WHY THE URHOBO PEOPLE MUST REJECT OMO-AGEGE, BY OLOROGUN OLORI MAGEGE 

As the 2023 elections draw near, we the Urhobo people must think hard and look very well in deciding the persons we are going to vote for especially for the office of the Governor of Delta State. One candidate that the Urhobo people must not make the mistake of voting for is Senator Ovie Omo-Agege who is the Delta State Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The Urhobo people must not allow themselves to be carried away or deceived by the pretentiousness being put up by Omo-Agege. Those who know him will attest to his many negative and toxic attributes which will make electing him as Governor of Delta State spell doom for the Urhobo people and the entire State. Whether we like to admit it or not, Delta State is on the path of progress and the State is stable, harmonious, and peaceful. Voting Omo-Agege as Governor of Delta State will set the State on the path of strife and ruins. We must do everything to avoid that destructive path. Omo-Agege is right now deploying propaganda, lies, and boastfulness to see if could win the votes of Deltans. Let us be smart and think back to as recent as 2015 here. It was the same propaganda that the APC used that made Muhammadu Buhari to defeat then-President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Eight years later, the APC Government has virtually destroyed Nigeria. This is what will happen to Delta State if we make the mistake of voting Omo-Agege as Governor.

The Urhobo people must realize that Omo-Agege has never worked for their interest. It has always been about what he stands to gain. He is a trader and dealer who will trade Urhobo away at the slightest opportunity. Did he not declare war in Orogun during the 2007 election working against Urhobo’s interest just because he was promised a big office? Did he not hijack over fifty projects meant for his own Orogun clan and collected the money without executing the projects? Did he not work for the reduction of the number of electoral wards in Urhoboland just to satisfy his narrow and personal interest? Omo-Agege worked very hard to destroy the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) after the death of Chief Felix Ibru. The crises that engulfed the UPU from 2013 leading to the problems involving Chief Joe Omene were triggered by Omo-Agege’s schemes to have the UPU under his control.

The Urhobo people must know that Omo-Agege is not an Urhobo patriot. He doesn’t have a Pan-Urhobo spirit or a Pan-Urhobo agenda. Let us look at his stewardship in the Nigerian Senate. Omo-Agege is in the Senate to represent Delta Central Senatorial district made up of the Urhobo since 2015. The Delta Central District is made up of eight Local Government Areas where you find twenty-four kingdoms. Now, Omo-Agege proposed five major projects during these eight years and all the five were penciled down to be cited in Orogun. The Polytechnic, Law School, Niger Delta Power Holding, Oil and Gas Park, Defence Station, all are to be located in Orogun, yet he was voted to represent twenty-four kingdoms. So what happens to the other twenty-three kingdoms? Also, the list of those he helped to get appointments shows that 85% are from Orogun. In 2007 when he was SSG he made sure he appointed a fellow Orogun man as the Executive Secretary of DESOPADEC and that man destroyed the Commission. Omo-Agege flooded DESOPADEC with only Orogun people. Even now he has forced on APC his own Orogun brother as the House of Assembly candidate of his constituency when there are three other clans in the constituency. Is this the man who thinks and says he is working for the Urhobo people?

Omo-Agege’s agenda is not in the interest of the Urhobo people. He has through his previous actions made other ethnic nationalities in Delta State to see us as power-hungry and wanting to rule Delta State forever. Omo-Agege has resisted the rotational arrangement that has brought peace to the State and his rejection of the arrangement makes the Urhobo appear bad before other Deltans. The Urhobo people are hospitable and a hostile and selfish Omo-Agege cannot be the beneficiary of an arrangement he worked against for sixteen years. He cannot benefit from something he fought against. It is immoral.

Omo-Agege does not represent the true Urhobo spirit. No Urhobo Chief ever kneels before another man, but Omo-Agege committed a taboo when he slavishly knelt down for President Buhari on national television. Omo-Agege’s family has also never lived in Urhoboland. His wife and children are hiding in America and cannot even say a word in Urhobo. He is really not an Urhobo patriot. He has also betrayed fellow Urhobos like Chief James Ibori and Chief Great Ogboru who gave him life politically and economically. Omo-Agege brought shame on the Urhobos when he stole the mace. No true Urhobo man worth his salt will steal a mace which is the symbol of a nation’s legislative authority. Urhobo must reject Omo-Agege.

Olori Magege, is a public affairs analyst