Ovie Omo-Agege: The Last Fight

By Annabel Ogheneganre

The 2023 gubernatorial election in Delta State promises to be explosive. As I had said over time, it is not going to be business as usual. For once, PDP is facing the heat of elections like never before. Defections had been a two-way traffic, though more in favour of the opposition APC. What that presupposes is that the degree of disaffection within the Peoples Democratic Party may be more than in the APC. This trend is a danger signal which many political parties wish away as non-issue until doom knocks at the door.

It happened in Bayelsa state in 2019 when the defections from PDP to APC were so massive that PDP lost the elections. However prior to the elections, PDP thought it was invincible because the state had always been a PDP state. But for the Courts, which threw spanners in the wheel of the APC victory in that election, Bayelsa was already an APC state even with Goodlcuk Jonathan as immediate past President of Nigeria. Therefore the boastful posture of invincibility by the ruling PDP in Delta State does not suggest that the party is unbeatable. By February and March, all the elections would have been over and the result will prove whether the defections could prove fatal to PDP’s hold on the state or not.

One major factor that would drive the coming elections is the fact that 2023 would be the last opportunity for Senator Ovie Omo-Agege to be governor of Delta State. By the time the position rotates round the other senatorial districts and back to central again, Omo-Agege, who is now close to 60 years old would have passed the age of consideration for the position of governor. Therefore, this election is his last fight. Those who are conversant with American action movie know what happens when the lead actor goes for the broke in the last lap of actions. Senator Ovie Omo-Agege will throw everything into the ring and those planning to undermine him had better stand firm or be crushed.

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As Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege knows that going back to the senate was a political miscalculation. The next senate president will not come to the south-south. If Bola Tinubu wins, the south-east will produce the next senate president and if Peter Obi wins, the senate president will most probably come from the south-west. A northern President, in the event that Atiku Abubakar wins will take the senate president to the north and Omo-Agege stands no chance of retaining his position as DSP if he were to return to the senate. So those who had advised that Omo-Agege returned to the senate were either naïve or mischievous. The man has taken the best available route to political splendor in the next dispensation.

Another thing that will count for Omo-Agege is that he has gained enough political exposure and experience to dare anything in the coming polls. He is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC and those who understand the significance of the office know what that implies for the election. If Omo-Agege will ever lose the election, he will lose fair and square in the field never through any manipulation from any quarters. The rigging-machine of the PDP through which the peoples electoral will have been undermined over the years has therefore been grounded.
The 2023 gubernatorial election is between Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Senator Ifeanyi Okowa. Sheriff Oborevwori is merely a smokescreen for Okowa’s third tenure. That is what will set wild fire on fresh leaves like in harmattan fire in the elections. Both men are no-nonsense political strategists. None of the two men is a push over. Okowa knew before hand that Omo-Agege will be in the ballot and so had prepared long before now for what is coming. He had planted his key and trusted men in positions of authority, stepping on toes like a drunken giant.

Omo-Agege too, had broken many toes in his path to 2023. He knew what home enemies could do to his chances. So the first battle he undertook was to cleanse the stable of recalcitrant fellows who may pose avoidable danger to his aspirations. Today, Delta APC is at peace because the rebels had long been shown the door.

Another interesting thing about the coming election is that Senator Ovie Omo-Agege has made enough money to stand Okowa naira for naira. This last Christmas, I hear Omo-Agege so flooded the state with rice that even PDP members celebrated the yuletide with rice from the Deputy Senate President. In the build up to 2023, many big names have left the PDP for APC.

The likes of Chief Faith Majemite, immediate past two-term Chairman of Ethiope East LGC, Dr Karo Ilolo, former Commissioner and Hon Evance Iwurhie, former House of Assembly member are danger signals for the PDP. What is even more dangerous is the quick dismissal of such development as inconsequential by loud-mouth party spokesmen. The oyster is a delicious sea food which when it is facing the heat of the fire changes its hard crust to gold colour. While it prides itself as assuming a better colour, everybody knows that is death knocking at the door. PDP may write off the defectors as inconsequential but if the one-man one-vote mantra is anything to go by, then every voter lost is a huge asset.

Most members of the Delta Unity Group, the political structure of Chief David Edevbie may not be comfortable with the Okowa political structure and his vindictive tendencies. Okowa is a brutal political warlord who crushes boons of his enemies on his way to take Holy Communion. Okowa will not hesitate to pull the trigger if that will guarantee him victory yet pretend to be a Pope in the House of God. He has met his match in Ovie Omo-Agege in the coming elections. This is Omo-Agege’s last fight and Okowa will not find it easy to install Sheriff Oborevwori except Deltans truly want him. The cosmetic show of strength in rallies does not suggest any electoral values. Most people attend rallies just to fulfill righteousness as party members. On the day of election, the people will decide whom they truly want.

The coming election is going to be very dicey. There is none whose victory is cast in stone. Anything can happen. Anybody can win and that is the most beautiful thing about the polls. There is an uneasy calm among many Ijaw leaders ahead of the polls. The Ibori political family hurts at the humiliation of their hero. Ibori may pretend to be at ease with Okowa, but the ordinary man on the street knows with all certainty that Okowa ‘’don fall Ibori hand’’ and that there is a cold war between both men. If 50% of Delta Unity Group members pull out of PDP to support Ovie Omo-Agege, that could be a major setback for the party. The grandstanding over claims to invincibility is foolhardy. Senator Ovie Omo-Agege is coming for the last fight. PDP had better be prepared for real battle in the 2023 elections.

Annabel Ogheneganre of the Urhobo Voice Newspaper writes from Garki, Abuja. (Send responses and feedbacks to [email protected])