Money and corruption are ruining the land,
crooked politicians betray the working man,
pocketing the profits and treating us like
sheep, and we are tired of hearing promises
that we know they will never keep.
Ray Davies
COLUMN: Bitter Truths By Fejiro Oliver
If Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta
State is attributing the peace he has been
enjoying in the media to his criminal cronies
in the Delta State Nigerian Union of
Journalists, led by once noble but now
corrupt Norbert Chiazor, then the governor
must be living in a fool's paradise. That he
has not been lambasted in the media is not
the handwork of the intelligence of the
Commissioner for Health, Chike Ogeah, but
it's because those in the mainstream media
have decided to let him be and not give the
impression that Delta State is a corrupt state,
after all Governor Ibori had done.
His good public rating is not the work of the
PR journalists in the Nigerian newspapers, but
deliberate silence. That Premium Times,
Elombah.com and others have not beamed
their searchlight on him does not mean his
corrupt records are not available to them.
Just when I was about reading mails from my
sources, rushes of mails came into my phone
all having the same purpose; appeals that
Uduaghan has set Kokori on fire, as he has
deployed soldiers to the town because of
Kelvin, the most wanted kingpin in the Niger
Delta, who gave the Federal Government a 60
days ultimatum.
Most of the mails accused me of playing the
fiddle while Rome burns, reporting and
writing on national issues and other states,
while my own state rots away with an
irresponsible government that don't care.
Kelvin is a creature of the society, not Kokori
and while I do not make a case for him;
whether he's an activist as he claim or an
armed robber as the government claim, the
undeniable truth is that the society gets what
they deserves and if Kelvin is a product of the
Delta State government, Uduaghan should
accept the blame. I find it laughable that
Uduaghan will castigate the mothers who
came out to dance for Kelvin, when he made
his historic appearance and declaration,
stating that he is disappointed that they are
celebrating an armed robber instead of
celebrating their children graduating from the
universities.
This governor Uduaghan is unarguably the
worst performing governor in the South
South, and yet he could send troops to Kokori
to harass innocent fathers, while they arrest
husbands and stop the poor women from
going to farms. What manner of governance is
it?
He said he has not declared a curfew, yet he
ordered sit at home from a particular time.
Can someone tell Uduaghan that Kokori is not
a war zone? At the risk of sounding
'tribalistic', I ask this woeful performing
governor how many troop of soldiers did he
send to Koko, his local government in June
this year when a serious crisis broke out, with
houses destroyed and people killed?
Absolutely none, and yet that was a war zone.
Kelvin has been captured, not even in Kokori
but in Port Harcourt, thus Uduaghan should
stop this barbaric and uncivilized military
invasion of Kokori, release all innocent
arrested men and women and appeal to them.
There is no worse armed robber than
Uduaghan in present day, Delta State. Here is
a man who has turned the entire pen he
touches in government house to defrauding
the state. This is a governor who approved a
whooping 1.2 billion Naira to the Delta State
House of Assembly for a jamboree legislative
training in California and yet could lampoon
the Kokori women for dancing for their son
Kelvin. Who wouldn't dance when they see a
liberator, which Kelvin represents to them?
Is it not this Uduaghan who budgeted a
whooping sum of N14 billion for streetlights
in Delta State, with the contract for the diesel
to his wife at the sum of N200 million
monthly? The budget of government house in
Delta State is more than that of four
ministries and yet this governor wants us to
believe that he is clean.
The Daughter, Orode Okpu-Uduaghan wedding
in 2011 was sponsored by the state
government and authoritative sources in
government told me that many of the political
figures fell over themselves to give gifts of
cars to the daughter all in the bid to get
contract from the state governor. Today,
Orode who grew up in Sido Street, Warri now
has a multi million Naira mansion in Victoria
Garden City, courtesy of her father who gave
contract to her friend handling the Oleri
Industrial Park. I truly do not know the basis
for future awards nominating Orode for
activism award. What activism and in which
state? Has she played more activist role that
Chinedu Ekeke or Japheth Omojuwa. It is time
we begin to ask the source of wealth on
people whom awards are conferred on. It's
not about owning a pink pearl foundation to
treat cancer, but source of the money. That a
lady who just finished barely three years ago
from the University of Windsor in Canada
could own such house, when people in Kokori
have no suitable home of theirs calls for the
stoning of the governor.
The Warri Park handled by Sarner PFM has
been the conduit pipe for siphoning the state
money by the governor, while no work has
been carried out in the place. I challenge the
governor to take real newsmen there, not
reporters from the traditional Nigerian
Newspapers, but from premium times,
Elombah.com, The Paradigm, Sahara
Reporters, Desert Herald, News Rescue,
Urhobotimes and Global Concord to prove me
wrong that work has begin there.
Here was a man who drove a rickety car, as a
doctor coming to see his wife in Sido, back in
those days, and cursing corrupt leaders, now
blazing the trail in the seats of world most
corrupt leaders.
What manner of governor do we have, that
have made Delta State government a family
affairs. His wife's brother, Amaju Pinnick,
who is the Delta State football association
chairman I'm reliably informed embezzled N6
billion meant for the renovation of the Warri
Township Stadium during the last U-17
tournament, while his cousin supplies all the
cars to government house.
Why is Delta cursed with political thieves as
governors when her neighbors are governing
well?
Since the advent of this administration,
Uduaghan has not done anything tangible that
has equaled one month federal allocation. All
the infrastructures in Delta are works of
former governor James Ibori; what then has
he be using the resources for.
This is one governor who has packed corrupt
persons as his commissioners, with the
exception of the transport commissioner, Ben
Igbakpa, who has turned the transport sector
around. The commissioner of Environments,
Frank Omare is noted for his failed delivery
services; a man who has gotten over N160
million, but the environment in Delta State is
as dirty as ever, with most canals still
blocked. Here is a man who used the media
in the state to showcase works he never did
and abandoned them.
What manner of governor will approve N330
million for Journalists in the states to undergo
training in Reuters, if not to gag the mouth of
the press? To even tag it 'investigative
journalism' is an insult to Deltans as a whole.
What manner of investigative journalism has
the NUJ corrupt Chairman, Chiazor, who
works with the state owned Delta
Broadcasting Service (DBS) Warri, carried out
in his entire life?
Why should a governor sponsor private media
'journalists' on such venture from our
collective coffers, when it will cost less than a
N100 million to bring any Reuters resource
persons to come and train them here in
Nigeria.
This fraud by the NUJ in the state in
collaboration with the governor deserves to
get the State NUJ council chairman impeached
and Uduaghan jailed. With N330 million, the
two state broadcast houses can be made to
broadcast wider and the state newspaper, the
pointer made better than it is; yet only few
bands of criminals who are PR writers,
masquerading as journalists lavish the
common wealth.
The IPP project for which over N16 billion
has been spent is still on the drawing paper,
as the Delta State house of Assembly speaker,
Victor Ochei, whom the contract was awarded
to has diverted the funds into his personal
pocket, in connivance with the looting
governor of Delta State, while the project site
in Oghara is overgrown with weeds. This is
not just right and though it's already late in
his tenure, he can still stop this madness of
looting and stealing the treasury blind.
That Kelvin was caught because he gave an
ultimatum shows how weak the security
system in the state is. A state where
kidnappers reign as lords and armed robbers
have field days is enough challenge to
Uduaghan, not suffering innocent citizens
whose sons took to the streets and guns, in
protection of their oil. How many of the
Kokori citizens have the kind of wealth that
Uduaghan kinsman, Ayiri Emami possess, even
though they have more oil than Koko?
Governor Uduaghan should task himself to
mending his ways and doing all his best to
make life better for the average Deltans, avoid
the selling of civil service forms for job, and
create meaningful jobs for the people, not
the micro scheme that will not stand the test
of time. Whatever reason he has for milking
Delta State coffers of her billions is not just
right, and while he may get away with it in
two years time, he should remember that
Ibori had more guts and political clout than
he thinks he has. A mere whistle from the
next governor will see me personally snapping
him picture in jail and posting the picture for
the world to see. Such poetic elegy on him
will be an award winner any day. Emmanuel
Ewetan Uduaghan, we are with the pen and
the ink is past the middle in this poetic elegy;
and this we say, spare your children the
agony that they had a father who was an ex
convict. His time for repentance starts now.
These little things matter…
Fejiro Oliver, a Columnist for The Paradigm
and Freelance Journalist can be reached on
secretsreporters@gmail.com and
+2348026797588 (sms only please). Engage
him on twitter @fejirooliver86

my brother,,, we no fit yarn for this Uduaghan matter again. e own don pass garri.
I wish him what happened to his predecessor Ibori.
I rest my case.

gsaint trinity: my brother,,, we no fit yarn for this Uduaghan matter again. e own don pass garri.
I wish him what happened to his predecessor Ibori.
I rest my case.

Amen, i just wish we could have a law in this country where anyone found guilty of stealing public fund will be jail forever to bring sanity to the society

You mean dis same guy ?

Tuntheycr7: You mean dis same guy ?

WHAT

You cannot be A NIGERIAN politician and be progressive at the same time.
A successful NIGERIAN-POLITICIAN would be a dangerous phenomenon.

All a smokescreen. What EVIL lies beneath their so-called 'reforms' can never be decoded by the typical APATHETIC, POVERTY-STRIKEN AND DENSE NOT NIGERIAN POPULACE!

What a DIVINE CALLED CURSE!

Talk about ijjiots blessed with NATURAL RESOURCES!

Twaaaaah!!!!!

Uduaghan is the best governor in Nigeria. Give it to him , he has done marvelously well. To God the the glory

Can any one here recognize this place as Enerhen Junction? This is transformation of the highest order
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