By Charles Aniagwu
On May 29, 2020, Delta
State Governor, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa will be celebrating five years
on the saddle in the administration of the state since he took oath of
office as governor for the first time on May 29, 2015. As Governor of
the oil-rich Delta, it has not been a smooth sail for the Ika born
medical doctor turned politician.
On
assumption of office in 2015, he met huge challenges ranging from heavy
salary burden, huge debts as well as crisis in the oil producing
communities across the state. He nevertheless was prepared for the huge
task having held away as Council Secretary, Chairman, Commissioner in
the ministries of Water Resources, Agriculture and Health, Secretary to
the State Government and later as Senator of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria. While in Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber, he distinguished
himself as Chairman Senate Committee on Health with the passing of the
National Health Act, one of the most important legislation in the 7th
Senate.
A careful assessment of the five-year
development trajectory of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration in
Delta State, suggests a clear and systematic departure from the past
when most major achievements were concentrated in the urban areas.
During his inauguration on May 29, 2015, Gov. Okowa in his inaugural
address, told the good people of Delta that his administration will pay a
special attention to rural development because “majority of our people
live in the rural areas”. In an explicit commitment to rural
development, Okowa emphasized that his administration will open up the
rural areas, create more urban centres, develop fresh economic
opportunities and reduce pressure on urban cities to boost
socio-economic expansion and give rural dwellers a sense of belonging by
upscaling the development of infrastructure and modernizing some
satellite towns.
On becoming Governor, one of
the first steps he took was to renegotiate Delta’s huge debt burden and
bailed out local government councils to enable them pay backlog of
workers salaries in that tier of government. In the early
days of the administration, the debt overhang impacted negatively on
Okowa’s dire need to speed up the delivery of his campaign promises.
However, the seeming set-back became a catalyst to work harder in his
determination to keep faith with the promises and move the state
forward. Five years later, we can simply look back and say Okowa has
done quite well in delivering on his campaign promises and more.
Resolution of crisis in the oil producing communities
Recall
that when he assumed office, there was serious crisis in the riverine
and oil producing communities in the state over lack of development
despite producing the nations oil resources that accounts for sizable
percent of the total revenue available to government at all levels in
the country.
He identified infrastructural
transformation and youth empowerment as panacea for hostilities in
coastal communities in the state. He saw that the provision of basic
amenities like roads, bridges and other infrastructure stemmed incessant
hostilities in the riverside communities of Delta and so had to set up a
peace advocacy committee headed by the Deputy Governor Kingsley Otuaro
to engage the people assuring them of his administration’s resolve to
better their lots. As the Otuaro Committee set out to work and
eventually secured peace in the state, he braved the odds by embarking
on projects with direct bearing on the lives of the people.
He
provided good governance; rapid rural development; traders and youth
empowerments; worked harmoniously with his Deputy Deacon Kingsley Burutu
Otuaro to ensure peace and harmony among the political class and
critical support for security agencies, among others, and has indeed
kept faith with his campaign promises to the people of Delta State.
Speaking
recently to TVC, Governor Okowa said that what the coastal communities
lacked previously was infrastructural development, and that his
administration took the bull by-the-horn by embarking on projects like
bridges, roads, schools, health centers, among others which had direct
impact on the lives of citizens. He assured that more of such projects
would be done within the limit of funds available to the state
government for development.
“We have been in
good communication with our people; we engage all stakeholders and
ensure that they understand the need for us to give peace a chance. As
at today, a lot of our youths have been engaged in intelligence work and
in other aspects of governance and a lot of them are also being
trained.
“They are beginning to see a lot of
things in the proper direction and they are happy about it. Secondly, we
have done a lot of construction of infrastructure in the various
riverside areas which has enabled them to buy into the programmes of
peace that we have. A lot of roads have been constructed in various
areas – Okerenkoko, Oporoza, Ogulaha, and these are all oil-producing
communities, including Burutu. In Ogidigben, we are also doing road
construction and these are things they never saw before, and because
they saw development brought into their place they began to see the need
to cooperate with government to ensure peace for more development to
take place.
“The Deputy Governor, Kingsley
Otuaro, led a stakeholders’ committee to engage the people and we also
have the Advisory Committee of the state made up of very prominent
members in the state, they all did a great job as opinion leaders
engaging the people. We have engaged the traditional rulers and various
youth formations and it is helping us quite a lot but very importantly,
the people saw that it was possible to bring development to their area,
hence saw no need to continue with disruption of oil facilities. The
whole thing about hostility was going on before because the people felt
neglected even when they were producing the oil. There is no neglect at
the moment because they are seeing a lot of infrastructure,” he stated
Operation Delta Hawk
In
a bid to address the problems of farmers/herders clashes, kidnapping,
armed robbery and other security challenges in the state, the Okowa led
administration agreed to set up Operation Delta Hawk. It is a joint
security outfit comprising the various security agencies and which was
being put together to have a more proactive approach to security
operations where all the security agencies will be on board, and they
can share intelligence, share operations and it is believed that this
will help the state because in recent times we have seen an increase in
crime rate particularly in terms of kidnapping and cultism among youths
and also lots of clashes between herdsmen and farmers in the state.
Road Construction
Nick-named
the “Road Master” in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments in
road construction spanning over 450 roads and several line drainages.
His biggest achievement no doubt is in the area of flood control in
Asaba the state capital. Piqued by the embarrassment and hardship posed
by flooding in the state capital, the Governor awarded multi-billion
naira storm drainage contracts to check the perennial flooding of the
state capital. As at today, the whole of DLA, Okpanam Road, DBS road,
Ralph Uwechie road and several others including the Okotomi area of
Okpanam have been rescued from the annual flooding ritual. Indeed this
is one star project of the Okowa administration. Buoyed by the successes
recorded in the Asaba storm drainage project, the Governor recently
award over N3billion contracts for the construction of storm drainages
in Warri Uvwie and environs to check the perennial flooding in the oil
city.
Beyond flood control measures by the
government, Governor Okowa remains a promise keeper, who is committed to
even development of the state. As Sunny Onuesoke puts it, “if there is
one area the Okowa administration has excelled, it is in the development
of road and physical infrastructure in Delta State.”
According
to Onuesoke, “Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s road imprints are now seen
everywhere across Delta State. In Asaba, the capital of Delta State we
have lost count of the number of roads the Delta State government has
constructed or refurbished. “Okowa’s administration has even advanced
further by going into roads in the difficult terrains of Forcados and
Burutu and some riverine areas of Warri South and Warri North. Places
where princes feared to tread,” he stated.
Onuesoke
disclosed that one novel thing about the roads embarked upon by the
Delta State government is that they seem to concentrate on roads that
would positively affect the economic fortunes of the people in the
affected areas. He explained that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s interest in
road construction was borne out of the desire to open up the state for
investors.
Indeed, Governor Okowa is making the
communities accessible, the roads are concentrated in economic routes
that are very vital to the socio-economic development of the people .
The roads, obviously will attract investors, create job opportunities
and contribute to the development of Delta state. The Governor’s road
construction is all-inclusive as no local government in the state had
not witnessed his footprints in road construction.
The
people of Obomkpa, Issele-Uku, Onicha-Olona, Idumuje-Uno, Ukwu-Nzu,
Issele-Mkpitime, among others in Aniocha North as well as Irri, Oleh,
Ozoro, Iyede, Emede, Owhelogbo, Ellu, Ofagbe, Ikpide-Irri all in Isoko
North and Isoko South and Ughelli, Amekpa, Afiesere, Ofuoma, Oteri,
Abraka, Orerokpe, and several other communities in Delta central all
have stories to tell of Okowa’s footprints in road construction into
their various communities. The story is not different in riverine
communities of Burutu Town, Ogulagha, Yokri, Obotobo, Sokebolo,
Okerenkoko, Ogidigben, Koko among others.
While
also constructing feeder roads, he is continuing construction on the
Ughelli Asaba dualisation project. A trip to the project site along the
Sector C which includes from Asaba to Oloh-Ossisa reveals massive
construction work currently ongoing as well as the Sector A from Ughelli
to Isoko.
Health Infrastructure
In
the last 5 years on the saddle, Governor Okowa has revolutionised the
health sector in Delta. He upgraded facilities at the Delta State
University Teaching Hospital at Oghara, completed the long abandoned
Asaba Specilist Hospital, built a hospital at Abavo in Ika South and
rehabilitated several others in Patani, Agbor among others.
The
State Government also launched the Contributory Health Insurance Scheme
for all Deltans with government paying for the Under 5, pregnant women
and the elderly in the society. As at date, the Delta State Contributory
Health Commission, DSCHC, has a total of 702,413 enrollees comprising
Formal Health Plan – 168,516, Informal Health Plan – 11,187 and Equity
Health Plan – 522,710 and counting have so far registered for the
Contributory Health Insurance and to encourage effective health
coverage. To give vent to the Univeral Health Coverage in the state, the
Okowa administration has completed rehabilitation works on 63 Secondary
Health Care facilities and 110 Primary Health Care facilities as well
as the engagement of 52 standard Private Health Care providers for the
scheme.
Job Creation
When
the Governor promised prosperity for all Deltans, he meant that he will
empower Deltans to become prosperous and be employers of labour and not
job seekers. This he did by establishing the Job Creation Scheme, aimed
at training, supporting and promoting micro, small and medium scale
enterprises which would trigger off economic growth, social inclusion
and sustainable development in the state.
The
Office of the Chief Jobs Creation Officer headed by a University
Professor, Eric Eboh, a renowned Policy Economist and Development
Specialist commenced work effectively and set up Skills Training and
Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) and Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurs
Programme (YAGEP). So far, the State Government has trained and
established 27,214 graduands directly through technical and vocational
education and agriculture. Through the Job Creation Scheme, 6,450
unemployed youths between 2015 and 2019 have become business owners
across the various skills such as agricultural production and
processing, food packaging, information, communication technology,
catering, event management, beauty services, tilling, plumbing, and
electrical installation among others.
Poverty Reduction in Delta
The
success of the Job creation programme no doubt was felt beyond Delta as
the National Bureau of Statistics NBS rated Delta well only second to
Lagos as the least poor state in Nigeria. This implies that majority of
people living in Delta live above the National poverty index.
The
Bureau, in its latest Poverty Index Report, ranked Delta second after
Lagos among the states with low poverty rate, and said that 40.1 per
cent of Nigeria’s total population was poor. According to it, an average
of four out of 10 individuals in Nigeria have real per capital
expenditures below N137, 430 per year, meaning that monthly income of an
individual in this category is less than N11,500 while income per day
is N383.03. The report said “Lagos State has 4.50 per cent poverty head
count rate and closely trailed by Delta with 6.02 per cent which
translates to over 82.9 million Nigerians considered as poor by national
standard.”
This report is indeed a true
reflection of the “Prosperity for all Deltans’’ agenda being vigorously
pursued by the Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa administration. This was achieved due
to the enabling investment climate created by the Okowa led government,
particularly in oil bearing communities, Delta had been one of the
highest revenue earners from Federation Accounts Allocation Committee
(FAAC) which also indicated that the state government had been putting
into judicious use the monies accrued to the state.
While
I thank the NBS for conducting living standards survey 10 years after
the last one and for using consumption expenditures approach in
measuring poverty in Nigeria rather than income approach. Conceptually,
consumption expenditures better reflects the achievements of a
particular level of welfare by a household, while income represents the
opportunity of reaching a certain level of well-being.
In
the last couple of years Delta has remained one of the highest earners
in the country in terms of crude oil revenues due to the peaceful
relations between International Oil Companies IOCs and host communities.
The Okowa administration in his first tenure promised Deltans
prosperity for all and in his second term he said he would build a
stronger Delta in terms of the economy, projects and of course, peaceful
relations. The NBS rating is a pointer to the fact that Delta’s
resources have been put to judicious use by the Okowa-led government
thereby reducing poverty to a level that we can boldly say that we are
working. Our desire as a state is to come top in the country and also
further improve the standard of living of Deltans in line with best
global standards.
Sports Development
Sports
Development under Governor Ifeanyi Okowa received massive boost with
the completion of the Stephen Keshi Stadium Asaba, Ozoro Polytechnic
Stadium at Ozoro as well as the succesful hosting of 52 countries for
the African Senior Athletics Championships Asaba 2018. The State
Government also hosted the AITEO Cup Finals in conjunction with the
Nigeria Football Federation and got FIFA certification of Stephen Keshi
Stadium Asaba as venue for International Matches which led to the
succesful hosting of the Cranes of Uganda in an International friendly
with the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
Governor
Ifeanyi Okowa also revamped school sports in the state with the
relaunching of the annual Principals Cup Football Competition for
Secondary Schools now known as the Zenith Bank Delta Principals Cup, the
Annual Headmasters’ Cup Football Competition for Primary Schools as
well as the maiden edition of the School Sports Festival which was held
in May 2019.
Under Governor Okowa, Delta State
continued its dominance in sports in the country with the state coming
tops in first position in all three (3) editions of the National Youth
Games held in Ilorin, Kwara State in 2016, 2017 and 2018 as well first
position in the 2018 National Sports Festival held in Abuja.
As
Okowa is set to celebrate his five years in office and first
anniversary of his second term, It is safe to say that Delta is lucky to
have a man of his calibre and wise counsel, a medical doctor by
training leading the state in these trying times of the global fight
against the Coronavirus pandemic. has redefined governance and taken
sustainable development and prosperity for all Deltans beyond mere
promises as usually the case with most politicians. The next three years
by the grace of God and by the unity, peaceful coexistence and
cooperation of all Deltans, promises to be exciting years for Deltans as
the Governor more than ever is committed to bequeathing “Stronger
Delta” for our state.
*Aniagwu, is the Commissioner for Information, Delta State.