By Basil Okoh
APC has never won an election in Delta state outside of the leadership and influence of Ovie Omo-Agege. Whether in the wards, Local governments, House of Assembly, the federal constituencies or the Senate, APC has never returned a win in Delta state, except under the leadership of Ovie Omo-Agege.
To predict a victory in the 2027 elections for APC without Omo-Agege in their corner in Delta state will be very hard indeed and that is to put the APC predicament mildly.
And then enters in stout opposition, the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), a party to which the people of the Niger Delta can lay valid claim as the party of the Nigeria Delta. With Peter Obi leading the charge to the presidency and sporting a politically untainted champion as governorship candidate, APC has got a nimble elephant to grapple with in Delta state this time.
The governorship candidate Chris Iyiovwaye is a self-made businessman and denizen of the Nigerian business jungle who has passed through fights both in the open sea and the boardrooms. He has come out of it all as a hot contender to fight for office as governor. He is not your average establishment politician that dominate the corridors of power in the state, men who made money without work. So he is experienced in the management of men and resources to achieve results. He is exactly what the political situation in Delta state demands, and alpha male in an untamed jungle. Imagine the impact of Peter Obi and Chris Iyovwaye on business development and growth in Delta state. The portents are good, exactly what the Trinity ordered for His beloved Delta state.
They are both backed by influential and vociferous voices in the towns and villages across a state that refuses to “carry last”, and who are now determined to take real charge of their state affairs. The public communication teams of NDC are ready to inform, influence and educate. From the villages to the cities, crowds are already surging in wait of the winning team of Peter Obi and Chris Iyiovwaye.
Back in 2023, with the Obi-wave alone, Peter Obi won over 70% of the presidential votes in Delta state. That time, there was no organized media backing, the governorship challenger was bought out of contention and there was no organized presence of the opposition at the collation centres. But even then, the Obi-wave blew Tinubu, Atiku and the homeboy Okowa out of the presidential race in Delta state. Okowa even lost his polling unit in the ground operation. In 2027, there will be steady fire from the NDC structure and firm fire control. There will be ample supply of artillery and howitzer fire, blowing to smithereens the pockets of stubborn infantry resistance from a rag-tag APC, by the army of good candidates of the NDC. The APC only campaign skills will be to throw money at burning flames to defend mass hatred.
Bola Tinubu has drawn blood across the country and the level of hate he has purchased is too weighty to consider for reprieve. The entire people of Nigeria are united in pain and the resentment against one man, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He has shown the people of Nigeria, the level of wickedness they never imagined could exist in the management of a human society. They havd seen their wards and children roasted on spits and crotchets. Two year old children are pining away in the forests, many killed and left in their own pools of blood. The hatred for the man and the APC, the political party that enables this, will keep growing to election day.
Delta state has never been an adventurous political environment. Ruled by establishment politicians from the very beginning, Delta state politics has always been sedate and controlled, the politicians are consumed by the frenzy for plunder and debauchery. Delta of about 7 million has received more income for development than the 23 million nation of Sri Lanka in the last twenty years. But go look at Sri Lanka and then look at the provincial Delta state.
Delta State has become like the wasteland of Didi and Gogo, the tramps described in the drama of the absurd “Waiting For Godot” by Sam Becket. “Nothing goes, nothing comes, its awful”. Shell and all the major oil companies are gone. There are no new investments coming into the state. Tinubu keeps all the federal investments in Lagos. Nothing in the form of investments come from the state government and none from the private sector.
To keep politicians safe from a restless youth population, every young man or woman showing a propensity to threaten the establishment is bribed with the job of an SA or PA and paid N250k monthly. During Okowa’s tenure, there were 3500 of such SA’s in the state. There are more now.
There has been no open job recruitments by government and all its agencies in the entire Delta state for more than two decades. The new employees you see are mostly the kin of politicians, the few others are people who paid huge money for their job placements.
Anyone who says that the Delta system is thoroughly broken and rotten, may just be speaking half the truth without stating the huge sums of money going into the coffers of government of the state. The entire internally generated revenue going into the coffers of the Delta state government is not known by anyone outside a few top level officers of the revenue board and the governor himself. It’s never announced to anyone outside that small circle, not even to the executive council of the state.
Delta state needs a new government more than the Sahara desert need rain. Delta state needs a government that will assuage the parched throats, feed the hungry and the growing destitution in the state. In the midst of so much wealth, so many are abandoned and alienated.
NDC should do well to win the 2027 elections to rescue the state and save a growing generation of destitute in Delta. Everyone should get on the NDC train to rescue Delta now.
@basilokoh.
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