Dele Omogbemi, the new commissioner representing Ondo State on the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) speaks with CoastalNEWS Crew enjoy the excerpts as packaged by Fiye Patani.
Coastalnews: Can we meet you?
I am citizen Dele Omogbemi, Commissioner representing Ondo State on the Board of NDDC.
Coastalnews: What offices have you held in the past?
I was the former Personal Assistant to Chairman of Ilaje Local Government on special duties, I was an S.A. to the governor of Ondo State. I have been a Teacher, I have been a banker, have been a community person, by virtue of holding such position, I came to this level.
Coastalnews; What are your specific plans for the Niger Delta area of Ondo State.?
When you are born in a certain area and grew up in the area, you have the opportunity of knowing the problems of that area. That is one good thing for me. I grew up in Ilaje, I know the entire people in Ilaje. So like I said I was born and bred in Ilaje and I Know the problem of that area and I move out of llaje. I was able to know what they had in other areas. As a result of that I was able to compare the two.
By virtue of knowing the problem and the opportunity of knowing how those problems are solved in other areas, so I got myself equipped. Basically, one of the major problems we have in Ilaje and Ese-Odo, is the problem of water. Most people in that area drink from stream and this stream is prone to incessant pollution. We don’t have it good, in the sense that if it is not polluted through oil spillage, it is polluted through human waste and the hygienic standard of this water is very low. And as a result it brings a lot of disease to the people. If the problem of water is solved in that area, the area would be better for it. You will also agree with me that Ilaje and Ese-Odo experience the highest cost of transportation because communities are not linked with each other. An average Ilaje person, Ijaw person and Apoi person are hard working. If we have alternative means of transportation, we will be able to move from one village to the other. But here you have a situation whereby a distance of say about one to two kilometers you will spend about N300.00 to N500.00. This is very serious to the people. So we are going to put in concerted effort by making sure that our communities are linked. And when our communities are linked, they provide an alternative means of transportation for our people. And the same time create employment for our youths; because, there and then, we can move by bike, it won’t be limited just by water transportation by speed boat.
Coastalnews: Talking about linkage, what type of linkage are you thinking of considering the terrain of the area are you going to link by way of the wooden foot bridges or what exactly…. Do you intend to do?
The truth about this, I will not have myself to be involved in any project that will not stand the test of time. I am going to get myself involved in projects that will live after me, that will tell the people that yes once a time a person was there. He was able to put this in place. I am not going to talk about wooden linkage. The lowest you can have in this type of linkage will be linkage through casting whereby you have this thing casted in such a way that you can so concretize it in a way that it won’t collapse in a short period of time. I was considering two options, Mud filling to link. When you mud fill a path it will be about 8feet and 10feet wide. We have this thing filled to a certain level when the thing get dried up it will provide the route for our people to trek. I have that one in mind and considering the other way of casting. We would be looking at the alternatives and see the one that will be more appropriate for our people. So to drive our aspiration from the inspiration of Ayetoro, we find out that the street in Ayetoro fixed years ago in the early 60’s is still there. They used our own mud and they are still walking on that street. You will draw an inspiration from a place. If about twenty years ago every community in Ese-Odo and Ilaje is developed as Ayetoro we would be thinking about another thing now, it won’t be this issue, but I am having it in mind that I am going to link the communities by these casting. Iron or mud filling.
Coastalnews: There are complaints from contractors handling projects in the riverine area that the youths are always disturbing them while doing their jobs, what do you intend to do about this?
You see, that is why I have it in mind that the first set of human beings I am talking to will be the youths. There must be orientation for the youths. It is clear that Niger Delta is now developing, we must search our minds to see what would have been contributing to that. We must bring about this orientation that any development we are putting in place there is for our own benefit. And it’s not good for us to disturb this development. I quite agree to fact that I must actually bring out there. Majority of our youths are not employed. As a result of that we have this problem of thinking that the moment the contractor is there; it is a way of life for them to get something out of these contractors. But as a concerted effort, we have said that these contractors will make use of them, and by this those who are made use of will be able to provide for their family. The second aspect of it is that I was talking about linkage of communities that will take some of our youths have a bite they would be able sustain themselves. Taking people from one community to the other. We are putting in place a lot of programmes to really take youths off the street. But I am to talk to the traditional rulers, opinion leaders, on the area of our programs. That is part of the things I have in mind. By the time they are well oriented on the vision of development in Niger Delta I think they will begin to have a better orientation. Yes.
Coastalnews: What other plans do you have for them?
You see, the youths our future leaders and we have to assist them in securing their future. We have to secure their future for them. How do we do this? Is by way of providing a permanent employment for them. By the use of training. You train them in some vocations, and provide for them to really take this vocational job, as business.
You know what the amnesty thing is doing. And it’s doing a very nice thing in the Niger Delta. What NDDC will have to do is that we should find a way of keying into some of these area so that we may be able to take more of the youths out of the streets.
The amnesty is taking care of the ex-militants and we ought to now know that not all our youths were involved. And we do not want to encourage them to take arms before we take good care of them. So as a result of that we are going to look at the program of training and retraining them, providing jobs for them so that they will be able to take good care of their future.
In fact, talking about youths today after sometimes, they will be referred to as youths, they will not be adults. We don’t want to become useless adults.
Coastalnews: The bureaucracy in NDDC is so much that people see their projects as comparatively too slow. Comparing their projects with state or OSOPADEC projects, they go at a snail speed. Now that you are on the board, what will you do to ensure that this ugly trend is reversed?
That was one of the major problems we tackled in our first board meeting. Let me tell you. Every member of this Board is conscious of time. it is when I will be able to have a project commissioned that people will say that yes I have done something. we are emphasizing a situation whereby contractors are paid on time. That was why when we held our Board Meeting, we ensured that we put some money for the payment of contractors that have done some jobs before we got in there so that this job will continue. Whichever thing we try to do, if you have listened to the news about two days ago. the MD called the contractors and had meeting with them. that their money will not be delayed, but they must perform. He even gave them ultimatum that we want to see their performance.
You will agree with me too, during our training, the Senate President gave us an ultimatum. We do not want to loss our job now. To have job we to do something and making sure that everything is spread up in a way that we continue to have meaningful projects in the Niger Delta Development Commission.
Coastalnews: Looking at you predecessors, what flaws did you discover and how do you intend to rectify them?
You see, when you have somebody in government, the next person coming would want to involve in what that person has done.
Generally, I have more or less enumerated this. I have not seen this as flaws, rather I have seen some areas that they have touched that I want to touch and I have seen some areas they have touched and I want to continue with. And I am looking at areas that things have been done the other way. And these are the three areas that I am talking not about way immediate predecessor. I have seen that in Ilaje/Ese-Odo they like to have wooden structures. I want to emphasize this, I don’t want to talk about anything wooden, because whatever is constructed on wooden structure might not live even up to see my end. The meaning of that is that it will not last for a life span. Life span is very, very short. But on my own case, I really want to do something that will stand the test of time enduring projects. That area, I want to emphasize.
