Delta State Government, has said that the state was very solvent and able to meet up its financial obligations as they fall due because of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s financial management abilities anchored on fiscal discipline, prudence and accountability.
The State Commissioner for Works (Rural Roads) and public information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu stated this in an interview on live television programme monitored in Asaba.
Aniagwu disclosed that Governor Oborevwori’s greatest asset was being underrated by naysayers adding that by his governance philosophy, the Governor had continued to confound his critics with tangible proofs and accolades across the state and country.
According to him, Governor Oborevwori is likened to that book that almost everybody judged by its cover and by the time they attempted to open the book they discovered that it’s not written in french language but in pure English.
“All the facts that you need to know about certain things that you thought are not possibly available in that book are all put together in that book.
“One of Oborevwori’s greatest assets is the fact that he is underrated, his financial management abilities is almost second to none
“Let me inform you that even as the Speaker of the State House of Assembly for six years at the end of his tenure he returned N500 million unspent funds to the state coffers so when you look at the story of people who are usually there as politicians in different levels you will understand what that means.
“When we thought that was a flash in the pan that maybe it was just one of those things but we didn’t know that that is his pure characteristics and leadership style.
“When we say that Delta today is solvent we are not solvent because we contracted a native doctor to help us preserve our funds.
“We are solvent because Oborevwori is demonstrating a whole lot of accountability and prudence in the management of our resources.
“Two weeks ago when we had our first EXCO meeting for the year 2025 we approved projects worth over N275 billion naira. Not only that we approved those projects, the governor was also magnanimous for us to proceed to mobilize each of the contractors wit 40 percent of the contract sum.
“We have been doing that since he came in and that is why you can see that a number of these projects are moving with speed
“Beyond the issue of giving out this 40%, there are a number of projects that are on Irrevocable Standing Payment Order (ISPO), where in which case every month, certain amount of funds kicks in.
“The moment you present your certificate in terms of milestones, the state pays.”
Mr Aniagwu remarked that Governor Oborevwori was not just funding projects, the state government had not borrowed a dime but had paid loans obtained by previous administrations to the tune of N240billion.
“First of all not only that Delta is not borrowing under the Oborevwori administration, he has paid over N240 billion in the last 20 months to service or defray existing contractual obligations as well as some other funds that came in form of loan in the past.
“So for you to know that he is not only just funding infrastructure today I’m not too sure you have heard of anybody going to the streets to protest that they have not been paid pension.
“Oborevwori’s prudence is such that he works hard to properly preserve government funds for the good people of the state, by cutting off a whole lot of things that could have led to wastages.
“For instance there was another novel approach he brought to prudence and financial management where he proposed a reduction in the profit margin for some contracts upon 40 percent mobilisation.
“He argued that since the state usually provide contractors 40% mobilization, we are first of all saving them the agony of raising cost of funds should they have proceeded to go to any financial institution to ask for such funds.
“When we looked at these parameters from just about five different memos, we were able to save N4.5 billion, yet the contractors were still very much interested in carrying out such projects.”
Commissioner Aniagwu further said Oborevwori was carrying out the projects across the three senatorial districts without sentiments.
“There are so many things that he has done in terms of taking on big projects, in terms of carrying the three senatorial districts, irrespective of ethnic differences along.
“Of course, Delta is a multi-ethnic state. Irrespective of even political affiliation, he’s carrying everybody along.
“That is why you see that even when the few pockets of opposition speak to certain issues that are at variance with reality, Oborevwori doesn’t waste time responding to those issues.
“He only concentrates more on the projects as a means of response to those criticisms and today, all we ask people is, tell us your local government and then we will tell you what Oborevwori is doing there.”
He said Governor Oborevwori introduced a novel approach to budget that was equitable, fair and just, adding” the Governor was able to come up with a novel idea in our budgeting approach and good enough, my ministry was saddled with that responsibility of implementing certain funds across the 25 local government areas.
“In 2024, we provided one billion for roads alone and that is a specific intervention, because that is not the only amount we provided, but for specific intervention so that even if you don’t have a big man or you don’t have anybody speaking for your local government, that fund is there and must be spent in your local government.
“Having seen the magic in terms of the level of infrastructure we are able to implement using that model, in the 2025 budget, Governor Oborevwori directed that over N2.1 billion should be be provided for the purpose of short intervention across the local government areas.
“It might interest you to note that even the EXCO we had less than two weeks ago, we approved projects across more than 80% of the local governments in Delta, in one EXCO.
“So anybody who wakes up and says they have no idea of what we are doing, we don’t even need to say what are you talking about.
“We say please, can you tell us your local government so let us even know whether you are among those who doesn’t visit home.”
On alleged depletion of PDP members to All Progressives Congress APC, Aniagwu likened the situation to the football transfer window for those who may have performed poorly and were afraid they will not get their party’s return ticket for another term.
“For us in Delta, we are not disturbed and like I said, our concentration at the moment is governance and that is what we are doing.
“Those who are playing politics may be Idol enough to play but we are busy delivering democratic dividends to our people.”
