BOBSON GBINIJE
Concrete development is the fundamental fulcrum on which the transformational potency of any individual, state, town and nation must rotate to produce better life for the people. This is achieved through phenomenal socio-economic, political and educational programmes and developmental projects executed sincerely within responsible and definite time frames. But the way projects in Sapele, Delta State are abandoned and haphazardly executed smacks of regression.
Sapele is a globally ubiquitous name because of its past glory. It was one of the Ordinance Towns alongside Calabar, Kano and Abeokuta statutorily recognised by the colonial masters in 1946. But today, Sapele is like a deserted village and a crepuscular landlocked dungeon forgotten by the march of civilisation.
Ever since the creation of Delta State (The Big Heart) on August 27, 1991, very few development projects have come to Sapele. The very few ones that came are either abandoned halfway or are not started at all. The Sapele Township stadium project has become an embodiment of official gobbledegook as all kinds of explanations have been given on why a project awarded and re-awarded several times cannot be completed. This is wicked.
The Sapele Main Market got burnt some years ago and up till the year 2009, the market is yet to be completed. The socio-economic consequences on the traders and people of Sapele town are too gruesomely to be recounted here. The traders have resolved to pitch their shops on the Main Market Road, Hausa Road and McPherson Road, blocking half the road. The result is a terrible traffic situation. It is a pity that one of the largest towns in Delta State remains without a market for so many years.
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The so-called Urban Area has become a concrete jungle, a quintessential ghetto and a shanty town with no motorable roads, no light, no water, dilapidated hovels and rickety school structures. It is frightening to see new colleges of education, new polytechnics and new universities springing up in Sapele’s neighbourhood, but nothing in Sapele. They even refused to upgrade the Sapele Technical College to a polytechnic. The roads are unspeakably bad and adorn all the parts of the town.
We call on the Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan and others, to please rise to deliver Sapele from the asphyxiating hold of these methusela projects. After all, the prime purpose of any sincere government is the pursuit of the greatest good for the largest number.
