Urhobo wakerho which is the title of this article means Urhobo listen when translated into English. Among Africans such clarion calls are necessary at critical times when there was urgent need to rally the people for a common cause. The Yoruba people were once admonished by the theater guru, Hubert Ogunde, in an album he called “Yoruba Ronu” meaning “Yoruba think” during the crisis between Obafemi Awolowo and Ladoke Akintola. That crisis led to the coup of January 1966 and also the civil war from 1967 to 1970. The present message is for the Urhobo people who inhabit the Delta Central Senatorial district of Delta State. This call has become necessary in order for the people to see clearly and make informed choice in who becomes the Governor of Delta State in 2023 as the elections hold in a few weeks’ time. This clarion call is even more important when we look back and examine our electoral choices in previous elections since 1999. Our previous electoral choices have pointed us in the wrong direction politically. Delta State is made up of three Senatorial Districts and while the other two Senatorial Districts have always voted in sync for the same party and candidates, we the Urhobo have always voted in the opposite direction or better put we have always voted for the opposition. This attitude is really detrimental.
In 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2014, the Urhobo people voted for opposition parties who lost the elections in the end. If the winners had not been magnanimous, the Urhobo would have got nothing in terms of Government patronage and presence. Good for us the winners were people with good hearts who didn’t see politics and Governance as vindictiveness. But we do not know for how long the Urhobo people will continue to be lucky and eat in the ukodo in which they didn’t participate in cooking. This is why we must not leave things to chance and vote massively for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori to become the Governor of Delta State in the next election. Looking at the Governorship candidates objectively, Oborevwori is the only one whose emergence has everything democratic. His experience in politics, education and exposure, his widespread popularity, his character as a consensus builder, his pan-Delta attribute, unparalleled popularity among the youths, his humility and accommodating nature and the people-centric and development oriented manifesto he has crafted, his vision for Delta State all point to the fact that he is the best prepared to become the Governor of Delta State in 2023.
While the propensity to good leadership radiates all over Oborevwori, the other candidates appear too aggressive and mechanistic in their approach to life and politics. Senator Omo-Agege of the All Progressives Congress (APC) just stole the party from the founders and chased them away. Today, the party is Omo-Agege and Omo-Agege is the party, nothing more. Chief Kenneth Gbagi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has always been a drowning man politically and he is still drowning. Chief Great Ogboru is yet to recover from the deadly stab in the back he received from Omo-Agege. All the candidates except Oborevwori are lagging behind in terms of presence in all the three Senatorial Districts. Omo-Agege is pretending to be well received, but the truth is that even his closest allies do not believe in him and some of them also know that he is already negotiating a return to the PDP after losing the election.
The character of the candidates is another factor that the Urhobo people should look at. Urhobo elders have a saying that it is the child that listens to advise that you allow to dance the masquerade dance so that he will not disgrace you. Omo-Agege has brought too much embarrassment to the Urhobo nation and Delta State. His antecedents of fraud and forgery in the United States of America, his stealing of Government money, collecting money for fifty projects in Orogun which he didn’t even mobilize to site for, extorting of contractors all over the State, are things he did which amount to crime against the State. The same Omo-Agege turned Orogun into battle ground in the 2007 election.
Omo-Agege has also been waging a political battle against Delta State from 2006 till date. He has all his political life worked against the principle of zoning and rotation which has brought justice, peace, equity and fairness to Delta State. That was why he has contested in every election since 2006 against the morally and politically right principle of zoning and rotation. The Urhobo people must realize that Omo-Agege will not get the votes of the other two Senatorial d nm Districts and therefore should not waste their votes by voting for him. They should vote for Oborevwori who is the present face of pan-Delta politics. Omo-Agege is said to be representing the Urhobo nation in the Senate, but the truth is that he is representing Orogun and not even the whole of Orogun, but Orhomuru-Orogun, his small village. He proposed five major projects in his seven years in the Senate and all the projects are to be sited in Orhomuru-Orogun. What happens to the other 23 ½ clans that make up the Urhobo nation? Certainly, a man like this is not fit to be Governor of a multi-ethnic State like Delta State.
The Urhobo people should know that Delta State stands on a tripod and they should vote for Oborevwori as the other two Senatorial Districts have resolved to do so that the State can continue its run of development. Voting for Oborevwori is also a step in the right direction for Urhobo ovuovo (unity) as it will signal the full integration of the Okpe people as Urhobo. Of the three Federal constituencies in Urhoboland, the other two Ughelli/Udu and Ethiope have produced the Governors for Delta State except Okpe/Sapele/Udu. Let this be the turn of Okpe.
Urhobo wadooo… Urhobo wakerho…
