By Michael Tidi

A variety of reactions have continued to attend the present attempt on the part of Delta State Government to amend the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, law, ranging from tacit support to outright rejection.

Unfortunately, the true intendment of the proposed amendment has not been adequately considered on the part of those shouting to high heavens on how not to reform the commission with this crucial aspect of the exercise relegated to the background amidst a plethora of unfounded allegations and dirty politicking.

As such the important work of amending what is a very important law to the oil producing sections of the state, call them nationalities, communities or areas, appears to be playing second fiddle to increasingly needless acrimony arising from ignorance and mischief making. If nothing else, the position many critics are assuming is certainly how not to reform this critical interventionist agency.

Some of the cases being made by certain opponents of the amendment are so unreasonable that they give the impression that reforming DESOPADEC is unnecessary in the first place. This is truly surprising because if Deltans from the oil producing sections of the state are in agreement about anything at all, then it is that the commission, as it is presently constituted and is being run has been a disappointment with seeds of failure planted in its legal framework, poor management, corruption and paucity of vision.

Some interest groups have even raised eyebrows at the term ‘ethnic nationalities’ in the proposed amendment whereas under the present framework the commission has always been run on the basis of ethnic nationality. Besides, such preoccupation with mere semantics amounts to stirring a storm in a teacup since we are all aware that all oil producing areas and communities belong to specific ethnic nationalities.

Funny enough, none of those currently lampooning an amendment they have clearly not critically studied will ever dare say the commission has been a success so far. Instead, many of them have been calling for reform and restructuring of DESOPADEC for years and it is quite confusing that they are now at the forefront of opposing the solution to a problem they identified long ago.

Whereas I quite agree that each and every stakeholder is entitled to key into the process of amending the DESOPADEC law, I believe it is most disingenuous for anyone to criticize the proposals without offering any meaningful, credible or workable alternatives.

Since we are all agreed that DESOPADEC, to the chagrin of the oil producing ethnic nationalities, areas and communities, has failed us as regards delivering on its mandate, it is then automatically the obligation of government to intervene unless it wants to abdicate its duty to its constituents. Such dereliction of duty would have been pounced on by the same critics of the present exercise as indicative of the abandonment of the oil producing sections of the state. Where the state Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has been alive to his responsibilities by trying to reposition the commission into an agency that is internally efficient and externally effective in terms of delivering on its mandate, it becomes quite mischievous for armchair critics to insist on truncating such a patriotic process.

This is to be expected as many of those hiding in the shadows and currently sponsoring hack writers and rented crowds to oppose reform in the commission are well-known beneficiaries of the present status quo in which a rich minority of self-centered persons and greedy interest groups benefit tremendously from embezzlement, inflated contracts, fictitious contracts and lack of transparency in the commission to the detriment of the silent majority of Deltans who belong to the oil producing ethnic nationalities, communities and areas it was established to serve. As such we are faced with an unhealthy situation in which those who should be held responsible for the failure of DESOPADEC now have the audacity to rear their heads in an attempt to intimidate the State Government into abdicating its constitutional duties to the people.

A situation in which beneficiaries of a failed system are now attempting to force government into backing away from delivering on its mandate must not be tolerated by the people of the state. We must reject their divisive agenda of introducing grossly unfounded issues of ethnic coloration into what is clearly a good-natured determination on the part of a responsible government to meet the aspirations of the long abandoned people of the oil-producing sections of the state.

Tidi, Special Assistant on News Media to Governor Okowa, wrote in from Asaba.