Being in the opposition party, how do you intend to relate with the centre which is going to be led by Muhammadu Buhari?
That brings me to a very critical issue; that at this point in time, politics is over. What we are going into is governance. APC or PDP is over; we must keep away from party lines and realise that parties are simply containers. If you are seeking office through the power of the people’s votes and God has given you the office, you must therefore, go there and work for the people. It is not about APC or about PDP. When people talk about opposition party, I don’t understand.
I am not in an opposition party, I am simply in PDP; I am now the governor- elect of Cross River State. I need the federal to succeed. I must therefore, tie up to the federal structure. To do so is to present to them my models and I do believe that the way and manner the President- elect will handle things will show to the whole world that he is a man of history. The way and manner he deals with the opposition party will be a critical issue. While we celebrate the fact that Nigeria has come out of politics, united and strong, I believe we should take this election and politics as a watershed in Nigeria’s history.
What is your impression of President Jonathan?
He has made history for himself. The first president from the Niger- Delta, and the first president to hand over to an opposition. That is not expected. People think the black man is far too behind to achieve this level of civility. He has demonstrated to the entire world that Africans have come of age. That’s calls for celebration; he himself may not realize it. So, I also expect that President Buhari will also realize Jonathan’s humility, maturity and civility and treat this nation as an indivisible entity. We cannot therefore, afford to divide this nation on party lines. If we do that, then what will happen is that every party starts re-strategising and preparing for 2019 and governance will take the back-stage. Let us put aside party politics and face the issue of governance.
How do you intend to re-organise the bureaucracy in such a way that both the public and civil servants will key into this your business-model of administration?
The challenge we have is that we are running a very patronising government in Nigeria; government that promotes based on the time of service and it is designed to reflect periodicity. But all that will change. In the first three to six months, what we are going to experience is not massive employment but massive deployment. So, what we are going to do will be to improve upon the current structure. To do this, every ministry should be able to generate funds. So, while we will not sack any worker, all those who are in the ministries doing nothing will have to be sent to the agricultural sector to work.
Why do you want to set up oil and gas company?
We intend to set up an oil and gas company (PETROCROSS) the business of which will be to do oil and gas business just like Petro bras of Brazil. Cross River State is a gas belt state, but unfortunately, because of the paucity of funds for the oil and gas exploration, our reserves have remained totally untapped and unexploited. We have a proven reserve of over 1. 6 million standard cubic feet of gas that is totally unexploited. Arrangements are ongoing to obtain Federal licence from the Federal Government and start the exploration of gas in Cross River State and build the state LNG.
