DESPITE economic recession, Delta State is standing strong, all thanks to the Ifeanyi Okowa administration which has risen above pettiness and inherited problems to return the state to the people. So, I expect that this year, political activities will sprout as politicians in exile will return to  the arena for personal interest. They will host meetings, attend social functions to resuscitate their ambitions. They will revive tribal, religious and sectional interests to join forces with imaginary advocates who when in corridors of power were insensitive. Bats and hyenas will throw tribal banters with chorus of underperformance and like a disgruntled housewife can’t be pacified.

Delta is a multi-ethnic state. As the Hausa language unites the North, Yoruba language unites the South West, Igbo language unites the South East, so Pidgin English unites Delta. We have Ndokwa, Ika, Agbor and other derived Igbo, Yoruba and Benin lingua from Delta north. In Delta Central, we have Urhobo dialect and in Delta South, we have Isoko, Itsekiri and Ijaw. Our diversity enriches the state in culture, economic, political and social stability. Okowa came at a time state institutions were used to sustain personal aspirations, his traducers played god with clannish intentions but failed.

Okowa is a movement anchored on people. When opponents relied on rotational governorship, Okowa encouraged excellence and competence; when they promoted primordial tribal sentiments, Okowa supported unity in diversity; when opportunists were throwing darts of falsehood, Okowa educated them with politics without bitterness. There is no godfather or group that owns Delta more than the people; Okowa shattered political godfatherism and critics must rally round him to invent their relevance, they should take advantage of his openness and accommodation.

He is strengthening his foot soldiers because foot soldiers and party loyalists are cardinal intercessors, bridge of understanding that meet the yearnings and aspirations of the masses; they reflect the Governor’s heart; if they are well nourished the state is healthier. So, the fate of Okowa is not tied to any godfather, person or groups but people. Those holding imaginary rallies or meetings to revive concocted conspiracies are jesters without political foundation. They represent a gathering of scavengers seeking political fortune; these are clueless self acclaimed leaders with no electoral value; we should not mistake wealth for electoral acceptability.

Their platform festers in greed and opportunistic wrangling. And this only confirms that there is no alternative to the PDP in Delta. Remarkably, all those who gave PDP a bad name after migrating to APC for political merchandise were former PDP beneficiaries. These ‘politricians’ cannot salvage themselves; we cannot be drunk in watery euphemism to impose “change” with uncertainty when “power to the people” is the solution.

There is no alternative to stability, we can’t accommodate gamblers because their skills derived from opportunistic greed is risky to development. Okowa has demonstrated leadership competence by accommodating various interests, united the state by giving an umbrella of hope to all irrespective of tribe or tongue. “Ekwueme” is a man of character, integrity and honour, who makes promises and keeps them, where ‘politricians’ pollute our space and make bogus promises. He has brought stability in politics and economy which has paved the way for peace to thrive under secure environment.

This is why I fell that Okowa needs a second term to sustain programmes under the auspices of his SMART agenda. Delta is an unfinished structure and not seeking a second term is leaving it uncompleted. My appeal to political merchants is to love the state above personal greed; they must not destroy the state for personal engradisement. We cannot disregard good because good has no ethnic or political colouration, it’s a universal language.

The reality is visible in road construction and rehabilitations of technical colleges, revival of technical education and skills acquisition, his initiatives in agriculture, especially fishery and rice production. Also commendable is the revival of critical infrastructures like industries considering the importance to the economy. Okowa is strengthening the economy through wealth creation and peace as a cardinal policy in reaching out to groups and communities.

Warri is strengthened through inter-ethnic relationships which have advanced healthy agitation for oil companies to return back to their operational base, supporting Pandef and genuine patriotic groups to revive the economic base of Niger Delta. We are not looking for a tribal or sectional Governor but a unifier who transforms   aspirations into reality; not bigots who promote ethnic divisions; we don’t want questionable characters whose accolades lie in self-messianic claims, but men of goodwill who sacrifice in pains, tears and blood. We have no alternative to Okowa because we must finish the house we started.

Politics should be about service. Okowa has exhibited financial discipline devoid of past profligacy; provocative exhibition of wealth by politicians is absent because funds are directed for human development;   electorates are supreme partakers in political process and have access to the Governor. Deltans need Okowa to consolidate the state in ideas and visions so   that when a successor emerges in 2023, the state would had sustained good governance, food sufficiency and agriculture made pillar of economic and industrial growth.

We must sustain technical education and skills acquisition as jobs creation initiatives. He is teaching us today to see the private sector as indispensable and pillar of government policies, to absorb youths in jobs and galvanize economic activities that make people entrepreneurs and employers of labour. Okowa regards security as key to gainful employment, jobs creation, skills acquisition, technical education, food production and diversification of the economy. That militancy, pipelines vandalism and economic sabotage had subsided is credit to his diplomacy.

We must divorce politics from governance; Okowa has carried all interests without malice or prejudice, and through competence showed capacity by touching every community in execution of projects. Though bats and greedy hyenas cannot be satisfied, the state is healthy. It’s a new Delta because continuity with Okowa is ‘power to the people’.

We must not dissipate energy in shadows, Okowa represents hope and realization that any Deltan can rise to the pinnacle of his chosen career, he has shown that though tribe and tongue may differ in brotherhood we stand, a new reality that no Deltan should be discriminated on tribal or sectional background.

We are getting there because Okowa understands governance, promises are kept and through perestroika Deltans are fulcrum of politics, policies and programmes, misguided critics cannot stop this moving train because Okowa’s divine mandate is above human destruction, for “Ekwueme” people come first. A movement for a better state devoid of ethnic pollution, building structures in people and promoting unity above divisions, it’s a new Delta because continuity with Okowa is ‘power to the people’.

By Prince Akpo’ Abugo