Visionaries always stand out wherever they are. This of course is not disconnected from the fact that they see what others do not see, they see beyond time and in their vision, they are never restricted by the environment.
They are like water when in motion; always creating paths around and through every obstacle, they meet. It is therefore of no surprise that visionaries always end up becoming missionaries.
They are always on a mission to liberate, to save, to guard, to uplift, to make a fallen hero great again and to keep a great hero great, and even greater because no one can do that except the one blessed with the vision.
We have been blessed with such people of great visions and noble missions in many circles — in religion, in our societies, in governments etc. Nelson Mandela today is a household name because of how he fought apartheid in South Africa and what that victory over apartheid means for Africans as a whole.
We today hear, read and talk about Nnamdi Azikiwe, nicknamed The Zik of Africa, because of the crucial role he played in securing our country, Nigeria’s independence, from the British colonial masters. Never also, would we forget our own sons who steered the life of our dear Delta State right from her infancy. Come 2023, another name will be joining these great men of great visions and noble missions in the history of our state, our country, our continent and our planet.
David Edevbie is that name. A 2023 gubernatorial aspirant of the State, he is on the noble mission to make Delta State greater than it is today and this mission is guided by the passion he has for his State and the great eyes with which he sees beyond constraints. The well experienced and overly qualified candidate is out to attract everything good to the good people of Delta State, including foreign investments.
David Edevbie’s Vision to modernise Delta is firmly anchored on his plans to leverage the abundant human (particularly the youth population) and natural resources in the State. Asides oil, Delta State is richly blessed with natural resources across its three senatorial districts. By strategically unlocking this potential, equipping and activating the energetic workforce we have in our youth population, David plans to transform Delta State from its third-world reality to a first-world state. The interactive map below highlights the natural resources that can be found in the 25 LGAs across the State.
In a recent interview, he said:
“I have worked in various capacities across several global financial institutions, directly identifying and managing vast investment portfolios and projects. So I am very conversant with the intricacies and processes involved in securing foreign investments. The relationships established both internationally and locally during that period and in my personal and professional endeavours after that which I have nurtured over the years will be vital in attracting the required funding.”
The three-time Commissioner of Finance in Delta State is a graduate of Economics from the University of Lagos and has sojourned to institutions like Cardiff and Harvard Business Schools to get advanced training in the fields of finance, management and administration. This has resulted in him playing very phenomenal and crucial roles in the development of the State, notable amongst them being how he boosted contractors confidence in Governor Ibori’s administration.
“When I served as Commissioner for Finance in Governor Ibori’s administration, I established a monthly cash budget system that gave contractors confidence and certainty in the payment system. The system was devoid of lobbying and contractors were paid on a first-come, first-served basis.
In essence, contractors didn’t need to have a personal relationship with me or anyone else before they got paid; hence their work certificates were as good as physical cash. Banks lobbied contractors to find the State Government projects because of their confidence in our payment system.”
A man who attends to the general interest of his State firstly before any consideration borne out of ethnic affiliations, he understands the need to effectively manage and find strength in the ethnic diversity with which Delta State boasts of. He understands the ethnic sentiments that arise as a result of the State Government projects — how some groups feel cheated, left out and abandoned — because of how and where the projects are sited and quickly identified the missing link as the lack of a statewide development plan.
On Development, He said;
“In my view what is missing is a statewide development plan. That is why I plan that a medium/long term development plan backed by appropriate legislation will be implemented within the first one hundred days of inauguration. The master plan will be developed with the input and collaboration of key stakeholders across ethnic and other demographic lines to ensure that it is a product of all. With a master plan in place, project selection and implementation should be more objective and easy to track, monitor and evaluate.”
Acceding to the fact that he cannot be able to carry out his mission in Delta State in face of the current state of insecurity in the country, he has a two-pronged approach towards eradicating insecurity in Delta State, one of which is immediate, the other spanning over years. “Consequently, I will adopt a two-pronged approach towards tackling insecurity;
Firstly, the immediate approach will involve collaboration with the Federal Government and other stakeholders to re-engineer our State security architecture, emphasizing local control of security apparatus to ensure greater efficiency in intelligence gathering, evaluation and speedy utilization.
An all-inclusive security regime driven by an enhanced public/private sector security trust fund providing sustainable funding for the security architecture, including the deployment of state of art ICT equipment such as drones, CCTV, etc., for real-time surveillance at security flashpoints, etc. will be deployed. I will ensure that relevant State security laws are strengthened for greater effectiveness.
Secondly, the long-term approach, which will involve rapid industrialization of the State that will create jobs on a large scale engaging majority of the populace in meaningful enterprises with a spin-off in youths shunning vices that are currently plaguing the State.”
His long-term approach is very important for its proactive nature. It is a generally agreed on fact that unemployment is almost, always at the root of every form of insecurity in a society.
This is because many unemployed youths driven by hunger and poverty becomes willing tools in the hands of the maleficent citizens who for their selfish reasons wishes to destabilize the State.
Providing employment to these unemployed youths therefore would fulfil David Edevbie’s belief that “a thriving economy where the majority of the people are gainfully employed is an antidote to insecurity.”
Listening to David Edevbie talk about his dreams and mission in Delta State is always a blessing. This may sound like a cliché but most cliché becomes so because their truism sponsored their repetitions. David Edevbie is a man whose visions for Delta State is grand and his missions golden. The highest blessing the good people of Delta State can attract to themselves in 2023 is to vote him in as their Governor.
