Deputy Governor of Delta State Onyeme spar with Nigerians in the Diaspora on President Tinubu achievements. The deputy Governor of Delta State Sir Monday Onyeme has decried the misinformation and disinformation through social media campaigns against what he called the “the bold and incredible” achievements of President Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Sheriff Oborevwori All Progressive Congress (APC) governments at the Federal level and in Delta State. He was speaking to the Nigerian communities in Atlanta, United States during his recent working visit to the state of Georgia in America.
Nigerians in the Diaspora, he said, are being fed lies, half-truths through disingenuous use of social media platforms and the new media. Today, technology is supposed to help us as a country, but the reality is that our people have mastered the act of misinformation, disinformation and total misrepresentation of our country, its government and its people. The net result is negative perception of us as a people, as a country through the propagation of ignorance assumptions about the Nigerian government of President Ahmed Tinubu, its policies, and successes of its programs which in his view is transformational, visionary and never seen in our country.
“I have been around for a while both as a private citizen and now in government. There is no Nigerian leader that even comes close to President Tinubu in terms of achievement, in making tough choices that will set the country apart, now and in the near future. As a professional accountant, I can tell you that the president is doing very well. And this is not flip talk. I will give you facts of his “8-point Renewed Hope” agenda and the visionary impact it is making that shows we have in Aso Rock a once-in-a-generation-leader transforming the Nigerian society and the political landscape for good”.
But the Deputy Governor got immediate push back with many in his audience disagreeing with his characterization of President Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s most transformational and visionary leader. Mr. Raymond Ekuerhare, a business and long-time community leader in Atlanta said outrightly that President Tinubu is nowhere near the league of Nigeria’s transformational leaders. “Unlike what the Deputy Governor is saying, President Tinubu’s policies for the average Nigerian are a death knell for the Nigerian way of life. I go to Nigeria almost every other month, cost of living is so high, people still cannot travel safely because of insecurity and kidnapping of persons. The touted infrastructure development is a fluke as the roads are still very terrible, we saw recently what happened in Benin-Asaba road, even the Ore-Benin Road, Benin-Warri and Warri-Ughelli-Bomadi are all in very terrible state-unpassable, so what is the Deputy Governor talking about. A “8-point renewed hope agenda that is only good on paper but not affecting people’s life for good”.
Chief Emeka Chimekwene, also a leader in the Delta State community in Atlanta said President Ahmed Tinubu cannot be a transformational leader when he is awarding a no-bid contracts to the Chagoury Group. That is not transformational leadership but corruption. “We don’t depend on social media for serious matters of the state. We have family members at home, their lives and living conditions have not improved under President Tinubu. Life in Nigeria is tough; you can’t have almost 20 percent inflation in a country under a leader and you call him transformational. That is a new low in our forever crisis of low expectations from our leaders. We were impressed with your take on Governor Oborevwori more agenda impacts in Delta State because they are verifiable and we see them when we go home”
The Deputy Governor however pushed further that they can do what they are doing in Delta State because of President Tinubu policies. He then listed the President Ahmed Tinubu “8-point” agenda and its implementation so far in the first 3-years of the administration:
- Restoration of Grassroot Governance
- Rebuilding the foundations of Nigerian Economy
- Ensuring food security and market-linked, productive, mechanized agro-economy
- Developing Nigeria’s education and human capital
- Building up the country’s infrastructure particularly in housing and transportation
- Improving Healthcare delivery, Social Investment and Humanitarian Development
- Strengthening national security and modernizing country’s security architecture and institutions
- Positioning Nigeria for a digital, green, blue and globally connected future
Explaining further, he said Nigerians have long yearned for true federalism, particularly the abilities of each federating units to be independent and take care of their responsibilities under law as spelt out in the constitution. The local governments, the state governments and the federal government to be able to function within the parameters of the law and deliver services to the Nigerian people. For example, he stated that since the 1976 local government reforms of the General Murtala Mohammed/General Olusegun Obasanjo administration, successive Nigerian governments have paid lip service to full local government autonomy.
But the President Tinubu administration has now placed local government autonomy at the very center of Nigerian governance. He said the decision of the federal government to seek judicial protection for the constitutional rights of local governments, culminating in the landmark decision of the Supreme Court of July 2024 granting full autonomy to the local government is one of the most consequential intervention by any Nigerian government to effectively realigning the country to true federalism.
The Deputy Governor said now courtesy to President Tinubu the 774 local governments in the country that are responsible for functions that directly affect more Nigerians and their everyday life are doing those jobs. For the first time, local governments in Delta State and across the country are constructing roads and bridges, building and modernizing local health centers, community schools, taking care of public sanitation, waste management and support for community security. In plain language local governments are no longer dependent on state governments and now financially autonomous.
Onyeme said President Tinubu’s APC government economic reforms are yielding results. He mentioned the removal of fuel subsidy, foreign exchange reform solely driven by market forces, a tax reform that is ensuring more Nigerians are now paying taxes as the tax system is now simpler, fairer, more transparent, more efficient and supportive of individual and private sector investment. But much more, he said is the electricity reforms that now empowers state government to generate and distribute power for the first time in the country’s history. All these, combined with the aggressive diversification from hydrocarbon by strengthening non-oil economy.
The net result is growth in GDP for 2025 and 2026 with non-oil activities the dominant contributor to the GDP growth. Nigerian economy is now more stable with inflation going down and under control, improved revenue collection and reported stronger investor confidence in the Nigerian economy. He maintains that the massive ongoing infrastructure development in the President’s legacy highway projects in Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, a 700km superhighway integrating rail transport, the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway, a 1,068Km North-South economic corridor, the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual carriageway, a vital northern artery and the Akwanga-Bauchi-Gombe-Biu-Maiduguri Superhighway, a 700Km highway are all but spectacular and hallmark of a visionary leader.
Chief Chimekwene once again chipped in that these projects that the Deputy Governor is touting are in almost all cases less than 20 percent complete. Sir Onyeme agrees that work is slow because of the new technology involved in road construction. He agrees that the reforms may be tough on families and households but that such pains are only temporary. He then called on all Nigerian communities in the Diaspora to be alive to their responsibilities as patriots to not only correct the wrong narratives but project the country positively through their words and actions.
The Deputy Governor was hosted by Chief Collins Odinjor and his wife Alero, supported by Mr. Kingsley Dike and his wife Tilda and Mr. Frederick Ogodo and his wife Henrietta. Also present was Coach Samson Siasia and his wife Eunice, Professor Nuru Akinyemi of Kennesaw State University, Dr. Dave Ogwu, Mr. Felix Ochei, Pastor Orlando Scott, Attorney Ani Alumona Oluku, Mr. Henry Nketeh, Mr. Raymond Ekuerhare, Chief Emeka Chimekwene, Mr. Ken Eze and Mrs. Ndidi Ogwu, who moderated the question-and-answer session after the Deputy Governor’s presentation.
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