I HAWKED OKRO, CRAYFISH TO SURVIVE - HON. SERGIUS OGUN

I Hawked Okro, Crayfish To Survive – Hon. Sergius Ogun

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Hon. Sergius Oseasochie Ogun is a member of the House of Representatives (PDP) representing Esan North-East/South-East Federal Constituency in Edo State. In this interview with selected journalists, he examines issues concerning the PIB, illegal emigration of youths to Europe and concludes that the APC-led government should focus more on governance than politics…ORUKPE NELSON was there.

You have been known for youth empowerment in your state, Edo. Is your inspiration for philanthropy as a result of your personal experience, religious beliefs or an avenue to launch into politics?

Well, I will first of all let you know that I am a lawyer and a deacon in my church, Christ Embassy. I am not a deacon that sits to grace events; I am, by virtue of my position, a pastoral assistant to my pastor in the main church. I am born again and full of the spirit of God. That would help me come to your question.

I lost my dad some 41 years ago and it is by the grace of God that I am where I am today. Some 10 years ago my mother wanted us to go back to our village proper; we were living at Uromi but my village is Ugbohow and that was where my father died and was buried.

The mud house we were living in had collapsed so my mother wanted us to go back and rebuild the house which we did. We built a family house and sank a borehole. I requested we get a channel of the water outside for people to be benefiting from the bore hole which we did and that act made me a politician. The people that we have been voting for don’t even care and this guy came and sank a borehole and is giving us water every time we want. If the borehole breaks down, we do send people to go there and fix it.

Also, when I go home; the young ones will come to me and tell me that they don’t have notebooks for schools. There was no big deal there; so I started printing and giving it to them. And again the people said this guy is printing exercise books and giving our children for free, what about the guys we voted for? Another chapter opened and those in secondary school came and told me that they can’t enroll for NECO because their parents don’t have the money; that started the NECO enrollment scheme in my community.

Then came the widows, of course if my father has been dead for 41 years; that means my mother has been a widow for that long. Having been raised by a widow, I know the plight of widows. I give them bags of rice and some money and had to do this through the Catholic Church because they have a mechanism in place already. So you can see that everything I have been doing so far has been done because there is a need and I wanted to provide for that need.

But you know how it is, as you are doing it your name goes out there and before you know it you become famous and people start inviting you for events, inter-house sports and all that but I don’t normally go for these occasions; I do send people to represent me because I have a whole lot of litigation practice in the oil and gas industry in Port Harcourt. I normally ask for what they want and make the donation.

Those my little contributions led to things happening for them. So that is how the whole humanitarian thing started. The condition I met them was very dehumanizing. Many were awaiting trial, we started legal aid and to the glory of God, we were able to secure release for about 10 of them. We also sank boreholes for the prison and fixed the overhead tanks for them along with a generator. If you now think I did all these for votes, prisoners don’t vote so I could not have been doing that to secure their votes.

At what point did you then decide to join politics?

When I was doing all these things; people started urging me to come out for any elective position and they would vote me. It was not because they were telling me, I am a family man; most people that know me were very surprised and asked the same question you asked; How did it happen? I would rather come to the office, go back home, prepare for mid-week service and come back in the evening. On weekends, I hang out with my children. But here I was then, with people asking me to represent them and they were not asking for too much; how much did it cost me to provide them with those needs.

You have spoken so passionately about helping the needy, what plans do you have for the critical part of Nigeria, the youth?

The notebooks, inter-house sports, the NECO enrollment, these were all youths. Last week, I had training for farmers and resource people came from the National Institute for Roots and Crop Research, Umudike in Abia State. They trained farmers in cooperatives for five days in the use of root crops, coco yam, yam, cassava and they brought high yield cassava stems that we gave to the farmers. Part of the programme for the youths is a Talent Hunt where youths will be involved in showcasing their talent musically’ the project will soon be unveiled in the coming days to harness their talents because in that part of Nigeria especially Uromi which is the headquarters of Esan North East, almost every fortnight, there is a bus load of young ones going to Libya to cross to Europe.

Lately; we have heard and seen how people are perishing in the Mediterranean Sea in their effort to reach Europe. I have set up a group to counsel these young ones against this exploit. There was one of the boys hanging around me during the election, I got a call that the boy was planning to go to Libya but he did not want to tell me. He went and met one of my friends and he sat this young man down and talked to him, the young man said there were four of them that planned that trip but because his mum was not well, he could not embark on the journey with them.

He stayed back and information came to us that the three friends that left for that journey are all dead now. When I went home I asked for that chap and scolded him, when I asked him why he wanted to go, he said he was from a poor home and all that but I told him that I came from a very poor home too but look at me. My real target in that farming scheme is the youths and the plan is by the time they start seeing the old ones in the cooperatives getting paid through the high yield cassava, yam and coco yam, they will be lured towards it.

I am talking about high yield cassava that can be used in manufacturing Glucose syrup. I am aware the confectionery industry spends about $2 billion importing Glucose Syrup into Nigeria and we are going to target getting cassava that would be used for this purpose. We are going to set up a plant that would be processing flour for bakers. That is my plan, set these up, let the cooperatives be running it and we get land for farms that would have quarters for the young people and they will be given subventions to be there.

The moment you make farming attractive the young people will embrace it. Agriculture is like the oil industry, everything about oil is the dirtiest of any business I know and so risky but it is so glamorous because of the pay. You go to the rig to pour oil base oil on you, you wear hand gloves, overall, head gears and all but yet when you are done, you go and wash up and you are good to go. I want to reinvent the farming project. The minute you make farming attractive, the youths will be interested. We can easily do that with Agriculture.

How was growing up like?

I was not born with any spoon at all. I was born in Kano and from what my siblings told me, we were staying in a one room apartment with relatives and all that. Supposedly, as far as they are concerned you were born with a form of spoon that you cannot describe.

It was when they gave birth to me after having like three elder sisters or four then; I was a boy. I had an elder brother so my father now took two rooms. During the civil war; we all came home and lived in my grandfather’s mud house and from there my father moved to another mud house. My father was a customary court secretary and my mum was an illiterate that traded till we retired her although she has not agreed that she is retired because she is still at home doing whatever business she can do from the house.

While growing up even when my dad was alive, we used to go hawking; we will close from school and go and sell bread, okro, ice fish, crayfish and other items. And we used to walk around the whole village selling these things. And when you come home you have to account for everything given to you. I was doing this from around ages 9 or 10. My mother will first of all ask you for her profit and if you cannot account for that she will punish you and all the walking around the village amounts to nothing.

Some of the people who were older than me that used to steal things from me then I am sending their children to school today. For me, God has been the centre of everything that I have done and He has brought me to where I am. That’s why it is difficult for me to hold any grudge against anybody.

As an elected member of the House of Representatives and with your experience in the oil and gas industry, what bills will you be looking forward to sponsoring?

Well, there is one that has already been sponsored and it’s just for me to make sure that it is enacted; that is the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which is my industry. The 7th Assembly claimed they passed it but of course the Senate did not pass it. From the little I know about law making, it has elapsed since you needed both chambers to pass it. I will make sure that the PIB is revisited and we would pass that bill.

Today, we see we don’t have gas to fire the turbines and the investors in Oil and Gas are going to neighbouring countries like Ghana, Togo and Cote D’Ivoire to get gas. I can name companies that came into Nigeria like Stat Oil, ConocoPhillips, have left because they were not sure of the PIB, and we are looking for investors. And also the old big ones Total, Mobil, Shell don’t have any new investments; Shell is even divesting as we speak today. They have sold all their assets in Warri and are selling the ones in Port Harcourt now, maybe in another five years you might not have Shell in Port Harcourt.

Why is the PIB very crucial?

It is just basic regulations; what the government will be saying is this is what we should be earning, this is how the industry should be and the oil companies are saying if you take this much from us we will not be making profit. The PIB is a framework on how the industry will work. But the danger now is that nobody is doing anything about it; it is a bill before the House that has not been passed.

Oil companies don’t know what will come out eventually. Like any businessman, will you put your money in an economy you don’t know what will happen? Some of them have moved to the neighbouring countries that don’t even have one third of our reserves and they are watching what is going to happen in Nigeria. I will also want to touch on Agriculture; I have a farm and one thing with agriculture is the massive job potential it has. In the Oil and Gas industry; you don’t employ much but in agriculture; you will have more opportunities to create jobs.

We are going to produce process and increase food security in Nigeria. So many industries are depending on the agricultural sector, breweries, bakeries, pharmaceuticals. So any law that will consolidate on the sector will be ideal. Another issue that is very important to me is to sponsor a bill that will cut down on the cost of running government.

Look at the Oil and Gas companies, when the price of oil comes down; they cut down and so many things; no more oversea training anymore; they don’t use big hotels; they don’t fly business class anymore until things pick up again. But in government; it is not so; you complain you don’t have money but still live the kind of life you are living.

A minister is coming to a hotel and he comes with about 50 people and they take the whole floor of the hotel; they want to fly and prefer first class with about 50 cars waiting for one governor or minister, where is the extra money going to come from? Nigeria is a secular state. Also, we have Pilgrim’s Board, we are sponsoring people to Mecca and Israel, why are we doing that? If we direct all the monies being used in these activities should be put back into the society and an enabling environment is created for the private sector to thrive, we make progress and employment.

What has joining politics shown you for the time being and do you think it is proper for the president to probe only the past administration only for corruption?

I have learnt a whole lot since joining politics but the one thing I have learnt is that in politics people are not honest to themselves and it is very dangerous because that is why they are no longer believable; the minute you become a politician people believe that you are going to lie. I have said it in different forums that I am not a politician but in politics.

I said before the elections and somebody said how can you be in politics and not be a politician? People might not believe you now but one day when they know the truth, they will embrace what you have told them and I think that is where the present government is missing it.

They said they would probe the past administrations but suddenly it is being limited to the immediate past administration. Now, they are clapping for this administration; EFCC is inviting people and all that, it has always happened. Whatever EFCC is doing today is not new, we have governors that have been arrested and detained before and they are walking about freely. My take is if you want to probe, go ahead and do it, don’t over sensationalize it. I don’t see anything new that they have done some far that has never been done before; they were to go to the US and so much noise was made about it, now we have gone and back, what have happened, what were the gains and we are being told stories of how US cannot sell us arms; didn’t they know that before? What special arrangement or lobbying did they initiate before that overrated trip? I don’t think they came back with much, that’s my take.

The President is 72 years old, let him not be apolitical; I want to believe he will do one term of four years, let him forget about APC or PDP and see Nigeria. Do the needful so when he leaves, history will remember you. And if he is not thinking about a second term, when you rule well and is about to leave, if you pick a young man from your party and say this is the man I am supporting, everybody will follow. But if you are here playing politics and all you do is to demonize the party that just left power because you have made so many promises, it would not work.

My advice is that your eyes should be on the ball; if you want to probe, do that without making it a circus. But if the APC goes on trying to demonize the PDP, I will assure them that the highest they will stay in power is 8 years because we are more enlightened now; I believe this administration will be a one-term government. They have made several promises that now looks herculean to them and trying to make PDP look like the reason you cannot make good your promises cannot deceive the people.