Dr. Chris Okobah Vice President/National Leader of Legacy Group (Middle) During the Press Briefing
By Emmanuel Enebeli
ASABA/Nigeria: Deltans has been called to commend the efforts of the state government under the leadership of the Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, rather than attacking his person and government.
This charge was giving today November 1, 2017 by a non-governmental, political pressure group, Legacy Group in Asaba, today November 1, 2017 during a media briefing, which according to them was to correct the misrepresentation of facts of the activities of the government which recently is being championed by a former member of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) who recently defected to the All Progressive Congress, (APC), Dr. Cairo Ojuegbo.
Addressing the press, Dr. Chris Okobah Vice President/National Leader, on what the group called Ojougbo’s media attacks on Okowa as self-serving, and unpatriotic, said their focus is to monitor developments and evaluate legacies of leaders especially in Delta State, and as group they are not against people or group asking for accountability from the government, but doing so, it must be done based on set democratic principles.
“As a group, we are not against people or groups asking government to be accountable to the people, neither do we believe that those in authority are infallible; however, such calls must be done in accordance with acceptable democratic norms and must be borne out of genuine love for the development and growth of the society”.
“We must admit that it is not our business to question the tendencies of individuals who jump from one party to the other without respect for political ideology. But we believe we reserve the right to scrutinise their actions and utterances especially when such tend to politicize the policies and programmes of the government to the detriment of the electorate”.
Reacting to the allegations of non transparency of the released Paris Club Refund and the 2017 Appropriation Bill, the group said that they had taken time to investigate the controversies, and from their investigations they can score government high.
“Those of us in the Legacy Group have taken time to investigate the controversy surrounding the deployment of Paris Club Refund across States and we found the Government of Delta State to have scored high”.
“I am sure that most of you here must have read in the newspapers the total sum the State got on account of the Paris Club Refund in the three tranches and how it was distributed. Hence, we consider the alarm raised by Dr Ojougbo in which he alleged improper management of the Paris Club refund as a non-issue. We believe the reason Dr Ojougbo raised this false alarm is to distract the Government and that is our concern as a group focussed on the overall development of the people.”
“Allegation of a blank budget is another issue we consider unreasonable, unrealistic and unpatriotic. Apart from the fact that a blank budget cannot exist otherwise it is not a budget, every well-meaning person can attest to the fact that the Delta State 2017 budget was publicly presented in November 2016, passed in February 2017 and signed into law in March 2017 as reported in various media. The sectoral allocations in that budget were also well captured in those media reports so the views of Dr Ojougbo in this regard appears self-serving and not targeted at promoting peace and tranquillity, which is the bedrock of development. Again that is why we are concerned”
The group asserted that in the midst of the economic recession, and months of damage to the Forcados Export Trunk Pipeline, the governor has managed to fare well in many area of economic and social development, and as such no one can say nothing is happening.
“In the midst of economic recession and 16 months damage to the Forcados Export Trunk Pipeline, Governor Okowa has managed to fare well in the area of Road construction, Schools Rehabilitation, Job Creation and Urban Renewal and to this end, we will confront anybody who will not take steps to encourage the Government to consolidate on these modest achievements. Here again, the cry of nothing is happening by Dr Ojougbo cannot be said to be a reward for the administration’s hard work.”
The group wondered despite the numerous achievement of this government, as published in the media, and reeled out during the town hall meetings, such as the administration’s efforts on job creation, vocational training of about 4000 youths, the graduate Employment Enhancement Programme (GEEP), why Ojougbo has failed to see such development.
“Beyond our knowledge of what the administration of Governor Okowa is doing to add value to Deltans, we also tried to find out why Dr Ojougbo is not seeing the positive efforts of the administration”.
The group however came into conclusion, that the war between the governor and Okowa is on who will control their Local Government Area, Ika South politically.
“Our investigation revealed that he had asked the Governor to allow him be in control of his Ika South Local Government in terms of elective offices and appointments, without adherence to democratic principles. But the Governor would not accede to such an undemocratic request. Rather, he encouraged him to follow democratic principles, which obviously didn’t go down well with Dr Ojougboh”.
“Dr Ojougbo is said to have undemocratically wanted to retain his seat as National Vice Chairman of the PDP, South South. But in line with the principles of fairness, equity and justice, all the major stakeholders of the PDP in Delta State zoned that position to another Senatorial District other than the Senatorial District of the Governor where Dr Ojougbo belongs. If indeed these are the sources of his anger, again we believe it is unfortunate and, yes, self-serving”.
While calling on citizens to criticise the government when the need arises because it is an essential ingredient of democracy, they advocated that such should not be a clog.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we expect citizens to criticise the government when the need arises because it is an essential ingredient of democracy; but we hold the view that such criticisms must find a reasonable space on the track of objectivity and patriotism”.
They called on politicians not to allow their personal interest to override public interests.
