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PAGE 22— SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 28, 2021<br />
Mark my words, we’ll<br />
create 100 industries<br />
in 100 days in Delta<br />
— Olorogun Gbagi<br />
*2023: ‘What Okowa, Ibori,<br />
Uduaghan told me’<br />
By Emma Amaize,<br />
Regional Editor, South-South<br />
LEADING Peoples Democratic<br />
Party, PDP, 2023 governorship as<br />
pirant in Delta State and, conceivably,<br />
the highest private investor in<br />
the state, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi,<br />
faulted, by some Deltans who disbelieved<br />
his potential to build 100 industries<br />
in his first 100 days in office, if<br />
elected as governor in 2023, has insisted<br />
it is not only achievable but surpass-able.<br />
Gbagi, a former Minister of State<br />
(Education), entrepreneur, criminologist<br />
and lawyer, told Sunday Vanguard<br />
in an interview: “The old adage that the<br />
taste of the pudding is in the eating has<br />
become an issue with modern day narrative.<br />
In fact, I was extremely conservative<br />
when I gave the number as 100.<br />
I repeat it is not a slip, it is doable and<br />
I will surpass it but let us be held accountable<br />
and responsible with the issue<br />
of 100.<br />
“I give you an example. I created one<br />
day just by opening Deco Road in Warri<br />
3,000 businesses that run between<br />
Deco Road, Onitsha, Aba, Lagos, Port<br />
Harcourt and every major trading<br />
business across the country. That is nothing<br />
compared to the kind of thing I am<br />
talking about.<br />
“While people are picking from my<br />
views and my comments and utterances<br />
to want to sharpen their situation,<br />
the simple thing Deltans should think<br />
about is that if that if I am the highest<br />
private investor in the state, then I<br />
should know what it takes to industrialize<br />
Delta state and my target is to<br />
catch up with major cities in the world,<br />
Lagos being my first”.<br />
Buoyed up<br />
Gbagi added: “I have gone round the<br />
state. I am encouraged by the people,<br />
the electorate are no longer fools.<br />
Deltans have seen it all, they know I<br />
can change the state and the leaders<br />
and people have told me to go ahead.<br />
They have agreed, they said ‘Gbagi, we<br />
have not seen any other person in the<br />
race except you.’<br />
“So I believe very strongly that they<br />
mean what they are saying and let anybody<br />
from any party come, let us have<br />
a debate and face the country, let us<br />
face the state and tell the people who<br />
we are and where we are we coming<br />
from.<br />
“Let those who want to rule the state<br />
come out and tell us what business they<br />
have they done, what trade have they<br />
participated in and, if you cannot do<br />
anything for yourself, you have not been<br />
able to do a business, employ people<br />
and understand what it takes in life,<br />
how do you say you want to rule people,<br />
rule them with what?”<br />
On Ibori<br />
Speaking on his relationship with a<br />
former governor of the state, Chief<br />
James Ibori, known as a political godfather<br />
, he said: “I would say for those<br />
of us who are climbing, we talk less and<br />
act more. While you cannot know the<br />
mind of man,James Ibori and I have<br />
met. I take in its totality what he told<br />
me, what he believes I am and let me<br />
just take one out of alignment in one<br />
of our discussions - ‘Olorogun you are<br />
a very steady character, with all that<br />
has happened to you in the PDP, you<br />
have remained steadfast and you are<br />
the only one that has refused to abandon<br />
the party for another even though<br />
everything stares at you to do so. I<br />
thank you very much for all that you<br />
did when I was away. I heard of it.’<br />
“He believes I can do a fantastic job”<br />
On Ibori’s successor, Dr. Emmanuel<br />
Uduaghan, he said: “I rejected appointment<br />
as minister (under Jonathan)<br />
even when former Minister of Information,<br />
Chief Edwin Clark, had told me<br />
I created one<br />
day just by<br />
opening Deco<br />
Road in Warri<br />
3,000 businesses<br />
that run<br />
between Deco<br />
Road, Onitsha,<br />
Aba, Lagos,<br />
Port Harcourt<br />
about bit. I also refused the plea of Gen<br />
Theophilus Danjuma (retd) and his wife<br />
to be minister and traveled abroad. It<br />
was Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan who<br />
called me one morning when I was in<br />
the United Kingdom to ask for my CV.<br />
He explained that he was with President<br />
Goodluck Jonathan to conclude<br />
my nomination as minister having<br />
consulted with my father, Dr. Clark.<br />
“We had series of meetings thereafter<br />
and Uduaghan did not mince<br />
words when he announced in a statement<br />
that were Delta to have two<br />
Deltans who believe in the development<br />
of the state like Olorogun Gbagi,<br />
Delta State would not be where we are<br />
today; that we need more Gbagis; that<br />
this man believes in the state; and he is<br />
the biggest investor in the state.<br />
“In the same manner when we<br />
opened the Robinson Gbagi Plaza at<br />
PTI Junction, Effurun, the current governor<br />
and his Commissioner of Commerce<br />
made a strong statement that they<br />
were very much appreciative of my development<br />
skills and belief in the state<br />
and they need more Gbagis.<br />
“I do not believe that anybody of<br />
Chief Emmanuel Uduaghan’s age will<br />
lie. He has called me, he sent me messages<br />
during my birthday to get ready<br />
for a higher responsibility of governing<br />
the state, we may not talk everyday but<br />
I tell you, what you believe in, you believe<br />
in.<br />
“The fact remains that Emmanuel Uduaghan<br />
knows I have character and I<br />
can develop this state, that my yes is<br />
my yes, my no is my no. There was<br />
something James Ibori was telling me<br />
one day when we did the anniversary<br />
of the governor in 2015. He had asked<br />
me to do something and I had not said<br />
yes or no but whilst I was keeping quiet,<br />
he said ‘I use Urohobo to beg you,<br />
Gbagi, I know that once I use<br />
that word, you would say yes’.<br />
And I like a joke, I said ‘okay, yes’<br />
and I honored that statement. I honored<br />
that situation where I had completely<br />
gone 99 per cent to the<br />
right, I left it because a leader has<br />
spoken to me, that is how you test a<br />
man with character.<br />
“So, all my leaders, including Governor<br />
Okowa know, without mincing<br />
words, that I would take Delta to the<br />
next level to the admiration of everybody.<br />
As I have said I cannot do it<br />
alone”.<br />
‘Okowa doesn’t talk anyhow’<br />
On Okowa, he said: “People do not<br />
go to history, they are too much in a<br />
hurry to draw conclusions. Dr. Ifeanyi<br />
Okowa was the creation of many<br />
people, which I am happy to be part<br />
of. Needless to, at this time, discuss<br />
what we did as a people and as party<br />
loyalists for his emergence. The state<br />
is working on a particular system even<br />
though I always pride myself that,<br />
•Gbagi<br />
zoning or no zoning, I will contest<br />
election in Delta. I can contest election<br />
even in Nigeria for the office of<br />
President because that is how I have<br />
programed my life which is why I do<br />
not play to the gallery.<br />
“The fact here is that Dr. Okowa is<br />
a man who has reciprocated the most<br />
of my support and love and he has<br />
tested my honesty. He knows everybody<br />
who is talking about Gbagi. He<br />
also knows that they are all just envious<br />
and that they are people who<br />
have nothing and don’t meet my standard.<br />
I find Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa to be a<br />
very honest man, a man who wants to<br />
keep to his promise, he is not a man<br />
who just talks. A number of people<br />
who had come to meet me to discuss<br />
Okowa, I challenged them. For instance,<br />
someone called me one day<br />
and the man you supported to be governor<br />
allocated only N600million for<br />
the Delta State Oil Producing Areas<br />
Development Commission, DESOPA-<br />
DEC. I sent him (Okowa) a message<br />
on the claim and, in less than four<br />
minutes, the governor replied showing<br />
evidence that he paid over N1.6<br />
billion.<br />
“I did not believe that Okowa most<br />
probably being a son of the kind of<br />
father that brought him up was deceiving<br />
me. I have tested him. If<br />
Okowa makes a promise to you, he<br />
will not renege on it, he has not reneged<br />
on what both of us have discussed.<br />
“There was one day I went to Okowa<br />
and I was discussing a particular person<br />
for appointment...if I have spoken<br />
to Okowa at all, I have spoken<br />
more about people of the entire state<br />
than my own local government or senatorial<br />
district, that is how free minded<br />
I am.<br />
“If you see Okowa calculating pennies,<br />
small, small money and how to<br />
manage revenue to run the state, you<br />
would see the zest and feeling he has<br />
for the state. Of course no man is a saint,<br />
but in my rating of him, he is a fantastic<br />
gentleman. If you have an agreement<br />
with Okowa, produce a copy of<br />
that agreement, tell me where he<br />
failed and we would take him up”.
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