ENGR. OSIKHENA OMOH OJIOR, FNSE, FNICEA TECHNOCRAT AND SUPPER PERMANENT SECRETARY- “I Want To Be Seen As Having Contributed My Best During My Tenure Towards Enhancing The Delivery Of Roads Within Edo State And Beyond”
THE PERMANENT SECRETARY MINISTRY OF ROAD AND BRIDGES EDO STATE—ENGR. OSIKHENA OMOH OJIOR, FNSE, FNICEAT
TechnocratAnd Supper Permanent Secretary- “I Want To Be Seen As Having Contributed My Best During My Tenure Towards Enhancing The Delivery Of Roads Within Edo State And Beyond”
It is important for us especially in our nation today to learn and imbibe the value of celebrating that which is good. We must sincerely celebrate the success of those whose works and achievements bequeath our country positively. Such kind of people, because of their adventurous successes recorded, gain the admiration of all and sundry. Awards are bestowed on them by different organizations; not because of their position or fame in the society but because of their positive impact. This is no different story with the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Road and Bridges Edo State.
The amiable personality in a person of absolute honesty, a guru in Roads and Bridges and an intellectual veniality to the core. A Permanent Secretary of honour and distinction, not only full of ideas, but of courage.
Engr. Osikhena Omoh Ojior, FNSE, FNICE remains simple, a team worker, a man with fear of God, a family builder, a strategist, and a born professional, refusing to be intoxicated by the abundant power and prestige that go with his position. He is a transparent, hardworking and diligent Permanent Secretary who has a zero tolerance for corruption. A man that believes in goal- getting and never gets discouraged or overwhelmed by challenges.
‘’Shakespeare’’ in one of his books said that some people are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrusted on them and so Engr. Osikhena Omoh Ojior, has greatness thrusted upon him. His life achievements revolve ground; hence he does not blow his trumpet. His humility, sincerity of purpose and industry eminently lifted him up because of his selfless service to humanity.. A gallant Permanent Secretary who never leaves any stone unturned, rather footprints that which prosperity will rejoice for, all to the glory of God and Service to mankind.
The popular cliché, ‘first impression sticks’ is not applicable to Permanent Secretary Engr. Osikhena Omoh Ojior. If you profile and categorize him based on the spur of the moment kind of judgment when you have done so using the wrong barometer and faulty premise. He wears no airs and there are none around him. He is as simple as air itself. The calm ambience he exhumes is just natural. He is just being himself. However, many would be shocked to later learn that this unassuming man who mingles with the lowly and the downtrodden without discrimination is a workaholic, Permanent Secretary Czar and corporate tiger.
Engr. Osikhena Omoh Ojior is a tested achiever, he makes no noise about these and he is a courageous and dogged fighter, unassuming, highly principled and very modest in all aspects of life. His lifestyle and philosophy are worthy of emulation. In this interview with The Forward News Media Delegates, he explained his major challenges which is as a result of skyrocketing inflation of materials and the legacy he would want to leave behind as he wants to be seen as having contributed his best during his tenure towards enhancing the delivery of roads within Edo state and beyond.
Hear him:
We heard about the operational plan (precisely master plan) Edo state by the government, what do you have to say about it?
Intermsof the master plan, I may not be the best person to give you the information on that which is the Edo State Master plan. The Edo State Master or the Edo State Regional Master plan and the Benin City Master Plan is an initiative which is being championed by the Governor of Edo State, His Excellency, Mr. Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki has as its custodian the Hon. Commissioner for Physical Planning, Housing and Urban & Regional Development.
What are the recent achievements of Ministry of Road and Bridges?
I would want to say that in the lifetime of this administration over 830 kilometers of road till date have been awarded for construction.. Putting it conservatively, over 500 kilometers has being constructed up till date. It is actually slightly more than this value but I don’t want people challenging the numbers that I dish out. But that is the truth. It is over 500kilometers that has being as achieved till date and it is the intention of the government to complete the 830 kilometers that has being awarded within the tenure of the present Administration.
Sir, should we expect more work from the Ministry as we get close to the dry season?
Oh yes , you can already see some level of work has commenced. The Governor gave us a clear directive to ensure that all our contractors go back to site in other that they take advantage of the drying weather. Prior to now, we could not do much because of the rainy season, but now that the rains are ebbing we hope that we can achieve a lot more and give a bit of succour to our citizens, and this goes entirely across the State not necessarily only in Benin City.
Then, what can you say about the Infrastructural development of Edo state?
What I can say is that, our amiable and digital Governor has the vision to actually improve the infrastructure that we have in the state and when I talk about infrastructure, I am not only talking about roads alone. I am talking about public buildings, power generation and distribution, water supply, Fibre optic cables in terms telecommunications. His vision is that we have an integrated system that provides the basic infrastructure such that businesses and the citizens of the state have the habitable environment within which to live and prosper. I am paraphrasing the Mega Agenda now, the MEGA agenda is that, by the year 2050 we want Edo State to be the destination for business and people to live and prosper in.
Sir, we have heard some persons talking about contractors using substandard materials in Edo State especially in the terms of road construction, what can You say about this?
What I can assure you is that it is possible that yes, some contractors will try to get away with using substandard materials but we are using all the mechanisms that are available to us to reduce that to the barest minimum by virtue of our supervisions. We are trying to see how we can increase the level of supervision because like you will understand, we are working all across the State and it may not be possible for our men, the residents engineers, to be on site at all times but we are putting mechanisms in place whereby we can ensure that we have people who are monitoring what work is going on to reduce the incidence of a Contractor trying to get away doing with shoddy jobs and that is the best we can do. Occasionally a contractor may try to get away with it. I have in some cases had to do site inspection and I noticed such poor work done, I have given instruction that poor job should be remove, and be redone. That has always been the practice, some contractors being what they are , will try to get away with doing shoddy jobs but we do our best to limit that as much as possible.
Having heard that after road construction, within few months, they are some persons that goes around pouring acids to destroy the road, so what can you say about this?
You know we live in politically charged times where people trying to get away with all sorts of bad behaviors in other to drive their own agenda. They want to portray our Governor in bad light that, “oh his contractors are doing very poor job and all that sort. Other manner of things can happen in some occasions as a result of negligence or ignorance, but in that kind of case I find it difficult to accept that it is negligence or ignorance because these are people who are community members and they are seeing that the work is just being done and they go after damaging it and they portray the contractor as doing poor work. That is not the case . Materials that we use in construction like concrete, asphalt etc., they have minimum amount of time to set, you know there is no way you can you cast concrete and that the same day you will remove the form work, it will surely fail because the concrete has what is called a minimum set time. It is the same thing with the Road surfacing as there is a minimum period which is required for it to set before you start loading it. Unfortunately, in our own clime, when we do a road, the very the same moment as you are laying the asphalt, traffic is already passing it which can as well result to poor work.
Sir, what can you say about Governor Godwin Obaseki s regime, is he a civil service friendly Governor?
I am a civil servant by virtue of the position I hold but I am not or won’t call myself the typical civil servant. However, you can go round just the same way which you carried out survey that resulted in you giving this award, go and find out. I have not heard of an issue from civil servants in Edo State like you may have heard in other States, that they are being owed salaries. We are probably the only state in the country who have just increase the minimum wage from the Thirty thousand naira, Our Governor made a pronouncement on May Day and at the end of that month, they immediately started the implementation. There was no question of oh, he made the promise at the heat of the moment, he had it as a plan. He has been very magnanimous in carrying out training and retraining of staff and he supports his cabinet members when they require training for their staff because it is only when you have a trained civil service that you can deliver the dividends that the government aims at delivering. So, I will consider him as a friendly, not just friendly, very friendly and supportive of the civil service because like he normally would say, “the civil service is the engine of government not the engine room”.
What are your challenges so far?
My biggest challenge to date is the skyrocketing inflation that is in the country because it does not allow for good planning. When I join this particular Ministry in February, the prices of basic materials were at some certain levels. As at today the prices of some of these basic construction materials are well in excess of 100 percent of what the prices where in February. A simple case, diesel is a major item which we use in construction, all the equipments use diesel. Diesel as at that time was about #200-#250 , What is a liter of diesel today, almost # 900, that means that every little activity that we carryout in construction is affected by that and the purse of government is not inexhaustible. Like I said earlier, the Governor has a vision to affect the lives of our people positively, in all areas; in education, infrastructure, health, Arts and culture, business and commerce . So he has to balance the use of the funds that are available to make him deliver on all these areas. His major areas of focus are Education, Health and youth empowerment, those are very critical areas as well as infrastructure. , I do not demean other sectors, its just that in my humble opinion, those are the areas he need resources for and he is doing his utmost best to deliver on it. That is what will regard has our greatest challenge.
As 2023 Presidential Election is coming up, what advice do you have for The Aspirant ?
In that particular regards, I will not have any comment or advice for them because am not a politician. I don’t want to get into that space.
What legacy would you like to leave behind?
I want to be seen as having contributed my best during my tenure towards enhancing the delivery of roads within Edo State and beyond. Like I said, I am fully in support of the Mega Agenda which aims at making Edo State the most attractive destination to live and do business and prosper, by the year 2050. That is my motivation. I want to contribute significantly towards that vision which our Governor has. Thank you.
