WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO THE APPEAL COURT VERDICT WHICH WAS IN YOUR FAVOUR?
It is another victory that goes a long way to demonstrate that this is election made by God and whoever is fighting this election is simply fighting God. This victory is not mine, it is for God and the people. My happiness is that the people have won again and what God has decreed no man can change.? I see this yet as another victory for development in Imo State, for the masses of? Imo State and for the ordinary man in Imo State. I believe that the victory is one that is not just worthy of celebration but one that goes back again to convince all of us that democracy has come to stay in Nigeria. The judgment is clean and pure. And let me tell you something. It is not very common in our history to see an incumbent being defeated. Wherever you see an incumbent defeated, it means that election was clean and real. Because, with all the paraphernalia of office available to the incumbent; security, fund and everything, if any citizen is able to defeat such an incumbent just know? that that is democracy at its best.
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WHAT WAS YOUR EXPECTATION BEFORE THE JUDGMENT????
I wasn’t expecting anything to the contrary. My only pain is that I have spent three days now which I would have used to do projects in Imo State to stay in Abuja only wanting to hear a result of what God has already ordained. For me that is a distraction. I am not enjoying that distraction because I missed the projects that we were supervising and all what we have set before us for the year. We lost three days again in Imo State just as we lost about one week again. That is not good for us. Remember we are on a rescue mission and we are in a hurry to deliver so every one minute is very important to us. That is just my only regret that I have to spend these days in Abuja over the matter.
WHAT DOES THE VICTORY PORTENDS FOR THE PEOPLE OF IMO STATE?
This is a signal? and a sign that no bad leader will handle the affairs of Imo State. It is also a warning to them that people who are treacherous should know that the people do not need them anymore. The days are gone when people will sit down somewhere and put themselves in power against the wishes of? the people; those days are gone and gone forever. My guarantee is that as God lives, there will be no evil man again that will come to Douglas House, House of representatives or Senate. What you witnessed was an end to an era and the beginning of a new era. And the old era must accept that there is a new era ordained by God. Saul must accept that David has come. So for me, my advice is that they should please accept defeat, because in fighting this victory, it means fighting God.
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WHAT IS YOUR COMMENT ON THE REMOVAL OF FUEL SUBSIDY?
Let me say that the removal of fuel subsidy has inflicted pains on ordinary citizens of this country. I share in the pains of the ordinary man in Nigeria that the increase in fuel without a corresponding increase in their wealth will definitely create more pains, more suffering for our ordinary people. But we must see this removal of fuel subsidy as a necessary sacrifice we must all make if indeed we have to build a future for our? children yet unborn. Most people do not understand that if we continue in the same old system of not removing the fuel subsidy, it will come to a day when the whole nation will be grounded and we cannot afford to pay salaries. So it is better we prepare for the future. My challenge is that in this country we have often tried to live for today without wanting to plan for our children yet unborn. And that doesn’t make for good parentage or leadership. But while we do that also, I will also want to request that we the elected people, must also change our lifestyle to reflect that of sacrifice; not? just theoretically telling the people that we share in their pains but let them see it in us that we are also making some level of sacrifice amongst ourselves. It will also help to contain the present problem but it is something that we must do. Take for instance, in the whole of this country there is no functional refinery, not one anywhere known in the history of mankind. A nation that produces oil cannot even refine its oil, it simply means? that refinery is not a good business in Nigeria and why it is not a good business is because there is no profit. And why is there no profit; because the price of fuel is too cheap for any investor to come down and invest. Today Nigeria’s oil remains the cheapest in the world. That is why even our neighbouring countriess live fat on Nigeria’s sweat. So you see places like Cotonou, people coming from there to Nigeria to buy fuel everyday and smuggle it to Cotonou and sell at the highest price. That is why we have fuel scarcity and all these problems. What it all means is that, if we are able to increase price and it is able to meet halfway, it will discourage those who take away our fuel at nothing because what it means is that as we pay for fuel and government is paying half of what we are consuming in fuel, the Nigerians and, Cotonou people and others are consuming what we are paying for. And sometimes, our importers import fuel here, because there is subsidy, they don’t bring back to Nigeria, they sell it to other foreign countries and collect the entire money and Nigeria is losing. So, it is something that is a necessary action that must be taken if only we can build a future for our children. So I want to appeal to labour to see reason. For me who is a man of the ordinary man, I frown at it but at the same time I looked deep into it and is something that we must do if we must move forward. The palliative measure is something we must act on quickly. Imo State Government, we are going to introduce a local transport system at a controlled price. So we can subsidize at our local level here to help to reduce the suffering of the ordinary man in the street. As am back now, this is the first thing we are trying to take up in the council and see how we can bring buses and make sure the intra-city transportation does not escalate to such that will attract increase in the price of commodities. That is what we are going to do as our measure to support what the Federal Government is doing in the interim.
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HAS THE ISSUE OF MINIMUM WAGE RESTED IN YOUR STATE?
You may recall that Imo State is the first state to pay N20,000.00 minimum wage as against the agreed N18,000.00. So we are willing to do more. Of course mine is a peculiar state, we are a people so blessed with intellectualism, enterprising people so we are trying to introduce what we call commercialisation programme in all our ministries and parastatals, in which case, we can bring in more income into our parastatals and pay higher. Am hoping that in the first or second quarter of this year, most ministries and parastatals will be able to pay twice the current minimum wage if they actually meet up with challenges that are before us. We want to look more inward than outward so that Imo as a state can afford to run assume we are today we see ourselves as a state that does not have help anywhere. We must begin to look inward on how we can help our people. So the issue of salary is a foregone conclusion but every worker should be able to work out his or her salary. So I am trying to socialize production that men should be paid according to their labour input. I believe with this, the issue of salary will be addressed and that helps us address the area of agriculture, housing, transportation, industrialisation etc. we need to do a whole lot to generate more internally generated revenue. Today, our IGR dangles between N500million and N600 million a month, which is still far below expectation. Imagine where we can make an IGR of N2.5 billion or N3 billion, which is possible in a month. Then I can assure that we can even pay 200% of what we are paying now. So we must work harder than we have been working before to increase salary rather than depend on government to provide for us the usual succor every month.