ON DELTA STATE, DESCRIBED AS “A FAIRLY USED STATE FOR SALE” ON Jiji – A SAD TALE OF A STATE SO RICH, YET SO POOR UNDER THE TWENTY YEARS PDP-LED ADMINISTRATION OF IBORI, UDUAGHAN AND OKOWA
January 30, 2021 | News
In what was apparently meant to be a joke, but with profound statement of fact and the sad reality of where we have found as ourselves as a people in Delta State; I was saddened when I saw a picture online, which looked like the real home search page of a popular online market platform – Jiji, where you can buy and sell anything for the bet price.
ON DELTA STATE, DESCRIBED AS “A FAIRLY USED STATE FOR SALE” ON Jiji – A SAD TALE OF A STATE SO RICH, YET SO POOR UNDER THE TWENTY YEARS PDP-LED ADMINISTRATION OF IBORI, UDUAGHAN AND OKOWA
In what was apparently meant to be a joke, but with profound statement of fact and the sad reality of where we have found as ourselves as a people in Delta State; I was saddened when I saw a picture online, which looked like the real home search page of a popular online market platform – Jiji, where you can buy and sell anything for the bet price. But this time around, it was our dear Delta State is on sale, as ‘A fairly Used State For Urgent Sale at the price of N120,000,000,000.
The post went on to describe the property type - Fairly Used; Governor – Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa; Speaker – Sheriff Oborevwori; Size – 16,842 square km; No of LGAs – 25; Major Investments – Filling Stations, Hotels, Beer Parlours, NairaBet Shops, etc. Then it went on to describe the reason for the sale: “Due to the level of irresponsibility that the PDP Government in Delta State has shown for the past twenty years, the good people of Delta State who are the real owners of the State are looking for genuine buyers wey we go sell the State for. We don tire. Make we sell the State make everybody collect he share. Anything wey anybody like make he take he share of money take do. Suffer done tire us.”
Many may find this funny and laugh about it, but it paints the exact sad picture of what has been the hearts of a lot of Deltans and Nigerians in the State, as regard how they view the State under the PDP-led Governments all these years. To put it plainly, the very popular Oil City of Warri and its environs, which used to be the commercial nerve center of the State, and indeed the entire Delta State as a whole, are practically living and existing in their past glory because the State have been reduced to nothing by the power thirsty Delta State Politicians who are without vision and the will to honestly and holistically transform the State as expected.
It is very painful that that since the inception of Democratic Rule in Nigeria from May 1999, of all the States in the country, Delta State has turned out to be one State where fraudulent electoral practices of great proportions that have robbed the people’s desire in the mandate, they wanted, and electoral tribunal cases injustice have become the norm. This has made Delta State, and majority of its people, to be one that has come under not only political slavery, but also under economic slavery and at the mercy of a ‘ruling class’. Delta State is currently under siege by self-centered political class who have held the State under captivity for about twenty years now. Delta State has become a State where political, economic, judicial and electoral issues, often unheard of in other States across Nigeria and different parts of the world, are allowed to thrive with reckless abandon and impunity; all to the detriment of the general masses in Delta State.
The situation in Delta State is so sad and pathetic that one can only hope for some divine intervention or the miraculous, for any major change to take place. Delta State is a practical example of the unfortunate status most African countries find themselves in; where the political leaders over the years have practiced “wuruwuru-democracy” by using every trick they can muster to remain in government circles and refuse the peoples’ voice, votes and interests to count or matter in their development. And when the people are denied the right to choose their preferred political leaders, what we have evident over the years are political leaders without vision and sacrificial commitment. Hence, the democratic attributes of ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’ embedded in ‘good governance’ have practically eluded Delta State in all ramifications within the past two decades. This has made Delta State Government to be branded by well-meaning Nigerians and social critics as a “self-perpetuating government” of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which ultimately makes whatever the government does, a well-decorated pack of lies specifically designed for ‘deception’-for the benefit of some few and to the detriment of many.
The saddest part in all of this is the fact that majority of the ignorant people in Delta State who keep talking about development, are however unwilling to stand up boldly to condemn some of these anomalies. Rather, they have accepted the wrong things as right. Many of them have sold their birthrights for a plate of rice to eat today, while mortgaging their future and the future of the younger generations to come. When will our people wise up and see the realities facing them, and then wholeheartedly reject this obvious oppression by some selected few?
To anyone who cares, just take a careful look in and out, and around the different sectors of Delta State’s economic wellbeing, and see where these people have dragged the State into in the last two decades. Just observe the economic and business atmosphere in Warri and its environs for instance, and see that the once 'commercial bubbling oil city' is now a shadow of itself as a result of the enormous exit of oil multinationals and oil servicing companies, all of which happened under the PDP Government. The chunk of the internally generated revenues, plus the 13 percent derivation money accrued to Delta State since 1999 under the PDP Government in the State till date, are mostly in the pockets and personal bank accounts/estates of Delta State politicians and their cronies, families, friends and fronts. Are we all going to pretend that we are not experiencing the poverty, hardship in the State and the decaying infrastructure in Warri and environs? Shouldn't we hold those in Delta State Government all these years responsible and accountable for this?
Our youths are seen daily roaming about the streets without jobs, and they have resorted to all kinds of criminal activities from doing ‘yahoo-yahoo’ (cybercrime and ritualists), to all kinds of extortion and using 'Deve' and what have you to survive. Any sane and well-meaning Deltan should be agitated and pained by all of this? The 'Praise-singing' of non-performing Politicians in Delta State will not do the State any iota of good. It will only end up making us remain a mediocre and underdeveloped State and a people living in the midst of plenty but yet poor. A situation where majority of our young men are seen idling-away, lazy and not wanting to work, learn a craft or legitimately make a living, was encouraged and grounded under the PDP Government who usually use the youths to foster their political ambitions as they shower them with stolen public funds. This has made many young men in the State only go after 'quick money' from the political class. That is how many of the young men in the State are made to see life. I still maintain that the PDP Government, right from 1999 till date, are the ones that have rendered the State far worse than they met it.
All I am asking and advocating for is for Delta State to be made an industrial and tourist destination for all. And the only way this happen is for the people to wake up from their slumber and reject these set of political class that have proven not to have the vision that can transform the State. If we expect that Delta State will experience any serious form of development and transformation under this set of politicians that have held the seat of Government all these years, then we will be deceiving ourselves and not telling ourselves the bitter truth.
Zik Gbemre.
January 30, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
In what was apparently meant to be a joke, but with profound statement of fact and the sad reality of where we have found as ourselves as a people in Delta State; I was saddened when I saw a picture online, which looked like the real home search page of a popular online market platform – Jiji, where you can buy and sell anything for the bet price. But this time around, it was our dear Delta State is on sale, as ‘A fairly Used State For Urgent Sale at the price of N120,000,000,000.
The post went on to describe the property type - Fairly Used; Governor – Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa; Speaker – Sheriff Oborevwori; Size – 16,842 square km; No of LGAs – 25; Major Investments – Filling Stations, Hotels, Beer Parlours, NairaBet Shops, etc. Then it went on to describe the reason for the sale: “Due to the level of irresponsibility that the PDP Government in Delta State has shown for the past twenty years, the good people of Delta State who are the real owners of the State are looking for genuine buyers wey we go sell the State for. We don tire. Make we sell the State make everybody collect he share. Anything wey anybody like make he take he share of money take do. Suffer done tire us.”
Many may find this funny and laugh about it, but it paints the exact sad picture of what has been the hearts of a lot of Deltans and Nigerians in the State, as regard how they view the State under the PDP-led Governments all these years. To put it plainly, the very popular Oil City of Warri and its environs, which used to be the commercial nerve center of the State, and indeed the entire Delta State as a whole, are practically living and existing in their past glory because the State have been reduced to nothing by the power thirsty Delta State Politicians who are without vision and the will to honestly and holistically transform the State as expected.
It is very painful that that since the inception of Democratic Rule in Nigeria from May 1999, of all the States in the country, Delta State has turned out to be one State where fraudulent electoral practices of great proportions that have robbed the people’s desire in the mandate, they wanted, and electoral tribunal cases injustice have become the norm. This has made Delta State, and majority of its people, to be one that has come under not only political slavery, but also under economic slavery and at the mercy of a ‘ruling class’. Delta State is currently under siege by self-centered political class who have held the State under captivity for about twenty years now. Delta State has become a State where political, economic, judicial and electoral issues, often unheard of in other States across Nigeria and different parts of the world, are allowed to thrive with reckless abandon and impunity; all to the detriment of the general masses in Delta State.
The situation in Delta State is so sad and pathetic that one can only hope for some divine intervention or the miraculous, for any major change to take place. Delta State is a practical example of the unfortunate status most African countries find themselves in; where the political leaders over the years have practiced “wuruwuru-democracy” by using every trick they can muster to remain in government circles and refuse the peoples’ voice, votes and interests to count or matter in their development. And when the people are denied the right to choose their preferred political leaders, what we have evident over the years are political leaders without vision and sacrificial commitment. Hence, the democratic attributes of ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’ embedded in ‘good governance’ have practically eluded Delta State in all ramifications within the past two decades. This has made Delta State Government to be branded by well-meaning Nigerians and social critics as a “self-perpetuating government” of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which ultimately makes whatever the government does, a well-decorated pack of lies specifically designed for ‘deception’-for the benefit of some few and to the detriment of many.
The saddest part in all of this is the fact that majority of the ignorant people in Delta State who keep talking about development, are however unwilling to stand up boldly to condemn some of these anomalies. Rather, they have accepted the wrong things as right. Many of them have sold their birthrights for a plate of rice to eat today, while mortgaging their future and the future of the younger generations to come. When will our people wise up and see the realities facing them, and then wholeheartedly reject this obvious oppression by some selected few?
To anyone who cares, just take a careful look in and out, and around the different sectors of Delta State’s economic wellbeing, and see where these people have dragged the State into in the last two decades. Just observe the economic and business atmosphere in Warri and its environs for instance, and see that the once 'commercial bubbling oil city' is now a shadow of itself as a result of the enormous exit of oil multinationals and oil servicing companies, all of which happened under the PDP Government. The chunk of the internally generated revenues, plus the 13 percent derivation money accrued to Delta State since 1999 under the PDP Government in the State till date, are mostly in the pockets and personal bank accounts/estates of Delta State politicians and their cronies, families, friends and fronts. Are we all going to pretend that we are not experiencing the poverty, hardship in the State and the decaying infrastructure in Warri and environs? Shouldn't we hold those in Delta State Government all these years responsible and accountable for this?
Our youths are seen daily roaming about the streets without jobs, and they have resorted to all kinds of criminal activities from doing ‘yahoo-yahoo’ (cybercrime and ritualists), to all kinds of extortion and using 'Deve' and what have you to survive. Any sane and well-meaning Deltan should be agitated and pained by all of this? The 'Praise-singing' of non-performing Politicians in Delta State will not do the State any iota of good. It will only end up making us remain a mediocre and underdeveloped State and a people living in the midst of plenty but yet poor. A situation where majority of our young men are seen idling-away, lazy and not wanting to work, learn a craft or legitimately make a living, was encouraged and grounded under the PDP Government who usually use the youths to foster their political ambitions as they shower them with stolen public funds. This has made many young men in the State only go after 'quick money' from the political class. That is how many of the young men in the State are made to see life. I still maintain that the PDP Government, right from 1999 till date, are the ones that have rendered the State far worse than they met it.
All I am asking and advocating for is for Delta State to be made an industrial and tourist destination for all. And the only way this happen is for the people to wake up from their slumber and reject these set of political class that have proven not to have the vision that can transform the State. If we expect that Delta State will experience any serious form of development and transformation under this set of politicians that have held the seat of Government all these years, then we will be deceiving ourselves and not telling ourselves the bitter truth.
Zik Gbemre.
January 30, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes