Legal practitioner and public affairs commentator, Barrister Jesutega Onokpasa has condemned the call by the Delta State Youth Forum for Good Governance, for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to probe the recent training of Delta State House of Assembly members in the USA.
In a chat with journalists, Onokpasa described the group as a faceless bunch with no genuine address that will not surface to defend their wild and unreasonable allegation.
According to him, it ought to be clear to anyone with a genuine desire for good governance that our present democracy, being at an embryonic stage requires the regular training of principal actors for the purpose of the entrenchment of a deep sense of democratic culture aimed at actually delivering the dividends of democracy to the electorate as opposed to taking them for a ride at every turn.
Onokpasa asserted further that the training did not cost anything near N1.2 Billion unlike the faceless group claimed adding that “education costs money, and people, be they leaders or the led, require enlightenment in order to achieve their full potential. This is what informs the elders’ saying to the effect that ‘If you think education is expensive, try ignorance’.”
He wondered if the group would prefer a primitive democracy of uneducated and uninformed leaders, who are averse to delivering on the very good governance they claim they are fighting for but only interested in stealing government money noting that “seminars, training sessions and workshops did not originate in Nigeria, or in Africa, for that matter, but are English words referring to practices of the white man towards the goal of continuous improvement of human capital.”
Onokpasa also viewed the group’s call for a probe of the renovation of the Delta House of Assembly, as the agitations from agents on an infernal errand at the prompting of desperate politicians, envious of Ochei’s achievements, uncomfortable with his visible accomplishments and scared of his rising profile.
He observed that Ochei deserves commendation as he opted for spending government money on what it is meant for instead of pocketing it, a development that obviously aroused the envy of those who have nothing to show for their barren stewardship in governance to sponsoring people to criticize him, when any visitor to the Assembly will notice the spectacular transformation in the premises.
