A concerned Delta indigene and oil and gas expert, Dr Jerome Asedegbega, has advised Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to think of more productive ways of rewarding his Orerokpe community by creating an industrial hub in the area.
This, he argued, will provide employment opportunities to graduates of the state origin rather than plan to establish another university in a state that already has a surfeit of tertiary institutions.
This followed the heated debate and anger ragging in Delta State over the governor’s planned bulkanisation of the Delta State University of Science and Technology (DELSUST), Ozoro through the purported relocation of the institution’s Faculty of Management Sciences to Orerokpe.
It would be recalled that three new universities were created by the immediate past administration of Ifeanyi Okowa at Ozoro, Agbor and Asaba with the old one at Abraka to make four universities and three state-owned polytechnics.
It is also worrisome that in spite of the existence of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE) in Effurun, which a stone throw from his community, Oborevwori is planning to move the Faculty of Management Sciences from Ozoro to Orerokpe for political expediency.
His words: “The Executive Governor of the oil-rich Delta State, the second richest state in Nigeria, has the resources and powers to attract development to his Orerokpe, Okpe Kingdom without necessarily fragmenting DELSUST, Ozoro. Has it ever crossed your mind that universities littered in the state without jobs to absorb the graduates they produce are useless and a waste of scarce resources? If yes, my noble advice and proposals to the governor is to convert the proposed university site in Orerokpe to an industrial hub.”
Asedegbega described the planned relocation of the Faculty of Management Sciences of DELSUST, Ozoro to Orerokpe as “immoral, unjust and ungodly to truncate the development strides and prosperity of Isoko ethnic nationality for your own gains.”
Further expanding on his proposed industrial hub for Orerokpe, he said such facility should have “an Integrated Power Plant (IPP) close to supply constant electricity to the industrial hub,” and the need to “woo a brand of vehicle and enable it to set up an assembly plant in Orerokpe, guarantee the off-take and usage of the cars or vehicles to be manufactured or assembled by the state government, MDAs and state transport companies, the fleet of cars and utility vehicles used by the government to be produced or assembled and maintained there will give enough jobs for Delta graduates from the existing universities and polytechnics.”
To attract a vehicle assembly plant to the state, Asedegbega advised Governor Oborevwori to go for “Technology Roadshow in China, Taiwan, etc and use steady power supply at the Orerokpe industrial hub and equity funding to woo manufacturers of vehicle parts, lithium batteries, glass, ceramics, brake pads, tyres, and so on to set up factories in the industrial hub.
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Alternatively, the governor “should collaborate with private and foreign investors (preferably Chinese) to set up 5,000 hectares of oil palm plantation with end-to-end refinery on the dry land designated for the university in Orerokpe. End-to-end means every product coming from the farm will be converted into industrial uses – oil, soap, animal feeds, etc to attain a huge production chain. This alone will create over 1,000 jobs, increase the state IGR, and open up Orerokpe for development.”
But in a twist to governance conundrum in the country, Asedegbega asked and answered questions at the heart of governance failure generally in Nigeria: “Does Delta State have the resources and capacity to execute an industrial hub? Yes, it does! Delta State got over N31 billion from the Federation Allocation Account Committee (FAAC) in January alone. But will the state do it? The answer is NO! Why? Because the state is used to ‘quick-fix’ measures and squandering of public funds in the name of empowerment and grassroots mobilization, mostly celebrated in the media. The plans of Nigerian political elites never go beyond 4-4 tenure; so we’re always in a hurry to grab what we can get through construction of quack solar street lights, bridges and roads, thereby keeping the state grossly underdeveloped over the years.
“Let Delta State University of Science and Technology, Ozoro, breathe and let the Isoko ethnic nationality breathe. If you want to succeed and really wish to turn Delta State from consumption to production hub, seek advice from experts and non-politicians,” he stressed.
