Olorogun Barrister Kenneth Gbagi has remained one of the most dynamic contenders for the office of the governor of Delta state. Since he entered the race in 2019, he has remained consistent in his call for the transformation of the state. Gbagi, an industrialist of repute, is known to be passionate about the judicious utilization of resources for even development of the oil rich state. He believes that every Deltan should have access to viable means of livelihood. His belief is predicated on the fact that the resources in the state are enough to take care of the need of everyone.
Although many people have criticized his principle as an entrepreneur and a business expert, Gbagi remains one of the most sought after in the business world. He has etched his name in gold and will continue to remain so having overcome various obstacles to reaching the top of his career. While many criticize him for his firm stance on issues and money, Gbagi has never been unperturbed.
He believes in himself and stands for what he believes. His stance is rooted in the fact that many businesses have failed due to the undisciplined stand of managers and chief executives of those firms. And for him to have succeeded to this level, he needed to adopt some uncommon but success driven principles, though uncomfortable to many.
No lousy, frivolous and undisciplined business manager has ever succeeded. Great Nigerian businessmen, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga, Tony Elumelu, Jim Ovia and others must have taken some hard decisions which have kept their businesses buoyant till today. Yes, certain business decisions which certainly will not be favourable needed to be taken for the survival of firms. So, the criticism on Gbagi’s stance which many described as being too rigid is for the survival of his investments. The same people will mock him should his business fail.
For the business magnate, having known the nitty-gritty of governance as a former minister of the federal republic of Nigeria, he knows that there is so much money in Delta but the money is being mismanaged by authorities saddled with the responsibilities of managing the funds for the good people of Delta state. Gbagi believes that with the funds accruable to Delta from the federal government and the internally generated revenue, Delta should be another Dubai in Nigeria. He is not ready to accept anything less because he knows what comes in and where the funds are coming from.
He has consistently told those who care to listen that Delta should not be the way it is at the moment. In his analysis, Delta is far below what it ought to be. He believes that with the funds being pulled to the state and generated within, there should be no unemployment challenge in any part of the state. He has constantly decried the pains of youths and the poor living condition of many across the state. Everyone, in his reasoning, should have enough to feed and take care of their families.
As a governorship candidate, Gbagi is conceiving a state where every resident, whether indigene or none indigene, will have the best available means to take care of their families and enjoy the good things of life. With his business mindedness, Gbagi is preparing for a state where every employable youth, male or female, will get a job and live a comfortable life. Gbagi is pained with the widespread poverty across the state. Going through the state, one will see poverty boldly written on faces of most people.
As a man who has traveled to developed nations and seen life in its fullest, he said Delta is richer than 42 nations in the world put together. To some myopic minds, Gbagi may have exaggerated the amount of funds available to Delta state. These are groups of people who have been deceived by the people in power that there is no money in the state. But with Gbagi’s belief, the funds available to Delta alone from internally generated revenue, allocation from the federal government, 13 percent derivation, security votes, excess crude accounts and others, everyone in the state should be living in affluence.
But successive governments have continuously stolen the wealth of the state and starched them away in private accounts, building estates, sprawling mansions and firms with pseudo names to deceive the mass of Delta people. Gbagi is very much aware of this. Gbagi is bent on stopping the movement of funds away from the state to build estates in developed countries whereas people of the state are in dire need of food.
The candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who is dwelling on the principle of welfare and justice for everyone at the inception of his government, has traveled across the nooks and crannies of the state and has mapped out strategies to convert opportunities in the state which have remained untapped to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youths and graduates resident in Delta.
For Gbagi, with his business acumen, every available space can be harnessed to create job. He does not believe in going to Abuja to beg for monthly allocation. While that remains a constitutional mandate of the federal government, Gbagi is planning his government on resources in the state to lift the people from acute poverty to job creators and entrepreneurs.
He has said it that resources in every local government will be harnessed and developed to generate employment and funds for the people resident in each local government. He is set to develop each local government to a state where total dependence on state for survival funds will be secondary.
His plans are big. Hence, many people see him as speaking from another planet. But that is a man who is ready to spend his life to change people’s fortunes forever. Past leaders have almost bewitched our mental state, making us believe that big dreams are impossible to achieve. And the reason is not far-fetched. They have brain-watched us to believe that we are okay with our present state while they fritter away our money. It’s time to wake up and seize what rightly belongs to us. And the time is now.
