LAST week, Governor Emmanuel  Uduaghan was on a phone-in programme on DRTV Warri and our Warri Bureau Chief Dennis Otu monitored and recorded it.
Read on!
As a serving governor we know that the seat is hot, do you always have sleepless nights?
(Laughs). No I do not have. God has made awake and sleeping periods. My period of sleep may be shorter than any average person because of the responsibility I carry. But when I have to sleep I sleep.
When you wake up in the morning, what is the upper most thing on your mind?
It is for God to give me the knowledge to handle the day because being the governor  from what I found there is no state easy to govern, so I pray for God to give me the wisdom to handle the day.
You have been in Warri for some time now, people are beginning to wonder what is happening because for a while you have actually deserted us. What actually is happening?
Yes, I have been in Warri for more than a week now and since the beginning of this year we have been in Warri. We are doing a lot in the state and there are people who are complaining that we are not doing enough in Warri and Effurun axis. Two, the security situation in Warri axis is not improving the way we expect it to be. In Asaba, there is tremendous improvement. But in Warri axis, the situation is not improving. I decided that my presence in Warri axis will be more than it used to be. And my presence is to first increase the activities around here and it also gives me an opportunity on the spot assessment of the things we are doing in terms of development and security. Across the world today when you say the name Warri, what comes to mind is a place of crisis which is not very true. Though there are some security situations, it is not as bad as people are projecting it. I am going to be in between here and Asaba. I will be making my presence here more visible than before.
You are refusing the assent on the bill for death penalty for kidnappers and armed robbers, why are you refusing your assent on the bill?
Let me say this, death penalty has never, anywhere in the world, stopped any form of criminal activities. Just show me an example. During the time of Anini when he was ravaging the country there was death penalty and, of course, they executed publicly but it did not stop armed robbery. That is one.
Two, it is sad to say my colleague in Benin was complaining. He signed the bill for two people and till today those people have not been killed. There is no executor in Nigeria. The only one they had, I heard has retired. So even if you signed the death penalty there is nobody to kill the person that you are signing the death penalty for. Then thirdly, Nigeria has an arrangement with the African Union. It has an understanding that for now there should be no death penalty until issues are agreed upon. Worldwide people are moving from death penalty to other forms of reprimanding people who have committed criminal activities. So it is not just saying death penalty and death penalty. Even if you sentenced the person to death, would the person be killed, the answer is no. On a personal level I keep saying, all the evidence condemning the person to death is all giving to the judge and it is the judge that decides and says this person is qualified to be sentenced to death or not. So Nigerian law should be changed to be the judge that should be signing that death sentence. I am signing somebody’s death sentence yet I do not have  the evidence. My signing that death sentence is based on somebody’s assumptions. I should not kill based on another person’s decision. Between you and I they have committed crimes but the only person who has the evidence is the judge and not you and I. I have said it at the higher level that the Nigerian law should be changed, that if a death sentence has to be signed, let the person who has every evidence and conviction that Mr. A is qualified to die sign that death sentence. That has always been my position. But more critically, death sentence has not stopped any crime.
Personally, the issue of not signing, is it  moral or spiritual on your part?
It is a combination of so many things which I have just explained. A combination of facts, moral, and many other things and I think one of the facts is very important. And even if I signed the death sentence there is nobody to kill Mr. A.
Recently you seem to be intensifying a lot of projects in the state, is it as a result of the fact that your tenure is coming to an end?
Not really because most of these projects that we are now inspecting the contracts had been awarded for some time now. It is just that we have had a combination of many factors that had slowed down our projects execution. One of them is monitoring, which I am personally doing. The commissioners, the ministries and some other top government agencies are also doing same. The other factor is that even after awarding the contracts we have financial challenges. Financial challenges in the sense that the resources coming to the state have dropped. There was increase in wages for workers and you have to pay attention to dealing with wages. So the funds left for executing capital projects, of course, reduced. That  payment of contractors become a challenge. Then we also have community issues where communities were disturbing contractors. Even some chiefs were now asking contractors for money as if it is the way they used to deal with oil companies. We also had some security challenges with some of the contractors. We had issues of compensation which became a big issue. So we have a lot of problems that were slowing down our projects. But now I think we have been able to overcome some of those challenges combined with the level of monitoring. Now, we can see that a lot of the contractors are now on site and they are moving faster than they used to move. So, it has nothing  to do with ending of my tenure.
On Warri Industrial park
It is just that our understanding of an industrial park was not properly explained. There are processes of getting an industrial park and some time before you started seeing something on ground; like in Lagos, for instance, it took about 10 years for them to even go to the site because it requires land issues, structural designs and all the studies that have to be done like EIAs  (Environmental Impact Assessments) and others. And for us where land is a big issue, we acquired the land and some people took us to court … and we had to pay compensation and up till now we are still having challenges of taking over the land properly because some of the companies that were there and really have nothing to do with industrial park are refusing  to relocate and they have also refused to take the compensation that was given to them. What they said is that they want to be part of the industrial park. Industrial park is not just a place where every company can be part of. It is specifically for manufacturing companies. We also have challenges of even the acquisition of the land due to the nature of the site. Two, most of those things we are dealing with now, if you noticed like the advertisement in the papers, we have already advertised for contractors to bid for infrastructures because the first thing you will see on ground is infrastructure. I think the bid will be opened by next week and in another three to four weeks the contractors will be named and after then, they will start coming to site and start some form of construction of infrastructure which is the first thing that you will see visible on ground in an industrial park.
Is it possible that the project will be completed before the end of your tenure?
In fact, the project will not be completed in my life time. It is usually an on-going project.
On Effurun Warri Water project
What they are doing is that they take one side at a time but the volume of traffic in Warri has increased tremendously. And that is why I get worried when people say that people are running away from Warri. But when I come here I see traffic everywhere and I ask myself where these people that are running away from Warri are. Coming back to what you said, like  Warri people always say, good things do not come easy. Before you get good things there may be inconviniences. But the process has to continue, they have to dig some roads and lay pipes across those roads. Let me just explain what is happening there are three parts of the project. There is the pumping water station; you have the pipelines that go across the areas before you have the smaller ones that will go across the homes. Now, the station itself is completed and the water is now flowing there. We have tried the big pipes and we found out   that a lot of them have been damaged either through old age or through road construction and that is why we had that problem that time. So, what we have done is to award a contract to deal with that. The new contractors are laying new pipes across so many places. The third part is extension of those pipes to the various homes. And I think we have about 15,000 homes that we will eventually lay the pipelines to. That first thing you saw when those roads were being damaged is assessment testing the various parts of networks that were having problems becaue without assessing you will not know the cost of repairs or cost of replacement. So, after that assessment they were able to come out with how much it will cost us to replace these pipes and the process of awarding the contract was made. I think the contractor just started about three to four months ago.
On flood
Well, we are preparing, but let me emphasise that if you are watching CNN, Ajazeera, BBC, you will find out that flooding has become worldwide because of climate change issues. Even in UK, for those who are there, places that have never ever had floods before have become flooded. No matter how much preparations you make when the floods really come they can be devastating. For us we have started our meetings to see how we can prepare for any eventuality when it happens. There are two aspects to the flooding. One is the heavy rainfall, and the rains are getting heavier and heavier. For those who have been in Warri, Asaba and other places you would have noticed that normally this is supposed to be dry season but we are having rains virtually every day. About three days ago, the rain in Asaba was something else. We thought it was heavy in Asaba until we got report that it has damaged most part of Asaba. The second part is the dams. You know the one of last year was caused by opening the dam in Cameron and the water just flooded down the Niger and Benue rivers and down to our area. That is the main cause of the flooding. Now the prediction from NEMA that the rains will be heavier which we are already experiencing, and two, that the flooding might also be as a result of the dams that have challenges.

After listening to most Nigerian leader interview you will be speechless cos they have a way of making their self look saint even if they are corrupt.

I love this governor because he is full of God's wisdom. God bless Delta State & Nigeria in general.