Editorial Delta State: Bureaucracy or Paucity of fund?

Editor-in-Chief


No doubt the global recession has had its toll on the economies of most countries particularly the under developed ones like Nigeria. It is against this backdrop that governments the world over has injected funds into ailing businesses and multinationals to stimulate growth and check any further economic woes. In Nigeria, the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has esqually done its bit to redress the worrying trend. While the Niger Delta Crisis negatively affected Nigeria’s crude oil earnings, there has been appreciable increase in our crude oil earnings following the seeming success of the amnesty programme which currently sees ex-militants undergoing skill and technical training across the country.

The Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, during an inter-denominational service held in Warri to mark the 19th anniversary of the creation of Delta State declared that the State’s share of revenue allocation derived from oil has dropped from 25% to 19% as a result of the May 13th vandalism of oil pipelines. While all rational Deltans share in the challenges the Governor and his team are facing to completely eradicate all forms of oil stealing, majority of Deltans, particularly those in the middle and lower classes are at loss as to why so much money was spent to host wife of the President, Dame Goodluck Jonathan, especially on entertainment by a Warri based eatery when most of the state government parastatals are yet to receive subventions for 2 months and most of the newly recruited teachers that have been on the state government’s payroll for six months have not been paid their salaries. Information from competent sources indicates that the few who have received salaries have only been paid two months.

It has become imperative for Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan to tackle these challenges and deal with those responsible otherwise the increasing speculation that he has deliberately withheld funds for political reasons can only get worse and possibly dent his political career. Since most of these recruited teachers are yet to get their pay six months after employment, one is now left to wonder what will happen to those about to get job in the state civil service. While there are obvious financial challenges, the right and humane thing to do is to ensure that every labourer earns his/her pay at the end of the month no matter the global economic recession. Contractors who have duly completed their jobs should also be paid.