'Federal, State Govts are Unfair to Councils'
In this interview with Jaiyeola Andrew, Chairman of Isoko South Local Government council in Delta State, Mr. Josiah Iroro speaks on several issues including the lingering Warri crisis, clamour for power shift in Delta State and the council administration in the country, among other issues
After you won the election, you were dragged to the election petition tribunal by your opponent and you were subsequently given a clean bill of health by the tribunal. What lesson have you learnt from this, and what is your message to those who voted you in?
Well, in desiring the office of chairman, I expected that there would be some opposition, moreso as I was coming with a new idea that local government can be an engine for development. After the primaries we had two years ago, there was a lot of rancour and I tried to reach out to those who contested with me so that we can all work together.
In the process, the person who came second became my running mate; he is now the vice-chairman of the council. Unfortunately, we could not convince everybody to get involved, and that was what led us to the tribunal. For me, it is all over; I am still inviting them to join me for us to work together for the development of Isoko. It is very normal what we have gone through, I believe that it is more civilized for us to go to court, argue over who should be there and who should not be there, it is better than riot as some people tried to engineer in the beginning.
I have refrained all these while from talking about this, I believe that I am offering my service and you do not have to force people to accept you. I believe that I had also done what was required, I went round campaigning, and now that we have put this tribunal behind us, we are going to devote all our efforts towards the development of the area. The more people I have working with me, the better.
Youth restiveness is synonymous with Delta State. What is your administration doing to address this?
I do not think youth restiveness is peculiar to Delta State, after all in Lagos state, you have area boys as well. I have identified youth unemployment as a major problem and that is why I have embarked on a youth empowerment scheme, where, as a starting point, we are taking 300 young men and women and using them for various tasks in the local government. Like sanitation, road maintenance etc.
We have a vocational training centre that I also want to reactivate where unemployed graduates would be taught computer skills, computer engineering, tailoring, house-keeping, and at the end of their programme, we hope that the council would be in a position to give them some money as a take-off grant to start their own business.
We will continue to educate them, we will continue to appeal to international donor bodies and NGO's to come and work with us on how to help the youth acquire skills, so that they can have something doing. Unfortunately, there is a limit to how many people government can employ, otherwise that would have been the fastest way of doing it. My local government, we have a peculiar problem, apart from the oil companies and government, there is no other employer of labour.
I am also thinking that when I have a little more money, we would set up a few factories. Because my people are poor, they cannot on their own set up these enterprises so the local government is going to be the engine room for setting these things up and then we would divest ownership. We hope that we will be able to generate some form of employment for the youth and thereby reduce the level of youth restiveness.
What is your view about the intractable Warri Crisis.
Warri crisis, I believe that the government of Delta State is doing a lot to resolve it, unfortunately because there are many people in high places who are benefiting from the crisis which has refused to go away. Also because of the politics of the nation, I believe that there are some external forces that are also fanning the ember of the crisis. But in due course, all those who are being mischievous in Delta State would be exposed and we would move forward.
It pains me to see what has become of Warri in recent years, Warri was a beautiful place, home for everybody in Delta. Now, we have driven away all business and so on. But I am sure with the efforts of the governor, we shall soon overcome it.
How would you assess Governor Ibori's peace initiative in Warri axis, his agitation for resource control and true federalism?.
Let me start by saying that my current involvement in politics was fired by my admiration of what James Ibori as a person was doing in Delta State. As a young man, it challenged me because I was able to see the difference he has been able to make in this state. Between the time the state was created in 1991 and 1999 that Ibori came in, the difference is so clear. Therefore, I took it as a challenge that if you have a young man with a vision, that it is possible for him to move his people forward and I think that is what Ibori has done for Delta State.
He has been going through a lot of troubles over his agitation for resource control. This country owes Ibori a debt, that he has been able to bring this idea of resource control from the market place to the board room of government for discussion. If Ibori were not there to give vent to what people are saying, what we are having as crisis in Niger Delta now would have been a child's play.
But because we know he is there, he is fighting and people are beginning to listen to him, everybody is waiting and watching to see what the power that be will do. Therefore, the Federal Government and indeed all Nigerians should be grateful to him for what he has done for this country.
There is this clamour for power shift in Delta State from central to either Southern or Northern senatorial districts of the state come 2007. You are from the south, what is your position on this?
In 1999, Ibori became the governor of Delta State, because he performed very well, in 2003 he was re-elected. In 2007, I believe that Delta State deserves the best person as governor, who can continue with legacies Ibori have laid down. Should this person come from central,north or south, I believe that as a people, if we believe in the fact that God has made us one, it does not matter to me where this person comes from. We should look for the best from Delta and not the village or senatorial district, the person comes from. If he happens to come from South, fine, if he comes from Central again, no problem. But I believe that Delta deserves the best and we should go beyond the idea of North, South or Central.
Local Government Chairmen are generally seen as being highly corrupt. Do you suscribe to this?
That is the unfortunate perception, but my heart bleeds when I hear such things because, usually, people who make such comments, are people who are putting a lot of pressure on Local Government chairmen to just dip their hands into council funds and bring money for them. A lot of people at the state and the federal levels see local government as a source of petty cash. The federal government has agencies at the local level that they do not cater for, they do not know where those offices are located, it is the council that takes care of them. The state government has the same thing too, so the local government is left with the short end of the stick every time. Take primary education as an example, the constitution says that local government will participate in the funding of primary education, but what we have today is that the whole burden is now left for local government to bear. So, when you take away primary school teachers salaries, you take away the salaries of the council staff, at the end of the day you have very little fund for meaningful development. And for this little funds you have, you have people making all sorts of demands from the local government. So, and these same people turn around tomorrow to say that the local governments are not performing. I just think it is another way of giving dog a bad name just to hang it.
What do you think the Federal government should do about the state of security?
Insecurity, unfortunately the Federal Government controls the police, the SSS, the army, and also 90 percent of the finances of this country. Therefore removal of the current state of insecurity. The youth are unemployed, they need something to do, and so I believe that if the Federal government can release more money to the state and local governments, because they are the people that are actually close to the grassroot. We are in a better position to do a lot of the things federal government is currently doing. For instance, agriculture that is a local problem. primary education, the Federal government has no business with that, secondary education, federal government has no business with that, housing, and those are local issues. If the federal government can release some of the money it is holding unto, I think we will be able to carry the people along, engage them more meaningfully and therefore a lot of these insecurity would go away.
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