[INTERVIEW] How I Plan To Run My Edo Guber Project- Hon Sergius Ogun

Immediate past member of the House of Representatives from Edo State, Hon Sergius Ogun, is one of the frontline governorship aspirants on the platform of the Labour Party [LP] in the state. In this interview on Arise TV’s “The Morning Show” during the week, he spoke on a number of issues around his 2024 governorship bid, including, specifically, how he plans to consummate his guber aspiration. Excerpts

Q: Well, what do you think of the politics of zoning that is at the centre of all the conversations in Edo state in this round of gubernatorial elections? We have had people say, oh it must be Edo North. Some people say, oh it must be Edo central. Some people say, even in the introduction that it looks like you will stand a strong chance if you have somebody from Edo South attached to you. So what’s your take on the zoning politics in your state?

Ans: Doctor Abati, it’s good to have you back. I watched you in Davos with your hat and everything. I was feeling sorry for you. I wished I could smuggle some pepper soup to you while you were there. When I was coming into the National Assembly in 2015, there was a history in my constituency that people will do two terms. But in 2013 we started getting feelers that those that were in the National Assembly wanted to do a third term. So we fought and we succeeded in destabilizing that. And so I went. I came to the National Assembly. I did two terms. So, when people were urging me to do a third term, I said no, I could not have fought those that wanted to do third term and now want to do a third term. So I declined to do third term because I believe in zoning. That’s the point I’m trying to make. So, I represented my local government and I felt it should go to the other local government. So I believe in it. But you will not say you sacrifice quality on the altar of zoning. I supported Peter Obi very early in June 2022 when they started trying to manoeuvre the ticket in PDP and he moved over to Labour Party. One of the reasons I supported Peter Obi then was that he is bright enough to be the President of Nigeria. That’s he’s from the southeast, should not take him out of the race. I spoke of this then clearly, despite being a serving member of the National Assembly in a different platform entirely. I spoke up. I supported him and today I have no regrets. I wonder if I have fun to join him in Labour Party. So Zone is good because it gives everyone a sense of belonging. The same reason some of us say we’re not going to support Atiku in 2022 when the PDP went their way. So it’s a good thing and I know many people are saying all manner of things about it right now. I know the next question might be, Oh well, the issue of 62% in a Edo South, 25% in Edo North and maybe 13% in Central where I don’t know whether I want to get into that arguments really, because it negates even the very idea of democracy.

Q: All right. Well in in some instances it works in terms of zoning. Sometimes it comes up when it favours the candidates in question because usually at the national level, we often talk about zoning and fair representation of all the people involved. But let me ask you about your thoughts on Obi’s support because you mentioned Mr. Peter Obi and we had Mr. Akpata here with us and he also mentioned Mr. Peter Obi. Looks like you’re both looking and hoping to have the support of Mr. Peter Obi to have some kind of foothold at this election at the primaries. Do you know if you have his support? Have you met with him because you want to leverage his popularity in Edo state?

Ans: Ayo, like I said and not many of the aspirants in the door today spoke up June 2022 when, as a serving House of Reps member on the platform of PDP, I said I endorsed Peter Obi. I said I would support him.

Q: Have you met him? Have you discussed with him?

Ans: Yes, I’ve met him? Where? Sure, sure, I have. I’ve met him. I’ve discussed with him.

Q: Is he in support of your candidature?

Ans: Ayo, if Peter Obi is backing me, I will come on Arise and say he’s backing me or he’s endorsed to me. We don’t do that in politics and you know that. He’s the leader of the party and he’s supporting everybody for now, I think. So let’s leave that for now.

Q: …But what is this talk about you being the joker that the current governor wants to use, you know, in the Labour Party? There’s this talk and this talk has been rife, you know, and that it is you they want to use to sort of be like a placeholder so that nobody will be able to challenge the governor’s candidate. What do you say about that talk?

Ans: No, you have…. I think you know a little about me. You know, it can’t be, that can’t be correct, no. But I’m hearing that for the first time from you.

Q: Is there anything we need to know you’re not telling us?

Ans: But Rufai, I don’t know that you know my antecedent in the National Assembly, you know that I’m not the kind of person that anybody would do that with. As a matter of fact, I had discussed with the governor. When I finished from the National Assembly, I went to show him all I did in the National Assembly. I wrote to him officially. He flipped through it and said impressive and said to me, do you want to run? Are you interested in the governorship? I said yes, I am. He said it’l was OK, Well, he cannot endorse me, but that that will be unfair to others. And that was it. I think like about two months later, I went to see him again and he asked me why I was not attending the meeting in my senatorial zone and I said I didn’t believe what they were doing then, you know, then I was in PDP and he told me how he was working to rebuild PDP and all. After everything he wanted to know my thoughts and I said to him, I am changing platform and well he said to me, no, you will spend too much money if you go there and all that. Cut a long story short, that was the last time I spoke with the Governor. So to answer your question, I’m not the kind of person that anybody can use like that.

Q: That you were going to the Labour Party.

Ans: I mentioned to him. Well, he’s a politician. He would know. I declared for the Labour Party and it was not something I did behind the House, you know, I declared and I had my leaders there and it was in the news and all. So he knows I’m in the Labour Party and he knew I was. I mentioned it to him. Like I said, he tried to discourage me, you know.

Q: Well, honourable Ogun, well, I’ve not been seeing your campaign adverts. I’ve been seeing, you know, materials from other aspirants on the platform of the Labour Party and I would like you to just address two issues quickly. How do you rate yourself against, say for example, Olumide Akpata, who is also an aspirant on the platform of the Labour Party? And then there is Kenneth Imansuagbon, who is also an aspirant on the platform of the Labour Party . As you all prepare for the party primaries this month, we’re now in February, could you just go immediately from that to tell us what is that special thing that you think is missing, you know, in the governance of Edo state that you want to add as value.

Ans: Thank you Doctor Abati. I am pro people and I believe I’m in the right party today. In the National Assembly, I had 63 bills, 61 motions, 99 projects that I initiated. Then I added money just by virtue of representing the constituency. The ongoing projects that I met, about six major ones I wrote till monies were put in the budget for the execution of those projects. So the projects will be totalling about 105. Projects, bills, motions were all pro-people. I believe in working from the base. I fought for the common people in the House…. If you are familiar with some of my bills, some of them I discussed here, I brought the bills about how that the children of public servants should not go school abroad because we ought to give attention to schools here. Also I had a bill to say that public servants should not go overseas for medical treatment. You know, we ought to fix our health institutions here. I also brought a bill to amend the Constitution. Chapter 2, Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. But Dr Abati, you’re very familiar with that. Sections 11 to 23 of that Chapter 2 clearly speak to the issues of the poor people in this country but my amendment was that section 6 sub 6C that’s sought to ask the jurisdiction of the court should be amended because if what that chapter is saying basically is that the government should strive to provide welfare for the people, education, health, clean sanitation, I mean clean water and sanitation which if you go to SDGs, the 17 SDG goals one to six basically speak to. So I felt we should amend that section. They shouldn’t just say they should try to do, they should be obligatory. These are basically speaking to the needs of the poor people. So I am one that believes that you should build for the base. I have built from the base. I have said I will give full autonomy to the local governments, not deducting a dime for their money. If anything, give them more money so that they can begin to take care of people at that level. We know the local government used to build roads. They should build access roads so that farm produce can come out. I want to have cottage industry in the rural areas in the first case anyway. I am a farmer. I know you can process garri. I have a plant that was produced fabricated in Ilorin. It can peel cassava, wash it, mill it and then fry it. So we don’t have to subject our women going through frying of garri by fire and all that. So if you can do this locally around the farm and people just come to the farm gate to pick up the bags, you create prosperity in the rural areas. When I was in the House, I built Primary Health care centres, I built primary schools, I built secondary schools. So I know this is practicable. If you take care of these people, nobody wants to be called poor. But if you take care of the masses, let me use that word, the vulnerable ones, most of the problems plaguing this country today will be taken care of. We don’t have to wait for a Boko Haram to appear or militants to rear their heads before we start talking about amnesty for them.

Q: Hon. Ogun, I want you to link all of these to your chances and how you stand against persons like Kenneth Imansuangbon and Olumide Akpata who want the same thing that you want on the same platform….

Ans: Doctor Abati, I have won two primaries and two major elections. The people you have mentioned have not won any and well, I don’t know. I will win the nomination and I will go ahead to win the election there because I have friends across parties. It’s not so much of who can put money on the table today. We’re not talking about that. We are talking about one that can walk across party lines to deliver the votes, one that knows how to defend the votes when the votes are put out there. If you rely on Labour Party alone, you will not win the elections. I can walk across party lines. I have friends and colleagues in the major parties. I have supporters in APC and in PDP that would vote for me. So I am the one that will win the election for Labour Party. You don’t jump to the platform because you think it’s credible today. But I have been there. I’ve seen it all

Q: All right. Thank you so much. Honourable. Just very quickly, since you said in the last few years you’ve been in the House and I know you talked about recently running a farm business. But what has come out is the amount of money for the nomination form that as a governorship nomination fee by the Labour Party is set at 30 million naira, even though there are conversations to hopefully reduce that. And so people will be wondering that as a lawmaker and then a farmer, I don’t know how big your farm is. Would you be willing, in the spirit of transparency and being people-centric to, you know, for an open declaration of your finances how you can afford to pay for that based on the salaries of a lawmaker and proceeds from your business? Will that be something you’d be willing to pursue?

Ans: Yes, we met the state working committee: they invited us to say we should prune down the number of aspirants from my senatorial zone. So they took the opportunity. Somebody asked the question why was the nominatikn form so expensive, I mean the nomination forms and expression of interest forms. They explained that look they are not like the big parties that have access to state funds and that they think is OK and I think that has settled it. Well, like I said, I’m a farmer and well before I went to the House, I’m not going to get in the house anyway. Before I went to the house, I was a CEO of an oil service company, you know, I’m a businessman, yeah I have had my fans on the side so but election is not funded by an individual alone and I do not believe that one should go around begging people, the big boys to start dropping billions, but when you do that, they will come back for their money when you win. So when we keep blaming leadership in this country, the problem is not leadership, itòj is the selection and how they emerge. When you take too much from people, you will pay back. But when you get the generality of the people to contribute to your elections, it will become cheap. When you get there from day one, you will work for the people. That’s how I won my elections going into the National Assembly. I didn’t have a godfather, but God in the heaven is my Father. So because I wasn’t owing people, I hit the ground running from Day One and I worked for the people. So, the same thing I will do here. People will pay for my form. People have been giving to my campaign and that is how I’m going to run this election. I’m not going to seek one godfather.

Q: You’re going to run this election through crowd funding?

Ans: Yeah, sure! People.

Q: Honourable Sergius, real quickly, what are you going to do to tackle the increasing kidnap cases at Ugboha where you are from?

Ans: You see, Christmas season, people could not really go home to Ugboha because kidnappers were on that road. And that’s all we are saying. If you create a thriving industry in the rural areas, you will not have this huge migration. We all grew up in the village. Allow the local economy to thrive. The state is supposed to give 10% of internally generated revenue IGR to the local government. Local governments don’t tar roads anymore. They don’t clear drainages, so allow the local government to get their money. Do you think if my local government is Esan South East local government, the council chairman gets half a billion and I, as a governor of Edo state, will task him on how to spend that money. You will show me your project, your programmes, and I will task you. I will see result before you come back for your money the next month. They will flush those kidnappers. There will be nobody in the forest. They will encourage the police, the civil defence, even the vigilantes. They will have informants among the youths. The local government chairman knows the bad boys and the good boys. That will not happen under my watch. There will be no kidnappers because I will empower the local councils. All this will disappear. Stop deducting their monies. Local government chairmen are just there. They even go to their offices maybe once in a month when the money comes. But tell me if your local council chairman gets half a billion every month and we as a government, we will support them where they have comparative advantage over the other councils, when they are awarding contracts, handling procurements, will they be sitting down in Benin or elsewhere? They will be in the council office supervising and running things from there. So, kidnapping will be a thing of the past under me. I can tell you that for free. Just boost the local economy and all these will disappear.