My plan is to make grassroots people access good governance – Esele

Peter Esele, a former president of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) as well as board member of several Federal Government agencies and parastatals, is currently one of the gubernatorial aspirants on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State jostling to succeed Adams Oshiomhole, the incumbent governor of the state. In this Interview on his aspiration and other sundry issues, he told IDRIS UMAR MOMOH how he plans to run his government if he wins, dismissing as mediocrity, the zoning arrangement that tends to put him at a disadvantaged position. Excerpts:

What makes you think you are the most qualified and best aspirant to take over from the current governor?

I think the bottomline is doing things differently. I know I have the capacity. First, I have the requisite academic qualifications; secondly, I have held various offices across the country in the past and thirdly, I know I have the capacity to deliver on these. Some other things I have also done are in the preparation for all of these. First, I don’t know how many aspirants that will tell you that they did a mapping of the entire state. I did a mapping and got some professors to help me do a serious mapping of the entire state whereby I know what is where and what we have to do with what we have in response to the dwindling revenue from the centre and also with the fall in the price of crude oil.
There are three areas I am interested in which is education. Not just education but functional education; also has to look at agriculture and the culture of the people. Edo State within the Nigeria state has a huge history which I think has not been tapped of its tourism potentials based on its culture. I have also done a whole lot of research in that direction (culture) vis-a-vis what is done in other parts of the world and how we can bring it here.

What is your take on the contentious issue of zoning because by the political zoning arrangement, your zone, the Edo Central Senatorial district, is not favoured to produce the next governor to succeed Oshiomhole?

One thing we should look at is to look for who has programmes and plans for the people. But if the entire voting population of the people of the state decides where to go they have to live with whatever choice they make. Because for me, I am very prepare for the governance job. That is why I am telling you now that it took over six months before I could get the various mapping in the state and interpretations. I also have series of plans for attracting political investment to the state all of that. Investment is more like an ant and a sugar. That is why I always laugh when government says they travel abroad to attract foreign investors. You don’t invite an ant to come and lick a sugar. No. Because once you provide the sugar the ant will naturally come. So, all that you do is not when you have policy summersault every day, you create uncertainties. For example, if you tell me you want to create a job for between 50 and 200 jobs, I know what the government will do. If you also come and tell me you can create like a thousand jobs, I will give you a tax holiday. I know what to do. I was an employee. I had worked with an oil and gas company. I went to the best and well known Business schools in the world. The ones that you know that have history. I know what the employees want, employers want and also investors want. So I know how to create this balance between investments. The balance of making sure that the investors know what they want I know how to create it and know what to do about it. So I am not just coming to be a governor for the sake of wanting to answer the name of governor. That is why I say it is not a do-or-die affair but the bottomline again is that what I am offering Edo will be losing if they let it go. I just came back from Akoko Edo, Owan East and Owan West Local Government Areas I have to open it up for the delegates that there are people given you bags of rice, N20, 000 monthly and putting you on monthly wages. The choice is yours. All they do is that they give you money or put you on a monthly salary for three months and after the primaries you will never seen them again. Then you will have made a decision that will affect your life and the future of your children.
Look at the education sector. For example, give it to the governor. He has done red roof revolution but what I am coming with is to now look at under that roof that has been provided in these primary and secondary schools what is the quality of education that is being thought, how they are going to be able to fit into the changes reality. If a child cannot start reading and doesn’t love his books by the time he/she is 10 years old or in his/her earlier years of about 17 or 18 years he/she will still not and he/she will be looking for who to sort him/her out in WAEC, NECO, JAMB and other external examinations. I am not going to run a government whereby somebody tells me he/she is a commissioner for education and does not know how many people are in primary and secondary schools in the state. Give me a data on who is doing well in the state so that we know how to put the resources of the state to make sure that this people who are doing well we will back them up and go with them. Development is never driven by ad-hoc measures. Development is systemic, programmed and planned. So everything I am going to do will be data driven. I will link the universities with government. Any university that can come up and do research that can improve our standards of living that department will get N20million grant every year. Polytechnics will only be polytechnics in content and in character and not just by the name. Of what use is education if it cannot make our lives better? The first skill I acquired was a technician. I was trained as a technician in Benin City, Edo State and that was what enabled me to work for an America Oil and Gas company. I have a degree in Mass Communication but that is not what put food on my table, but it is that skill I acquired. I have a friend we acquired the same skill at the same time and he works with Qatar Petroleum. I have another that works with Saudi Arabian Oil Company.
So, the first thing is how do you develop the middle man power? We don’t lay emphasis on that. We can only have one governor but can have several members of the state house of assembly, have several local government chairmen. So why don’t you place attention on the areas where we know we huge employment opportunities? It is not compulsory that every one of us must be a university graduate but it is compulsory that everyone has something to do to put food on our table. That is what I am coming with. Leadership is qualities that serve as catalyst. A society can only grow when there is competition. When there is no competition there will be no growth. In those days when you talk about the faculty of law everybody knows Ambrose Alli University, when you talk about Architecture everybody knows Obafemi University. Every university in the country was well known for the areas of academic discipline in which it excelled. But why is it not so these days? Federal Government spent 15 percent on Foreign Exchange (FOREX) on payment for people to study overseas. In our days it is only when you cannot get to university in the country that you go overseas. I will concentrate on that for university to be a role model. How many universities in Nigeria that have a broadband? How many universities can you log on to access the best library? I have access to the best libraries in the world. So, these are some of the things you ask yourself. Every commissioner will have a key performance indicator. You can say you are commissioner for agriculture and you don’t know how many people are in the farm. At the end of the year you cannot tell me how many farmers you have provided extension programmes for, how many farmers you have given seedlings, how many has benefitted from the latest research in farming method, the new technology and so you want to answer the commissioner for agriculture in name? That can’t happen under my watch.

You can’t tell me you are commissioner for Housing and I will ask how many houses have you built? How have you researched to find out the modern technology to make housing affordable for the people?
So, when I have all of this lined up, when I am a governor you will know the difference and I will make a difference. It is not just a matter of answering governor for the sake of it. I am going to make a difference and you will now know actually what the meaning of public service is and my commissioners will also know. For me, I am a legacy-driven person. What am I going to be remembered for? That is what I do everywhere I go. When I was president Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), TUC, I was also in the board of NEITI, Petroleum Pricing Products Regulatory Authority, National Conference, among others. I take my time before I come out. When I come out and you line me up with every other person you will know the difference that this person knows his onion and I am prepared for it.

How do you intend to generate revenue to actualise your electioneering programmes and policies if given the opportunity to govern the state in the midst of the dwindling revenue from the federation account?

There is money but there is misapplication of the funds. If not for the interest that we have been showing on budget recently you noticed what happened at the federal level. How many states’ budgets have you actually seen to analyze? People can only complain this is happening at the national level but there are worst things happening at the state and local government levels. We threw money at our problems but in a civil society they throw idea at problems. Problems are supposed to give you ideas and not for you to throw money at. You now have to look at idea and look for a way to deal with the challenges? I also have a plan on how to make it easier for those at the rural areas to have access to good governance. There are people only a N100, 000 will change their life in the rural areas. I know what to do to make them access that N50,000 or N100, 000 and they will gladly pay the 10 percent interest or any percent interest you want them to pay. I know how to create enabling environment that can make them have access to microfinance bank loan facilities. I want to change the conversation. The conversation right now is about zoning or no zoning. That is mediocrity. Any society that wants to grow doesn’t think in that direction. I am from Edo Central senatorial district if I say vote for me, I am not asking for your vote because I am an Esan man but I am telling you to vote for me because I have the capacity to make your life better. So, if you don’t that is your cup of tea and I wish you well and I will also go on with my life. Life has always been good to me. If I look back when I started I sold water, mould blocks in Benin but I also know where I am now. I am grateful.
We have people who have that capacity to do it in our various universities. I know where to get them. I already know the people I will reach out to for all of those things. That is my vision. I will not micromanage. A good leader does not. I am set a broad outlines and I know it will give me the result. That is the way the oil and gas industry works. For example, when I am going onshore my boss doesn’t want to know but all he needs is that he gives me all the capacity to enable me perform but I must deliver the result. They don’t come and micromanage me and ask me what are you doing onshore or have you added or the porosity or the probability of what I am doing? No. They don’t micromanage me. So, I have a broad outline. I will tell you how I can grow the economy because the more people you give job the more tax you will collect. Government cannot do it all alone but I also know how to make the private investor. I am not going to beg them but I will put the sugar there and they will naturally run to the place. So, I know what to do.

Are you not worried as one of the close allies of the state governor, by the alleged rumour that he has anointed an aspirant as candidate to succeed him?

The governor has a right to decide on who to succeed him but the final arbiters are the delegates. But it will be very unfortunate that if at the end of the day there are no free and fair primaries. It will be devastating to the party; it will also now mean that those who yesterday were against certain act of impunity are themselves now practising it. I think the governor should know what that will mean to his legacy and it is my wish as a friend that the governor as a former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the labour movement we are legacy-driven people. I hope the governor will do everything possible to make sure that when he looks back or when people remember him, they remember him as somebody who came, saw and conquered and not as somebody who came and could not manage the victory and success that he has achieved. As a governor, he has done well. He has given in his best but most time you can do very well for seven years and 11 months but on the 12th hours any mistake can wipe out all that you have done and I don’t wish that for the Comrade Governor. I wish him the very best and I hope he also give Edo people something positive that they will remember him for, for the rest of the existence of the state.

IDRIS UMAR MOMOH