BY FRED EDOREH
At the last count, the administration of Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori has 513 road projects of over 1,300 km and 950 km of drainage going on simultaneously across the three Senatorial Districts of Delta State. They comprise 377 inherited and 136 newly initiated ones, all of varying importance to as many different communities.
While the number is huge and some of the projects, audacious by intent and design, most interesting is the high level of commitment the Governor has demonstrated towards their successful execution.
There are flagship projects like the flyover bridges in Warri and Effurun, on which Julius Berger is glaringly doing great; the Ughelli-Asaba Expressway on which the speed of work has been amazing, with the Sector C now smooth and cool, while the Obo Bridge, the most critical aspect of the project, already being mounted; and the 26km Trans Warri Ode-Itsekiri Road consisting of 19 bridges, with 15 already done. Indeed, it was historic to see the Olu of Warri drive by road to Ode-Itsekiri for the first time in the annals of Iwere Kingdom.
This Christmas, indigenes and travellers to Ndokwa East would find it satisfying to freely cross the Beneku Bridge to their various riverine communities. Before now, crossing the Ase Creek had been by Pontoon in which the people were extorted with exorbitant charges. It is no longer so.
The project is 95% completed and already in use, even though Sheriff has said he is not satisfied with the aesthetics and wants the job very well and beautifully done before he would commission it.
So too would travellers on the Amukpe-Agbor axis find relief in the rehabilitation of the Old Umutu-Abraka-Eku Road which now provides them an alternative route, pending when the Federal Government embarks on the redesign and reconstruction of the major highway as promised by the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi.
It has equally been a pleasure driving on the recently commissioned Okpanam-Ibusa Bypass, a project which was conceived at the creation of Oshimili North LGA, long years ago, but without adequate attention, until Sheriff came to take the bull by the horn.
So too are my people in Emevor already enjoying the completed Phase 1 of the Emevor-Orogun road while the government has shifted attention to Phase 2.
It is just like my brother, Don Zino Osieme, has been excited with the swift action on the recently approved construction of Olomoro-Igbide road which had been of concern to Isoko nation for decades.
I am personally very excited about the works on the Odimodi-Ogulagha, the Ohoror-Bomadi, the 16 km internal road projects in Sapele, the new network of roads in Ughelli, the Isheagu-Ewulu road, the Ndemili/Utagba-Uno road and over 25 others in Ndokwa nation alone, just as much as the spate is spread through the whole of Anioma, Ijaw and Urhobo lands.
No doubt, as massive as the number is, the 513 projects still do not meet all the needs for roads across the state, with new towns and estates springing up in the face of equal need for repairs and rehabilitation of existing old ones and the necessity to reach the hitherto unreached.
That, possibly, is the reason why Sheriff devoted 60% of the 2025 budget to capital expenditure, one of the highest ratio presently of any state budget in the country, with N250 billion for roads alone.
Even more assuring is that there is a provision of N2 billion for the execution of road works in each of the 25 local government areas in the state (it was N1 billion each in the 2024 budget), an ingenious budgetary strategy that ensures that every local government gets some measure of attention.
But while we will continue to commend him for his initiatives and performance in the provision of capital and physical infrastructure, even more celebratory is his foresight and dedication to social investments.
He seems to fully understand that the roads, bridges and other physical infrastructure are essentially to provide an enabling environment for socio-economic activities, and that of equal, if not most importance, is human capital development through the empowerment of the people to be able to effectively utilise those facilities to achieve economic prosperity.
As at the last count, for instance, the D-Cares programme has been expanded from about 36,000 beneficiaries when he took over, to now over 250,000 beneficiaries in different Result Areas – from the empowerment of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises through various direct-to-people programmes and MDAs to catalyse and strengthen businesses, to caring for the vulnerable and People Living With Disabilities.
In the same vein, the MORE-Grant programme has empowered over 5,000 women, while the MORE Biz-Up recently empowered 2,000 in two categories, comprising 1,000 new participants and 1,000 previous beneficiaries whose performance has earned them further support to maximally upscale their business towards greater profitability, higher economic impact and elevated potentials for employment generation.
There was also the provision of agricultural inputs to over 6,000 farmers to boost production and food security in the state, even as Sheriff further released N1 billion counterpart funding for the Africa Union Development Agency-New Partnership for African Development, to empower 2,000 farmers for food production, livestock and aquaculture, with focus on poultry, fish farming, cassava cultivation, maize crop, pepper production and vegetable farming.
These all are in pursuit of the Sustainable Agricultural Sector Reforms component of Realistic Reforms of the M.O.R.E Agenda.
Indeed, leveraging the Transformational Integrated Special Agricultural Processing Zone programme, Sheriff is aiming at creating 50,000 jobs, especially at the Free Trade Zone Operations Centre in Kwale, Osubi Agro Transformation Centre, and other agricultural clusters in Isoko and Agbor, with a view to enhancing food security, agro-processing, employment creation, export earnings and infrastructural development, all aimed at raising the Gross Domestic Product and standard of living in the state.
When officials of the African Development Bank, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the National Cereal Research Institute (NCRI) came to assess the technical preparedness of the state, they were impressed not only with what they saw on ground, but also with the establishment and running of the Delta State Economic Zone Management Company, a strategic vehicle designed to manage the industrial zones with a Public-Private Partnership approach, which they judged as one of the most unique and efficient across the country.
In the health sector, there have also been giant strides, especially with the ongoing upgrade and re-equipment of 150 Primary Health Centres and 64 General Hospitals, the sustenance of the Mother and Child free medical programme, and the tremendous increase of enrollees in the Delta State Contributory Health Insurance Scheme to over two million, the highest of any state in Nigeria, possibly in West Africa.
It is for these and more reasons that the Sheriff administration won the Bill and Melinda Gates Primary Health Care (PHC) Leadership Challenge for outstanding performance in primary health care management, organized by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and UNICEF.
Instituted since 2019, the award is aimed at shoring up performance at the Primary Health Care level, so as to make healthcare more accessible to the people at the grassroots, but it is the first time that Delta State would be considered for mention or recognition in any category, and it is remarkable to see the Sheriff administration win it in less than two years in office, with the concordance and admiration of his counterparts in other states.
The Sheriff phenomenon in Delta State is defined mostly by these virtues: genuine love and empathy with the people, a personal high sense of responsibility, and unfettered sincerity of purpose, all driven with an impeccable adherence to best practices in transparency, accountability and prudence.
