congratulatory message to high chief Dokpesi

Dear Sir,
Congratulations on the successful launch of Daarsat.

Congratulation on your most recent achievement- the launch of Nigeria’s first direct to home pay TV.

History will judge you kindly for your practical demonstration of your faith in the Nigerian project through your pioneering role in the broadcast industry in spite of state sponsored aggression against your person and organization.

Nothing can ever equal the opportunity you availed Nigerians to get a second opinion on the going-on in the country.

Once again, accept my congratulations and may the good lord continue to be your shepherd.

Yours faithfully,
Ilobi Austin.
0805-240-1433

Delta city taxi: failure with mass appeal

if there is one state whose administration was expected to land and run after the May 29th 2007 country wide swearing-in ceremony for the governors; it is delta state. A combination of factors made this expectation plausible: the current governor was an inner conclave member of the Ibori’s administration: first, a commissioner then, a very influential secretary to the state government and in addition and very significantly, a maternal uncle to the ex- governor.

It was therefore expected that it was going to replicate or improve on the performances of the last which in fairness, had transformed some of the rural areas of the state through massive road construction and reconstruction but sadly, has shown little spark in it seventeen months reign.

so far, the only visible project other than the high profile seminars and talk shops where the governor had during one of such gathering, betrayed a lack of articulated program when he stated that his government due to the federal government on-gong modernization of the East-West road, was considering doing same to the Ughelli- Asaba road starting from the junction linking both roads remains the street light projects in some urban and semi-urban areas of the state.

Another attempt at a demonstrable performance resulted in the programmed failure called Delta city taxi. Whoever sold the idea to the government in the midst of myriad challenges confronting the state certainly without any effort, qualifies for the award of “Marketer of the year”.

It is difficult to convince anybody that in Nigeria of today with grinding poverty and crime rate that has maintained an aggressive bullish run since the return of democracy, that one of the ways the government of a state reckons to distribute the dividends of democracy is through the acquisition and distribution of luxury cars that even some of the rich class still dreams of owning for the purpose of city transportation.

Pray, on which road are the one hundred and seventy cars programmed to ply to earn enough money to repay the seven hundred million naira cost of acquisition, fueling, maintenance and sustenance of the beneficiary at the current thirty to forty naira per drop? Did the governor in all honesty ever believed the cars were going to be used for the purported purpose or was it a smart way of passing up the wrath of Mrs. Farida while compensating his foot soldiers?

Following public out cry about the disappearance of the cars from the road soon after the official launch, the governor made public show of denouncing the conduct of the beneficiaries while threatening to invite God to do one or two unpleasant things to them. Those involved probably due to persuasion decided to stage a make-believe return of the cars. They took some of it to a park in Effurun complete with a video coverage; stationed some passengers whom they conveyed from the park to a near-by junction, stopped made a u-turn and returned to whence they came.

The greatest challenge in the country today is that of power. Seven hundred million naira invested in that sector not as consultancy fees for the construction of gas fired power station that ends up as just a conduit for the cornering of public funds but in the acquisition of transformers to compliment the already existing ones that are malfunctioning due to carriage of excess load or age or a combination of both would have gone a long way in stabilizing the power supply in the state in this era of PHCN rationing that is scarcely available in the days of in or out due largely to frequent violent reactions of the transformers to the burdens placed on it.

Every leader will ultimately attract his kind. President Babangida is reported to read a lot so, he attracted intellectuals like Prof. Soyinka, Abacha was a complete military officer who did not joke with the issue of security so there was Rogers and Mustapha; Obasanjo was as quarrelsome as any trouble maker could be, he gave birth to Adedibu, Fani Kayode, El Ruffai, Ribadu and Ahmadu Alli. Umoru as president is not given to too much talk, so there is now a Vincent Ogbulafor.

In delta state, the governor has dug up Chief Okirika to help administer the 13% derivation under DESOPADEC and the result is a colossal failure. The scorecard of the commission includes the many “cages” that they constructed for the Nigerian police traffic warders. In some junctions, you find as many as four which the traffic official scarcely uses due to the prison like feelings it gives once inside. Soon they will end up in roadside welders’ workshop as raw materials.

President Yaradua was reported to have saved over #6 billion as the governor of Katsina state. I am not sure this was because there were no longer challenges in the state but because in his opinion, he has given the best of his ability and decided to store whatever was left for any body with more ability or itchy fingers to emerge.

It would not be a bad idea if the government of Delta state does same: Open special deposit accounts and warehouse all the revenue accruable to the state.

Ilobi Austin D. ilobidominic@gmail.com a social commentator writes from Warri.