Macaulay: There’s Need to Decentralise Nation’s Security Architecture

Former Secretary to the Delta state Government, Chief Ovuzuorie Macaulay in this interview with Segun James, speaks on salient national issues including the need to decentralise the security architecture of the country for better results.

You are a big player in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State but all of a sudden you left for the All Progressives Congress (APC), why this sudden move? Ordinarily, I don't like talking about that aspect of why I left PDP for APC because PDP was like a baby to me and you cannot write the history of PDP in Delta State without my name. I made significant contributions to the growth and development of PDP both at the party level and in government. But you see, life is first about yourself and if you cannot be who you are then you cannot help other persons.

And to be who you are you need your peace. It got to a level where what the PDP used to be and what it is supposed to be turned out to be the opposite in recent times and knowing my background as an activist and also as a journalist, there are certain things other people can tolerate but we can't tolerate. I cannot see what is black and I will tell you it is white because I'm hungry.

I think people know me for that and I will tell you that is one of the reasons why I couldn't continue as a member of PDP because the level at which PDP where beginning to come down, my person could no longer accommodate it and I needed my peace.

When rumour takes over the ground when leaders react based on rumour and when people are beginning to be intimidated or people you brought up and mentored are now beginning to be placed on top of you not because you lack what it takes to continue with your position but because somebody wants to bring you down.

Ordinarily, I would have said let me quit politics but then I still believe that my people still need leadership and guidance and some things still need to be done. So, just getting angry that I'm okay and satisfied, of course, today I can live my life but if I live my life will I live the life of my community, nationality and dependants across the state?

So that is why I found a peaceful ground in the APC and since I went there I have my peace. I can sleep with my two eyes closed.

Before the 2023 general election, many thought that as leader of the party you would contest for the senatorial position, why didn’t you contest?

As I said, it is not just about myself. I have told them even in APC that I'm not there to drag leadership but the good thing is that they accord me the respect that I'm entitled to and I'm satisfied with that. I didn't go there to destabilise what was on the ground or to begin to drag positions.

Senate is not the only place where you can contribute to the development of your state or the nation. There are other grounds and even as I am today I can still contribute through consultation and selling ideas but the important thing is that you are recognised where you are. Being a Senator does not make you a leader in the first place because that is part of what is destroying Nigerian politics and indeed Delta State politics.

Once you pick somebody and make him a councillor, the next day he comes to you and says he is your leader. You pick somebody and sponsor him into the House of Assembly with your popularity and your means, the next day he says he is your leader.

So, being elected into office does not automatically make you a leader. Leadership is what you work for over the years and the people choose you to be their leader not elect you. People must recognise you as a leader; you don't tell people I'm your leader.

After all, people brought you out to be elected and that doesn't make you a leader.

With the outcome of the 2023 election in Delta State, do you see APC coming out stronger in the state in the 2027 poll?

Sure. The 2023 election was the first time they gave a very good fight and I don't want to go into the issues but even the PDP knew that there was a fight. They know they dealt with people who can fight and it was no longer the usual thing of just running them over. So, I believe that if the APC can come together more seriously than it is now, we need to be united and come closer to the people and with that PDP will see a good fight in 2027.

Warri has always been regarded as the economic heartland of Delta but right now there is no business going on in the area, especially the oil and gas business, what has been your effort in trying to bring back business in Warri?

I won't blame you for asking this question but you remember that when I came into government in 2003, there was almost no Warri. Warri was a shadow of itself because there was no life, not even business as a result of the fight between the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo, and Warri was grounded.

The curfew in Warri then was 5 pm to 6 am and nothing was working in Warri. All the ports were closed down. All the jetties were closed down. Of course, nightlife was completely out of it and that was why I think in his consideration, my former boss, James Ibori picked me to become the Commissioner for Inter Ethnic Relations and Conflict Resolution. The oil companies and the international oil companies (IOCs) were not operating in the Warri area and all the offshore were closed.

And by the grace of God and the cooperation of the man who appointed me, within a year, I got the conflict resolved and we signed a different Memorandum of Understanding.

For the first time, the IOCs went back to work and it was all through the subject of negotiation and I midwived that negotiation.

So if you say what am I doing if there is anybody who has put his life on the line to bring economic life back to Warri and the environment and indeed this country, is me because the records are there.

Seven years before I came in, the military and the civil government that came in tried everything in 1999 to see how they could resolve the crisis that lingered on for about eight years and they couldn't resolve it.

Until James Ibori in his wisdom said come and help me manage the Warri crisis. I remembered that was the only brief I got, come and help me manage the Warri crisis.

It was one sentence, a short one for that matter and that was how I relocated to Warri. And in six months, we removed the curfew.

It was like an experiment because I remembered in the Security Council, apart from Dr Uduaghan every other person was against lifting curfew. We did mean to lift the curfew generally but because Christians were never having their crossover night. They do crossover night from 3 pm to 5 pm instead of 10 pm to 12 midnight that is what it was for years.

But that year, I proposed and I stood by that let the Christians observe their night and that nothing will happen. And it was like I had to write an undertaking that this is my decision or opinion and I remembered Dr Uduaghan saying let it be so. It was meant to be for just a few days and that is how we never returned to the curfew till today. That was how the curfew was lifted and the Christians for the first time in almost a decade had what is called the crossover night.

Before then, I remembered when we signed the first MoU between the Ijaw and Itsekiri because Ijaws never crossed into the Itsekiri side and Itsekiris never crossed into the Ijaw side and that day it was a free-for-all all because people who have not seen their loved ones for years, they came together. That is why I said I won't blame you for asking this question because I know I have put my life on the line for this struggle and I have done everything expected of me.

If I came from some part of this country, I would not be where I am today because I have resolved a crisis which the Obasanjo administration and the military couldn't resolve. And that is why I believe in the power of negotiation and mediation especially when people are carrying arms because you don't use arms to fight arms.

You must go through mediation and that worked for us. I freed all the Itsekiri properties and paid compensation and relocated Ijaws who were occupying those properties and paid them. Then the oil companies also negotiated their way back to Warri. This Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMOU) you are hearing today that is where it started and I was the first person to preside over it. The community sits down with the IOCs and the government mediating on what should go to the community and how the IOCs should operate. And that was how they had their peace and they went back to start production and the country's economy started improving. So, if you say what have I done, I have done everything humanly possible.

I have always advocated state police. The centre is too far from the locals. In my community today, if we are serious as a community we should be able to know the families that have the thieves. That is the truth because it is in every community. We know the families where these bad boys come from. So, if you send me to Nasarawa State as a policeman where I know nothing, how am I going to police the place? But if you take me to my area or even Delta State today, I know one or two boys I can call and they know the bad boys. That is how to manage security. There is every reason to decentralise the security architecture of this country. Either you call it State Police or local government police, after all, they don’t have one centralised policing system overseas.

Just that over the years most of these oil companies especially the service companies left the Warri area and now the oil companies themselves have left. With people like your area, why is the situation the way it is right now?

Again, government is like an elephant and the elephant has so many parts. You can only operate within the arm the owner allows you to operate. Like I'm here today, if I were from some part of the country, I would be a consultant on so many issues, especially community and conflict issues.