Governor Sheriff Oborevwori must have been in the mind of the French writer Rouget De Lisle(1760-1836) when he wrote “come children of our nature land, the day of glory has arrived”The governor has completed his hundred days in office and his morning is showing an excellent take off flight. This flight would have a smooth landing.
When the thirty second president of united states of America, Franklin Delano Roosevet initiated the hundred days tradition he felt that the score card of leadership should be made public for all to judge after leadership has stayed hundred days in the saddle. When Governor Oborevwori assumed power on 29th may 2023, he promised a robust, detribalized administration, offering a comprehensive syllabus in advance prosperity and development. His mantra is MORE: Meaningful development, Opportunities for all, Realistic reforms and Enhanced peace and security. He pledged his fidelity to his road map and he hit the road running by appealing to his officials to be open to Deltansin their service delivery. He said compassion must be an abiding lifestyle of government officials in dealing with ordinary people that come to them for services- whether such services are intricate or simplistic. In other words the governors in junction is that: have a listening ear.
Those who know the governor intimately say that the governor was speaking from his heart. He was not involved in grand standing or platitude. He had in previous occasions, especially during his electioneering campaign said he was a peoples person, a community person, a rural person and a ‘street man”. Many will not be surprised if he disguises and enter the street, perhaps to one of the far corner ‘tombo’ joint to feel the pause of the people he is governing. That might be following the tradition of great and legendary kings and rulers who usually enter the anonymity of night to hear what their people feel about their government. He will prefer to hear the voices of the people from the street than from some facts twisting officials of government.He will quickly fit into the gathering of the ordinary people because he does not have the airs and the grandiose of inaccessible leaders. Neither does he have the inscrutable face of governors who are completely alienated from their people. He is a good mixer, full of laughter, jokes and compassion. One hundred days after he has ruled Delta State, he has not changed his skin of grace and prodigious calm.
In his attempt to forge an all inclusive government he has extended a hand of fellowship to the opposition. He does not call them losers. He calls them brothers. He has told everybody that his government will be non- discriminatory. The climate around Governor Sherieff Oborevwori will allow all good seeds to germinate for the good of Deltans, many people have seen the optimism he is exuding. His eyes are focused on the future of Delta State. These eyes are not foggy. His stride is steady and steadfast. His stride is long and forward looking. These have been the story of his hundred days.
In one hundred days in office he has brought energy and purposefulness, recruiting people who are humble and would not exhibit arrogance. In swearing in the commissioners, he made clear that there is a road map for his administration which he clearly enunciated during his inauguration as governor. He has directed the commissioners to have it, read it because his administration’s policy direction is there. The purpose of this directive is to make everybody be in one page in pushing the frontiers of development in Delta State. For him as a governor he does not intend to run a rudderless government. He told the commissioners that what should be trending in their minds is the development of Delta.
Few days before the hundred days in power 29 roads were commissioned in the state capital. They were also other projects commissioned which cannot be captured in this short article. Napoleon Hill may have got Sherieff Oborevwori in mind when he said “it is not what you are going to do but what you are doing now that counts. Governor Oborevwori”s hands are on the plough. Civil servants have got ten thousand naira salary additions, committees have been set up for the distribution of palliatives to cushion the fuel subsidy removal; he has already told local government chairmen to tread softly on multiple taxation because ‘country hard’. But above all he has toldhimself that fame, choking protocol and pride will not come between him, Delta people, and his God. Even now when he is in the house of God he still serve his role as the servant of the most high God who is the governor of all governors.
Throughout this hundred days in office he has consistently said that the MORE agenda will push forward the frontiers of development beyond where his predecessors ended. His style of government is empathy and compassion, he does have that boisterousness of a zealous new comer or the naïve apathy of a novice. He has shown mastery of his job the way he handled his assignment as speaker of the Delta State house of assembly with uncommon responsibility without rancor. In this hundred days there are flaming indications that inclusiveness fairness and equity are part of his MORE agenda and will flower extravagantly and will produce the most endearing harvest that will bring unity peace and development.
In this one hundred days of being in the saddle of power he has shown that we can advance ethnic and cultural friendship while forging a harmonious State whose vitality and potentials will yield more fruits of development. In this short time the elites are burying their differences and the ordinary people remain expectant. Finally Governor Sherieff Oborevwori have taken off on a smooth flight. Everybody will feel the hands of his government. A people’s supplementary budget of one hundred and sixty six billions have been sent to the house of assembly. It is a budget for the take off his admiration. Deltans and expectant. We have hope.
Azua Alonu,
Former political assistant
Agriculture during
President Olusegun Obasanjo administration
