The Holy Scriptures taught us the importance of appreciation. When Jesus cured ten lepers, only one came back to thank him. Our Lord was surprised that only one leper came to thank him and he asked rhetorically ‘Where were the other nine lepers’? Gratitude is one of the pillars of faith in all religions’ teachings.
Appreciation inspires three things; it tells the doer of the good deed that what he did is appreciated by the beneficiaries. This in turn serves to encourage him to do more good. Secondly, others seeing the appreciation get encouraged to do good, and thirdly as more members of the society embrace doing good, kindness becomes the norm in society.
We all must learn to show appreciation for the little and the big deeds of kindness we receive.
Sheriff Oborevwori the governor of Delta State is performing miracles and wonders in the state. He is setting standards for what an elected person, a holder of a mandate, should meet. And these His standards are very high indeed. And surprising too because no one expected him to perform at all. He came into the office as an underdog who many thought had little or no knowledge of governance. Some even labelled him an incoming stooge, a kindergarten impostor.
Governor Sheriff has proved everybody wrong. Overnight he changed the landscape of the state. Bridges and flyovers are sprouting like mushrooms in the state, new roads are being constructed at a feverish pace and old ones are being rehabilitated. No sector is left out of the development stride, none.
And he is doing all these with just the resources available to the state; no borrowing, no concession, no aid whatsoever. He is even paying off some of the debts which he met in office; hundreds of billions of naira debt repayment!!! Isn’t this wonderful indeed? Is this not outstanding?
Sheriff has his own unique way of carrying out quality test of work done by contractors. It might be crude but it is effective and efficient. It yields instant results. It is street-wise indeed. No site engineer grammar, no bribe, no fraud. He knows from his street experience that the best and cheapest method to test concrete is to strike it with a hammer or cutlass. You get instant result. The sparks from such a strike tell the quality story.
So the governor goes on road inspections with his own test kit: cutlass, chisel and hammer, and with jerry cans of water.
He strikes the concrete work of drainages, culverts and bridges with his four-foot cutlass; the ‘kaaoo’ sound followed by a shower of sparks; that is Sheriff test. The governor nods his head satisfied. He smiles for the first time. ‘Good job my friend’, he tells the contractor. The contractor sighs a sigh of relief. If there are no sparks from the cutlass strike then the job is of poor quality, and of course no pay. The contractor may be blacklisted.
For asphalted roads the governor chisels down through the asphalt to determine the depth of the asphalt layer; six inches must be six inches. To test if a drainage is properly sloped he pours water from his jerry cans into the drainage to see how the water flows!!!!
Is the governor not a street genius!!!!! In the history of Delta State have you heard or seen such an action governor?
Please applause for the governor; clap for Ukodo, nine gbosa for a practical street PhD!!!!!!
I am overwhelmed by His Excellency’s street wisdom and native intelligence. No one can beat Ukodo. And we need to show our appreciation by applauding him every inch of the way. We need also to defend him against those failed politicians who see no good in others except in themselves only.
Only thus can we encourage Ukodo to continue with his good work. Only thus indeed.
- Chief Olori Magege writes from Agbarho, Ughelli North, Delta State.
