Okowa’s wealth creation and entrepreneurship legacy in Delta State will endure for a very long time.
In climes where chest-thumping and infantile exuberance often trump hard work, creativity in the governance space and visionary leadership are always sacrificed on the egotist altar of underachieving wayfarers masquerading as political leaders.
Nigeria is one of such climes. That explains why many a time, political leaders, particularly governors, bask in the euphoria of building roads that lead, literally, to nowhere.
Don’t get me wrong, it is good for governors to build roads and bridges, and even pay salaries. But these things are routine, in fact they are the least expected of leaders in-charge of the people’s patrimony. But such exertions require no vision because they are simply what they are – mere humdrum.
That is why despite the trillions of Naira expended by governments at all levels, poverty and unemployment continue to soar high among two of the most vulnerable demographics – women and youths.
To make consequential impact in the lives of ordinary citizens, a governor needs to think outside the box on how best to empower the people financially. And that is exactly what the outgoing governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, has done in the last eight years.
To be sure, Okowa has built bridges and flyovers with well-laid urban roads and functional drainages. Asaba, the Delta State capital, has been transformed in the last eight years of his stewardship from a glorified slum to a modern state capital. Under his watch, Asaba has become the home of Nollywood and leisure.
The one-stop state-of-the-art Delta State Secretariat named after the Asagba of Asaba, Prof. Chike Edozien, is arguably the best in Nigeria.
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Okowa, on assumption of office in 2015, conceived the idea of a modern secretariat that will accommodate all MDAs – an integrated complex providing an environment conducive for work by public servants in the state under one roof.
The complex which has the capacity to accommodate no less than 27 ministries, agencies, departments and parastatals also has facilities for a crèche, a bank as well as a clinic.
The implication is that if an official comes to work and wants to go to the bank, there will be no need to leave the premises, while mothers have a place to cater for the needs of their children while they do their work.
Besides, the complex is designed to reduce paper work in most official dealings as all offices share information through an information communication technology facility deployed in the building.
So awed was the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, when he commissioned the secretariat in November 2021, that he described it as one of the governor’s legacies of inspirational and visionary leadership in Delta State.
But it is in the area of job creation and youth empowerment that Okowa is leaving behind the most enduring legacies of his eight-year stint as governor.
And he was methodical in his approach. Shortly after assumption of office on May 29, 2015, Okowa came up with the idea of empowering the youths and women through job creation.
To drive the vision, he tapped Eric Eboh, Professor of Agricultural Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), to assume the office of the Chief Job Creation Officer and subsequently nurtured the office through enactment by law as Delta State Job and Wealth Creation Bureau.
That legal backbone on September 5, 2019 also consolidated Prof Eboh’s position as the Delta State Chief Job and Wealth Creation Officer.
The result has been phenomenal. Structured under five main programmes – Skills Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP), Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurs Programme (YAGEP), Rural Youth Skills Acquisition Programme (RYSA), Girl Entrepreneurship and Skills Training Programme (GEST), and Information and Communications Technology-Youth Empowerment Programme (ICT-YEP), several programmes of skills acquisition, entrepreneurship development, microcredit, enterprise grants and business support have been successfully implemented.
On May 10, 2023, when the Bureau held a graduation ceremony for the STEP, YAGEP, GEST and ICT-YEP beneficiaries in Asaba, Prof Eboh was beside himself with joy.
But he was not alone. The youths were equally overjoyed with the great transformation the programme had wrought in their lives.
Addressing Governor Okowa, Eboh said, “Your Excellency has transformed, in an unprecedented manner, the entrepreneurship, social and economic landscape of Delta State.”
And that is true. The Delta model of job creation and youth empowerment have had lasting positive impacts in the lives and fortunes of youths, girl-child, women, artisans, traders and widows.
Eboh disclosed that more than 15,000 brand new youth entrepreneurs have emerged from the programmes just as the investments in job creation, entrepreneurship development, skills training, youth empowerment, micro-credit and enterprise grants to existing small businesses and women-owned enterprises covered a total of 75,332 beneficiaries since inception in 2015.
While business grants to rural and urban artisans, motorcycle and Keke tricycle operators covered a total of 33,500 beneficiaries, the social safety cash transfers, livelihood grants, debt relief and economic stimulus packages implemented under the Delta CARES programme have also covered a total of 42,001 beneficiaries comprising poor and vulnerable households and unemployed youths in the social register, smallholder farmers, micro-business owners, widows and other target community people.
As a way of enhancing the YAGEP programme, the State also introduced the Production and Processing Support Programme (PPSP), an agricultural value chain intervention package designed for existing smallholder farmers.
The PPSP programme was designed to enhance farm outputs, enterprise productivity and market linkages along the commodity value chains towards creating job and wealth.
To achieve this, Prof Eboh’s ofice delivered subsidized productivity-increasing inputs and technologies such as tractors and implements, planting materials, livestock starter stocks, fertilizers, feeds and processing equipment as well as Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for cassava, fishery, poultry, piggery and vegetables for the beneficiaries.
The result is that Delta State that used to be the hotbed of militancy is now one of the safest and most peaceful states in the country because the youths are fully engaged.
Asaba, the State capital has become Nigeria’s new hospitality destination. The hotels are always fully booked. Nigerians now do business in Anambra State in the day and retire to Asaba for a peaceful night rest. Property appreciation has made a quantum leap and the residents are happier for it.
As the news filtered in on Wednesday that President Muhammadu Buhari had written to the House of Representatives seeking approval for an additional $800 million loan from the World Bank for the so-called National Social Safety Net Programme (NASSP), I couldn’t help but bemoan the tragedy that has befallen Nigeria under Buhari’s watch.
Trillions of Naira, mostly borrowed funds, have been frittered away, all in the name of a nebulous social safety net programme. Yet all there is to show for it is galloping poverty and debilitating squalor.
If only the Federal Government had looked towards the Okowa-engineered youth empowerment revolution, it wouldn’t have wasted N52 billion for the creation of the phantom 774,000 jobs in the Special Public Works Programme under the watch of Mr. Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity.
The beauty of the Okowa revolution is that he is making no choice about it. You need to be in Delta State, visit the farm settlements located in all the senatorial zones and interact with the beneficiaries to appreciate the huge impact the programme is making in their lives.
Truth be told, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa will bow out as Delta State governor on May 29 on a high. And he will be remembered for a long time to come not necessarily because of the new universities he built and equipped with cutting-edge technology, the pace-setting infrastructure, legacy secretariat and leisure parks, etc.
No! He will be remembered for making life more meaningful for the disinherited and vulnerable majority whom he has empowered through carefully designed job and wealth creation programmes.