Okowa lied about Asaba airport upgrade:
By Aremu Precious
03/08/2019
Contrary to reports being circulated about the Asaba airport upgrade which the Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa administration is trying to take credit for, His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan actually upgraded the airport before he left office. The administration of Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan initiated and completed major infrastructures in the state which include; two major fly over in Warri and and Asaba, the Asaba international airport, Isele-Ukwu Shoe factory, upgrade of primary and secondary schools ,numerous roads and bridges , housing estate for workers, street light , water projects, dualization of major roads and the establishment of some higher institutions of learning in the state. These are aside the massive economic empowerment programmes he initiated and employment he did to take unemployed Deltans out of the street. Of course, his transport infrastructure has been aclaimed by all Deltans to be the best since 1999 with over 1000 new Toyota Haiace buses and hundreds of Macopolo busses plying all nooks and cranies of the state. The riverine people were not left out in the holistic transport scheme designed by Dr. Uduaghan's administration to bridge the gap between urban and rural areas and also stop rural to urban migration as water buses and fast moving boats were distributed to the people living in those areas. The porported upgrade of Asaba international airport is a deceit taken too far by the Okowa failed administration in its bid to measure up with Dr. Uduaghan led administration in terms of performance. It is obvious to the blind that governor Ifeanyi Okowa was not prepared to govern the state. The key performance indicators of governance are all in the negative. There is no critical infrastructure started or completed in his first tenure unlike his predecessor Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan. Okowa started on a very bad note by alleging that his predesessor left huge debt for him to curry sympathy from the public using his popular "Ego aria" slogan . An allegation Which he could not substanciate when confronted with facts and figures by Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan. In his frantic effort to claim glory for a project he never contributed to, Okowa conspired with Osita Chidoke to downgrade the airport to create a negative impression that the airport has an issue whereas the airport was functioning optimally as at the time His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan handed over the mantle of leadership to him. One of the escuses given for the downgrade is that there was not enough trained technical personnel in the airport. While the interest of Osita Chidoka was to promotes airports in the south east , Okowa's interest is to siphon monies through the project and blackmail the previous administration. This created a perfect condition for their collaboration to cause the downgrade of the airport.

“The minister, however, assures that the airport would revert to its previous status as soon as all the safety concerns are adequately and satisfactorily addressed. From the above statement of the Minister , the previous status referred to was a confirmation that the airport was indeed functioning well before their collaboration. In the words of the former governor, "when I was leaving, we had had over 130,000 passengers pass through that airport; some coming with Boeing 737, and smaller planes. There is no president, past president, current president alive today, and very prominent Nigerians that has not passed through that airport and did not have good testimonies about that airport. The airport ran smoothly for three years and there was no issue."
.Without prejudice to the benefit of the few repairs he did which is an integral part of a normal airport routine maintenance schedule, it is important to set the record straight as it is for the sake of posterity.
The only thing Okowa did in Asaba airport was to change the contractor from ULO to CCECC. Every other thing about the resurfacing of the runway which is being termed upgrade today had all been done before His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan left office. The length of the runway was designed abinitio to take the biggest aircraft in the world. So it is practically evident that Okowa did not do any form of upgrade in Asaba airport. It is important at this stage to call on governor Ifeanyi Okowa to stop using an already completed airport to siphon tax payers money and deceive the people. Routine maintenance is an integral part of a normal airport operation shedule. Okowa should focus on the upgrade of Osubi airport which was ongoing at the time Uduaghan handed over power to him but abandoned as soon as Okowa assumed the office of the governor. The Osubi airport is where the upgrade is really needed not Asaba airport. Okowa will go down in history as the worst governor in Delta State if he doesn't initiate and complete any critical infrastructure like his predesessor did in so many sectors of the state's economy. Forget about the activities of praise singers, they will sing your praise for as long as you remain a governor. When you leave office by 2023 , that is when you can trully measure your performance and understand what the people think about you. As it stand today, there is no critical infracstructural project tied to Okowa's name. This is a disaster waiting to be unveiled beginning from 8pm Nigerian time on the 29th of May 2023. If the people of Bayelsa could accuse Goodluck Jonathan of wasting the slot of the south-south, the people of Delta who are mainly sychopants will do worse than that to Okowa by 2023. No amount of lies will change Asaba airport from being one of the legacy project of the Uduaghan administration. The earlier he initiate and complete his own project as a governor, the better for him.