I read Dr. Norbert Chiazor’s elegant piece on the triumvirate of Anioma politics with admiration. I respect him as a fellow Jacksonite, senior colleague with knack for Shakespearean and Elizabetan poetic diction which has earned him the title of Wordsmith. He is right about one thing: Okowa, Nwoko and Ochei are indeed musketeers in the political landscape of Delta North. Each man has etched his name in our story.
But history, if we must invoke it, is not static. It moves. And 2027 is not 2014.
Chiazor describes Okowa as the matchless strategist and mythic destiny. I agree. He broke the jinx. He became the first Governor of Anioma extraction. That jinx-breaking was historic, and Anioma will forever honour him for it. He rose from council chairman to commissioner to SSG to Senator to Governor. A vast and sturdy stature, no doubt.
Chiazor describes Nwoko as the iconoclastic mystique, the maverick, the British-groomed cosmopolitan. Again, apt. Whether in the Green Chamber from 1999-2003 or now in the Red Chamber, he has been vocal, adventurous, and unapologetically Anioma.
But he describes Ochei as merely spontaneous, euphoric and combative. There, my good Doctor, you understated a man who is far more than spontaneity.
Permit me to re-introduce Rt Hon . (Engr ) Victor Onyekachi Ochei Esq, (FNSE)
Ochei is not spontaneous. He is prepared.
He is a third-term legislator who served Aniocha North for 12 unbroken years from 2003 to 2015. As Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly from 2011 to 2014, he did not just preside – he reformed. He overhauled the entire Assembly complex, modernized the hallowed chambers, instituted capacity building for legislators and prioritized the welfare of staff. Ask the workers of that Assembly. They remember.
He is an Engineer, a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, who became Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services at NIMASA. There, he reformed the welfare of dockworkers and seafarers and deliberately opened employment doors for Deltans in an agency that had forgotten us.
He is a trained Lawyer, which means he brings both technical depth and legislative jurisprudence to lawmaking a rare blend the Senate desperately needs.
He is the President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation who gave Nigeria a historic place in the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Championship qualifiers. He promotes Wheelchair Basketball, sponsors the DAVNOTCH National Tennis Championship, and built from his personal resources a state-of-the-art mini stadium with modern tartan tracks in Onicha-Olona. While others built political structures, he built sporting infrastructure.
Now, to brass tacks: Whither Okowa or Ochei?
My brother Chiazor asks what will speak for Okowa in 2027 and lists: History, Intelligence, Experience, Maturity. I do not dispute those.
But I ask Anioma: What will speak for Ochei?
Recency. Relevance. Readiness. Reach to the grassroots.
Okowa’s story is the story of yesterday’s jinx broken. Ochei’s story is the story of tomorrow’s future being built.
Okowa made men, Chiazor says. True. But Ochei empowered youths who had no godfathers. Scholarships without noise. School buses for schools in the hinterland. Access roads to farmsteads. Vehicles for police and vigilante when insecurity knocked. He empowered without making you kneel.
The political confrontation of December 8, 2014 at the Cenotaph in Asaba was indeed unforgettable. Okowa floored a dozen aspirants including Ochei, Elumelu, Obuh and others. It was a masterstroke.
But 2027 is not a primary in a stadium. It is a general election in the open field of Delta North. The delegates are no longer a few hundred party faithful. The delegates are the market women in Agbor, the farmers in Ukwuani, the fishermen in Ndokwa, the students in Asaba, the youths in Ika.
And in that open field, the question is not who broke the jinx yesterday, but who understands the hunger of today.
Okowa had eight years as Governor to provide social infrastructure and empowerment. Posterity will judge him, as Chiazor rightly says. But posterity is also asking: After eight years as Governor, after four years as Senator before that, what new thing will another four years in the Senate bring that was not done in twelve years in executive and legislative power?
Ochei, on the other hand, has been out of government since 2015. He has been in the field, in sports, in business, in philanthropy, in touch. He is not coming to the Senate to rest. He is coming to the Senate to prove a point that legislative experience combined with executive exposure in NIMASA and private sector discipline can give Delta North purposeful representation.
Chiazor says Okowa commands the crowd and knows the configuration of wards and local governments. I put it to you: Ochei knows the condition of those wards. He knows which school has no roof. Which road has no culvert. Which community needs a borehole, not a billboard.
One is a strategist of power. The other is a strategist of projects.
Anioma in 2027 does not need a dignified identity alone. We already have that, thanks to Okowa who broke the jinx. What Anioma needs now is a diginified future – jobs for our youths, modern facilities for our talents, a voice that will be combative, not calm, when our interests are threatened on the floor of the Senate.
Okowa is calm even in the face of extreme triggers, Chiazor praises. With respect, Anioma in these extreme times does not need calm in the Senate. It needs audacity. It needs a man who will bang the table for us.
That is Ochei. Exuberantly primed. Euphorically ready.
Chiazor says: I stand with Okowa. Firmly! That is democracy. The beauty of free will. The liberty of conviction.
I say: I stand with Ochei. Firmly! Not out of sentiment, but out of scrutiny. Not because he is flawless, but because he is fitting for this time.
The die is indeed cast.
But this time, the dice is rolling towards Onicha-Olona.
DELTA NORTH REMEMBERS, AND DELTA NORTH WILL DECIDE.
–Austin Edemodu, Phd is an Abuja based Journalist and Public Affairs Analyst.
