By ENEWARIDIDEKE EKANPOU Silence is golden. This is a universal affirmation often appropriated metaphorically like a roadside pepper to suit any situation, however uncanny it looks. Golden as silence is, it is also disastrous — sowing seeds of fruitless allegations of maladministration, corruption, unaccountability, fund mismanagement and developmental incapability and aridity targeted at Burutu Council. This is undaunted by the fact that Burutu Local Government Area is evidentially propelled by transformational ideals injected into it by the council boss — because it is a virus-carrier. Silence becomes disastrous when it becomes the nursery, the proliferation site, of image-reduction folktales and rumours carefully nurtured with a pathologically futurological aim to demarket a targeted people against their marked growth in social and political life. Somebody has just gone silent here without justification. It is Dr Julius Takeme. Currently, the silence of Dr Takeme, the current Burutu Local Government Chairman, has become the proliferation site of folktales packaged and sold in sachets as believable stories bandied by masters of ripple-creation. Quickly ponder this. Dr Takeme actually merits some punitive measures for being silent over his own development issues in Burutu Council. This is particularly so when these development issues are being strategically echoed and amplified everywhere to demarket him. Perhaps it has not struck Takeme that the whole story of hunting either in the sea or in the forest will always be told in favour of the hunter without the rosy aspects that favour the lions and the sharks. For Chinua Achebe, the hunting history of man told will always bring glory but only to the hunter until the lions have engaged their own historians to tell their own story. That will be when he says: “Until lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” Takeme must be questioned here for not having his stories told by his own historians rather than by the hunters themselves who have their own interest buried in the stories bandied as a teleguided political history of non-performance. There are core development issues in Burutu Council that demand immediate attention. In line with his own vision, these development issues are being tackled by Dr Takeme along a conceptualised trajectory. Disastrously, Takeme does this without his own historians talking. This historical lacuna becomes a subject of exploitation by folktale merchants who tell moonlight tales to demarket him. No wisdom resides in Takeme’s uncanny silence over his two major development projects that are moving steadily in tune with their conceptualisation. There is no political theory, philosophy or ideology in which deliberate silence is nobly clothed as golden and honourable. The First Lady of Delta State, Deaconess Tobore Oborevwori, stormed Kiagbodo in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State with her pet project: You Matter Charity Foundation on August 6, 2026. Driven by the philosophy of “everybody is somebody”, the You Matter Charity Foundation performed remarkably in Burutu Council in its outreach programme. Free medical treatment and medical consultation services were generously extended to children afflicted by autism and allied special medical needs. Elderly persons, caregivers and many other vulnerable households had free access to all health, humanitarian and empowerment services rendered by the foundation. Specifically, 120 bags of rice were given to vulnerable households, 21 wheelchairs to persons with mobility challenges, N5m to 27-year-old Ombe Egbaseimokumo for hip replacement surgery. The visit was a huge success. The First Lady was warmly treated to the historic unity, hospitality and entertainment of Ijaw people, followed by their age-long culture of appreciation shown to the Governor’s wife for her remarkable free medical, humanitarian and empowerment services rendered to Burutu people. The anchor for the success of this visit was Dr Takeme, who coordinated and massively mobilised party faithfuls, councilors, community leaders, traditional institutions, religious bodies, civil society groups, stakeholders and the good people of Burutu to Kiagbodo to give the Governor’s wife the august treatment she deserves as the wife of the developmentally audacious governor in the South-South geopolitical region. Shockingly, even after this huge success recorded on August 6, 2026 at Kiagbodo in Burutu Local Government Area, Dr Takeme would not roll out his own historians to tell the story everywhere. This is the gap exploited by the hunters who tell the story of the hunting expedition without a glorification space narratively carved out for the lion and the shark. This is why ripples of distraction have been created by accredited masters of ripples in the river of development in Burutu. Takeme’s silence is questionable. He ideologically clothed him
Don't miss out on breaking stories and in-depth articles.
