By Odugba Ochuko

In Vanguard of 19th August, 2015, on page 39, Barrister Jesutega Onokpasa, APC, chieftain in Delta State, published an article in which he made all manner of unfounded allegations against the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa. From the article titled, If Only it was O’tega in Delta, Onokpasa has shown that he has obviously become a fanatical follower of Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, APC Governorship candidate for Delta State and seems to have completely abandoned his former party, PDP.

Among many other wild allegations, Onokpasa claimed that Governor Okowa illegally sacked over 3000 Deltans and that if O’tega Emerhor was the Governor of Deltan, the opposite would be the case. This is most shocking to say the least because as a lawyer and writer, Onokpasa cannot pretend not to be aware of the illegal manner in which the persons involved were appointed. Most of the appointments were either bought at highly exorbitant rates or offered to the highest bidders who are not even from Delta State, therefore rendering highly qualified genuine citizens of Delta who cannot afford to pay through their noses unable to secure employment in their own state. It is very unfortunate that a man like Onokpasa who declared that the main role of our President, Muhammadu Buhari is to fight corruption, and that no one must challenge the President in this direction, is now the same man condoning corruption in Delta State civil service on the flimsy excuse that Okowa cannot prove that the workers bought their jobs when everybody in Delta knows that this is what has been going on all along.

On this hypocritical note, Onokpasa had accused Governor Okowa of sacking the few Deltans who have jobs while he conveniently forgot to mention the fact the Governor has instituted two widely acclaimed programmes for job creation in the state. The Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurship Programme, YAGEP, and Skills Training Entrepreneurship Programme, STEP are landmark projects of the Okowa administration in furtherance of his ‘Prosperity for all Deltans’ mantra and are anchored on wealth creation through entrepreneurship, self employment and the multiplier effect of more employment to be generated from these programmes for the benefit of countless number of our youths and other citizens of the state.

Perhaps Onokpasa prefers a state in which only a handful of well connected people get a few jobs in government doing nothing while the youths without connection are aimlessly roaming the street. What Okowa is doing is to put everybody into productive use for the greater good of the state instead of the present situation whereby idle people are collecting development levy and waiting for handouts without contributing their quota to the development of the state.

The problem with people like Onokpasa is the fact that they are quite willing to play politics with everything. This is a man who abandoned his party, PDP and decided to support APC at the prompting of O’tega Emerhor, a man who dragged some fellow Deltans into an alien party, knowing fully that they are not on ground in the state. That is how Onokpasa ended up betraying his own geo-political zone by becoming an APC chieftain to the extent that he is hungry for a core Niger Delta State to be conquered by APC.

I respect Onokpasa a lot but I urge him to live up to our expectations of him as a true intellectual, legal practitioner and public affairs commentator. He should resist the temptation of embarking on grandstanding and destructive criticism. Okowa is an innocent man who has never offended him and merely inherited an onerous challenge of governance on his assumption of office. He is just trying his best to revamp the state and it is unfair to taint him with the same brush meant for those who might have offended him into leaving PDP. Rather people like Onokpasa should be willing to assist the Governor in delivering on his mandate for the good of the entire state. After all, Okowa is not the Governor of only PDP but that of the entire state regardless of party affiliation. Nevertheless, as we say in our great party, even though we lost at the centre, there is still room for all under the umbrella.

.•Ochuko, a PDP chieftain, wrote from Emevor, Delta State.