The ecstatic jubilation across Delta State over the final judgment of the Supreme Court on the appeals against Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori’s mandate as Governor of Delta State underscores the people’s love for him and underlines the importance of the closure of all the cases to Deltans.
This is because, in Oborevwori, the people are very happy to have elected and discovered a Governor who is truly committed, deeply determined, humbly sincere, highly detribalised and genuinely inclusive in governance for the development of the state.
Cut out for the job and well prepared, Oborevwori has demonstrated deep knowledge of developmental issues, articulated a great vision, exhibited hands on experience and shown dogged hard work with which he is driving a spree of infrastructural renewal and improvement across communities and transformational programmes across socio-economic sectors.
Sure of his mandate, he had risen above politics and the shenanigans of naysayers to launch a nobility of service to the people.
Deltans have been excited with his attention towards the completion of inherited projects; the latitude and high standard of ongoing construction of several roads, bridges and drainages across various communities in the three Senatorial districts.
This includes the renewed speed of works on the Ughelli-Asaba Highway, the unprecedented engagement of Julius Berger for the reconstruction of road networks in Warri, Uvwie and environs; strategic investments in health, education, agriculture, transportation and energy; and all encompassing catalycism of the economic advancement of the people through the design, depth and spread of various programmes for employment generation, growth of micro, small and medium businesses for jobs creation, economic empowerment of ordinary folks and support for the vulnerable.
The state has been in celebration of the new regime of motivation for public servants, evidenced by the payment of arrears of various entitlements which hitherto was cause of conflict with different labour groups; support for the payment of pension and gratuities to thousands of retired local government workers and a forward-looking provision in the 2024 budget in anticipation and ahead of any possible review of minimum wage by the Federal Government. This is what and who Deltans voted for.
His faithfulness to his campaign promises as espoused in the MORE Agenda has strongly endeared them to him and created a huge confidence and statewide assurance for the greater development and advancement of the state.
The joy and relief of the people over the final judgment of the Supreme Court is the guarantee it brings for the continuity of the development process being driven by Oborevwori and the elimination of the distractive menaces of sore political losers.
Ordinarily, one would have dismissed the whole legal challenges, right from the Election Tribunal and through the Court of Appeal, as non-starters because it had always been clear that Oborevwori won the election overwhelmingly, but the people’s apprehensions could be understood against the background that even Lord Denning, the iconic ancestor of modern judiciary, admitted that “the law is an ass,” and we have truly seen some absurdities in our electoral jurispudence and adjudication.
It was most probably based on this, the hope of re-enacting such absurdities through the concoction of cock and bull electoral stories and the contortion of legal technicalities and illogics, that his challengers shamelessly persisted in making claims over an election in which they well know that the people roundly rejected them.
The records and the circumstances of their loss are very clear. While Oborevwori won with a wide berth of 360,234 votes in 21 of the 25 LGAs spread across the three Senatorial Districts, his closest rival, Omo-Agege, magically polled 240,229 votes, winning in only four LGAs, all limited exclusively to his part of Delta Central Senatorial District.
Ignoring this fact to plead with the Supreme Court to disregard the electorate and invalidate over 120,000 vote margins on the basis of purported, unproven and insignificant administrative error on the part INEC was really an exercise in self delusion.
We can understand though that his curious “Hope” may have been inspired by Uzodimma’s obnoxious judicial providence in Imo, but he failed to take cognisance of the fact that, psychologically, the entirety of Nigerian judiciary does not seem to be proud of that delivery any more.
Why Omo-Agege dropped his Senatorial chance to ever imagine that he could be Governor of Delta State is still a wonder. Perhaps he relied too much on the so called federal might but, with the election result, he should know by now that, outside a small section of his kindreds in his homeland, Deltans do not regard him much, not with the gangster image the mace snatching saga at the Senate tarnished him, the impression of ethnic chauvinism about his person, and the perception, wrongly or rightly, among a largely Christian populace, that the Igbe religious assembly to which he purportedly belongs is a cult of the phantom water goddess, Mamiwater.
Pela on his part was an unknown name to Deltans. He had no reasonable local structure, organisation nor followers, neither did he campaign much nor sell any convincing programme to the people.
He had only hoped to benefit from association with the name and image of Labour Party’s Peter Obi, but majority of the Obidients were very clear that they would not attribute whatever attraction they found in Obi to just any persons who used his name.
His case was even made worse by the fact that there was no rapport between him and the Obidient Movement in Delta. They didn’t know him and he also didn’t sufficiently associate with them.
By going to court with his 48,027 votes to plead for Oborevwori’s disqualification and allege electoral malpractices, he also was only hoping against hope, merely trying to play a spoiler, or perhaps looking for some form of undeserved political settlement.
While the courts have seen through the shenanigans of Omo-Agege and Pela, what Deltans found curious, ridiculous and ludicrous was the case of our brother from Oginibo, Barr Kenneth Gbagi, who polled a paltry total of 56 votes in the Gubernatorial election.
What exactly he has gone to the Election Tribunal, the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court to do is still a wonder.
As in his campaigns that was characterised mostly by splatters of invectives and threats, he seemed also to have made the most disorganised legal presentation at the courts.
The height of it was when at the closure of addresses at the Tribunal, he jumped back to say he has discovered a new evidence against Oborevwori based on some strange gazette.
The tribunal rightly pointed out that such evidence could not be admitted since it was not earlier pleaded, not front-loaded, out of time, insignificant and at variance with the stated procedures of the Tribunal.
He approached the Court of Appeal for redress. Again, they told him the same thing, pointing out also that the evidence is worthless and that the Tribunal had closed.
He stepped up to the Supreme Court which also told him that his plea lacked rhyme, reason, logic and law. Yet he went back there to challenge the final ruling of the Tribunal and Court of Appeal.
As the lawyer he says he is, he should have known that his case was long dead by nature. But, was Gbagi actually looking to take the mandate to govern Delta with his 56 votes?
I cannot answer that question. I would only say that the three dead petitions were suggestive of personal social disorders manifest under conditions of Aggravated Political Confusion.
Such malaise is not the portion of Deltans and, thankfully, the nuisance are all over.
The state can now continue to enjoy the regime of advancement with Sheriff, undisturbed and undistracted by persons who do not see the world beyond their delusively bloated ego.
They should know by now that Deltans regard Sheriff beyond politics.
