He came into the consciousness of Deltans in 2015 and became a regular face and voice on DBSTV and radio when Sen (Dr.) Ifeanyi Okowa, on assumption of office, appointed him as the state’s commissioner for Information. That was his steeping stone to grace!
Patrick Ukah on his part immediately hit the ground running by endearing himself to Deltans and members of the fourth Estate of Realm in the state. First, he earnestly began to reposition the parastalals like Delta State Broadcasting Station, DBSTV/radio and the state owned newspapers, The Pointer, under his ministry. He not only began to dream dreams he began to actualizing them. He reinvigorated the weekly exco briefly, redesigned and repackaged the state government newsletter magagzine, …, by inviting external writers to contribute to to it instead of making it a civil servant affairs only. In no less a time, Ukah warmed himself more into the heart of Okowa. He found a place in the moon and it was not surprising to this writer when the …. monarch of Okpanam conferred on him the Akatakpo Enyi1 of Okpanam kingdom, for producing great sons and daughters.
He was so good on the job that when he was assigned a new portfio after the expiration of Okowa’s first tenure, a section of the media in the state has not stopped using him as a benchmark in rating others that have come after him; a pointer to this is a recent positively, beautiful report on him by an online medium, Secretreporters,.
“Most of us miss Ukah. When he was Commissioner for Information …. he took care of all of us,” the dread news platform quoted a veteran journalist as saying.
And when he made a comeback to the cabinet as commissioner for education (basic and primary), not a few Deltans applauded his appointment, hailing him as a round peg, in a round hole.
At the ministry, he discharged this job creditabilily well, even in the face of COVID-19; this writer, cannot forget in a hurry how he called in a certain afternoon in 2020, to disclose that the officials of his ministry will be going to Adonte to inspect one of the town’s dilapidated primary school building with a view to reconstructing it. Today, the school boasts of a brand new classroom block constructed within a space of three months. That is the stuff Ukah is made off. But for the fact that his boss, the governor of Delta State, is already an EKWUEME, chieftaincy wise, one would have persuaded the Obi (King) of Adonte…. to confer him with the Ekwueme of Adonte title. Ukah came to the ministry, which he incidentally took over from Barr. Chinedu Ebie whom he is also succeeding as the SSG, saw and achieved.
It is not unlikely that the civil servants/teachers he worked with there will surely miss him, the way journalists he met in the course of his job of speaking for the government at the information ministry, are still wishing, two years after he left, that he is still the commissioner.
At the ministry, he discharged this job creditabilily well, even in the face of COVID-19; this writer, cannot forget in a hurry how he called in a certain afternoon in 2020, to disclose that the officials of his ministry will be going to Adonte to inspect one of the town’s dilapidated primary school building with a view to reconstructing it. Today, the school boasts of a brand new classroom block constructed within a space of three months. That is the stuff Ukah is made off. But for the fact that his boss, the governor of Delta State, is already an EKWUEME, chieftaincy wise, one would have persuaded the Obi (King) of Adonte…. to confer him with the Ekwueme of Adonte title. Ukah came to the ministry, which he incidentally took over from Barr. Chinedu Ebie whom he is also succeeding as the SSG, saw and achieved.
It is not unlikely that the civil servants/teachers he worked with there will surely miss him, the way journalists he met in the course of his job of speaking for the government at the information ministry, are still wishing, two years after he left, that he is still the commissioner.
Though, the hand writing was on the wall that he will return after Okowa dissolved his cabinet. He was made the chairman of a committee that organised the state’s praise and worship to mark the sixth year of the present administration in the state. Again delivered a show stopping event.
Ukah may be blunt to a fault, sometimes brash when making his point but has a heart of a baby, forgives easily and above all, is passionate about the views he believes in and making. No wonder Ms. Ijoma Uba, the general manager of Trend FM, one of the hottest FM stations in the state capital in a Facebook tribute to him on his his birthday on April 10 this year said this of him “The way he forgave all I did and said about him, promised to support me as a GM without prompting and the way he has been doing that is quite commendable.”
On his part, Mr. Pius Mordi, a former SA to a former Commissioner of Information in the state, Mr. Chike Ogeah (Esq) had this to say of him on hearing that he has been made the SSG.
“Only a distinguished technocrat, great mind and focused leader gets this. And you are these and more. Congratulations on your appointment as SSG. May God bless you with the grace to succeed.”
And in the same breath, as you file out later this morning in the best of Akwa Ocha Anioma or your cut to fit dandy suit, I cannot but join Mordi in praying to God to give you the grace to excel further and be a good ambassador of Delta North in discharging your duty.
