Jonathan Not Weak Leader – Hon. Ofongo

Honourable Henry Daniel Ofongo represents Southern/Ijaw Federal Constituency of Bayelsa State in the House of Representatives. He tells RUTH CHOJI in this interview that contrary to perceptions of weakness, President Goodluck Jonathan is actually a strong leader. He also spoke on a number of other key issues.
Are you worried about the state of the nation, especially with regards to security? For now, I won’t say that I am worried. But we have a serious security situation. But then there is no challenge that is insurmountable. Everything is possible if we agree that we want to do things fairly; if we can treat things with equity, justice and fairness, then everything can be resolved, we need to speak with one voice.
But Nigerians are beginning to see the President Goodluck administration as weak and incapable of solving the problems besetting us? The government can solve the problem only if people are ready to support them. When you say government, we are all part of government because in democracy we know that power comes to you from the people; they elected those in government. All this comes as a result of party politics. Even within your party, for you to win an election, there are some opponents you have to contend with before you think of opponents form other parties.
For the fact that you won elections does not mean that everyone will love you. Most people will want to oppose you and they will bring all forms of excuses and give you all types of names.
As far as I’m concerned, Jonathan is not a weak leader. The only thing I know is that, he is adding a human face to governance.
He is not a soldier and doesn’t have such background. Based on where he comes from – a Christian who believes that you don’t have to take a tooth for tooth, an eye for an eye – he believes that if someone is doing something wrong, you need to reason with the people and come to an understanding. That doesn’t make him a weak leader. We know that some people who failed elections believe that they have to cause problems in order to make sure that the system is ungovernable.
But are you not worried that the crises could lead to anarchy or total disintegration of the nation? We don’t pray for Nigeria to disintegrate. So in my view, let us accept each other; let no group feel that they are more domineering than others because there is no human that has monopoly of violence or  that is all knowing. God almighty is all knowing and let me remind you, power comes from God and anybody that feels that because this person is from the minority group, and so they should render the country ungovernable for him is bad.
They feel he won an election that they didn’t want him to win; it won’t go down well with such people. Let us all unite and support him irrespective of where he comes from. Goodluck Jonathan is not the president of Niger/Delta; he is the president of Nigeria.
There is renewed clamor for review of the on-shore/off-shore dichotomy law. What is your take on this? I don’t think that call is justified because it favors where the oil is produced. Today, we have high level of corruption, tribalism and religious crises. They all boil down to this injustice. From where are the resources of this country coming from?  We know before oil was discovered there were other sources of money. I can tell you that I was born in the village in the Niger/Delta and I have never seen cocoa with my eyes, but we are basically fishermen. We were oaky with that until oil was discovered.
But just because some people who feel that they have been born to rule are feeling otherwise about all this. If only they understand the environmental degradation that oil has created in the Niger/Delta, they will begin to understand that going to visit the on shore/off shore dichotomy is not the right thing. …
But don’t you think that funds being pumped into the region from the 13% derivation funds, NDDC, Ministry of Niger Delta and so on are enough to take care of this environmental pollution and also develop the region? Let me tell you, the truth is that 13% as far as I am concerned is like collecting your pot of soup and saying, let me give you 13 spoons from your soup to take care of your family. To me, the 13% is just a way of telling people in the Niger Delta not to say anything about resource control. We know before Nigeria existed as a country, after independence, we know that there was derivation. We know that the major backbone of Nigeria’s economy was cash crops and other minerals. We know Nigeria was making so much money from cocoa, groundnut and other things.
But how was this money shared? It was based on 50% derivation. That was why you could see the cocoa board in the west, coal in the east. How did the Yoruba gain scholarship to go to school? It was as a result of the money they got from this derivation. They were paying 50% from federal government. So why can’t such opportunity be given to the Niger Delta people? I want to remind you that, it was as a result of the civil war that the former head of state, General Yakubu Gown said all resources must be put together in order to prosecute the war. It was a military decree; it wasn’t a law by Nigerians.
After the war Nigeria came back as one country. Why didn’t they go back to those same derivation principles? I believe it is because they feel that the people in the Niger/delta area cannot do anything. That is wrong; we are not trouble makers and that is why we keep appealing to other Nigerians to hear our cry.
Your state was also affected by the flood, has action been taken to solve the problems and also forestall future occurrence? Well the state government is trying and also the federal government, through NEMA, has tried.
But as a member of the committee on climate change, what has it done to prevent future occurrence? The committee has tried to make the people and government of Nigeria understand that, there is climatic problem. When the government understands that, then drastic action will be taken. We are just a committee; we don’t have the powers and wherewithal to execute projects; ours is to make provision through law for action to be taken.
We have had series of meetings with the minster, so it is their duty to act on this. We have to make a framework for the government to see how we can really begin to make impact.
As a member of the oil and gas committee, what can be done to really revive the gas sector in Nigeria? With the present PIB, I think it will address this issue. When oil was discovered, they didn’t look at it that it will come with gas. So the law that was made then was basically for oil and today, Nigeria is losing billions of naira by the gas they flare.
With present day realities, government has come to know that, there is lots of money to be made from gas and I think the government is really trying by building gas turbines and there are also gas revolution programs that are currently on. Even the committee, when we go on oversight, we see how important it is to carry out carry reforms.
What is the future of gas in Nigeria? We have more gas deposit than oil right now and Nigeria will even make more money from gas. What we need is to harness it. The hindrances right now apart from the legislative framework which I believe the present PIB will address, the next thing we have to build is infrastructure to gather our gas. Then we should also agree with the international organizations on the way forward. Agreement has to be reached.