SIR: Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, recently said his administration would collaborate with local government councils to pay the backlog of pensions owed retired primary school teachers and local government retirees. He advised local government chairmen against multiple taxations to reduce the burden of fuel subsidy removal on the people.
 
With his declaration above, the governor demonstrated that he is a public office holder capped with authentic leadership vision and laced with virtue of sympathy and empathy, which are necessary attributes needed for quality delivery in public leadership.
 
Most impressive is the awareness that Oborevwori who spoke when the State Chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), paid him a courtesy visit at Government House, Asaba, also observed that; “Unlike some states, our local government councils have full control of their finances. We shall not interfere with your finances and we will offer assistance where necessary. In this regard, we shall be collaborating with the Local Government Pension Bureau, to see how the lingering pension issues will be resolved. We may not have been where we want to be but I am proud of the progress we have made.’’

The election of Oborevwori as governor of the state, Deltans have conquered their fears and they can now walk boldly forward as their governor recognises the true meaning of three tiers of government in a federal and state as he is not ready to put the rule of law in danger.

It remains a hopeful sign of a leader abreast and respects the time honoured dictum that ‘‘the greater the power of the executive grows, the more difficult it becomes for other branches to perform their constitutional roles in the state. And as the executive acts outside its constitutionally prescribed roles and it’s able to control access to information that would expose its action to the world, it becomes increasingly difficult for the other branches to police it. Once that ability is lost, democracy itself is threatened-unless stopped, lawlessness grows and we become a government of men and not law.’’
 
If bringing real and sustainable development to the state is the goal of the present administration in the state, another area the governor must  watch and give urgent attention is the enforcement of the law that criminalises illegal and forceful collection of levies also known as ‘deve’ from public and private developers in the state that was passed under him, as the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, and signed into law on Friday, August 25, 2018, by the immediate past governor, Ifeanyi Okowa.
 Titled “Delta State Public and Private Properties Protection Bill 2018,” the law was made to put to an end to incessant harassment of developers particularly by youths who often times chase away investors ready to do business in the state.
 Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi is the programme coordinator (Media and Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos.