By: Adewole Martins ( Eagle Online) Delta Unperturbed that the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties had damaging remarks to make about him in a three-page statement dated May 16, 2013, co-signed by its Secretary, who doubles as the state Chairman of the KOWA Party, Prince Jude Eze, and six other opposition parties’ chairmen for allegedly arrogating unconstitutional powers to himself, Governor Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan of Delta State has continued to deliver on the mandate that produced him in 2007 and 2011. Even the group placed on record the laudable and remarkable achievements Uduaghan made during the period under review by saying: “We want to commend him (Uduaghan) immensely for the new look the Delta State is wearing now in terms of road maintenance and drainages. We appreciate his three-point transformational agenda, which lays emphasis on human capital development, geared at a robust economy, centered on human resources, the bedrock for a meaningful development,” and saluted his “courage, vision and dynamic sense of leadership”, which they said “has turned Delta state into an economic hub for investors and creation of jobs”, it however scolded him for attempting to turn the oil rich state into a “one party state” when he refused to short-list any member of the opposition parties for the newly-constituted and inaugurated Delta State Independent Electoral Commission and the Caretaker Committee members for the 25 local government areas of the state.
While the group accused Uduaghan of violating Section 3, sub-section 6, and 7, sub-section 1 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, as amended, and the 2010 Electoral Act, as provided for in Sections 108 and 156, the indictment equally provided an unfettered opportunity for the people of the state to succinctly deliberate on issues affecting the governance of the state since the advent of democracy in 1999 when Chief James Onanefe Ibori was its governor and the Niger Delta region in the context of the Nigerian state.
Before the governor told those who cared to listen that the major outline of the state’s dream since it was created in 1991 to build key infrastructure in the areas of power, transportation, including airports and seaports, boost educational delivery amidst championship in sports, tourism and entertainment, engender sustainable industrialization anchored on special economic zones has been achieved, his Commissioner for Works, Hon. Funkekeme Solomon, revealed how the Ibori government left behind over 418 road projects, estimated at N133 billion. The projects, according to him, comprised 1,372 kilometre length of roads and 744 kilometre length of drains. Solomon said 10 contracts were repudiated for non-performance when his boss assumed office in 2007, even as he said 24 others were at various stages of repudiation by the state.
He explained that most of the repudiated contracts were awarded to Workson Construction Company, allegedly owned by the former helmsman, and the Inter-Bau Construction Company.
Funkekeme, who spoke at the Unity Hall, Government House, Asaba while presenting Governor Uduaghan’s Mid-Term scorecard, said apart from the N43.2 billion spent on 60 per cent of the abandoned projects, N240.8 billion have been expended on other 367 projects since 2007.
He said: “We will not allow anybody to drag the Governor (Uduaghan) into unnecessary negative publicity. We have empowered the state’s Ministry of Justice to recover all expended monies. Though, we are in a democratic environment, I can assure you that any further issue of misdemeanor by any contractor in such category will be decisively dealt with by the governor.”
Represented by his Commissioner for Works, Rt. Hon. Funkekeme Solomon, and his counterpart Chike Ogeah, Commissioner for Information, Funkekeme said out of the 1,372 kilometre length of roads abandoned by contractors engaged by the previous administration, 549 kilometre length of roads and 170 kilometre drainage channels have now been completed. He said the era of awarding contracts for political patronages to unqualified and “contractors that have not reputable records and addresses”, have gone, explaining that 1,006 kilometre length of roads awarded shortly after his boss was sworn in, in 2007, have been completed, “brining”, according to him, “all-weather roads projects awarded across the state to 3,236 kilometres.”
Solomon said in the current fiscal year, over 100 projects, inclusive of new ones, abandoned and repudiated, have been processed for approval and are at various stages of procurement. In his analysis, he was optimistic that the dualization of 6.2 kilometre Refinery Road (Federal road), with spur along the NNPC Housing Estate Road to Ekpan Roundabout, Effurun, at the cost of N4.3 billion, when completed would link the intersection in Ekpan town and improve traffic flow and also link the Petroleum Training Institute/Ekpan road, Effurun/Sapele Road to the Nigeria Port Authority dual carriageways. He said the award of 8.35 kilometer Ajagbodudu-Ogharefe Road at the cost of N2.4 billion to Messrs Levant Construction Limited, with a spur to the state’s Independent Power Plant project site at Oghara, Ibori’s hometown in Ethiope West Local Government Area of the state, was to connect Oghara to Koko, with its Seaport and proposed Koko Free Trade Zone.
Besides Funkekeme’s explanation, the governor reeled out his revolutionary programmes and achievements, especially in the past two years (2011-2013) in the area of peace and security, human-capital and infrastructural development. While he said the aspiration to turn around the state was driven by the need to address factors that militate against growth in key sectors of the state’s economy and the urgent necessity to promote investments but the circumstance he found himself since 2007, listing hundreds of abandoned / uncompleted projects by his predecessor and incessant court cases after elections, as factors that contributed to low spate of work during his first term in office.
In what he tagged “Delta Beyond Oil” the governor, who maintained that his agenda for the oil rich state was “generational”, presented a transformation achievement that demands a complete turnaround of the state’s economy away from the old ways, which according to him “has guaranteed prosperity across the state and uplifted the survival of its economy”. He said: “One major setback of depending on oil which has been a subject of national discourse was that our non-oil sectors, i.e Agriculture, Solid Minerals, and Tourism, have been grossly neglected.”
The governor did not only pop champagnes for completing hundreds of abandoned projects but went ahead to commission the newly constructed Government House Road; Okpanam township road, comprising nine roads, summarized in 11 kilometers; 60 newly-renovated dilapidated school buildings; 10 newly built model schools, including the Asagba Secondary School, Zappa Primary and Secondary School, Ogbe-Afor Primary School and Abu-Ator Primary School, all within Asaba metropolis.
He made bold to say that the Warri Industrial Business Park and the Koko Export Free Zone would serve as another laudable means of diversifying the state’s economy. He added that the gas-based industrial park, a major component of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Gas Revolution Agenda, “has a robust private sector interest in driving them”, even as he said “there is also a solid private sector investment in agriculture in Delta’s collaboration with Obasanjo Farms/OFN project, coupled with the boost of the ongoing construction of the Delta Leisure Park at Oleri, near Warri and the Wild-Life Park (the Zoo) at Ogwashi-Uku, Aniocha South Local Government Area of the state. He said “most of the waterfront areas at Warri, Koko, Burutu and Oghara have virtually been taken up by private investors and are at various stages of establishing their industries, especially oil and gas-based industries, and beaches.”
He said the education sector in the state has witnessed unprecedented improvement and has therefore promoted the human-capital development of the state. No wonder, the Governor’s Commissioner in-charge of the Directorate of Infrastructure, Oresi Esievo, a lawyer, said: “The massive investment in new school buildings and the refurbishment of old structures to ensure the return of discipline and moral rearmament, has made the state, in its collaborative effort with private sector, to witness robust activities, healthy competition and academic excellence.”
The commissioner explained that the projects were in consonance with the national policy on infrastructure development of all sectors of the economy. Esievo said since her boss assumed office in 2007, he has puts “an efficient quality assurance mechanism” in place to ensure quality, improve and deliver on the infrastructure he inherited from the administration of Chief James Onanefe Ibori and his predecessors. According to her, Uduaghan instituted deliberate policies to attract all children of school age to school through the provision of not only tuition free but child-friendly school environment, by declaring a state of emergency on infrastructural decadence from pre-primary to secondary levels of education. Knowing fully-well that educational service delivery in Delta State is a very gigantic venture and the most important legacy that they can bequeath to their children, His Excellency effected increase pressure on the available infrastructure, particularly classrooms and hostel accommodation as mostly experienced in the urban areas.
Esievo recalled that in 2009 alone, a total number of 487 classroom blocks were constructed and renovated. Similarly, in 2010, a total number of 657 classroom blocks were also constructed and renovated while in 2011, a total number of 137 new classroom blocks were awarded for construction and 67 classroom blocks were given out for rehabilitation/renovation in the same year and the projects are already above 70.5 per cent completed, while the remaining ones are at the various stages of completion. Also in 2012, a total of 87 projects have been awarded and tenders for various types of projects are being collated. Also constructed were six classroom blocks each in 33 schools, using the Eternit Modular Panel and renovation of classroom blocks in 11 schools in selected riverine communities affected by the Niger-Delta crises.
In addition to this, a total of 55 primary and secondary schools of international standard, were built by the Directorate of Infrastructure, a body set up by the administration of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan to fast-tract infrastructural development in the state. Besides that, through the state Universal Basic Education Board, 198 classroom blocks were initiated, out of which 173 have been completed, while 25 are ongoing. Equally, 76 classroom blocks were earmarked for renovation and out of this number, over 60 have been completed while about 14 are ongoing. In addition, the board also constructed 540 infant furniture (ECCDE), 3,110 teachers’ table and chairs and 36,082 pupil/students dual desks. These items were distributed across the three senatorial districts in the state. This was in addition to 8,302 students’ furniture and 1,066 teachers’ tables and chairs supplied to various schools in the state in 2011 and provision of 4,000 desks for students and pupils and 1,064 teachers’ tables and chairs for riverine schools were also undertaken. During the period under review, construction of examination halls and perimeter fencing, students’ toilets and boreholes in some secondary schools in the state were undertaken. While all these were done, teachers/staff quarters were not left out in some selected riverine and upland schools in the state.
She dismissed the rumour making round the state that the state and the Niger Delta Development Commission were duplicating projects to give a semblance that they are working. The commissioner, who defined the specific mandates of the NDDC to include the implementation/commissioning of relevant projects in the entire region, maintained that the projects are conceptualized, designed and executed based on extensive consultation with the oil producing communities and input from stakeholders, such that today the commission has a good harvest of concrete achievements as evidence in the array of projects and programmes it has embarked upon and completed.
According to her: “Delta State has no reason to duplicate the commission’s projects, the administration of Governor Uduaghan has taken giant strides to facilitate the all-round development of the state. The NDDC has worked on the region and its people. A project cannot be executed two times in a particular place, at a particular time and according to the same specification. So, where and how does duplication of projects arise? Where NDDC has worked, the state moved away from there and worked on other places and where the state has delivered, NDDC has no cause to work there again. Mischief-makers are the ones peddling such insinuations that Niger Delta state governments and NDDC duplicate projects. Delta State is far from such dubious act, if at all it does happen.”
“Instead”, she emphasized, “the strategic development programmes being envisioned by the state were delivered via DESOPADEC (Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission) to enhance projects delivery and report same to His Excellency and feedback of the same views and reactions of the people to government.”
Esievo, who x-rayed her boss’ Democracy Day speech, said the determination of the governor to lift the state up compelled him to hand down a threat that any public school teacher found collecting illegal levies from pupils and students, when the state and the federal government had declared tuition free schools and the state is paying the WAEC fees of students and has provided bursary and scholarships for its First Class graduates to study anywhere in the world, would be made to face the law, even as she recalled Uduaghan’s determination to deal ruthlessly with some irate youths in Okpanam community that allegedly stalled the progress of work on a drainage system project in the locality and went as far as beating up one of the contractors, who went on feasibility study of the project site.
Corroborating Esievo, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Chief Godwill Obielum, who said Nigeria’s democracy is developing very fast with the level of freedom being witnessed in the country, rated Uduaghan’s administration high in so many areas. Such areas included job creation, ensuring good learning environment through massive infrastructural development in the education sector and good neighbourliness among ethnic nationalities.
Obielum was beaten hands down during the 2007 governorship race when he failed at the PDP primaries and lost to Uduaghan. He said he was pleased that the governor delivered on the mandate that produced him, adding: “In the area of security, we are aware of the commitment of the governor to ensure a peaceful state and he has done a lot to check security challenges, including kidnapping and armed robbery, which became obvious as a result of the militant activities in the Niger-Delta. It is God that gives power, all that we need to do is to support the government in power, encourage them to work because four or eight years may not be enough for them to execute their programmes for the people, and as such, they deserves our support instead of engaging in actions which could distract them now. I can tell you that we have done very well as a state, as a nation within the past 14 years, we need to engage in actions that will deepen our democracy and this we can do by encouraging and supporting our elected officials and those who are holding political offices.”
Prior to this, the governor told First Class monarchs from across the state, including the Chairman of the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Peter Nwaoboshi; the member, representing Aniocha/Oshimili Federal constituency, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu; the governor’s commissioners; the women wing of the PDP; captains of industries; chieftains of the state Association of Registered Political Parties in the state; and other stakeholders at the state’s Convention Centre, Off Okpanam Road, Asaba, that his administration had spent N225 billion for the construction of about 851 projects across the state, He said 10 roads, covering a length of about 11 kilometres, were constructed in Asaba, the state capital and its environs at the cost of N4 billion. The governor, who was flanked by the representative of the Asagba of Asaba, Prof. Chike Edozien, the Iyase of Asaba, Patrick Onyeobi, during the commissioning of the Asagba Secondary School, which was redeemed from its glorified state, confirmed that the over 200 projects inherited between 1999 and 2007, including roads, have all been rehabilitated, constructed and reconstructed, noting that the roads were constructed to improve mobility and enhance accessibility to link towns to Asaba metropolis, as well as designed to give the city a facelift, address issues of flooding and reclaim the rights of the teeming population of pedestrians on the roads in the capital city. He disclosed further that over 100 primary and secondary schools are either being reconstructed or rehabilitated by the state’s Ministry of Education across the state while over 60 are being undertaken by the Directorate of Special Infrastructure, being manned by Esievo.
In his cursory look at the 2015 governorship race in the state, Uduaghan, who acknowledged that in politics “the heart of man is a chamber of horror”, said the ill-wind already being blown by aspirants from the three senatorial districts of the state in their bid to succeed him was uncalled for. He admonished contenders to avert plunging the state into crisis by heating up the political space, urging them to “demonstrate the willingness, zeal, capacity, doggedness to move our political strength to the next level.”
