By Julius Oweh

Recently, Ozoro, the headquarters of Isoko North Local Government Areas in Delta State witnessed a unique event which impact would continue to reverberate in the educational and political circles for a long time to come. It was the commissioning of the 14,000-seat capacity stadium of the Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro. The stadium was completed in a record time of twelve months and was done through direct labour using the technical staff of the institution. A highly elated Governor Ifeanyi Okowa who praised to high heavens the efforts of the rector, Dr Jacob Oboreh described the sports complex as a wonderful work.

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State

“We appreciate the work of the polytechnic management for doing a good job. I am very excited with what I have seen this afternoon. It is a wonderful work. You are accountable and transparent. You are making good use of the internally generated revenue.

It is obvious that there is good thinking here”, the governor said. He added that the rector of the polytechnic has thrown a challenge to other heads of higher institutions in the state and should they fail to invite him, he would invite himself to such schools and see what they are doing with the IGR and other funds in their care.

The governor’s speech at Ozoro has raised many fundamental issues about accountability, transparency and abandoned projects. It is hoped that the governor would move beyond speech and give practical vent to his sentiments.

Firstly, the other institutions of higher learning in the state must justify what they are doing with their internally generated revenue and if satisfactory answers are not given, an audit should be on the way. Those who hold public office do that in trust and must justify that trust. The many sundry fees paid in the institutions in the state should not be allowed to go into private hands. There must be proper accountability so that the students and the state benefit from such.

Furthermore, the completion of the Ozoro stadium in a record period of twelve months is a stinging rebuke to that of the Asaba township stadium. Since 1999, the stadium has been undergoing various forms of `construction`, yet nothing has come out of it. The cost of reconstructing the Asaba stadium is a closely guided secret but investigations revealed that it runs into billions of Naira, yet the Ozoro stadium was built with less than seven hundred million naira.

This is certainly the bad advertisement of governance when public money ends up in private hands. If Deltans are to get the true meaning of the Okowa`s sermon, it would not be out of place to suggest an audit of the Asaba stadium and put machinery in place so that Asaba, the state capital can get a befitting stadium.

The more important challenge of the Ozoro stadium is the gallery of abandoned projects in the country and Delta State in particular. Why is the government always developing clay feet in probing contractors taking the government and the people for a ride? Are the contractors sacred cows that they could pocket people’s money and nothing is done to them?

This is one area Okowa must show commitment and political courage by bringing to book all those who collected government money and failed to execute contracts given to them. This is the minimum level of accountability and transparency in running the affairs of governance. I hope that there is clear thinking in Government House, Asaba (apology to the governor). For too long, most Nigerians are of the mindset that government money is nobody’s money and could be pocketed. This era must change if the people are to truly get the dividends of democracy and the `prosperity` promised by the government.

Even within Asaba, you just hang your head in shame at the level of development. There is decay and rot of infrastructures in Asaba yet we have a lot of agencies which are supposed to take care of the capital city. What are the Asaba Capital Territory Development Agency and the Ministry of Urban Renewal doing? Yet there are budgetary provisions for these agencies.

There is Ministry of Works and the Direct Labour Agency that are supposed to build roads for the state in general and Asaba in particular. Yet Asaba has the unique but dubious distinction as a state capital with the worst set of roads and during the rainy season, the cars in the city are converted to canoe. May be there is absence of clear thinking in the Ministry of Works and the Direct Labour Agency.

The case of the Direct Labour Agency stinks of irony because the road where the agency is domiciled in Asaba is the worst in the city. It would not be a bad idea to scrap the agency. There is the Delta State Waste Management Board and Ministry of Environment yet Asaba is like one huge refuse dump. The list of government indifference goes on and on.

As Deltans celebrate the magic of the Delta State Polytechnic Ozoro stadium, the governor should not only focus on higher institutions of learning. There are many ministries and agencies of government idling away and could not justify their existence. The focus must also be on those and should the governor concentrate on only the higher institutions of learning, there is a word for that. And that word is witch-hunt. The governor should move beyond sermons and put into practice what he preached at Ozoro on that fateful day.

Julius Oweh, a journalist in Asaba, Delta State