Rejoinder On Delta 2023: The Need for Continuity in Progress
By Chief Malcolm Emokiniovo Omirhobo
LAGOS SEPTEMBER 29TH (NEWSRANGERS)-I have read with distain the article written by one Allison Abanum a Senior Special Assistant on Strategic Communication and Documentation to the Governor of Bayelsa State in several national news papers and I cannot but as a true Deltan respond because to keep quiet will amount to being taken for an idiot by the writer .
The article is a clear and outright insult on the intelligence and sensibility of the good people of Delta State as it falsely claim that Delta State have been blessed with thoughtful and wonderful leaders since her creation from Chief James Ibori to Governor Uduaghan and now to Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa .The article is loaded with lies that in Delta State it has always been from one blessing to the other from one wonderful policy to the other leading to success that must be sustained by continuity when the reverse is the case .
If you ask me , I will say that the truth of the matter is that it was Chief James Ibori who first betrayed the trust reposed in him by the people of Delta State when he tied their hands and legs for Governor Uduaghan to gruesomely stab to death in cold blood and that Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa , is now the undertaker of the funeral of the people of Delta State . Contrary to Allison’s assertions it has always been from one disaster to the other and from one catastrophic policy to the other in Delta State .
The failure recorded by these three administrations are so self evidencing in the lives of Deltans who are living under excruciating conditions, in squalor and abject poverty in the mist of plenty . The last time I visited Warri and Sapele , I could not believe the state of deterioration and dilapidation of public services and amenities. The schools , roads , hospitals , power supply , transport services , security etc are nothing to write home about.
While I agree with the author of the article that governance is one key area where the need for continuity is paramount ,I disagree with him that the Ibori, Uduaghan and OKowa governments have any legacy , achievement or success that is worth continuing by the next government come 2023. The government of the trio have nothing on which the incoming government can stand on. Right now Delta State is at its lowest ebb since the colonial era . I stand to be contradicted. I want Alison to point to one achievement of the last three administrations of Delta State in the past twenty two years in relation to the enormous revenue received by them from federal allocation , the State share of 13% derivative and internally generated revenue . The “Delta project ” touted by the Okowa administration and amplified by the likes of Allison is a mirage . It does not exist anywhere except on paper and the imagination of some gullible Deltans .
At best , Delta State today is a Keke napep economy . It is only in Delta State you put your master degree or PHD certificate aside and hop on to ride Keke for survival or you waste . No jobs and the very few pay our young ones as low as eight thousand a month . Is that not slavery?
It is despicable , mean and poverty of ambition for James Ibori to loot Delta State treasury black and blue, stashing away billions of dollars meant for the wellbeing of Deltans in foreign banks and buying properties and asserts abroad for himself and family members . It is equally treasonous for his predecessors in office whom Allison is attempting to launder their image to cover Ibori’s tracks by emphatically claiming that Delta State money was not missing . As the saying goes , nothing is hidden under the sun ,it is relieving that despite the suppression of the truth Ibori was arrested abroad , prosecuted convicted and his loot recovered by a court in Great Britain . Swallowing it’s vomit, the
Delta State government who claimed that it’s money is not missing is now shamelessly posed to receive the repatriated funds .
David Edevbie, the man whom Allison is touting to the people of Delta State as capable to continue from where the three musketeers stopped no doubt is a well lettered and exposed individual with working experience both in the private and public sectors. He has a whole lot of wealth of experience in Delta State politics from Ibori to Okowa’ s government. Under Ibori-led government he was Commissioner for Finance . In the first tenure of the Okowa-led administration he was the Commissioner of Finance and later became Chief of Staff to the same government in the second tenure.
Without any sentiments or emotions, David Edevbie having been in the corridors of power of Delta State and familiar with the goings on therein , owes Deltans the duty to prove that he is not part of the rot in the past Delta State governments. It is only after then that he can be considered for the job of steering the ship of Delta State come 2023.
Chief Malcolm Emokiniovo Omirhobo a Lagos lawyer and human right activist writes from Lagos
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Posted by News Rangers
on Sep 29 2021. Filed under National.
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