The major word in government transition from one outgoing to one incoming is “continuity”, a state of advancing the existing benefits to the citizens of a state or a country, especially where the outgoing leader has prepared the platform for development initiatives, programmes or projects which have a positive impact on the people he governed during his tenure.
In all its simplicity, in the elementary sense of the word, the Uduaghan time in governing the oil-rich Delta State is worthy of mention as an interregnum that visibly presented an all round evidence of citizen development predicated on attaining and delivering verifiable benefits of the dividends of democracy to the people of the state; all of his eight years in Government House Asaba.
Today, three years after His Excellency Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan vacated Government House Asaba for the incumbent Governor, HE Ifeanyi Okowa, it is so sad to observe the deliberate attempt that has been escalated as a policy thrust to de-market the legacy of the Uduaghan years in Delta State by the current administration.
It is on this premise that the cacophony of voices in outburst, as witnessed after the recent Channels TV interview where Uduaghan featured, needs to be addressed with comparative narratives that should set the records straight.
The Uduaghan years, as I will refer to them in this article, represented one that showcased a huge collateral collection of initiatives that the government made available to the people of Delta State, in virtually all major sectors of the socio-economic life of the citizens.
For starters, the very remarkable health programme which addressed women and children health care as represented by the policy of free maternal health for women before and after child birth and the 0-5 years child care scheme which provided free medical care for this category of citizens of the state. It is gladdening to note that maternal and child mortality dropped to the barest minimum with this scheme in place as embraced by Deltans during the tenure of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan.
Other positive outcomes engaged in the health sector by Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan include the renovation and upgrading of the Eku Baptist Hospital and the success recorded at the Oghara Specialist Hospital where the first successful kidney transplant was recorded with the Governor himself as a member of the team that performed the operation. He was seen and viewed by all as pursuing even his Hippocratic Oath as a Medical Practitioner while in the service of his people in Government House Asaba, during his 8-year tenure.
Development is indeed the most sought after dividend by the people from every government, when elected into office to exercise power on behalf of the people. It is now an appraisal yardstick for determining whether the elected officer has, indeed, done or been seen to have tried to do all in the spectrum of expectations; which is the demanding quotient put at the top of the table of the leader of the people.
Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan tried to do it right and today it is necessary to urge him to use his senatorial ambition to push for more of his developmental ideals towards implementation in Delta State and, of course, for Nigeria as a whole. It is reasonable to profess that Deltans and, indeed, all Nigerians will benefit from his unique propositions for citizen growth and development in the country, while he serves in the hallowed chamber of the Senate.
Obviously it is very visible to note that His Excellency Ifeanyi Okowa, the incumbent governor, for the paltry reason of political differences, has been incapacitated from benefitting tremendously viz directly relating with the initiatives that are in the legacy basket of his predecessor, colleague, friend and political associate of many years. The incumbent Governor must realise that, regardless of the foibles and differences of today, government is a continuum. Sustainable development can only be achieved when succeeding governments build on credible foundations laid by preceding governments, in various sectors.
Anything short of this, and the infrastructural landscape of a state or country is littered haphazardly with abandoned projects. A candle that is burning at the short end of its wick still gives light to another candle with a fresh and long wick.
It is my belief that our leaders must demystify self and place the interest of the citizenry first and paramount, by establishing advantageous ideals and projects expected to outlive them and the generations beyond. This is why His Excellency, Ifeanyi Okowa should have embraced the legacy of his predecessor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, and relived the Edu-Marshals, the scholarship for Delta State 1st class graduates, the DESOPADEC structure of investments in boosting the state local economy, the Environmental Marshalls which engaged unemployed youth off the streets as well as the Direct Labour Agency (DLA), the Delta State Micro-Credit multi-award winning initiative commended by the CBN and which established foreign collaboration with an Italian group to produce leather shoes in Delta State aimed at boosting youth engagement and entrepreneurial self-sustaining initiatives.
There are other areas I cannot cover in just one article like this, but I hope I have inspired the need for Delta State to move out of the shadows to embrace the comparative advantage which was the hallmark of the Uduaghan years in government. By this token, I hope that His Excellency Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan will pursue his senatorial ambition that should further help to promote the persona of Delta State as a yardstick for pushing the national economy beyond oil into diversified initiatives of widespread sectoral growth in other aspects of development especially in youth engagement and enterprise development.
Uduaghan is, and will always be, for Deltans; what with a legacy as germane as that outlined in his 8-year tenure as Governor. Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, the bridge builder, the totem of unity amongst the various ethnic nationalities of the Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern parts of Delta State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
By: Olisa Enebeli