It requires ingenuity to turn things around –Ojiri, Imo PDP governorship aspirant

Ken Ojiri has suddenly become the man of the moment in the run-up to PDP governorship primaries in Imo State. His issues-based campaign has marked him out from the crowd of mudslingers.

Significantly, the business reengineering expert has been outlining what he would do for his peo­ple if he gets into office. Instructively, he is challenging fellow contestants to also present their own agenda rather than hurling insults at one another. Oji­ri spoke to Saturday Sun on a variety of issues.


You said you would be the next governor of the state in 2015, how would that be?
At the risk of sounding immodest, I am the most prepared among all other contest­ants. I have outlined what I would achieve and how I would achieve them from day one in office to the last day in office and they are open for people to see. It is my lev­el of preparedness that excites the people of Imo State because for once, someone knows what to do when he gets into office contrary to the situation where one gets to the office before embarking on trial and error with the fate of the citizens.
I possess the right experience, I have the right orientation, I have the right attitude, I have the passion, I have the desire to re-build Imo State and transform it to a model state which will be the envy of many. My team and I have consciously prepared and successfully sold myself to the people of the state. Now they believe in me and I am ready to carry their trust.
Should you become governor, how would you cope in an austerity season?
First of all, I have no doubt in my mind that I am going to be the next governor of Imo State in 2015. In that case, it requires ingenuity to perform in a season of austerity, a season of meagre income from the federa­tion account and a season of more demands from the citizens of the state. The contrast of the situation is such that while there will be lean purse from the federation account, individual economies would be very choked up requiring that people look up more to the government than ever before. However, it is at times like this that preparedness becomes the defining difference.
Unfortunately, my state, Imo State is one of the few states that did not prepare for this kind of emergency. Proactive governance requires that while the windfall was accru­ing to the states, the state government uses it to expand the internally generated revenue base of the state. This is done by boosting economic activities, encouraging small and medium scale industries, improving and modernizing agriculture, thereby attracting graduates to the schemes. There should be a scheme that will make agriculture attractive to as many people that are willing to join as possible. Naturally, industries are like flow­ers that bend towards the direction of the sun, they flow towards the direction of raw materials and that is what agriculture should do for Imo State. These industries not only provide employment, they provide the in­ternally generated revenue base which will augment to a large extent whatever comes from the federation account. Sadly enough, that is not the case in Imo.
Your list of policy ideas looks rev­olutionary. What makes you think they will flourish when those before it have failed?
Idea not backed with determined effort to achieve result is like a still-born baby. Beau­tiful ideas are never translated to beautiful programmes or projects if they lack genuine intentions. With God on our side, and with unwavering commitment, we shall deliver the goods to our people.
Imo is blessed with abundant, rich, fer­tile land and human resources. They ought to be properly harnessed for the benefit of our people. Our state has no excuse to lag behind. Really, to destroy is easy but to re­build needs dint of hand work. We are ready to rebuild our dear state. Imo will begin to work again. Our people will come to under­stand government, decide their future and be part of their development.
I possess the right experience, I have the right orientation, I have the right attitude, I have the passion, I have the desire to re-build Imo State and transform it to a model state which will be the envy of many. I have consciously prepared myself and I believe God will help us.
Would you rate our political pro­cess?
Our political process leaves so much to be desired. There is so much desperation, crude ambition and dirty intrigues in the system. But it has the latitude to be better. It requires joint effort. We shall get there when we begin to learn to play by the rules.
How do you rate our democratic growth since 1999?
There is no perfect human system. Even advanced democracies still grapple with imperfections. Our democratic practice is a function of our collective failures- our failure to play by the rules, our failure to be fair to others, our greed, our selfishness and other retarding vices. It requires sincere ef­fort on all and sundry to become better. It is a process.
PDP has been under fire lately for non-performance, how will that rub off on your campaign if you win the primaries?
Thank you very much. I want to tell you that PDP has been a victim of deliberate propaganda orchestrated by those who do not mean well for the country. In civilized democracies, a line is drawn between poli­tics and national collective interest. Here in Nigeria, the opposition don’t mind if the country collapses as long as they achieve their political aim. No country develops that way. Take the security situation in the coun­try for instance. One would have expected that both the ruling and opposition parties should unite to fight a common enemy, Boko Haram. Instead, what do you see? The op­position practically rejoices for any bomb blast that occurs in the country using it as campaign tool against the government of President Goodluck Jonathan.
In terms of performance, it is saddening to note that even the elites are not seeing the direction of the Goodluck administration or choose to be mischievously pretentious. Everywhere in the world, history does not forget those who laid the foundation of their country’s greatness, from Indonesia to Ko­rea, Japan, India and even our neighbouring Ghana. I believe President Jonathan is build­ing a foundation for a prosperous Nigeria. In fact, if most of what he is doing now were done some 30 years ago, this country would have been one of the greatest economies of the world.
Can you point out some of them?
I am a practising Business Reengineering expert and I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that if the power sector was privatised some 30 years ago, even 15 years ago, we would have made a quantum leap in our national economic life. Each govern­ment that came lacked the political will to do it, cowering away at the slightest threat of in­dustrial action and the unreasonable demand of the unions who were milking the nation dry and laying us prostrate. If they had mus­tered the will power to do it then, the teeth­ing problems we are grappling with right now would have been overcome long time ago. President Jonathan mustered enough will power to do what others couldn’t do and whether anyone likes it or not, in the next 10 years, history will remember him as the man who laid the foundation for Nigeria’s economic greatness.
Sometime in the near past, people slept on the roads across the country for days try­ing to reach their destinations, whether you were going to the East from the West, or from the North to the South due to bad roads that looked intractable. Today, everyone has quickly forgotten those agonizing days that made a federal minister weep on national television. They didn’t just become good again, someone fixed them and that person is President Goodluck Jonathan. I can go on and on with agriculture where the fertilizer mafia has been decapitated and the people have been set free, Ajaokuta Steel Complex, the disappearance of fuel queues all year round. Why do we suffer quick amnesia en­gineered by mischievous propaganda?
That is why I have said it everywhere that no other president in this country will have the impediments president Jonathan has and do half what he has done and the best de­feat the country would hand down to Boko Haram is returning the Goodluck Jonathan for a second term because the very reason of Boko Haram’s campaign of violence in the first place is to stop the president from trying to contest again. It will mean a defeat of the people of this country if they succeed.