By Francis Ewherido
Someone close to me was in Port Harcourt recently. The last time he was there was five years ago. He was blown away. “I didn’t see any pothole on the major roads I passed and the only traffic hold up I encountered was due to an accident.” Another Deltan who was raised in Port Harcourt, but has been abroad for eight years drove past his father’s house, the very house where he grew up. All the internal roads around their house have been upgraded and tarred. Meanwhile, Effurun and Warri, Delta State, where I spent my teenage years and stayed till 1988 have, deteriorated. A portion of Effurun-Warri Road was destroyed and the BRT project the state government planned was abandoned in the usual style of abandoned government projects.
I was born when this entity was called Midwest Region, before it became Bendel State and now Delta State. Nothing significant has happened on the Effurun-Warri axis since 1988 (11 years before return to democratic rule) when I left home. I acknowledge the Effurun flyover, the dualisation of Refinery Road, the Delta Shopping Mall, drainage projects and a few other projects done by the PDP-led government from 1999 to date. By the way, the flyover would have been more effective in solving the traffic congestion if it had been extended to after the Refinery Road junction. The road network under/around the flyover should have been redesigned. Some Deltans also allege that the flyover is structurally defective and avoid using it. I am not a structural engineer so I cannot speak on that, but I gladly use the flyover anytime I am home.
Warri was close to Port Harcourt in terms of development and industrialisation in the 80s. I really do not know why, but Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) moved from Warri to Port Harcourt. Instead of doing everything to ensure SPDC stayed back, it was alleged that a few top government officials were only interested in acquiring Shell immovable assets.
A retired top shot of SPDC told me that SPDC used to remit about N400m as PAYE to the Delta State Government every month right from the military era. That money, if well utilised, would have been able to provide security and critical infrastructure in Effurun-Warri and Shell would probably have stayed back in Delta State. SPDC left, so did many oil servicing companies. What is left of the former prosperous and boisterous oil city is its shell (Like a snail shell), the substance is gone, leaving many Deltans and small businesses stranded. Before, the only advantages PH had over Warri were the fact that it is a state capital and it was bigger. Compare both today. In fact, there is no basis. How do you compare apples with oranges?
I grew up in the late 60s/early 70s to meet a standard general hospital in Ughelli where I was born. There was electricity, pipe borne water, three post-primary schools, a parade ground, where we went to on Independence Day, amongst others. These were solid infrastructure to build on. The only real development I have seen in Ughelli since 1999 are the dualisation of Otovwodo to Ekiugbo road started by the Ibori administration and finished by the Uduaghan administration, and the Ughelli stadium built by Ibori government.
What is the PDP-led state government doing before building a flyover at Otovwodo/Isoko junction? Has that place not had enough accidents and claimed enough lives? The Delta State Government and the Federal Government through NDDC can put heads together and do this all important project. A people-oriented government should have initiated such a move before now. A flyover is also needed on the East West Road by PTI Road junction on one side and Osubi Road on the other side to reduce accidents and hold up sometimes for an hour, for five minutes trip. I will not revisit the very important road from Ughelli to Asaba, the state capital; just to say that the PDP government has been on it for close to 16 years. These and other challenges in other parts of Delta State are some of the real issues in this election. But we play politics with everything and turn truth in its head. It is not everything you play politics with.
Stripped of as much as politics as possible, and I am writing as a Deltan, the performance of Delta State Government in the last 16 years has been abysmal. I usually make exceptions of Chief James Ibori’s government even though it was not exceptional. I am not sure if the government had medium or long term development plans for the state when it took off in 1999, but that government did roads and opened up the rural areas. Ewhu, my town, got electricity and pipe borne water for the first time. There were a few other projects undertaken in Ewhu. Other parts of Ughelli South LGA and Delta State also got projects during Ibori’s government. I know the current government is constructing a bridge across Orere river to link Orere and Ewhu by road, which is commendable.
But if the subsequent governments had continued and improved on what Ibori did, Delta State will not be in this sorry state today. That is why I do not believe PDP should be in government after May 2023. I have been following the PDP campaign in Delta State. It is not issues-based enough. They are not properly accounting for what they did with the humongous money the government got as the state share of federal allocations, the 13 per cent derivation, ecological funds, other intervention funds and the internally generated revenue. We are just being told that the 13 percent derivation is part of the state budget. How? The act setting up the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) clearly states that 50 per cent of the derivation fund should go to DESOPADEC; has this provision been obeyed to the letter. Was 50 per cent of the over 100b that accrued to Delta State released given to DESOPADEC. If yes, what did they do with it or what are they been doing with it? We know that the oil producing communities have commissioners representing them in the DESOPADEC board, but are these commissioners acting in the interest of the people they represent? How does DESOPADEC arrive at the projects to be executed for the communities? Is personal interest not taking precedence over the collective interest of the communities? How is the government ensuring that the DESOPADEC Act is not subverted for political reasons? Let me leave the other 50 per cent which state government said is part of the state budget. Since it has become a controversial matter, can the state government show evidence of the remittance of the 50 per cent to DESOPADEC? What about concrete explanations on the humongous loans the state government took? I mean explanations in concrete terms, not vague and miscellaneous expenses? Even when the government makes feeble and belated explanations, everything still looks nebulous to me or is it different with other Deltans? Okay, let me blame my poor accounting knowledge for my lack of understanding of what government is saying.
Some apologists of PDP argue that Gov. Nyesom Wike’s achievements are so visible because Rivers is a one-city state. That is not true, but let me even flow with them. Now spread Wike’s projects in all the cities in Delta and tell us what is on ground that is commensurate to what Wike has done in eight years. After all, Delta State gets a more or about the same allocations as River State gets. The truth is PDP has failed Delta State multiple times and what do you do to student that has consistently failed exams? You advise him to withdraw or you expel him. Delta State PDP has the constitutional right to contest 2023 governorship election, but it is up to Deltans to vote out PDP.
Nature forbids vacuum, so the main opposition All Progressive Congress will take over. Omo-Agege has already shown his mettle in Delta State by his excellent outing as the senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District. Instead of discussing issues, I have watched with disappointment the issues being raised and personal attacks on Omo-Agege. Someone was questioning Omo-Agege’s religious beliefs. Where is that in the constitution? Anyway, it is now in the public domain that he is a Christian of the Catholic faith. He was baptised and confirmed as a Catholic while he was a student at Saint George’s College Obinomba, a Catholic-owned institution. The constitution does not mandate anyone to profess any religious beliefs, but the Catholic Church is very organized, his baptismal records are there. Any busybody can go and verify. You will come back empty handed, just as you did with his academic records. In any case, what is Christianity? It is a personal relationship between you and your God, on the one hand, and you and your fellow human beings, on the other hand. Since we cannot see God let us focus on fellow human beings who we can see. What is the relationship between Deltans and the Delta State Government? Unpaid pensions and gratuities, poor infrastructure, roads that are not motor-able, poor health facilities, some primary schools where pupils sit on the bare floor to learn and leaky classrooms where pupils get drenched while studying during the rainy season. Lagos started upgrading its schools on the return to democratic rule. About 20 years after, go round public schools in Lagos and see for yourself. What is bad is bad; do not deodorize it. Please spare me.
By the way, they also accuse Omo-Agege of being too Urhobocentric, that he will not be fair to all as governor. But he just commissioned five projects he attracted to his alma mater: an E-Library, an administrative block for the college, a one-storey building of 12 Classrooms, a dining hall/refectory, a 100 bed-space male hostel and a 100 bed-space female hostel. Obinomba is in Ukwuani LGA in Delta North Senatorial District. Other projects he attracted to Delta North include the construction of Asaba-Ugbolu-Illah-Ebu Road, installation of solar powered street lights in Agbor, Utagba-Uno, Abbi and Onicha Olona. He is also co-facilitating the establishment of a federal university in Aboh, Delta North Senatorial District.
In Delta South he facilitated construction and renovation of Nana Palace and Museum, Koko, installation of solar powered street lights in Koko, Oporoza, Okerenkoko and Oleh. Omo-Agege provided furniture for some primary and secondary schools in Isoko North and Isoko South Local Government Areas, also in Delta South Senatorial District. Note that he is the senator representing Delta Central. If he can do these now, why will he abandon other areas of the state when he becomes governor?
A lot of other wild allegations have been made, but I will not bother to go there because I believe in dealing with issues not persons. But people should think before talking and retrain from throwing stones when they live in glass houses.
As Anayo Agu, my friend, wrote on Enugu 2023 governorship election, what Delta needs is a “good Samaritan, not a Saint,” for all, including governments of Delta State from military era, have sinned and come short of the glory of God anyway. Deltans are not looking for a governor that will land Deltans in the moon; they just want a governor who has compassion, who will use our enormous resources to give Deltans a better living space and create an enabling environment for the hard working people of Delta State to unleash their enormous potentials so that they can blossom. HE Ovie Omo-Agege is the man for the job. The 2023 governorship election is a serious matter, not a circus. People should focus serious issues.
Francis Ewherido is a foundation member of APC, but more importantly a concerned Deltan
