By Egbonimali Shadrack
There is a point where governance stops being about administrative incompetence and becomes a clear crisis of moral conscience.
In Aliagwa, a community in Ika South Local Government of Delta State, that threshold was crossed the moment a nurse had to open an umbrella inside a government-owned primary health centre to shield a woman in active labor from a leaking roof.
Imagine that scene for a moment. In an oil-producing state naturally blessed with immense resource wealth, a human being bringing new life into the world is subjected to medieval conditions—not because Delta State lacks the money, but because those entrusted with public trust lack the will.
For nearly three years, the Aliagwa Community Health Centre stood as a crumbling monument to official apathy. Community Elders did what law-abiding citizens are expected to do: they wrote formal petitions. They reached out to the Local Government Chairman. They appealed for basic human decency. Their letters fell on deaf ears.
Yet, money was never the issue. Funds for this very facility were allegedly allocated through the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC)—an agency specifically established to ensure oil-bearing communities benefit directly from the 13% derivation fund. Where did that money go?
The allegations emerging from the community point to a familiar, systemic poison in our politics: public funds earmarked for community health were reportedly diverted to service political godfathers. While politicians played chess with state resources, mothers in Aliagwa bled under leaky roofs.
Now, enter Mrs. Ogor Tony-Obuh, a private citizen and House of Assembly candidate who stepped up to renovate the facility out of pocket. While her intervention is commendable and undoubtedly saved lives, it should also infuriate every resident of Ika South. It should not take the private generosity—or political campaign—of an individual to fix a basic healthcare center when local councils and commissions command multi-billion-naira budgets.
When private citizens have to do the job of the government, it isn’t an inspiring victory of philanthropy; it is a total, damning failure of state governance.
Even more egregious is the audacity of past officials, such as former DESOPADEC Commissioner who oversaw this period of decay and now return to these very streets to ask for votes. To neglect a community’s health center while in power, allow money meant for its upkeep to vanish, and then return years later smiling on campaign posters is a level of political cynicism that citizens must no longer tolerate.
As diaspora indigene Patrick Irabo rightly noted, there is no valid excuse for this neglect. None.
The renovation of the Aliagwa Health Centre by a private individual is a gift to the community, but it is also a mirror held up to our leaders. And what that mirror reflects is a government that has abandoned its people to chase political patronage. Until voters hold these officials accountable at the ballot box, the umbrellas will remain open, and our communities will continue to suffer.
