There is no gain reminding us all that Delta State is one of the largest and richest oil producing states of the Niger Delta and Nigeria as a whole. However, what many outsiders do not know is that Delta State is still one of the poorest states in Nigeria judging by the general well-being of the residents and the infrastructures we have on ground. This is by no mean an accident but through the hard work put in by our leaders to sabotage the state’s treasury for their own personal aggrandisement, subjecting the state to constant penury, its entire citizens to abject poverty and its youth to perpetual mental and physical slavery. Their action is perceived as a method of controlling the people. If you keep them poor for long enough they will continue to eat crumbs from your table.
Today I want to expose the minds of the general public and to whoever is fortunate enough to be reading this the extent these handful of greedy, thieving and people hating political office holders have damaged our beloved Delta State.
Do you know that the average Senator at the National Assembly receives at least Five Hundred Million Naira (N500, 000, 000) in constituency projects funds for their respective Senatorial districts? Are you aware that an average member of the House of Representatives receives Four Hundred Million Naira (N400, 000, 000. 00) in constituency project funds for their districts? Are you in the loop that these funds are made available to these representatives every year? As a Deltan, What representation of these huge sums of money have you seen in your district? Ask yourself that question and answer it truthfully.
I am not for praising mediocrity or the general belief often employed by our representatives in order to coy us into accepting that they are in fact working tirelessly and that is “if a child scores 40 out of a hundred marks, the child has passed and has tried.” I believe this is shameful defence of their complete and utter ineptitude. It often comes as a surprise when you see such politicians boasting of whom they are now when we know them as nonentities before they ever tasted a dime out of our commonwealth. I am not one of those youths who will clamour for the village square psychosis many of our leaders in Delta State and Niger Delta stage all in the name of “Empowerment”. The word “Empowerment” has been bastardised, therefore, it becomes useless in Niger Delta. I, for one, believe these people are mostly bunch of psychopaths and sociopaths and I also believe their actions are a direct reflection of our complacency which is borne out of our very own weakness; ignorance. I will not sing praises of any of these witchcraft agents disguised as our representatives. Their case is a classic case of “You know me, you dey do me and you dey cry with me”.
Let us quickly go back to the figures, shall we? Delta State presently has three senators at the National Assembly and let’s say each is able to pull in five hundred million (N500, 000, 000.00) in constituency projects to their respective districts, the total would be 1.5 billion naira every year. Now let’s say they receive 1.5 billion naira yearly throughout their initial tenure of four years. It would come to a grand total of 6 billion naira (N6, 000, 000, 000.00.) There are ten people representing Delta State at the House of Representatives and if each and every one of them receives 400 million, it would come to a total of 4 billion naira per year and sixteen billion naira in four years. (N16,000,000,000.00) Let us ask ourselves what is there in your community to show for the 22 billion naira the senators and House of Representatives dishonourable(s) have received in the last four years. It hurts me to remind us that some of these people have been in office longer than two tenures (8 years) what impact has their policies and constituency projects had in your community and your constituency so far?
With the above analysis is it right for anyone of these people to return to insult our mothers, our grandfathers, our ageing fathers and our youths with meagre gifts and in turn cart away with our common wealth? Shall we continue to watch them return to office and continue looting their ways while we stretch our hands forward and beg them for crumbs of bread? Do we not reserve the power to reject, rebuke, repudiate and shun them from our presence? Do they not deserve to be humiliated out of office and out of our communities? When has it become normal for us to dance and celebrate thieves who rob us indirectly and toss pennies at us? Niger Deltans have been known to go loggerhead with leaders who are leading us astray, what happened to that spirit? My challenge is not about our leaders subjecting us to endless servitude alone but of us seeing it as a natural phenomenon to accept and endorse their return to office to steal some more? Or is our leadership a reflection of who we are? Do we really deserve this? I don’t think anyone deserves to suffer in the midst of plenty.
I am yet to see a commendable effort made by any of these ignorant lots of our representative fit to be termed “Empowerment Programme”. Most recently, is the so-called “Empowerment programme” Senator Peter Nwaoboshi who claims to be a god, oracle or what have you did moments ago? My question is this, when has a few bags of rice become empowerment? When has giving someone a motorcycle become as important as constructing factories where thousands of people can gain long term employment? When has nine tuk-tuk taxis (Keke Napepe tricycles) empowered a few hundred people? Is this not their height of market square madness? Are they telling us that our problem is a little food or means of transporting ourselves? Are the bags of rice going to fill the stomachs of the recipients forever? Is that not an act of bewitchment? Are the bags of rice not laced in properties of delusion to cajole and bewitch the gullible recipients into believing that the benefactor is, in fact the right man for the job? Why would we continue to allow them to enslave our youths? Are they saying that they are ignorant of the fact that a single mini-factory that would employ 500 people would have a direct positive impact on the lives of over 3,000 people? Don’t you know that they are aware that the moment a youth is gainfully employed they will have no leverage over them therefore, they will be unable to keep them on a leash, enslave them or use them to carry out their bidding? Wait a minute, when has piggybacking 500 million naira of constituency project while tossing a meagre 50 million naira “disempowering programme” become any less of a crime worth facing the guillotine for? Why would any highly revered public official be present in such public display of insanity called empowerment programme? Do we not know the difference between “Charity and Empowerment?” Are they saying that Deltans a charity case?
The only evil men in the world are those who sit by and watch bad people go about their duties unchallenged? We do not want people like these to return to office. You and I know the problem, let’s fix it. We know the weed that is stunting the growth of our beautiful flower; Delta State, let’s weed them out. Source:http://integritywatchdog.com/. 
