Delta 2027: Beyond great Ogboru’s personal victory
It is profoundly disheartening to see individuals whose singular political appointment was brokered through Chief Great Ogboru’s enduring political benevolence by helping them secure a seat in the Delta State
- By Sylvester Obasere
It is profoundly disheartening to see individuals whose singular political appointment was brokered through Chief Great Ogboru’s enduring political benevolence by helping them secure a seat in the Delta State House of Assembly - now wielding the very instrument procured through that appointment - to attack their benefactor.
One is compelled to ask: is this the depth to which hunger can debase a man, or has some graver malady befallen them?
Let the record be set straight without equivocation: Chief Ogboru, throughout the entire span of his political odyssey, has never aligned himself with the Accord Party. That political banner has been and remains the emblem of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege. Any attempt to distort this fact is either borne of ignorance or a deliberate effort to mislead the public.
The mischief makers cannot feign ignorance of the events of 2015. It was in that year that Senator Ovie Omo-Agege stood before the people of Delta State and confessed, without coercion, that he had conspired with PDP chieftains in the past to subvert Chief Ogboru’s rightful victories in 2003 under the AD, in 2007 (including the rerun), and again in 2011 when Ogboru contested under the DPP.
In sanctuaries and public squares alike, Omo-Agege solemnly vowed never again to raise his hand against Ogboru’s mandate. Yet, the eyes of Deltans beheld him in 2020, jubilant at the Supreme Court as it affirmed the election of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa - the very mandate he had pledged, barely 180 days earlier, to help restore to Ogboru. When the conscience of the Delta people rose to brand this act a betrayal, it was his courtiers who sprang to his defence, cloaking treachery in the convenient garb of “politics.”
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Why, then, does virtue suddenly become vice when Ogboru extends a hand of sportsmanship to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori upon his electoral victory? By what curious or perverse calculus do you now anoint Ogboru as an “extension” of Okowa and Sheriff, while Senator Omo-Agege is absolved of engaging in an identical act? Must Ogboru be condemned for the very conduct for which Omo-Agege was excused?
What, indeed, is Chief Ogboru’s transgression? From James Ibori to Sheriff Oborevwori, every PDP standard-bearer has felt the weight and impact of Ogboru’s political influence. Since 2003, he has expended his personal resources in the relentless pursuit of what he believes to be the liberation of Delta State, fully aware that genuine political change is neither cheap nor easily attained.
If there remains any doubt about his political impact, one need only inquire from the present governor what deprived him of a seat in the Delta State House of Assembly in 2011. The answer lies in the formidable political force that Ogboru has consistently represented across electoral cycles.
Today, Chief Ogboru stands resolute within the ADC, a coalition he helped to shape and position for future electoral success. Nigeria remains a multi-party democracy, and no individual holds a monopoly over political platforms. Beyond the APC, ADC, and PDP, there are numerous viable alternatives. Senator Omo-Agege is therefore at liberty to return to the Accord Party—the platform that has historically aligned with his ambitions—rather than trailing Ogboru across political movements.
The year 2027 will ultimately serve as the arbiter of these debates. It shall bear witness to the will of the people and the strength of those who seek to lead them. Should that moment arrive, as many anticipate, Chief Ogboru’s victory will not merely be personal—it will be a triumph claimed and owned by the people of Delta State.
•Obasere, a political analyst, wrote from Delta State
