IF I WAS GREAT OVEDJE OGBORU

Fejiro Oliver

Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday

Wilma Rudolph

The greatest attribute of a warrior and a champion is knowing when to give up and quitting when the ovation is loudest. There are victors in defeat and success even in failure. There are people who fail in battles but are actual winners in the face of those they fought against. Their victory is not dependent on the result of the war but on their attitude before and after the war. Every leader who fails to understand this principle of battle digs his own grave.

There is no politician who has held Deltans politically spellbound like Great Ovedje Ogboru. His father must have seen the stars ahead of time by naming him Great, for he came to the world and became great in every endeavor he has chosen, from fishing to politics. Like the Midas touch, everything he touches turns to gold. The fable of Midas however ended with a lesson that it is not all that we wish for that we get. Midas wished that all around him turns to gold and the genie granted his desire.

 From his throne, he touched all, and all turned out gold. He went to his garden and touched the trees and flowers and all became gold. He smiled at his luck. When it was meal time, the food he touched to eat turned to gold too and his sorrow started. His only beautiful daughter saw him in the palace and ran to hug him and instantly, the princess turned to gold. Midas knew his end had come. He pleaded with the genie to reverse the wish which was mercifully granted, making him to touch his daughter into a human being again.

This is where Ogboru is heading to. For twelve years, he was the most consistent opposition politician in Delta State. With his name, Senators, House of Representative members and House of Assembly members were made and in making them, he changed their fortune forever, even though most of them ended up betraying him by jumping into the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 

Despite his enormous political heavyweight, he has been unable to deliver himself as the governor, an election he has contested and lost six times.

His 2019 outing was the worst of all, winning only two local government areas. It was the election where he has recorded the least number of votes. The Peoples General as he’s fondly called saw defeat with his eyes and the tears refused to fall. It was humiliating! The election tribunal has affirmed the victory of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa and Ogboru has gone to the Court of Appeal to challenge the tribunal ruling.

If I was Ogboru, even though I have the right to go to the tribunal, I will not. I would rather hold a press briefing to castigate the election as a charade, narrate my vision for Delta State and the plans I had to make them come to pass. With facts and figures I will I tell the world how the PDP has turned Delta backward despite the billions that came into the state. I will compare the state with other states using pictorial and video evidence, which will show on a projector during the press briefing.

Thereafter, I will proceed to go back memory lane to remind them on how it all started in 2003 and thank the people for their support, despite not sharing money to them. At this point, I will call out names of my faithfuls, starting from Ogbe Onokpite and others who gave their lives for the struggle to see him emerge as governor. A minute silence will be held for them, while I bring out a frame in glass with their pictures and names, which I will announce to be hung in my sitting room as eternal mark of respect for them. If need be, I will shed tears and if the tears will not come, I will ask for aboniki balm to be brought which I will secretly rub in my eyes to provoke the tears, like Buhari and Atiku cried. The crowd will be wowed. Don’t Nigerians like drama? I will give it to them.

Then comes the best moment of my very important world press briefing. Standing up, I will look straight into the camera and declare how my love for Deltans is not my love for power, how my desire for good governance is not my quest for an ambition not supported by Deltans especially since it’s the same Deltans that allegedly rigged the elections against me. I will tell them how their children and generations unborn will wish for a day to have me back but I would have been long gone with my creator.

 My immeasurable thanks will be given to them for standing under the sun, rain to give me their mandate, a mandate that has been perpetually stolen by the PDP, thanking the numerous okada riders who formed security for me while the entire contest lasted from 2003 to 2019.

Then I will announce my quitting of the race to become governor of Delta State henceforth and direct my lawyers to withdraw my election case from the tribunal, wish Okowa well in his four years tenure.

This is what I would have done, if I were Ogboru by quitting gubernatorial elections forever and thereafter look for the Josua who will deliver his people to the Promised Land.

 Some are born kings; some are crowned kings while the rest are born the kingmakers. Of the trio, the kingmaker remains the greatest of them, for without him, kings are not made. The very day the kingmaker attempts to be king, he is shown the rules of the gods that forbid the root of the tree from becoming the branch.

Ogboru has long attained the level of a kingmaker and he has not seen it. Perhaps, the deafening noise from his followers and his cult followership has blinded him to the reality of life. With love, I penned this to Ogboru, to reflect and act wisely. I write this for him to walk gracefully from the political stage and concentrate in producing the next governor of Delta State from the APC and forever keep the love and respect of Deltans and Nigerians.

 One thing is certain, which is his immortalization in the hearts of Deltans.  Ogboru, the choice is yours, engrave your name on the sands of time now that it is not yet late.

These little things matter…

Fejiro Oliver, an investigative journalist can be reached on +2348022050733 (SMS ONLY). He tweets with @fejirooliver86 and IG Handle @elahuva