A TECHNOCRAT AND ASTUTE PERSONALITY
Bagging reputable accolades and awards for excellence that is widely acclaimed to be worthy its onions by all and sundry especially from superiors, colleagues and subordinates, even close watchers of event in one’s professional calling is no mean feat. Lady Doc. Patience Ogbewe is principled, transparent, a mother, grandmother and a wife. She has smoothened many roughness of poverty disturbances in the society of Nigeria. A woman who has a huge sense of humour, she is morally loyal, rational and a priceless being.
The opinion poll conducted by ‘’The Forward News’’ Board of Trustees nominated the State Coordinator, Delta Cares (D- Cares), as the most outstanding Personality. She is an elite Nigeria Mother, Reputable, knowledgeable , experienced, and very professional in the discharge of her duties. A woman destined for greatness, indeed, her name is written in gold In the annals of history by rendering you a willing instrument for unusual transformation and selfless services to the people of Delta State and the nation in general. The fellow is indeed a divine calling driven by deep passion and untainted by quire, she is a virtuous woman and a true definition of African mothers who is so passionate about every individuals wellbeing. She is encourage able and has attained several fundamental status which makes her an intellectual interesting being carryout her duty diligently and perfectly
Excerpts:
Who are you to the society?
My name is Lady Doc. Patience Ogbewe, I have been in the society for quite some time, supervising some activities, works and projects for the benefit of mankind. I have gone through the ladder of success and the system as it were and fully involved in management of activities. We address issues of poverty, socio-economic challenges to help people get their feet back and making their lives better. I have worked with a lot of organizations like UNGP, UNICEF, UNIDO and under the state intervention social protection agencies and here I am today as the coordinator of the Delta State Covid-19 Action Recovery Economic Stimulus program (D-CARES). D- Cares is one avenue where we can reach out to those people who have been impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. Presently, the scope has been expanded to bringing as many as possible into the net of intervention those who have been affected by another socio-economic pandemic. Although we know we are living with covid already, but we are also looking at environmental challenges now and socio-economic problems generally like flooding, violence in the society. This is who I am generally; I am also a mother, grandmother and a wife.
Can you provide a summary of Delta State Cares Initiative and its Primary Objectives?
Delta Care is an offshoot of the NIGERIA CARES (NG-CARES) program of Nigeria. When the covid-19 pandemic came, a lot of people’s businesses were affected and even those who were already poor became poorer and for that reason this program was introduced to ameliorate the effects of covid-19 in the lives of Nigerians generally. The objective is to ensure poverty is reduced drastically using strong structures that would be able to implement the activities quickly when urgencies arise.
How Have the Initiatives of D-CARES impacted the Lives of People in Delta state since its Inception specific to ongoing projects?
Well, D-CARES initiative is quite commendable and like I said, the D-CARES Is an offshoot of the NG-CARES which is been operated at the national level and states were expected to domesticate it at the state level. So, here in Delta state, it is called Delta Cares, and the acronym is D-CARES. The initiatives involve having to address the issues of poverty. In addressing the issues of poverty, we must reach out to vulnerable persons in the society, and we have people under Area 1 which reach out to people with disabilities, we also address the chronically sick people, Widows and even the youths. We know that period, a lot of businesses went down and most persons who were working lost their jobs I mean the youths and even if they were not working that period, there was frustration, strive and to curb some of these things, we will need to engage them. So, D-CARES cater for such category of persons. Then food security under agriculture, we provide input to farmers because at that period people were not going to farm because when you farm, you get your seedlings and when you don’t go to the farm most of the wild animals get the seedlings first so we had to give them seeds to start all over. We also made sure that water is provided in market sites during that period cause of the need to wash hands regularly. So, in Delta, we are strong on input delivery, socio- transfers to the weak, the chronically sick, we transfer funds to them. We have projects that are centred on Health, education, renovation of school buildings. We have another sector whereby firms, businesses that were also impacted are boosted again by giving operational funds to them so they can resuscitate their businesses again and pay salaries to their workers. In view of the best practices, we also see how we can enhance the output of their firms by providing them with new technologies, ICT and solar. So, Delta state is fully involved in all these activities.
How Does the Body Identify and Plan Out the Needs and Concerns of Different Communities in The State?
We have at the back of our minds, as many Deltans as possible should benefit from this program. But we all know to be sincere that everyone cannot be reached but because of the focused program, we have targets. Like I told you we have different Result Areas. For the Result Area one (RA1), we have increasing social transfers, we are talking of areas where they live and do business like selling of Beans cake (Akara), Baking so we give them funds to boost their businesses. Under RA1, we don’t just get the beneficiaries arbitrarily, we don’t just go out. We use the social register which have been certified by the world bank because this D-CARES program is a world bank supported program. So, we use the social register which entails the category of persons we want to target under Result Area One which comprise of the weak, the vulnerable and the sick. So, we don’t just go and pick people randomly. Initially when the program started, people were saying “oh ma I have this person, I have that person” but it is beyond me. We mine the names from the social register and if your name is there, you are validated, and to note that register is been updated regularly so that as many persons as possible can be brought in to benefit. Then for the food security aspect, we also have their farmers register, where we register farmers that have been impacted by flood or otherwise, and from there we ascertain their needs. Same goes for the firms or companies. For the RA3, we work with the Bank of Industry (BOI) and once you have been verified, we then go ahead to initiate the support.
What Measures are Then Taken to Ensure Transparency and Accountability in the Implementation of Delta State Care Projects?
The integrity of any program has to do with transparency and accountability, therefore, we try to do our best. We are in partnership with the world bank under the Federal Care support Unit. We give our reports to these higher bodies where we know you cannot subvert information. Recently, we just submitted the audited financial report of the state which includes the financial management report. We are supposed to submit the financial reports on quarterly basis to the world bank. If there are issues, they report back to us, and we work on them. Even in the state, there are lots of interrogation where there are grey areas and work on them. We have what we call the Program Action Plan and under that area there are some reports that are mandatory like financial reports, procurement reports whereby the procured persons and supposed persons ensure that their procurement is adequately followed if not questions may be raised. We also do a lot of meetings. The structure of the program has given us a lot of integrity in the sense of transparency because we are not on our own, we are answerable to a high-level committee and the high-level committee is headed by the chairman and has other commissioners. So, everything is systemized. Before I take any decision or action, the chairman must be aware. Then we do a lot of sensitizations. We have our social media handles to help us answer to questions from the public as many as possible.
How Has D- Cares Collaborated with Local Communities, NGOs, and Other Stakeholders to Achieve its Goals?
By the design of the program, we are expected to work more at the community level. So, it is at the community level that we mine the beneficiaries. Very few are in urban areas. So, in the community, there are committees set up called community project management committee and these people take charge of and manage the project in that community. This office is like the implementing office. We have the technical office whereby, before they get to their target, they go to the community and meet with the rulers and before meeting them, they go to the local government where they have representatives who takes them to the traditional rulers and the traditional rulers would then inform the people that this is what is coming. Without the cooperation of these rulers, I don’t think we would have made progress. Sometimes we don’t even have conflicts in the community where some rulers are like why and what are you coming for, issues like that. Then, NGO’s, we do not necessarily engage NGOs, but they have been our partners in every step of the way. We also have 3rd party monitors; these are the persons that goes to the site to identify some of the project on ground and that is where accountability also comes in place.
Are There any Notable Challenges or Obstacles Faced by D- Cares in the Course of its Work and if yes, How Have These been Addressed ?
When the program came on board, everyone thought It was going to be a free fall program and it was like okay! We all know the amount involved it was like twenty million dollars fund of which you must earn because this program is p4R (Performance for Result) it is not like other programs in the world bank whereby they give you money and you work but this one you work then they will reimburse you. So, everybody is struggling to work. At the initial stage, most people did not understand the concept so in trying to implement and see how we can succeed, there were a lot of oppositions because we had a strict way of work. Most of the time, I did a lot of sensitization advocacy meetings with some leaders of thoughts, key stake holders for them to be able to understand because in this program, being a p4R program, the more targets you have the more funds you have during reimbursement. The idea of this program according to world bank is to list as many people as possible out of the poverty range. So, we try to let these leaders know that it is not about the money but about the people. This took a lot of lobbying, cajoling so that the political leaders can allow us to operate this program the way it is supposed to and now they are beginning to understand and there is need for all hands to be on deck so that reimbursements can become more higher and people who are supposed to benefit should benefit.
How Can Individuals and Organizations Support or Get Involved with Delta State Cares?
The support we need is that they should understand the working of the system, we cannot arbitrarily select beneficiaries if your name is not in the social register of RA1, RA2 OR RA3. Again, when government is addressing the issue of the poor, it also affects the social situation of the government because it makes the poor become active and the economy is more activated and strengthened. Also, it reduces the stress of the middle class because if maybe I have someone who cannot eat 2 meals a day, it directly indirectly becomes a responsibility to me. But if the government intervenes, for that period, he will not come and disturb me. So, there is a kind of balance. Then organizations can also support us because this program is a wonderful program and as you implement it, you get excited. There have been stories of people who have benefited, and their lives have been changed and those people have further diversified into other things. So, we welcome donations.
What Guiding Principles Laid Down the Blocks in Your Life and What do you Want to be Remembered for ?
First and foremost, my trust is in God. Like I tell people, without God, you cannot do anything and with him all things are possible. No matter how beautiful, strong and organized you are. If God is not involved, you are not going anywhere. That is the reason why you see some big men when something happens, they will begin to run Helter skelter. Then, for me I don’t like acidic people. My environment is full of laughter and Joy and that is how I brought up my children. But some people are not used to such life. So, when you show Love, you are robust. Some people are coming from a foundation of lack of trust, a foundation of violence. So, when you show them love, instead of responding or reciprocating the love, they are skeptical and sometimes they feel that showing back love makes you less of a person. So, at that point, I tell people I don’t easily hands up situations, I am a goal getter. So, I tell my children that your life should be the one to infect people and not the other way round. If you have some traits that are positive, you should be the one to infect people and not the negative persons infecting you. Then, what I want to be remembered for is trying my best to be a good mother, I enjoy been a mother. I want to be remembered for doing my best and doing as unto the Lord and not unto man. I am retired from civil service, but I was given this appointment and I’m doing this work with all my heart and with hard work. So hard work gives you success.
Where Do You See Delta State Cares in the Next 3 Years ?
Delta State program is time bound. It is supposed to be a two-year program but was extended till next year (2024). But again, that is what we call sustainability; we are trying to see if we can stream it into respective ministries. With the success of the program thus far, the world bank is thinking of continuing with the program, so we are thinking of continuing the program because the government is interested in it. Right now, we have about 2500 boots that are benefiting under the program and we just enrolled extra 5000 moving forward. So, if all those ones are taken out of their situation, it will help the nation.
