Tejiri Ebikeme/Francis Sadhere
Mr. Love Ojakovo, is a Warri-based businessman, running one of the most reputable supermarket (TIVO) in the oil-rich city of Warri. In this exclusive interview with our crew of Tejiri Ebikeme and Francis Sadhere, Mr. Ojakovo who served as Finance Commissioner under former governor, James Ibori, bared his mind on varied issues. You bet, this interview is unputdownable. Excerpts.
Sir, please tell us how it is doing business in Delta State?
Doing business in Delta State and Nigeria generally today is tough. It is tough because, one, the cash is scarce and when you manage to get capital from the banks, the cost is high. We have managed with that and we have employed people. Staff is the greatest problem. Getting reliable staff who want to work and wait patiently to grow in the business. Delta State in particular is very difficult. The psyche of the young man and woman in Delta State, average Deltan, not all, is to make very quick money. They do not want to pay their dues to get to where their mates got to in the previous generation. At 20, 25 and 30 years, the young man wants to be a millionaire. So they do not want to have the patient to take on paid employment. So the turnover of staff is rapid. You trained people, they worked for six months, one year and before you know it they are looking for something else.
The next major hurdle is constant electricity. You will not believe that in our little business in Warri alone, we spent nothing less than two million in buying diesel to run generator and keep the business afloat. That is just buying diesel; we are not talking of maintenance of the generators. So you can see that business is tough. But with all these we give thanks to God almighty that we are still afloat, we are still paying staff and we are still managing irking out a living.
You painted a very worrisome picture about the issue of staff, what is the implication on the nation and the economy?
The implication for the nation is real and serious. One, because they do not have enough employment opportunities opportunities to take in enough qualified and trained people. You have thousands and millions of employable youths who are qualified, who are trained and yet do not have the opportunity to work. God save us in this country because if that section is revolutionized, we are in deep trouble. Thank God they are not revolutionized yet. Yes, a few fringes go out of their way and do extreme things to make money. That is the lure of kidnapping, armed robbery, criminality, and breaking of pipes, illegal refineries. If they have gainful employment in areas they have been trained for, you will have less of this; not that it will not be in existence, but it will be less.
Do you have any regrets investing in Delta State?
Not at all, and as a matter of fact it gives me joy in the lord because when I see the number of staff we have when we had our end of year party, that are depended on them, I see over one thousand people. With this little investment, a lot of people have been taking out of extreme poverty. They are able to pay their children’s school fees, take care of them and all that. So it is a great joy for been and agent of such developing trend.
Do you have any limitations?
God knows our limitations. I have come to do business and I will continue to do business until God says it is time to go or I am not strong enough. Even though I am not strong enough and the brain is still working; these day you don’t have to be everywhere to do business. You have your laptop in your hand, you can control your business from anywhere. There are no limitations. The sky by the grace of God, is our limitations.
If you have your way, will you still like to employ Deltans?
First and foremost, I employ Deltans and priority is given to the indigenes of my catchment areas. If I am in Agbor for instance, I will employ the Agbor people first. It is only when we do not have them available for the type of jobs that we look else where. The reason, you are in Agbo and you bring all the Urhobos to Agbor, you are in religating the people. There is no connection. But if you have Agbor people earning a living there, training their children with the money they earned, you will see that there is a connect and if there is anything coming up the community will rise in unison to support the company even if the promoter is not there. So there must be a connection and the philosophy is employ the people of the community and if they are not available, you can then employ from outside. So generally, 99 percent of my staff are Deltans.
Tell us, is super market business still striving?
First of all you have to understand what the Super Market business is all about. It is a market just like every other market. The only difference is that it is a super market. Everything you find in the super market, you can find in a regular market where you will walk to different places in the sun before you get what you want. But the super market brings all these things together under one roof that is comfortable, clean and hygienic environment. In the Super Market there is certainty that you are buying the original stuff to use because the super market has a good name and it tiers its name to the product it sells. So you can walk into the super market when you close from your office and you get into an air conditioned room, pick what you want and leave. The shelves are labeled so that if you want a perfume, for instance, you go to the section where they are selling perfumes. This is why it is a super market and the implication of this is that it is meant for the middle class and the rich.
What informed your locating this super market here?
When you want to go into a business and you decide where your location may be, you first of all do what we call a feasibility study. If you have certain business in mind you will go to that area and look if there is that kind of business in that area. If there is an opportunity for a new entrant or if the segment is filled. I saw the possibility of a new entrant in this area. The only super market in Warri and environs was Esco Super Market. So there was clearly an opportunity for a new entrant and that is why we entered into the super market business. From the super market business we vied into other businesses related to the super market.
Hotels are good business but we have a lot of hotels in Warri and environs. Petrol stations are springing up every day. Somebody said that soon petrol stations in the town will be more than the cars and I told him that it is impossible. More petroleum stations are springing up because they are making a lot of money from it. They are making money because that sector is not properly regulated. If you go to the filling station nearby they are selling above the pump price and they because of this they are creating artificial scarcity.
How do you see the effort of the state government in making Warri and environs clean and beautiful?
Their effort is laudable and I congratulate the government for the effort it is putting in making Warri clean; clearing the drains so that when heavy rains comes there will be no flood. It is in the interest and health of the people and I congratulate Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan for his effort.
A lot of people are saying despite the demolitions going on, Warri is still a slum and it is far away from becoming a mega city, what is your comment on this?
A clean town cannot be achieved by the effort of the government alone. The inhabitants of that town have to have the culture of cleanliness. I give a simple example of Calabar where I travel to often. If you walk on the streets of Calabar, you cannot throw something on the road because they have imbibed that culture long ago. It does not need a policeman or a commissioner for environment to tell them that they should not throw something on the road. It does not need anybody to tell the people of Calabar not to throw their waste on the road because that is a culture they have imbibed over the years. This culture has to imbibed by Deltans. Government cannot do it all alone and the fire fighting of government can only last for one or two weeks. In another one month, all those containers you moved from the streets will come back. They have been removed before, haven’t they? When I was in government, we did this kind of demolitions across the state. Where are we today, back to square one. So the people have a hand in it. What I think should be done, apart from this demolition, is to have sanitary inspectors that we had when I was a young child and when the colonial people where still here. They monitored street by street, compound to compound and they even go to your house and check if it is clean or not and it is not clean you will be arrested or made to clean it or pay a fine.
How will you describe the drama that played itself out between you and Hon. Frank Omare during one of his demolition exercises at one of your super markets at Robert Road?
First let me say I have been getting a lot of calls. I want to use this medium to disabuse the mind of the public that His Excellency the Governor was behind what Frank Omare did to my fence in Robert Road. I do not think so and I can say with all certainty that the governor is not involved, not aware and has nothing to do with it whatsoever. Frank Omare, the Honourable Commissioner for Environment with all due respect, was carried away with the trappings of power. Frank Omare knows that that property belonged to a former Commissioner. The spirit of Espirit de corp should have informed him that even if the place was marked for demolition, he should do it with fanfare. But then Frank Omare is aware that in 2011 the government marked that property for demolition. Frank Omare is aware that Love Ojakovo sued the state government and the matter was in court. Frank Omare is aware that the government was represented in court by the lawyers and solicitors of government. Frank Omare was aware that there was a perpetual injunction that the government or its agents or privy or whatever, should tamper with the property. How could Frank Omare go to that property to try and demolish part of the fence? And even if we say for the purpose of argument that he is not aware that there was a perpetual injunction. When I was called and I rushed there, I went to him as a brother and said, Frank ‘what is happening? Why did you destroy that part of the fence?’ His response was, ‘I was sent by government to do a job and I am doing my job.’ I said fine; ‘Are you aware that there is a perpetual injunction by a competent court of jurisdiction and the government did not challenge the ruling. I gave him a copy of the court order and he pushed it aside and said he does not want to see anything. What does that leaves one to believe. That makes us to believe that his action was premeditated, vindictive and for whatever reasons. And against the advice of a friendly commissioner who was there. Chris Oghenekevwe said, “hey I did not know that there was a court injunction, Frank stop, let us look at this and if we have looked at it we can come back again to demolish the other part of the fence.” Frank Omare said, “no I will demolish it now.” Chris Oghenekevwe was saying, Frank no, hold on. But I want Frank Omare and other young people in power to know that power is ephemeral and transient. Like the venerable Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe told Okpabia who was like a son to him after the civil war, when Okpabia was an administrator and he was lashing out on Azikiwe. Dr. Azikiwe told him, no condition is permanent. And Okpabia saw it in his life time when he left office. Like I was a commissioner yesterday, today I am not a commissioner. I am living the life of goodwill with the people I interacted with when I was a commissioner. Frank Omare, someday will stop being a commissioner, will stop being in government, and he will not have the retinue of soldiers and mobile policemen trooping with him and following his orders. He will either leave voluntarily or with by transition of government. And if he is so powerful and lucky, he can still be in government but he will die one day. All of us will die and somebody else will take that position. So no matter how you look at it, power is ephemeral and transit. If you have it by the grace of God, you should use it to do good and not evil. What Frank Omare did was vindictive. It has not political undertune because even though I am not a politician I am still a member of PDP. I am not a politician running for any political position, but we all are humans and politicians because when the time comes we are swayed to one side or the other. I am a PDP card carrier and I will work for PDP when the time comes. So it is not political, it is personal and I do not know why. And like I said in the beginning I do not believe the state governor sent him to go and destroy people’s houses. What he sent him to do is to remove illegal structures. TIVO is not an illegal structure. To crown it all there is a perpetual injunction and perpetual injunction is for life. Nobody should tamper it and they did not appeal the judgment. So I wonder why Frank Omare should go there. He is my younger brother and he knows that that property belongs to me. Even in doing his official job, there should be a face of goodness to it. In the world nothing stops Omare from saying, Bros, that your property is in the road, I have no option, I have to destroy it. He should have given me notice and that would have been enough. And the law said that for any property that is fixed, you have to give notice before you destroy it. It is not laying on the streets, it is not a caravan that you can just demolish. You have to give notice.
Now what is your next line of action?
Three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) came to me and said that they were going to sue the state government without me paying anything just to demonstrate that this country is still ruled by the law. But I said no. Suing Delta State Government is like suing my own government. They did not destroy my house, they only demolished part of my fence and left and I have fixed it already. I will do nothing to the government, I will not sue the state government, I will do nothing to Frank Omare. He is almighty and powerful. All I want to say is to appeal to him to change his ways. All I can tell him as an elder brother who has seen more than him is that power is ephemeral and transient. When God gives it to you, use it to do good and not evil. That is all I have to say.
Ok. Now apart from all that, you are now the President General of Okpara Worldwide, what made you to accept that position?
I did not seek for that position. My people wholeheartedly thrust that responsibility on me. The people of Okpara since 1954, have had President Generals; beginning from the late Ejaife. He was the first Urhobo man to become a graduate and he was the first principal of Urhobo College. He was trained and sent abroad by UPU to go and study. When he came back he became the first Principal of Urhobo College. And since 1954, we have had president generals. This time around, our last President General was Dr. PC. Obakponowei. He had served for 17 years and he was now dying to retire. My people then sat down and said they were not going to just conduct an election and let anybody come in. Okpara people at home and abroad decided that they want the best and they decided on Onoseme and sent a delegation to me and said they want me to be their next President General. I told them my weaknesses as far as that position is concerned; question of time, availability for me to look at their day to day needs. I said I will take the responsibility because it is Okpara that gave it to me. I have no option other than to accept it with joy because there is nothing better than serving your own people
Now what do they people of Okpara Kingdom expect from you?
What they expect from me is leading them right. When I say leading them right, I am not just sole leader, there is an executive and I am just first among them. Making sure we have the right policies that we will implement in the community and make sure that the life of the people is better than what it is now. Projecting the name Okpara to the world in general, to attract people to come there and invest. Three, making sure that our youths go to school, because Okpara boast, by the grace of God, to be the most educated in Urhobo land. But today the trend is not following what it used to be. The young men and women do not want to go to school. What they want is money today. But today we want to changed that trend. Money itself is not bad but money without education is for a short while. Education and money is more fulfilling. So we want to change that trend. We want to make sure that our youths go to school, graduate before they start chasing after money because there is a debacle when you have millionaires and billionaire without education. So that is our priority. Generally we want to make the lives of the people better than what it is today.
2015 is around the corner, what is your message to Deltans generally as we approach 2015 general elections?
Deltans should come out in mass and vote for the government that will meet their yearnings and aspirations. Today I can tell you that that government will come from PDP. Not because I am a member of PDP but because you know, look at the landscape. When they say two things are bad, you must choose one. You cannot choose what is not on ground. What we have on ground today, as far as political parties are concerned, the viable one; are PDP. APC is just struggling to come on ground. There is really nothing to choose. Our prayer is that PDP should have internal democracy and present the best candidate that knows Deltans, that understands the yearnings and aspirations of Deltans, that has the God giving spirit and motivation to develop Deltas, to make sure he will make Delta State a better place than when he met it. That is my prayer.
Do you believe in power rotation?
In civilized society that are governed by law and order, excellence, merit, quota system, rotation is extolling mediocrity. A governor who will serve the state cannot be limited to any section of the country. Let the best come and serve the state; be it from Delta North, South or Central, be it from the most minority place. Let the best come and serve Delta State. And I do not believe in clinging to power because you are majority. And that can only be decided by the voters if their hearts are liberated. But if their hearts are not liberated they are easily carried away by ethnic jingoism or tribal jingoism; thank God that religion jingoism has not come to Delta. Ethnic and tribal jingoism are what you will find here. Like it is happening in Delta North today, if you say it should go to Delta North, they will say should it be from Ika North or South, or Oshimili? So where will you reduce it to? The best thing is to allow the best to come out. Let the party bring the best person they know will respect and win the people’s heart. They will know that that person has what it takes to rule the state and that is my position. And like I said before, let PDP bring the best candidate that can rally the votes of the people.
What is your final word to Deltans?
My final words to Deltans, especially relating to this incident that has just happened, yes the state government has to come in and attend to the clean-up of Warri and other cities because it is really, really bad. It does not give an impression of a state that is properly governed when all you see on our major houses is thatched houses, caravans and other makeshift stores on our highways. So the state government has to come in. it is unfortunate that those who were meant to do it, added vindictiveness to it and to make it what it is supposed to be. I am in support of what the state government is doing. But above all, it is the people of Delta State that must imbibe the culture of keeping their environment clean because if they do not, the state government will come again after some few months or years because this is not the first time we are seeing demolitions. So government should try to inculcate the habit of cleanliness into the people. Like I said they must get to each town, cities, sanitation officers who will from day to day monitor these things and ensure that it does not happen. I was a politician and was active in government. These caravans you see on the streets, people were collecting money from it; and they were agents of government. So the battle should start from there and not waiting for them to collect money only for them to demolish it. There should be sanitation officers who can tell the people that things cannot be there, and if they refuse to remove it you take them to court and another man will not put his own. But when you put and some people are collecting money from them, then they are the sustainers and not the victims. These caravan owners are victims because they were paying rents to the local government councils.
I cannot speak for the government because I am not in government. When I was in government I know efforts were made to create dump sites in major cities. In Asaba where I lived when I was in government, a major area at the express was created as a dump site where government environmental vans will collect refuse and dispose them there. That is an area government has to look into because after the last of drainages from Frank Omare, which was a laudable job; the rains of last year did not commit great havoc like it did the year before. But go to those drainages now they are all blocked again. The thing is that there is no law of disposing waste and there is no agency for handling that. To my mind, that is what the ministry of environment should be doing. Again let us take Cross River State, you bring your trash that is well package into the street, every morning the disposal truck comes, picks it and takes it away and by 9am you will not see any trash on the streets. How does that work? That is government; when I say government I do not mean state government; if it is local government, city council, it is still government. But from my experience we have issues with the local governments. The state government cannot leave Asaba and come to Uvwie or Warri South to clear refuse. It is a function of the local government and they have a vote for it. If that vote is properly used, we will not have this problem. So you journalist should find a way to bring it to the fore without animosity, without unnecessary criticism but objective suggestions. If these are done, the state will be cleaner. But if you do this fire fighting method, come back the next three months, the place will be the same. But if there are policies and structures in place to do this on a daily basis we will not have this problem.
Thank you very much sir.
