Over the past few weeks, there has been a cacophony of voices calling on Deltans to mobilize and protest against ex-governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. It is the aim of these group of people to instigate a probe by anti-graft agencies into the tenure of Uduaghan. This protest which bears the unmistakable imprimatur of the current state government is based upon the idea that the actions of the last administration is the reason for the seeming failure of the Okowa administration.
This protest is needless and is not in the interest of Deltans. At best, it is an invitation to the ill wind which does no man any good. It is noteworthy that the Uduaghan administration which spanned from 2007-2015 is one which over 90% of the present state functionaries participated in. From Governor Okowa to the Speaker and the commissioners, the Okowa administration is peopled by the major actors and dramatis personae of the Uduaghan administration. Indeed, the Okowa administration is a direct continuation of the Uduaghan administration. Therefore, any orchestrated protest meant to portray Dr Uduaghan as being corrupt, will only serve to expose the underbelly of the sponsors.
For the records, the Uduaghan administration cannot be said to be in any corrupt. Deltans are witnesses to the people-centered policies and programs of the administration. The Asaba Airport remains a signature project of the Uduaghan administration. The political will coupled with the financial wizardry of the administration saw to the completion and takeoff of the project. The transport sector is another area where the Uduaghan administration recorded massive impact. Today, Uduaghan buses are everywhere and Deltans are better for it.
Asaba which was hitherto, an unsung town received massive infrastructural uplift during the administration of Dr Uduaghan. Through the construction and dualization of a network of intra-city roads as well as beautification and erosion control schemes, Asaba is today a city like no other. Same thing applies to Warri, Ughelli, Agbor and several other towns and cities which was transformed by the Uduaghan administration.
Mention must also be made of the intervention in the health and educational sectors which has seen a sharp increase in life expectancy in Delta State. More so, the investment of the Uduaghan administration will never be easily forgotten as Delta State students now have access to the best standards of education. Payment of bursary to all students of tertiary educational institutions and other scholarship schemes to first class graduates as well as to medical and law school students was at the core of the Uduaghan administration.
Despite all these laudable achievements and even more, the Uduaghan administration never defaulted in its financial obligations such as payment of salaries and pensions.
Ever since the advent of the present administration, it has been one complaint after the other. Dr Uduaghan has been blamed for even the glaring mistakes and incompetence of the officials of the Okowa administration. Dr Uduaghan has been silent to these accusations and would not dignify same with any response. However, going on a protest in a bid to stir up public angst against a respected elder statesman of the calibre of Dr Uduaghan is to go to the edge of the ridiculous. Truth is sacrosanct and no amount of protest by political jobbers and their sponsors can change the fact that Dr Uduaghan has left indelible developmental milestones in Delta State by which the present administration feels intimidated.
The Okowa administration is only seemingly hamstrung, failing and faltering as a consequence of its indiscretion. The state functionaries in a bid to erase the legacies of the immediate past administration, have adopted new and unproven measures which has now led to a cataclysmic end and an economic and political harakiri. Now, an excuse must be made and a scape goat must be found in Dr Uduaghan. This is the thinking of the sponsors of the protest against Dr Uduaghan and Deltans are aware of this grand deception. The protest is needless and as a result, will surely fail.
Comrade Ofie Monday, wrote in from Asaba.
