By Felix Ofou.
Finally, former Deputy Senate President (DSP), Senator Ovie Omo-Agege has woken up from a troubled rest.
A man who was severely defeated in a contest he lost so woefully, deserved the kind of inevitable rest he took. No politician has been given a knockout in Delta State (TKO) the way Omo-Agege was beaten.
The former DSP was roundly defeated by Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori in the 2023 Governorship election in Delta State. His abysmal performance in that poll shocked everyone, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that he was consigned to ignominy thereafter.
Oborevwori won 21 out of 25 local governments in Delta State. He also won by over a 100,000 votes margin, such that it left Omo-Agege’s political party, All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state totally fractured.
For one, that defeat at the polls left Omo-Agege in deep quandary. He had boasted to former President Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu, then the APC presidential flag bearer that he would make a mince meat of Oborevwori, who was candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Governorship contest.
Following the false expectation that DSP would triumph at the polls, huge sums were allegedly made available to help in prosecuting the contest. The high point was the said release of N80Billion by Buhari for the Agbor-Obiaruku-Abraka-Eku highway with a view to shore up Omo-Agege’s stature in the polls.
Despite assurances of so called federal might and overflow of resources, the APC candidate suffered a shocking defeat that left even his ardent supporters speechless. It turned out that he had been grossly overrated before the elections.
But, the defeat of Obarisi, as he is also called was the climax of a crescendo of events calculated at stopping Oborevwori from becoming Governor of Delta State. The opposition, to which he was the leader had tried unsuccessfully to use the courts to frustrate the candidate of the PDP from being victorious.
It is on record that Oborevwori endured 38 cases unleashed on him by Omo-Agege and his cohorts in various courts, all of which were effectively evacuated by the Supreme Court. This is aside machinations aimed at manipulating agents of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security all of which were similarly thwarted by the PDP.
Till date, work has not commenced on the Agbor-Obiaruku-Abraka-Eku highway. This is in spite of the whopping N80BILLION which Omo-Agege himself announced had been released by Buhari at the start of campaigns for the 2023 general elections.
So, it was a comical diatribe on display to see the former DSP coming out of hiding on Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at Oghara, headquarters of Ethiope West local government to claim leadership of the APC, a party fractured on three fronts.
Which of the three known factions of the APC was he referring to when he spoke as leader of the party? Is it the Chief Paulinus Akpeki led APC or that led by Chief Frank Abighor. Or was Omo-Agege talking as head of a group fiercely loyal to the Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, SAN, which interestingly has cornered most of the federal appointments that have been given to Delta APC?
DSP, at the event, tried to cast aspersions on successive administrations that have ruled Delta State after Chief James Ibori, accusing all of them, including the Oborevwori administration of profligacy. What do you expect from a man who has consistently ran for the Governorship of the state after Ibori and lost?
Obviously, Omo-Agege cannot see anything good in Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan who defeated him at the primaries in 2006 and became Governor of Delta in 2007 after Ibori. Neither will he forgive Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa who took over from Uduaghan in 2015 and produced Oborevwori as successor in 2023. This clearly is the case of a sore loser on the prowl.
Obarisi particularly accused the incumbent Governor of wasting Delta State funds and paying debts with what is left in spite of increased federal allocation and revenue accruing from 13% derivation. He also attributed the increased funding to the economic policies of the Tinubu administration at the centre.
How convoluted can a man’s reasoning be? Can we really talk of increased money in any state in Nigeria? What is the worth of such money in the face of galloping inflation, gross devaluation of the Naira, unparalleled hunger, mass poverty, mass unemployment, daily closure of Major factories and multinationals in the country?
Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have rightly stated that Tinubu’s economic policies are not working. That the policies have transformed Nigeria into the poverty capital of the world, with over 130 million of the population living below the poverty mark.
Is this the model that Omo-Agege is recommending for Delta to copy! A model that has unleashed economic hardship on the people? Why would anyone recommend APC’s T-pain as remedy to our woes? Obviously, this is not a path desirable for Deltans and one they would want to embrace at this time.
Any wonder then that DSP was roundly rejected by the electorate in the last elections. The man is simply out of touch with reality and deserves to be dumped in the dustbin of history. It is therefore not surprising that President Tinubu has also shoved him aside and dealing directly with Keyamo, the Aviation Minister.
For nearly 19 months of the Tinubu led Federal Government, none of Omo-Agege’s close associates has been appointed, either as aides to the President or into boards of parastatals. He remains one of the Governorship candidates of the APC in the 2023 elections that is jobless and without federal appointments.
Tuesday’s outing was a surreptitious ploy at seeking redemption. It was a clever way at seeking penance from party faithful whose hopes were dashed in the 2023 elections and who have been locked out of the Tinubu government as a result of Omo-Agege’s vengeful politics.
However, it is doubtful if DSP succeeded in his plan. Has he reconciled with the President? Why has he not visited Aso Rock to congratulate Tinubu in Abuja, the federal capital since May 29, 2023? How many of his nominees have been accepted for appointments, aside vain promises that something will be done?
The truth is that the man is his own nemesis. When he had opportunity to be DSP what did he really do for Deltans? What projects are standing as legacies of that tenure? Are they testament of a man who truly wants to rule Delta State? Can history be kind to Omo-Agege? Where are the roads?
His party men have spoken out against his style of politics, pointing often to his seeming myopic and narrow-minded worldview. No wonder APC supporters continue to blame him for their loss at the polls.
Aside the Federal Medical University, Kwale whose establishment is traceable to Omo-Agege, pundits claim that other significant projects attracted by him to the state, like the polytechnic and law school campus are said to have been located in Oromoru his village, to the consternation of party faithful.
Though he claims to be from Orogun in Ughelli North LGA, pundits claimed he ignored the main town and opted to develop only his village. They also claimed that aside his younger brother, Jimmy Omo-Agege, the former DSP never truly empowered anyone close to him throughout his tenure in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
Why would such a man then seek to occupy public office! Why would he continue to deceive himself that the people love him? For how long can he continue to deceive the people into believing that he is the preferred choice of APC? Does he not know that his political career came to an abrupt end with the abysmal performance in the 2023 polls?
What the man really needs to do is to seek forgiveness from party faithful, instead of grandstanding and parading himself as party leader. People entrusted their lives and destiny to his hands and he betrayed them. This is a fact of history that he cannot gloss over or wish away.
Rather than embark on a cacophony of lies, Omo-Agege must apologize to his people and earn their support, where possible. Otherwise, he should return to perpetual hibernation where he has been since May 29, 2023 when Oborevwori took over as Governor of Delta State.
As for His Excellency, the incumbent Governor of Delta State that DSP sought to disparage, he should have realized by now that it was an exercise in futility giving the double honours bestowed on Oborevwori by the Urhobo Council of Traditional Rulers and the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) worldwide.
At an epochal event to mark the 93rd anniversary of the UPU, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, the immediate past speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, was inducted into the Urhobo Hall of Fame for sterling performance in government. He was also conferred with title of Omorotomo of Urhobo land by the Urhobo Council of Traditional Rulers representing the 24 clans in Urhobo nation.
In attendance were the leaders of other ethnic groups in the State, notably Isoko, Ijaw, Itsekiri and Anioma. They all attested to Oborevwori’s landmark achievements in office for the past 19 months. How else can the peoples love for a man be gauged when these notable leaders have so declared support for him and his administration?
Our kind advice to Omo-Agege is to seek urgent redemption so as to be accepted by the motley crowd that once supported him. But this must not be done by telling lies or deriding other players in the political system. Otherwise, there may be no pathway to coming out of the present inertia to which his political career has nosedived into
*Ofou is Executive Assistant on New Media to Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, Governor of Delta State
