Imoke Not Against My Return To Senate – Ndoma-Egba By Donald Ojogo Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) makes a case for the retention of institutional memory in the Nigerian legislature in this interview with DONALD OJOGO. This is even as he clears the air on the plot to stop him from returning to the senate come 2015. Why do you want to return to office? First of all, I did not write the Nigerian Constitution. The Nigerian Constitution provides for term limits for the executive; it even puts an age qualification to both. You must be of a certain age and it also provides that for some offices. In the judiciary, you must have spent a certain number of years as a lawyer to be eligible for appointment and there’s a retirement age. and it also provides that for some offices. In the legislature, the Constitution only provides for an entry age; it has no term limits, it has no retirement age. Now, why is it so? It is because of the peculiarity of parliament. So, I’m coming back because it is in the interest of the polity for us to have this stability and fortunately for me, I’ve been part of the leadership that has provided stability. How true is the allegation that you instigated youths to bar Hon John Eno from participating in the New Yam Festival because you see him as a formidable opponent against you in the 2015 senatorial race? Well, I was not there. This is one New Yam festival I missed in many, many years. I wasn’t there during the New Yam festival because I had arrived from the United States to Abuja on a Friday evening in the first week of September. So, it was practically impossible for me to go home but I remember getting a call on that morning from the clan head to the effect that there was an issue that some youths blocked the road because the Honourable member representing Etung/Obubra Federal Constituency wanted to go for New Yam in my village and I told them: ‘why should that be an issue’ I remember that I was going to a community in Southern Etung and to stop me, the youths removed the bridge! Yes! To stop me from reaching there, they ripped off the bridge; just to stop me from going. In another community, there was a bonfire across the road. I’ve been stopped three times: one in Abi Local Government and twice in Etung. It’s part of the game. They are seeking your attention and so, you give them that attention and on each occasion, I negotiated with them and they let me through! It’s normal in politics But it’s alleged that you are not even popular in your senatorial district. Enoh also alleged you were booed when Governor Imoke raised your hand in his village in 2011? There was no such incident. He never raised my hand in Itigidi. It never happened. So, it’s a figment of Enoh’s political imagination; there was no such incident. And then, when you talk of not being popular, let me just by way of introduction tell you a little about myself. I became a graduate before I was 21 years, I became a lawyer before I was 22 years, I served on a federal board during the administration of former President Shehu Shagari at the age of 24 years, I built my first house in my home town at the age of 24 years. I became Commissioner in the Old Cross River State which is, today, divided into present Cross River and Akwa Ibom States at the age of 27 years. I was Commissioner for Works and Transport and that ministry is today, divided into eight ministries. I ran for governor of my state in 1992; I practised law for an unbroken 26 years across Nigeria. If you check the Law Reports, you’ll see my cases there; they use my cases to teach students in the Law School. I’m a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, I’m a member of the Body of Benchers. I was a three-term Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association, Calabar Branch. That’s unprecedented. I was a three-term President of the Calabar Chamber of Commerce. I say this because today, they want to re-write history as if some people made me. I was made long before they all ventured into politics; long before them. I was a successful legal practitioner; known across Nigeria. I just thought I should give this background and I had choices; as a young man. I had an option to work anywhere in the world but I chose to work amongst my people. I practised law, first in Ogoja. I practised law with Kanu Agabi in Ogoja! After Ogoja, I relocated to Calabar where I’ve lived all my life until I came to the Senate. So, to answer your question, I’m a home boy; born in Ikom, Cross River Central, grew up in Ogoja and attended higher school in Ogoja, which is Cross River North and I settled in Calabar, Cross River South. So, I’ve always lived among my people. If popularity is being with the people, I am the one who is with the people. He is the one who is with government officials. He’s just desperate and as I said, for Heaven’s sake, at the risk of repeating myself, I wasn’t made by politics. Do you see this as a smear campaign? First, let me say that I regret the tone of Hon. Enoh’s interview of last Friday. The family is a decent, polished, educated family and cultured as well. But, then, you should know that in every situation, there are exceptions, deviants. I think he’s just carried away by his luck. He’s a young man who’s been lucky and he’s pushing his luck too far and he shouldn’t take God’s mercies for granted. The tone of that interview, ordinarily, I would have let it pass because I don’t join issues but that tone in that interview is dangerous for the politics of Cross River. We have, so far, played politics of decency in Cross River. We are very cultured in how we address issues. I’ve been talking to the media and I’ve never mentioned names. I address issues; I state my facts. I went and inspected 41 projects I attracted to my constituency, out of 76; including the road to his village, including his wife’s village. I never mentioned his name. That tour was widely televised; showing my projects. I stopped at 41 because I believe that it was a challenge for others to also take the media and show their projects. That has not happened. Let him deal with records. He’s been in the Legislature from 1999 and I came in 2003. You stand accused of doing things for your people because you saw Enoh doing projects… (Cuts in) I’ll get to that in a bit. As I was saying, I have 39 bills to my credit. I also publish a constituency magazine called The Report which has been published since 2003 and there, I publish my bill, projects, scholarship beneficiaries, with their names. The only thing that is not in this magazine is charity! I don’t dramatise charity because the moment you do that, it’s no longer charity. So, if he wants me to dramatise charity…and they accuse me of being stingy, that I’m selfish, well, my driver lives in his own house in Abuja. Every staff I have owns a plot of land in this same Abuja, paid for by me. A lot of my staff live in their personal houses. I send people to India for treatment. Let him show me just one person whose life he has touched. Must I go and dramatise that? Must I make that public? Hon. Enoh should name his own projects. There are many people in my constituency whose children I have trained. I have over 600 students today in my scholarship scheme who are now graduates which started in 1981. It got bigger when I got to the Senate in 2003. I set up a formal scholarship scheme in 2003. If Enoh decides not to see it well, that’s his business. I have 10,000 beneficiaries of my free computer programme. They are not limited to my constituency. I have empowered people all my life; I don’t believe in the dramatizing the giving of N10, 000 to N20,000 to young men to go and drink beer. I’m not an actor. Well, Enoh specifically said he’s attracted several projects to his constituency and by implication, it means you’ve done nothing. Can you be specific about what you’ve done? When the flag-off of the Trans-African Highway for Enugu-Abakaliki-Ikom was being done, the Minister for Works, Engr. Mike Onolememen, in his address, stated categorically that the people just give me thanks for my persistence in getting that project. I was in the Ministry of Works almost everyday from 2003 with John Odey, who was the minister from Cross River. We started work on that project when Cornelius Adebayo was Works minister and my role in attracting that project was publicly acknowledged. The road to his village, the Ikom-Etime-Agbokim Waterfalls Road was built by me when I was Works and Transport Commissioner. For the first time that road was built, I built it and because I built that road then, his community and the Etomi community gave me chieftancy titles in 1987. The road went bad and I went to Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) when Timi Alaibe was Managing Director and got them to take over the project. Ekpo Okon, who used to be our state party chairman and who was our representative in NDDC, is still alive to bear testimony. When they were going to award the project, I was the one who took John Enoh, with me to Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to say, let us insist that this project be awarded to a contractor who is already mobilized in Cross River State because I had information that they were going to award it to just a contractor and that was just what happened. The road was awarded courtesy of me. The road in Ajaso, where his wife comes from, if you go to the town now, it is asphalted. I did it. The Calabar-Nsan-Okoroba Road, that is in the budget, you can ask Godsday Orubebe, the former minister of Niger Delta Affairs…In fact, the alignment was to take the road to Okuni, it was at that point I invited Hon. Enoh and told him that, look, this is your immediate constituency, come with me let’s go to the ministry and let us change the alignment. What is the position of Governor Imoke in this and on your re-election bid? I can only tell you what I know from my discussions with my governor. I had gone to him on March 29, 2014 in his house here in Abuja. I told him of the proposed return of Senate President David Mark and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu to the Senate in 2015 and he confirmed to me that, yes, he knows. I now told him of my intention to return to the Senate as we are all part of the same leadership and he said, ‘it makes sense so that we consolidate what we have. That was what he told me. He has not told me anything different. On October 7, I was with him in his house and I mentioned this. He never told me he was against it; that he was more interested in the processes and that the process should be open and that there should be a level-playing ground. I’m not aware of anybody quoting him in public that he’s opposed to my return to the Senate. I’ve also drawn his attention to the fact that Hon. Enoh moves around in a convoy of government vehicles and government officials. There’s an allegation that you began to have problems with the governor when you introduced Goddy Jedy-Agba to President Jonathan as a governorship aspirant in your state. No such thing happened and I have said it before the president and the national chairman of our party. The president has even confirmed that nothing like that happened. That is one. Two, let us even assume that I did. Is the governorship of Cross River State an appointment? So, I took him there for the President to issue him a letter of appointment? Governorship is a process. It’s all part of the desperation, you must concoct stories to justify something you want to do.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 13:47:22 +0000
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