DELTA STATE Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, never stops to give thanks to God. But he needs to arrange a special thanksgiving now. Praying every morning at the Government House Chapel is part of his daily routine. He doesn’t miss it. He doesn’t also miss Sunday service. He is an Elder in Winners Church. Nothing reduces his time with God. Overall, he stands very tall in that department.
He even tries to show it in his conduct by being more reserved than he is expressive. In other words and like an orphan, he tries in every way to do his own thing quietly and avoid unnecessary quarrel with people who are more privileged. He understands where he is coming from. In the build-up to 2023, his opponents said he was from the street and therefore, not good enough for the elevated formalities and tasks of the Government House in Asaba.
But he made it against the run of the fast-paced politics of 2023. We can as well say that his hard nut was cracked for him by a benevolent spirit. And he has not forgotten to be humble. That humility is helping him a lot. It has kept him focused and very far from exhibiting any form of street mannerisms that his critics had hoped for. Instead, he has been able to strike some impression in Pa Edwin Kiagbodo Clark. This is a big score. It is the reason I am suggesting to the governor to expand his spiritual bouquet to accommodate a special thanksgiving to celebrate this huge endorsement of his efforts so far by Papa Clark.
Maybe I should explain a little more. Papa Clark is not ordinary. He is a principality even in the national context. He is beyond bounds. He says whatever he wants to say, to whomever and at whatever time and nothing will happen. He has earned that privilege. Pa Clark is unaffected by the known sentiments. “I am not a praise singer” he reiterated. And so, when he talks, even at age 97, the low and the high in Nigeria listen somehow. He cannot be pacified to tone down. Like crab, you cannot put him securely under wraps. For instance, if as Governor, you take to him a giant cow at Christmas and then begin to dream big dreams of having him under wraps, he breaches the boundaries almost immediately to proclaim that he actually deserves more than you have done as an elder statesman. If the package is enhanced, to a say, a brand new Prado SUV and an accompanying cash of N50million, he will describe the largesse as statutory and he therefore does not need to go overboard to express gratitude to the generous giver. It is like asking a pensioner to specially thank the pension manager for releasing his pension money.
There is yet another aspect of Pa Clark that is also pretty difficult to comprehend by casual observers. The old man is very stingy with praises. It is very difficult to impress him. Here is an example. After what seemed to former President Olusegun Obasanjo like a good deal on the Delta Steel Complex (DSC), Ovwian-Aladja, Pa Clark had stormed the stage to cast spanner in the works. He lambasted Obasanjo for selling DSC to some con Indian investors for peanuts. In the tumultuous aftermath of the sale, Pa Clark had explained to stakeholders at one forum in Warri that a well-run thrift cooperative in Kiagbodo or Aladja, would have been able to raise, without hassles, the 30 million dollars, at a time dollar exchanged for one to N120, which Global Infrastructure Holdings Limited (GIHL) paid for the steel company. This was to underscore his disapproval of the concession deal described back then by industry watchers as a rape on the national heritage. Obasnjo’s successor, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had acted without looking back on the prevailing sentiments to revoke the concession and resell the complex to Premium Steel and Mines for a more robust N40 billion.
In national discourse, Pa Clark comes in different descriptions depending on the context. He is an elder statesman. Other times and when PANDEF (Pan Niger Delta Forum) is in focus, he drops to “foremost Niger Delta leader.’’ When the issues are further disaggregated, he settles finally for “foremost Ijaw leader.’’ So far and good, he has managed to project in these cross-cutting, and sometimes conflicting, roles, without losing stature. He has simply learnt to answer whatever name that he is called at any given time. What doesn’t change is the purity and strength of his message. Either as an elder statesman, Niger Delta or Ijaw Leader, Pa Clark has been fairly constant. Nothing pushes him into a correctness to manage political intrigues.
Almost a decade ago, the old man had announced his entry into the departure lounge and that he could board and fly away any moment. He has not boarded. He is still holding his boarding pass and pacing about the duty-free zone where he runs free commentaries on the composition of shops and prices of goods on display. If a Wike, for instance, is displaying expired goods in his shop and refuses to walk back from the wrong way, he assumes the corresponding role of a Niger Delta Leader to talk him back on a sensible path. If it is a Bola Tinubu that is inventing taxes without creating an economy in his financial services shop in the duty-free zone, Pa Clark will step in as an Elder Statesman to note that neither the economics of Adam Smith nor Karl Max supports creating humongous national wealth from a traumatised people.
It is much easier for the old man in Delta State, where his stool and stature are almost sacrosanct. His language is also understood by all. Principally, he speaks Ijaw, Urhobo and English. But whichever he chooses to speak, he is understood by all the ethnic nationalities, namely, Ijaw, Isoko, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Ukuani, Ika/Anioma, in the state. Most times, he speaks to the people through their governor. And since 1999 when this democratic experiment started, he has been speaking to all the governors in the state. He previews and reviews. While his previews have been moderated by anticipation of performance, his reviews during and after performances have been very caustic. He has got nothing nice to say about all the past governors, namely, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan and Dr. Arthur Ifeanyichukwu Okowa.
ALSO READ: William Ruto and Abductions in Kenya
Although Pa Clark spoke differently and at different times to the different governors, his message was same. He accused all three past governors of misrule. It was a blanket condemnation that didn’t recognise the modest contributions of each of these governors in certain areas. For instance, Ibori’s opening up of rural areas with roads and electricity did not tilt the scale in his favour. Neither did the efforts of Dr. Uduaghan in health care and Okowa in road infrastructure cut impression as relevant facts in the court of Pa Clark. Nothing about the performance of the trio was admitted in evidence to help their cases. The old man handed a verdict of guilt. He sounded triumphantly final like the Supreme Court. Chief Ibori, in the light of his post-office travails, got the worst bashing from Pa Clark. He was named the founder of the misrule dynasty. The alleged misdeeds of Uduaghan and Okowa were traceable to the foundation that Ibori had laid.
Therefore, for Pa Clark to wake up in his departure lounge and talk as if the incumbent Governor is a product of a different political dynasty, is really, really, a big deal. Just for the records, this is how it has been in Delta State. Ibori begot Uduaghan. Uduaghan begot Okowa. Or put differently, Ibori caused Uduaghan to beget Okowa. When it was time to beget Oborevwori, there was real confusion over who the heir-apparent should be. The hurdle was scaled somehow, and in the end, Okowa struggled to beget Oborevwori in spite of the position of the progenitor. In other words, Ibori did not cause Okowa to beget Oborevwori. That made Oborevwori to become a descendant without ancestors.
You can now understand why the incumbent has been steadfast in oiling his paths with God and the ordinary people in the streets in efforts to cultivate a protective base. The efforts have paid off following his adoption and proclamation as a worthy son by Papa Clark. The old man did not just talk and move on to other matters. He actually wrote a commendation letter with his own hand thanking the governor, for, among other things, “returning (Warri) to its old self.” Expectedly, the Governor’s spin men feasted on the endorsement. “The oracle has spoken’’ said one supporter in a manner that captures more than the given circumstances to project into the battle ahead, and almost saying that, with what Papa Clark has said, the re-election of Oborevwori in 2027 is also a settled issue.
Well, that is left to be proved. What we can however say for sure, even now, is that it isn’t going to be as tough as it was in 2023 when the Governor was seen as coming from nowhere. This time, he will be coming from somewhere and bringing to the bargain, his huge endorsement by Chief E.K Clark. But it is just mid-term. What has given Oborevwori the edge is governance and not politics. The Governor has been able to rest a great deal of the post-election anxiety with his M.O.R.E Agenda. It is an acronym that defeats its own ease and requires further factorisation for better understanding. The M and O stand for Meaningful Development Opportunities for all. The R is Realistic Reforms and the E is Enhanced Peace and Security.
As it is, the prayer of the ordinary people in the streets of Asaba, Warri and elsewhere in Delta State is for the strict implementation of the Agenda to continue. Oborevwori can choose to slip from implementation into sloganeering at his own risk. He is not the first Governor to do agenda in the state. Since late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua introduced the novelty of coded agenda in governance with his Seven-Point Agenda, creation of agenda has become a fundamental objective in policy drive in Delta State. Governor Uduaghan did one called THREE-POINT AGENDA of Human Capital Development, Infrastructural Development and Peace and Security. This ran for eight years more as a slogan than it ran as a programme. Towards the end of his tenure, another, called DELTA BEYOND OIL, was introduced to replace the old agenda that recorded no clear implementation.
After him, came Okowa with a SMART Agenda that was broken into 1.Strategic Wealth Creation 2. Meaningful Peace Building 3. Agriculture and Industrialisation 4. Relevant Health and Educational Policies and 5. Transformed Environment Through Urban Renewal. In the end, Delta refused to be transformed into a smart state. It is only Governor Ibori who did not have an agenda as such because it was not fashionable in his time to encode basic governance into an agenda to be pursued exclusively. He did Resource Control which was close to human rights crusading and which put him on a war path with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
All said, Governor Oborevwori should continue with his own agenda the way he has been doing it. He should look neither right nor left but straight. He should raise the substance higher than the shadows. The people know what to do when the times comes. Even me, one of the drivers of the opposition in 2023, I am getting convinced. The Pa Clarke endorsement should not get into his head. He should quietly go for the thanksgiving and return to work.
