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The M.O.R.E. Reality Group (MRG) wishes to commend Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori for the maturity and sagacity he displayed in clarifying his interaction with Senator Ned Nwoko over the Okpai Independent. Power Plant (IPP) matter that had gained some traction in the public space recently.

We indeed, applaud Governor Oborevwori’s uncommon show of wisdom and statesmanship in the face of innuendos and flacks shot and directed at him, following the imbroglio and the impressions created that he was told about Okpai IPP and that he refused to do anything about it, thus creating the impression that he does not want the development for the good people of Ndokwa Nation on the one hand, and the entire Anioma nation that constitute Delta North Senatorial District on the other hand.

But that opportunity to tell his side of the story came when the leaders of Ndokwa Neku Union, led by the distinguished Brigadier General Mike Ndubuisi (rtd), visited the Governor, thus making it possible for him to clarify the misty aspects of the claims by Senator Ned Nwoko that went viral.

Recall that sometime in September this year there was a trending viral video in which Senator Ned Nwoko declared that he met and requested the Delta State Governor to assist in the step down of 100 megawatts to be produced by the Okpai Power Plant, for the benefit of Delta North, but that the Governor refused. The occasion was the visit of the Senator representing Delta North to Brigadier General Mike Ndubuisi (Rtd) in his home town.

The video pitched the media Aides of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori against the media Aides of Senator Ned Nwoko in a raging media battle that dominated the public space for several months. To worsen the situation, Senator Nwoko reportedly told Deltans that he equally told Governor Oborevwori to intervene in the water distribution content of the Ogwashi Uku Dam project but that the Governor equally refused.

Another project which Senator Nwoko told Deltans he discussed with Governor Oborevwori but that the Governor also refused to assist, was the proposed coastal road project linking Asaba-Oko-Ase-Patani. Senator Ned Nwoko had told his supporters that Governor Oborevwori’s refusal to do the coastal road project prompted him to approach NDDC to include the coastal road in their 2025 budget.

These assertions by Senator Ned Nwoko created a prolonged impression that Governor Oborevwori did not like the Ndokwa Nation and was even neglecting the whole of Delta North in his developmental projects.

To set the records straight, it is on verifiable record that no fewer than 27 projects are currently going on and in different stages of construction across the three Local Government Areas of Ndokwa Nation.
It is also on record that the 2025 budget of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s administration has allocated N2 billion for each Local Government on road infrastructure alone and has assured of enhanced development in the coming fiscal year 2025 with the budgetary provision of N50 billion for road infrastructure in the 25 Local Government Areas of the State.
There is also another N200 billion earmarked for road construction as provided for in the 2025 budget already passed by the State House of Assembly.

The appropriate opportunity for Governor Oborevwori to correct the erroneous impression of neglect of the Ndokwa Nation and Delta North Senatorial zone by extension, was thus presented, when the same Brigadier General Mike Ndubuisi (Rtd) led the Ndokwa NEKU Union to pay a courtesy visit to the Governor.

The Governor told the visiting team that he never held any discussion with Senator Ned Nwoko at any time concerning the Okpai IPP project nor any other project whatsoever. Governor Oborevwori revealed that the only thing Senator Ned Nwoko came to discuss with him was appointments for some of his constituents, which he granted.

Hear the Governor: “Sometimes as a Governor you will hear and see some things but choose not to respond. I saw a video that went viral where the Senator representing Anioma Nation, Senator Ned Nwoko, said he discussed the Okpai IPP with me. The only time that Ned came to see me was to solicit for appointment for his people which I granted. When I saw the video, I just smiled. Maybe he didn’t know that the video would go viral.”

The M.O.R.E Reality Group believes that the clarification of and assurances by Governor Oborevwori on the matter ought to have been sufficient to clarify the issue and reassure the people of Ndokwa Nation and indeed Delta North that the Governor means well for them, and for all Deltans, but then we were taken aback when our attention was drawn to a recent publication by the Directorate of Communication, Office of the Distinguished Senator Representing Delta North Senatorial Zone, titled: “Senator Nwoko reacts to Governor Oborevwori’s claims on Okpai IPP, appointments, Ogwashi Uku Dam, others”, in which they said Governor Oborevwori’s clarification that he never discussed the Okpai Power plant matter with Senator Ned Nwoko “are a perplexing distortion of events, and for what it’s worth demand corrections.”

According to the tedious, long-winding and sometimes convoluted and duplicitous write up: “Senator Nwoko has consistently engaged with Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and other senior party leaders, including: The Deputy Governor; Elder Moses Iduh, Engineer Dan Osai, former Party Chairman, and former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa. The Senator has engaged the Governor on this project repeatedly, alongside other pressing developmental concerns critical to Delta North, including the Ogwashi-Uku dam, as well as the Asaba-Oko-Okpai-Aboh road. Despite repeated conversations with the Governor on these matters, no progress has been made, and no assurance was given.”

Apparently, what becomes glaringly obvious from the desperation of the publicists engaged and contracted into the self styled Directorate of Communication in the Office of Senator Ned Nwoko, is the crass ignorance they exhibited by claiming that “Senator Nwoko has consistently engaged with Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and other senior party leaders, including:
The Deputy Governor, Elder Moses Iduh, Engineer Dan Osai, former Party Chairman, and former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.”

In their pedestrian logic to reduce a matter of such developmental magnitude to a ridiculous level of flippancy and political grandstanding, they forgot that Senator Ned Nwoko, in his typically ubiquitous spontaneity and sometimes staccato exuberance, couldn’t have “consistently engaged” all the afore mentioned top PDP stalwarts without splashing it all over the media and making heavy populist political capital out of such meetings.

If he could allow the brief meeting he had with the President General of Ndokwa Neku to be blown out of imaginable proportions in the media, one then wonders how “consistent engagements” with the leaders of PDP, including Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, could have happened or taken place so quietly that not even a squeak or whiff of such engagement was publicized by the usually loquacious Directorate of Communication at the time they took place.

Of course, the whole of Nigeria is very aware of the Senator’s engagement with the Minister of Power and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), as well as the meetings with oil and gas companies and conducting site visits, including his bill on the floor of the Senate on the State of Okpai Power plant step down controversy, and most importantly his crusading advocacy for the creation of Anioma State, all of which were and have continued to be lavishly and copiously given comprehensive publicity in the media and public space.

So, how did we then miss these his “consistent engagements” with the top PDP stakeholders and the leaders including the Delta State Governor in the media when they happened? Indeed, it is inconceivable that Senator Ned Nwoko, who does not do things quietly and always loves drama in all his engagements, would discuss with Governor Oborevwori or former Governor Okowa for that matter and it did not get media attention? It is quite unbelievable and simply exposes the extent to which the Senator’s media vuvuzelas would go to twist and manipulate a simple matter with negative propaganda for cheap political mileage.

And by the way, in what form, manner or procedure were those “consistent engagements” conducted? At least, one expects as it is standard practice, just like he did on the floor of the Senate, that a distinguished and responsible Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should exhibit more maturity, seriousness and decorum in addressing such developmental matters with his own State Governor and party leaders instead of the uncouth, off-handed, garrulous, spur-of-the-moment flippancy, with which he presented the matter before General Ndubuisi. And one even wonders how he has been “consistently engaging” the other leaders too.

It smacks of a disturbing and unacceptable lack of respect for the office of the Governor of the State, and speaks volumes of the poor and shabby exhibition of leadership that should be condemned outrightly and not encouraged.

We are nevertheless partially assuaged by the fact that the Senator’s media directorate was humble enough to admit that on their own volition that “It is encouraging that the Governor’s 2025 budget earmarks ₦200 billion for road infrastructure. We remain hopeful that these proposed projects will be accommodated within this allocation, as they are critical to the development of Delta.”

However, we take very strong exception to the claim by the Directorate that, “Regarding State appointments, from the outset of Governor Oborevwori’s administration, there has been a noticeable effort to undermine Senator Ned Nwoko’s position.” Indeed Senator Nwoko’s media team should be ashamed to make such a damning and diminishing claim of their principal in the public space as it not only de-markets the Senator’s reputation considerably, it also greatly undermines his political stature and exposes him quite recklessly as a weakling who neither has the clout nor capacity to influence critical decisions in his own political constituency.

We want to believe that this is a faux pas committed quite unintentionally by the media directorate in their overarching desperation to evoke empathy and rehash the victimhood narrative of his endured marginalization in his own political party and within his own Senatorial zone. This is not only unfortunate and laughable, but also most importantly, reveals the fact that there must be a maverick way and manner the Senator is going about whatever he is doing that is not going down well with the collective interest and objective of his fellow party leaders and faithful.

Interestingly, while it is acceptable to suggest that Senator Nwoko contributed to the electoral successes of the Party in his Senatorial zone, it is also germane to strongly remind his directorate of communication that the party and indeed some of the leaders they have chosen to vilify, were greatly instrumental in both the choice and emergence of Prince Ned Nwoko as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is a well established mantra in political circles that “Party is Supreme” and the interest of the party should always be put in consideration first before individual interest. Senator Ned Nwoko himself is a big beneficiary of the party’s decisions.

Finally, the MORE Reality Group (MRG) is quite happy and satisfied with the maturity and political brinkmanship Governor Sheriff Oborevwori exhibited, by opting to use the platform of the visit of the high powered Ndokwa Neku Union delegation led by the well respected Brigadier General Mike Ndubuisi (rtd), not only to clear the air on his interaction as Governor of Delta State, with Senator Ned Nwoko on the Okpai Independent Power plant matter, but also to assure Ndokwa nation that the MORE Agenda will deliver development to Deltans including Ndokwa nation.

Governor Sheriff Oborevwori himself aptly captured the magnitude of the meeting thus: “Today, I had an excellent audience with the leadership of the Ndokwa Neku Union, led by the President-General, Brigadier-General Mike Ndubisi (rtd), during a courtesy visit at Government House, Asaba. We discussed critical road infrastructure, education, empowerment, job opportunities for our youths, the progress we have made so far, and our future plans.

“As a government committed to inclusiveness, I assured the delegation that the Ndokwa nation is not and would not be neglected by our administration.”

The Delta State Governor has spoken. The MORE Agenda is fully on course.

Signed:

Anthony Oghenetega,
Chairman.

Apollonia N Odibei,
Secretary.

Loveday Bekederemo,
Publicity Secretary.