By Stepp Offi.

Recently, Comrade Ovuozourie Macaulay spoke to a group of journalists on various issues including development in Isoko, his political philosophy, and politics of 2015.  Excerpts.                                                                                                                                                                                                 

How have you been going about the overall development of the Isoko nation as a political leader?

The development of Isoko as a nation is not different from the development and growth of the country, Nigeria itself. Society is dynamic and every community takes advantage of it to grow as it is growing. The Isoko nation, there is no doubt, has witnessed some fast growth since the return of democracy in 1999. That I can say with all sense of responsibility. Before now we had no educational Institution in place. What we had then was moribund. The then Ozoro Polytechnic which was closed down. It was no longer in existence for a certain period, during the time of Ambrose Alli. And until the Ibori (James) era it was nowhere.  It was during the Ibori era that we revived it and made it a Polytechnic, which is now very strong in the area of Agriculture and Computer Management. Again, the military established the Law campus of the Delta State University in Oleh. But it never made any reasonable development until the Ibori era when the. Law students started in earnest. It was during the period of Uduaghan (Dr. Emmanuel) that the Faculty of Engineering, which is becoming the best that the country would have today, took off. We have to take the development of that campus (Oleh) with passion because as I earlier said, at the end of the day, at the rate we are going, it’s going to be the best Engineering Faculty in terms of infrastructure. You will recall that some two months ago, I have to personally go and donate a 100 KVA generator to enable them meet up with their power requirement. As we talk now, we are making sure that the infrastructure of the buildings are put in place. The contract for the external work has been awarded and once the rain subsides, the full work at the campus would start. I spoke with the Dean only recently and the only challenge we are having there is to be able to get full accreditation in respect of man power and I am told he is going to work out a strategy to make sure that we achieve that. Let me use this opportunity to call on Isoko sons and daughters who are in the teaching profession (at the tertiary level) anywhere in the world to make themselves available because the opportunity to develop Isoko as a nation does not lie in the hands of Macaulay or any other one person alone. It is all of us that should put our hands together in whatever we can contribute. Now we need lecturers and professors in that area of Engineering. We are not doing badly in the area of Law.                                                                                 That is in the area of education. In the area of power- I recall that when I became a Commissioner of Energy, 2007 there was no 7.5 (NVA) substation anywhere in Isoko land. The highest we had was a 2.5NVA in Oleh which was very epileptic. But before I left that Ministry, Oleh had a 7.5(NVA), Owhe had a 7.5(NVA), Ozoro had a 7.5(NVA) through NDDC, Olomoro had a 7.5(NVA) which was recently completed. Before then Isoko had no direct line from Ughelli power station. I had to ensure too that Isoko has it’s own direct line. That is why you see that Isoko is one of the nationalities that enjoy the best of power in the whole of the state. That is an achievement that we recorded during this administration. Today, even as far as to Umeh we were able to extend electricity there. Before now, not many people would have believed that electricity would get there. And not only electricity, we are also working on the roads as well. I don’t think there are more than two Uduaghans in this world that would have had the courage to say, no matter what it would cost, I’m going to take electricity there. I tell you the first time we went there, myself and the Governor alone, we trekked, no vehicle from the East/West road junction could move in to the place. We had to treck about two kilometers. We couldn’t get near the community and we came back. We made the second attempt and by the third attempt we were able to get to the community and today vehicles are going there. The road is fine and a contract is going on. There are so many other roads as well – Iyede—Olomoro link road was already on. Even the Owhelogbo—Ozoro road, I was using personal funds to maintain it. But today as soon as we came in, through DESOPADEC, we fixed it. You can go on counting and counting. so there is no doubt that Isoko has come up.                                                                                                                                 Going back to the Polytechnic, I said that the Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro is the best you have in the state today. You can see the level of activities and level of infrastructural development inside the Campus--street lights, theatre halls and other buildings. This is because we are not just depending on government. Those of us whom by the grace of God are holding positions are also using our positions and personal resources to develop the schools. Leo (Ogor) is attracting things there. The commissioners and elected members are all united in the task of developing the Isoko nation. So you can see that, except you just want to be mischievous you will agree with me that Isoko is moving forward. We have not been able to get everything there that we want, but no body, at the home level can get everything that he wants. Certainly, to a very large extent Isoko is moving forward.
Then what do you expect of the Isoko, come 2015? What I have always said is that if you are a minority and you want to be in an opposition or a minority party in a democratic setting, then you can make no progress. You must do what it will take us to be united and to make sure that we are in the ruling party. This is because it is only when you are in the ruling party that you can ask for and it is only when your vote is emblock and you are able to deliver them to make somebody become a Governor or to make somebody become a President that you can ask for (something like development) If you play the role of opposition because you want people to clap for you, because people who make the loudest noise achieve the loudest ovation, but at the end of the day, is it the ovation that you want to eat? Or provide people for us that can represent us? So if we are able to unite ourselves and fall behind those who are diligent and we should be able to find ourselves in the ruling party, then of course, the people of Isoko would be better of than we could be. I’m not afraid of opposition. But what am saying is that we are already a minority and when you want to share, the majority would take first then you will go and put yourself in an opposition? Then you are not helping your people at all. You only want to attend to your own personal needs. Yes, maybe you are a minority leader in the house, they give you what you are entitled to. But beyond that what would you be able to attract to your people? It doesn’t make sense for somebody who is already a minority to play the politics of opposition. It is not about fear but about what will benefit the people more, it is beyond an individual.
What is Macaulaism and to what extent have you applied this philosophy?
If you say Macaulaism is what my philosophy of life is and how I play politics, I will say am one person who play politics without bitterness.
And even as much as I don’t preach opposition and I will never preach opposition because of my background, if I were an Hausa man, if I were a Yoruba man, or an Ibo man, I will say yes, preaching opposition but not with my ethnic nationality of 2000 people and two local government areas that I have. So I need the bigger powers to be able to bring my people to limelight. As a philosophy, as I said I don’t play politics of bitterness. I play politics inclusiveness, of bringing everybody together. I play an open door politics. I stand my quote “I leave  my doors open, I leave my house open- as many people that would want to come in, please come in. Politics is like an elephant, there are so many parts of it there is enough for everybody who has the spirit of contentment apart from those who are greedy. These are people who feel that the elephant should be there for them alone. Today I will go and eat the legs and tomorrow the ears. But if you believe that whatever you have “oh thanks be to God” then everybody can come in. The same pot of soup that two people would eat, five people can eat it and still be satisfied. That is my idea of politics and that’s why very recently I went home, I got all traditional rulers in Isoko together and we had a conversation. We had a rapport. I also brought all the Presidents general together and we discussed and had a rapport as well. Everybody is being carried along. I’ve just finished a meeting this morning and am planning to have a meeting with the youths, the women- all groups in the society because they all have a stake and they all must be consulted and be carried along.                                                                                                                                                                                             My major focus today is how to reduce the illiteracy and poverty level in our society. This is because until we do that we’ll go nowhere. If those who are in power today continue to feel satisfied with their children and immediate family alone the society becomes worst. This is because these less privileged ones that are unable to go to school today because of school fees, a chunk of them would end up going into criminality. And because they are not exposed to education it could be easy to recruit them into criminal activities by criminally minded people. So, we must all make efforts to improve the lives of the less privileged ones in our society by ensuring that they are educated. I’ve got two Foundations, one for education and the other for cervical cancer and prostrate, that is health. And we are trying to see how we can get them exposed so people can avail themselves of the opportunities that they offer. This is because every day I don’t know how much money I can pay into people’s accounts for school fees, for books or projects. So, instead of people sending messages to me and I keep paying, let’s use the Foundation.