“I am the first Minister from Edo State since 1999 who has…
“I am the first Minister from Edo State since 1999 who has attracted over 60 projects to the state and across the three senatorial districts”-Prince Clem Agba
A frontline governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State and immediate past Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, is flaunting some bragging rights in the context of achievements and pedigrees in aid of his aspiration for the position of governor. He says in a recent interview of Arise TV’s Prime Time that he remains that only minister from Edo since 1999 to have attracted over 60 projects to the state spread across the three senatorial zones. He speaks on his TRUST Agenda which is his Unique Selling Point that targets even development and transformation of both the rural and urban areas of the state. He provides further rationalisations of his guber voyage and other issues. Excerpts
Que: What exactly is the Julius Ihonvbere Committee all about? Is this sanctioned by the APC National Working Committee or it’s just a committee set up by APC leader in Edo State by Senator Adams Oshiomhole to promote a sort of consensus which is now causing rancour?
Ans: Yeah, it is not that I want to join the gubernatorial race, I’m already in the race and I made my declaration on December 14th, 2022 after due consultations with stakeholders of the of the party. It’s true that on the 13th of January the aspirants were called for a meeting, There was a family meeting just to find ways and means of reducing or pruning down the number of aspirants so that there wouldn’t be rancor. And it was also felt that since, at the end of the day, it is going to be just one candidate, all 29 going into the race will just be a means of raising funds for the party and that if we could do something in house to help ourselves and pruned down thee number it will be a lot better. All aspirants agreed and a six-man committee was set up and they interviewed the aspirants.
Que: Sorry, I, think that’s where the controversy lies? Who actually set up the six-man committee because the State Publicity Secretary is saying that this is just a mere advisory committee among you people, not by the APC National Working Committee?
Ans: Yeah. Definitely it wasn’t by the APC National Working Committee. These all are in-house arrangements by the state party leadership and we all subscribed to it, all of us. We agreed and we subsribed to the terms of reference and at the end of the day, I think it was on the 19th that the leadership invited us again to tell us the outcome of the committee’s report. I don’t know where the number 10 is coming from because they never mentioned during the course of reportage that there were 10 aspirants. All we were told was that it was reduced to six, pruned down to six, two from each of the Senatorial district, and thereafter we were dismissed and we left and the committee members went back to their respective locations.
Que: All right. I just want to read out the names that were chosen. I mean, for Edo North, there’s Prince Clem Agba, which happens to be yourself, and then Ernest Afolabi Umahihie. That’s for Edo North. And then for Edo Central, we have Senator Monday Okpebholo and Colonel David Imuse. I mean, he’s been an APC person all the way. And then for Edo South, we have Honourable Dennis Idahosa and then Honourable Lucky Masuen. And this is the genesis of the controversy because others are saying that what criteria was used to screen them out. I’m very sure you know honourable Anamero, I mean I hosted him here sometime last week and just yesterday he held a press conference in Abuja here saying the stakeholder screening committee did not spell out the criteria it actually used in screening other 23 persons out. And so, these names of six persons were just announced and they are actually saying that something is going wrong…
Ans: I think that that would be incorrect to say that there were no criteria that were set and when the report was also being read, we were told number one is winning your unit, your ward, your local government senatorial district in the last presidential election and that was part of it
Que: Ok, the result of the last presidential election was used?
Ans: Yeah. And it carried 50%. Others are your contribution to the party over time know your fidelity with the party: have you be in and out, in and out, in and out of the party. So, and all of these were weighted and we were given the weights. The only thing is that when the results were announced, they didn’t put it in the order of performance, neither were the scores read out. But to say that the criteria or the terms of reference were not given to us, that would be incorrect.
Que: All right, and the APC National Secretariat is insisting that, look, it’s whatever it agrees upon eventually that will now be deemed to be the reality that all aspirants are free to buy their forms. Wouldn’t that contradict the outcome of this screening committee set up by Edo APC Stakeholders?
Ans: I don’t think it did because even at that meeting, we were also told that this is advisory. You know if you choose to go ahead you could, but if you agreed and subscribed to a process and the result is out, why wouldn’t you accept that process? But it’s up to the individual to decide. There were some people who raised some objections about those who made the list and saying we see a number of people here who only won their units, did they win their ward or local government or the presidency which carried 50% and they made the list and that they did win their unit and ward and local government, and they expected to have scored higher, higher marks and they were told that it would be looked into. Some of them said they didn’t supply the results of the elections for that period. And they were asked to bring them forward.
Que: Ok, so let’s address the big elephant in the room here, which is the allegation by a group of concerned Edo APC stakeholders saying that Adam Oshiomhole, Senator representing Edo North is actually the big masquerade behind the scene actually constituting this screening committee. And they’re appealing to President Bola Tinubu and the APC National Chairman to reject the outcome of this screening committee, which has propped you up alongside five others, saying that, look, Oshiomhole cannot in any way decide those who to contest this primary on February 17th. And that doing so, we may likely have the same scenario that happened in the past when he forced his way and had Governor Obaseki and Philip Shuaibu foisted on the party, and eventually we can see the result today. How do you respond to such?
Ans: Oshiomhole did not unilaterally set up a committee. Like I said, we were invited for a meeting on the 13th. Yes, he chaired the meeting as the leader of the party in Edo State. His deputy then was also there. Other leaders of the party across the three senatorial districts were also there and it was a family meeting. A proposal was put on the table that let us look for ways and means of pruning down so that there will be no rancour. And like I said, we all agreed….
Que: All these people, including Honourable Dr. Anamero, are just making noise. Is that what you’re saying because, I mean for him to have come out to address the press? You said he signed, he agreed to that screening committee. Then something must have gone wrong…
Ans: Yeah, he was there. He never objected. I don’t recall any one of us that objected to the agreement that there should be a pruning committee.
Que: Yeah, but I was told that there were 25 persons, although I later heard that on that day…
Ans: On that day, yes, we’re about 25, but for the screening, the number had risen to 29, OK.
Que: Interesting times! I heard and so since you’ve said Oshiomhole should not be blamed, I want to go into exactly what you have for the Edo people. Why do you think you deserve to be the governor of Edo State? And considering what we see in the PDP, do you think you’re fit enough to be able to take that battle to September 21, if you emerge?
Ans: Yeah. Why do I want to be governor? I have always lived in Edo State. I grew up in Edo State. I did my primary, secondary education in Edo State. I did my tertiary education in Edo central. OK, I am married from Edo South; I have traversed the state. I know the issues that we have in the state. I know how it was 30, 40 years ago. I know the situation it was until Comrade Adams Oshiomhole came in and how the state now started going on a growth trajectory. And we all love the sacrifices that some of us made. I left my high-paying job in Chevron, took a leave of absence, that was a huge sacrifice, to work in that government for seven and a half years as a Commissioner. And we were making progress and then we left in 2016, believing that one of us was there who was a member of the economic team like I was, who participated in putting in place a strategic plan for the state that we all agreed to. And one would have thought that implementation would continue. However, everything got halted. The drains that we built were not being desilted. They were not being maintained. New roads were not being built. You know, comrade started what we called the red roof revolution in the primary and secondary schools. All that stopped. So everything was going backwards. OK, I look at the Inflation rates, 26%. Then you look at the food inflation rates in Edo, I’m speaking particularly about Edo. The food inflation rate is 33.2%. Then you take a look at the consumption pattern in the state: 55.6% is on food. The other 14.9 is for fuel and light, 14.3 for telecoms and then 14% for education. So if an agrarian state you know, that has arable land in both the North, the central and the South, spends 55% of all their income on food, yet food inflation is 33.2%, doesn’t that tell you that there is a problem? That’s a huge problem and I’m asking myself why is this so? You look at the post-harvest loss: it is 60%. So, what is the government doing to arrest this? It’s not a situation where production is not going on. There is production, but it’s not getting to the market. The farmers are labouring in vain.
Que: Yeah. So how do you intend to turn that around?
Ans: That’s just one part of it. You look at schools, it’s not just about buildings, it’s about teachers. Today you don’t find teachers in our schools. Yet, we say we have an Edo best education programme
Que: You don’t have enough or there are no teachers at all?
Ans: OK, in my village, for instance the secondary school, we have two and a half teachers.
Que: What do you mean by that?
Ans: What I mean by that is there are two teachers, one principal who also teaches. So it’s a half principal and a half teacher. That’s why it’s two and a half for me. OK, so there’s no water. When you go to the rural areas in Edo state, there’s no portable drinking water.
Que: Yeah, but you were once a minister, Minister of State for Budget and National Plan. What did you do yourself to actually contribute to the development of Edo state that will now make you want to come out to be governor?
Ans: I am coming to that. You asked the question, why do I want to? First, I have to analyse the problem, you know, which is what I’m doing and it’s after analysing the problem I’ll tell you what I want to do to make it look different. OK, so there’s so much deprivation in the state. There is urban poverty and there’s rural poverty. And you know that urban poverty is monetary poverty, and the rural poverty is multidimensional in nature. In the urban areas, people who earn the minimum wage of N30,000, I think the state pays N40,000, the N40,000 cannot pay their house rent. So, what is left for food? Nothing. What is left for transportation? Nothing. Yet the mass of our people is trooping to the urban areas from the rural areas because there’s no sign of development at all in the rural areas. And then you come to the rural areas where we say there’s multidimensional poverty. And what do we mean by that lack of access to basic education? Because, again, the schools don’t have teachers and, in some places, they don’t have roofs. Lack of access to basic health. There are no Primary Health care centers around.
Que: Yeah, I mean, my viewers actually know some of these problems, but they’re interested in knowing the solutions you’re bringing to the table.
Ans: For me what I’m bringing to the table I’ve called it a TRUST initiative, which some people also want to call a TRUST agenda. TRUST to me, means Transforming our Rural and Urban Spaces Together. And what that means is that simultaneously work in the urban areas as well as you are working in the rural areas. And the first thing it does is that it stems this issue of rural-urban migration. It also solves our insecurity problem because a lot of people have moved from the rural areas to the urban areas. They are looking for opportunities which do not exist.
Que: Yeah, Honourable Clem Agba, but not just moving to the urban areas alone. Edo people are known to move all across the world, yeah.
Ans:. My concern now is they are trooping a lot to our state capital. The place is getting congested; there are no opportunities, so the slums are being developed. Vices are what we find and you can hear the state of killings that are going on in Benin. So, the issue is to provide these opportunities and how do you provide them? We produce food, 60% of which gets bad, so why? No access to market. So, what stops us from constructing rural roads, which is one of the of the programmes in the TRUST agenda, constructing roads across the agro corridors, integrated rural development, taking power to the rural areas, not the grid power, but the off-grid power. And when you do that, you find that you’re encouraging investments in those rural areas. And this could be cottage industries, someone setting up a storage facility, some are setting up processing facilities. And provided that there is the ability to communicate because telecom is so important. All these also need to be taken to the rural areas. When you transfer a teacher to the rural area and he knows he has accommodation to stay in, he will go. He knows that there is power. He will go.
Que: Yeah, you’ve made some very interesting points here. But I am curious to know what you did for the people of Edo Estate when you were Minister of State for Budget and National Planning because people will put it to you and ask you, I remember the issues of roads were raised with you, and then of course several issues including that of traditional rulers and all of that. And when you were making a declaration you said you were going to amend the laws and all of that, I want you to speak with our viewers. What exactly did you do and why should you be trusted to do it much better this time round?
Ans: Sambo, I am the first Minister from Edo State since 1999 that has attracted over 60 projects to the state and across the three senatorial districts. There are lots of water projects in the Edo Central. In Uromi area, there are about three major water projects there. The specialist hospital at Irrua has got five of my projects. The University of Benin Teaching Hospital about five of those projects. The psychiatric hospital in Benin 4. We have Road projects from the Ekewan Road in Benin all the way to Ikoro. It’s 19.5 kilometre road that has been constructed that is in Edo South. In Ovia Southwest, we constructed a bridge, the Aden Bridge when the old bridge was dilapidated and then we had to construct this new bridge because the community was now cut off from the oil palm and the mill in that area. There are Street lights, there’s water provision, there are markets that were done.
Que: And you think that’s enough to be able to win the confidence of Edo people for you to be able to get the seat. get the APC ticket and then of course eventually win?
Ans: I’ve just talked about one senatorial district. There were 80-bed hospitals that were being built, mini stadium, libraries…
Que: All completed?
Ans: All completed and they’re all functional and I’ll be going around inaugurating them. I was doing that before I left. The people know me apart from me being minister, the work that I did as a Commissioner for Environment and Public Utilities. In fact, the five months I stayed as Commissioner for Land Survey and Housing, I started digitizing the place and we started the Edo Geographic Information System. We transformed the King Square in Benin; it used to be a garbage. All those were my projects.
Que: Yeah. So, as we try to round off this conversation, talk to me about how you intend to go through this dicey situation of zoning. Although the APC has said that there is no zoning but on the minds of people in Edo states, it looks like there needs to be some sort of fairness in Edo politics. How would someone from Edo North like you come out after Comrade Adams Oshiomhole had spent eight years and Edo South had done eight years and there’s an Edo Central that just seems to be like an orphan.
Ans: I think you’re talking like (as if) Edo State started 16 years ago
Que: Well. We’re in the Fourth Republic now…
Ans: Edo South has produced 4 governors. Edo Central has produced 2 governors. Edo North has only produced one governor. Edo South has produced 3 ministers, Edo Central has produced 5 ministers and I was the first Minister from Edo North and I was Minister of State. So, it’s now truly we have a minister from Edo North. How do you place all of that? And again, when you are going into election, you do your calculations and say who will make us win, what will make us win. The stronghold of APC in Edo State is Edo North, where we consistently deliver an average of 83 to 85% of the votes. We don’t get that from Edo Central. It (Edo Central) is the stronghold of PDP. Edo South is cosmopolitan. It’s not consistent. You know, today he goes to the left; the next day it goes to the right and even in the last general elections, the Labour Party cleared Edo South. It was only Edo North that stood its ground. So, are you going to go to your weakest point to pick your candidate? Just think about that for a minute. I think what is important for APC as a party is who has the pedigree. You know who can make us win? Who is that candidate that is likely able to face the candidate from PDP.
Que: And you think that candidate is you?
Agba
Ans: When you look at my pedigree, I spent 20 something years in the organized private sector. I was a manager with Chevron, not only in Nigeria but in Kazakhstan. I’ve had a lot of foreign postings. I have sub-national experience having worked at the state level. I have worked at the federal government level and I’ve seen the disconnect…
Que: (cuts in) Do you have a godfather? And could that godfather actually be Adams Oshiomhole?
Ans: I have seen the disconnect between the national and the sub national government and the opportunities that are there. I have worked with the multilateral agencies…
Que: (Cuts in again) Yeah. But you haven’t answered my question. Do you have a godfather? And does that Godfather seems to be Senator Adams Oshiomhole?
Ans: I have God the father, I have God the Son. I have God the Holy Ghost.
Que: OK, just before I let you go, Honourable Clem Agba, you and I know that in politics you do give and take, and within the politics of Edo state, there’s this talk here and there that the zone that currently has the minister should not actually produce the candidate of the party. So Abubakar Momoh comes from Edo North as a minister of Niger Delta. Wouldn’t you actually be doing an injustice to other parts of Edo state if you emerge as candidate of the APC from the same Edo North again?
Ans: OK. Thank you. Again, I think we are trying to start history from today. My understanding of history is that you look at the past, right. OK. Osunbor was governor, and Ugbesia was minister, and it was right then, all from Edo Central. Godwin Obaseki is governor, and Ehanire was Minister of Health two times, all from Edo South. And both from the same local government.
Que: So that’s the same logic you’re going to use if you do emerge?
Ans: What has changed? Except you are trying to… you know when you want to kill a dog, you know, you have to give it a bad name so that you can hang it. So, if you cannot find something to do with the capacity of this individual to say no, he’s not capable, he’s not experienced, you have to look for something to…
Que (Cuts in ) So that wouldn’t count against you. Is that why?
Ans: It shouldn’t. As minister, I just did say that I worked for the state across the three senatorial districts and as governor I will do the same. I’ve just told you that my wife is from Edo South; she’s from Benin. Even my immediate elder brother is married from Uromi, which is the Edo Central.
Que: Very quickly, why did you make that statement that if you are actually elected governor, that you will amend the laws not to dethrone traditional rulers?
Ans: You know, it’s based on experience, OK? Because the current governor believes that I do not agree with him, he came out with an announcement that my king had been deposed and that the crown itself had been revoked and that was not right. You don’t say because of an individual, and I also think that in the traditional institution that we have now, these are representatives of our culture and our heritage and there is a process to installing them. In some of our climes, it is from father to son… In some, it is strictly first son. So, when you now depose him, who do you now bring in? I think that it is something that should stay within the institution to determine and not that of the governor. The respect that we give them is the respect that we get.