In 2015, Omatseye contested for same position under the platform of the All Progressives' Congress (APC), but was allegedly denied the ticket after winning the party’s primaries. In the build up to the 2019 elections, he was disqualified, alongside others in the APC. He is now a member of the ADP, where he got the senatorial ticket to contest in the February polls.
In this exclusive encounter with Isoko Mirror, he states his plans and how he intends to achieve them, once elected.
Excerpts:
You have not always been a member of the ADP?
I was a member of the APC. Four years ago, I contested the senatorial seat for which I won the primaries at the time. Unfortunately, the then chairman, John Oyegun, after approval of me to go to the INEC and to run for elections thereafter decided to remove my name and replace it with Yemi Emiko. But I remained in the party.
Again, I decided to contest; was cleared by the panel of Mr. Nnamani and while we were waiting for the primaries to be conducted, we saw in the newspapers that Oshiomole had disqualified five of us and only cleared Uduaghan. Oshiomole made an announcement that only Uduaghan was cleared, which was not the true position because NWC cleared all of us to run for the election. There was nothing, no preferred candidate issue. When that happened, I wasn't going to go through the process I went through four years ago. Few days thereafter, we did the primaries for ADP and I was nominated as the ADP candidate for Delta South.
What are your plans for your senatorial district, what do you want to do for your people?
My campaign is more women and youths based. I have made several visits and I have been going severally to Isoko nation. You see lots of youths roaming the streets, mostly in the afternoons and then, at night. It is quite a challenge. I am almost certain that many of them had the opportunity to attend the polytechnic at Ozoro, some of them are educated but they have nothing to keep them busy. There is no employment.
I don't think employment is something to depend on government to create for you. I believe the people of Isoko nation are very entrepreneurial and it is for you to develop opportunities for them. I am one of those that don't believe it is what you study in the university that you need to earn a living. If you look at lots of our youths there, they are educated, but don't have any practical skills. And one of the things I'm going emphasize on is how to get these guys to be technically skilled, be it in carpentry, being a good cook, or whatever and get them to be certified, the certification that is accepted internationally.
I had a guy who was a good, excellent mechanic but he was not literate. Because I had confidence in him, I could give him my car and he will know what the issues are. But because he was not certified, he couldn't take his level of knowledge to the next level. There are youths who have that natural skill, so we are going to look at how we can get them certified so they can get gainful employment.
We are not going to restrict the issue of employment to just Nigeria, we are going to see how we can develop the human capacity of these people so that they can seek employment around the world and begin to send income back to this country.
On the other aspect, we need to see how we can use the available resources within Isoko nation. One of my manifesto agenda is that basically, I want a zero flare in the whole of Delta South senatorial district in the four years I am going to be there. I will do whatever it takes to ensure there is a zero flare policy. And see how we can take the gas which is flared in these areas and use it as a source of power to the Isoko people, even if its 10% or 15% of that gas which is being flared that is monetized. If for instance, you take 100 standard cubit feet of gas; my expectation is that 15 of that should be kept for the community. Once we know we can get that source of gas, all we need to do is to convince the IOCs or the NDDC or the ministry of Niger Delta to build a mini-mega plant, after we have done an enumeration of the whole of Isoko people to know the power consumption there. By then, we know that the problem we may have is to put a generator plant, but we may not have the feed stock to run it. Some may insist that these flared gas being captured be used as a feed stock to run the power plants so that we can give 100% to the Isoko nation. Once that comes, hairdressers will pick up, people are going to go to school, there will be cold drinks, industries will find their ways there because they have realised that there is power. Then those who come in with their cassava can begin to process and even move it to the next level. Because an investor, when he sees the source of power, all he focuses on is the raw material. What he does is develop a cooperative to send the women out to grow more cassava so he can begin to process his source of employment.
Also, I'm going to make the IOCs take more responsibilities in their corporate social responsibility (CSR), to the business community of Isoko nation. Then, we will also look very carefully at the issues of floods which comes up every year. What are the causes of the flooding, how can we build protection? There must be set areas where the water comes up. Why does it come up so high, are we able to protect it and begin to change the flow of the river so that we don't have these places that are under water for certain months of the year?
I am going to work in collaboration with the state government. There is need to complete the Ughelli-Ozoro Road and also, the Ozoro to Kwale section. The road has been dug up, I don't see why that road should last more than 24 months. To go to Ozoro, I have to go through Oleh. My thinking, quite simply, is that those roads need to be rehabilitated and brought back so things can come back to life in Isoko nation.
There is a lot of work to be done. It's not a work for me alone
How would you manage to accomplish monetizing gas flaring, giving that this present government has said so much about it but nothing has been done?
"I'm a business man, first of all. We already have the technology in place, all we need is just the sourcing of the gas flare. I will bring my private sector skills to the business. What we found out is a lot of our civil servants are not businessmen. They are just civil servants, don't know how to use what they have to generate money, which is where I come in. I'm going to use a lot of the senatorial influences to put pressure on the executive arm for what needs to be done, most especially, to support the people of my senatorial district.
How do you intend to give adequate and equal representation to the people of Delta South, considering its peculiar nature of three ethnic groups?
I am not that ingrained into this ethnic whatever, because I don't see the issues of ethnicity. As a matter of fact, one of the things I want to drive is to change our education forms, to change the issues of religion and ethnicity because those are the things that are creating the division that we have within Nigeria. There are people, Hausa, Yoruba, who have been living in Warri and are more Warri people than some Warri (indigenes). Then, because you say you are an Igbo man, you pay your tax here, but when you want to vote, you go somewhere else, just like some of our people. We must create a situation where we have a sense of belonging.
Development does not have any form of ethnic colouration, just like poverty has no form of ethnic colouration. What I am marketing is the issue of, well, I am an Itsekiri man, I am an Isoko man or I am an Ijaw man. I am saying, no, we have suffered enough. Let us breathe away from this change we have been held bound for these years. Let us find a way, let us create an avenue so that our children can have hope and expectation that one day, they can achieve the senatorial seat. Not that one person can sit there for 16 years or someone that has been governor decides that it is time for him to retire or go to enjoy whatever he has earned.
We are driving this campaign base on the fact that we need to take our destinies in our hands. Forget about who you are or what ethnicity you are. The same message I am sending the Ijaws, the Itsekiris and the Isokos, is exactly what I am saying. And the youths are buying it because they are tired of these our politicians using ethnicity to create a divide. We need to get past that level and come together as one because we need to speak with one voice. Tell them we want this, we want to put 2.5 megawatts plant in Isoko, let Isoko people begin to enjoy. Next time, we go to Ijaw and then, Itsekiri. Then, we link all together. Once people see what is happening, the unity of the people, the industries and businesses will come to Delta South. We won't have any reason to fight each other.
How grounded is the ADP at the grassroots?
Sincerely speaking, if there had been an independent party, I will just run as Temi Omatseye. But the constitution isn't about that yet. I believe my campaign is based on individuality, personality. What I am asking of the people of Delta South is, there are three main contestants, there is J. E. Manager, there's Emmanuel Uduaghan and there is Temisan Omatseye. James Manager has been there for 16 years, you have seen his antecedents and he has not done much for the people. We have Emmanuel Uduaghan, you can go back and check, but we don't know Temisan Omatseye. The only thing we know is what he did in NIMASA for 18 months. But he has come out to say he wants to free us, lets try something new, the only thing that is constant in life is change.
What's your advice to the people?
When you are voting for the senate, vote for me, not because of anything, but vote for me. For the presidential, I tell our people go on your social media, read your newspapers, what's happening on the internet about the presidential candidates and I advice them 'vote your conscience'.
INEC has come out with the statistics that 37 million of the registered voters are between 18 and 35. If youths can wake up and go out there to vote, they will vote them out. I encourage them because they think that their votes will not count. You are not bound to vote for PDP or APC. Vote for someone else and you will be shocked that 15 or 20 million people are thinking exactly like you. That's what I encourage them to do. Lets shock them.
There are young men who are coming up as leaders now. I am believing that things will make a difference.
We are not going to be driven by the party. We are going to be driven by what we need to give to our constituents. My policy is very simple. The first thing is God, the second is the nation Nigeria to keep being united, then the third one is my constituents. My party gave me a ticket but my constituents voted me in.
I am counting on the good people of Isoko nation to come en masse and vote for me.
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