By Stepp Offi

“You will never have significant success with anything until it becomes an obsession with you. An obsession is when something consumes your thoughts and time”.

You will only be remembered in life for your obsession. Henry Ford, the automobile. Thomas Edison, inventions. Billy Graham, Evangelism. Oral Roberts, Healing. The Wright brothers, the airplane. “(Mike Murdock).

 

Murdock, in his book THE LEADERSHIP SECRETS OF JESUS outlined 58 methods that Jesus used to achieve his goal on earth.

The 13th method according to him is that Jesus developed a passion for his goals.

On this little corner of the world, Delta State in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I can say without fear of sharp criticism that Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, the State Governor, has a passion for his goals. His goals are summed up in a three-point agenda _Peace and Security, Infrastructure development and Human Capital development.

This piece is fired by the visit of the secretary to the State Government, SSG, Comrade Ovuozourie Macaulay to the Faculty of Engineering of the Delta State University, Oleh campus.

Macaulay is one of those who drive the goals of the State Governor and the government, by his position and belief. Nonetheless when one speaks, “double speak”, it is clear and when one speaks honestly from his mind, possessed by his desire to achieve goals it is crystal clear for his audience to see.

Macaulay, a man driven by challenges and the desire to positively affect the lives of the people was clearly angry with the behavior of  contractors who take jobs and do not execute them promptly.

He was touched that the campus infrastructure work, landscaping, perimeter fencing and campus roads had been slowed down, causing a delay for the proper functioning of the Faculty.

In his words “anybody that wants to halt or slow down these projects should be reported to the government. Youths, please stay out of my way on this issue”.

Comrade Macaulay who said the inspection was at the instance of the State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, said as much as the State Government is much desirous of commissioning projects, “we would not commission what we call in our local usage KEKERUBE CAMPUS PROJECTS” a reference to substandard work.

Apparently peeved by the alleged conduct of youths in what they call “deve” a corrupted way of collecting money from contractors in a community, the SSG sounded a note of warning “The times of ‘deve’ are gone. You voted for the Governor to provide you with the dividend of democracy. We have brought these projects here but if any youth wants to stall or slow down the pace of work here, such person should be reported to the authorities”.

He said with the level of facilities on ground at the Faculty, it could turn out to be one of the best Engineering Facilities in the Country.

The SSG said it was based on what was seen on the ground that the accreditation body that last visited gave some level of accreditation in the school, adding that what the Faculty needed was just manpower to get full accreditation, In his words “the accreditation panel has been here, though we were not given full accreditation because of the manpower, but when they saw what is here, though not completed they were impressed. So what we are looking for here is the manpower, but we want the right atmosphere for this project to be completed, so that by this time next year we can come and commission it for use”.

He said that by the time the project is completed, most Engineering inclined people would want to come to Oleh to pursue their Engineering education.

He urged Prof. Kuale to seriously search for qualified manpower for the Faculty.