OPINION: Gbagi’s Folly Of Post Election Petition

By EFE ONOYOMA & IGHO AKPOBARO

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, CFRN, 1999 as amended, as well as the Electoral Act 2022, prescribes the option of litigation as a pathway to ventilate grievances of contestants. It’s therefore understandable why those politicians that lost elections across the country have forwarded their grievances to the various Election Petition Tribunals saddled with post-election issues.

In Delta State, there is however an emerging ridiculous scenario, which has to do with the steps so far taken by Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, the standard bearer of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the March 18, 2023, gubernatorial election. He is one of the governorship candidates that rejected the victory of Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborewovri as Governor-elect.

In rejecting Oborewovri’s victory, Gbagi has chosen a bizarre path by asking the court to disqualify not only Oborewovri, but also Senator Omo-Agege of the All Progressives Congress, APC; Ken Pela of the Labour Party, LP and Chief Great Ogboru of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and their deputies so as to pave way for his emergence. It is ridiculous and unprecedented in the annals of the history of electoral litigation in Delta State.

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The Gbagi option is connotative of an apparently lazy man who neither chose quality crops during planting season nor weeded his farm at the most appropriate time but still expected a bumper harvest at the end of the day. What kind of mindset is that?

It’s incredulous for a contestant that scored so low to seek declaration of the Governorship EPT as the most qualified person, unmindful of his dismal performance in the election. So he believes he’s the most qualified even with a little above 4,000 votes, a paltry figure he obviously scored in his Oginibo and adjoining communities in Ughelli South Local Government Area.

Gbagi’s option is largely absurd and has cast him in the mould of an amateur boxer who challenged a decorated pugilist, but after losing by a technical knock out (TKO) and subsequent treatment at ICU of a nearby hospital, 24 hours later, decided to petition the referees, praying that his loss be nullified while the belt received by the winner be given to him! Haba! What form of infantile day dreaming is that? Is Gbagi now canvassing compensation for a loser? Which rule supports such a request?

Perhaps he seems to have forgotten that he was not prepared for the election. He may have been the first to join the guber fray, but he was the least prepared for this election and we have our reasons.

Firstly, Gbagi never had a functional formidable campaign organization with directorates and departments manned by competent personnel. His fastidious mindset made not to believe in the competence of any other person. Thus he was the unofficial Chairman of the party at the state level, the Campaign Director-General, the Director of Finance, mobilisation, youth, publicity and other positions rolled into one.

So, most times when people met him to discuss one or two issues that could enhance his campaign strategy, he took decisions unilaterally on virtually every subject, without considering the merit of proposals from other party leaders. Is that the type of man that would effectively wield governorship power in a multi-ethnic state like Delta?

Secondly, he does not have the minutest trust for anybody. He believes every other person working with him is out to take his money. There is no governorship contestant in the last election or any other that personally disbursed funds to party members. What most campaign organisations did was getting approvals from their principals and action disbursement thereafter. But Gbagi was the one that disbursed funds as little as N1,000! And so emergency situations were not attended to as fast as possible. What could have been done in less than 24 hours often took almost a week because Gbagi would scrutinize it to ensure that nobody cheated him! And how could anyone go into governorship contest thinking that people will not benefit financially from him, more so in a challenging economy like ours where the poor outnumber the rich?

Thirdly, he did not have a broad-based publicity campaign. Agreed he was an early entrant into the race, but he failed to do his calculations well. Gbagi did not carry out an elaborate campaign across the state. For instance, you could hardly find a billboard across the eight local government of Urhobo nation, which is his primary constituency. Apart from his village Oginibo and neighboring communities that make up Ughievwen clan, his billboard was not visible in other parts of Urhoboland. Thus, if you travelled from Asaba to Ughelli axis, you couldn’t find his billboard at Ogwashi-Uku Junction, Kwale-Ogume Junction, and even at the Otovwodo-Ughelli/Patani Road Junction, Post Office Junction, Ughelli, which are so visible. Ditto for Sapele, Mosogar, Warri, Agbarho and Abraka, the host community of Delta State University(DELSU). Outside Delta Central senatorial district, he neither had a billboard at Koko, Agbor, nor in Patani. So, how would Gbagi have enjoyed popularity as a serious gubernatorial contender? His campaign seemed to have dwelt on the fantasy of a child who dreamt of going overseas and sought to realize it by sheer happenstance.

In essence, Gbagi did not raise enough consciousness about the worth of his ambition and those issues he campaigned about. Granted he had ideas to transform the state, but he did not market the ideas to the right segments of the populace. Instead of going from one ward to another like other serious candidates, he merely went from church-to-church, thinking he would be able to beguile the flock of Christ to vote for him. His woeful failure in that regard is an attestation to the sophistication of voters in Delta State. It is not enough to wear the badge of Christianity and go about claiming you have something to offer the people.

What is Gbagi’s pedigree in terms of human relations and catering to the welfare of his employees? An interrogation of his personality will show that Gbagi has a baggage which is associated with the notorious manner he ordered the stripping of a handful of female workers on the allegation of converting money meant for his Signatious hotel to their personal use few years back!

Therefore, we find it quite surprising that Gbagi could wake up days after the election winner had emerged to challenge Oborewovri as winner of the election. On what basis is he challenging it? If he had even scored a at least 100,000 votes or even 120,000 which is half of Omo-Agege’s tally, then his contestation would have been looked into. But this is a man who scored just a paltry 4, 639 votes in a gubernatorial election despite starting the race in 2019 before any other candidate! So if he had joined the race in 2021, perhaps he may have scored only 14 votes. And that is a man that wanted to be governor!

Assuming but not conceding that the court even decides to disqualify the aforementioned candidates, how does he expect the court to declare him Governor of Delta State with 4,369 votes? That will be a mockery of democracy which requires a contestant to win the majority of votes cast across the state. Perhaps, he is enamoured of becoming the latest version of Hope Uzodinma of Delta State!

We therefore advise him to withdraw his nonsensical petition, go home and do his ground work. Good a thing, Delta Central senatorial district would still have opportunity to run the state from 2027 to 2031; so, if he is serious about winning the gubernatorial election, he should set up a formidable campaign organization and start working from now, as the end of one election season is the beginning of another.

Next: Ken Gbagi’s Obsession With Non-Existent Mandate

*ONOYOMA & AKPOBARO reside in Sapele, Delta State.