PRESS RELEASE - DELTA STATE GROPING IN AVOIDABLE DARKNESS

We welcome all Deltans to this annual ritual of the anniversary of the so called Democracy Day. So it is another Democracy day. What are we actually celebrating in Delta State? What democratic culture, practice or dividend is there to celebrate in Delta State since 1999?


Delta State has not had it so bad. As in the past so it is with the present and even worse with the Uduaghan regime. It is a highly unimaginative and clueless government that has no agenda for the development of the State except wondrous projects such as the asphalt tarring of the middle of a dilapidated road from Effurun Roundabout to the Oleri haven. Or is it the paper tiger that is called Warri Industrial Park? You want a Delta without oil, good, but where do we place the moribund Bendel Glass Factory Ughelli and the African Timber and Plywood Factory Sapele in a Delta without oil? His Excellency has correctly stated unemployment as the most challenging social issue in Delta State as indeed in other parts of Nigeria. How in the past four years of the first tenure has the oil boom revenue to the state been ploughed into the real sectors to generate jobs for the teeming unemployed? The mania about direct foreign investment will only make sense when the state builds confidence in potential investors by showcasing its own investment in the local state economy, If you are serious about the relentless call for Delta without oil, let charity immediately begin at home and the time is now; we have heard enough sermons of intention, we want the intention actioned in concrete policies, programmes and projects to actualise the lofty desires.

Delta Rescue Mission (DRM) has noted with dismay the decay in governance and infrastructure. Since 1999, the people’s will has not been allowed to prevail. There has always been imposition of candidates on the people though later confirmed by the courts because of the difficulty in producing convincing evidence in court, but the people know better who they gave their votes to and who is ruling without their mandate; but the courts have spoken and there must be an end to litigation.

Uduaghan’s Government has been dull and uninspiring but with enough sycophants willing to turn black into white, the people are confronted and confounded with superlative performance on television against the opposing reality in their localities. Rather than the State moving forward, it has stagnated on a number of variables and has slipped into retrogression on many fronts.

Delta State is in a state of collapse and economic quagmire. The filth of copiously hopeless waste management is an embarrassing stigma as refuse from drains heaped on roads does liter those roads for days and weeks on end. The roads, health sector, education, security, employment, agriculture are nothing to write home about. In terms of human indices and development, Delta State is on the slide. The credit claimed for improved security is most insincere; Delta State is fast returning to the hobbesian state of nature where the fittest survive and criminal impunity is on the rise in all aspects of our society.

The only thing that this Government has been known for is profligacy. Over- inflated contracts have been awarded severally and most of the jobs are never done. Abandoned projects litter the State. A Government that spends N7.4 Billion to demolish anthills and refer to patriotic critics as detractors cannot be said to be a serious and prudent Government. Since the inception of this Republic, Delta State has been noted for corruption and corruption alone. Any wonder that the former Governor of this State is jailed in London for money laundering. The same fate awaits those who will not learn any lesson from this.

DRM calls on the State House of Assembly to rise up to the challenge by performing their constitutional functions of oversight so that Delta State will be a place that Deltans will be proud of. Deltans and history will never forgive them if they decide to dine with the executive in a criminal conspiracy of maladministering the State. The temptation to reach the conclusion that the legislators are periodically settled to be idle is substantiated by the curious silence of the honourables on issues of development and corruption and their enviable lifestyles.

DRM calls on all Deltans not to sit on the fence but to rise up as one and democratically elect a Government of their choice come whenever they are invited to the polls. The platform has been provided. DRM will not rest on its oars irrespective of the intimidation from some quarters in ensuring that Delta State is rescued from the hands of shenanigans, looters of the treasury and election riggers. There is no job for youths but there is an armada of political employees called special advisers who have no known jobs but who pick profane monthly pay packages, weep not governor, you have created jobs for those you care about. The rest of us should wait for our miracles.

Today, there is nothing to celebrate in Delta State. We call on all Deltans to begin to sensitize, mobilize and join democratic forces indemocratically providing policy alternatives to this inert and inept Government come when the time comes. For now, it is not yet uhuru in Delta State.

M. Ahweyevuu Mukoro Esq
Director General, DRM.