I cannot but again acknowledge that I need each and every Deltan to do some reflection on the economic state of infrastructure and policy development surrounding the Niger Delta. It's time to change the narratives and create free ideology of rescue from state capture which has impoverished the masses and new age of existing ideas

How does a state go from being the shining light of Western Region, to one that poverty rules and desperation is etched unto the faces of citizens. In the old Western Region which led Nigeria in innovation and people oriented policies, the more admired entrepreneurs and civil servants were from the Midwest, out of which today's Delta is derived.

Our country may have gone through bad patches but Delta has no excuse being the home of many poor. My view of the way forward requires that we see reasons together. Very little of relatively significant fiscal transfers from the federation account that enter the state circulate in the state. If the velocity of the money is such that it briefly touches a few more people, prosperity will visit many presently poor and consolidate with those thriving. But studies show that the monies enter state coffers and bolt out.

Secondly, Delta has become barren of Corporate life. Most companies have moved from Delta. Shell which was a live wire left Warri. Pan Ocean moved to Benin and many Manufacturers closed shop. Have we asked why and sought a strategy for revival. These were the employers that paid our fellow compatriots the salaries which enabled them to thrive in dignity and financial freedom.

With population growth rates we have, not becoming obsessed with how we create jobs we will reap a whirlwind of anarchy. A strategy for rapid growth and massive job creation should not depend on fiscal transfers. Its possibilities have to come from private sector investments in value chains of areas we have comparative advantaģe.

Nothing stops Delta from becoming a network of Industrial Parks linked by world class infrastructure. Imagining the innovative strides the once laggard Ethiopia and fratricidal Rwanda are now exploring each year. Delta must rise up again. But it will take you and I working together, to build a development focused state for our children and not one being defined by excessive partisanship and ethnic chauvinism. So let's Arise and stand for economic freedom in Delta State.