Find the open letter below...
1st December, 2014
Open Letter to my People
Governorship of Delta State
On Friday 31st October
2014, I formally declared my intention to contest the 2015 gubernatorial
election of Delta State under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). On
the same day, I became the very first candidate to release a Social
Contract with the good people of Delta State.
2. I am writing this
letter to you to intimate you on why I decided to seek election to
become the Governor of Delta State in 2015.
3. Being Special Adviser
to President Goodluck Jonathan on Performance Monitoring and Evaluation
exposed me to the efforts of government to improve the people’s quality
of life through various programmes and projects. It also exposed me to
the impediments to government’s plans and projections. Yet, the best
lesson that I learnt as Special Adviser to the President is encapsulated
in these words of a past American President, Theodore Roosevelt who
says that “It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out
how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done
them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, if he fails, at least
he fails while DARING GREATLY”.
4. Yes, I have embraced
those words to heart – to dare greatly as governor of Delta State and
make it a SUPER STATE; fantastic, splendid, superb and really
outstanding Delta State. Yes, I intend to make the state superior to
others, and to give the people enough reason to actually and reasonably
feel special.
5. From day one, Delta
was built with the ingredients for greatness. So, luckily, I will not be
starting from the scratch. At Independence in 1960, the area that
comprise Delta State were just the Benin and Delta provinces of the
Western Region – a region whose memories still provide a heightened
sense of pride to many. Yet, the people of the two provinces needed more
than what the Western Region could provide and so in 1963, they became
the Midwest Region – under the brilliant leadership of the much
respected late patriarchs - Dr. Dennis Chukwudebe Osadebay and Olorogun
Samuel Jereton Mariere. When the Region became the Mid-West State, Dr.
Samuel Ogbemudia built on the uncommon foundations he inherited, and
made it outstanding. Thus by mid 1970s, things unheard of in other
States were common fare in Bendel – inter-city luxurious bus service, a
state-wide library service on wheels which covered the State every two
weeks and from which people borrowed books and returned them, a “book
depot” that was filled with books and which serviced the State, an array
of respected secondary schools even in the villages and which brimmed
with academic and sports competitions, that formed the foundation of a
system from which world beaters sallied forth to challenge and mesmerize
the nation and the world.
6. Delta has retained
some aspects of Bendel’s glorious past. Here, the immediate past
democratic administration and the present one continued to build on that
glorious foundation, such that even now, the Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan
Administration has opened up a new route: “Delta Beyond Oil”.
7. My administration
will further the manifest destiny of Delta State to lead the way for
other States to follow. I will appoint as Commissioners, people who will
be as earnest and sincere as an Old Testament prophet, imbued with
quick intelligence, elevated principles, high social conscience, with
active minds and proven abilities, realistic, precise (instead of
wavering) and positively believing in the ability of man to transform a
given society through ingenious leadership. I will search out the best
and the brightest who will appreciate the urgencies of the moment and
prove themselves as crisis managers. Yes, managers in the crisis of
under-investment in education, housing, health, recreation, community
decency and order, to help bring the needed focus on the scandal of
great deprivation amidst plenty and thereby mount a charge against
poverty.
8. The focus of my
admiration will be the man or woman in the dusty village byways. For him
or her, I will provide opportunities for mum and pop small-scale
businesses to fire the economy, improve the internally generated revenue
base, provide employment, and restore dignity to many. For their
children I will retool the entire school system and dignify public
schools by raising standards across board. Schools will be subjected to
strict inspections to maintain acceptable standards. I will reintroduce
school sports competitions and enhance the ones, such as soccer, which
the Uduaghan Administration has introduced – so that tennis (lawn and
table), basketball, etc, will have yearly state championships. In
sports, I will further equip the stadiums the Ibori Administration built
in the Local Government headquarters, making them natural hosts of the
various inter-school competitions. Education will not only remain free
but it will be made really compulsory and parents who keep their wards
off school will be prosecuted. No child will be left behind.
9. The Local Government
councils will be made to matter in the lives of the people; they will be
designated nuggets of developments in the State and should enforce some
minimal accepted levels of hygiene in the markets, villages, etc and
thereby reduce sources of disease infections. My Administration will
place a strong emphasis on primary healthcare delivery and make hospital
treatment free for pregnant women and children, and for everybody in
school uniform.
10. No, this is not an
attempt to reproduce my Social Contract with Deltans; no, I have just
given you a glimpse of it to show the seriousness of the quest to which I
am humbly inviting you to accompany me – by your understanding,
goodwill, advice and support.
11. Millions live in
Delta State. Through purposeful leadership, I will raise the quality of
their lives tremendously. The State not only possesses the ingredients
for greatness, the foundations for such greatness actually exists; the
all-conquering will of the people and unalloyed pride in their glorious
Bendel State. With such a State made up with such a people, all it takes
to arrive at a super State that will beat out a path for other States
to follow, is just character, good governance and accountability in
leadership. These are the fundamental principles upon which my
aspiration is anchored.
12. And it is to provide
such leadership that I am seeking to be the next governor of Delta
State. I crave your support for this noble quest in the coming days and
weeks.
13. With my warm personal regards.
Professor Sylvester Monye, MFR
GovernorMonye2015
