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| General Ogbemudia |
Respected action governor of the old Midwest Region, Brigadier Samuel Ogbemudia, is one of the sterling lights of achievers in public office. His performance as a military governor between 1967 and 1975 stirred the feverish agitation for his return as civilian governor of the now defunct Bendel State in 1983. Ogbemudia also held some senior positions at the federal level during the military hiatus, and at the return of politicking in 1998, was one of the conveners of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Edo State and remains a member of the Board of Trustees of the party.
That the tact, taste and traction of the Ogbemudia spirit have been absent in the affairs of his party was an issue when this reporter encountered him in his modest Abuja residence last weekend. Ogbemudia, 82 subsequently unfolded to give reasons for his seeming aloofness from his party and then gave details of the information he glanced on a one-time subordinate officer, Muhammadu Buhari.
Given assertions in some sections of the excellent achievements of Adams Oshiomhole as governor of Edo State, it was not out of place to ask Ogbemudia on who was the better achiever between himself and Oshiomhole. Excerpts:
By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor
YOU have been out of circulation for some time. What has been happening to you?
I decided to keep my peace, to be quiet because the party I belong to didn’t want me to talk. When we won the election in 1999, we were three friends who worked together to achieve that victory in Edo State – myself, Chief Tony Anenih and Chief Igbinendion. Igbinendion had requested that we allow his son to contest the governorship, and we all supported him.
Writing of petitions
After that, everything that was done in the party, I was excluded, and I decided not to quarrel with anybody.
Igbinendion excluded you?
I was excluded, I didn’t mention anybody.
Who excluded you?
The party. I didn’t want to quarrel with anybody, I just stayed on my own and after writing so many petitions to the National Working Committee and nothing came out of it, my supporters and I decided just to stay on our own. Then came Prof. Osunbor as governor of Edo State and we all helped him, but then, the court decided that he wasn’t the one who won the election, and he had to quit and Oshiomhole came.
Chief Tony Anenih is described as the party leader in Edo State. Did you raise these issues with him?The arrival of Oshiomhole was a big joy for everybody in the sense that he started work immediately and in no time, he made a name. The road which I as governor of Midwest couldn’t construct in my time, the one to my house, he not only constructed it, he made sure that every road in that area was constructed. Before the roads were constructed, flooding had almost destroyed the community, and people were selling their houses for between N300,000 and N500,000. However, after he rebuilt the roads and intercepted the floods, the people refused to sell N10 million. Even at that, the party was still not listening to our counsel, and that is why I didn’t say anything for a very long time.
Chief Tony Anenih is a strategist and a strong believer in the party, however, what I don’t know is how much of the rumour, how much of the gossiping and how much of the character assassination that got to him that he believed. So, I didn’t.
Your party has lost the leadership of the country also at the federal level. What do you think would have caused this?
It is normal in any developed or civilised society for a party that is ruling to once in a while lose power so that it can also experience what is obtainable on the other side named as the opposition. I think that it is the experience that the PDP is passing through.
Do you think that the PDP will survive this experience?
Luckily, I think Buhari has advised those who want to cross and those who have crossed that they are not welcome. I believe too that some of them after some time will think of coming back to help rebuild their party.
Have you also considered crossing over to APC?
No, I do not intend to, but I intend to give as much help as I can in the interest of Edo State to whosoever forms the government of the day.
Does General Buhari have the capacity to rule Nigeria?
Buhari I know very well. I knew him when he was commissioned into the Nigerian Army with the rank of a second lieutenant and somewhere along the line, I had the privilege of reading the confidential report written on him by his superior officers and they described him as a young officer with boundless energy and that he likes to continue where others are tired, and I think that helped him to win the presidential election after three attempts.
That zeal to go on was there, and it continued until he won and I also believe that the energy that he had as a young officer may not available today to him, but the wisdom is there.
Would you say that the PDP dug its own grave?
Well, yes and no. First of all, the behaviour of any society is a reflection of the quality of the leadership they have. We are being led by His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, a very intelligent fellow, with high level of understanding, but somewhere along the line, he had experienced persons around him to help him, but they did not give him the help he wanted and so, relying on false stories coming from time to time led him to do certain things that he ought not to have done and to leave undone those things that he ought to have done.
What is your assessment of the situation in Edo State?
For the past six years, Edo State has been in opposition because we had an APC government in the state while PDP was at the centre. But now the APC has the government in Edo State and will also have the government at the centre, so there will be a clear and uninterrupted line of communication and we also have a governor who does not take no for an answer.
Constitutional provision
If it were possible for a governor to get third term, nobody would have bothered to look for another person else, but because of constitutional provision, we will have to look for someone that will take over from him and continue where he left and that means that all Edo people must speak with one voice.
On which platform?
The platform will dictate itself.
Is it PDP or APC?
The platform will dictate itself, but for today, the APC is there, Governor Oshiomhole is there and as far as I am concerned, Oshiomhole is our leader and wherever he says we should follow him in the interest of Edo State, when the time comes for a replacement he will have to find a good man after consulting with leaders that will take his place.
Has he consulted you?
Not yet, he still has a year to go.
But his term is coming to an end!
Yes, it is one year to go and the consultation doesn’t take a long time. He spoke to me long time ago and I told him that he should get five persons working with him and that towards the end of his tenure, he should be able to identify one or two that are credible.
That means that they would be APC members?
It does not matter to me who he is if he is prepared to work.
Is this not a reflection of the claims that PDP was a disaster in Edo State?
Yes and no. Yes, because there is no physical feature to be identified that this is the legacy left behind by PDP. No, in the sense that PDP during its tenure brought peace and there was no violence and that made people to go about their work the way they liked it.
A major issue in Edo State now is where the next governor should come from. Where do you stand on this?
I am advocating and will support a Bini man, but if for any reason the leaders are able to meet to zone the position to another senatorial district we will look at it on the merit.
Looking for development
If it is to our benefit, we will support it, but if it is an imposition, we will not.
If Oshiomhole brings somebody from outside Benin what would be your reaction?
If he has somebody and he convinces us that that person is going to work as he (Oshiomhole) did or perhaps better, what people are looking for is development.
Before the advent of Governor Oshiomhole, the reference point for development in the Edo/Delta region used to be the Ogbemudia administration. After six years now, do you think that Oshiomhole has exceeded Ogbemudia’s legacies?
In some ways yes, in other ways, no. For example, Oshiomhole as a politician was able to galvanise the people to understand the purpose of his mission and they agreed with him. In my time as a military officer, I consulted nobody and my commissioners, apart from E.K. Clark, nobody else argued with me.
So, I believe very well that he has done extremely well and also remembering that in my time, the highest annual budget that I ever had was N280 million but with devaluation now, it was big money.
The road from Benin through Auchi to other places we constructed it at N10,000 per kilometre. The ones in Warri and the riverine areas were at N25,000 a kilometre. So, what we did was that while, in Benin-City where it was cheaper, we would give Benin 10 miles and the other places in the riverine areas, the same 10 miles. So, we were talking about mileage and not cash because if you talk about cash, 10 miles in Benin would give you N100,000 but that would only give you four kilometres in other places and that would not bring about development and people would not even see it as even development and that was why it was better to use physical development as opposed to cash development.
As a military governor why would a civilian like E.K. Clark argue with you?
Good. When I was going to appoint commissioners my advisers said to me, don’t appoint people who would argue with you so that things can go well with you.
After many meetings with them, I said to them ‘give me a list of ten persons from the Midwest who are likely to constitute themselves into internal opposition.’ So, they gave me the names and the first name on that list was E.K. Clark and I appointed them all.
The ten of them?
Yes and when the advisers asked why, I told them that I alone could not do the job. If I say I want to do this or that and they say yes sir, I would be the only one in government and it cannot work and I don’t have the energy and the call for that.
Right direction
My job is soldiering and I need people who will ask me why do you want to do this and I would answer them and if it is not correct, they would correct me and lead me in the right direction.
But such arguments were constructive?
Yes, constructive and E.K. Clark that they said was a star of arguments became a star in the whole administration that any time you said I want to, for example, remove this table, he would say have you considered the political implication? And if you ask him what is the political implication, he would tell you and when you look at it you would say, o yes, you are right, leave the table there. But some others would say, ok sir, you are the governor, you can turn a man into a woman, go ahead.
•Buhari
There was one example. We didn’t have enough money in the treasury and it came to my mind that I should raise some school fees and I told my Secretary to Government and he said o yes, that he was about to tell me that.
He said, by how much should we increase the school fees, I said three pounds and considering that three pounds was a lot of money then, I then decided after consulting E.K. Clark and others, they said let us have a town hall meeting. So, we went to Urhokpota Hall in Benin City and invited a lot of people and I told them what I wanted to do because of lack of money. One boy stood up and my ADC shouted at him to sit down but I said leave him, do you know what he is going to say? Let him speak. So, the boy said, sir, whether you like it or not, this state has been enjoying free education since 1955 under Awolowo regime and if you introduce school fees they will hate you forever.
But if you want three pounds, per student, why don’t you say that it is an examination fee and everybody will be eager to pay it and I bought the idea immediately and I turned to the Secretary to the Government and he said ‘I was about to say that!’ On that day, when I got home, I sacked him and replaced him with another person.
So, those are the type of things which people who are strong in character can come to you and say, ‘why do you want to do this?’ Not yes sir men, because if it were yes sir men, I would have faced an uphill task in getting those things done.
So, having argumentative commissioners paid off. When I was in difficulty about the University of Benin, I appointed E.K. Clark as one man council and he got everything done within the shortest time possible.
So, really the so called extraordinary performance of Ogbemudia was not Ogbemudia alone, it was a team work but because I was the leader, I carried the responsibilities and the praises, but in my mind I know those who supported me to get to that position.
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