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By Ejiro Idama

In a shocking display of ingratitude, an appointee of our dear Governor, the one and only “I AM THE GOVERNOR” himself, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, has come out to complain that appointees are hungry.

Yes, you heard me right. Hungry.

The video, which we have seen and watched with our korokoro eyes, shows one of Sheriff’s own boys, not opposition, not Obidients, not APC rebels, his own appointee, Baba Kome Idhese, lamenting that the Governor has abandoned everybody. That Commissioners are hungry. That Special Advisers, Special Assistants, Executive Assistants, and all the other Assistants to the Assistant are all holding empty stomachs and waiting for alert.

According to the narrator, Oga Sheriff is unreachable. You call, he no pick. You text, he no reply. You go Government House, protocol will tell you “His Excellency is inspecting flyover.”

And we ask: why are you complaining?

Did you not beg for appointment? Did you not print posters of “Thank You Mr. Governor for Finding Me Worthy”? Did you not make long Facebook posts with Sheriff’s picture and caption “The Man with the MORE Agenda”?

Now, MORE Agenda has turned to MORE Hunger. The Ukodo pot dried up so soon.

But make we reason am: how can you be hungry in Delta State? Are we not building bridges? Are we not pouring concrete? Are we not commissioning roads that already existed? My brother, go and swallow the bridge. Use concrete to make eba. Lick asphalt.

You want Sheriff to be picking your call? The man is busy. He is commissioning flyovers in Effurun, roundabout in Asaba, and gutter in Ughelli. He is a very busy infrastructural governor. He has no time for stomach infrastructure. Did one mischievous author not say that man cannot live by bread alone? In Delta, we live by flyover alone.

Now, to be fair to our Governor, not everybody is hungry. Let’s correct Baba Kome small. The SSG is not really hungry like that. That one is at least seeing delicious crumbs from the master’s table. He is managing, he is chopping small small. Na the Commissioners and the small boys wey dem give appointment with N50k and branded face cap plus one Facebook frame be the real victims. The ones wearing Agbada up and down for events, but pocket is doing dry fasting.

And hunger is now a general appointment? A non-discriminatory hunger? Sheriff is truly a detribalised leader. He distributes hunger equitably to everyone, except one category.

Because let us be honest, Sheriff’s family does not look hungry at all. In fact, they are looking very well-fed and well-funded. The sons and brothers are no longer just family members, they are emerging emperors and overnight billionaires. Contracts here, deals there, everywhere you turn, it is “family.” The only MORE that is really MORE-ing is inside the family compound. For them, Delta is flowing with milk and honey. For the appointees, it is flowing with tears and good grammar.

Which brings us to the biggest joke of all. This is the same Sheriff who has severally boasted on live TV, with chest out like a wrestler, that Delta State has too much money. That we are very well loaded financially. That money is not our problem.

So we ask with all due respect, Your Excellency: If Delta has too much money, why are Deltans hungry and visiting refuse dumps for survival? Why are your own appointees doing midnight fasting not for prayer, but for lack of alert? Why is a state that is “financially loaded” be unable to load the stomach of its people?

Your people are not asking for flyover to climb and go to heaven. They are asking for food to stay alive on earth.

Sheriff, sir, your people are crying. Dem say dem no dey use bridge or concrete swallow eba.

• Ejiro Idama writes from the mangroves of Idheze, Isoko South LGA.