Tejiri Ebikeme, Francis Sadhere
Ahead of the swearing-in of Senator (Dr) Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa on Friday, May 29, 2015 as the fourth civilian governor of oil-rich Delta State, an environmentlist, Mr. Sunny Onuesoke has implored Deltans to start counting their blessings as according to him, they will not be disappointed by Okowa.
In an exclusive interview with National Reformer Newspaper in his office in Warri, Mr. Onuesoke who is also the Special Project Director to the immediate past Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, held that Delta should expect a better deal from the in-coming governor.
In his words: “Okowa is one man I give kudos to when it comes to leadership and administration. He is somebody that has shown his worth in all the offices he has handled. So what I am saying is that Deltans should expect marvelous developmental strides.”
According to him; “Okowa is going to be different because though we belongs to the same party our personal views of issues are different. Fine, Ibori remains a political Iroko in the state right now. He actually started PDP in the state and so we cannot give the history of PDP in this state without mentioning the name of Ibori. Ibori is a leader that steps into any place and there is a change. So I believe Okowa has the same carriage too. The Okowa I know will not disappoint Deltans. I have served under Okowa for good four years when he was SSG because he was my direct boss. Then I was the Special Project Director and I report to him directly. So I know his reactions towards issues.
He is a very calm and calculative person. The first thing I see is wealth creation. I am not talking about the civil service because it is over bloated. Nothing seems to happen in these government offices. I am not saying that government should not employ, but are they going to employ people to be idle? The governor should concentrate more on the creation of wealth because when you create wealth, the wealth will in turn employ people. We have to develop the resources we have within. We have to be vigorous in terms of internally generated revenue. We need to look backward to source for funds beyond oil. We are going to pursue things that will create jobs for the people apart from the civil service.”
The former governorship aspirant in the State added that; “I am very sure that he already has a master plan for that. If there is creation of wealth there is going to be peace and security. When a man is well fed, he is going to be thinking positively. You cannot create peace when the people are hungry. For you to have total peace you have to create peace through creation of industries, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, there is going to be lasting peace. When there is peace you do not need security. That is the way I look at it. One thing I keep telling Deltans is that Okowa is not going to exhibit arrogance in power.”
In his words also; “All his lieutenants are going to be servant leaders. Gone are the days when people showcase arrogance while in
power. That will not be tolerated any longer because these are things
Okowa does not like.”
