CITIZEN's INABILITY TO ASK QUESTIONS AS BANE OF DELTA'S DEVELOPMENT: We Totally Agree With Smart Ofugara. By Zik Gbemre.

"Not only do we totally agree with Ofugara, but we also see his insightful thoughts on the subject as expressing the same pains in our repeated displeasure with citizens' failure to speak truth to power in Delta state." Gbemre.

We find the reflection by Smart Ofugara on citizens' failure to ask the basic questions about induced dysfunctions in our communities, localities, state and nation as the bane of our development is so thought provoking.

Not only do we totally agree with Ofugara, but we also see his insightful thoughts on the subject as expressing the same pains in our repeated displeasure with citizens' failure to speak truth to power in Delta state.

Ofugara opined, "The inability to ask questions, the inability to look inward, and the inability to understand what continuity means have been a major undoing of our lots. 

"Rooted in the above where unanswered questions loom, is the call to mind about the dastardly state of affairs where everything is bleak. 

Bleak in society, security of life and prosperity. Bleak in health care. Bleak in an enabling environment. Bleak in infrastructure. Bleak in civility and morality. 

"Preceding the 1999 return to civil rule in Nigeria, there was civil rule in Nigeria from 1979-1983. During that era, there were significant developments in education, housing, various state universities, steel development initiatives, infrastructural development, expansion of existing facilities, gradual development of Abuja, and corruption with some fear.

"The achievements of that era were done with limited resources. The military junta who tried professor Ambrose Alli is reported to have said, “just as the case maybe, I just have to jail you” having found nothing to point at as corruption in the case brought against him.

"A noble and honorable governor we had in Bendel State. Looking beyond that era, it was the civil servants and the military that held sway. What did they do in that era?

"In modern day Edo/Delta states, there was Agbede farm for rice, Okpela cement factory, Delta glass industries, Bendel Insurance, New Nigeria Bank, Bendel Hotels, Nifor, Rubber Research, Bendel Line, Bendel Estate, Bendel Steel Structure, Central Hospitals in Benin and Warri, Ogbe Stadium, Auchi Polytechnic, College of Education Abraka, College of Agriculture, Asaba, University of Benin and other working programs.

"These initiatives and development were done with limited resources by Ejoor and Ogbemudia. There was planning and execution. The government, although through the military, was accessible. The Udu bridge is a testimony to that era.

"Today, we are watching the subsequent government ignore that bridge that is crying for rehabilitation. How much money was available to those eras of governance that implemented the noble and evolving state that we had then?

Can our accountants and bookkeepers tell or provide us with the monetary updates of then and now? Have we bothered to ask valid questions about what our resources have been used for? Or is it that we are too timid to ask the very good questions for accountability.

"Are we truly satisfied with the status quo where the ineptitude of misgovernance is consistently foisted on us with the same people who cannot see beyond their noses?

"Are we going to remain loyal to those taking us backwards with failed hospitals, failed roads, failed security, failed electricity, failed industries while building their private palaces/mansions with public wealth, building private estates everywhere with no major production or collaboration to generate employment and wealth creations?

"Why are we so complacent that we have all given up, yet we breathe and hide in churches hoping that God will come down to turn the situation around.

"2023 is fast approaching. Are we going to ask the hard question or are we going to circulate the same people in the name of some shady loyalty to Ibori, Uduaghan and Okowa?"

What else can we add? Until majority of Deltans start asking the basic questions, till we start speaking truth to power, we keep glorifying the same failed leaders and continue to suffer alarming development decay.

Zik Gbemre.

"We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes"