ZIK GBEMRE SPEAKS ON NAMING OSUBI-WARRI AIRPORT AFTER DIETE SPIFF: BUHARI’S MALICIOUS PARTING GIFT
Delta politicians, whether APC or opposition, will not notice the incitement, but it is what it is, an incitement for outgone President Mohammadu, Buhari to name Osubi Airport, Warri after former Military Administrator of old Rivers state, now Bayelsa monarch, Alfred Diette Spiff.
What malicious audacity? That the insensitive President Buhari did not see many of the federal government institutions in Rivers and Bayelsa states that can be named Alfred Diete-Spiff, and it has to be in Delta state he will find the space to give Diette-Spiff such parting gift.
Buhari’s action is an insult on Delta people, particularly the Urhobo community in the state whose land the Osubi Airport is sited. I urge President Bola Tinubu to without delay rename Osubi-Warri Airport as Mukoro Mowoe Airport or Michael Ibru Airport. Delta has as many outstanding heroes, alive or living, deserving to be immortalized with landmarks named after them.
Our greater expectation is for President Tinubu to expand the runway/tarmac and expand the Osubi-Warri Airport to international standards. Effurun Barracks which was changed from David Ejoor Barracks by Olusegun Obasanjo for reasons best known to him should be renamed David Ejoor Barracks Effurun in his honour as the first Military Governor of Midwest/Bendel, now Edo and Delta.
Ejoor was also pioneer Commandant of the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA), former Chief of Army Staff, and one of the longest serving Chiefs of Army Staff Nigeria has had. Buhari in his haste and desperation to make history made a deliberate blunder in naming of Osubi-Warri Airport located in Osubi Town, Okpe LGA of Delta after Alfred Diete Spiff.
Is it everything that Urhobos will be short-changed on? This is an insult to the Urhobo nation. Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Anthony Enahoro, Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa were in exclusive right nationalists and prominent national leaders and the Federal Government of Nigeria could name any federal project/institute after them in any part of the country.
David Ejoor played a significant role in unifying Nigeria apart from being military Governor of Midwest/Bendel now known as Edo and Delta states. There was no historical assessment before this deliberate error by Buhari or he was being deliberately malicious and spiteful in the decision. Again, I urge President Tinubu to correct the anomaly.
As narrated and advised by Emmanuel Ojameruaye, “These parting gifts by Buhari are misplaced, abhorrent and are symptomatic of the corruption, clannishness and ineptitude that characterized his 8-years disastrous reign.
“I hope President Tinubu will summon the courage to annul these last-ditch efforts to appease some people at the expense of others. I am sure Buhari did not consult with Shell, the Delta State Government and Urhobo leaders before unilaterally renaming Osubi airport. Specifically, the Urhobo nation should protest the naming of Osubi Airport after a non-Urhobo.
The airport is not an international airport. It is in fact an aerodrome built by Shell. It was not built by the FG. Even if that is now the case, the FG has failed to expand it to the status of even a “domestic airport”.
If it must be renamed as there are more deserving Urhobo people including Mukoro Mowoe, Patrick Aziza, David Ejoor, David Dafinone, Michael Ibru, etc. We must act now before they start erecting signs with the purported new name. UPU wake up and act Now!”
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