COVID-19: OKOWA’S PROACTIVE MEASURES SAVED DELTANS….. Ossai Ovie Success
“If not for his approach as Governor of Delta State, the number of
COVID-19 patients would have been higher and that would have given the state
much stress to control”....Ossai
“There
are reasons to commend the proactive approach by our Governor and members of
the COVID-19 team in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic”.
With
many states in Nigeria recording high numbers of infected victims from the
novel Corona Virus pandemic, an aide of the delta state government has taken to
his FaceBook page to commend his principal for the proactive steps adopted to
checkmate the spread.
Ossai
Ovie Success, who is the Special Assistant to Governor Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa on
Special Duties Media, stated on his FaceBook that due to the measures and
proactive steps of the Governor, the state has been saved from having a high
number of coronavirus cases.
According
to Ossai, “If not for his approach as Governor of Delta State, the number of
COVID-19 patients would have been higher and that would have given the state
much stress to control”.
“Let
me also commend his Excellency for his generosity to the people of the Delta
state following the trailer loads of rice, beans and other food stuffs that
were distributed to all Deltans as palliatives to cushion the effects of the
statewide lockdown”.
“There
are reasons to commend the proactive approach by our Governor and members of
the COVID-19 team in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Ossai,
appointed by Okowa at a young age of 23 in 2015 as a Special Assistant, emerged as the youngest
ever appointee then in Nigeria by any governor and since then, remained one of
the foot soldiers of the medical doctor turned politician.
“He
deserves accolades with the way he has managed this impromptu and
unbudgeted-for pandemic”, Ossai said.
“The
truth is, Governor Okowa has protected the good people of Delta and has
provided adequate facilities that will not only prevent massive spread in the
state but will also treat and stabilize cases if they are discovered”.
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ReplyDeleteI am constrained to express disappointment at Ossai Ovie Success for sounding too loud about governor Okowa's purported achievements in the fight against Covid-19 in Delta State. I will advice Ossai not to be in a hurry to pour endless encomiums on the governor, but rather wait a little as the true status of Delta State with regard to the number of infected persons cannot be determined by the few tests the state had carried out over time.
ReplyDeleteTruth is, Delta State has not begun house to house testing despite the fact that transmission of the virus is at community level.
As it is currently, discerning Deltans are worried that not enough actions had been taken by the state government to establish the true status of the state in terms of the number of persons who have contracted the deadly virus. Meaning, Delta State may be living in delusion if it relies on the half-truth that only 17 cases of Covid-19 had been recorded across the state so far.
Let me tell Ossai Ovie that he lacks good knowledge about the Covid-19 and its unpredictable nature. Ossai should know that the rising number of infected persons in Lagos State may not be unconnected with the community testing governor Sanwo-Olu had begun over the weeks - a very intelligent and proactive measure being taken by the governor to tackle the virus headlong.
No doubts, governor Okowa scored some valuable points for locking down the state and its borders at the very time he took the action. But he could have done better if he had begun community testing rather than waiting for anybody to present Covid-19 related symptoms before testing would be done. I pray we shouldn't have a sudden upsurge of infected persons in the near future.
On the other hand, I am worried that Ossai Ovie, being a young man, would join the bandwagon of vain praise singers who would not put their ears on the ground to hear barrage of complaints by vulnerable families in Delta State about the non-transparent manner the palliatives were distributed in some of the wards.
There is no doubts in the fact that the palliatives were dispatched from the food bank in Asaba to the 270 wards. But what happened at the wards was a different story. If Ossai would avail himself of the raw facts, he will be surprised at the fraud that took place during the distribution of the palliatives across the state.
If I may ask, would Ossai feign ignorance of the fact that non indigenes were marginalised in most of the wards. And they never got a grain of the palliatives that were distributed during the lockdown?
My candid advice to Ossai Ovie Success and his colleagues is this, "Do your jobs with dignity and sincerity and genuinely tell the governor the whole truth about developing issues across the state. The essence of the office you are occupying is primarily to guide and inform the governor rightly, but not vain praise singing.
Funnily, governor Okowa is an intelligent administrator and manager of men, who can separate the wheat from the chaff without hassles. So he knows the real men and the toxic men. Please be a good SA to the governor. I submit.