By Ray Umukoro
Call them President Bola Tinubu’s kids; then Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s children. You won’t be wrong. For in reality, that sums up the story of five young Deltans who left Nigeria as national champions to compete in Qatar and returned to the country as global champions. They brought honour and fame to Nigeria, to Delta state and to their respective schools and families.
Take a bow: Wisdom Chukwuma of Government College, Ughelli; Otorvo Uyoyou of Alegbo Secondary School, Effurun; Abraham Honour of Okpaka Secondary School, Okpaka; Ekhamateh Splendour of Government Model Secondary School, Asaba; and Alika Daniel of Utagba-Ogbe Grammar School, Kwale. They are all students of public schools in Delta.
Ahead of their stellar performance in Qatar, they had emerged champions at the 2025 President’s National Basic Education Debate Championship, which earned them the ticket to represent Nigeria at the World Schools Debate Championship in Doha, Qatar.
To emerge champions in the national President’s schools debate, they out-performed other young debaters from 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. They showed oratory, lexical elegance, critical thinking, linguistic sophistry, stage craft, teamwork and typical Delta spirit of self-confidence and charisma.
The Delta quintet showed no butterflies. They were assertive and compelling in their arguments, persuasive with a splash of eloquence. They were not fazed by the audience. They possessed every stage of the national competition, wowing the audience with raw intelligence, logicality and an uncanny ability to verbalise their thoughts at the speed of light. Besides, they evinced a firm grasp of contemporary issues in a manner that truly set them apart from their competitors.
The Delta-Five simply owned the national debate championship. They made it their show with a dash of distinction. That was the badge of honour they took to the 2025 World Basic Schools Debate Championship held in Doha, Qatar. And they excelled against competition from United States of America and host nation, Qatar, debating on climate change, youth empowerment and responsible technology use.
It was a triumph of ‘the spirit of Delta’ and a testament to the strategic investment in education by Oborevwori; an investment that spans teachers recruitment, capacity building, infrastructure addition and upgrade, welfare of education personnel across the value chain, all of which have created the conducive ergonomics for experiential learning.
One common feature in Delta public education is funding. Oborevwori, himself a product of public-school system, believes that with the right tools, upskilled personnel, and good funding, Nigeria public schools can rival any in the world. He was the first governor to pay the 2025 counterpart funding for UBEC-SUBEB projects. His unrelenting push for quality academic and technical education has manifested in more school enrolments, improved performance in external examinations and enhanced technical competencies among youths in the state. It is a template worthy of national implementation.
A strong advocate of performance-based reward, the governor gifted each of the five students and their handlers with a goodly N20 million. Oborevwori is an ideal intentional leader whose predilection to welfare has been legendary all through his public life. He believes that governments at all levels must be people-centric. It was the same spirit of people-centred leadership that made him launch the Widows Welfare Scheme, which seeks to empower 10,000 widows through direct financial aid and access to free healthcare as well as the release of N10 billion to clear outstanding pension arrears owed to retirees in the state.
This bucks the trend whereby retirees wait on end before receiving their deserved entitlements. Nigeria has had a poor sense of welfare for pensioners with hundreds dropping dead while waiting to be paid or while protesting non-payment of their pensions and gratuities. In a particular south-west state in 2015, 236 pensioners reportedly died in seven months as a result of the inability of the state government to pay their pension and gratuity, according to a Radio Nigeria report at that time. Even at the federal level, the issue of delayed payment and in some cases non-payment of pension has caused strains and deaths of retires in a manner that is not only shameful but affronts the fundamental rights of the retirees.
There has been a toxic pattern of owing retirees across the country. But not so with Oborevwori. He believes that while governance focuses on building infrastructure across all spectrum of endeavour, the human element in society must never be neglected. He sees this as a duty, an undeniable obligation to humanity. And he has kept his word. So far, a total of N36.4 billion had been paid in pensions, and N1.4 billion is being released for payment of pensions monthly since he assumed office.
“Our retirees are men and women who gave their best years in service to the state. It is only just that they receive what is duly owed to them, and under my watch, their welfare will remain top priority,” he said recently during a meeting with the state’s Pension Board.
Leadership in emerging economies like Nigeria must be deliberate in visioning, and purposeful in implementation. This was the model of Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore. He was devoted to quality education of Singaporeans and the enthronement of merit over sundry mundane considerations. He enforced the learning of English language making Singaporeans bilingual and becoming globally competitive. This deliberateness in leadership led to the emergence of Singapore from the ruins of war into a frontline global economy.
Indeed, success is neither an accident nor a happenstance. It comes from a premeditated visioning of a desired destination and calculated implementation of the critical processes that will lead to that destination. Oborevwori from the outset promised to deliver a MORE agenda of Meaningful Development, Opportunities for All, Realistic Reforms, and Enhanced Peace and Security. The rash of reforms he has wrought in the education sector alone underscores the competitive edge of Delta students both locally and globally. It is a rebirth of the good old days when Delta, even as a component of the defunct Bendel state, was the exemplar for youth development, academic and sporting excellence in the country.
From law, medicine and engineering to liberal arts and social sciences, Delta colleges and universities have continued to excel in major competitions thus cementing the state’s position not only as a benchmark in education but also a model in youth development and upskilling for global competitiveness. This is not a by-product of ad hoc and episodic leadership. Such landmarks are achieved with conscious leadership, the type epitomised by Oborevwori.
The fact that the fantastic Delta-Five are all students of public schools in the state speaks volumes of the governor’s determination to make Delta education sector the archetypal 21st century standard in the country.
· Umukoro, a public policy analyst, writes from Warri
