Buhari’s poor performance has affected APC in Delta, Great Ogboruwill not be field as their candidate in 2019 - Onwo, ex-party chief

Chief Ferguson Onwo, a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Delta State, is one-time Chairman of Isoko South Local Government Area of the state. In this interview with vanguardngr, Onwo, who contested for the House of Assembly seat for

Isoko South Constituency 2 in the 2015 general elections on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, speaks on the APC led Federal Government of President Muhammed Buhari and the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

It is 16 years since the PDP has been in power in Delta State. What is your assessment of the PDP over this period?

The day I was received into the party, l made a remark; l said l went on leave because while l was in the APC, my soul was in the PDP. PDP in Delta State has come to stay. Its policies, programmes and projects, you can see everywhere. Delta is a PDP state and there is no room for APC here. Before the local government elections, l predicted that the PDP will win by a landslide and it came to pass. There is no magic that you can do when you don’t have a councillor and House of Assembly member and you want to win an election. A party must have structures. The structures are the people who have been appointed or who have been elected. On election day, everybody must be in his unit and ward, but such persons don’t exist in APC. I contested election in 2015 under the APC and the state party Chairman, who is from my local government, was not in the local government. If the Chairman of a party does not know his unit, does not know where to vote, what do you expect of the followers? So, there is no basis for comparing the PDP with the APC. Luckily for the PDP, they have Governor Okowa who has been around for years. He was a local government chairman, commissioner, Secretary to the State Government, senator before he became governor. You can see his profile, but in APC, you have people who are occasional politicians. Look at the governors that PDP has produced in the state, it is a track record. The incumbent governor that has a clear vision of what he wants to do.

So, how do you score Okowa in terms of infrastructural and human capital development?

In terms of human capital development, l will score the governor 98 per cent. This is a governor who has an appointee in almost every unit. These people speak for him. Infrastructures are the things that we own together. The indices of government show in infrastructure, that is, roads, hospitals, school buildings, etc. But again if there are good roads, hospitals and all that everywhere and the people are hungry, they might not be able to recognize a good road. So, when the governor appoints someone in a ward, he has touched the lives in that family. You might see it as just as an appointment but, back home, it tells a lot of stories. The governor is being defended at that point, and on election day, you see these people coming to defend their appointments, so he has done very well. In the area of infrastructure, in my local government, the governor has been able to link Isoko North and South which is very strategic. The road leading from Oleh to Ozoro, a very good road with drain, it is a masterstroke. Look at the Oleh campus of the Delta State University, it has been upgraded. His approach is not to construct roads to the houses of political leaders, the roads he has constructed link so many places. In terms of infrastructure, l score him very high too, 80 per cent.

Some of the governor’s critics are quick to say he is insensitive to the plight of workers, particularly local government workers. What do you say?

l was once a local government chairman. Local government revenue is affected nationwide, even in APC states, so it is not peculiar to Delta. The revenue sharing formula does not favour local governments. Until that is changed, the problems of local government will remain. The money coming to local governments is too small So, the problem is not from this governor. In the just concluded local government elections, the APC accused the PDP of rigging to the extent that they boycotted the rescheduled election in Ughelli North and Ethiope East Local Government Areas. What is your take on the APC’s position? I came back to the PDP some weeks to the local government elections and l tell you that APC did not campaign anywhere in this state for them to be able to defeat the PDP in any ward. Before l left the APC, l was the State Director of Finance, I was a member of many committees, so, l know what l am talking about. In my own local government area, the person that was fielded as chairmanship candidate was just fielded in a meeting to fill the gap because somebody’s name must appear in the form. So, in that kind of scenario how can you win an election? APC did not campaign anywhere in this state to enable them win an election.

If the general elections are held today, do you think the PDP can stand up to the APC in Delta considering what happened in the local government elections?

The process has started, local government chairmen, councillors and supervisors have been sworn-in, so PDP already has structures. It is only through such structures that you can win elections. On every election day, the votes that float are about 35 to 40 per cent, while 60 per cent of voters have already taken a position, so if you already have structures, you have captured 60 per cent. If elections are held today or tomorrow, APC will not go anywhere in Delta.

APC is believed to be trying to use Chief Great Ogboru as their candidate in 2019. Should they use him, don’t you think it portends danger to the PDP governorship candidate in the elections?

I can tell you APC will not field him as their governorship candidate in 2019 except after I left APC something changed. APC will use another person for that election. If they use him, it will be like the normal thing. Ogboru is not a new person to it. We in PDP already know his antecedents, we know his tricks, we know his catchment area, and those people, talking about the okada riders, the average woman that goes to the market, are becoming sensible. At a point in time they now say this man has been telling stories for a very long time, this is the 14th year of the man saying ‘we want to do this, we want to do that’ and nothing happened, so the people are tired.

Are you therefore saying that if APC decides to field a governorship candidate other than Ogboru, they would be able to give PDP a good fight?

If they use any other person, of course it is a walk over, because the names l heard while l was in APC cannot even win a local government election let alone a governorship election. As it is now, would you say the Isoko nation where you hail from is getting its fair share in terms of appointments and infrastructural development at the federal level? At the federal level, there is nothing to show in terms of appointments for the Isoko people. In terms of infrastructure, nothing has come to Isoko from the APC government. As few as we were in that party then, nothing was given to anybody meaningful.

Prior to 2015 you were in PDP, you now left PDP for APC; today, you are back to PDP. Why did you decide to defect from APC?

I was never an APC person. There were certain agreements that were not taken care of that made me leave PDP. The decision that was taken in 2014 that l should be the House of Assembly candidate of the party in Isoko South Constituency 2 did not come to pass and the constituency took a decision that wherever l go, they would go with me. So, l joined APC, contested the election, the election went the way it went, we went to the tribunal, Court of Appeal and all that. I had to return to PDP and, like l told you, the journey is regrettable. Through my journey into the APC, l was able to compare the two parties and know which of them is better. APC came to power in a manner that was not planned and, because it was not founded on what they had to do, it happened by accident, they still have not found their feet. The policies of the Federal Government, you can hardly see them on ground; they release so much money for programmes but you don’t see them anywhere. They have not really impacted on the people the way it should be.

What is your assessment of the Buhari administration for the third year running?

None of the promises APC made has been fulfilled. Look at the feeding programme, there is nothing to show anywhere in this country. In Delta State, there is nowhere you will see that the programme is going on. Even the anti-corruption crusade they are talking about, it is only when you are perceived as anti-government that they come after you. APC policies are neither here nor there. What is your take on the Federal Government’s handling of the herdsmen’s crisis in the country, particularly as we have seen in Benue State? The Federal Government is just paying lip service to that issue, because you can hardly see where the herdsmen were arrested, tried and jailed for murder. Even when some governors have given out land to them to build ranches, they don’t go there.

Before the APC came on board, PDP held sway at the national level for 16 years. Comparatively, what do you have to say about this?

PDP has structures, they have a way of governance; you can’t take that away from them because they have been around for a long time. The APC is a child of circumstance. It was supposed to be an abortion, but it was given birth to, so it is still grappling to survive, but they can’t go too far. PDP had a government that was sustained for 16 years, PDP had a programme and they were on ground, so you cannot compare APC and PDP because, while PDP has been there as a party, APC was just a contribution from ANPP, CPC, PDP, ACN which came together to form the party. There is no balance, they just tried it and it worked, not that they were prepared for it, compared to PDP that has been there. I see PDP coming to power in 2019. If they can put their house in order, l see PDP coming to power at the national level.

What is your advice for Deltans? 

My advice for Deltans is to stick to PDP, support the good programmes of the governor and ensure that the governor is re-elected in 2019 to finish the good work that he has started.