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AS UDUAGHAN DRIVES HOME, WHAT ABOUT OTHERS?

Feature Article AS UDUAGHAN DRIVES HOME, WHAT ABOUT OTHERS?
JAN 24, 2014 LISTEN

It was a packed audience made up of some of the best [crème de la crème] within the public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy. The venue by all standards is pristine and surreal just as the services provided are elegant and exotic but at princely service charges.

The audience spoken about were those that attended the recent public presentation by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Nigeria's minister of finance Professor [Mrs] Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of the year 2014 Federal Government budget and the venue spoken glowingly about is the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in the city of Abuja, Nigeria's obscenely expensive political capital.

I concede that some of my readers will express strong reservation with the encomiums poured here on the single most patronized tourism outfit- Transcorp Hilton because there is a groundswell of allegations that the standard of facilities and services at this expensive hotel has plummeted to an all time low even as the cost of these rapidly declining services still remain sky high to the consternation of most people in Abuja.

But since the standard of services and facilities at this hotel is not the subject matter of this piece I will go straight to say that the ritual of presentation of Nigeria's budget has increasingly lost its true bearing because in the thinking of a lot of Nigerians, government officials abuse with reckless abandon the provisions encompassed in the annual appropriations thereby making life and living in Nigeria so harsh, brutish, short and miserable given the absolutely high poverty situation afflicting a majority of Nigerians. The year 2014 budget followed the same criminal pattern of allocating virtually 78% for servicing recurrent whereas the real development of basic infrastructure under the capital budget subhead got only less than twenty five percent. I was called upon to give a goodwill message on behalf of the Nigerian civil society and human rights community and I told the Federal Government officials in the presence of high profile representatives of global financial institutions like World Bank, IMF and the African Development Bank that the annual budget over the years are only to service the political ruling elite since the poorest of the poor constituting the majority of Nigerians are criminally neglected.

As I sat back after my speech and concentrated on paying closer attention to some of the propaganda booklets given to us by officials of Nigeria's ministry of finance on the 2014 budget, one significant event that kept resonating was the recent announcement that the governor of Delta State Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan recently accessed his community in a car following the near-completion of a road infrastructure being put in place by the Delta state government. To read that a community neglected for over one hundred years can now connect with civilization is heartwarming. I am aware that a lot more of Nigerian rural communities are in this same bad shape of not having good enough road infrastructure.

My realization that the story that the serving governor only recently accessed his community in a car reminds me that indeed the rich also cry and also that every rich or influential Nigerian has his roots somewhere in one corner of Nigeria which perhaps suffers from abysmal and systemic neglect over the years. It is a fact that nearly 85% of rural Nigeria is bereft of basic social amenities and this fact goes to show the high rate of poverty among the majority of the Nigerian population.

Another symbolism in what has just happened in Delta state with regards to the fact that it is just this year that the Delta state government is about completing this historic road to the home town of the serving governor, is that unlike most serving political office holders who would on assumption of office begin by diverting virtually all developmental projects to their place of origin, the Delta state scenario is one in a million since it is clear that the state government and the state house of assembly may not have indulged in eye service of first and foremost taking development to the place of origin of the state governor. The Delta state government should be applauded for this uncommon feat of respecting due process of the law and respecting the principle of equal opportunity for all the people of that state.

In most states of the federation, the moment a governor is sworn in the first thing they do is to relocate a major educational institution to their villages thereby creating animosity among the different ethnic nationalities that make up that specific state but in the last seven years that the current Delta state governor has served, the news of friction over perceived or actual shortchanging of some communities by the state administration is almost absent.

Another line of question that consequently arises from the phenomenal event in Governor Uduaghan's home coming in a chauffeur driven automobile is when will the many other riverine communities in places like Bayelsa, Rivers, Anambra and Imo states witness this kind of development given that most of these communities lack the required road infrastructure to make it possible for the inhabitants to access them even with the obvious fact that these communities have produced several influential and powerful political leaders in Nigeria?

This writer is of the considered opinion that if these influential people should have the welfare and interest of their people at heart and go about strenuously crusading for equal opportunities and developmental infrastructure to be extended to these neglected communities, then sooner rather than later most of these neglected rural communities will catch up with civilization. These communities are majorly agricultural producing communities and without good and functional road network then these farmers would be left to their sad fate.

As stated earlier, charity they say begins at home. In Delta state it seems, the antiphon would be saving the best for the last. After many years of neglect, a rural community became aflame with celebration when one of them at the helms of affairs in their state brought home the real meaning of the saying that charity begins at home. Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan was full of joy and excitement recently [last Wednesday] as he accessed his own community, Abigborodo, by road for the first time.

An elated Uduaghan reportedly told reporters that the 11.5 km Abigborodo road, which has two completed bridges of 20 and 150 metres, will be ready for commissioning before the end of the year.

"The good thing is that at least one can drive through this bridge. For the very first time, especially for those of you who have been following me to the village when we have elections, we always go by boat.

"So this is the very first time we are going to the village by road. For me it is historical and very encouraging and I am so sentimental about it. A car has not been to Abigborodo before but with this bridge that is now a thing of the past and we are very happy,” an elated Uduaghan said.

Uduaghan, who informed that the project linking Sapele and Warri North Local Government Areas, was 70 per cent completed, said it had gulped about N7.2 billion.

Addressing the people of the community, he announced that two Delta City buses will be allocated to the community for easy movement on the route.

Governor Uduaghan who was in Abigborodo to inspect the road and other ongoing projects , including the State Polytechnic, model primary and secondary schools in the community also directed the release of boats to the community that would convey students from nearby communities to schools in the town.

At the Alema secondary school in Abigborodo, the governor expressed unhappiness that students in the area were not making adequate use of the schools and announced that 'edu-marshals' would be deployed to the area to sensitize parents on the need to send their children to school.

He also directed top government officials from the riverine areas to join in the education crusade by going to their respective communities and create awareness on the importance of education.

Meanwhile, the people of Abigborodo have commended the governor over the road and other projects that are going on in the community. A cross section of community members said that the road has started impacting positively on their socio-economic lives.

Well, this symbolic event need to be replicated in virtually 75% percent of the rural communities scattered all around Nigeria as a way of practically reducing the biting poverty situation and to create in the minds and consciousness of the rural folks, a sense of belonging. For Government at every level to expect the people to show patriotism, the political class must first and foremost demonstrate the will power to deliver on their electoral promises by building enduring institutions and social infrastructures in the areas of health, education and road. The rural developmental revolution that just took place in this once neglected Delta state community undertaken by the current governor of Delta state should be an eye opener for other political office holders to save their people from extinction because of the biting poverty that now ravages most rural Nigerian communities.

+Emmanuel Onwubiko is Head, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria; [email protected]; http://www.huriwa.org/.

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