Francis Sadhere
Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has said that the state’s greatest asset was not oil but human resource, urging the people to harness these great potentials.
The Governor stated this during the official commissioning of the newly renovated Ikegbunwa Primary School and two others, all in Warri South Local Government Area of the state.
Governor Uduaghan stressed that the state has a lot of untapped talents, even as he said the state was already hunting for these new talents through its Delta Talent Hunt Show.
He said; “We do not believe that we should depend solely on oil. We thank God that he has given us the oil. But we need to look at other areas – areas like agriculture, culture and tourism and solid minerals. But the greatest asset that we have in Delta is our human resource. We have a lot of persons that can do one thing or the other to better themselves.”
On the Ugborodo crisis, the Governor appealed to all the warring parties to settle their differences amicable, noting the state cannot afford to lose the gigantic EPZ project located in the area because of individual differences.
He also emphasized that the project can take a lot of unemployed youths who were in the streets out of the streets, noting that only construction work of the project can employ more than two hundred thousand youths in the state.
“Today we have the gas city that is being developed in our land in Ogidigben. That is why I have been appealing to the community that whatever challenges they have, they should sort it out quietly, because a 16 billion naira project is big enough to cater for a lot of persons. Even the construction stage of the job can employ over 200,000 persons. So we must co-operate the Federal and State governments that are involved in that project. If that project starts very well today, many of you that are here today will not be here. You will be there working,” he said.
On the issue of unemployment, Governor Uduaghan assured Deltans that more industries were coming to the state, adding that for investors to come to the state, the people have to create a peaceful environment for them to stay.
Governor Uduaghan also assured the people of the state that the State Government was doing everything possible to woe investors to the state so as to solve the issue of unemployment, adding that “we need to project this state as a peaceful state.”
“For us in Delta, we are providing the enabling environment. The ones we can employ directly, we employ, but we cannot employ everybody. We are encouraging other companies to come to Delta. Yes, Shell is leaving but the oil is not leaving. Other companies are taking over the wells that were been handled by Shell. Chevron is there, getting bigger and employing more.”
The Governor appealed to the communities where the schools are located to ensure the safety of the schools property, lamenting the rate at which some people in the community defaced the school environment.
He said the state government has spent a lot of money in renovating the schools, stressing that it was now the responsibility of the communities to safeguard the school facilities and prevent them from being destroyed.
He further noted that the educational agenda of the state was to ensure that it was able to give proper education to the young ones, adding that that was why it had made education free from primary to secondary levels.
“In the universities we have a lot of scholarship schemes, including bursary. And finally if you have a first class, the government will automatically give you a scholarship to study anywhere in the world with five million naira in a year. So if you do well you may get that scholarship,” he said.
The Commissioner for Special Duties, Dame Orezi Esievo, also commended Governor Uduaghan for the projects which she described as “integral part of His Excellency’s vision of a Delta Beyond Oil and his overwhelming desire to finis strong.”
she enjoined both staff and pupils of the school and members of the community to guard and maintain the facilities in the school in order to preserve them.
END
