By Wilson Ruvwoghor
My disposition to the checkered Uduaghan governorship era in Delta state would paradoxically remain a mix of respect and disdain, for recording some monumental legacy projects and corresponding filtering of humongous state’s commonwealth in mega projects of nine digits budget values that turned out as ruse.
For instance, it was not honorable that the immediate past Governor, in the name of trying to woo investors and tourists to Delta, committed N11Billion of state funds into upgrade of Osubi Airstrip that was acquired from Shell by another private oil firm, and the project abandonment, just like that, for perceived conception against due aviation regulations process.
It is, in same vein, hard to forget that less than three months after building N1Billion fancy city bus stops and sundry beatifications on the Sapele Road between Effurun and Warri, the former Governor ordered demolition of same from Enerhen Junction to Effurrun axis in attempt to transform same into a mockery of BRT that never happened before being washed off by incumbent Ifeanyi Okowa after N6Billion has been sunk in.
Same disgust can be expressed over the failed Oleri, Ogwashi-Uku Resort Parks, Warri Industrial Park, failed sustainability of Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, as world class destination for medical tourism, to mention a few other shameful failure of his era which gulped more billions, for nothing.
On the flip-side however, Dr Uduaghan left indelible legacy in the classy Model Schools he sited across all three senatorial districts of the state. I am not crazy about comparisons and hyperboles, but I am yet to find elsewhere in Nigeria, a public structure as impressive and convivial for secondary secondary education as Uduaghan delivered in Nana College, Warri and that replicated in his home community, Abigborodo among those completed before he exited office.
What is hard to fathom on this outstanding achievement by the former Governor is why hasn’t the Uduaghan star model school approved for Otu-Jeremi (Otughievewn), headquarters of Ughelli South Council, been completed and delivered to specification? The model colleges as conceived were identical in design and contents of key structures, a two storey edifice of classrooms, staff offices with computer, science laboratories, sickbay, a gigantic power generator and sundry facilities.
This major edifice at Nana College, Warri, is surrounded by hostels for boarders, newly built staff apartments complementing renovated existing ones before the main project, standard football pitch with shaded pavilion of VIP seats. Same in Abigborodo, built from scratch, was even fitted with standard volleyball and lawn tennis courts, other contents who can hardly fine anywhere else in the country at that level of education even among leading private schools.
This is why the intrigues that have left Jeremi’s share of same model school uncompleted, unused why others were commissioned before Uduaghan vacated office should worry the host community and Ughievwen kingdom at large. It is more shameful that this is happening in the community where erudite Professor of Law who served as Deputy Governor under Uduaghan’s eight year reign hails from.
I would rather not blame Dr. Uduaghan for this lapse. He meant well with these rare quality of school structures, and he and his successor, Governor Okowa, under whose watch the project limped from seeming abandonment to resumed tardy execution, are in better position to answer the basic questions. Who got the contract, where are the standard library, science lab, boarding rooms, decent parking space and staff quarters and variety sports facilities embedded?
We are in a clime where officeholders are averse to public scrutiny, not even with the existence of the FOI Act, but towing the path of impunity of denial or nondisclosure wouldn’t appeal to their best interest as well. It is as much a shame that host Jeremi keeps mute in the phase of the shortchanging associated with the questionable delivery of the intended Otu-Jeremi Model Secondary School. Posterity would always be the best judge, in the end.
Ruvwoghor wrote from Ughelli, Delta state
