By Onos Jacobs
The failure of the Uduaghan administration to attend to the deplorable condition of roads in various parts of the state in view of the financial status of the state is detestable. It is equally unimaginable that Asaba, the small capital town is suffering from deplorable roads and improper planning of the town.
Save for the area around Government House where the state government officials reside, the other parts of the town has nothing to show for being the capital of Delta state. It becomes more embarrassing when one considers the fact that Asaba is a very small town that if all the roads are in good shape, the government would not be seen to have done something extra-ordinary.
Late last year, the Delta state government declared a state of emergency on Delta roads and said that contracts have been awarded for the repairs of 159 roads across the state, while 2 billion Naira of the 2.9 billion Naira cost had been released for the purpose.

While addressing the press on the roads, the state’s information Commissioner, Barrister Chike Ogeah, said that work would go on simultaneously on all the roads and that the contractors were given December 15 deadline to complete the road projects.
Almost two months after, the roads in the state are not anything better than it was. Suffice it to say that if there is any change at all, it is for the worse. This fate is not peculiar to Asaba alone. This ugly situation cuts across the entire state.
Some of the roads claimed to have been awarded were equally awarded not long ago to companies floated by their political cronies who did little or nothing and got the full amount meant for the roads. The same roads are awarded repeatedly as a form of settlement to their political associates to quench their insatiable thirst for wealth acquisition. The billion dollar question therefore is, ‘Where are the roads?’
It is very unfortunate that Deltans have been cowed to the extent that they no longer have the strength and the gut to ask questions in the face of financial recklessness that has reduced the state to a mere parody of a rich state, at least in terms of real development that can be measured by the well being of the people of the state.
Each time the state government comes out with an idea of a project, the average Deltan knows that it is another ploy to loot the state treasury or where to tie money already looted to. It is really a pitiable situation there in Delta state.