By Eferovo Igho
Omo-Agege has since stepped forward to ask for the gubernatorial mandate to lead affairs in Asaba Government House to turn things around for real good. Knowing how things are really bad with us as a State, coupled with his full knowledge of the cause/s, intimidating results of success in his kit, and now a rare readiness, therefore, to reenact same results or more that will reverse a too sad downward trajectory in Delta State, his overwhelming acceptance by the electorate can be well understood. Indeed, the general belief is, his entrance into the race is a walk in the park.
It can really not be otherwise with a man on a visionary march to kill the sorry paradox of so blessed a State (by the Creator) yet so poor a people, nasty cities, country sides and what have you made so for 24 years by impositors. A march to reinvent the State and pitch it up there, glowing with excellence on all fronts; a march to place it where Providence has designed for it can only be most urgent and inevitable NOW. This is the Ovie Omo-Agege’s potential walk with Deltans. And the nod, go-ahead or mandate by Deltans begins that march officially.
His stunning success as a Senator recommends him any day. “I have fulfilled all my promises to my constituency. I have built solar powered water boreholes in almost all the communities in the eight local government areas in my constituency. I have improved their electricity supply by installing new transformers in all communities.Schools were given furniture and reconstructed, roads rehabilitated and by God’s grace a new federal polytechnic has been attracted to the state under my watch and also a campus of Nigeria Law school in Delta among others”. He added that very soon a new Federal University of Agriculture will be established in Aboh in Ndokwa Local Government Area of the state …” Yes, the listing goes on and on; and he has repeated severally overtime that he has fulfilled all the electioneering promises he made during the 2015 and 2019 campaigns.
The prodigious and overwhelming feat men have seen Omo-Agege achieved as a Senator of the Federal Republic has created a level of near total confidence in the man, a level rarely known since the days of Awolowo. While the ‘horse’s voice’ sounds forth confidently that “my achievements speak for me”, Victor Giadon, a leading political figure from River State sees Omo-Agege’s candidature as quit notice and final departure warning to Delta PDP and so should be readying “to pack their loads and go”. Stateman Frank Kokori even goes ecstatic in this candidature: “I am happy that in my life time, there is going to be a change in government in Delta”, he says. No wonder, therefore, Ima Niboro, former Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who believes we need to build a Delta State that works, not only says Omo-Agege has an edge over others, but is in pole position to win Delta governorship in 2023. About a year ago, Otive Igbuzor, one of the country’s leading public commentator and activist opined that Senator Omo-Agege “has delivered as a great reformer using constitutional engineering”. He was referring to the man as Senator. This same Omo-Agege has asked to be saddled with the rein of power in Delta State. Completely oblivious of Igbuzor’s take on the man about a year ago, yours sincerely had titled a piece he did very recently: “Omo-Agege and the Urgent Reengineering Delta Deserve”. Think about it!
For a man who has said for the umpteenth time that he has fulfilled his promises to his Delta Central Constituency as a Senator, without a single rejoinder countering him that we know of till date speaks a volume, especially when all his supposed competitors in the guber race are from his Delta Central Senatorial District. Meanwhile, whilst the Manifesto of this known workaholics, known keepers of promises and deliverer of mandates have startled and unsettled his now lame competitors to their foundations, it has given untold succor, heightened hope and birthed pleasant mirth and rhapsodic speeches and conversations among generality of Deltans who already know him as ‘Mr talk-na-do’. A manifesto he described “as the work plan to build a new Delta State”, is the only deal Deltans are talking about now, knowing the man behind the document.
Covering critical areas of governance that would drive his government’s agenda, you can clearly picture a Delta State without all the gross managerial ineptitude, total values degradation, disturbing social malfeasance, apalling economic destructiveness, Mephistophelean financial wastages, and strange political taboos that we have not only been ‘railroaded’ into these 24 years as a people, but have overwhelmed us, and become normal way of life – sadly! A manifesto expertly woven around The EDGE, which encapsulates Employment and Empowerment, Good Governance, Development and Enduring Peace and Security, it is, he says, “a product of profound thought based on my practical experience both in the Executive and Legislative arms of government”.
“Having served as Secretary to the Delta State Government, and as Senator, and now as Deputy Senate President, I am privileged to have a panoramic view of the issues of governance” he says further, and then caps it: “it is these experiences I am bringing to bear on my plans for Delta State … So we are going to engage with vigour on all fronts, and build a brand new Delta.” Methinks greening of politics in the State is what awaits Deltans with Omo-Agege – a move away from the very strange and obnoxious brand that has continually battered our views, choked our breath, bruised minds, broken hearts and made a very sad people surrendered to fate.
Motivated, according to him, by a “desire to arrest receding hope among Deltans and build a State where the people’s future would be brighter than their past, he promised to address our scary unemployment rate by prioritizing public investment in agriculture and tech-driven entrepreneurship. My plan as stated in our manifesto will change the business ecosystem of the State and create an investment friendly charter that makes access to funds and infrastructure a natural way of life.”
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Not done yet, Mr-Talk-Na-Do reels out further: “Human capital development, agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, housing and other labour intensive interventions are at the core of our agenda. We shall establish a Delta State Employment, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Programme (DEEP), and facilitate the establishment of cluster industries in each of the 25 LGAs of our state. We will deliberately create an enabling environment for industries and manufacturing, establish technology hubs, set up small business loan guarantee schemes, promote skills acquisition and set up a Career Development Centre for Deltans.
“As part of our plans to promote ease of doing business, we’ll undertake institutional and process reviews, remove red tape and bureaucratic bottle necks, improve infrastructure, re-engineer our peace and security strategies, while establishing a one stop repository of business knowledge and information. We will guarantee the rights of women and invest their unique energy to drive social and economic development in the State. We will initiate a youth development program that moves them away from the hopelessness of today, connect them to creative endeavors and generate energies for honourable work. While making aggressive investment in modern infrastructure capable of opening up the total economic energies of our people, we will lift the State out of a mono-economic dependency by launching diversification into tech and business incubation.” And the list, again, runs on and on: This is the deal, en route greatness of our State!
Dexit et faciet quod ante fecerit (he has said it and will do it because he has done it before).
Igho, a veteran public affairs analyst, wrote via eferovo@gmail.com
You can read more of such stories at The Cheer News and Credible News.
