The Danger of Allowing an Uduaghan Sponsored Puppet Gov. in Delta State in 2015 –By John Okafor Let me begin by inviting you to contribute to the salvation of Delta State by photocopying this article and freely distributing to all Deltans. For the past several weeks, there has been a marked increase in political activities in Delta State. Office gossips, beer parlour discussions, friendly tete-tetes, online messages, bill boards, stickers, posters, and lately, church services, parties, meetings, consultative visits and open declaration have announced the governorship ambition of a certain Tony Obuh, the recently retired permanent secretary in Governor Uduaghan’s personal office in Asaba. To begin with, sympathies must first be expressed for Mr Obuh, who by training and career as a civil servant is not expected to provide vision, change, or inspiring leadership, but who on the contrary, is programmed to be a good follower and maintainer of the status quo, and who must have been dragged into this unfamiliar limelight. No one has ever heard of a serving civil servant aspiring to be a state governor in Nigeria, except where there is a puppet master behind, pulling the strings and stuffing him with free cash and false hope and confidence. This man must have been thanking God for a fairly successful civil service career and planning for a quiet retirement, until a governor who himself is suffering from chronic inferiority complex arrives with a gubernatorial prophecy. But Mr Tony Obuh is not the issue here, for only very few children would spit out sweet candies placed in their mouths. The issue is Governor Uduaghan: Where he came from and what he represents. Not many people complained when, as many would recall, Dr Uduaghan was freely given a commissionership position by his cousin, a former governor of Delta State. But when he was pushed forward to succeed his relation as governor of the state, it is on record that Deltans united in opposing the danger, but our country being what it is, he was imposed against the wishes and better judgement of majority of Deltans. Some people have authoritatively posited that one of the collateral consequences of that imposition today is Chief James Ibori languishing in a UK jail. Some even now predict that Governor Uduaghan will meet a stiffer backlash if he persists with attempts at another imposition. But that is still not the issue. The issue as stated earlier is what Dr Uduaghan represents. Through the over seven years of his governorship so far, through his words and actions, this man has demonstrated the acute myopia of his vision, the poverty of his intellect, the bankruptcy of his conscience and the infinity of his greed. Let us begin with the extent and quality of projects in Delta State. While many state governments in the country are contracting competent and internationally renowned companies like Julius Berger and RCC to execute projects, Dr Uduaghan is conniving with ad-hoc commercial entities to dupe Deltans. The reasons for choosing these companies being to be able to more easily get his kickbacks and launder the dirty monies, even though he might claim that he wants to patronize local businesses. Most companies contracted by Dr Uduaghan to execute projects in Delta State, like Dr Uduaghan himself in matters of administration, innovation and leadership, lack the technical skills, capacity and competencies to handle such projects. The companies are not even aware that roads require drainages and that such drainages should carry off water! To make it even worse, a chat with some contractors, some of them Arabs, revealed that Governor Uduaghan and his agents extort up to 60% of contract sums from companies, leaving them with little to execute the actual work. For this reason, most, if not all government projects in Delta State are of the poorest quality, so that many streets built in Asaba, Warri and other places in the state last only a few months. For instance, many streets around DLA Road in Asaba, finished in March have failed by the time heavy rains commenced in July, only four months later! Some other projects are misplaced priorities whose cost-benefit analyses reveal little value to citizens compared to the massive costs to the coffers. For instance, just N100 million could have been spent to expand the roads and ease bottlenecks around Inter Bau Roundabout in Asaba, instead billions of Naira in real and inflated cost is now being expended to build a flyover that would ferry only a few vehicles across the junction, for a cursory study of traffic flow around the area shows that very few vehicles ply Anwai Road and that Nnebisi Road which receives most of the traffic is rather too small to carry the volume of traffic coming from or heading towards Okpanam during rush hours. The consequence being that, should the flyover succeed in quickly carrying vehicles over the former roundabout, it will create a worse traffic jam somewhere further up the road: around the Federal Medical Centre for instance. Moreover, common sense would have shown even an average mind that Koka/Ibusa Junction is more urgently deserving of a flyover, over the busy expressway, linking the two parts of Asaba, easing the ever increasing traffic on the expressway and guaranteeing quick access to Ibusa, Ogwashi Uku, Kwale and ultimately Ughelli and Warri. Or better still, a fraction of this money could have been spent to repair Okpanam Road that has being destroyed by massive floodings. But let us now pause from this flyover and take a look at other projects. The drains been built by Governor Uduaghan in Asaba are the stuff of comedy. But it is a tragic comedy. Billions, again in real and massively inflated cost is being wasted on drains that lead nowhere. Shallow, narrow or blocked gutters in Nnebisi Road, DLA Road, Okpanam Road and other places in Asaba are being converted into underground drainages, unmindful of the quantity of water they are expected to carry. In some places the new drains are higher than adjoining streets that are supposed to empty into them. Through actions like this, a street like Marian Babangida Way, a perfectly good road and surrounding properties are now being destroyed through the incompetence of Dr Uduaghan and his contractors. The pedestrian walkways in Agbor, Warri Asaba and other places in Delta State look more like traps designed to fell humans than places humans are expected to enjoy leisurely walks. It is now even being reported that the runway at Asaba Airport is about to fail. The issue of the never-ending and massively inflated cost of this airport project has been very well documented. Any concerned Deltan can visit any of these projects sites to verify. And these are just a tip of the iceberg in poor infrastructural development from a desperately poor mind. The consequence is that nearly N900 billion stolen or wasted on these projects, some of it borrowed and mortgaged against the future of coming generations of Deltans, has been wasted, because in the near future, these roads and similar projects must be ripped up and rebuilt at a new cost to Deltans. In saner climes this incompetence and stealing would have been treated as a very serious crime. But here and now we can only hope that one day this man would be held accountable for his crime against Deltans. But it should be noted that infrastructural malaise is not the only sickness Dr Uduaghan has transmitted to Deltans. In moral development, he will be leaving behind a new psyche that glorifies and institutionalizes corruption. In fact the message Dr Uduaghan and his wife Roli sends out to Deltans is that not only does corruption pay, but that it is the explicit will of God, for while they rob Deltans through kickbacks, inflated contracts, nepotism and cronyism: awarding contracts to their children, close friends and other family members, supported by rogue pastors, they invoke the name of God as the facilitator, supporter and provider of these dirty deals. The wife has even gone as far as assuming the title of deaconess while expropriating public money and land for personal commercial use. But moral corruption only gets worse in Dr Uduaghan’s leadership in Delta State. Only recently during the recently concluded PDP local government election primaries, the Delta State PDP chairman, Chief Peter Nwaoboshi organized a massive fraud, with the connivance, support or at least knowledge of Dr Uduaghan, under the pretence of selling forms to LGA councillorship and chairmanship aspirants. Nearly N1 billion must have been extorted from aspirants, most of whom were poor youths hoping for a fair primaries and fairer futures, only for Governor Uduaghan to announce at Unity Hall that candidates must be handpicked by a single or a small group of so-called party leaders from every ward or local government. The question widely asked around Delta State when the Governor made this pronouncement was, “If Governor Udaughan new that he would never allow fair primaries, why then did he and Chief Nwaoboshi charge close to N2 million per person for chairmanship forms and up to N600,000 for each councillorship form. After a thoughtful consideration of the circumstances surrounding this matter, it was easy to come to the painful conclusion that this was quite simply, a carefully planned and masterfully executed fraud by a leadership lacking any qualms or moral fibre. This is a leadership that believes in deceptive sloganeering like THREE POINTS AGENDA, DELTA BEYOND OIL, FINISHING STRONG etc, but in reality have no interest in good policies other than the corrupt enrichment of the top operatives of the administration. Governor Uduaghan is finishing strong indeed, but Delta State is finishing weaker, for while his personal bank accounts and assets are swelling as kickbacks flood in, the very projects, like the streets around DLA Road which have funded these kickbacks are failing rapidly just a few months after their opening; even before Deltans have the chance to use them. And these are not isolated cases. It is a consistent pattern that shows the workings of Dr Uduaghan’s mind. And it shows a mind struggling to grasp even the most rudimentary understanding of modern life and 21st century public policy development and implementation in developing societies. It is a kind of mind that believes that there is law and order, good roads and other quality infrastructures in the UK, USA, South Africa, Israel, Dubai etc because these countries are populated by white-skinned people, while Delta State is peopled by black men and black women whose leaders should at best only travel abroad to gawk at modern infrastructures and technology and take photographs with white celebrities. It has been said by many people that Dr Uduaghan does not like intelligent, independent and confident people around him because their presence reminds him of his own shortcomings. Little wonder he has overlooked all the vibrant and experienced politicians around him who are from Anioma to push forward an unknown quantity whose only vaunted quality is loyalty to Dr Uduaghan (as if a civil servant can be anything but loyal to his political master). But you may ask, “How does this affect Deltans in the future seeing that Dr Uduaghan is on his way out as governor of Delta State and a new governor is coming in?” Here is the answer: It is the nature of human beings to like people who like the things they like. Birds of the same feather flock together. Left to outgoing leaderships in all human organizations and societies, successors to leadership are those people who best represent the values and interests of the expiring leadership. Thus, the most violent members are usually promoted to leadership in street gangs and secret cults, and the most dedicated and pious priests will eventually rise to the position of pope in the Catholic Church. The government in Delta State today is a dismaying kakistocracy, mobocracy or worse. If left to Dr Uduaghan he will promote the most intellectually and morally bankrupt pretender and minion to leadership in the state. Thus it is our duty to oppose it for according to Karl Marx, “To leave error unrefuted is to commit intellectual immorality.” Governor Uduaghan’s government is a forced error from 2007, this error was twice enforced on Deltans in 2011, but it is now the duty of every Deltan , man or woman, young or old, whether from Delta North, South or Central to oppose this imposition and drop this yoke upon all our heads, for a Tony Obuh governorship will be Governor Uduaghan’s 3rd term and a continuation of mediocrity, incompetence, waste and stealing of our resources. It is time for everybody who genuinely cares for Delta State, especially people from Delta North to stand up and be counted against this charade, for we cannot afford even another year of Uduaghan’s misrule. I recommend that this fight be spearheaded by people from Delta North, for either this is a scheme designed to cause confusion, produce a weak candidate who will be unable to win from PDP, thereby paving the way for a candidate from Delta South or Central to win from an opposition party, or it is intended to portray Anioma as a weak, disunited and incompetent people even when we have a glut of visionary, experienced and competent aspirants with very laudable development programs for Delta State, who have been planning for the governorship since 2007. Now the truth must be exposed, for this doctor is a disease not unlike Ebola. I recommend that his corrupting influence, rump and vestiges be contained; quarantined, and ultimately exterminated, and like the remains of ebola victims, his shoddy kakistocratic legacies cremated. By the way, kakistocracy is a government by the worst citizens and mobocracy a government of gangsters. John Onwuyai Okafor wrote in from Asaba, Delta State. He can be reached on: onyezibe@gmail
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 11:09:23 +0000
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