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Uduaghan and his Pet White Elephants

By on October 29, 2012

Uduaghan is building a portfolio of Africa’s most notorious white elephant projects

 

Last week the World Bank warned several resource rich African countries about allowing their governments embark on White Elephant projects.

Obviously Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State was not listening. He’s the sort of man that seems to enjoy throwing the people of Delta’s money away on overbloated projects that offer nothing in terms of practicality but everything in terms of treasury looting.

His administration only recently announced the upgrading of the Osubi airport in Warri to international airport standards. This project is slated to cost an outrageous N37.5 billion.

Meanwhile Warri is one of the most dangerous cities in Africa with kidnappings, armed robberies and other forms of thuggery and violent crimes being the norm. The roads are virtually umotorable with crater-sized potholes littering the landscape. Even Governor Uduaghan has once had to personally leave the comfort of his bullet proof jeep to direct and ease the traffic snarl on the road.

A responsible government would focus on giving the people motorable roads, jobs and adequate security. But in this era of Animal Farm democracy, Uduaghan has seen it fit to domesticate white elephants andchannel the resources of the people into his favorite past-times.

Considering the actual upgrades, that are envisioned by the administration, a sum of N5 billion would probably be enough to tackle the project, but in this period of peppersoup politics, so many cronies, thugs, godfathers and party insiders must chop. The victims are undoubtedly the people of Warri and to a larger extent, the Niger Delta region.

This same governor expended N7.4 billion to demolish a hill so larger planes could land in Asaba airport. Undoubtedly we see the handiwork of the pet white elephant at work in that project as well.

The governor, not a man given to statesman-like confidence, said himself that he was certain none of these “projects” would be completed by the time he leaves office.

12 Comments

  1. Nelson Egware

    October 29, 2012 at 10:26 am

    Your write up is not only malicious but misleading and a pure figment of your imagination. How can you allude that Warri is the most dangerous city in Africa? On what statistics did you arrive at your conclusion? While I admit the fact that there are several uncompleted and undoing projects in the state, they can’t be described as White Elephants projects.

    • chinedu

      October 29, 2012 at 12:47 pm

      whats the use of two airports in a state that dont hav a good road? even Asaba the capital city is full of bad roads. is delta states problem airports? this man was indicted in thief case in london and no one is saying anything. hes gradually turning to another looter there and people are just there watching.

      • Zinba Jumba

        October 29, 2012 at 1:52 pm

        it is simply obvious u dont know anything hence u dont understand what distributive policy connotes in d study of political sc.

        • KokoBaresi

          October 29, 2012 at 7:50 pm

          Distributive policy my ass! Does your political science not teach you anything about scale of preference?

  2. amraketa daniel

    October 29, 2012 at 12:43 pm

    This is a very good example of lazy, armchair journalism, if it qualifies as such. The report is poorly written, lacks fact, ambiquous and very unprofessional. What sort of mediu would give this an inch of space? Where is journalism in Nigeria heading? What happened to balancing? This is indeed a hatchet job

    • KokoBaresi

      October 29, 2012 at 7:46 pm

      It’s obvious you’re one of those benefiting from the evil government of Uduaghan. You will definitely go down with him when the time comes.

  3. UGBUKU ALFRED

    October 29, 2012 at 1:45 pm

    THIS IS FAILED JOURNALISM AT DISPLAY. AM SO SURPRISE DAT DAILY POST WITH SOME LEVEL OF INTEGRITY WUD SUCCUMB SO LOW TO PUBLISH A MALICIOUS CONTENT LIKE DIS. AM REALLY DISAPPOINTED.

  4. Omoni Oja

    October 29, 2012 at 1:49 pm

    This is so poor of daily post!

  5. paul

    October 29, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    Uduaghans thievery rivals his cousin Ibori’s. hopefully at the end of his tenure they throw him under the jail. bladdy rogues

  6. Bigger Boy

    October 31, 2012 at 1:36 pm

    he wants to use the airport to justify buying a plane….just watch

  7. Temi Gbemi

    November 14, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    Uduaghan should take it easy with the stealing of public funds. The development of Delta state can not commensurate with quarter of the funds that comes into the state. One of the problems again is this LGA Election that he doesn’t want to conduct so that they can be in charge of the LGA funds

  8. Truthbesaid

    November 16, 2012 at 8:48 am

    @Omoni Oja,@Nelson Egware, @ugbuku alfred @Amreke daniel= you guys are a cause to democracy!..You all should die in accidents..You are all blind men.