PHOTO-NEWS:How Deltans Celebrated and Deepened Their Knowledge on Democracy With The Leadership Of the State Assembly

As Trumpet Magazine awards Great Nigerians Doing Exploit and Saving Lives

DELTA STATE LEGISLATURE HAS DONE EXCEEDINGLY WELL....Rt Hon Onwusanya

As Delta state Legislature prepares to mark her third anniversary of the fifth Assembly, the speaker, Rt Hon. Peter Onwusanya(CNA) hinted press on progress report.

The house activities within the period has been eventful, purposeful & result driven, the speaker shared.

The period has enabled us as legislators to contribute our little effort in sustaining the task of nation building, Rt Hon Onwusanya emphasised.

I dare say that we have done exceedingly well, given the avalanche of bills passed, oversight functions carried out and many house resolution which has impacted on our people, the speaker said.

Since the advent of the fifth Assembly, the house received 6 bills, passed 8 bills, passed 22 resolutions, governor assented 6 bills, 6 bills await governor's assent while 3 bills are pending in the house.

In partnership with the executive, we have surpassed public expectation, the speaker pointed out.

My friends mocked me for building God’s house first before mine…… Prof. Utuama

The deputy governor of Delta State, His Excellency Prof. Amos Agbe Utuama (SAN) while making his Opening remarks at the fund raising in Support of Catholic Diocese of Warri Conference center project, recalled his friend’s attitude to his contribution to building God’s kingdom on earth.

My friends mocked me back in those days, that I have not built my own personal house but spend my time, resources and energy raising building for the Church, Prof Utuama said.

There is one attitude and response I have always offered in return, which is that on earth there is noting better than to build for the Lord and support the propagation of the lord’s gospel than building houses for self.

Later in life when I was favoured to build my own house, to the glory of the Lord, the house was completed in less than nine months, Prof Utuama said.

The occasion was an Opportunity for Catholic faithfuls, friends and well wishers of the Church  gathered to raise support for the Warri Catholic diocese’s hosting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference as well as celebrate the diocese’s 50^th year of existence.

His Lordship, Most Rev. Dr John Arareha, Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Warri remarked that the diocese has recorded great pastoral strides in enhancing the peoples’ faith and witnessed increased infrastructural gains over the years.

The diocese stand in great need of dynamic and progressive institutional structures to position the Diocese is fit enough to better propergate the Lord’s gospel in a challenging 21^st century, Bishop Afareha maintained.

While calling on all well meaning Deltans, members and friends of the Church to support the project with generous contributions & donations, Bishop Afareha said that the Diocese has plans to construct a Civic center that will be used for conferences, meetings, retreats, religious trainings, educational and social events.

Democracy: we are still very far from entrenching it....... Otive Igbuzor

As politicians, captains of industries, scholars, academicians, youth/women leaders and media experts gathered at a public lecture/award, an Iconic Strategist, Dr. Otive Igbuzor unveiled the true State of Development and democracy in Delta State and Nigeria.

Presenting his lecture at the maiden award and lecture series organized at Asaba by Trumpet International Magazine, with the topic, Democracy and grassroots development in Delta State: the best way forward, left no stone unturned.

Dr. Otive Igbuzor argued that democracy goes beyond mere regular holding of elections, as polling booths and voters are not all that make a democracy.

Democracy at its core, is a State of mind, a set of attitudinal dispositions woven into the fabric of a society, the concrete expression of which are its social institutions, but stated that undemocratic social Institutions cannot sustain democratic government, no matters how often the ballot box ritual is enacted, he maintained. 

Dr. Otive Igbusor also took some times to x-ray the true image grassroot Development trends in Delta State and how Deltans have so far been impacted.

Quoting, Amatya  Sen, Otive maintained that Development is a process of expanding the real freedom grassroots people enjoy.

Development requires the removal of all sources of unfreedom, which he listed as poverty, tyranny, poor economic opportunities, systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities and intolerance or over-activity of repressive states; Dr. Otiva reasoned.

He maintained that for a true pro-people development there is need for advancement in some spheres of freedom he listed as political freedom, economic facilities, Social Opportunities, transparency and protective security.

People are both the beneficiaries and the drivers of human development, both as individuals and in groups.

Development is the discipline the people needs to drive their spirit to triumph over Odds of poverty trap, physical geography, fiscal trap, governance, cultural barriers, geopolitics,  lack of innovation and demographic trap, Dr. Otive strongly emphasized.

The guest lecturer believed that Development will lead to good change which will empower the people to have control over material assets, intellectual resources/ ideology, obtain physical necessaries of life, employment, equality, participation in governmet political and economic independence, adequate education, gender equality, peace & sustainable due.

Despite the enomous wealth of Delta State, poverty level is still high with official statictics putting it at 84.25% in 2001 and 63.6% in 2010, 20-30% 0f primary school children do not complete primary education.

26 children die in every 1000 live births, 244 women die during child birth for every 100,000 deliveries, a reality he argued is grossly unacceptable for a State with the king of wealthy resources like Delta State.

SPEAKER, DELTA STATE ASSEMBLY APPOINTS CHIEF PRESS SECRETARY

At a press briefing to mark the third anniversary of the fifth assembly of the Delta State House of Assembly, the speaker, Rt Hon Peter Onwusanya(CNA) announced his new chief press secretary.

The Speaker presented before news men Mr Patrick Nwanze as his new chief press secretary.

Mr Patrick Nwanze before his appointment was the group news editor at the Delta State owned Pointer Newspaper, his appointment is with immediate effect.

Though the speaker's pronouncement took all by surprise but media workers present hailed the speaker's choice of Patrick Nwanze as his Chief Press Secretary.

The former speaker suffered poor media relation as his media aides handled poorly the former speaker's media image especially, amongst many indegenious media outfits.

An anomaly Nwanze's media friends and colleagues were confident he cant allow a space during his tenure as Chief Press Secretary

Prof Dora Akunyili: A Tribute

And finally, it's true; that DNA is no more. The veracity of the death of Prof Dora Akunyili came to me as a rude shock. 

For some times now, the report of the purported death of the woman noted for her gallantry in NAFDAC, had always been in the public realm. 

Right from the very moment I set my eyes on Mrs Akunyili in her capacity as a delegate in the on-going National Confab, my mind developed a sudden kind of cordiality with uneasiness that never left; she was just a shadow of her old self.

The once robust, agile, elegant and beautiful lady was all herself save in bodily appearance. She looked emaciated, fragile and scraggy; a condition that left me befuddled each time she replays in my imaginative.

And with the growing peddling of the death-rumours, the more I'd always received it with palpitating fear, of an obsessional thrall fumed by an unending recourse to the enscribed silhouette on my mind; praying it to be the rumours that has always  suffered shame. 

And when on the 7th of June, 2014, the report of the death started filtering in again, I took it to be a furtherance of the now established locomotory of doom's poropagandists. However, I was soon to be proved wrong. 

Upset I was ostensibly, when on waiting to receive once again its rebuttal from her close family, there was none forthcoming. Instead, I learnt that this time around, it was actually, an insider that confirmed the sad news. 

The worst eventually, has happened! This reality threw me off my mind's balance; I was jolted, I sobbed. So, my Dora is dead. The lady with an express audacity in defending life is gone; the great amazon of the safe drug Nigerian society is no more. 

Nevertheless, one thing is sure even in death; it can never be argued: that Mrs Dora Akunyili has left her mark on the sands of time, her legacies would for long remain indelible.  

That Dora left the stage at a young age of 56 left me in devastating sorrow; it's so painful to be denied of her spurring presence and liveliness. But I was quick to make a swerve; one necessitated by her litany of achievements ably attested to by her collections of awards and recognitions. 

I will weep; but not in hopelessness, not in regrets. This is because, though she left early, Prof. Dora Nkem Akunyili did not die a young woman as would be suggested by her age; for she lived beyond that age. 

Dora's effort both in the academia and government betrays her true age; they are great and epochal. She must have started right early to make her values felt; an affirmation of her belief that time is too precious to waste in creating legacies. 

Prof. DNA as she's fondly called was a woman, whose landmark contributions and achievements to nation building outweighs her age; a real DNA that repositioned NAFDAC; a real DNA that dignified the Federal Ministry Information; the audacious DNA that set the ball rolling in the turbulent FEC, when others had reclused in verbal inactivity to say the needful. And all these shall ever remain even after her; to project and celebrate her existence. 

She has fought the good fight: of faith, of service, of patriotism and of humanitarianism.

Prof. Dora never dies; she lives on. And I know how: her legendary achievements echo the fact that she does. 

Prof. (Mrs) Dora Akunyili, even in death, remains my inspiration. The battle of goodwill you left unfinished and which has been your hunger, shall not end in your demise. 

The new Nigeria you lived for and had endeavored consistently to deliver to us, your children and to your grand children, shall sing aloud your efforts and commitments to its realisation. You'll look back in pride and joy that your struggle was worth it. 

Rest In Peace, ma'am; we'll ever miss your dexterity and idiosyncratic disposition.

 

Written by Kingsley Ahanonu