2023: What APC’s Bayelsa Victory Means For Omo-Agege In Delta

By Emmanuel Aziken

Senator Ovie Omo-Agege gushed with enthusiasm last Monday minutes after David Lyon was returned as the winner of the Bayelsa State governorship election. To him the victory was indicative of his belief that the All Progressives Congress, APC could expand its presence in the South-South beyond Edo State.

“With this development and the actualisation of the Next Level Agenda of the APC-led administration, it is certain that our party will clinch more states in the South-South geo-political zone in future elections.

“Like I have always said, it is possible for the APC to rule in the South-South beyond Edo. And I have been proven right with the final results from Bayelsa.

While Omo-Agege rejoiced over his party’s victory in Bayelsa many political pundits are also projecting him leading the APC advance in what could be a brutal assault on Delta State, his base.

Like Bayelsa, some factors indicative of a good outing for the APC in the next governorship election are manifest in Delta. One is the party already has a firm foothold in the most popular senatorial district, Delta Central where Omo-Agege represents.

The party presently has one of three Senate seats, one of 11 House of Representatives seats and two of 29 House of Assembly seats.

It could be a tall order.

Those in the know say that preparatory to a bid that Omo-Agege may have been using his position as deputy president of the Senate to appoint aides across the state who are being groomed as campaign coordinators ahead of the 2023 bid.

That Omo-Agege is going to bid for the governorship seat is now hardly in doubt given the expectation from his associates and party members in the state.

What was an obstacle was the intention of Chief Great Ogboru, otherwise known as the Peoples General for 2023. The two men collaborated to wrest the Delta Central from a base of the PDP into the strongest enclave of the opposition to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Since Senator Pius Ewherido for the first time won the seat in 2011 for the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, the PDP has not been able to hold on to the Senate seat.

Insinuations of a conflict between Omo-Agege and Ogboru which became rife in the days leading to the 2019 General Election have now been doused. Ogboru was alleged by some within the APC of ceding much to new friends like Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan among others.

That caused people like Omo-Agege and others to keep a respectable distance while Ogboru romanced Uduaghan, Ayiri Emami among others but to no gain. But it caused disaffection among the inner caucus of the support group of the two men.

There were also unfounded claims that Omo-Agege who has turned into the political leader did not push for Ogboru’s nomination either as minister or to the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC board.

Last Thursday Ogboru visited Omo-Agege’s National Assembly office to the celebration of mutual friends.

So, when last Monday the senator expressed his determination to perform the Bayelsa magic in Delta, he spoke with the expectation of a possibility.

However, there are serious issues and challenges for people with such expectation.

First is that Delta State is no Bayelsa where Governor Seriake Dickson in a selfish bid for political preservation acted as a sole administrator.

Dr. Uduaghan’s bid in a similar effort in 2015 was easily derailed by Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa.

Governor Okowa, unlike Governor Dickson, has a massive support of both the institution, party activists and the political class.

Even more, Okowa is not seen as one who would act in the way and manner Dickson did in conceding much political capital to preserve his own political advantages such as the now doomed Senate ambition.

It is speculated that Omo-Agege may be wooing Senator Patrick Nwaoboshi to his side given the envisaged clash between the incumbent governor and the incumbent senator for the Delta North Senate contest in 2023.

Nwaoboshi was retained as chairman of the NDDC Committee over and above Senator Manager apparently with the help of Omo-Agege.

However, when and not if, Nwaoboshi collaborates with Omo-Agege the spin off for either of them in Delta North could be minimal given Okowa’s solid hold on the region.

In Delta South with Senator James Manager believed to be retiring in 2023, Omo-Agege would have to move beyond present perceptions of him as an Urhobo leader who has sidelined the other dominant ethnic groups in the district to the advantage of his Urhobo kith and kin.

Whatever, the prospects for the Deputy President of the Senate if he runs the 2023 governorship contest will be energetic.

His assertion that the APC could win more seats in the South-South immediately discountenances suggestions that he would defect to the PDP to achieve his goal.

As he said in his statement on Lyon’s victory in Bayelsa, “with determination and tenacity of purpose, we can overcome what seems insurmountable.”

The Bayelsa decision has only made what was thought unimaginable into a dream. Whether it could turn into reality is another thing.

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