Sheriff Started a Fight, but APC Is on Its Way to the Bottom of the Ocean Basil Okoh

Agbor people say that when an envious neighbour sees a well-groomed child, he begins to wish that the child were his or hers. That, in essence, is what happened to Sheriff Oborevwori, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, Areyinka, the PDP chairman, and the PDP itself in Delta State in 2025.

They were the ruling party in Delta State in 2025, yet they lived in envy of the opposition APC: its internal order, the loyalty of its members, and their commitment to the party’s ideals.

The party they envied and later defected to, was built by Obarisi Ovie Omo-Agege.
.
By 2025, mismanagement, disloyalty, and decadence within the Delta PDP had, in the view of many critics, reached their peak.

Party members were leaving the PDP for what appeared to be a more viable alternative in the APC, even though APC had little to offer as an opposition party.

PDP was a ruling party without effective control, as despondency seemed to reign from Burutu to Akwukwu-Igbo.

Flush with funds from federal allocations and what critics describe as undisclosed inflows from the Internal Revenue Board, Sheriff Oborevwori appeared confident and untouchable, moving across the state with the swagger of a man convinced he was on top of the world.

Yet the PDP was steadily hemorrhaging support. One by one, then in small groups, and later in torrents, party members announced their exit.

Eventually, Sheriff Oborevwori himself, along with his mentor Ifeanyi Okowa and party chairman Areyinka, decided to abandon ship and join the APC.

The question remains: why would a ruling government abandon its own platform and seek refuge in an opposition party?

Ovie Omo-Agege provided part of the answer during his interview on ARISE News Television.

In response to Senator Omo-Agege, I ask: what better way could Sheriff, while in the PDP, have confronted Ovie Omo-Agege than by defecting into APC itself, with the aim of overwhelming and taking control of the party’s structure, aided by the advantages of incumbency and government resources?

Machiavelli did not write about modern political parties, but can anyone suggest a more effective strategy for Sheriff to take on Omo-Agege ahead of the 2027 governorship election in Delta State? Perhaps this is what Governor Sheriff himself refers to as “street integrity,” notwithstanding the contradictions embedded in the phrase.

In my opinion, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori is a man whose performance has not matched the demands of the office he occupies.

Elevating him to the governorship, given his background and preparation, was asking him to operate far above his political weight class.

When people are compelled to perform beyond their capacity, one should not be surprised by missteps and awkward displays. That, critics argue, is what Delta State is witnessing today.

Many observers believe that his understanding of development issues, his style of reasoning, and his communication skills do not meet the standards expected of a governor in a state like Delta.

Sheriff, they contend, simply does not make the cut, regardless of how well he is dressed or presented.

As the saying goes, you can take the boy out of the village, but you cannot take the village out of the boy.

Sheriff may have left the Effurun Motor Park behind, but critics argue that the mentality and culture associated with it remain evident in his politics.

This alleged lack of capacity and “motor park mentality,” according to critics, was on display during the recently concluded APC primaries in Delta State, over which Sheriff Oborevwori presided as the party’s leader in the state.

Videos from the exercise circulated widely, showing what opponents described as confusion and disorder in the counting process.

To many observers, the exercise lacked the transparency, order, and democratic culture expected of a major political party.

A man shaped by the rough-and-tumble culture of the motor park, they argue, could hardly be expected to supervise a democratic process with greater decorum and institutional discipline.

Many people have yet to fully interrogate why a ruling party with enormous financial resources would abandon its own platform and seek a different political anchor midway through its tenure.

The answer, in my view, is that the leaders and managers of the PDP in Delta State at the time—Sheriff, Okowa, and Areyinka—lacked the capacity to manage a political organisation effectively.

Critics have long questioned the processes that produced Sheriff as governor and the resources allegedly deployed to secure his emergence.

What we are witnessing now, they argue, is the consequence of those decisions. According to this perspective, Sheriff has responded by attempting to assert control over APC, thereby deepening internal tensions within the party.

Okowa, for his part, is said to have gone a step further. Political insiders claim he has actively sought favour within APC’s national leadership in pursuit of a Senate ticket for Delta North.

Whether these efforts ultimately succeed remains uncertain, particularly given the political influence and strategic capacity of Senator Ned Nwoko, whom many regard as a formidable political operator capable of upsetting even the best-laid plans.

To say that APC is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea would be putting it mildly.

In my estimation, APC is on a path toward serious decline, both nationally and in Delta State.

The trickle of defections and disillusionment has already begun in Delta, much as it did within PDP in 2025.

Sheriff, Okowa, and Areyinka, in my view, lack the political capacity to reverse APC’s downward trajectory in the state.

As for President Tinubu, the challenges confronting his administration and party may become even more pronounced as the country approaches the 2027 elections.

@basilokoh