some environmental issues lately in Rivers with some black substance around the Port Harcourt area and people say it is as a result of the burning down of illegal refineries, is there anything you are doing to address that permanently?

Yes, we have set up a taskforce and they are working. Heard they have arrested some of the boys burning tyres that were part of those causing these soot that we have. We have told the security agencies that there is the need to encourage these illegal refineries so that all these problems we are having will be reduced. Again, if you must destroy, there must be a way it is done that it will not impact negatively on the environment and the people, because what we have suffered some weeks ago was terrible. It is not what anybody can be happy about.

We have had almost endless election reruns in Rivers. Is everything about the 2015 elections in Rivers concluded now and are you okay with the reruns?
I am not okay. There was no rerun. They came here to manipulate. INEC didn’t come here to organize any election. INEC, army, police, DSS came here to show their might and force. It doesn’t matter how many people they kill. Why will I be happy when you don’t want the wishes of the people to prevail?

But at the end of the day you triumphed?
What do you mean by I triumphed? You are making it look personal as if there is another party here. We didn’t contest against APC; we contested against the security agencies. It was glaring. If we contested solely against the APC, of course I won’t be angry, but in the elections, there were agencies that were more interested than the APC itself.

If it was that tough, how come you won in most of the areas?
We resisted a lot of things that led to their killing our people. Why will I be happy that we won an election after so many of our people died? Why would it be so? This is a state that produces the wealth of the nation, but they don’t care. It doesn’t matter who dies here, what matters to them is to be able to impose the person they want against the wishes of the people. I can’t be happy.

What actually is your relationship with Rotimi Amaechi now?
My relationship is between APC and PDP.
Is that all?

What else do you want me to say?
Finally, it is like your style is a little bit different. People describe you as an out-of-the-box kind of governor. You want to be as ordinary as possible, what informed that style?
That is the problem we have, too much protocol in the system. But should protocols stop my people from seeing me. We follow protocols in terms of relating with officials. Take for example, if the president, an ambassador, a minister or heads of government are coming to see me, protocol must take its place, but with the people, there should be no protocol. Was there protocol when I went to them to campaign? They must see me anytime they want to, I must visit them too. It may not be easy but that is where I get the fuel to serve the people. How can I imprison myself?