APC, Tinubu, Omo-Agege and the Voyage to Nowhere

By Festus Okubor

The drums refused to sound. The trumpets are silent. The streets remain indifferent. There is no celebratory mood that anticipates such a visit. This telling description is the fate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), visits Delta State. Perhaps, BAT has chosen the wrong time to fly and the wrong place to visit.

The Delta State’s APC governorship candidate, the social media valourized Senator Ovie Omo-Agege has also grown quiet in the last twenty-four hours. Apparently the futility of the APC, Tinubu and Omo-Agege’s voyage to nowhere is starring him in the face and robbed him of the capacity to talk. This situation has just predicted the woeful failure of the APC not just at the national level, but even more woefully in Delta State at the next general elections.

It is disappointing that despite the monumental failure of the APC since it got into power through political subterfuge in 2015, its gang members who have subjected Nigeria to serial rape would still dare to want to contest elections. The APC came to power deploying dubiety and unconventional political strategies to hoodwink Nigerians. Eight years down the lane, what did the party offer Nigerians? They have bequeathed a legacy of “sorrow, tears and blood”.

Nigeria is passing through her worst time in history. Nigerians are suffering from the collateral damage only an APC, Armoured Personnel Carrier, could inflict. Under the APC government Nigeria became one of the three most unsafe places in the world. Nigeria bears the burden of being a highly corrupt nation. Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world. A new report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says Nigerians suffering multidimensional poverty are over 63%. But the world knows that the figure is above 80%. So, why do APCticians think that Nigerians would want to see them retain power come 2023?

The APC mercilessly unhinged Nigeria and cannibalized the polity. The education and health sectors have packed up. The frequency of doctors and lecturers strike in Nigeria is the highest in the world. Nigeria no longer has roads. Electricity is zero. Inflation is rooftop. Our youths and labour force are migrating. Social unrests, especially ENDSARS, arising from bad governance brought the nation to her knees. Secessionist agitations are rampant. The nation is actually on life support. This is the reason why Nigerians built the consensus of “APC and the Voyage to Nowhere”.

As the APCticians come to Delta State what would they point at as their achievements in the State? Nothing! Absolutely Nothing!!! All the federal roads in the State as in other states have collapsed. The only motorable roads in Delta State are the ones built by the PDP administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa. The federal presence in education in the petroleum university and the maritime university is tellingly small and hugely embarrassing as both institutions are grossly starved of funds and personnel.

The people still remember Nigeria’s glorious days when the PDP was in power. Nigerians look forward to a return of the PDP to power to redeem and redirect the country. The APC, Tinubu, Omo-Agege are on a voyage to nowhere. Nigerians have rejected them. Nigerians are yearning for the PDP via the Atiku/Okowa presidency.

The APC quest for power is laced with desperation which comes from Tinubu’s and Omo-Agege’s sad and bitter awareness of their political albatross and heavy baggage. They have recruited hungry old men as media and social media boys to launder their image, but at best they remain as whited sepulcher. Tinubu has questions to answer regarding his educational background, his age, the lacuna in story of his wealth before he became governor, drugs, and what he did with and to Lagos. That his own Afenifere rejected him and endorsed another candidate is enough signal that he is on a voyage to nowhere.

Omo-Agege is at best a social media creation who has not actually won any real election in his political life. His failed attempt to go to the House of Representatives in 2003, his governorship bids in 2006, 2011 (twice) and 2014, all failed woefully. His “winning” the senate election in 2015 was by happenstance riding on the back of Great Ogboru and judicial perversion. His “winning” in 2019 was a tradeoff resulting from his begging and groveling before certain PDP leaders. He is merely a political paper tiger. Mace rustling earned him the number two position in the senate, but Nigerians and Deltans see him as reprehensible.

He is also very sectional and his aides call him behind his back as Orhomuru-Orogun senator. When he sponsored the electoral bill he did so in pretence thinking it would not see the light of day. When eventually the bill was on the verge of being passed he was the sole voice that opposed it. So much for being the initiator of an electoral bill!

Since Omo-Agege began his campaign for his illusionary governorship he has found a new hobby of abusing Governor Okowa and the PDP. He neither has a workable manifesto nor an ideal vision. He has nothing convincing to say. He has adopted two negative pointers EDGE and BAND. Who thinks of pushing his state to the EDGE or plans offering his state to BANDits? That is Omo-Agege for you.

The APC gang does not know history. They ought to know that Delta, Bendel and Midwest do not and will never align with the APC political genealogy. The APC is an offshoot of the AD, AC, ACN, UPN and the AG. The Midwest and Bendel abhorred those parties. The only time that Bendel narrowly went with the UPN was the disaster of 1979 to 1983. Our people do not want to go that route again.

Tinubu prayed for the PDP the other day. He said “God bless PDP…” and the response of Deltans and Nigerians is a loud AMEN as the PDP takes over Nigeria in 2023 and continue as the ruling party in Delta State.