THE UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF DELTA STATE One afternoon, shortly after I had assumed duty in the Physical Planning Department of the University where I now work as an Architect, there was a knock on the door to my office. I was all alone. In came a fairly elderly man in resplendent clothing, complete with beads, a hat and a walking stick. There was also an air of arrogance about him too. He greeted me, “Mavo (Hello).” Seeing that he was much older than me, I had to genuflect as was expected of me to such a person. He then introduced himself and I had to do same. He quickly picked on the fact that we were both from the same ethnic group. Quite expansively, he intoned that it was a good thing having our young ones now in key positions where as an ethnic group, we could collectively benefit economically. He went further to make a business proposal. He offered to share any proceed with me should I divulge to him, important information on forthcoming projects the university may plan to embark upon. Looking him straight in the eye, I told him it was clear he did not recognize me. I acknowledged that I was much younger then and had not yet developed an increasing waist line, but I did recall that he was a contractor on a site in which I was the Resident Architect some years ago. I reminded him that it was I who personally handed over his construction site to him. I added that the State government had paid him thirty percent (30%) of the contract sum as mobilization. In spite of this, he never came back to execute the contract. The project was abandoned. I was not aware that he paid that money back to the government. I then asked him if he thought I could in all honesty, consider him worth the while here in a new University trying to make every available funds count as it strove to develop its infrastructure and buildings. I watched this elderly man wilted under my steady gaze. He was so embarrassed. After shuffling here and there, he left my office without saying a word. I never saw him again. This man was a prominent political figure in the James Ibori government. Prior to my assumption of duty at the aforementioned place of work, I was a man to be found in every nook and cranny of the state as I went about making a living. I was therefore able to gauge the progress that was made in terms of infrastructural development in the state. It was with alarm I observed the decaying infrastructure that was ongoing across the length and breadth of the state under the watch of the current governor. It was as if all the work his predecessor, Chief Onanefe Ibori had done was being washed away with the utter neglect the state was experiencing. I blamed him and I was among those who felt he had no idea what it took to govern and that he had no business being governor. This perception of mine was reinforced when I traveled to Lagos and watched the electioneering campaign of Fashola, Akpabio and some governors of other states. Where these governors were proudly exhibiting projects executed in their respective states, my governor was shown holding a pair of compasses on a drawing board. He looked in the short film, to be very uncomfortable at what he was doing. What was not lost on me was the fact that here was a man running for a second term in office, still on a drawing board while his colleagues elsewhere were consolidating what they had done in their first term. My disappointment was at a nadir. So, when he went on to win re-election, I went on to brace myself for the worst and could not wait for the next four years to quickly go by. This state of despondency was put aside when I had to take a quick journey to Asaba via Ughelli, Isoko, Kuale to Asaba recently. This beleaguered road project to my surprise was in an advanced stage of completion. This stretch of road used to be so bad that I actually hardly used it at the height of my travels in the past. As I drove on the road, I was hit with the activity of ongoing work from the Isoko Junction at Ughelli, up to Isoko itself at Ozoro. From Ozoro to Asaba through Kuale, the work is truly moving at a rapid pace. An idea of the finished work can be gleaned from the segments that appear to have made the most progress and the actual finished product can be seen to be a wonderful piece of reconstruction and expansion of this road. Out of curiosity, I decided to take the alternate route through Agbor, Abraka, Eku to Warri on my return journey from Asaba. True enough, work was ongoing on the Eku, Oviore, Oreropke, Warri axis of the road though at a much slower pace. It then occurred to me to note the work also ongoing along the linear route I take to work from home and back home. I noted the response of the government to the debilitating traffic jam at the Effurun Roundabout. The construction of an overhead bridge is currently ongoing at a steady pace as a solution to this problem. Just beside this project, a sprawling shopping complex is emerging. This project we are told though not financed by the state government is guaranteed by the government. Work here is also progressing at a steady pace. In fact, our local contractors and budding consultants in the construction industry, should visit this project site and use it as a case study of how projects should be executed in term of scheduling, quality control and general site management. The government of Delta State has completely reconstructed the problematic Enerhen Junction. Jakpa Junction is currently undergoing a make over. What is taking place in and around the Warri area is also taking place all over the state. Since 1999, when I began to visit Warri and subsequently moved to live in the city, crime wave increased as the Christmas season approached each year. The armed robbery rate will go up. So will the rate of murder, theft, kidnapping and sheer brigandage sky rocket. The last Christmas witnessed what was akin to a non-event. It was so peaceful it was hard to believe. Whatever was done worked and the governor must be given credit for it. This happened on his watch. So the question, “Why had it taken this governor so long to begin to make an impact in the state?” In an attempt to seek an answer to the above question, I recalled the above encounter I had with the Chief in my office. Make no mistake the Chief’s antecedent was not peculiar to members of my ethnic group alone. It cut across the length and breadth of the state. His was just an instance of the many that took place during the tenure of the current governor’s predecessor. The then governor, James Ibori, started out with the vim and verve of a man on a mission. He literarily turned the state into a massive construction site. Deltans were gainfully employed as contracts were awarded and constructions of major infrastructural works were ongoing across the state. This took place in the first three (3) years of Ibori’s eight (8) years he spent as governor. This period in the state, can be likened to the state’s golden era. People of the state walked tall, talked a little louder and were kind of brash. Delta State was known as the State with the Big Heart. It all went south when three years into his first term he muted his intentions to run for a second term in office. Members of his own party claimed he was an ex-convict and was therefore not eligible to run for office. The ensuing legal battle meant that all forms of progress in terms of infrastructural development in the state, screeched to a halt. He went on to win the election and governed for another four years. But the damage had already been done. Nothing happened in the state for the four years his second term lasted as a legitimacy problem hung over him like a halo. The short and tall of the story is that James Ibori is today, a guest of Her Royal Majesty in the United Kingdom. Clearly, Ibori is where he is today because of the kind of politics he played when his term of office as governor lapsed. But of significance to the state’s underdevelopment was the roles played by men and women like the Chief I mentioned above. Many of them simply saw the state’s resources as their personal reward for the roles they played in the polls that brought the governor to office. These men ravaged the state and the dream of the complete transformation Ibori had for the state suffered a still birth. He is currently paying the price for the recklessness of these men and women in the United Kingdom. Please do not misunderstand me. He is not entirely blameless in his ordeal I must add. But in the context of the theme I am trying to postulate here, I can clearly see now, the handicap the present governor is having. From the beginning of his first term in office, he suffered a major legitimacy problem. He even suffered the ignominy of being asked to step aside while a re-run election was conducted towards the end of his first term in office. At the beginning of his second term the legitimacy problem arose yet again. It was only after the courts finally put to rest the legitimacy issue that for the first time in six years, in an eight (8) year stay in office that he could finally concentrate on governing. The delay in action, it is clear was as a result of the state of instability that pervaded the state while the court cases lasted. The result is now so glaring for all to see. This Governor has not made the mistake his predecessor made. As a member of his predecessor’s government, he was in close proximity to learn from the mistakes made in the immediate past. Rather than have an open season for all and sundry, he appears to carefully select the projects that would have the greatest impact on the people and the state. He also pays particular attention on what type of contractors for such projects will be. As this is a major departure from what took place in the last dispensation, men and women who had feasted with reckless abandon, could not understand this digression from what they had come to see as the norm. So they cry and call the governor names and try to heat up the system. If I am correct in this analysis, then the problem in Delta State is not the governor per-se but the political class and contractors who have underdeveloped the state since Ibori’s term in office. If what we see in the space of just two years of relative peace in Delta State is a measure of what could have been, then your imagination is as good as mine where we would be now as a people had we had relative peace throughout Ibori’s eight years as governor and now Uduaghan’s eight years when it comes to an end next year. The penchant of the political class and the people in general to be impatient in their quest for primitive accumulation has now become the nexus of the problem facing the state. It is my prayer that when the next governor is sworn-in, the state will have a relatively peaceful transition and herald a phase of progressive development which the state so badly needs. As for Uduaghan, I also pray he is able to complete most of the work he has started though belatedly. In the final analysis, history may yet be kind on him. Finally, for critics like me, perhaps we should show a little more introspection when taking a look at men in position of authourity. After all it is a known fact that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. By Arc. Oniovoefe Ekuerhare
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 13:18:46 +0000
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