BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

Long ago, it was said that the hand which consistently catches the evasive eagle in flight requires no    further proof of marksmanship.

And it was a right and appropriate submission. After all, is it not evident that catching the evasive eagle in flight is no mean task, no walk in the garden, as it is said?

However, when that evasive hand, in addition to the eagle, hits the powerful Falcon, with one single hypodermic bullet, it simply graduates from the realm of humanity to the mystical and incomprehensible reality, which only a few human minds can truly discern with ease.

This has been the case of the Okowa administration, with regard to events it has chosen to mark its second anniversary –the town hall meeting and the commissioning /inspection of its legion completed and ongoing projects in the different parts of the state.

From left; Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa; Prof. Sylvester Monye and Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, during the Governor’s arrival to the 2017 Town Hall Meeting at Isele-Uku, Delta State.

By its wise choice to simultaneously deploy the strategies of the town hall meeting and project commissioning/inspection, to mark the mid-rib of its current term of office, the administration has, like the uncommon hunter in the opening paragraphs of this piece, displayed uncommon talent, the efficient use of which will remain of monumental significance and benefit to the people of the state, even for long after tomorrow.

And this is how.

By its efficient delivery of services on such a huge scale-projects , particularly in this case-it has, especially in the    light of the prevailing economic recession, demonstrated the capacity of the talented hunter in the preceding paragraphs. That, ordinarily, in the light of the recession and its huge negative impact on the capacity of leaders and corporate groups and organisations to deliver top-line services, would be sufficient performance.    And then this; in our clime where actual field performance is a rare attainment, that would be understood in the face of one other fact; the administration, being just two years on the saddle, can be given the benefit of doubt.

However, just like the uncommon hunter who hit both the evasive eagle and the falcon with a single volley of gunfire, governor Okowa has demonstrated that beyond the desirable delivery of projects, there is much more to responsible leadership-earning and retaining the trust of the stakeholders, especially the down-trodden ordinary people, by whose grace it was elected into office in the first place.

In this wise, it has wisely chosen the option of the town hall meeting to create the ambience for the mutually- beneficial interaction with the public at the remotest spectrum of the society, with a view to consolidating the bond that creates and sustains trust- one of the single most vital virtues in responsive leadership. That trust is the typified by the avian symbolism of the Falcon.

For it, with these two major attainments in tow, the rest, as they say, is history-positive history, the constructive and actual symbolisms of which are under-pinnned by the submissions hereunder.

UNFOLDING OKOWA’S  BAGFUL OF PROJECTS

In the course of his projects inspection/commissioning tour of Isoko South, Isoko North, Sapele, Ethiope West, Aniocha South and Aniocha North    local government areas, governor    Okowa inspected legion projects and commissioned a plethora of others. The inspected projects include Ozaha Model Primary School, Oleh; upgrade works at Emore College, Oleh;the YAGEP Drip Irrigation Farm Cluster at Songhai Delta, Amukpe; Sapele Road Dualisation Project; construction of Ikoyo Street, Obule School Road, Sapele; dualisation of Access Road to Jesse; construction of Ogini Grammar School, Oghara; construction of Ogwefe-Ugbenu road, Oghara-which was flagged off and is being handled by the administration via DESOPADEC;    rehabilitation and asphalt overlay of Nsukwa/Ejeme-Aniogor/Alidinma/Owa-Alidinma in Aniocha south; construction of Ogwashi-Uku/Ubulu-Unor road; Delta State Shoe and Leather Works Factory at Issele-Uku; Issele-Uku Technical college; construction of Obomkpa/Idumu-Ogo road (6.6km) and construction of Ukwu-Nzu road.

It is instructive to note that, while admittedly, the projects    inspected in the areas are many for an administration that is just two years old in office, the stark positive reality on ground is this: for every project inspected, many more others, equally strategically important to the state and its people, remain either ongoing or on the drawing board of a government that has demonstrated the potency of its hands as much as the virility of its vision and the missionary zeal to push them    (projects)to conclusive delivery to attain two goals-serve its people and keep faith with its vow to be positively different.

AS with inspected projects, so with those delivered and commissioned for use: They include the following:

• Old Ozoro/Oleh road;
• The rehabilitated/constructed Amawha Layout, Ideze road, with drainage;
• Constructed Ogaga Road, Sapele;
• Sapele Technical College-now remodelled to breath-taking gusto;
• Expanded and rehabilitated sections of Oghara Junction to Otefe Road;
• Constructed 14-room administration block at council secretariat, Ogwashi-Uku;
• Construction/rehabilitation of 24 classroom block at Ubulu Primary School, Ubulu-Uku, and
• Rehabilitation of Issele-Uku Main Access Road from Benin/Asaba highway, with an extension to Obi Palace Junction, Issele-Uku.

Again, like in respect of inspected projects, so with the commissioned ones: the zest of the administration gives a strong, infallible reason for the hope and expectation that, in a matter of months, far many more others would be ready to be added to the list of projects delivered on the basis of cost-efficiency, to the exponentially increasing list of services to the credit of an administration that is steadily appearing positively out- of- the- mainstream, for good cause.

Clearly, there is a positive mental picture that can honestly be drawn with regard to the Projects-commissioned and inspected: In terms of sheer number, size, strategic location, even geographic spread, timely delivery and huge span across the spectrum (they span agriculture, education, commerce,    etc), they represent the desire of the government to, in spite of all odds, drive its vision of the accelerated development of the state to unquestionable reality, using as little resources as possible to attain as much as is acceptably possible, without compromising quality in any form or shape.

For the projects inspected/ commissioned, there are a few lessons worthy of being imbibed: They were either initiated by the Okowa administration or inherited by it. Either way, useful lessons are to be learnt on that account: As inherited projects, the continuation of completion work on them depicts the  firm faith of the government in the principle of continuity, the lack of which has been a major contributor to the syndrome of the    plethora of abandoned projects in Nigeria’s public space and the clearly inappropriate tendency to tie down (on that account)scant public resources on projects that, from the onset, stood very little chance of being completed and put to effective use. Where they are the initiatives of the subsisting administration- and the overwhelming majority of them are-the projects, on account of the sheer size and geographic and spectrum spread, testify to the proactiveness of the administration in putting them on course, as well as the doggedness    underlying its pursuit of success in that regard.

By any standard, this is an uncommon attainment.

One more thing, though.

In Africa, it is said that the wise farmer derives pleasure not just from the produce of his farm and the richness of his barn, but equally importantly, from the alluring greenery of his holding which, in far more ways than can readily be understood, emit the inimitable aura that bonds him and his investments.

Much same is true of the wise leader.

Realising, quite wisely, that leadership goes beyond project delivery-undisputably good and wonderful as they are to the wellbeing of the people-an equally vital element is the sustenance of    mutual confidence and trust, the consistency of which begets brotherhood, which no weapon, no matter how otherwise potent, can destroy.

This is the real reason that, Okowa, like the wise leader, imbibed the wisdom in the ancient Chinese proverb ( to the effect that the effective parent is not the one who buys the child the most toys but one to the vital import of whose words he still bows, in unalloyed heeding), by promptly adopting the town hall module of communication to reach the people, from the low, through the midrib, to the echelon to have unfettered access to their soul-felt feelings.

Evidently, the town hall meetings have helped not only to enable the governor present his report card, like the servant leader, to the people, but also to feel the unimpaired pulse of the very constituents by whose grace he was elected governor, and for whose sake, where a push comes to a shove, he will be most willing and able to give his all.

Expectedly, the inputs of the constituents, fused with the lofty ideas embedded in the SMART Agenda of    the administration are expected to be the critical elements of the state’s development road map, going forward, and the vital condiments to consolidate the increasingly potent brotherhood among all stakeholders in the Delta Project .

That is the general expectation of stakeholders, and that would be a feat, by whatever definition.