Eshanekpe Israel a.k.a Akpodoro is the Mayor of Urhoboland, a former warlord and ex-militant leader of repute. In this analysis of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s first year in the saddle, the Gberegolor Ughelli South Local Government Area Delta State-born youth leader x-rays the one year administration of the governor.
● When on March 18, 2023, the people of Delta State filed out to cast their votes for the then Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, little did they know that they were voting for a unifier, a fountain of peace and visionary leadership. Seeing the long queue on tte day of the election, I did not doubt that the governor was coasting home to victory.
His antecedents in the hallowed Chambers of the State House of Assembly glowingly spoke for him as Deltans in their large numbers gave him their mandate freely and creditably.
Since taking the mantle of leadership, Governor Oborevwori went to work blazing the trail and healthily building upon the achievements of his predecessor. First, he awarded the contract of the Effurun Bridge, a monument that will stand the test of time. That contract was awarded to a multinational construction giant, Julius Berger, giving credence to his avowed readiness to thrust the Warri City among emerging metropolis in the country.
The Warri Metropolitan City project from the governor’s body language speaks volume of his willingness to uplift the economic nerve centre of the oil-rich state.
His priorities are accurately placed as he takes on one magnificent project after the other, demonstrating his bias for the underdevelopment of the state thereby instilling peoples’ confidence in his administration coupled with his choice of cabinet members who form a formidable team of performers around the governor and today, just one year, the state wears a new look.
Unlike other filts-infested state capital, Asaba began to relish the beauties of state capital in dire need of a magic wand. Governor Oborevwori has exuded a reformist tendency that has changed the face of governance, particularly in his management of the state’s workforce who now smiles to the banks on or before the end of the month including pensioners who were hitherto and at the receiving end of the maladministration that ravaged the state in the recent past.
In addition to Asaba, towns in the state have also received a touch of Governor Oborevwhori’s one-year in the saddle as places like Agbor, Kwale, Ughelli, Sapele, the university community of Abraka, Obiaruku and other sub-rural communities are flourishing in the giant strides of the governor who has demonstrated his leadership prowess.
He has also shown detribalised commitment to the Benekuku bridge project which he inherited from his predecessor by increasing the contract sum in his determination to integrate Ndokwa East to Kwale the traditional headquarters and food basket of Ndokwa nation that sits on the largest deposit of natural gas in West African sub-region including crude oil.
Warri, the commercial hub of the state, is not left out of the creative leadership that the Delta State electorates enthroned.
Suffice it to say the governor came into power with the mindset of repositioning the state and bringing it out of the woods. The economy of the state since the inception of the former lawmaker has received a boost as the oil-rich Delta now relishes a visible development on all fronts especially in his innovative attention on the youth population in human development through training and empowerment of the productive population.
In just one year, the governor has set the pace for administrative excellence, making his administration seem to be the most peaceful and responsive. With zero tolerance for crimes and criminalities, the governor has exuded a fierce disposition to acts of lawlessness and indiscipline which he exuded in the bloody attacks and unfortunate killing of 17 military officers in Okuama, an agrarian settlement in Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state.
He exuded calmness and non-partisan understanding throughout the period of the bloody face-off between the civilian population and the military that ended in the demolition of the entire community.
The governor outside the norm of partisanship supported the military throughout the period to enable them get to the root of the matter without interference in his display of national solidarity and patriotism. His actions and inactions spoke of a governor with an excellent disposition to peace and tranquillity as against the politicisation of the crisis that an opposition governor would have grandstanded upon to chase personality clout.
The Okpe-born governor Oborevwori, at the setting up of a military panel of enquiry into the dastardly act, rolled out his support further to show disdain for an unpatriotic act in the state under him. He set in motion his weapon of administrative acumen to bring sustainable peace to that axis of the state by stepping up his acts of dispute resolution bringing all parties to a roundtable for the peaceful resolution of the conflicts.
That crisis was a litmus test for the governor but he passed it creditably well by ensuring peace returned to the community and also went ahead to ensure the return of the indigenous people of Okuama to their ancestral homes. The resettlement of residents of Okuama is still a work in progress for the Oborevwori’s administration.
In a span of one year under review, the government in Delta State has ensured that all sectors of the economy are actively involved in the reengineering and recalibration of the state, setting it on the course of revival.
As it stands, the people of the state are happily eking out their living in a peaceful atmosphere since the governor has breathed life into the dry bone of the 33-year-old state created from the old Bendel state on August 1, 1991. There’s no gainsaying the fact that in the next 3 years with Governor Oborevwori in the saddle, the good of the people of Delta State will be more prosperous in all aspects of human endeavours.
There’s no doubt in my mind that at the fullness of his term in office, the governor must have turned the oil-rich state into a hub of social-economic activities more so with the completion of the coastal super highway under construction, the state will be opened up to the world as an investment destination. The world is waiting to harness the potential and unlock the destiny of a new and vibrant state full of hardworking youths willing to act their quota to national growth and development.
The governor has started well and will surely finish strongly and it is plausible for the governor to also activate his reward system and call to work the forces, the cognisable individuals and groups who toiled day and night to enthrone his leadership.
Reward should be made for the efforts of those politicians and non-state actors who campaigned for his emergence as governor outside graunching individuals who hover around every government in power. There are those forces who actually took off the pressure of the campaign from the former lawmaker to ensure victory for him at the polls. Such individuals and groups funded themselves to support the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidates at the polls without pecuniary sentiments.
In his one year, the governor has sufficiently shown that breaking the yoke of underdevelopment is not impossible with commitment to a purposeful administration like the state now enjoys, all hands must be on deck to rally support for the government in the state for it to attain its full potential.
Oborevwori has justified in one year, the mandate of the people freely given to him at the polls.
As the current administration marks its first year in the saddle, the people of Delta State and Nigerians from all walks of life have every reason to celebrate the governor, his administration, legacy projects, and his mindset for development. There’s reason to applaud a man with a penchant for good governance devoid of tribalism and nepotism by his administration, for which his contemporaries should draw knowledge and emulate his good deeds. The state, as it is, is opened for business. The floodgate for both local and foreign investment is now widely opened for captains of industries to bring in their businesses considering the strides of the government’s towards demolishing insecurity in the state.
Eshanakpe Israel a.k.a Akpodoro, the Mayor of Urhoboland, writes from Ughelli, the traditional headquarters of Urhobo nation, Delta State, Nigeria.
