On May 29 last year, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa took over the baton
of governance of Delta State. Since his coming to power, people opinions about
the government varies, while some believe the man is doing his best, others
think he is just a governor with little to show.
For those holding the second opinion, there are many reasons
behind their opinion about Senator Okowa’s government. One thing noticeable
about the government is the absence of propaganda meant to bamboozle the masses
with achievements made by this administration. Unlike in the past,
this government is silently satisfying the aspirations of the people. Within a
short time, the government has achieved a lot in many sectors of socio-economic
development. The government has also come up with far reaching policies, that
in the near future will make Delta State economically vibrant and a darling of
both foreign and local investors.
Due to indiscriminate award of contracts for infrastructures by
the last government, the State almost bankrupted toward the end of its tenure,
that many of this project are left uncompleted (not abandoned). This was
worsened by the collapse of the price of crude oil, which crashed some few
months before the last election, as a result the allocation to Delta State from
federation account nosedived and tumbled to less than thirty percent of what
the State was getting in the last three years. As at the time Governor Okowa
came to power, Delta economy was in serious shamble and was about to wither in
vine.
On assuming office, he was fully aware of the fact that he has a mountain of challenges ahead, first, is the economic recession the country is facing. Second lack of alternative source of income, since the IGR was not much. The first area the governor prioritize is the area of revenue generation and rescheduling of existing debt burden. The government also made effort despite the economic recession to complete uncompleted projects, while initiating new ones in accordance with the S.M.A.R.T agenda of the Okowa administration.
To tackle youth unemployment, Governor Okowa set
up six new schemes for our youths to acquire skills in Agriculture and business,
namely Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurial Programme (YEGEP), Skill Training and
Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP), Production and Processing Support Programme
(PPSP), Tractorisation, Extension of Microcredit and Agricultural Loans and
Development of Agro-industries, with the promise to bring more
jobs within a short period of time.
Through
these programmes, a total of 1329 trainees have been exposed to various areas
of training and equipped with relevant starter packs, cash and technical input
to begin lifelong ventures in different vocations and professions. The
training, empowerment and eventual successful take off of the young
entrepreneurs is a major step in reducing youth unemployment in the State.
Governor Okowa has also made bold statement
on roads’ construction, this involves rehabilitation of existing roads, award
of a few new projects, while emphasis is on the completion of on-going road projects.
The
contractors are on site, and highlight is on timely completion of all awarded projects.
Despite
the tight financial environment in the country, the State government has
continued to meet its obligations to the State workers as at when due.
The
productivity of a leader is the ratio that measures his performance. Governor
Okowa is a leader that should be categorized among the high performing. His assumption of office has been very inspiring. He can
only do better.__
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