Obarisi Ovie Omo-Agege has never been governor of Delta State, neither has he occupied an executive position in the federation.
Yet, he shoulders a political burden much bigger than the office he is seeking in Delta State.
His political stature rises above that of some former governors of the state, with a name recognition far greater than that of any active political actor in Delta State.
He carries the expectation of the people to deliver the state from the misrule and bondage of the Sheriff/Okowa group that is underdeveloping the state.
The Sheriff/Okowa group is not loyal to any particular political formation and can therefore adopt any political platform while retaining its core nature.
Its overwhelming commitment is to power-seeking, corruption, and brigandage.
Now in the NDC as the senatorial candidate for Delta Central, Omo-Agege remains the leader of the opposition in Delta politics, with a name that resonates across the state.
He is, therefore, the man who can lead the charge to defeat the Sheriff/Okowa group in Delta elections.
And this must be done before the Sheriff/Okowa group wins the 2027 election in the state again and mutates into another form.
The group will simply transfer itself into another political formation if the APC ceases to exist after the 2027 election.
Omo-Agege is the known name, firm in his opposition to bad governance in Delta State. Even as he fights to win his own election, he remains obliged to help bring a winning attitude to the governorship campaign of Chris Iyiovwaye and the NDC.
It should be expected that the campaign staff of Chris Iyiovwaye will initially lack some of the experienced personnel needed to work under pressure during the short period leading to the elections.
Omo-Agege will therefore be needed to help him mould his campaign into a high-performance and optimal machine, honed for a triumphant statewide election.
Omo-Agege knows the people and the terrain—the nooks and crannies of the state and where its political secrets are buried.
He is a man of strategy who has gained a reputation for winning elections from seemingly impossible situations as an underdog.
In 2015, he won the Senate seat on the Labour Party platform, long before the frenzy that later surrounded the party in 2022.
The Labour Party was virtually unknown in these parts at the time. He also won a return to the Senate on the APC platform when the party was just being formed as a coalition of relatively underwhelming parties, principally the ACN and the CPC.
Omo-Agege scored over 400,000 votes in the 2023 governorship election. Those votes should still be made to count in this election, particularly the votes from Delta South and Delta North Senatorial Districts, where the senator is not contesting this time.
Those votes must not be allowed to be lost or won over by the APC. They must be transferred to Chris Iyiovwaye on the new political platform of the NDC.
Omo-Agege is uniquely positioned to convince these voters in the other senatorial districts to transfer their support and votes to Chris Iyiovwaye, even before the new candidate has had the opportunity to cultivate his own followership.
It is obvious that things have been quiet in the NDC governorship campaign in Delta State.
The campaigns have not been formally flagged off, so it may be that this is in obedience to campaign rules while preparations and plans are underway. But political organisations cannot be run in silence. You cannot hide a farm until harvest.
Campaigns do not have to wait until the formal flag-off before generating their own buzz.
The governorship campaign of the NDC has to be energised so that it can, in turn, energise the down-ballot campaigns for the House of Assembly across the 25 LGAs in the state.
Omo-Agege must take responsibility for helping to energise the governorship campaign while also leading the charge to bring down the leviathan called the APC, which has wreaked havoc on the politics of Delta State.
Name recognition is everything in politics. Omo-Agege is obliged to lend his name to his new party in acknowledgement of the recognition his name commands across the state.
The state government has just indulged in the nonsensical escapade of organising an investment summit to pump up its self-esteem. Summitry is for experts gathered together to chart a path towards solutions.
An economic summit in Delta State should be about bringing experts together to find solutions to specific challenges facing existing investments in the state—for instance, the challenge of increasing oil-palm production.
Summitry should not be about inviting everyone, including those who have no money to invest, to a talk show that brings no tangible benefit to anyone.
There are about 60,000 hectares of oil-palm plantations across Edo State, our own brother state. Most of them are well-laid-out plantations.
There are no more than a few hundred hectares of oil-palm plantations in Delta State. Yet, Delta receives far more money in allocations.
Somebody needed to go to that summit to announce to the well-coiffed crowd that more money is stolen from the state annually and stashed overseas than any foreign investment drive can ever bring to Delta State.
Politicians have mastered the art of stealing investible funds from the state, hiding them overseas, and inviting foreigners to bring their own funds for investment in the state.
All the money stolen from the government and its agencies, such as DESOPADEC—where is it invested? N1.3 trillion allegedly stolen from DESOPADEC—where is it invested?
We must save the people from the false belief that these shows, which governments organise at great expense, will bring any redemption to their suffering. They will not.
We promote Omo-Agege because we believe he can whip up a team that will refocus the state on productivity instead of the compulsive consumerism we face today, which is destroying our economy.
He remains focused on his idealism and on a development agenda that still offers us a trajectory towards self-realisation and development.
He is not hamstrung by ideological leanings. He is a member of the elite, but he is not particularly liked by the political elite.That leaves him free from the obligation to obey or serve the idiosyncrasies of the elite.
He is not tied to the nuptials that bind the elite together in conspiracies that serve themselves while destroying society.
Omo-Agege is obliged, in the present circumstance, to build the NDC just as he built the APC in Delta. It is his obligation and, perhaps, his destiny to build the NDC.
In this work thrust upon him by providence, he may not receive a thank-you, even from the people for whom he will work. But posterity will speak well of him.
That, I can assure him today.
@basilokoh
