One of the eventful times in my career was when I had the privilege of serving as the Delta State Commissioner for Information when Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan was governor of the state. Joining his cabinet at the onset of his second term in 2011, I worked closely with the man I came to admire and draw inspiration from.

When he became governor in 2007 at a time Nigeria was seen to have enjoyed a level of economic boom, he was not carried away by the seeming cash flow. He knew that it would not last forever. Like he espoused at the time, things changed sooner than later. The idea of planning for the day that crude oil which the country had always depended on to power its growth was not lost on him. He incorporated it as a State creed. “Delta Beyond Oil” became the state slogan that defined his administration. As instructive as the vision, no other government, state or federal, shared in the vision. But he never relented.

Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan became the governor of Delta State at a time the state needed a new direction. An accomplished medical doctor, he had the task of building a viable framework for quality and affordable healthcare delivery in the state that was just about 16 years old after it was carved out of old Bendel State in 1991. Given his pedigree, he knew where the shoes pinch most. He instituted the Mother/Child Healthcare Scheme. The touch of Dr. Uduaghan’s administration on the citizenry in the health sector in Delta State started from the womb, just after conception. At the first contact with the Delta health service, the unborn child and mother were provided with free medical services through the duration of pregnancy to the point of delivery, surgical or otherwise. Following delivery, the mother is guaranteed free post-natal care for the first six weeks after delivery, and for the new born child, a free medical coverage is provided for the first five years of life.

In tertiary healthcare, Uduaghan launched an ambitious programme of carrying complex surgeries usually done in hospitals in other climes. He upgraded facilities, personnel and equipment at the Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH), Oghara and entered into a five year partnership with UT South-Western Medical Centre, Dallas, United States which incorporated a training agreement to build infrastructure and human capacity. DELSUTH, Oghara achieved a medical feat with a successful kidney transplant having earlier carried out hip-bone and knee cap replacement surgeries.

Uduaghan’s health programmes made tremendous impact on health care delivery in Delta State & led to the remarkable fall in the infant mortality rate across the state from 545 per 100,000 births in 2007, to 241 per 100,000 in 2012, the lowest in the country.

With accent on human capital development, Uduaghan ventured into just about any project that would enhance the quality of life of Deltans and residents of the state. At most council meetings, Uduaghan told his commissioners that leadership is not about just building roads and other infrastructure. Real development, he insisted, is driven by an empowered citizenry.

When I presented to him a proposal for the training of journalists practicing in Delta State at Reuters Institute, London, the Harvard of journalism, he enthusiastically approved it and said beneficiaries should be every Delta-based practitioner. Through the scheme, more than 50 journalists irrespective of their state of origin benefitted from the training across two years.

He did not stop in human capital development. He executed numerous infrastructural projects in education, transportation and agriculture. As part of his policy of reinventing education in Delta State, Uduaghan carried out a comprehensive rehabilitation programme under which over 13 model secondary schools and 54 model primary schools were commissioned. His administration also remodeled more than 18,000 classrooms across the state. He conceptualised and built the Asaba International Airport, a first class facility suitable for night navigation and operations under challenging weather and which has become one of the few viable airports in the country.

The birthing of the transformation of Delta under Uduaghan’s three-point agenda of human capital development, peace and security and development of infrastructure later graduating to “Delta Beyond Oil”in his second term was not heralded by media blitz and noisome cacophony. Service delivery, to him, should not be defined by unbidled propaganda. Uduaghan is not the typical Nigerian politician. He sees the most impactful part of programmes not on the many roads, schools and others he built, but in the numerous lives he touched through the programmes that equipped his people with the capacity to achieve their legitimate ambitions.

One of such outstanding programmes is the one designed for gifted students who made First Class at the end their degree programme. All such persons were automatically given scholarship to undertake postgraduate studies in any part of the world with a N5 million package for each person. Most of the beneficiaries studied outside the country.

Uduaghan may not have gotten all the flowers he deserved, but Nigerians certainly took note. The critical press kept track of his trajectory. He has been variously voted Vanguard Newspapers Man of the Year, Sun Newspapers Governor of the Year, Leadership Newspapers Man of the Year as well Silverbird Governor of the Year.

More importantly, the people of Delta State who he served diligently know what he did and continue to honour him.

Today, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan is 70 years. A fulfilled man, God has blessed him as a physician, leader and visioner. A leader with the heart of gold, he continues to inspire. Happy birthday, Your Excellency.

*Ogeah was Commissioner for Information, Delta State, 2011 – 2015