By Daniel Kanu
The member of the House of Representatives, who represented Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency of Abia State in the 8th and 9th National Assembly, Hon. Uko Nkole, has said that President Bola Tinubu has failed so far to deliver on his campaign promises.
Hon Nkole in this chat speaks on what he termed the misrepresentation of facts on project performance by the Abia State governor, Dr Alex Otti, and lack of transparency in the governance of the state, performance of PDP as opposition, among other issues. Excerpts:
In your latest interview on ABN TV you said that governor Alex Otti should stop chasing shadows and focus on governance; what informed your position given that he is touted as one of the performing governors?
It was my submission on the political perspective of an insight the interviewer raised on issues particularly the novel shadow government that was instituted by the new state Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman, Amah Abraham. We’re in opposition and the job of an opposition, as I’ve always said, is not to clap for the government in power. The job of opposition is enshrined in the constitution. Yes, in the constitution you may not see the word opposition, but the constitution refers to the opposition as a minority. In Abia State, what the party chairman has done was also defining his own mode of keeping to the constitutional minority role by saying ‘I’m forming a shadow government’. That kind of government is a mindset because they don’t have any office, they don’t have any building and they don’t have any place they have sat down and said this is our office. They haven’t built any other government building etcetera and someone will say that they’ve gone beyond their brief. Opposition in this context is to shadow whatever the governor is doing, give him insight and point to better alternatives in their opinion on how the government should be run. Take for instance, Governor Otti claimed he spent N6.5 billion on recreational facilities across the state and the shadow commissioner for tourism is asking for the locations of the recreational centres, where did you build them, let us go and see them, let us go and verify them. People came back for Christmas in Abia State and the question is, where can they locate the recreational centres including taking their children to enjoy the facilities. There is a false narration here being created and countering such is the role of the minority under the auspices of a shadow government. I’m in Abia and I want to see where the recreational facility is located in my local government, and I want to know the location, if any; that is what the shadow government is asking for. Where is the location of the recreation centre you spent N6.5 billion to build? N6.5 billion is not your personal money; it is money that I and every responsible Abian contributed in terms of taxes and all that, and someone is sitting somewhere to say he spent N6.5 billion on a non-existent project, white elephant project. That is what the shadow government is asking for.
Governor Otti flagged off the reconstruction of the Ohafia-Arochukwu Federal Road, a highway so much in bad state for a long time under your constituency; how do you feel about that?
The Arochukwu-Ohafia highway is a stretch of 35km and was awarded initially by then President Goodluck Jonathan administration to Messrs Beks Kimse Ltd, now KDI Ltd, with contract no C/N 6158 at the cost of over N2 billion in 2013 and later was split into two with KDI assigned to undertake the reconstruction of about 14.5km stretch which KDI Ltd achieved performance of about 7km up to binders course level with line drainages and culverts also achieved and the remaining stretch of about 19.5km captured as Bende—Arochukwu-Ohafia Road, with contract no C/N 6481 and measuring about 19.5km, was awarded to Messrs Hartland/Setraco Ltd at the cost of about N5 billion plus awarded by then President Buhari under my watch in the life of the 8th National Assembly with budget performance and construction of over N3 billion releases and 63 per cent construction achieved, representing about 14.5km work at binders course with line drainages and culverts as at June 2023 when I left office.
What exactly are you driving at. Can you throw more light on this?
Yes, the governor purportedly flagged off a federal road already under construction in August 2024. During the flagging off ceremony on that road by the governor, he gave a false narrative that the road was abandoned and that it was the late Dr Michael Okpara that built it initially and all that and that reconstruction was re-awarded sometime later in 2013 and abandoned. Those wrong narratives were contained in paragraphs 7 and 8 of his speech on that day. He went ahead to blackmail past representatives from the area and the current administration of President Tinubu of negligence. He also went ahead to blackmail the Federal Government, that they provided him with a strict option to toll the road as a condition precedent to recoup the state money that he intends to spend on the road and that he was appealing to them to rescind the decision, thus giving the impression that the Federal Government was insensitive to the plights of the masses, as well as behaving as if the Ohafia-Arochukwu highway and indeed Abia State was a desert before he became the governor. For me, I said Mr. Governor you have set the wrong precedent which is dangerous. I told him that first, for the Ohafia-Arochukwu highway, you wrote a letter to the Minister of Works applying for that road, after the minister’s oversight visit to that same road. If nothing was being done on that road, why did David Umahi visit that same road? Did he come there just for sight seeing? I reminded him that it was a false narrative. I also reminded him that the Arochukwu -Ohafia highway is a 35-km stretch and not 41 or 45 kilometres as he falsely said because there is this disjointed account of this road between himself and his Commissioner for Works. And out of that 35km, my intervention has delivered about 24 km of construction at various finished and finishing stages with only about 11km stretch on earth work level and I could recall getting a commendation call from Dr Alex Otti in 2017 as then a private citizen for my efforts to attract contractors to the site from the Federal Government and sectionalised the road so that while they were working from point zero which is the 35km end from Nkwunabuo Arochukwu township point coming towards Ututu end being the section awarded to Messrs KDI Ltd with a total contract area of 14.5km which 7km has been fully delivered, the second contractor Messrs Hartland/Setraco awarded around 2017/2018 appropriation year started reconstruction, approaching it from Ohafia (Old Soldier Junction) with total coverage of about 19.5km and had been achieved and delivered about 14.5km on binders course level with drainages and culverts delivered out of what was awarded to them. Truth is that my intervention brought those contractors back to site, and those contractors initially in 2016/2017 were quartered in my private house in Ozu Abam, working from there. Otti was not the governor then and he called to thank and congratulate me over all these. So, what has happened now? When he became a governor, he wanted to continue from where my intervention through the Federal Executive Council stopped in June 2023, and he couldn’t even acknowledge the fact that a total of about 20-21 kilometers progress had been made and that his focus would be to complete the balance of about 11km that was yet to be completed in view of lack of adequate appropriation since June 2013 when I left office. The question is, why miss all that progress made in his speech and how did he think he can reconcile with the Federal Government in all these things because this is still a Federal Government project. Under FOI Act, I advise the media and the entire Abians to do due diligence to investigate the paragraphs 7 and 8 of the flag-off speech by demanding for the correspondences of July 15, 29 and October 02, 2024 respectively for between Abia State government and the Federal Ministry of Works to ascertain his real motive behind the 41 and 44km submissions at the flag-off ceremony. Those letters are revealing that a lot of options were given that he suppressed. However, after my media engagement, the governor has done the needful almost two months after the flag-off and the bottlenecks are cleared.
Can you throw more light on the section 2 of that road and your efforts before you left the House?
Section 2 of the road is the Old Soldier-Ozu Abam, my hometown, to Bende-Umuahia with contract no C/N 6481A awarded to Messrs Hartland/Setraco in 2018/2019 under my watch again in the 8th National Assembly with a contract sum of about N12 billion with two dangerous bridges. Under my watch in 2021, Nmuri Bridge was delivered. The Mmuri Bridge with the Omenuko Bridge designs were approved in April, 2023 with an initial construction cost put at about N1 billion, plus as at then, but however, was reviewed upwards to N3.3 billion occasioned by the adverse effect of the subsidy removal, leaving a huge funding gap in view of lack of appropriations after June 2023. Thankfully, the current Abia SSG and one of his aides called me to inquire about the status of my intervention on the bridge and that the governor is desirous of taking up the construction which appraised them as stated above. I am glad to say here that the governor has applied and got both the technical and financial details from the Federal Government and evidence on site has revealed that the governor is working the talk and I sincerely want to appreciate him for this development and he has my total support for this, including the Section 1 of the road. Overall, as at June 2023 when I left office, the budget and construction performance reached 10 per cent which has seen the total reconstruction work from the Old Soldier through the frontage of Federal Government College Ohafia that was impassable up to the spur before Nmuri River hilI and the new Nmuri River Bridge already completed. I also commend Governor Otti for the Nde Okereke-Abam to Arochukwu Road. This road is about 30 kilometres and yes the PDP administration started it and delivered the 26 meter Okoboo Bridge under the administration of Okezie Ikpeazu. I also commend him on the ongoing palliative rehabilitation of Umuahia-Bende-Ozuakoli Ohafia Road. However, the road needs a total reconstruction having been constructed over 25 years ago as I want the Abia State Government to borrow a leaf from our legacy left behind at both the Ohafia -Arochukwu highway Sections 1 and 11 from Mmuri where the roads built 20 years ago are giving way to new roads.
Let’s go back to your word on shadow government as a form of opposition, how do you react to the fact that your party, PDP, is not doing well as the main opposition party at the centre?
I will beg to disagree with your position because I know every political party has its own challenge. APC is not having it rosy even as the government at the centre. The Labour Party, LP, is also not having it easy being a government in power in Abia State. For example, in Abia State, the governor is in the Labour Party while the local government chairmen at the grassroots are the Zenith Labour Party. So, it is not just a PDP affair. Why are you people not asking the same questions to the governor on why he is in a different party from the local government at the grassroots? It means under the watch of the governor, his party has drifted and split into two which has never happened in the history of Abia politics or under any PDP government. That will show you that something is wrong with the party. So, the crisis is not something peculiar to PDP alone. At the national level, 70 per cent of the voters do not belong to any political party. Then the 30 per cent that belong to political parties are minorities. That gives the impression that which ever political party that comes into power is based on their ability to convince the 70 per cent of the electorate on their programmes and policies in their manifestos. PDP did well then as the national government party and as an opposition party today, they are doing well, but it is for the masses to rise up, team up with PDP and challenge the system because all of us are the ones feeling the heat of the APC government. Opposition should be for all the people feeling the negative impact of the government in power, and not just for a political party. This is because based on the realities on ground today, I believe championing the opposition against the APC-led administration should be a collective effort of citizens and not about PDP now. PDP is doing its best, but it is no more the job of PDP alone. The masses and electorate should interrogate and ask questions, demand change and be at the forefront of confronting the realities. It is even worse because the government at the centre is not tolerant of any diverging view and they are clamping down on the opposition voices and you will agree with me that such never happened under PDP. President Tinubu galvanised mass protests to government policies from 2013 to 2014 and led Nigerians freely without any consequences. But today are they tolerating that? He personally wrote a letter, telling the then president not to remove the subsidy? Has he not swallowed his own vomit?
What is your assessment of the APC claimed achievements so far given their policies?
As at 2014 and Nigeria being an import-dependent nation, a dollar was less than N200 and APC, as at that time, criticised the PDP-led administration, saying dollar would be equal to N1 once they come into power and that the power sector particularly electricity supply will be steadier 24-hours than that we used to have, sadly today the APC has not added one kilowatts of energy, neither have they upgraded the power infrastructure that PDP left on ground when they came.
Today, grid collapse has become a recurring phenomenon that never happened under the PDP. What is the cost of fuel and diesel today? Multinational companies are leaving the country in droves and SMEs closing down because of fake promises. They have failed in everything they promised Nigerians that made Nigerians abandon PDP. You will agree with me that there is no basis for comparison of Nigeria in 2014 and Nigeria from May 29, 2015, down the line. For me, I want to see progress where all Nigerians should be happy. If APC is serious about governance, they should first take naira back to where they met it if they won’t improve on it. They met naira at less than N200 per dollar. Even if they can’t make it N1 per dollar which was their campaign promise, they should take it to N100. They met petroleum at less than N100 pump price, they should take it back there.
There is a story about four PDP governors and Alex Otti, planning to dump their parties for the APC; don’t you think it will be a huge blow to the main opposition party if it happens?
Well, the story about governors you said that are planning to leave PDP is still a rumour and there is no evidence to that effect. I don’t really dwell on rumours. Also the one in my state is not from my party so I won’t have to dwell on that.
Do you think their alleged plan to dump PDP is because of FG’s non-tolerance of divergent voices as you earlier said?
It is appropriate to channel such questions to the governors’ spokespersons. PDP is the only organic party we have, so I don’t see any threat to the party. The structures of various PDP governors are intact in their various states and they are not under any threat. However, until such governors make their intentions known publicly, I don’t think there is any need for anyone to fear or panic. All these things are still rumours.
Members of the opposition in the state have accused the governor of not being transparent in his project execution; do you share the same position?
As a former parliamentarian, let me start with his 2025 budget presentation. The 2025 budget proposal he presented to the Abia State House of Assembly fell short of best practice. Best practices demand that the governor first reel out the budget performance of the preceding year of income generated, performances of both capital and recurrent expenditures etc for the budget of 2024 before flowing into 2025 estimates. That will be done such that, at a glance, the citizens could determine and rate key performance index and how well the state economic policies fared. The line items must also clearly indicate the amount voted for both new and ongoing projects for transparency and ease of reference for citizens and in the absence of this obvious due diligence, one cannot help but conclude the lack of transparency and accountability in the government.
What is your assessment of your successor, Hon. Ibe Okwara. Do you think he is representing the constituency well?
For me, we should give Hon. Ibe Okwara time. I will encourage everyone to be patient and encourage him. I understand the bureaucracy of Nigeria; before going to the House of Representatives, I worked at the federal public service level for 12 years and that exposed me to the workings of the Federal Government. So my experience beyond politics also came to play. I belong to the Parliamentary Security Intelligence Network anchored at the United States Congress and other Global Professional affiliates and it also gave me opportunity to network with plenty experience. Such experiences and competences are not the same, but the one thing I can say is that I want Ibe to do better than me; that is my prayer for him because if not for the intervention of Governor Otti on the Arochukwu-Ohafia highway Section 1 and the Omenuko Bridge, and the site visit by the Minister of Works to sections 1 & 11 in 2024 which he has appreciated the enormous work bequeathed that he had proposed N4 billion in the 2025 appropriation bill that when passed by NASS will form an enabler for Mess8rs Hartland to mobilise back to site from the Nmuri Area where the reconstruction was stalled in June 2023 when I left office and this is a big boost to most of the projects I initiated and it would have been lying fallow which would have been very bad for the people of Arochukwu-Ohafia. So, I want Ibe Okwara to do quite better. There is also the Amuvi -Ututu Road, Ikot Okpora Road I facilitated that has been stalled since 2023 June; Arochukwu – Itu Highway, which are lacking attention right now. Also the maintenance I brought on the F107 (Umuahia-Bende-Ozu Abam-Ohafia) saw FERMA on the road for effective maintenance and unfortunately. Before my election to the House of Representatives in 2015, nothing serious was happening in Arochukwu /Ohafia route F107 in Abia State.
