Delta governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, has not been in Asaba, the state capital lately. No, he hasn’t been the victim of the kidnapping spree that until recently had a tight stranglehold on the state. He has apparently, moved to the oil city of Warri, in the last few weeks, ostensibly to increase the tempo of government activities in the south and central senatorial districts of the state.
Speaking on a phone-in programme on Delta Rainbow Television, DRTV, Warri, he said, “my presence is to first increase the activities around here and it also gives me an easy opportunity to carry out on the spot assessment of the things we are doing in terms of development and security.”
In his words, “yes, i have been in Warri for more than a week now and since the beginning of this year, we have been in Warri. Across the world today, when you say the name Warri, what comes to mind is a place of crisis, which is not very true. Though there are some security situations, it is not as bad as people are projecting it. I am going to be in between here and Asaba. I will be making my presence here more visible than before,” he added.
The governor also said, “we are doing a lot in the state and there are people who are complaining that we are not doing enough in Warri and Effurun axis. Two, the security situation in Warri axis is not improving the way we expect it to be. In Asaba, there is tremendous improvement. However, in Warri axis, the situation is not improving. I decided that my presence in Warri axis would be more than it used to be.”
When you consider that he had first stated said that the security situation in warri is “not as bad” as people have erstwhile believed but still goes on to say that it is not improving, you begin to wonder what to believe. But then, Mr Governor seems to be doing fine there so that’s a positive indication of the state of affairs in Warri.
According to reports, Uduaghan has since been inspecting road, school and other projects being executed in Umeh, Warri, Effurun and other towns in the two senatorial districts.
For example, last week, he was at Umeh in Isoko south local government area to inspect the 7.6-kilometer umeh road, inspired, last year, by his rare interface with the people on a Facebook page, “Umeh need road forum”, UNRF – the first such social media driven capital project that we actually know of in the country.
And what about that naughty habit of our governors making ‘American-esque’ or ‘London-esque’ promises? Check this out from Uduaghan when making a promise to provide more road junctions. “we are going to do in Warri, Effurun and Asaba also and when you see the place after we would have transformed it, it would be like London”.