DEAR  Senator Omo-Agege, Before I commence with the mainstream of this letter, allow me to commiserate with you on the demise of your father-Justice James Omo-Agege. Loss of a father at whatever age is often cold and painful. But you could take solace in the realisation that your departed old man lived a fulfilled life. And he saw you climbed the ladder of life successfully to become an elected Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. You gave him an extra elation. May his soul rest in peace.

This personal letter though coming rather late, has become a recurring habit of mine to any elected senator representing the Central Senatorial District (constituency) of Delta State, in which I put forward items dear to my heart for consideration and possible implementation. Though I realise that the function of lawmakers may not necessarily include project execution per se. However, due to the heat to win elections lawmakers campaigning for offices often entangle themselves in the iron web of promises outside making good laws. Therefore, with the final analysis the chicken has come home to roost. Finding solution to this predicament has led to the development of legislators working in collaboration through alliances functions and consensus building that result in the insertion of projects into the budget legally but not in the way of “padding” that has become a euphemism for corruption.

Delta Central Senatorial District has had the beauty and most colourful representation from a horde of the famboyant to the maverick, the reticent, the pedagogic, the workerholic to the super representative.

My dear Senator, permit me to recycle an analogy in my last missive which was obliterated by developments. They are essential and still persistent and may not have resonated in the index of your assignment. Delta Central, we may recall has, in fact, remained in the usual and common parlance of the Nigerian political vocabulary the most marginalised by both the federal and the state governments. It has always helped to bake the national cake but often denied in the sharing. In the economy, political spheres and the least talked about, it has been jerry-rigged to divisions where they are voiceless. The most recent is Ajagbodudu which Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, the erstwhile governor of Delta State as secretary to the state government ceded to Warri North Local Government Area (LGA) from Ethiope West LGA. To the non-initiate this issue could be boring but to those who understand the average African’s sentiment to land ownership, it could be very important. The same Emmanuel Uduaghan did same at Igbudu, Warri through jerrymeandering in the deleanation of wards.

Governor Lucky Igbinedion in his first six months in office in 1999/2000 visited the Urhobo areas of Edo State – the enclaves founded by Urhobo settlers. The enclaves and villagers bore Urhobo names. He changed all the names to Bini names and gazetted them. His people loved him for it. Uduaghan’s people are praising him for the Ajagbodudu episode though he was unable to complete the road to his village, Abigborodo in eight years, a road project started by Chief James Ibori. Different leaders have their different agenda.

I am going to appeal to you to take every issue of development very seriously wherever they may be. Every community and everybody have their ambition like the above leaders had demonstrated. However, what this letter is about concerns development within the ambit of lawmaking translated to constituency projects. Though it is not in the constitution but has evolved into a convention acceptable to the working of our law. As a matter of fact, you deserve much praise so far for the step and to the issues you have bought forward in your constituency: the Okwagbe River port, the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE), DSC Ovwian Aladja et al it is a very good beginning. The awareness and the ability to raise concern for them in the Senate. It is obvious you cannot do them alone. You need to build a cluster of friendship. Your predecessor, late Senator Akpor Pius Ewherido was a master of this even when he was a loner in the Senate. He was able to bring attention to DSC where a committee from the Senate visited. Through him too, the Sapele bridge was rehabilitated. I heard you’ve moved to the APC therefore cluster building will be much easier for you.

The above two items were part of my package to him. Only the Sapele bridge was completed, no one could fathom how far he could’ve gone. His immediate successor, Chief Emmanuel Agwariavwodo was mostly preoccupied with the politics of his coming back to actually come to term with the reality. As mentioned earlier you have stated the Delta Steel Complex, Ovwian-Aladja as one of the items you intend to work on. It therefore needs a cursory mention to remind you of its importance. Federal government presence in Delta State is a rarily. In this era of over emphasised talk about diversity of the economy, the place remains a reservoir – the Sapele port, the Navy at Oghara, the Army Barrack at Effurun agric settlement, the various mineral resources development are lying dormant waiting activation. Sapele used to have a viable customs outpost, federal ministries offices for job placements.

All the federal roads in the district have become death traps. The rigour on road transportation begins at Amukpe roundabout. The road through Aghalokpe, Eku to Abraka has completely broken down. Some years gone by, the federal government wanted to transform it to a four lane road but after the initial survey it was forgotten. Then when Chief R. Fashola became minister of works, he mentioned it as a road to be revisited. It ended in the mere mention. The Expressway from Effurun to Port Harcourt remains uncompleted.

There are a host of others which need flyovers. The intersection at Effurun popularly called PTI junction needs a flyover because the volume of traffic from Warri/Effurun and Effurun/PH Ughelli/Patani with the nearby offices, hotels, office complexes, mini markets, workshops parks, et al make a flyover a necessity. Then at Abraka-along Obiaruku Agbor intersection with Aragba, Kwale, Ozoro, the Abraka market, motor park, hotels and eateries, okada, keke, pedestrians, make it an invitation to accident on a daily basis hence the compelling need for a flyover.

With the way you have started including the above or some of it into your kittly could endear you to the electorate who are awaiting for a senator to break the jinx of a second, third tenure.

Goodluck, Senator.

Mr. Ben Etaghene, editorial director, The Bulletin, wrote from Sapele, Delta State.