There is a raging narrative in town. Chief Dr. Julius Takeme, the Executive Chairman of Burutu Local Government Area, is the centre of this raging narrative in Burutu Council. Among professional rumour-mongers and wishy-washy thinkers, the raging narrative has bred flighty flights that endanger true perceptions and views. From the beloved gramophones of the anchors of this raging narrative no force can drown the resultant verbal decibel, stridently amplified like the strings of a guitar twanged to capture the attention of all in a gathering. That Takeme the Executive Chairman of Burutu Local Government has done nothing in Burutu Council since he became the democratically elected chairman is quaintly intriguing.
Everywhere one turns to in Burutu Local Government Area, the narrative rages like harmattan fire, conquering and ravaging swathes of raffia palm forests. On the raging narrative that Dr. Takeme has done nothing in Burutu Council I journeyed to Burutu recently. Like the 'Egeretukpa' light fondly used by nocturnal hunters of animals and fishes in Arekandugo creek, I cast my investigative eyes on Burutu and saw the narrative in clear outlines.
It would not be a fairytale to drum everywhere that Takeme has not done anything developmentally meaningful and stunning in Burutu when the bandwidth required to trace the marks on the envisioned development map conceptually created is visibly beyond reach. On bandwidth deficiency traceable to gratuitous policy analysts, it is safer to drum everywhere like the coucal (Otiti bird) that Takeme has done nothing in Burutu. Rather unapologetically, this is the path we must travel today, but not without the verifying echoes of my visit to Burutu.
I am a seasoned forester accustomed to walking steadily on forest paths paved with 'Okekeye' wood. The seasoned forester I am for decades, I FOOTED around the headquarters of Burutu Council on 15 November 2025 . This is purposely done to be fully grounded and updated on the drummed developmental nothingness of Takeme in Burutu. Before me stood a 2.1 kilometres of internal roads around the council. Somebody told me it was a project taken on by Takeme. Within the radius of the council stood some new buildings alongside some renovated buildings, all numbering over eight. These buildings were speedily brought into existence within the one hundred days of Takeme's chairmanship. I asked if these were the only markers of Takeme's performance. Without responsive words I was only signalled to continue my 'legging'. So I continued my foot journey like the typical forester on the wooden handle of whose axe carried horizontally on the left shoulder hangs a piassava basket that still cries to be filled with both live and dead grubs
Walking some distance from where I saw both the new buildings and the renovated ones, a gigantic edifice sprang up before me - a gigantic edifice in its embryonic stage of development. I saw engineers and many others at work. I inquired what it was. They told me it was the rumoured secretariat currently taken on by the council's chairman with amazing speed - an amazing speed strategically targeted to guarantee a comfortable and spacious working environment for council staff and visitors. Clearly, this is bound to enhance the productivity of the workers. It is likely to be a stunning architectural piece where all the departments in the council will be accommodated when completed.
Some visible distance away from the ultra-modern council secretariat I was conducted round another architecturally stunning gigantic building. It is another ultra-modern building specifically designed as a building for the conduct of legislative business among the elected councilors representing the various wards. When completed, it will be the centre for conduct of legislative business in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State.
The headquarters of Burutu Council has a paramount ruler. Darkness walks the streets of Burutu as a paramount ruler at night.Takeme has dethroned this paramount ruler of darkness through the installation of solar-powered street lights. At night darkness no longer intimidates and rules the streets of Burutu since everywhere is now illuminated. Walking on the streets of Burutu, night has become another designated period of brightness that drives darkness from the streets of Burutu.The worrisome arrogance of darkness is no more.
What about the free medical attention given to all sons and daughters of Burutu that suffer afflictions of the eyes. People afflicted with problems of sight are freely given medical attention, including surgical operations where the health conditions demand it. For the poor the free medical attention powered by Takeme is a 'medical manna' from Heaven designed to make them healthful and increase their productivity at work.
Specifically targeted at those with eye health challenges, a free eye care programme has actually kicked off in Burutu . The free eye programme started on 25 November 2025 and will end in 30 November 2025. Within this designated period, 500 free cataract operations, 1000 free post-op medication packs, 500 free sunshades and 5000 free reading glasses will be given to people whose medical conditions require them. By this approach to health, afflicted people are given hope and lifeline. Even after all these activities envisioned to address the health challenges of Burutu people, some analysts would still deafen the world with the anachronistic mental poison that the chairman of Burutu Council has done nothing for Burutu in development terms. Can an afflicted society grow developmentally when their health challenges are not tackled rightly?
Takeme was democratically enthroned as the Executive Chairman of Burutu based on his promises of rapid development that draws on the resources of technocrats. Yet, even before a year old in his chairmanship, there is already a narrative that he is doing nothing in the council. There are echoes of idiosyncratic pathology in this narrative woven around Takeme.
On earth there are designated policy critics/analysts who who take on their task without a framework that guides their analysis of policies and executed government projects. For such critics and analysts, their success lies in producing acidic fury and the famous Shakespearean nothingness that subvert and derail the developmental trajectory of a given administrator as this acidic fury and meaningless clangour only provoke distraction and stray from the developmentally healthy path.
The raging narrative on Takeme must be engaged 'juxtapositionally' for the production of healthy, balanced and believable result when one realises that Takeme has a development vision that aligns with the MORE Agenda of Governor Oborevwori of Delta State. Critics without a theoretical framework required to be drawn on for a believable analysis habitually forget this component of criticism and policy analysis and end up embarrassingly as jarring notes.
Dispel all hesitations.Let all the Burutus subscribe to the narrative oath that Takeme has done nothing in Burutu. Yes, Takeme has actually done nothing, but I saw gigantic secretariat and legislative house being constructed! I also saw 2.1 kilometres of internal roads completed and other completed projects already highlighted. Could all these existing projects be projects powered by Artificial Intelligence in Burutu Council? Have we progressed digitally to the height where AI-powered projects could be physicalised?
Probably, the critics and analysts of Burutu Council would have struck a chord if they had said Takeme's best in performance does not meet their prescriptions and expectations. The zero-performance attributed to him killed the merit in their criticism of the chairman's approach to council administration because the available performance statistics contradict and invalidate their dramatised categorisation of Takeme in development terms. Could this be the equivalent of baying for one's blood without a just cause?
Some people are blessed with discernment while others labour to have a sprinkle of discernment. To all those endowed with discernment, they know that it is the man on the dugout canoe the hippopotamus seeks to destroy in the guise of searching for the dugout canoe.There is something quaintly interesting about the refrain that Takeme has done nothing in Burutu. To retain the quaint gratification the narrative refrain provokes, let us unceasingly parrot that Takeme has done nothing in Burutu, even when the apostles of this narrative refrain share a buried ironic alignment with it in undertones rather than in overtones. In the deeply buried thoughts of the apostles of the narrative refrain, Takeme is a developmentally healthy tree with buds bound to produce healthy and delicious fruits when his ongoing pioneering legacy projects are eventually completed.
Philosophically for Izonebi Alfred, only a ripe bush mango attracts attention. Evilly purposed or benevolently purposed, Takeme perpetually lives on the lips of people because he is a ripe bush mango with a characteristic magnetic pull. Therefore, it must now be comfortably settled that the narrative that Takeme has done nothing for Burutu must be a quote misquoted; it must be the product of a misunderstood phenomenon but now understood and mastered with all the nuances clearly identified, without being further puzzled and gaslighted by bandwith-deprived and vengeful policy analysts strategically at work for spatial visibility.
Dr. Ekanpou writes from Akparemogbene, Delta State
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