DELTA STATE SCHMUCK AGENDA: A Response To Okowa’s Chief Press Secretary’s Press Conference Hoopla

The harder they come, the quicker they fall – Jimmy Cliff. Spin, in public relations or political communications “is a form of propaganda achieved through the biased interpretation of an event to persuade public opinion in favour of” your principal here being Gov. Okowa. The cousin of spin is obfuscation. When deployed in communication the intent is to shield facts or confuse the reader in order to accept the writers opinion as the truth. “The objective is to confuse, bewilder, or stupefy”. Add hoopla to spin and obfuscation and you have a complete arsenal for propaganda as currently being deployed by Delta State government. The object is to deceive, thereby stave off the anger of the less discerning Deltans. But not anymore, we will checkmate, deflate and deflect any propaganda machine assembled by Delta state government henceforth.

The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Okowa, Mr. Charles Aniagwu lived up to his billings recently when he held a press conference to spew concocted stories to obfuscate Deltans on how the clueless state government has squandered billions of our commonwealth in the guise of a schmuck agenda under a meaningless prosperity to all Deltans mantra. Bob Marley once said that ” you can fool some people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”.

The APC, being an important stakeholder is giving notice to the Delta State government that henceforth, we will demand accountability for every kobo that is due to the good people of Delta state. We will demand explanation for any account that fails to add up. We will question any unauthorized expenditure including donations and gifts that are beyond the scope of good governance. We will certainly not accept expenditure that are morally unjustifiable and wasteful.

The days of willful wastage, “squandermania” and incompetent SCHMUCK AGENDA is over. No more spurious and unsubstantiated claims. Accordingly, we challenge the state government to substantiate the following claims by the Chief Press Secretary:

Details of the deployment of the last tranche of the Paris Club refund of 10 billion naira presented by Gov. Okowa do not add up as there is a variance of 184 million naira or 2.3%. How is it possible to disburse 8.082 billion naira from 7.9 billion naira according to Mr. Aniagwu’s numbers? The onus is on Gov. Okowa to publish the actual and substantiated disbursements so that Deltans, the rightful owners of the money can exercise fully their right of scrutiny. Anything less is just begging the question and that, is unacceptable to Deltans.

Gov. Okowa’s bogus claim of creating over 6,000 entrepreneurs across the 25 local government areas through his job creation programme and allied policies, the consequence of which has changed the stories of over 30,000 persons for the better, is not only bizarre but another evidence of a government lacking in credibility. A schmuck administration grouping in the dark retailing a false S.M.A.R.T agenda. Talk is cheap. We challenge Gov. Okowa to substantiate this claim by publishing the list of the so called state government empowered entrepreneurs per local government as distinct from the beneficiaries of the various FGN sponsored social, welfare and economic development programmes.

The claim of the construction of over 98 roads with the distance of 612 kilometers and line drainage of over 300 kilometers is another spin and it stinks to high heavens. It makes you wonder! What does Gov Okowa take Deltans for? What roads is he talking about? Is it the poorly patched up Agbor/Amukpe road rehabilitation which is now a death trap less than four months of the deployment of a humongous contract sum? Or is he talking about the incompetent and poorly executed streets in Asaba, Warri and elsewhere that have failed within 6 months after completion? Gov. Okowa should take a weekend drive to Lagos through Epe so that he can learn first hand what road construction is all about. Propaganda will neither substitute for good governance nor the development of world class infrastructure. Again, the onus is on Gov. Okowa to publish the list of the roads for easy verification.

Finally, a claim without substance is lame. Anybody can claim to have been to the moon but where is the evidence? Deltans are not anymore prepared to be led by the nose. We have already served a notice that henceforth we will hold the state government to account on it’s actions and inaction. Enough of the shenanigans.

Otuya is an APC Chieftain.