INTERVIEW: We are blind to the personality behind any building that default in Asaba-Amori

Sen. Ighoyota Amori is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party and the Chairman, Boards of Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency, (DSCTDA) in this interview with Ovasa Ogaga, he spoke on what the agency have done so far, initial challenge with the people adapting to the new ways, noting that they are set to give Asaba a facelift.

Excerpt:

Sir you are the Chairman of Delta State Capital City Territory Development Agency, I have gone round Asaba in the past two days, and observed that Asaba is wearing a new look from its old self as one of dirtiest state capital, what is the magic?

There is no magic about it; it’s just a new decision, a new approach to the functions that are assigned to the Capital City Development Agency, which of course like I said during our inauguration that a new Sheriff is in town. These functions are properly spelt out in the law establishing the agency and the law says we must focus on the territory in all ramifications, whether it is road, school, environment, water, or beautification. Ours is to develop the capital city, Asaba and bring it to standard and that is exactly what we are doing.

How did you get the people to buy into the programme?

We just changed the orientation, we just change the approach, first we employed persecution, and we also employed education, to educate the people on their responsibility and our function.  At first, the enlightenment and of course we apply the law, I believe that when the people are responding like you rightly observed, the capital city is wearing a new look; as you know, our people are very resistant to change. We are determined to go on and we are marching on, anyone who prove stubborn and refuse to bend, we apply the law and we have taken a lot of people to court and the judgement in our favour. Today people are now seeing that we mean business and they are now on their own doing what is expected of them to do, the landlords are responding and all the people living in the capital territory are responding to our plead, and I must also praise them because so far the resistant has been minimal because of the approach that we have applied, we operate within the law establishing the Capital Territory Development Agency.

One would also note that unlike other agencies, this agency is blind to party affiliation, where is the political will coming from?

First of all, we are discipline, and when it comes to our functions, we are honest, and we started with ourselves, the government agencies and the rest, we don’t look at the personality behind anything we are doing, we just go ahead and we do what we believe it is right. We have sealed a lot of ministries, commissions, corporate bodies and even up to clinics and agencies and even mechanics workshops and they are seeing that we are starting examples with ourselves, we are blind to the personality behind any building that default, we blind to it, what is worth doing is worth doing well, of course you have observed it and people are on their own, just look at the ministries, private schools, market, look at the way they behave on their own, trading on the road, we told them we don’t want people to trade on the road, we have our own mini ShopRite everywhere. We reorient the people that there are different ways to practice your commerce and industry. We have not started, what we are doing is just preparing people for bigger ones. We are coming to the bus stops, people still take taxi, bus from anywhere, we are coming to that, we are not even a year old, we just probably six months or so but gradually like I promise on the day of our inaugurated that a new Sheriff is in town that the Egyptians, you see today you shall see them no more. When I say Egyptians is like the old ways of doing things cannot continue to do things like that again, lot of people have said many things about us, they have been insulting my DG. We knew from the very beginning that the work is hazardous because of that, we always keep deaf ear to what they say, but the good thing is that even those abusing us have started appreciating us that we know what we are doing. My house in Benin was destroyed when they were expanding the road, there was no compensation and I did not protest because I knew what they were doing is right, this is what is happening to us now in Asaba, you can see the environment friendliness of Asaba now when you drive in the day and night, the cleanliness, which is next to godliness. We feel very fulfilled that we are doing the right thing, it’s like the proverbial lizard who feel from Iroko tree, if no one notice him he celebrate himself, for us, we have that self fulfillment that we are doing our best and our best is yet to come.

Talking about the DG, a lot of people are surprised at the synergy in this agency, no power tussle, no quarrels; everything is going on seamlessly, what is the secret behind it?

There is a perfect understanding between me and the DG and the board, we know our duties, we know our responsibilities and because we have one mind, I might not need to be there. The DG she is in charge of the day to day running of the agency, I provide the policy and supervise every functions of the agency, so these functions are defined and clearly stated, so whatever the DG is doing, I know she has the board and government approval. So, there can never be disagreement between I and the DG, she is just carrying out the law establishing the agency, if she is not the DG, she won’t be doing what she is doing and because we are cooperating, the devil cannot find a place in the agency, she is also a prayer warrior so she has cast away all the demons. (…laugh)

In the course of your activities, has the Governor have the need to call you to slow down?

No, no that’s our secret so far, the Governor knew he gave us a job and the Governor clearly understand the law establishing the agency. The Governor knows that when it comes to this agency, the men and women that are behind the agency knows their onions, we are not children, we are landlords and landladies, and we live within the state capital territory. So, we know our expectations, if we find anything wrong in the governor’s house or private residence, we won’t go to him, we will carry out our functions without favour, of course we also do it to ourselves, go and see the DG’s house along Okpanam road well painted, well secured, she has to set example, so the governor has never have cause to say slow down because slowdown is like don’t function again. The purpose of the board is to carry out the laws establishing the agency and that’s what we are doing, we have not overstep our bond, we are subordinate to the Governor but he has never find any reason to ask us to slowdown, instead you are doing well but do more and we are going to do more.

Sir before the rain sets in what should we Deltans expects from the agency?

So far, assess what we have done and the way we are going tells you we won’t slowdown. There are so many things we are doing to do, but everything is costly, environmental sanitation, beautification and cleanliness is costly, the only thing that might slows us down is the finance, we are agency that is competing with other agencies, ministries, and parastatals, for the little fund available. We would be able to do what the fund can allow us to do, so far so good, we will work within what the fund is allowing us to do, there are so many things we have in mind to do, we want to build cemetery, we want to build recreation centers, we have not seen any recreation center in Asaba apart from the hotels, which is not good. There must be a place where you can go and relax at leisure time, because all works and no play makes Jack a dull boy, there must be a recreation center where people can go by the weekend or holidays. We don’t have a park in Asaba, the bus stops are not functioning, the speed breakers are not there yet, there are no play grounds and not all the roads are numbered yet, not all roads have directional signs, you see we are trying to bring the capital territory to the standard you see everywhere. Sometimes, when you go to some place, you don’t need to ask questions to find your way, but all these are subject to availability of funds.  So, far the governor has shown more understanding and with more funds the sky shall be our limit. We also need more hands, we need people to supervise  some of our work because as I said, people are resistant to change, if you see what we see in the market, don’t throw your refuse here and of course they don’t do it in daytime, they do it when we are gone, we need some 24 hours policing, so when they are caught they are prosecuted, we want to work at the night, the way we work in the day, we want to equally install cameras, cameras will pick anything you are doing, people still defecate and urinate anyhow, we are trying to change the behavior of our people, if this is what they are doing before, they know now they can’t do it.

Going forward what is your message to Deltans especially in  Asaba Capital city?

They should see us as their friends, try to provide an environment that is very friendly, when investors come to a place and they drive round and they see friendly people, see free flow of traffic, everywhere clean and things are normal, where you don’t run into people, where you can know where you are going to with directional signs and you see things in a civilised manner and they will be happy to invest. They will be hungry to turn the place to a tourist center, they will go to  the place and come back tomorrow, at a time people were trafficking to Uyo, Uyo was not in the tourism map of Nigeria before, I did my youth service in that place. It was more of a settlement but when Uyo became developed, they became the center of attraction and everyone was heading there and you can see that almost all Nigeria matches are now played in Asaba, when people come to Asaba, they see the place they like it, and they see the potential tourism of the place, without knowing they keep coming back to the place and people come to invest. You see today, Asaba is becoming the Nollywood headquarter of Nigeria, if Asaba is a place that is not conducive, they won’t come and stay put, now you can see that the economy is improving. And you know that when people come to our state, their first place of call is Asaba, the state capital, just look at our international airport, they have their way free, no traffic jam.