OVIE OMO-AGEGE: IN CASE YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN!

By Ejiro Idama

Nigerian politics has a way of throwing up dimwits who clothe themselves in the shining robes of identities that they really are not. These dimwits have largely contributed to the retarded development of Nigeria as a nation. Since our politics and social consciousness are still evolving it is expected that such maladies are bound to occur. But as we grow and evolve such persons who parade themselves in borrowed robes and lay false claims to messianic credentials should be identified and exposed for what they really are before they destroy the body polity.

These elements who come in the guise of messiahs, but are really traitors are grouping again. We must be vigilant, identify, name and point at them. They should be exposed and stopped so that they will not jeopardize us further.

The lackey Deputy Senate President of the rubber stamp and most docile Senate ever in Nigeria, Senator Augustine Ovie Omo-Agege is in the news again as always for the wrong reason. A good example of political prostitution, Augustine Omo-Agege, he must be frightened of the name Augustine now, has suffered from an illusion of becoming governor of Delta State for seventeen years.

Omo-Agege who lived an obscure life in the United States of America (USA) after having been severely indicted for unethical practices, fled to Nigeria and not capable of court appearances joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hoping to climb on the back of his Chief Judge father. Without a naira to his name Omo-Agege survived at the mercy of friends. He failed woefully when he tried to run for the House of Representatives seat. The kindhearted governor of Delta State at that time, Chief James Ibori took pity on him and appointed him as a personal assistant. With deceit, blackmail and eye-service and some say juju, Omo-Agege worked his way to become a commissioner and fixed himself into the tenders board where he committed havocs tampering with projects whose amounts ran into billions of naira and which could have turned Delta State into an Eldorado. Agege got so power drunk when he became SSG that he thought of himself as the most powerful person in the state.

In his intoxication by power, he stepped out to contest for the governorship of the State and failed woefully. He then became a serial election looser. Apart from the 2006 primaries that he lost, he failed in two governorship elections in 2011. He failed in his attempt to become senator in 2013. He failed in his attempt to become governor in the 2014 primaries. He failed trying to be a senator in 2015 until the court smuggled him into the red chambers.

Agege has also been caught up in serial political prostitution. He was in PDP, then AC, he was in RPN, joined ACN, returned to PDP, ran to Labour Party and later jumped into APC. His record of political prostitution is second to none in Nigeria.

Agege is showing off as a political force, but this is absolutely untrue. He is just a political straw-man pretending to be a champion. He has always ridden to power and influence on the back of benefactors like Chief Ibori and Chief Great Ogboru good and selfless leaders that he later betrayed and brutally stabbed in the back. Agege is also a slimy opportunist who will do anything including groveling and crying to get power. The story of the mace theft and the resultant reward for him as Deputy Senate President and how he knelt down in slavish gratitude to President Buhari continue to hunt the Urhobo people for whom it is a taboo for a chief which he is to kneel.

Agege’s public service record is burdened by criminality. How he looted funds and turned his house into a CBN from where his cooks and housekeepers made away with bags of money is well known to Deltans. He also extorted contractors handling different projects across the State. He collected money for forty-eight projects in his Orogun clan which he didn’t execute. Let him tell Deltans how much he was worth between 2003 and 2005 and then how much he was worth in 2007.

But for the fact that we live in a society of forgive and forget, Agege’s record of betrayal is unmatched. He betrayed the Urhobo people when he snatched ballot boxes to undermine the Urhobo choice of governorship candidate in the 2007 election. He was chased into the swamp where he took cover all night. He betrayed his foremost benefactor, Chief James Ibori. He betrayed Chief Otega Emerhor and Chief Great Ogboru. He has betrayed everybody that he was or is associated with.

Agege has also betrayed the Delta State ideal of rotational governorship which was adopted to promote fairness, equity, peace and stability. His uncontrolled aggression and inordinate ambition made him to disown the rotational principle in Delta State politics. He contested when it was the turn of Delta South. He also contested when it was the turn of Delta North. He is a betrayal of public trust and accord. He also manipulated the APC governorship primaries in 2019 to the extent that results were declared when contestants were still looking for the venue of the election. Is this man who is the symbol of lack of moral probity the one pretending to rescue Delta State?

There are also the many lies he has told Nigerians and Deltans. He lied that he saved President Buhari from impeachment when in truth there was no attempt to impeach the President. He lied about being in support of power shift when in truth he was the chief campaigner for Senator Ahmed Lawan for president hoping he would be his running mate. He lied about midwifing the electoral bill, but the truth was that he voted against electronic voting. He has also failed to complete the constitution amendment assignment. Is this the man that wants to be governor?

Let Agege tell us the people he is representing as senator and how well he has represented them.

The five projects he proposed are all for his Orhomuru-Orogun, a very small community, if not the smallest Orogun community. What happened to the other twenty three clans that make up the Urhobo nation? Should such a nepotistic fellow be governor of Delta State?

We have not forgotten and Agege who speaks in incoherent diffident splutters should remember his many political and moral infractions that make him grossly unsuitable for the high office of governor. He is not a political messiah but a political maniac. Just in case he has forgotten.

Ejiro Idama, a public commentator writes from Ozoro.