Utagba Ogbe Grammar School Old Students Association (UGOSA), Kwale Delta State recently explored issues surrounding the incessant flooding in Ndokwaland. In this article, KINGSLEY DIKE, a Foreign Affairs Reporter with The Guardian Newspapers and retired United States Army Intelligence Analyst argues that the problem of flooding in Ndokwaland is exacerbated by unresponsive leadership.
It is always good to contemplate our leadership dilemma, particularly in our Ndokwa area. A permanent fixture on Ndokwa leadership is a member of UGOSA, the Rt Honourable (Dr.) Ossai Ossai, the Honorable Member representing Ndokwa in the Federal House of Representatives. He is almost completing eight years in that position. Prior to that, he was, for over eight years, in the Delta State House of Assembly where his political party, the PDP was in control of all arms of government, and he was the majority Leader.
But what are his legacies in Ndokwa land over these years? I would mention, for the record, that he is my friend, but I have over the years remained his greatest critic out of a genuine desire to work with him with ideas on how better to represent our people. I first hosted him in my house in Atlanta during my early days in America, invited my friends and introduced him to a few but notable members of the Ndokwa intelligentsia like Prof. Juliet Elu, Dean of Morehouse College of Economics and Management, and Mr. Paul Okoku, a philanthropist per excellence and former Super Eagles midfield maestro etc.
It was there and then that I noticed that Mr. Ossai Ossai was not going to be productive for the people and I told him so to his face, and all these years, he has not proved me wrong. He is one classic case study of bad representation and bad leadership in Nigeria. It is all fluff and no substance. Flooding is now a yearly problem in your constituency since you were elected. Each year, it is getting deadlier with entire communities displaced. You can pick up such a problem and it becomes your signature issue that you are known for addressing. You make proposals, mobilize the communities, and get the few private sector Oil production companies operating in the area involved. But eventually, the Federal Environmental Management agency would take care of the problem. Your role as an elected leader is to know how to press the levers of political power that can make that happen. You campaign for the inclusion of the problem in the yearly federal budgetary allocations. Every press opportunity you keep hammering at the issue until it gets done.
But what do we get from Honorable Ossai Ossai? He would not be in the lead for any issue like flooding or security challenges facing his constituency, like the sustained killing of farmers by Fulani herdsmen in Obiaruku and neighbouring communities. What about missed opportunity for the location of federal institutions of higher learning in Ndokwaland? These are not things that keep Honourable Ossai Ossai awake at night. Rather, it is how he will remain in power in the next election cycle. Instead of collaborating with others, we saw how he wanted to claim premature victory over the location of a higher institution at the expense of Senator Nwaoboshi. Then ask people in Kwale, they would tell you how Ossai Ossaiās tussle for control of PDP political machinery with former Honourable Member of the Delta State House of Assembly and Chairman of Ndokwa West Local Government Area, Chief Emeke Ukpe introduced never before seen violence in Utagba Ogbe.
That was my first public criticism of him. I wrote a widely published piece condemning his actions for attacking the residence of the Oduosa of Utagba Ogbe. That is an abomination and if our people were serious, characters like him would never smell or taste political power again in their lifetime, for that singular incident. All the present thugs in our community are following in the footsteps of the now āsuccessful peopleā that helped Ossai Ossai fight his tuft battles with Emeka Ukpe. They combined political violence with university fraternities and, forever, destroyed the peace in our communities.
I am a member of a college fraternity; we organize parties and social events in Kwale during holiday festivities and donāt go chasing and killing people we disagree with politically. It is Ossai Ossaiās legacy that has come to stay in our communities -rogue politicians manipulating innocent young men because of poverty to do their dirty bidding. Then his worst leadership attribute is inability to cultivate brilliant people to work with him to produce for the people. He came to Atlanta and promised to work with the Atlanta Chapter of the Ndokwa Association in America project, delivering used medical equipment to Ndokwa hospitals. As soon as Ossai Ossai came into the picture, the Association fractured, and the equipment was never delivered to the intended recipients.
Indeed, he left a sour-bitter taste with personalities like Prof. Elu and Chief Paul Okoku in their subsequent interaction with him for project initiatives and deliverables for the Ndokwa people. For Elu, it had to do with orchestrated book donation project for schools in the Ndokwa area that Mr. Ossai messed up, and for Mr. Okoku, a medical equipment delivery project that Mr. Ossai also attempted to frustrate but Okoku doggedly prevailed and eventually delivered to hospitals and health centers in Ndokwa through his NGO.
What are Mr. Ossaiās driving force and motivations? What does he want to leave behind as his legacy after many years in power? As I told him many years ago in my house in Atlanta, when he said Dr. Odogu Egbune, a foremost Ndokwa politician and leader, was old and would be retired from politics by people like him (Ossai): āThose who donāt honor and respect those before them end up badly because of lack of proper political tutelage.ā He was in my house eating my wifeās well-prepared Edikakong soup and berating my own uncle Dr. Odogu Egbune who just passed then. Dr. Egbune was known for establishing and bringing most of the health and maternity centers in Ndokwaland ā the Obiaruku General Hospital, Ashaka General Hospital and steady posting and staffing of Kwale General Hospital with such quality personnel and doctors as Dr. Maduemezia, Dr. A.K. Odjegba, Dr. Igwe, Dr. AgarinĀ etc., making sure the hospitalās infrastructures were maintained and in top state when he served between 1977-1979 as Chairman of the then Bendel State Health Management Board (HMB).
Egbune later served as Secretary National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Bendel State and was credited for NPN take-over of Bendel State with the election of Dr. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia as 2nd Executive Governor of Bendel State. He was later elected to House of Representative in 1983 and credited with Chief Patrick Osakwe and others with establishing the PDP in Ndokwa shortly before his demise.
It is not late for Mr. Ossai to begin to write a better chapter. Just pick up one issue (flood, university, security) and do it well the way the late Dr. Odogu Egbune excelled in healthcare for the Ndokwa people.
* Dike, a former Foreign Affairs Reporter with The Guardian (Lagos) and retired United States Army Intelligence Analyst, wrote from Atlanta, Georgia USA
