Governor of Cross River State Senator Liyel Imoke met with reporters in Calabar last weekend. Though he foreclosed any question on Bakassi and the 76 oil wells, he spoke on politics of power shift in the state. NICHOLAS KALU was there.
On handing over power to the Northern senatorial district in 2015?Cross River has three senatorial districts, like every other state. Two senatorial districts (southern and central) have produced, by the grace of God, governors. One has not. Would it be fair for us not to allow the other senatorial district a governor? This is a simple question of fairness. Just like we had Presidents from the North, then Southwest and now from Southsouth; there is no big deal. It is a natural sequence. That is why I supported "it openly. Some people have been saying 'oga keep quiet over this matter, this is not how to do it." But I say I don't know any other way to deal with what is honest, sincere, correct and right. This is what I have always stood for in my politics. My politics has always been about uniting Cross River. That is why I mMstarted my politics by taking on the most difficult challenge. That was when they said no Efik man can ever be governor of Cross River State and I said no. So there is no set of Cross River people that cannot be governor. So I fought that. And then I wasn't governor, I wasn't anything, and by the grace of God we managed to win that battle that changed the face of Cross River. That united all of us and that thing that we used to call an atomistic society, perpetually at war with itself is no more. That, I think, is one of my greatest achievements – uniting our people. The final seal on that unity would be that the next governor of Cross River comes from the Northern senatorial district.
The state's debt profile
The Special Adviser on Debt Management is on leave. So I don't have the numbers. So if the SA was here, I would have the numbers but we have been relatively conscientious in our debt obligations. I always say that, and I always tell my colleague governors, who came into power and they start by saying, can you imagine what my predecessor left as debt, I will investigate my predecessor. I tell them leave this matter. Believe me after eight years, you dare not go and tell the people that the reason I could not do road or schools was because I inherited debt. Debt is something that would exist in any government. Whether it is federal, state or United States or anywhere, debt is a part of government, period. Let us understand it for what it is and deal with it. The key thing is that there are international standards of borrowing. What they call debt to income ratio. So the question is have we exceeded that limit and the answer to that is no. So we try to make sure we don't exceed those limits. The one mistake you don't make in answering that question is throwing out the wrong figure.
State police
I have already made my views known on the state police. Very simple. If we had massive reduction in crime, if we had a society where there is hardly any danger or serious crime and so on, I don't think anyone who even mentions state police would be listened to. So, let us start from that perspective. Why are people clamouring for the state police? Let us not go to the perspective of abuse by the politicians. My question is why the clamour for a state police? It is because the current federal police is seen to be inefficient and not capable of dealing with the challenges of crime in a developing society. If that question was answered, would any one ask for state police? No. so why don't we take it from that perspective rather than saying let the inefficiency increase, let the crime rate increase, let all of us be closing our work at six or seven o'clock because we are afraid for our lives. Let us pray that armed robbers don't visit us today that it is not our turn because the politicians would abuse state police.The function of the police is internal security. We started with a very nice efficient police with highway patrol, anti-robbery units etc. Most of you are too young to know that age. Then we started seeing inefficiency and started finding solutions. Civil defence came, road safety came, Peace Corps came. All answers to inefficiency. We even have the police now talking to us about community policing. Then the worst part now is that the armed now in charge of internal security. Traditionally, the armed forces anywhere else would be in charge of external security aggression. Now the armed forces are now doing internal security. Marine police, their job has now been taken over by the Navy and JTF. What are we talking about? We are talking about Nigerians, not politicians. We are talking about the security of the citizenry. Our arguments have to be focused on the people that we govern. Even if the state police law come to the constitution, I will be out of office before the constitution is implemented. So of what benefit would it be to me as a former governor that there is state police in Cross River. My argument is the protection of the lives and properties of the citizens of Cross River State and we cannot run away from it. When we trivialize it and say politicians would use it I don't like generalizations. I don't like stereotyping, saying these politicians. So there no good people in the society? I don't think that is the approach. I think we need to agree on solutions to the rising insecurity in society and one of the possible solutions is the state police. We can call it anything, but the point is that there must be some level of community policing that is recognized. You don't even need to use them for elections if that is what people are afraid of. Let us fight crime and insecurity in our society before they overtake our society. There are countries that have many levels of policing everywhere in the world. We have copied the American presidential system, but I don't know who the Inspector General of Police is in the USA. Yet we have copied a presidential system of government from America. I need not say more about this.
N5000 note
Quite frankly I have not understood the arguments for and against, but they seem similar to the arguments for and against the one thousand naira note. If you recall there were exactly the same arguments for and against the one thousand naira note. All of a sudden the one thousand naira note is almost the lowest denomination. I don't think anybody did an analysis of the inflation that came as a result of the one thousand naira note. But typically, there would always be those arguments. I think the most important thing is the convenience of doing business. I have always looked at other countries and I wonder if they have these arguments. There is a one thousand dollar bill which is N160, 000 naira note. There is a one hundred dollar bill which is N16, 000. It makes it easier for them in America to carry their cash to transact their business, so I don't know if the N5, 000 note, I am not that good an economist to say that this is the impact that kit would have. But I think those who are responsible must have done an analysis before deciding to introduce that currency. I also understand that it costs far much more money to continuously print N1000 notes than it does to print the N5000. So I think all of these things should be taken into consideration.
Call for Sovereign National Conference
I don't know about the National Conference. The thing I like is the constitution amendment. My only problem with the amendment is why it should be limited in scope. I think that if we can expand the scope of the review of the constitutional amendment, then all the fears, then all the fears and need for the conference may not be there. So the constitutional amendment is fundamental to our sustained national growth, development and unity. I don't think there is anything wrong with extensive constitutional amendment. I just don't see how we can have 66 items on the exclusive list and less than 20 on the concurrent list. Just that would tell you that you are not operating a federal constitution. It means that it is just a federal constitution in name not in practise. These are some of the issues that I think we need to address. We should not limit the scope of discourse of the constitution amendment. I think it should address issues that seem to have been raised on our unity.
Insecurity in Calabar-South
Every time you make this case, I like to hear it because you defend me on issues of security and state police. I am not criticising anybody but do you notice that anytime there is a new Commissioner of Police, security changes in Cross River. There has never been a Commissioner of Police who has been posted that was on my recommendation. We just get word that there is a new Commissioner of Police. I just believe that if we have a CP or an area commander who is from Calabar South and I call him and say, see this is not acceptable, you would lose your job. He will know all the nooks and crannies of Calabar-South. But we politicize these things. We politicize every issue. It is very frustrating because I have to call the Commissioner of Police in the middle of the night to raise all these issues. Why are there no longer patrols? We bought all the patrol vehicles. Have you seen any bought by the Federal Government? They are all bought by the state. We set up Quick Intervention Squad (QIS), brought more vehicles and gave them. Sometimes I see QIS vehicles and I wonder. The QIS vehicles have tracking, so we know where they are at any given point in time. Sometimes they call the QIS and say there is a crime, we track their vehicles and see that the do not move to the spot. They wait until the criminal is gone then they go there. I cannot sack the policeman, I cannot sack the QIS, I cannot even query him. And people are saying politicians would use the state police. What are we even talking about? We are talking about the lives and property of our citizens. We really need to find a solution to these problems. We talk about Calabar being a safe city. We always try to address the issue of security in Cross River. Even this issue of cultism, I have always related cultism to crime. Sometimes I seem to be the only person, the lone voice against cultism. The magnitude of people that are in cults in Cross River State, big men and small men all inside. So they don't have the moral ground to be able to come out openly because they are afraid someone would say, ah see who is talking. There is absolute need to deal with this issue of cultism. It is something I am determined to fight and I would continue to solicit your support to get the message across that that is the worst vice that you can have in a society like ours and that is what is leading to the increase in crime. So for us we need to continuously fight this issue of cultism and crime.
Spate of environmental disasters in the state
I want you to understand why I have been so emphatic about the environment. Part of most of it man made. What you see in Boki, Biase, Ekorinm and so on. All the ecological disasters you see are caused by us by our refusal to acknowledge our environment and the need to protect our environment. When I talk people would say this man is talking too much, na environment we go chop? But you are beginning to see the manifestation of our ignorance, our failure to understand the environment. Now if you see the level of flooding that has taken place now across the state, we know the cause. It is because of our failure to manage the environment. We have been tampering with the ecosystem. And we are beginning to see the consequences. When you cut down the trees that God in his infinite wisdom knew he was doing, but we would hear hacksaws everyday taking down the trees, destroying the environment. Our own immediate problem is that the price of roofing timber. Yet we can see what we are experiencing. In another twenty to fifty years it would be worse unless we do something now about our environment.
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