Former Minister of State for education, His Excellency, Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi OON, has never hidden his aspiration to be governor of the oil-rich Delta State. For years his eyes remain on the ball, willing to score at any given opportunity.
And following his stouts and firm believe In liberating Delta State to emancipate the youths, Gbagi, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship candidate in the state, amid all odds chest out to do the needful when others, before now, were more concern about themselves and their godfathers.
Several years after Gbagi, a renowned Criminologist left office as Minister of State for education, Chairman, legal Aid Council of Nigeria and chairman, Delta Development Property Authority (DDPA), he is still an issue in the state’s body polity, more so as he assumed a prominent place in the leadership of the opposition SDP, after leaving the dying Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).
Since leaving office, he has not only been a rallying point for his new party, but also spent his time reconciling the fractured party and getting it ready for the 2023 general election.
Synergy may not be an ideal word in politics, yet, accepted political management theory holds that, there are few ways for a party to boost its value, most especially among states being controlled by it. This is where Gbagi stand tall among his pear since 2022.
However, there is a reason for Gbagi’s efforts. This is not just because he has his eyes on the governorship in 2023, but really, what is an ambition without a viable platform?
And as he believes the ruling PDP has performed abysmally in the last seven years, he then see himself as the best and capable hands to lead the State out of the doldrums.
He is from the core Delta Central Senatorial District. He hails from Oginibo, Ughelli South local government area of the State and Idjere, Ethiope west local government area of the State both Urhobo speaking tribes of Delta State, making him the only real, full fledge Urhobo son contesting the governorship.
Unlike the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Ovie Augustine Omo-Agege, whose father is from Orogun and mother from Koko, is not a true Urhobo man.
Gbagi believes he would be a liberator in a State that is torn between ethnic and religious divides. He has been going round the State, promising, albeit on behalf of the party, to make a State suffering collapse of confidence to stand tall again.
Until Gbagi was being harassed by government apparatus that he has Lion and snakes in his house, harbours weapons capable of causing war, sending people to allegedly strip workers naked, thereof it became known to many that he has been marked for destiny.
Although, a combined team of the Police, army and other sister’s security apparatus did not find even a pin in his house; even as four Courts of competent jurisdiction have given him victory over the stripping allegation.
It is clear that the plots were orchestrated by former governor Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, the incumbent, Ifeanyi Okowa and the later was marshalled out by Okowa’s “errant boy”, former Attorney General of the State, Mr. Peter Mrakpor, whom Okowa, promised to crown governor.
If there was one thing that the former President of the United States of America, Mr. Donald Trump has, it is to intuitively see the future opposition.
It was this that made him ask the Ukrainian government to investigate and discredit a yet to be nominated Joe Biden as the candidate of the opposition Democratic Party. Ditto, this intuition also made him said, even before the 2020 election that, “I will not concede if I lose as it would be deemed corrupt.” Both scenarios became true.
Today, in Delta, a similar scenario is playing out. The attempt to discredit potential opposition candidate by the ruling PDP is the game on board.
However, Gbagi, is no stranger to game. He crossed the Rubicon by defecting from the PDP to the newly but famous political party, SDP, a platform Olorogun Felix Ibru won election and declared free education.
Same platform Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola GCFR, also known as M. K. O. Abiola, won his presidential ambition in Nigeria.
Exceptional times call for exceptional measures. This appears to be the situation in the Delta polity. Yes, politics has begun in earnest and the race for 2023 is at its peak; and Gbagi is one of the people on the front line. If in doubt, check the list of the contenders.
For decades, Gbagi, has been a recurring decimal in the political scene of the state and Nigeria. Either as governorship aspirant or political appointee where he turned nothing to something, he had consciously stayed politically relevant since 1999, building bridges across the different divides.
For the records, he brought PDP to Delta State and contested election with Chief James Onanefe Ibori, after he sponsored Prof. Sam Ouovwaire, proscribed the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) for Okowa and equally gave him money to contest in 2015.
For Gbagi, taking the road with doggedness has always led to better results. He doesn’t put his hands in anything and comes out unsuccessful. For example, since he left PDP and Okowa, the party has been on fire, from one crisis to another.
Gbagi is today one of the leading contenders for the governorship seat even though none has openly declared for the state’s number one, but Gbagi did while in PDP.
Given his antecedent as a political strategist, the belief in some quarters is that the failed plots were plans to slow him down or perpetually stop him because he was too strong for the political “godfathers”, that had destroyed the common patrimony of Deltans.
The story of Gbagi is the tale of a man that has been able to defy the odds at every turn. Gbagi, like his father, had been able to navigate into the state and national consciousness and reckoning.
As at today, PDP’s political hegemony in the State has been unassailable, following the presidential election of Saturday February 25th 2023.
In politics, culture splits wildly. Politics encourages one another to cross-carpet along the political divide without regard to ideological difference.
Thus, every crisis is seen as a challenge and an opportunity. Yesterday’s solutions are often unsuitable for today’s victory. Since Gbagi’s consultation started, the SDP seemed to have gotten its groove back.
This is because the party is not only on its way back from the edge of extinction but from all indications, it will end up giving the PDP a run for its money and vanished goodwill.
As Deltans now fed up with the almost eight years of the PDP and Okowa, there is certainly hope for the opposition party; and Gbagi is the “great white hopes” that would drive the process, come rain, come shine.
