By Monday Uwagwu
Long, long ago, it was held that hardly does a prophet have honour among his people.
This is because, as a medieval-era English proverb says, (undue)familiarity breeds contempt.
However, it appears that the notion of inadequate deference to the prophet among his people is changing, and the recent event in Delta State-the induction by the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) of the Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, into the group’s Hall of Fame- is a clear case of the existential erosion, in fact, an exfoliation, of that notion and its essence.
Yes, at its 93rd annual conference held in Uviamuge, Agbarho in Ughelli North Local Government Area of the state, Rt. Hon. Oborevwori, before a galactic ensemble of Deltans, mainly of Urhobo extraction, was deservedly inducted into the Hall of Fame by the iconic socio-cultural group.
The rest, as it is said, is history.
The induction of Oborewvori and the occasion itself are enveloped in a casement of significance and import, as pointed out earlier in the preceding paragraph; aside of eroding the notion of lack of respect for the prophet among his people, the event makes the governor the first sitting Chief Executive of the state to be treated reverentially by the UPU during the pendency of his/her administration.
Maybe, this special reverence has roots in the historic significance of the place of the subject individual –Oborevwori-in the annals of the Urhobo ethnic group, and even for the entire state: Oborevwori is the fifth elected /substantive governor of the state after Chief Felix Ibru; Chief James Ibori, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and Dr. Ifeanyichikwu Ozabor Okowa. As the fifth in the line, he probably carries the rare privilege of Mother Nature, having regard to the Cosmological/ spiritual significance of number five as the number of uncommon grace.
Even in the world of Literary Studies, the number (line/stroke)five, in poetry , is called the Iambe, ( pronounced I am bay) which is regarded as the most exotic, esoteric and appealing, and hence, regarded as inimitable.
Oborevwori also sets record as the first indigene of the Okpe sub group of the vast Urhobo nation to be elected the governor of the state. This is aside from the fact that he is also the first Okpe indigene, the first Urhobo and the first Deltan, to have the privilege of serving the state as elected Speaker and elected Governor. Prince Sam Obi, who had served as Governor while he was still Speaker, was not elected governor and only sat in temporarily, following the judicial annulment of the election of then Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, by the Court of Appeal, Benin City.
Oborevwori is equally the first Deltan to be elected Governor during the pendency of his Speakership, and the first Deltan to serve the state as Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly for two legislative seasons.
Perhaps, all of these elements of the historic garland to his neckline may have informed the decision of the highly respected UPU to give honour to whom it is due.
Can anyone blame them for honouring the rare and highly revered King Millipede?
There is also the element of the significance of the induction that lies in the credibility of the octopic UPU, as the apex socio-cultural group of the Urhobo nation, as well as the historic significance of the venue-Uviamuge- which is regarded as not only the birth place of Urhobo cultural pantheon, awareness and renaissance, but also, in a way, its spiritual underpin.
The dignified presence of the leadership of the socio-cultural groups of other ethnic nationalities at the event equally bears out its rare significance as it typifies the fact that, while the honour is at the instance of his ancestral cultural group, its vibrations and other essences sit pretty across the state, from the brackish waters of the deltaic parts of the southern senatorial district through the lush evergreen region of the Central Senatorial District to the balding landscape of the Anioma Nation (Delta North Senatorial District). The virtual across- board presence of the leadership of other ethnic groups testifies to the appeal of Oborevwori and the brotherhood that bind Deltans together, differences in creed and Mother Tongue notwithstanding.
Of course, the import of the title of Omorotomo (meaning a worthy child ) of Urhobo land ( which he was conferred with by the Urhobo Council of Traditional Rulers, the first such action by the college of royal fathers) is not lost on anyone; even in these days of the proliferation of chieftaincy titles, it is difficult to find anyone privileged to be so honoured by the conferment of the title by the same name.
And do you know what? It is not for nothing that our elders, long ago, said that nothing compares with the uniqueness of the silk cotton.
Beyond all of the other elements of the significance of the induction is the fact of its reflection of popular perception (the UPU,in this instance) of the performance of the governor so far as the predicate of the induction.
While there may not be a harmonious public opinion on the performance of the Oborevwori administration so far, the fact must never be lost on anyone that, as it is said in ancient Africa, the hunter who regularly hits the evasive eagle in flight requires no further proof of his efficiency at marksmanship. Oborevwori, as a skilled hunter, has hit targets across all sectors of the economy of the state , with the ongoing work/ completion of inherited projects, and the initiation of significant new ones, with estimates holding that no fewer than 136 such new road and allied projects have been initiated (with many already completed)since May 2023.
The proofs?
In laying out the predicate of the induction, the President-General (PG) of the UPU, Worldwide), Chief Ese Gam Owe, credited the governor with stellar performance since his assumption of office, 18 months ago.
And not a few would agree with the submission of the respected UPU flower.
And the proofs of the developmental engagements of the Oborevwori administration, like the huge feet of the tropical elephant on wet soil, find expression in the diverse sectors of the economy of the state.
For instance, the governor sustained construction work on the hundreds of road and other projects inherited from the past administration ( the major ones among them are the Ughelli/Asaba highway dualisation project, the Ayakoromo bridge project and the Trans-Warri highway) estimated at more than 1000kilometres in total span, some of which have been completed.
It has also initiated around 136 road and related projects, work on some of which has gone significantly high on delivery dates.
It has, in the 2025 budget, provided N2billion special intervention fund for road development in each of the 25 local government areas of the state.
This handsome provision is aside from the more than N200billion it has earmarked for the same purpose in the state, in the same budget, in which a total of N630. 46billion of the N979.222billion envelop size is devoted to capital expenditure. That is for the upcoming fiscal year, 2025.
However, ahead of the upcoming budget year, the Oborevwori administration has earned worthy mention in the public space by its encouraging performance, 18 months into its current term of office.
For instance, in deference to the fact of the strategic importance of security agencies and the civil service in creating the right operational ambience for the cost-efficient delivery of services from the public mains, the administration has provided in excess of 80 new operational vehicles for the security agencies in the state and Permanent Secretaries, the flower of its workforce. The last batch of the vehicles provided for the security agencies consisted of 33 units of Hilux Vans and other brands/types of motorized operational kits.
The recent donation of the 33 vehicles, which attracted public applause from the echelon of Nigeria’s security architecture, was the second such gesture and event by the administration which, under its MORE agenda, lays adequate slant on the cultivation and sustenance of security in the state.
In sports, it has hosted and won the first of the several editions of the National Youth Games it is primed to host in the coming years, as well as sustained the Principals’ and Headmasters’ soccer competitions among secondary and basic schools in the state.
In road construction, the N78billion flyover and road projects in and around Warri /Effurun , being handled by industry giant, Julius Berger, are the plank of the development efforts of the government in the road sector, in which its potent hands have activated work on at least 136 different new projects. All 136 road and bridge projects initiated by the Oborevwori government are equitably spread across the senatorial districts of the state.
The education sector has also fared well under the watch of Oborevwori, with the sustenance of the four state universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, Colleges of Nursing/Midwifery, Colleges of Education , College of Health Technology and more than 1,200 public primary and secondary schools.
It has also established a campus of the Southern Delta State University, Ozoro, at Orerokpe, and created a Faculty of Medical Sciences at its main campus at Ozoro.
The administration has equally established a School of Nursing Sciences at Ovrode in the Isoko nation.
Governor Oborevwori has equally approved and paid bursary to more than 60,000 students of the state origin in different schools and the Nigerian Law School for the 2023 and 2024 academic sessions. To ensure enhanced penetration of this gesture, the government included many otherwise excluded institutions in the scheme.
The administration has also accorded due attention to its workforce, not only by the prompt payment of its adopted minimum wage benchmark of N77,000, but, had, long before its peers, introduced and implemented a palliative policy for its employees, under which they could stay off duty twice a week, as desirable, and got paid N10,000 per person per month, over a three -month period, as part of efforts to mitigate the harsh effects of the sudden erosion of the petrol subsidy regime by the Federal Government.
It has also deployed in excess of N5billion to offset the arrears of the financial benefits of the promotion of affected civil servants, engaged more than 3,000 teaching and non-teaching staff into the basic school system, and facilitated a N40billion loan by Local Governments in the state, to offset the huge arrears of retirement benefits for retired staff of the local government system in the state.
This gesture, a landmark in conception and delivery, remains the talking point of those directly impacted by its soothing effects.
There has also been real activism in the empowerment segment of the economy with 5, 426 artisans, traders and female entrepreneurs handed grants, while 6,000 farmers were given free inputs to boost their engagements and enhance food security in the state.
Beside, the administration has also given fertilizer to farmers in the local government areas, just as it has expanded the focus on agriculture under the Result AREA 2-Fadama (Food Security) as well as the release of N1billion counterpart funding for the African Union Development Agency, New Partnership for African Development (AUDA NEPAD), meant to empower 2,000 for farmers for production, livestock and aquaculture. More than 2,000 entrepreneurs within the envelop of the micro, small and medium scale enterprises, have also been empowered by the administration which has also done quite much under WESAP, and the MORE Business Upscale Programme (also named MORE Biz-UP).
In fact, legion is the number of the projects and other development initiatives taken so far by the administration of Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori.
But do you know what? The man, Oborevwori, like the responsible priest of the high order of public conscience, understands, on the basis of his conviction, that deference to equity, typified by the spread of the projects across all competing interests, is key to retaining public confidence and the priceless goodwill that it triggers. This conviction is the real reason that a galactic ensemble of Deltans, mainly of the UPU extraction, recently broke bread with Oborevwori, who, by his engagements as Governor, has earned their confidence, a rare vital asset that underpins every exemplary leadership.
This confidence is the chief predicate underlying the recent great honour done Oborevwori by the people who, by their action, have demonstrated beyond words, their beloved son in whom they have undying faith.