By Emmanuel Enebeli
Hon Ossai Nicolas Ossai is not a strange name in Ndokwa and Deltan politics. He had being in the system since 1999, twice as member of Delta State House of Assembly and now a member Federal House of Assembly.
In this interview with members of Ndokwa Newspapers Owners, Hon Ossai discusses his journey so far in the Nigerian politics from his days as student of University of Nigeria, Nsukka. His contributions as a member Delta State house of Assembly to the Ndokwa people. His present achievements after two years at the National Assembly, the Ndokwa politics, people, development and 2015. And the NNU leadership.
Excepts
The Journey so far
I was in the state House of Assembly for 8 years, and I decided not to context again, this was a personal decision. This was because I was not deriving enough satisfaction there, and I needed to increase the stake. This was my first public election, and it was to the State House of Assembly. The Ndokwa people massively voted for me and I won. This was my first journey, I so devoted myself to the interaction within the grassroots, and the level of projects I extended to my people was overwhelming when I was in the state house of assembly, that scorecard had been given over and over.
During my quest to come to the national assembly I believed I could do well, and my level of building a national consensus had been very consistent, and that I have pushed to the National Assembly. But luckily God brought me into this position, into the House of Rep, because I won my position through the process of the court, I was denied the mandate and I went to court and luckily for me I won the case. And for the past two year and ten months, I had been in the Green Chamber, of the National Assembly.
The most important thing is knowing your functions, you are going to a place, what are your functions, what are your duties. One of basic functions of s legislator is law making. Make law for good governance and peace of the society.
Secondly, is representation, you represents your people effectively, by consultation and this comes from the grassroots that you represents that is one of your core functions.
The third one is over sight function. You have to oversight what you are funding.
In these three functions, when you want to rate a legislator, you have to grade him based on these three functions. How has he interacted? When I came, within a period of six months I convened a meeting with my people, to examine what I have done within the period of six months and asked questions on their needs, so that I can be able to put them into the budget process. That I have been able to do and Ndokwa people were massive when they attended that meeting, and I was glad on the enthusiasm and the level of participation of the people.
One thing I did was to focus on the issue of law making. Presently I have 12 bills presented and have passed second reading at the floor of the house. For me to initiate 12 bills shows the level of potency that I know my job. People had been there for 16 years, and you can’t even have one bill from them. And among my bills, two or three of them are in constitution amendment which had been adopted by both the Red and Green Chambers. Those three bills are part of the constitution process that is non going to each state. It shows potency that your bill has even passed third reading of the house. The other bills are in the reporting stage. I know when we resume again about five of it will be coming for a third reading, because committee had concluded public hearing of those bills, I follow up and make sure those bills come to fruitful.
A lot of motions had also been moved at the floor of the house. Those ones that have direct impact to constituency are also those one that have direct impact on Nigerians, among them are the level of spillage in 2012, which we witnessed during the flood and I brought AGIP to the floor of the house, and the house indicted AGIP on that, and again it depends on the level of the spillage, because you have the minor, medium and disastrous spillages which Ken Saro Wiwa in 1995 reported to the Human Right Watch, to show the level of criminality the Niger Delta region is suffering in the hands of Multinational Oil Companies.
This also informed me, because over these years there had been spillages over and those cases where not reported at the floor of the house. That is part of representation, because you have to represent the interest of your people, and what are these interests? Their health is your interest and when AGIP dumped a level of toxic waste, I also brought it to the floor of the house. I interacted with AGIP today to know the level of payment of compensation they are paying to these communities in Ndokwa East and is like the communities are having two groups, but we are trying to narrow it, that is the next meeting we are going to have so that they can receive their money in no distant time.
The toxic issue is being discussed at the house, currently NESRA and NNPC have their report on that issue and the committee will deliberate on it. I am not going to disclose what the committee is going to deliberate but it is going to be positive to the development of our people.
There was also level of rainstorm this year, which I raised as a motion, and I followed it up and I also made sure that NEMA distributed relief materials and again the road you are seeing is at a recent of my motion. The road you travelled to this place was one of my recent motions. This is a federal road, which came into being in 1973. I raised at the floor, and it was minuted to FERMA. Many never knew it was a federal road, but because of my interest to represent my people I dogged it out to make sure it was handled as a federal road, and I followed it up with a motion, and today the road is passable and people are happy, it brings succor to your people.
Today people are passing the different airports in Nigeria, the scanning machine they are using in airports and other security gadgets in the airports was through my motion. The first time I came in, i moved the motion and the minister of aviation at that time was summoned, and she came and was proactive and she installed those gadgets in all airports in this country today.
At the time I came in, there was no light in run-ways at our airports, both in Multala Mohammed Airport, Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja. When DANA had an accident, I was coming in from London that same day in the morning. British airway could not land there and I felt very bad, and at 450 am, and a man with a little bit potency and I was able to move that motion for the light on our run ways, and today virtually all the airports in the country have run-way lights.
Many motion I have moved, have also stabilized many states in terms of conflicts in the states. I also moved motions on the activities of the capital markets and the oil industry, especially on the activities of the multinational oil companies to always give proper account of what they produce and not denying Nigerians large percentage of revenue.
These are motions I have moved over the years, people had being there for 16 years and had not moved up two motions, but today this is 2 years and ten months and more than 15 motions have been moved at the floor of the house, this shows that I know my job. And if given another chance, I can do better. For first time you are going to the green chamber you are brought to bare that you are equal to the task. I am not praising myself but just reporting what is going our there. And the level of oversight function I had also carried out was seen in the nation, most especially in the health sector.
Today our hospitals are well equipped because of the level of oversight functions I embraced, virtually in the south-west, south-south and the North-Central which are my area of jurisdiction in terms of Sub-Committee also led to a lot of health centre’s today that had been established in Ndokwa today.
You have the Akoku Health Centre that has been completed, and equipment have been provided. You have the Ogume Health Centre in Ndokwa West, completed and equipped supplied, the Afor-Umuachi in Ndokwa East, the Abalu Oshimili, completed and equipped the Onyia Health Centre supplied with drugs and equipment. There is also water scheme there. There is also the Iyademe 90% completed.
There is the Onu-Ogboku with installed solar light, the Ibrede Grammer School, supplied 110 computers. Utagbe-Ogbe Grammer School that was supplied 220 chairs, which can accommodate 440 students.
There is the Adofi Primary school that has been given classroom blocks. Ossisa Health Centre that has been supplied drugs and some equipment. Umutu Health centre that has been supplied drugs. Also Amai Health Centre. In this era of solar light you have Umuebu Obaiaruku, Eziokpor; Ebedei the hospital is 70% completed there is the Ebedei solar light and solar water scheme and several transformers at Kwale Umuseti and Umusasadge.
I also collaborated with people in United States to bring in 20, 0000 secondary schools books; those books are already in Nigeria. Outside the government activities I have had understanding with NGO to bring development to Ndokwa. Again one of the cardinal things I said I am going to do is the step down of IPP and today it is in progress, and if when I am voted back this will be quickly achieved. This progress will only give us light but a gas hub around Afor area will be built, here an Industrial Estate can be established.
These are the blue prints of all that I had done within the past two years and ten months.
And effectively, while I said I need to go back is that Ndokwa need a chairman of a committee and these are giving to ranking members and not new members. When you take a new person, it means the representative of that area will start all over again the legislative process, and I think the Ndokwa media owners and editors will do a lot of good work to project Ossai Ossai back to the house as it will do the Ndokwa people more good. It is not the gain of Ossai Ossai, but because the gain and the impact will be stronger.
And for the first time, a motion to use the Ukwuani language to broadcast news in our radio and TV station was as a result of my motion in 2003.
And experience count a lot. And that is while I need to go back to the house because I am not finished with the house.
Ossai Ossai in 1999
I was elected into the Senate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka Students Union body in my second year, as senate president. I was also a faculty Rep to student union. I came out as a student union president; the university congress dissolved the student’s union body. After my university education, I contested as a young man in 1999 and I won my election, and that university experience made it possible for me to do well at the floor of the house, and after my first tenure, because of my score and I was re-elected for another 4 years and after 8 years I felt I need to move ahead, out of the state assembly and my 8 years brought a lot of success to the Ndokwa West people.
On PDP and Delta 2014
The PDP is very competent, they are strong, and they have structure. The entire 3 candidate for the chairmanship in Ndokwa nation are all good people, and experience administrators.
My Position on Ndokwa Governorship Ambition
I never scuttled Ndokwa people governorship dream. In 2005, the case of Obielum was that he was new and nobody knew him. And my advice then was that he was not on ground, you must be on ground. People must know you, and you must interact, and my little advice was that in governance, you must build bridges and if you are not known in the terrain for them not to be left if you become the Governor, you must align your people with proper group that will benefit them, instead of them losing totally.
Yes Obielum never asked for my support in 2015, he never taught I will be of help, and for people to say I scuttled his ambition is not true. If he noticed me that I am important as person representing Ndokwa west at that time he supposed to reach me to know to that extent for me to campaign for him, to that extent he never sought for it, and so I couldn’t had scuttled any body’s ambition.
On Petroleum University
On this issue I never did. We all went to see the former president Olusegun Obasanjo, I was there and the Ndokwa leaders scuttled the project themselves. They were arguing who will write and read the Ndokwa people’s message to Obasanjo. We were there and we were watching them as junior leaders and at the end of the day, the president refuse to see us and advice that we should go and see our governor at that time.
If the president said we should go and discuss with our governor at that time, how come they said I scuttled the ambition of the Ndokwa people to get the Petroleum University, when I was one of the agitators that it should be in Ndokwa.
This same politics they are playing is what they did when I tried to bring in some hospital equipment to Ndokwa people; they went and wrote that I wanted to sell the equipment. These were equipment I bought and paid with my own money, they wrote to Mitchel in Atlanta. This university was supposed to be sited in Kwale, so how can I fight against something that was to come to my land.
On Delta 2015 and Ndokwa
If you are somebody who play politics effectively you will also know that we have not galvanized ourselves effectively.
The reason being that many of the political neophytes are coming into the race as governorship candidates, we have people who had being in the system that you can say okay, let us support these people and I have told them again and again, if you cannot close rank and you are projecting several people from Ndokwa. I called the NNU President severally since last year, organize leaders of Ndokwa nation to rally round these aspirants to bring out one person, that Ndokwa can back, they refused. This year, I had called them three times
Now you have people who had been in the system since 1999. Governorship ticket is not meant for one person. If you know that the system does not want you, you project those people the system will not be annoyed with from Ndokwa Nation or are we saying that all these aspirants cannot gather themselves and project one person in Uduaghan administration and project him? Today we hear Emetulu and if the governor can recognized Emetulu and project him as one of his favorite why not other candidate support him. Those people saying that I frustrated the chance of Ndokwa Governor are the ones frustrating it and not Ossai Ossai, what stops Emetulu from being governor if they support him, but they are not ready, for you to hand over power to the next person you must have known the person in the party.
A king anoints a king. So the problem of Ndokwa Nation on the issue of 2015 is from the governorship candidates themselves people who that joined the party five months ago wants to be governor, while the PDP constitution does not allow them they need a waiver and you say I am frustrating Ndokwa Nation but you are the one doing that. I want you to look at it effectively and see those that are against Ndokwa chances.
NNU have to be decisive, especially with the issue of the 2015 Governorship election with the number of candidates from Ndokwa, Ndokwa does not have a chance. But when the life of a nation is under threat, like the issue of governorship race, the leadership of NNU should be decisive. They should be know the thinking of the state government toward Ndokwa Nation. They should call state holders meeting and show ratings of each of one of them. Some of them are there but the government does not value them. There are other people who are new, the government seems to flow with them and if NNU want to protect Ndokwa nation, they will flow especially when the system had recognized such persons. NNU should come out with their consensus candidates and see if Ndokwa is going to object to it.
Again, recently seven names was submitted to Mr. President by the Delta North leaders, and out of the seven names Ndokwa had two of them, Chief Obielum and Emetulu, so while can’t we rally round these two and pick one out of them.
On the movement of the IPP to Ika North
This is not true. I know the mileage we had gone. This project is already approved. Is not a question that we are in the process of approval. They had put us as one of the beneficiaries of the loan for that project, the federal government cannot come and say Ika will take it, the papers are already out on that, I want disabuse your mind. Land is already provided at Osemele in Ndokwa west two transformers will be steeped down one to serve the Ndokwa Nation and the other to serve Asaba areas.
Ndokwa political leaders and other Ethnic nationalities
We have grown overtime. For areas you have seen stability in leadership, those area that governorship had already emerged, the governor have a lot of average to establish leadership. He is the one who divides the cake of the state so he had a lot of strength to establish leadership. Urhobo leadership was established by Ibori and in the south today, the leadership is being established by the governor from that area. In Ndokwa Nation we have opportunity if Ndokwa man becomes the governor but everyone is wanting to become a leader and no one want to step outside. And that is while I decided to subject myself to NNU and anytime they call me for my scorecard I go. In the past the House of Rep member use to struggle with NNU but during my campaign I told them that I am going to be catalyst to NNU and not to lead the body and today it has been like that. I had always contributed to NNU, even in Abuja so I had always been a catalyst to NNU, I have being to Amnesty office with the President-General of NNU, including on the issue of the IPP project. I believe with time Ndokwa leadership will take its own course, because a level playing field is being noticed today whereby you have to subject yourself to the authority of your people.
Relationship with Ndokwa people especially the grass root
For me to had won an election again and again shows that I am in touch with the grassroots and they are happy with me and the majority are behind me the only problem I have with Ndokwa nation is with the elites who didn’t think my ideology should fit into their own arrangement and often times when the elites are against me I always win my election at the grassroots. The elites fight me because they believe background of my parents was not a well known political institution, an unknown name crop up in Ndokwa to establish myself. People had taught me severally and if you ask them what has Ossai done they would not pin point it. I have always asked people to judge me sector by sector apart from my position and function and I believe I have carried my function effectively to the best of my knowledge and elites find it difficult to believe that and each time they call me to brief them I do and some of these people are not close to my competence. It shows there is a problem.
I have tried to bridge that gap between me and the elites and today there is that communication between me and the elites because you have known the area you are having problem. I don’t have problem with grassroots and I can tell you I will win my elections again and again with your cooperation it will add more value into my electioneering.
On Issue of Being Violent
I don’t think so. I have interacted with you, I have been humble, I have related. Well with you, can a violent man relate like that, or be humble?
On Land/Boundary Dispute
We have boundary commission, and most of the boundary and land dispute are handled by the commission, also some of these lands are in court, but that does not stop us from going on peaceful settlement through the process of NNU, and I will make this known to the leadership of NNU, to bring the communities together, especially in those communities oil is cause of their dispute. Actually oil has caused problems since its discovery in 1956.
On the Relationship Between the Oil Companies and the Communities
On this I am trying to bring a bill to this. There was the Kyoto protocol, which Nigeria was a signatory to but currently, it has not been domesticated as a legal framework by the government. The activities of multinational oil companies that is operational in Nigeria today. And this is not only in the oil industry, but other organizations, because the protocol calls for corporate socio responsibility of all organizations inbuilt in their system, but what we see today these companies see it as PR, because it has not been domesticated, and we need a legal framework on that and I am working on it, because I did a thesis on it and I am working with some NGO’s to that regard to produce a real law to govern corporate socio responsibilities in our country, I believe in no distance that law will be made.
On the Old Aboh/Asaba Division and Infrastructural Development in Ndokwa
We all have seen the literature on the formation of these divisions, and while today we have different levels and number of LGA. The thinking then was that when we are out we will have more development, just like what happened in Edo State, where the Bini’s taught more of the large area where the Oba will govern, but as we no vision is not wisdom. When God gives you vision it is not eye sight, it is something in the development of tomorrow, and such vision makes you 20 years above your contemporary.
However, I don’t think we are marginalized except we want to do that. Societies must always come together and be decisive if they want development. It must not be this is my friend but rather this is what we want, and this will bring development when people see that you are working together.
So the issue of more local government creation, when the time comes for that, I will choose for my people, because I am a member of that committee in the house of representative. On the issue of infrastructural development, it cannot be attributed to poor representation; it is because we have not found ourselves in strategic positions in governance of this nation, because we are pulling ourselves down.
When people prevailed on me not to go for third time and I withdrew, you never replaced me, because at that time you made us to go back two steps backward. An Ossai Ossai was not replaced with another person at that time, and the leadership has been formed at that time, who decides the cake of the state, and after they have chosen, they will give to you.
At the national level, an Ndokwa man has not occupied a ministerial position or a sensitive director general and these are an important position that brings development. It is better to project the ones who have higher, than reducing him, so we can attract a larger development project to our people. But again we cannot say we are totally marginalized, we can have better development if we have continuous representation of our people, instead of always changing them. Voting me back is an advantage and not a disadvantage; people might not like the face. But what I can do, you should like it.
On the name, Ndokwa and Ukwuani LGAs, on the issue of treaty between the Ndoshimili and Ukwuani, I am not aware, but I am aware that the people decided they want to be the Ndokwa people, and at the time of creation of state and local government, a section of the people decided to answer Ukwuani LGA, I do not think this removes anything. Today, the language they use is not Ndokwa language, it is Ukwuani, and if they are reading Ukwuani language in the news, it shows we are Ukwuani’s, and I believe we should not create dichotomy in that area, but rather build on what we have. Today different things are done in Ukwuani, books and others to show that we are people, Ndokwa is combination of Ndoshimili and Ukwuani, what we should be praying for, is more LGAs and again, those leaders in Ukwuani LGA believe in Ukwuani as a name, and not in any other name. Yes, during the creation it was supposed to be Ndokwa East, West and Central, but they chosed the name, they believe in it, and if a people believe in something they should be allowed with what they believe in.
On His Chance of Second Term
First is to rate People. Rate me academically and based on my experience.
I earlier said I started my legislative business at the higher institution. The question should be that those who want to contest with me, have they perform as a legislator at any level?
A Legislator does not buy cars and Circulate. Legislators represent there people on three points, which are presentation, law making and oversight. Empowerment is a different ball game; you do this when you have enough. The most important thing is that impact you are making in the society. The law you make, what you are attracting are all these making impact on the people. I should be judged on these, and everyone us should be judged on our previous positions in the society, are they exposed legislative wise? I have raised the bar of leadership because of my competence and I don’t think any of the intending aspirants have the same experience.
