By OLISE ONWUSANDO

The 2023 electoral season has come and gone but the varied postures and inclinations of political gladiators that mounted the soapbox are still fresh in the minds of Nigerians. The conduct of most contestants reflected the foibles of the average Nigerian politician while a small number of contestants manifested a commendable disposition such as lack of desperation in the pursuit of their ambitions.

During and after the 2023 election season, Dr. Goodnews Agbi, the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party(NNPP) in Delta State, had shown certain distinctness in carriage and approach to politicking. As a gubernatorial gladiator, he carried out a peculiarly simple, self-effacing campaign that dwelt on issues enunciated in his D.E.A.L Agenda. He hardly indulged in the spread of vitriol or personality denigration as routinely employed by other contestants in the two dominant political parties.

As far as he’s concerned, politics is a vehicle for public service and should be played in a reasonable, honourable manner no matter the circumstances. It’s on this basis that the apparent conversion of political contests to a warfare of sorts by politicians is an anathema to his philosophy which is rooted in the medieval Dutch advocacy of live and let live.

For much of his adulthood, Agbi’s mindset had been nurtured in tolerance, a character trait which propelled his recent congratulatory visit to Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly and Governor-Elect in his office at Asaba. He spoke as a matter of fact: “We are here to congratulate you on the just concluded election. We are aware of the acceptability of your gubernatorial drive by Deltans. Of 25 local government areas, you won 21 and I keep wondering why some of our colleagues after the landslide victory, they still want to go through the rituals of tribunal and I think this is the right time to rally round you in order to move this state forward”.

The aforementioned concession is arguably strange but historic in the sense that no governorship contestant in the political history of Delta State had ever walked up to his rival and winner of the poll since the birth of the current democratic dispensation in the manner Agbi did. From the Fourth Republic’s transitional elections of 1999, 2007, 2015 and the recent 2023, there had been no volitional acceptance of defeat as exemplified by Agbi who seemed to have pioneered an inimitable futuristic pathway for elective office seekers to conduct themselves after elections had been won and lost.

Of course, the path taken by Agbi is in contrast with the course of action embarked upon by other contestants. The option chosen by the latter has a precedent in the tradition and political culture of Delta State. At all times, a guber election in Delta is a high stake game for obvious reasons; so, most contestants would out of pride seek to ventilate their loss through a judicial process rather than walk the humble path of accepting defeat which is largely seen as shameful and unmanly.

As at the last count, three of the governorship candidates, namely Senator Ovie Omo-Agege of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi of the Social Democratic Party(SDP) and Mr. Kennedy Pela of the Labour Party(LP) had served notice of contesting the guber election results in an Election Petition Tribunal already set up for that purpose.

Yet, the ennobling aspect of the Agbi solidarity with Oborevwori’s triumph is the respectability it confers on the personality of the conceding contestant arising from an awareness of his failure at the election and his willingness to learn from the variables that bolstered the emergence of the winner. The overall goal is to enrich his future ambition with the envisaged lessons that would be learned in due course.

Agreed that Agbi’s option may not appeal to a broad spectrum of career politicians, but there’s an imperative for its consideration and possible adoption given the envisaged benefits which the loser, the winner, and the larger geo-political entity would derive from the decision of politicians not to contest the outcome of an election that they justifiably lost.

*ONWUSANDO, a writer and public affairs commentator, is based in Asaba, Delta State.

Delta Online Publishers Forum, (DOPF), a registered and certified body of online newspaper publishers, has decried the greed showcased in the handling of the N25 million support given to newspaper publishers and Journalists in Delta State by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

The Forum has therefore passed a vote of no confidence in the Comrade Mike Ikeogwu-led Delta State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ over its various greed, lack of transparency and accountability as displayed in the disbursement of the support.

Recall that the State Governor during the inauguration of the New Government House Press Centre cum Media chat on March 13, 2023, expressed appreciation to the press, especially acknowledging the role of the media in promoting government policies and programmes, in appreciation honored Newspaper publishers and journalists in the state with the Money.

This, though came as a surprise package, however, journalists were happy, especially with the cash crunch situation which currently is affecting the nation, but their joy was later cut short as the fund was corruptly appropriated by the Delta State Council of NUJ that warehoused the fund.

Delta Online Publishers Forum, DOPF as a body was invited to the programme like any other body, including the NUJ Delta State Council through the office of the Public Relations Officer, Government House, Asaba. This has been the tradition between us and the State Government in the event of any activity that will require us to attend, like in other times, we attended in our numbers.

Right after the media chat, there was tension, and apprehension about what will happen to the money, considering the antecedent of the current leadership of the NUJ Delta State Council whenever money is given together, and as usual, they didn’t disappoint us, as they allowed their GREED to take a better part of the sharing formula.

We discovered that the NUJ Delta State Council, after much delay from 13 March 2023 to March 22, 2023, released a sharing structure thus: The correspondents Asaba were given N3.2 million; Warri Correspondents, N2.2 million; Indigenous Correspondents; N750,000.00; Ughelli Chapel, N750,000.00; Sapele Chapel, N400,000.00; Association of Community Newspapers of Nigeria, N300,000.00 and DOPF N300, 000.00.

This we consider belittling and insulting to DOPF and its members.

We discovered that NUJ Delta State Council didn’t disburse up to N10m from the Governor’s gift to Chapels and other groups; hence we have rejected the money and sent it back to the NUJ Delta State Council, through the Chairman, Mr Mike Ikeogwu.

Our Executive Council and Board of Trustees after extensive deliberation, passed a VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE on Comrade Mike Ikeogwu-led NUJ Delta State Council and have also directed our members to henceforth shun Delta Government briefings, press releases and other media related activities, until this anomaly is addressed.

However, we hereby place on record categorically, our sincere and profound gratitude, to His Excellency, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, the Executive Governor of Delta State, for his legendary generousity and magnanimity to the Publishers and Journalists in the state over the years, and especially with this latest largess, he voluntarily released to ease the burdens imposed on Nigerians, by the on-going Naira redesign/cash swap fiasco.

Emmanuel Enebeli,
Chairman,

Shedrack Onitsha
Secretary

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, Odio Askia Ogieh JP, has congratulated Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori on his emergence as Governor-Elect of Delta State, describing his victory at the just concluded Delta State Governorship election as the victory of the people and a manifestation of the unchangeable will of God.

Askia, the Udu of Isoko Nation, also commended Deltans for being discerning and wiser to sieve through and disregard the cacophony of propaganda and campaign of calumny unleashed by the main opposition party to settle on the right choice and remain with the Peoples Democratic Party.

“Your Excellency, your overwhelming choice by Deltans is a testament of the people’s knowledge of your personality and their confidence in your capacity and competence not only to sustain the legacy achievements of His Excellency, Sen Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, but also in your ability to deliver your promises of more meaningful development, opportunities for all, realistic reforms and enhanced peace and security for the development of our dear state and the prosperity and happiness of our people,” Ogieh said.

“The people were unanimous, resolute and decisive in sieving through all manners of propaganda and campaign of calumny to vote massively for you and their action leaves no one in doubt that your emergence is a manifestation of the absolute and unchangeable will of God to whom we give all the glory.

“We are proud of your track record of achievements in public service, community development and nation building and we are confident of your commitment to raise the bar of good governance and development,” he concluded.

Delta State YPP Governorship Candidate, Comrade Sunny Ofehe, has described the last Saturday, March 18, 2023 for gubernatorial and State House of Assembly members, as jamboree and mere selection where huge fraud was sadly perpetrated.

Ofehe stated this in a statement he released rejecting the outcome of the governorship election in the State immediately after the declaration of Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as Governor Elect by the Independent National Electoral Commissions (INEC) today, and made available to newsmen.

He said the good people of Delta State were disenfranchised and denied right to free choice of their political leaders by widespread thuggery, vote buying, concoction of figures at collation centres and the likes.

The YPP Guber Candidate noted that Chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, were variously in connivance with the umpire, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which endorsed the charade, caricature and show of shame. This sad scenario in the elections has reinforced the tag on the nation as “fantastically corrupt”.

According to Ofehe “We have substantial amount of evidence to expose the tremendous fraud that took place across polling units and wards in each of the 25 local government councils in the state. The question is why should INEC budget such humongous sum of money only to midwife this sham and jamboree? Is it not better for INEC to advertise our elective positions in the media and open a bidding process for the highest bidders to be announced instead of wasting money of tax-payers who are given false hope they’ll elect their leaders?

“After assurances by the electoral umpire, INEC, gruelling campaigns by various parties and debates all of which raised the consciousness and hopes of the people for a better election, influence of money owing to weaponisation of poverty in the land played unfortunate role in the elections. Elective positions therefore largely went to the highest bidder. This is not the democracy Nigeria truly wants. This is not the democracy I decided to participate in. Our democracy, indeed, failed to evolve one notch higher! Sad!

“With governance thrown to incapable hands, the economy of our dear Delta State will more likely bleed in the wilderness in the next four years.

“We must not continue like this. We must not continue to sweep under the carpet the fraud that has characterised our elections. As an environmental-political activist, I will, everywhere in the globe I chance to, continue to shame these polls that were less than free, less than credible and hence unfair. It is hoped that this approach has the beneficial effect of deepening our electoral system.

“Barring the election irregularities, I am the most capable, credible, competent and generally acceptable candidate for the Delta State Governorship seat. As noted here earlier, I intend to challenge the entire process in my own way.

“I thank those who sincerely supported and worked tirelessly with me in the cause of the campaigns. We are the true WINNERS because we contended with the status quo and made sure we got to the finish line. We must take pride in our issue-based campaigns and doggedness to the end.

“I love my country Nigeria and my dear Delta State! I believe we would see, soonest, our dream Delta State!”

As a mission statement expressly provided in the law setting up DESOPADEC by the Delta State House of Assembly in 2006 and fully activated in July 2007, the Commission is meant “To put smiles on the faces of the people in the host oil and gas producing communities of the State through massive infrastructural and human capital development.”

Without undermining one for the other, the current board rolled up its sleeves from the blast of the whistle to deliver balanced intervention across the mandate areas in critical infrastructure, education, health, housing, water, road, transportation sub-sectors, as well as in re-skilling the youth in a well thought-out, all-purpose vocational programme to empower them.

The result was the creation of the DESOPADEC Skills Acquisition Academy with the endpoint of making the youth properly skilled, gainfully engaged and productively useful to themselves.

This innovative human capital development template which was officially kick-started in the first quarter of 2020 in a well structured non-formal curriculum saw successful pioneer candidates admitted into the scheme in a grand Matriculation Ceremony.

The intent was clear: To give successful trainees a lifetime opportunity in honing their skills in various chosen vocational fields. The skills acquisition scope include Welding and Fabrications; Electrical and Electronic Repairs; Solar Energy Works; Tiling, Interlocking and P.O.P. Works; Catering and Confectioneries; Shoe, Bag Making and Leather Works; Information and Communication Technology, ICT; Health, Safety and Environment, HSE; Fashion Design and Tailoring; Hairdressing and Makeover.

The programme entails a 6-month intensive training and practical exposure, and assessment, evaluation and certification by relevant national technical education boards.

The DESOPADEC Skills Acquisition Academy started with 160 trainees drawn from all the six ethnic nationalities within the mandate areas. They underwent an orientation programme on financial management and efficient book keeping preparatory for their eventual graduation which held at the Petroleum Training Institute, PTI., Effurun, Delta State.

The highpoint of the graduation ceremony was their being well resourced with modern working tools and equipment, aka Starter Packs, to get them to hit the ground running from day one.

It must be stated here that besides the huge investment in their training and starter packs, the graduands also generally got a cash backup of N200,000 each. Some graduands got extra N500,000 each for emerging as best trainee in their respective fields while a star prize of N1 million was awarded to the Overall Best Trainee.

The extra gestures were borne out of a deep commitment by a responsive team and leadership determined to touch lives in a most salutary and impactful way.

The DESOPADEC Skills Academy has graduated two sessions and graduates its 3rd batch by the end of January 2023 after which the 4th batch would immediately commence.

Mention must also necessarily be made of the highly impactful annual Bursary Scheme in favour of tens of thousands of mandate areas students in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

The impact of this payment to the students is to be appreciated in the fact that many of them have expressed heartfelt gratitude to the Board and Management of DESOPADEC for their responsiveness, especially at the very precarious period of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

In keeping with the tradition, arrangement is already concluded for the commencement of payment of for 2022/2023 within the month of February.

Without doubt, the human capital development agenda of the current DESOPADEC board has been greeted with huge aplomb and commended by Government and diverse traditional and community leaders as a noble partnership that supports the greater vision of the Okowa administration which is to build as many youths in the state into responsible, financially independent and prosperous citizens.

Nothing truly could be too much to achieve this focal objective. Little wonder the awards have kept pouring in in torrents to a Commission that has become the toast of a dozen media and award conferment establishments!

Undoubtedly, our testimonial of infrastructure and human capital development interventions evidence a deep commitment to the elevation of human dignity and environmental equity for the people and communities of Delta State oil producing areas. It is a commitment that DESOPADEC will continue to rekindle for the good of the people.,,

!