By Barr. Jesutega Onokpasa

Quite often, when we might think we have seen all the surprises the world has to offer, we end up being jolted out of our self-assurance by some event of truly astonishing disorderliness.

Now according to the self-proclaimed leader of the Delta State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC,  Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, a man, who in the real sense, has never been anything in the politics of anywhere, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the Senator representing the Urhobo heartland of Delta Central in the upper legislature is unfit to be a senator because of the mace incident at the Senate.

Omo-Agege

Apparently quite oblivious of the shame in envying and hungrily eyeing his brother’s post, O’tega even felt justified to tag the Senator as a rascal. If we may ask, what is rascally about fighting for one’s right and insisting that the law be followed or is O’tega not aware that the courts have decided that legislators may not be suspended beyond a certain duration of time and that constituencies may not be unwarrantedly deprived of representation?

Indeed, unless, the accountant, O’tega, has appointed himself, judge, jury and executioner, is there even any shred of evidence that Omo-Agege removed a mace from the hallowed chambers? From what may be ascertained at this point in time, certain persons, apparently from Delta, citizens of this country and constituents desiring to ensure they are not arbitrarily denied representation, were those involved in that affair.

In any case, had O’tega, who now wants to be Urhobo’s senator, been salivating that his fellow Urhobo brother, Omo-Agege, was about to be rendered caput and effectively railroaded from the Senate so that Urhobo, the fifth largest ethnic group in Nigeria no longer had any representation at the Senate of the Federal Republic? If not that O’tega has acquired a sense of entitlement completely beyond the pale, what has Omo-Agege ever done to him personally to warrant his lust for his brother’s position?

Unless we have suddenly forgotten, this same O’tega has been trying to con Urhobo into supporting someone else from Delta North to take over Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s position and that such person will only do one term of four years as if there is any Nigerian whom the law allows to do eight years that will commit to doing only four.

O’tega who has placed himself at the forefront of denying Urhobo the Governorship of Delta till 2027 with his utterly abominable idea of another person from Delta North replacing Okowa in 2019, knowing full well that such person will never agree to willingly step down in 2023, now wants to be the Senator representing the same Urhobo in the next dispensation!

Indeed, I have left the APC and I have absolutely no regrets leaving that utterly twisted party of greedy, self-centred politicians who deceive their fellowmen pretending to be change agents when they are by and large the very worst of the PDP they claim to be opposed to. Nevertheless, when APC was nothing in Delta, I was there, giving the party a voice, and, before I left, thanks to the same O’tega who now wants to be my Senator, I knew who was genuine or fake in the party.

If the truth be told, O’tega is by far the biggest problem in Delta APC. Due to his exceedingly repulsive villager’s orientation, greed, imperial disposition and conviction that he is smarter than everyone else, O’tega singlehandedly destroyed the party by frustrating some of its most committed, vocal and courageous members back into the PDP. O’tega might think himself the smartest alec in his self-absorbed world but in reality I cannot vouch for his wisdom at all and he cannot now suddenly begin to pretend that he is Muhammadu Buhari’s best friend.

Has O’tega forgotten how he invited me to Abuja; how I stayed with him, right in his hotel suite on the executive floor of Transcorp Hilton Hotel, for more than a week when he wanted me to sue the same Muhammadu Buhari for appointing Ibe Kachikwu Minister, instead of himself? Has O’tega forgotten how he lamented that Kachikwu, not being a party member and thus not qualified to be a member of the House of Representatives, was therefore also not fit to be a Minister according to the 1999 Constitution? Was it not when O’tega got a call from the Presidential Villa to fly with Buhari to Cross River for the flag-off of the Cross River Superhighway that he changed his mind about suing the President and asked me to call it off until further notice?

Is it this same O’tega who now wants to dress Ovie Omo-Agege in the garb of an enemy of Buhari or what? Is there even a single senator today that can boast of being more of a diehard Buharist than Omo-Agege? Omo-Agege is like me; when we support you, we do so completely and if at all we decide to leave you, you will be the first person we tell. If not that the world of Nigerian politics has deteriorated to the bedlam of a psychiatric hospital with no staff,  between Omo-Agege and O’tega who is the real rebel and disloyal party man?

In any case, which person’s senator does O’tega want to be? O’tega wants to be Urhobo Senator yet he is the chief proponent of another person from Delta North taking over from Okowa in 2019? O’tega, you don’t care whether Urhobo produces a Governor until 2027 and you want to be our Senator in 2019? You must be the joker of the century!

O’tega wants to be the Senator of who? Of me who fought for APC in Delta and contributed my utmost in making it whatever it amounted to in the state yet when appointments came and opportunities emerged to participate in governance, the only people O’tega saw fit to place in strategic positions were persons from his Evwreni locale?

If O’tega wants to be a Senator, he can go ahead and become the Senator of Evwreni and certainly not of Urhobo. Yet, I doubt that even Evwreni will rally round him given his nepotism within Evwreni itself, and since he wants Delta North to rule us till 2027, thus effectively relegating Urhobo, of all tribes, to perpetual second class status in Delta, he might as well go to Delta North and seize Senator Peter Nwaoboshi’s post by becoming the Senator from Delta North!

And come to think of it, what does O’tega think he has that he might use against Ovie Omo-Agege that could possibly fly with reasonable and reasoning men? For God’s sake and party differences aside, Omo-Agege has been a sterling senator thus far. His Urhobo authenticity is not in any doubt; his street credibility is solid and unassailable; and, his grassroots pedigree is well planted and not liable to be uprooted by the likes of O’tega.

Omo-Agege and I may now belong to different parties but I will not on the strength of that, forget in any hurry, his genuine sacrifices for our people. I recall how the most vibrant Senator Urhobo has had since the era of Senator David Dafinone would call me to accompany him on empowerment of market women, youths, Okada riders, artisans and petty traders on a weekly basis!

This is not something I was told; this was something I witnessed firsthand sitting in the back of Senator Omo-Agege’s car with him, going from one Urhobo village and town to another. Here was Urhobo’s Senator, well bred son of the late Justice James Omo-Agege, of blessed memory, a lawyer and a gentleman who has seen it all, going to the most remote parts of Urhoboland, engaging with his people by coming down to their level and interacting with them as his equals.

At the time, I had taken it upon myself to ascertain what Omo-Agege was actually spending each weekend he came down to Delta Central from Abuja on his empowerment and I can confirm that he spent nothing less than 15 million naira every single weekend during that period! Right before my eyes, Obarisi Omo-Agege was spending millions – nay, tens of millions – on a weekly basis for the poorest of our people and I saw the happiness in their eyes to see their Senator sympathising with their plight by putting badly needed money right into their pockets to grow their businesses!

It was direct remittances in action. It was social intervention in progress, it was the dividends of democracy right into your pocket by a man who refused to eat alone and I was quite proud of my brother, my friend and Senator for bringing succour to our people vide such a direct manner!

There was one weekend in particular when Omo-Agege initially could not travel to Delta to continue with his seemingly ever continuous empowerment program. He told me he was broke. That is Ovie for you; never pretentious, never pretending, never posing to his fellow men – in short an authentic omuvwie of Urhobo! I told him that even if it is only because of what I had seen him do in my presence, all our Urhobo ancestors are rooting for him and that he could relax with a clear conscience.

Just then, Great Ogboru called to ask if Omo-Agege would be coming to Delta that weekend. Omo-Agege explained to him that he had no money. Ogboru then said that the empowerment was making so much impact and that Omo-Agege had sacrificed so much for our people that he deserved the support of his fellow Urhobos to continue with the program and that he, Ogboru would put his money where his mouth is by donating to Omo-Agege’s empowerment program.

Olorogun O’tega Emerhor

There and then, Ogboru sent him 12 million naira in my presence and that’s how Ovie mopped up about 3 million to add to it and was able to come to Delta to continue with his empowerment program. You cannot imagine how ashamed I was that I wasn’t able to give my brother anything on that particular occasion for there he was, Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic, broke on account of sharing his income with our fellow Urhobos.

That is the mettle of Obarisi Ovie Omo-Agege and that is the man that O’tega, my own namesake, who promised me heaven and earth only to sideline me when NDDC contracts started pouring in, wants to take his post! O’tega, I am waiting for you!

So some elders and leaders bought form for you? No problem; may God bless them but with all due respect to them, my candid advice is that they should be quite prepared to man every polling unit, mobilise the people and guard every ballot box for you as well!

You think I don’t know what you have been up to, O’tega? Are you not the one who has been going around tarnishing my reputation, scandalising my name and spreading insane rumours that Okowa gave me fifty million to support him?

Which fifty million did Okowa give me? Don’t you know Okowa or you want to pretend you don’t know Okowa again? Will Okowa give anyone even five million to write articles for him? What has Okowa even done for me since I came back to PDP? Okowa that is always complaining that there is no money; that he is plugging loopholes; that he is looking for money to do projects!

Okowa has not even dashed me one million since I came to PDP, you rumourmonger!

You think I am a poor man or what? Do I come from a poor background? Don’t you know my background? You may be richer than me O’tega but my late father, B. E. Onokpasa, of blessed memory, was a thousand times richer than your late father, equally of blessed memory, and that’s a fact.

Simply because somebody does not have as much money as you, does not make him some nonentity to be deceived, duped, taken for granted, disrespected and castigated before the world.

Why must you go about telling lies that Okowa gave me money for publication? Don’t I have money of my own to make publications? Do I look like the sort of person who cannot make a move without backing, backup or support from somewhere? When I was supporting you how much did you even end up giving me to make publications? Did I not spend money from my pocket to make publications for you?

Even till today, I still owe various media houses substantial sums that I incurred supporting you! In fact, O’tega, did I not once copy you an email I had sent to the editor of one of the national dailies asking him to demand the money I was owing his paper from you?

Your jobless and idle-minded boys just go around from local beer parlour to beer parlour spreading ridiculous rumours about me. Is that how I insult people? I don’t go to beer parlour to insult people like a demented human being. If I want to insult someone, I go to the bank, withdraw one million and buy two pages of a national newspaper to take them to the cleaners. Sometimes I buy two pages in two national newspapers. That is two million already. Sometimes I add local newspapers to the tally and before you know it, I have spent around 2.5 million. My insult is expensive so I am not even going to notice all that nonsense your comical boys are doing.

You just keep going about tarnishing the reputations of your fellow Urhobos, grabbing everything for yourself and now you want to be our Senator? There must be something quite wrong with you!

I am not coming back to APC, a party of backstabbers and promise-breakers per excellence. I left APC chiefly on account of O’tega, his greed and his utterly bizarre approach to leadership and I remain with PDP for the long haul. I do not support Governor Okowa for money and even Okowa himself should know that by now.

But to be fair to Okowa, he is a man that had never offended me in any way and had indeed treated me with respect and utmost regard when I first met him. Yet, while in APC, I focused the most virulent and unrelenting attacks against him. Nevertheless, when I came back to PDP and went to see him, I told him that I was not going to apologise to him for my attacks against him; that I know his political sagacity; and, that as governor, he stands in the position of father to all. Okowa told me that he needed no apologies from me whatsoever and that it was enough for him that I had retraced my way back home.

Of course it goes without saying that I want Urhobo to be Governor, after all, the very first persons I ever supported in politics were Governor James Ibori and later, Chief Great Ogboru. However, we happen to have started a gubernatorial tradition of eight years per senatorial district in this state and as far as anyone willing to speak the truth may hold for that tradition to be upheld, Okowa is the best bet for 2019 in order for Urhobo to return to power in 2023.

Needless to say, I will not be duped into believing O’tega that he has found a candidate from Delta North willing to do only one term in office for that is nothing but a scam and a blatant lie from the pit of hell, itself! While it is possible that there are indeed Nigerians willing to do only one term in office, I know, for a fact, that none of them has yet been born unless we all want to keep deceiving ourselves like a pack of fools in this country we know too well.

Nevertheless, that I am in PDP does not make everyone in APC some monster to me and it is certainly not Ovie Omo-Agege who is a complete gentleman, respectful of his elders, courteous to his mates, mindful of his juniors and conscientious to his constituents that a megalomaniac like O’tega is going to upstage in Urhoboland of all places!

Like him or not, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, has truly distinguished himself as a Distinguished Senator of the federal Republic; he has represented Urhobo well; he has touched the lives of our people; and, prevented us from the tragedy of zero representation in the upper house.

When Senator Omo-Agege joined the APC, one of my preoccupations at the time was to convince him to run for the Governorship of Delta. Indeed, there is nothing I did not do to try to convince Ovie to go for Governor! Yet, face to face with him, lawyer to lawyer, he would always tell me that he can never stab Great Ogboru in the back and that how would I feel if he did such a thing to me? That is the son of James Omo-Agege for you and some brigand is calling my noble-born brother a rascal. Nonsense!

Party or no party, we are proud of Distinguished Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and it is not someone like O’tega Emerhor who wants Urhobo to remain in political wilderness till 2027 that will claim the seat of our authentic brother and Distinguished Urhobo Senator.

O’tega, I knew you would fall into my trap one of these days and I will torment you till you come to your senses. Come and be my Senator, let me see.

Barr. JESUTEGA ONOKPASA, 178 Sapele/Warri Road, Sapele, Delta State.

07037212475, ekwetafia@gmail.com