AN OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR SHERIFF FRANCIS OROHWEDOR OBOREVWORI, JP
By Onajite Malcolm Tagbarha, FHNR
Your Excellency,
Please accept my heartiest congratulations on the remarkable achievements you recorded on your first 100 days in office and best wishes as you take up the responsibility of advancing the living conditions of Deltans with your Meaningful Development, Opportunities for All, Realistic Reforms, Enhanced Peace and Security (M.O.R.E) Agenda.
The ladder of success is one step at a time; it takes time to climb to the top. In this regard, you started well in your quest to advance Delta with your very first few steps, upward the ladder to our glorious destination.
Your Excellency, We recall during your electioneering campaigns, you promised that Warri and Effurun would be given a face-lift, a pledge you also reiterated in your inauguration speech on May 29, 2023 and I quote, “Warri, the commercial nerve centre of the State, will be given special attention under this administration”. A promise you are currently keeping with the announcement of the State Executive Council’s approval for the award of contract worth #78 billion to Construction Giant, Julius Berger Nigeria Limited, for the construction of three flyover bridges, cloverleaf and road expansion. With this masterstroke move, public sentiment supports the trajectory you have chosen. Therefore, It would be no exaggeration to say you are on the right track.
Your Excellency, Much as we are aware that Warri has endured years of neglect, decay and dilapidating infrastructures, we also believe that Sapele, the historic ancient city of Midwestern Nigeria, located by the bank of river Ethiope, a city that has given birth to great and outstanding men and women who have risen from relative obscurity to conquer and dominate their contemporaries in different fields of human endeavour, both locally and internationally, equally needs your attention.
Let this your historic move to renew, regenerate and create new structure for the twin cities of Effurun and Warri that is eliciting joy and celebrations among their residents, be extended to their sister city, Sapele.
I remembered in 1985, when my civil servant mum told me she has been transferred back to Sapele, my birth place – The home of timber, rubber and hospitality, I was simultaneously overwhelmed with the twin feelings of joy and excitement, knowing that I am going back to the city of my birth, more so, with beautiful prospects of greener pastures and better living, because Sapele was the happening place back then.
Arriving as a young ambitious boy with a single parent, my mum, who was committed resolutely, to climb mountains and swim across oceans, in a bid to give me the very best things this life has to offer, education, inclusive. I was then enrolled into Palmer Primary School, Sapele, one of the best schools in the city at the time.
I can still remember vividly how we used to have foreigners and children from wealthy homes as classmates. Small me! From a very humble background. Sitting in the same classroom with children of the who-is-who in Sapele.
Surprisingly, the Sapele that I grew up in, a city that resounds with an endless run of infrastructural facilities that made life much more easy and interesting for inhabitants, then became a shadow of its former self.
The pace of development in Sapele started to experience gradual and steady decline. And it came to a point, where the once bubbling beautiful timber and rubber city that boasts of thriving businesses, institutions with qualitative education, and enduring infrastructural architectures, began to descend on a spiral downturn.
Organisations and business corporations began to evaporate just as foreigners and expatriates that once found Sapele a home of hospitality, away from home, began to disappear into thin air, leaving the town to become a ghost of its former self.
Now, Interestingly, it is a thing of joy to ‘Sapherians’ that our Sapele – God’s own town, the home of timber, rubber and hospitality, is gradually beginning to regain its lost glory. A fact that can easily be corroborated by any boy, girl, man or woman on the streets of Sapele, today.
Luckily, the cheering news is that this is happening under a new set of dynamic leaders.
And at the fore front these leaders was the SMART road master, Sen.(Dr.) Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, who unmistakably handed over the baton of leadership to you, Rt. Hon. Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, to consolidate on his achievements with your MORE Agenda. And I am convinced that as a man excessive local content and street credibility, you are adequately prepared and positioned to advance Delta. We also have the charismatic political czar Okakuro (Barr.) Kingsley Esiso, the ebullient, smooth motivator, Mr Ayemidejor Austine, Hon. (Chief) Felix Uruemuesiri Anirah.
Your Excellency, These men are working in synergy under the administration of the new face of Sapele politics. The ever smiling, gap-toothed, workaholic Local Government Chairman, Hon.(Chief) Eugene Inoaghan, one who has brought a breathe of free air to governance in Sapele.
These quintessential political leaders are different breeds of leaders with unique leadership attributes. They are mixed breeds of politicians with profound leadership and technocratic backgrounds. They exudes sterling leadership qualities that are both endearing and captivating to both friends and foes alike.
Today, Sapele Local Government Area is adorning colourful robes like a beautiful bride on her wedding day. However, since you promised to listen more and do more for us, like Oliver Twist, I passionately plead for more, so that you can extend your ‘Midas touch’ of development to simultaneously develop Sapele, alongside her sister cities of Effurun and Warri.
This is why I am writing you this letter as a concerned resident of Sapele, and to also let you know that you can answer this call to greatness with this masterstroke move to develop Effurun and Warri if Sapele is included.
To this end, my passionate plea to all Sapherians in particular and Deltans in general, is to continue to support and encourage you, as you continue to advance Delta and make positive efforts to give human face to democratic dividends.
While I use this medium to profoundly thank you for your youth friendly cabinet, I also passionately plead that you should incorporate more upwardly mobile youths from Sapele into the governance structure of the State, because we still have alot of untapped resources at our disposal.
According to George W. Bush, “Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time”. And in my opinion, I personally believe that, of all the leadership skills, listening is the most valuable, because without listening to the yearnings, aspirations, visions, and challenges of the people over whom the leader governs, leadership would be meaningless. And you have promised to listen more and do more for Deltans. I can all attest to the fact that Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori is a different brand. Congratulations!
May God bless you all!
May God bless Sapele Local Government Area!
May God bless Delta State!
Tagbarha Malcolm, FHNR, a multi-award winning writer, author, certified United States Agency for International Development, (USAID/International Republican Institute, IRI) campaign trainer and National Legislative Policy Advocate and strategic political communicator, former Special Assistant, SA to former Delta State Governor, Sen.(Dr.) Ifeanyi Okowa, State Publicity Secretary, Coalition for Media Politics and Governance, CMPG, State Secretary, PDP New Generation, Delta State Chapter. He was a member of the Media and Field Operations Committees respectively of the Delta State PDP Campaign Council.
He is the Pioneer Chief Press Secretary to Sapele LGA Council, and a fellow of the prestigious Institute of Human and Natural Resources.
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