By Wilson Okorugbo
There is a pattern in Delta politics that has become tired, predictable, and costly. It’s the politics of borrowed identity. Senator Ovie Omo-Age perfected it. He embodied it so completely, it’s not for wont of the right label to tag it the ‘Agege Doctrine.’
Under the Agege Doctrine, election season sounds like a family reunion for all Urhobo. The posters wear Urhobo colours. The speeches are full of “our people,” “our collective interest,” “Urhobo must take its place.” The rallies are packed. The endorsements are thunder.
The deceit impression is simple: this is not one man’s race. It is our race. In that season, Agege’s ambition wears Urhobo clothes.
Then the votes are counted. But the moment the oath is taken, the gates narrow. Suddenly, appointments, contracts, liaison roles, and access are reserved for a small circle, many now call the ‘Omo-Age United Family’.
Projects that should have spread across Delta Central gather in one spot. Stakeholder meetings shrink into family meetings. Majority names that filled campaign grounds are told to wait, to be patient, to understand.
We have seen the manifestations. A federal polytechnic cited in Orogun. A Defence School in Orogun. A proposed Delta Law School in Orogun. Every major federal benefit attracted to Delta Central found its way to one compound.
Before 2023, party leaders were asked to submit names of youths for jobs at the Orogun Polytechnic. Recommendations from Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, Olorogun Barr Festus Keyamo-SAN, Sobotie, Akpeki, Orubebe, Ochei, and many others did not make the final list of the selected.
Buildings and supply contracts for projects awarded for same institutions did not go to Delta Central broadly. They stayed within a family circle, with his younger brother, Jimmy Omo-Age, allegedly emerging as the head of the table after the election. Jimmy is usually anonymous during campaigns. He becomes central during sharing.
Same template played out with surveillance contracts, under the grip of same Jimmy. Urhobo youths engaged get meal tickets compared to better fed counterparts who benedit slots ceded to Ijaw, Isoko, and Itsekiri.
That is not leadership. That is bait and switch. It deploys collective bargaining like fuel at election time, and throws it away after victory. In Delta Central the damage is deep. First, it kills trust. Politics is a covenant. You stand with me; I stand for you. When a man campaigns as a son of the soil and governs as head of a private estate, he teaches a generation that promises die after swearing-in.
Second, it weakens Urhobo power. As a majority bloc in Delta, we can negotiate better with government, with LGAs, with oil and gas operators. When those benefits are privatized, we arrive at every table divided and small.
Third, it corrupts the future. If this model wins, every new aspirant will learn it. Rent the Urhobo name to Return it in when the money starts to flow.
Enough. The Urhobo name is not a billboard for rent every four years. It is heritage. It is responsibility. It is a mandate that must be carried into office, not left at the gate. So here is the new standard. Any aspirant who wants Urhobo votes must do three things before the election. Publish a plan for inclusive appointments.
Name a transparent process for projects across all clans. Accept a stakeholder committee to track delivery after swearing-in.
On that standard, Senator Ede Dafinone is becoming the reference point. He is writing a different script for Delta Central in the 10th Senate. His script has one theme: the common good. From day one, Dafinone has acted like a senator for all of Delta Central. Not for a clan. Not for a ward. Not for a family, His stewardship is spread across the eight LGAs.
Classrooms, health centres, skill hubs, and roads are showing up in Ughelli North, Ughelli South, Udu, Uvwie, Ethiope East, Ethiope West, Okpe, and Sapele. The map of his interventions looks like Delta Central, not family glory.
His empowerment is open. Thousands have received training, start-up tools, sewing machines, grinding machines, and farm inputs. The beneficiaries cut across party, clan, and age. The gate is open.
In Abuja, he is speaking on the things that matter to us: SME funding, Niger Delta infrastructure, youth jobs. His voice is tied to market women in Oghara, students in Abraka, traders in Effurun. He is also using his committees to push more federal presence into education, health, and power.
At home, he is consulting. Town halls. Meetings with kings, youths, women, professionals. The office is open. Feedback shapes priorities. That is how you close the Abuja disconnect. What stands out is restraint. There is no family office running Delta Central. Contracts are not kept in one compound. Appointments are not monopolized. The emphasis is inclusion and impact.
Style is substance in politics. Dafinone’s style is telling us: this senator works for all of you. When this tenure is written, let one line stand: a mandate used for the many, not for a few.
2027 must be different. No more family table. Urhobo must eat together.
Wilson Okorugbo, a public affairs analyst writes from Ughelli, Delta State
