By Amos Igbebe
Despite making wave in national and international community, kinsmen of Okonjo Iweala, immediate past Minister of Finance and Coordinator of the National Economy, are not happy over the state of her village, Ogwashi Uku, in Delta State, Nigeria. Iweala’s profile has continued to rise as she recently emerged Chairman of two international organisations in the United Kingdom and United States of America. But despite her wide acceptance in the global community, she is yet to make significant impact in the life of the community where she was bred.
A visit to Ogwashi Uku, the country home of Okonjo, housing one of the Delta State Polytechnics, one would see a village yet to experience the beauty and splendour for which she is known. Although there are buildings and economic life coupled with the Polytechnic established by the defunct administration of James Ibori, former governor of the state, bad roads, lack of electricity and potable water are among the myriads of challenges the people there are fighting hard to overcome. Ogwashi Uku, the administrative headquarters of Aniocha South in Delta State, as at present, has never seen the blink of electricity, at least to be moderate, for the past five years.
Entering the polytechnic community in the brightness of the sun, one would see life bubbling with the invasion of students in the area. Life seems okay as the community appears flowing with the multitude of students from every part of the state and possibly outside Delta. The presence of students makes the town busy with okada and bus shuttle transport from and to the campus. Minor businesses including mechanics, vulcanizers, trading on household wares, food stuff, farming and community transport form major life sustaining activities in the community.
While some persons in the community seem contented since they can afford their daily meal from their meager jobs and partly sustain their families, others who have seen the world, travelled far and wide, feel dissatisfied with the state of the community, especially for the fact that one of the eminent daughters of the area was a leading champion in the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan and presently a Managing Director of two international institutions in the western countries of United Kingdom and United States of America. Prior to Okonjo’s emergence as Minister in Nigeria, she was Vice President of the World Bank in control of the African sub region.
The issue of water would have been permanently solved in the community if the federal government had completed work on the dam project it embarked upon in the area many years ago. Somehow, the dam seems to have been abandoned with the death of Goodluck Jonathan’s government on May 29, 2015. With the abandonment of the dam project, the community’s water challenge now grows on daily basis. This is because it was the hope of the people as it was conceived with the intention of ending the long problem of potable water in the community.
A prominent son of the area, AC Okocha, Managing Director of AC Okocha Motors, is not happy with the happenings in Ogwashi Uku. Although he has all he could to take care of himself and his family, he has a serious concern for the growth and development of his community. He said the dam which would have solved the water challenge, has now become a curse to the community. “Because the water was flowing before the project started, but when they started working on it, the water is no longer flowing. The water has been pushed to one side. As it is now, it’s like a lake and not a river. People use to drink it before but now, you can’t drink it. It’s now like a red sea.
“You can’t use it to wash cloths because it’s dirty. So, we are worse off. The dam has now become a curse not blessing to us. Now let’s see it this way, when your own child is in charge of money and your projects are not working, what do you expect? Who will fight for you?”, Okocha said. He said the dam, if it were working, could generate water that could serve neighbouring communities of Issele Uku, Ubulu Uku, Onicha Ugbo and most parts of Delta North because Ogwashi Uku is in an elevation and water could flow down if piped.
He added “I know this because I was fully involved at the stage of conception. We held several meetings in Benin over the project. We knew that Ogwashi Uku could supply water to all these areas because of its elevation. We also sat down in Abuja with the former Finance Minister and wrote the electricity blueprint for Ogwashi Uku but all to no avail”.
Going back to history, Okocha said Ogwashi Uku community enjoyed government in the days of Samuel Ogbemudia when he was governor of Bendel State. He said it was Ogbemudia who brought light to the area. According to him, “Ogbemuda brought light, water and tarred our roads, that was as far back as 1973. And since Ogbemudia left government, we have not enjoyed government at all. This is very painful to us. Ogwashi Uku used to bubble but since these facilities have faded away, everybody now runs away from the area to the cities.
“When democracy came, we thought it would help us but since 1999 till date there has been no single road tarred in Ogwashi Uku and there is no water. In fact, before 2010, light was coming once in a week, but since 2010 till now, there has been no flash of light in Ogwashi Uku. We buy water everyday. No motorable road, except this one tarred since 1973. So, we start wondering if we are part of Nigeria. Other people have been enjoying democracy, Ogwashi has never enjoyed democracy”.
Besides Okonjo Iweala, whose profile has been on the rise, Okocha blamed other sons and daughters of the area for the challenges confronting the polytechnic town. He named a former member of the House of Representatives, Paschal Adigwe, who is now Special Adviser to Governor Okowa on Intergovernmental relations in Abuja; Tony Nwaka, who has been in government since 1999 and Onyemaechi Mrakpor, who had served in the state House of Assembly for two terms, but now a member of the House of Representatives as individuals in government who could have championed the development of the area for the good of the people. Seeing all these people in government and no development seems to come forth, he said “why do we blame government, we trace the problem to ourselves. The position is that our people who have gone forward are not representing us over there.
“We have people who have not been able to articulate and push the case for their town. They will award contracts, nobody will do them. Over 100 years, Ogwashi Uku has headquarters of a local government, Asaba, Agbor, Ukwuani were all under Ogwashi Uku before it was divided. It’s only Benin, Warri and Ogwash that were headquarters of administration then but now if you go to Warri, you will see evidence of democracy. Ogwashi Uku that was one of the tripods has nothing to show.”
He said leaders of the community had written several letters to the former Minister of Power, asking for Ogwashi Uku to be made supply centre but all efforts in that direction proved fatally abortive. He said that factories that were initially sited in the community had been shut down due to lack of power supply. He said the community is fully loaded with okada riders as if Ogwashi Uku is the headquarters of okada business in Delta State.
Okocha who has made success in vehicle business, also blamed the certification of contracts awarded when the projects have not been completely executed. He reasoned that it was wrong for any government to issue certificate of project completion to a contractor when the project has not been completed. He went furious saying “how is it that somebody will not finish a project, he is given a certificate of completion. When you finish a job, they inspect it before giving you a certificate of completion and you take that to the Ministry of Finance for payment. But when a job is not done, they offer somebody certificate, I begin to wonder what is actually going on”.
However, Okocha never blamed Okonjo, arguing that although she was heading the finance ministry, he said she had the challenge of the National Assembly members and other members of the federal cabinet since she was not in the ministry that has the responsibility for executing projects.
But Mrakpor, member of the House of Reps, listed many projects she executed in the local government ranging from hospital renovation to schools and many others which she said she did when she was member of the state House of Assembly.
