Speaking to Saturday Sun on his mission to transform the state, Ubah noted that he has supported successive governments in Anambra, believing that things would work out well, adding that the inability of these governments to lift the living conditions of the common people led him to go for the governorship seat of the state.
He spoke on this and others.
If given the mandate, what would be your philosophy?
Leadership is collective responsibility between the leader and the led. This is why I’m promising a participatory leadership if voted into power to run the affairs of Anambra State from 2014. Our contract with Anambra people is to run a truly democratic government. We believe in transparent government and that government processes must be an open book. The people you serve must know, at any point in time, the direction of the ship of state, especially as it relates to government revenue and expenditure. We believe in grassroots democracy and our government in 2014 will organise local government elections within 90 days of assumption of leadership at the state.
We believe in employment generation – creating jobs for the teeming unemployed youths so that criminals and criminality will disappear in Anambra. We believe in accountability, that government shall have regular audited financial reports. We will not wait for an audit query from the state’s House of Assembly to give account of our stewardship at any level of government. We believe that security of life and property, and welfare of Anambra people are the primary purpose of governance.
What will be your priority as the governor?
The increasing wave of crimes and criminality in Anambra State is rooted mainly in the fact that a great number of our youths are unemployed. In the absence of basic infrastructure as well as security of life and property, Anambra has been turned to a ghost state, as our entrepreneurs have relocated to other states. Our government will pay particular attention to youth empowerment, job creation, protection of life and property, good roads, good medical care, quality education for all, etc.
You talked about unemployment. How are you going to tackle the problem?
We intend to run a government that will not depend on federation account to survive. This we intend to achieve by running a highly industrialised state that will target the patronage of over 160 million Nigerians and beyond. We have a joint responsibility to restore Anambra to its unarguable position, as the pride of Igbo land. Igbo generally are known for their dogged spirit of enterprise, industry and commerce and community. This spirit is presently weaning because of bad leadership. For instance, how do you explain the fact that successive governments in Igboland, in the past, especially in Anambra State, did not deem it important to make commerce and industry the focal point of their leadership, by creating enabling environment for micro, small and medium scale enterprises to thrive in Igboland? It is an established fact worldwide that micro, small and medium scale enterprises form the engine room of the economy because together they create more than 70 percent employment opportunities. So, we are going to transform Anambra from its present emphasis on rent-taking to an industrial hub of Africa, by establishing between 20 and 50 of these enterprises in every local government in the state. Some uninformed bystanders might be tempted to ask how? We have to emphasis that most of these enterprises are run in small apartments when the enabling environment is right. Most communities in Anambra are known to specialise in one form of business or the other. For instance, Umuoji, in Idemili North Local Government Council, is known for jewelry. Nnewi, a sprawling commercial town in Anambra South, is known for vehicle spare parts. Awka, the state capital, is known for blacksmith, etc. So, we are going to encourage these communities to manufacture more of these things locally instead of the current practice of importing them from abroad.
How are you going to tackle security challenges in the state?
This issue of insecurity is a major reason Anambra is becoming a ghost state, in terms of entrepreneurship and business enterprise. Most of the entrepreneurs in Anambra have virtually relocated to other states, where security of their lives and businesses are guaranteed. Our core Igbo values have received serious dents. Our people living outside Igboland are afraid to go home with their children because of this menace. Traditional marriage are now conducted in diaspora because of fear of kidnappers. Our children no longer know their culture and tradition because they live mostly outside Anambra. What they know about their culture is the little they can learn from their parents because of these security challenges. Kidnapping in Anambra has acquired a new dimension that even after paying ransom your life is still not guaranteed. Some prominent Anambraians have been killed even after paying the agreed amount to their captors.
We believe the issue of kidnapping has been exacerbated by acute unemployment ravaging the state. Our unemployed youths have resorted to kidnapping, as the only hope of livelihood. Kidnapping is now the most lucrative business in our state. Our government will put an end to this menace through massive job creation and technology driven security arrangement that will network the entire communities in Anambra, which will make it difficult for any die-hard criminal to contemplate lawlessness.
What would be your programmes in the health sector?
The vogue in the world today is medical tourism. Most serious countries have invested tremendously in the provision of health care to their people and to the extent that citizens of other countries travel to their countries to get proper medical attention. India, a country at par with Nigeria 20 to 25 years ago, is now choice destination for sick Anambrarians. Why is it difficult for government to provide standard health facilities to care for the sick? Our government will pay adequate attention to the health of our people by providing modern health facilities in the state. Our people will no longer travel as far as India to get proper medical attention. We have the resources-intellect, will, enterprise, and wealth to achieve this enviable status.
Education is a big industry in Anambra. How are going to sustain this?
We are living in knowledge-driven world. This is why education is the bedrock of every enterprising economy. No nation will transform without adequate attention to the educational needs of her people. Our government will give education its pride of place by making sure it takes a greater chunk of yearly budget provisions. We know that talk is cheap but we are talking from experience. Being at the driving wheel of this dream, I’m loaded with a sense of enterprise. My antecedents further speak. Action, they say, speaks louder than words. I know that talk is cheap and anybody can talk himself to a position of reckoning, if that is the yardstick. In the business of life, your position is always determined by your contributions so far and what you can do in future is also gleaned from what you have done in the past. I choose to talk about myself, from two broad categories: my business (oil and gas represented by Capital Oil) and my philanthropic activities, represented by Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah Foundation.
I have sacrificed my thriving oil and gas business to serve my people. I have relinquished the management of Capital Oil and Gas for two years to enable me concentrate in the business at hand. Capital Oil will be run by a board of competent technocrats and enterprise gurus chosen by me for two years. I chose to do so because Capital Oil is of strategic national importance. I want to allay the fears of people that my joining politics will compromise national security. I have supported successive governments in Anambra State believing that the living condition of my people will improve. But looking back, I have noticed that not much has improved. So, instead of further supporting these leaders without a sense of direction, I have decided to throw my hat into the ring and use the experience that transformed Capital Oil and Gas into a formidable player into the business of government in Anambra State. I am not new in politics, because business is politics.
I started oil and gas business in Nigeria 2002, though it was an offshoot of the business I was doing in Congo before I relocated to Nigeria. I started with trucking (haulage) and now Capital Oil manages about 35 percent of oil consumption in Nigeria. This is because we understand the down stream – kerosene, diesel, and petrol – business. We own about 26 vessels, 32 gantries and we can dispense 32 million litres in 12 hours. Nigeria’s daily consumption is 35 million. Our truck park can accommodate 1,100 trucks simultaneously. We are the only company in the down stream sector with such record. We have the biggest tank fleet-over 800 tankers. We have employed about 3,500 Nigerians. We have built strategic regional reserves in Suleja, Funtua, and Enugu. This is to ensure regular supply of petroleum products to all parts of Nigeria.
We have about 800 filing stations and four depots. We own the biggest berth jetties, which can load 800, 000 tonnes of products. I can go on and on talking about Capital Oil, but what is most interesting is that we were able to do all of this within five years, that is, between 2006 and 2011. Capital Oil and Gas is now the biggest employer of labour in Anambra State. Our KeroDirect has dispensed kerosene at N50 per litre to almost all major towns and communities of the federation. It is important to note that for every tanker load of kerosene we lose about N2.1 million. In other words, we have subsidised this product to the tune of N2.1 million.
Okada riders (commercial cyclists) and bus drivers in Anambra State get free fuel every Monday from our filling stations. We pay the hospital bills of pregnant women in Anambra State from gestation to delivery. So many communities have benefited and are still benefiting from this act. We sent chartered plane to the North to evacuate stranded Igbo in the place, after Boko Haram mayhem last year. We have brought down fuel price from between N120 and N130 per litre in Anambra to the official price of N97 per litre, through steady supply of fuel from our tanker fleet. By this act, we have revived many comatose filing stations in Anambra State. Moreover, I have converted about two of Capital Oil fuel stations to NNPC mega stations to further ensure that my people, especially the less privileged, are not shortchanged in their daily requirements of these essential products. We know we are leaving in a knowledge-driven world. This is why we have given numerous scholarships to so many indigent but intelligent students in Anambra and beyond.
Why are you so optimistic of becoming the next governor?
We believe our mission to form the next government in Anambra in 2014 is real. This is because of the warmth and enthusiasm expressed by the Anambra people we have had the privileged to meet in the course of our one-on-one interaction with them. We have garnered a lot of endorsements from major segments of the electorate. We have received the endorsement of Coalition of Northern Youths in Anambra State. We are now dubbed the ‘traders choice’, ‘workers choice’,’drivers choice’, ‘Okada riders choice’,’ people’s choice’, ‘professionals choice’ etc. These endorsements are not just ordinary proclamations; rather they are borne out of our past dealings with these bodies, as we have touched their lives in many ways using our limited resources as private player in the economy. They believe that our milk of human kindness will not run dry when we have a bigger platform to bring government to the doors of the poor and the less privileged in our state.
On which platform are you going to achieve your aspiration?
Four major political parties – PDP, APGA, Labour Party and ACN (APC) – are in the contest for Government House, Awka in 2014. PDP in Anambra is in crisis; APGA Anambra is also in crisis. ACN (APC) is still in the oven. The question is whether we will realise our dream in a fragmented political platform. The answer is, ‘no.’ Labour Party is the only party in Anambra that is rancour-free. We believe that Labour is the best party to be now. We acknowledge the fact that we have an enormous responsibility to reposition the party to wear the same popular toga as our brand before the election. Again, we know that an average Igboman likes to identify with a party at the centre or a party that can be called an Igbo party, but in Anambra, the party or parties with semblance of such identity are suffering from self-inflicted crises.
APGA, as a political party, used to attract the sympathy of average Igboman because of the Igboman’s inclination to identify with a political party or organisation that has the interest of Igboman at heart or one at the centre because of my believe in one, united Nigeria. That was what APGA represented, especially during the time Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (Ikemba, Eze Igbo Gburugburu) was in control. The demise of Ikemba and the current leadership tussle between Sir Victor Umeh and Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has virtually killed this vehicle for the political aspiration and actualisation of Igboman. Governor Obi, unfortunately, has sold out to forces bent on destroying this Igbo political identity and people like me, who have unalloyed determination to use political power as further leverage to emancipate the Igbo, especially Anambra people, would not keep quiet and allow the current implosion to consume my ambition. I decided to leave this sinking ship and use the Labour Party to achieve my ambition to become the governor of Anambra State in 2014.
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