UDUAGHAN: THE LIMITS OF HATE POLITICS
Having been unmasked in their monstrously mischievous game of giving dubious interpretations to official transactions of the Delta State Government, cheap hirelings of the opposition in the state have descended even deeper to the cesspit of infamy by engaging in a campaign of denial. In their new world, nothing exists, nothing is happening in Delta State. The commencement of scheduled commercial flights from Asaba Airport, to them, is a ruse as the airport does not exist. And a huge project like the commercial farm at Ogwashi-Uku does not exist either simply because “no pictorial evidence” of the farm could be found on the Internet! In their fatuous imagination, Delta State should be left in the hands of their misguided gun-running and drug-peddling sponsors. Shame!
By totally making no attempt to take on any issue of substance and engage the people of Delta State in a reasoned evaluation of governance, the article by Michael Egbejumi-David posted in Saharareporters on August 15, 2011 resorted to maligning the judiciary as well as the character and persona of His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan. Even ordained clerics were not spared by the hirelings who, not surprisingly, equate Delta State with the gangster world of their sponsors.
Demonstrating their loss of all sense of decency, the attack dogs resorted to calling Governor Uduaghan unprintable names. Just to refresh their warped mind, the governor is an accomplished medical practitioner. His unquestionable pedigree in the medical profession is characterized by his record as an executive council member of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Delta State.
Not content with maligning the governor, the group unconscionably took on the judiciary it had wholeheartedly eulogised when earlier judgments by the same judges suited it. In their unbridled mudslinging, every transaction of the administration of Dr. Uduaghan is geared towards bribing judges – the N778.6 million counterpart funding for OFN-Delta Farms and the N3.2 billion allocation from the Federal Allocation Committee (FAAC) - were all for “bribing judges.”
But in their desperation to impugn the character of Dr. Uduaghan, they failed to posit any positive attribute of their sponsor and dumbly assumed that Deltans are at their base level of political chicanery. Their sponsor is a gun runner, a coup plotter and the pivot of Nigeria’s anti-democratic forces who at a time the country is assiduously trying to reap from the goodwill of the international community occasioned by the transparent and fair conduct of the last general elections are working to drag Nigeria down. More pathetic for the group, their sponsors very limited educational qualification is at best questionable.
They fail to realize that Deltans are too sophisticated for their brand of campaign. In education, entrepreneurship, sports, leadership and all facets of endeavours that advance nations and civilizations, the people of Delta State have always been in the top bracket. They connect with their governor and in Dr. Uduaghan, they have seen an accomplished medical doctor and a partner in the collective endeavour to uplift Delta State. That is why Dr. Uduaghan won the three elections he has contested as governor while the cheap choir of paperweight opposition as epitomised by Great Ogboru will continue to lose.
Do the attack dogs think they can suddenly thrust Ogboru and his brand of politics into the heart of Deltans? In their foolhardiness, they certainly think Deltans can be harassed into keying into his politics of hate and ethnic bigotry. No. Deltans have gone beyond that level.
In reality, there is no opposition in Delta State. Rather, what we have is a small but vocal group of political misfits who think their gangster approach to issues during the military dispensation will work in their blind bid to take over Delta State.
Given our democratic setting, every group is entitled to be heard within the confines of the law and decency. Chief Ogboru and his Democratic People’s Party (DPP) are entitled to pursue any litigation to any level. But resorting to blackmail and political vandalism betrays their deep disdain for the rule of law and disrespect for the values and institutions that we hold dear.
Deltans are smarter than the small crowd of bigots masquerading as latter day democrats. Nobody can gainsay the fact that Uduaghan has transformed and is still transforming Delta State. The web of richly asphalted roads; the various housing projects scattered across the three senatorial districts of the state; the free medicare, which has provided a model for other states in the country, the turn-around of the education sector and the dynamism he has brought to bear in sports development all point to a man on a mission to leave the state far better than he met it.
But Uduaghan should not worry the least about the piggish mentality of his traducers. There is a whole world of difference between an accomplished medical doctor and a thug. The one sits comfortably in the assembly of the noble and kings, the other with his questionable credentials sits comfily in the assembly of ignoble men: coup plotters, abortionists of the democratic process and drug barons. This is where Uduaghan’s traducers deservedly belong.
Written by Maxwell Rukewe, Asaba, Delta State.