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Hon Francis Oborevwori: A New Sheriff Is Coming To Town

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Conversation Nigeriana (7)

By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha
If the winning streak of PDP in Delta State elections from 1999 till date is summoned to predict the forthcoming general elections, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Francis Oborevwori is poised to succeed Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa as Governor of Delta State come May 2023. To those who know, for Sheriff Oborevwori, it has been a long, rough, busy, and tumultuous ride from the struggle for power as a union, ‘street’ boy to being a political heavy weight in the politics of Delta State. What else can we say about a man who became Speaker of the State House of Assembly with such a humble background?

Oborevwori has God to thank for His great benevolence and the incumbent governor for having faith in him when perhaps nobody gave him a chance. Sherrif? some have asked? As his ardent field workers would say ’The state has been Sheriffied! Poignantly, the spirit of Sheriff, the new would-be Sheriff in town has caught on. The slogan ‘Have you been Sheriffied? caught on like wildfire in the PDP camp and spread in the State. Sheriff’s humility is legendary. Social media pictures of Sheriff bending on one knee to thank Governor Okowa drew criticism from some. But it was an acknowledgement of the mobilizing role of his benefactor. No one should begrudge him for this!

For the Okpe people, easily the clan with the largest population in Urhoboland, the choice and emergence of Sheriff Oborevwori as PDP was the result of many years of asking that the Okpe be given their due in political reckoning. So, early in the race, after the DC 23 announcement of the final three contestants, His Royal Majesty (Major General Mujakperuo, Orhue the 1st), the traditional ruler of Okpe people where Oborevwori is a chief, rolled out the pomp and pageantry of Okpe royalty, openly blessed and endorsed Oborevwori as a worthy representative of the Okpe people for the coveted seat of Governor of Delta State. Sheriff for Governor became a project of the Okpe people, ‘our own Sheriff’ as senior chiefs (I quote Chief Robert Onome) of the kingdom captured it.

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But beyond this, Sheriff’s victory is victory for Urhobo, victory for consensus-building and victory to the State. This ought to be a model to the country- how to manage cultural and ethnic diversity, how to manage a polity with fairness, equity, and justice. Very early in the race to winning the governorship slot, there were contestations on the status of rotation; that is, was rotation of the governorship slot among the three senatorial districts a convention, a gentleman’s agreement; was it to be rotated among the ethnic groups in the senatorial districts? Finally, reason prevailed and the received perception that it was the turn of the Urhobo to produce the governor won the day.

A congratulatory message to Chief Sheriff Francis Oborevwori is in order. From the rough and tumble of street life, he has managed himself well. To be able to manage the House of Assembly for six years without any form of rebellion showed that he enjoyed the confidence of his honourable colleagues and the state governor. Early in the year, some twenty-two honourable members of House endorsed him for governor. It is only a man who is wise in the techniques of survival that can navigate the rough waters of politics at that level. Obviously, his choice is a popular one within the PDP in the state. With the number of votes which he garnered from delegates during the primaries, it is obvious that the party has made a popular choice. To be sure, money was spent on delegates. Indeed, all contestants splashed money on delegates to win them over. Naira and dollar rain fell on delegates in the days before the primaries. We have God to thank for the spirit of sportsmanship that permeated the exercise. The exercise was broadcast live on AIT for the entire world to see. True, some felt aggrieved asserting that the incumbent governor mobilized all the ground forces to support his favoured one. No one who is familiar with elections in Nigeria will fault the governor for sticking out his neck in support of his anointed one!

Now that the primaries are over, it is time to plan for the general elections. PDP is well established in Delta State, with men and women of timber and caterpillar planted in the twenty-five LGs in the state. In every unit, every ward, and every local government, PDP has men and women who have held some position in the twenty-three-year reign of the party in the state. The election therefore will see these stakeholders go to the trenches in a titanic battle with APC candidate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege for the gubernatorial chair. It will not be a fight between Oborevwori and Omo-Agege. Oborevwori will be the symbol of the PDP. It will be a fight between all the PDP bigwigs and their passionate foot soldiers in the field. Party faithful know what it means for a change of occupant of Government House would be. So, all hands must be on deck to deliver Sheriff. For the Urhobo nation head or tail, they win. Two worthy Urhobo sons will slug it out come February 2023.

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This therefore is a congratulatory message to Ukodo Okpe, Right Honourable (Chief) Sheriff Francis Oborevwori, the man who has electrified the state with ‘Sheriffied’ anecdotes. This is a tribute to a man who started in the streets but did not end there. He peered into the future and decided that formal higher education was the way to go. He therefore embraced education and took first and second degrees. He took a Bachelor of Science degree from Ambrose Alli University in 2004, and a Master of Science degree from Delta State University Abraka in 2010. As for the names issue in his certificates that came up before the primaries, he dismisses it with a wave of the hand. He affirms that he attended the schools which are indicated in the certificates and that there is no inconsistency in his records. The state certainly has not heard the last of this. As opponents are getting ready for the courts, his legal team is also prepared to puncture all the arguments of inconsistency in certification and identity.

The real test of the self-acclaimed ‘Street Boy’ when he becomes governor will be in the art of governance. He plans to run an all-inclusive government which will put a crack team together on education, human capital, industrialization, and political engineering. On a personal note, I thank him openly for the role he played during my kidnap ordeal in 2012, a role which made then Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan re-appoint him Senior Security Adviser. Mandated by the state governor and the fatherly and concerned Orodje Okpe to ensure my safe return from the den of kidnappers, Sheriff Oborevwori, working with retired Admiral Kpokpogri and other security officials, made my official residence in Asaba his home for two long weeks, counselling my wife, tracking the kidnappers till I was released after sixteen days! I remain grateful!

Knowing that he is a product of political re-engineering as crafted by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Oborevwori is likely to rise to the occasion and silence critics with the Big Dreams of an Urbane Street Boy from Osubi. Then, the people of Delta State would know that indeed there is a New Sheriff in Town! Once again, Ukodo Okpe my ‘omizu’, I say congratulations!

Professor Eghagha writes from the Department of English, University of Lagos.

 

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Opinion

Death At Dawn, Rebirth At Dusk 

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Dele Jegede In Conversation With Prince Yemisi Shyllon
Prof. Toyin Falola

By Toyin Falola

 

I

Death

Twilight-zone, Afterlife, What-Mays, and Whatnots;

Questions that transcend mortal thoughts.

Uncertainties plucked by the hands of certainty

pondering life beyond the galaxy.

 

Philosophies, religions, and sciences; 

Ancient lenses to dissect and ponder.

Beliefs, opinions, and standpoints in their multiplicities;

Scalpels that open the heart of certain death

Blazing free the skins of uncertainty.

 

Science, a nobility I revere,

But it stammers answering to the afterlife.

For science is knowledge and knowledge from experience 

But the dead neither speak, nor take records.

 

Their journeys, ordeals, triumphs or woes?

No one bears witness.

But as dead, we must all be witnesses;

witnesses that testify not.

So, for now, we survive the knowledge of death.

 

II

On my Agbàlàgbà head lies my Ọ́kpụ́ Ágwụ́

With eagle feathers, rare and honorable

Adorning it for three scores, a decade, and some more days.

I had flipped my Kente given by the Gaa

And danced to crescendos from Gàngàn drums

 

I have been celebrated and celebrating 

For the miracles, I have worked with pen, paper, keyboard, and brain

I have taken the tales we tell in my village square beyond the Atlantic

Changed the songs that disdain us into appraisals

I have called my brothers not to point to our fathers’ house with their left hands

 

I have honed Africa and beyond

To answer the calls of the people’s need

I have reached the thinkable and done the unthinkable

So, I danced and keep dancing. 

 

Suddenly, I felt a touch on my host?

Electrifying my hand, leg, brain, and my whole

Telling me that my jur from the Dinka people awaits me.

That my hourglass tells of crossing the bar.

 

I thought I knew what it was like,

But my grasping convictions of approaching jur were perceptions

Just surviving the death of the knowledge of death

So, arms wide open ready to abound

 

What was there to fear?

No catacomb of secrets

No palm oil-drenched white garments

I have taken many to my gourmet

To feast and to see.

 

What was there not to fear?

With medicine men and women,

Syringes, lights, water, ECG, Oximeters, voices, and touches

Hovering around me like a sacred etutu

Making conversations with me and beyond

 

I was thrown into a pool of reminiscence

one leg and a part of me were already in the boat

It beckoned but I heard another. 

 

A loud voice like my mother’s.

Who takes a journey without locking his home?

Who takes the jur with unpatched palm fronds on his hut?

While the thunder rages up the sky?

The walls are broken and Balogun journeys?

So, I left the sea to clear the cobwebs and light up the night lamb.

 

The past few weeks have opened new lights of understanding to me. I now see the world from different hills and have helped to reach new resolutions. I know I have written about “transitioning to nothingness,” but my emphasis was on the “nothingness” with lesser attention on “transitioning.” I think we need to continue to ask questions. Philosophies, religion, sociology, psychology, science, and other ramifications are mere perceptions and we are uncertain. The transitioning occurs when death becomes an angel to hug not a beast to fear. We do not know what it entails but one must always endeavor to go with clean hands. 

My recovery from an illness may have offered me a fresh opportunity to shout some more, point to societal needs, and settle unfinished businesses. No, not those caused by my personal undoing, but rather those of the people who would be left unguided, and for matters untold about life, society, and individuals. I can say I have passed through the lessons of tantra transfiguration, to use an elegant phrase that I recently came across, to move from secular to sacred activism. No one survives death because of its finality, but when it seems that you did, it is a renewed quest, offering a new purpose.

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Opinion

Professors On INEC’s Will (3)

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Readers’ Showers Of Encouragement
Prof. Tony Afejuku

By Tony Afejuku

The debate has progressed well so far. Our professors, whose strokes have centred on their fellow professor’s manned INEC have tried as best as they could not to confine their impressions solely to the prism of subjectivity. Even when their impressions seem to be subjective, they still make allowance for contrary views, for opposing views. This obviously gives clarity, objectivity and logic to the subject at hand. Is the will of INEC of a professor minder and mincer of words’ control the will of the people or of the masses? On whose side are the Professors who are as concerned as almost everybody is with what is going – or with what has gone on – primarily about our Presidential 2023 elections? Our Professors who are debating the subject constitute the courageous and prophetic Nigerian voices of our day. Their authentic and responsible thoughts are not restricted to the local or regional. They are also not confined to electoral duties and responsibilities expected of the umpire and the will that belongs elsewhere. The truth about the quality of leadership about our country and elsewhere is also told in the debate of the literati.

Professor (Mrs.) Razinatu Mohamed in her submission, in her salvo-cum-explosion actually, drew attention to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s explosive explosion in the presidency. If Professor Osinbajo had provided the right vice-presidential leadership there would not have been the need for him to explode as he did as per a viral video Professor Razinatu Mohamed referred her fellow debaters to. “What has he been doing in the eight years of their administration? Irritated my foot; he is complicit.” Not done, Professor Razinatu drew attention to the kind of leaders that Nigeria and Africa need: “Leaders that understand the rudiments of modern socio-economic development and systems; Leaders that understand the crux of requirements for economic growth. Leaders that could demonstrate to the rest of the world that just as the world needs Africa, African countries need the world in a symbiotic relationship and partnership context where assistance becomes a dual role…..” 

Razinata’s concern is clear. Nothing in Nigeria will climb out of its hollow hole. In fact, the will of the people will remain hollow so long as a hollow mincer and minder is in charge of its electoral affairs. 

Professor Da Sylva perhaps responds better to Professor Razinatu Mohamed’s algebraic stroke. “Unfortunately, Nigeria’s democracy is trapped in its primordial self-made ethnic and religious sentiments and so, standards, merit, competence and pedigrees are measured by their curious divides of religion and ethnic inclinations. Until we all come to realize that heavens help those who help themselves, Nigeria ain’t going no-where – meeen!” 

    But below is Professor Da Sylva’s sledge hammer response to Professor Razinatu Mohamed’s Osinbajo hammer blow:

“Prof Osinbajo’s office demands he does what he did. Besides, it shows maturity and spirit of sportsmanship on his part. Every loser in a game “healthily” contested, is naturally expected to do the same. The only difference which again shows Osinbajo’s magnanimity is that in this context, the contest under reference was neither healthy nor just. The umpire seemed compromised and merely worked to a prepared answer. Yet the gentleman did the needful. I guess, brothers and sisters, that we should put all that behind us, and work for our common good, and the wellbeing of the country, provided the mythical Aso cabal will let the President-elect be, and let the masses be, and as such, they should not create any cause for us to think otherwise, lest they provoke our sense of patriotism to take appropriate action! I guess that those were the reading or feelings of the dirty-minded Aso Villa cabal. People that kill with sword never wish that any folk should pass a sword over their heads, a wise saying goes in Yoruba. The human principalities simply suspected that should they allow PMB to give the VP the intended latitude, they might not be able to control him. I remember on his return from London, he commended the efforts of his VP while he was away. He said he would still continue acting while he would still have some more rest at home. The following day everything changed, PMB decided to take charge as the President. I suspected some back door politics was playing out. My co-debaters, quite naturally, you’ll agree with me that, it is not over-ambition or sheer opportunism as you might insinuate for any deputy in an office to aspire to the next higher office, in a legitimate manner, there is nothing really unusual about it, and it would amount to killing a mosquito with a sledge hammer, should Oshinbajo be crucified for that, if at all. And as for his wishing Buhari’s non-recovery, I think that, again, like my Sister R, is a little unkind and not fair to the gentleman who I know to be a servant of God. He knows as much as I do, by our true Christian orientation and Biblical injunctions that, should he ever wish Buhari’s death or wish him any form of misfortune in those trying periods of the President, God Almighty who we serve would deal mercilessly and ruthlessly with him. That is what Psalm 41:1-13 is all about. So rule that out, because it is not, and could never be in his character. I can vouch for him. Rather, I saw him in those times that he acted for his principal, as someone zealous and appreciative of the trust his principal invested in him, and as such he tried to do his very best to merit the trust and the opportunity! I know and I am also sure that this is what an IBK, or a Razinat, would have done too had they found themselves in a similar situation! It does not amount to wishing one’s principal any evil, not at all. Not everyone can be like Chief Obafemi Awolowo who resigned his position under Gowon when the regime became financially reckless shortly after the civil war. Awolowo also gave very profound argumentation to justify convincingly his actions. He also turned down some other appointments including the “49 Wise Men of the Constitution Drafting Committee.” Oshinbajo couldn’t have resigned, normally, and naturally his principal, PMB should have supported him as a capable successor, but again, the President’s ethnic and religious bigotry took the better part of the President. Besides, PMB’s mind was long poisoned against his VP, a clean job by the Aso Villa cabal. IBK, Lady R, until the faceless cabal is permanently silenced the wheel of Nigeria might continue to go round in a circle, and to nowhere in particular”.

And Professor IBK takes the floor: “Prof. DAO, yours is a powerfully convincing submission, at least in a large measure. Now I am willing to hold a slightly different opinion about Osinbajo. Yet, I cannot fathom why he chose to run against Tinubu, days or weeks after the latter had begun his campaign in the party primaries. There’s much we don’t know about why OSBJ decided to run against BAT. Nothing is wrong with that politically but a little problematic from an Ethical or, at least Moral, point of view. Osinbajo did a poor job of it and came out a distant 4th in the primaries. I think he didn’t read the situation correctly and was probably misled by some cabal of sorts. Either way Osinbajo made a politically fatal error in this regard. Perhaps he must have sensed, or was told, that BAT was not the anointed candidate, or that BAT would be crippled by some ill-health or a medical condition. I remember the party’s screening committee publicly recommending that only younger contestants would be recommended to the NWC or such. Clearly there was an attempt to sideline BAT. Whatever the explanation, Osinbajo make the error in his campaign of promising to be more Buhari than Buhari. A man despised by whole sections of the northern population, a man whose reputation for laziness and incompetence was on the ascendant. Anyway, all is now history and Osinbajo has not given a good account of himself in this particular case. Prof DAO, I think your concept of the Trickster should account for Osinbajo’s situation here. FULL DISCLOSURE: a very close family member of mine was drafted to head Osinbajo’s campaign effort in Kano. We discussed extensively about Osinbajo’s pledge to carry on with Buhari’s policies. There was bewilderment and shock within the members. A week later half of the membership resigned on account of Osinbajo’s increasing identification with Buhari’s policies. Many mistakenly thought that Osinbajo was Buhari’s anointed one! I could go on…”

Interestingly interesting and intriguingly intriguing, dear, dearly dear readers: this debate.

To be terminated by the columnist-terminator and terminator-columnist next week after Professor Olu Obafemi’s summation of the debate he presided over.

Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.

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Opinion

With Us, Not For US

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Barrister Ijeoma Fynecountry

By Ijeoma Fynecountry

The 21st of March of every year is international day for the celebration of persons living with down syndrome. The advocacy and push for communal and political recognition of the basic fundamental rights for persons living with various types of disabilities, particularly intellectual disability, just as enjoyed by their peers who do not have any form of challenge – physical or intellectual has recorded a substantial success around the globe, especially in more developed climes. 

While the same cannot be said of the situation in Africa and Nigeria in particular, scanty breakthroughs have also been seen over the years, with the consistent and dogged efforts by some specialized organizations such as Down syndrome Foundation, Nigeria (DSFN).

The theme for this year’s celebration is “With us, Not for us”. This theme is apt particularly in the current era where the push for inclusion has taken a center stage in the campaign worldwide. While it is comforting to know that people, government and communities alike are now becoming more empathetic to the plight of persons living with disability, it is also necessary and most important that their rights as human beings deserving of not just empathy but actual concrete benefits accruable to other citizens without disability, is massively taken into consideration and actually provided for.

Therefore, it is not enough for the government to map out and create as in Lagos state and few other states, sections in the public schools to admit children or persons with intellectual disability, it is necessary to adequately equip these special schools with the needed “specialized” manpower, infrastructural and educational aids to attain the targeted educational goals for these persons. Likewise in the provision of better healthcare, economic, social needs of persons with disability etc.

Persons with intellectual disability do not just need to be specifically educated in accordance with his or her type of disability, but MUST also necessarily be able to aspire to or expect to be employed according to his or her learned ability. That way, a full right, befitting of a person, be him a person with disability or not, is assured. For what is the need of going through a learning process, acquiring a specialized knowledge about a craft or handiwork and eventually still not being given the opportunity of gaining employment as supposed, not due to lack of knowledge but for having a disability? No human being should be subjected to such. Our government should do better. The society at large should do better.

The theme for this year is enjoining all stakeholders – the government, communities, corporate organizations, religious bodies/organizations, individuals to open up their hearts, and recognize the very urgent and important need to help in the actualization of these basic human needs, rights of persons living with intellectual disability as we are all human. No human rights or needs should be prioritized over the other no matter the state of their health, mental and physical capacity. Stand with us by taking actual intentional steps towards uplifting and elevating the humanness of persons living with disability. It is not enough to say that you are for persons living with disability, your specific, intentional, targeted actions toward ensuring the practical applicability of these rights matters.

Fynecontryis a Lagos-based legal practitioner and the legal resource person for the Down Syndrome Foundation Nigeria.

 

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