GREAT OGBORU: A Victim Of Misjudgment
By Solomon Avwioroko
One of the greatest challenges man has come to face on earth is what people think he is while he is not. Evidently, human thoughts are what form the basis of their beliefs, and what they believe is what determines the tune of their actions and reactions. Psychology has confirmed that the type of person you are also has a great influence on the way you think and make decisions. For it has been proven before that more imaginative and creative people are better at seeing the bigger picture and paying less attention to details. Nevertheless, this does not rule out the fact that there are people who are pathological sticklers for questioning anything in search of a meaning. These could be the probing minds who often engage in social diagnosis and prognosis. However, while this psychological condition is quite acceptable across all social strata in the construction of an ideal society, its danger lies in when the outcome of such thinking is completely based on the tendency of human spontaneity and outright gullibility......Over the years, especially since the re-run election of January 2011 in which Chief Great Ogboru was declared a loser against Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan of the PDP, there has been an avalanche of pervading insinuations about the exploits of Ogboru in politics in Delta State, bordering much on 'after election behavioural tendencies'. Although all of such insinuations could best be debunked as the mischievous opinions of men in a bid to bedim the glow of a never dusky star, they are nonetheless like a dreaded disease sipping through the pores of a healthy body and leaving it with a stigma. However, while having that feeling, we must endeavour to subscribe to the reasoning of always knowing the difference between what people think and what they rationalise. I have been ruminating over all of these and have wondered why people really think the way they sometimes think...... I had never been so stimulated by criticisms against Ogboru as when I stumbled into the diatribe published in an online publication, Secrete Reporters, by one Fejiro Oliver, who claimed to be the chairman of the editorial board of the publication. The content of the tirade titled 'GREAT OGBORU AND THE INNOCENT BLOOD CRYING AGAINST HIM FROM BEING A GOVERNOR' was not only challenging but provocative. One interesting thing about this write-up is that it encompasses almost all of the aspects of criticisms against Chief Great Ogboru in politics, as expressed by detractors at one time or the other, so it goes for a good case study..... Indeed, I have read and listened to a lot of vituperations denigrating the personality and political reputation of Chief Great Ogboru, but none has ever stirred up my reactive impetus in anyway because I had always disdained them as the desperate machinations of propagandists. The story which was published on October 27, 2016 seems to have been the first to achieve that feat. From the tone of the write-up, one can easily conclude that Fejiro Oliver was one of those guys who the Okowa's government hired to do a dirty job to smear the political image of Great Ogboru with the intention of whittling down his admiration in the minds of his many followers before the run-up to the 2019 elections......And Fejiro began with a quote from Nelson Mandela: " It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory, when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger, then the people will appreciate your leadership". It is much interesting that the man being quoted by Oliver was a revolutionist that the entire world has acclaimed in fighting racial discrimination (Apartheid) in South Africa and emancipating his people from racial prejudice. There are indeed a few in Mandela's shoes in modern African history. However, Oliver's interest in quoting Mandela must be the revolutionary attribute that he shares with his counterparts in the history of Africa and beyond. That rare courage to combat oppression and injustice in a bid to liberate their people from dehumanisation. While Oliver quoted Mandela in the denotative sense, he could not explore the connotative message of the quote which represents those who can stand at any point in time to question and fight injustice against a people. Oliver only saw in the quote, the picture of a man who is standing gallantly in the front like a warlord and leading his people to war. He never saw the position of a man who rises in agreement with a few elements to say that a nation must be revolutionised in their own way.....Until the April 20, 1990 Gideon Orkar coup, Great Ovedje Ogboru, a young dynamic millionaire, was not known in the Nigerian political scene. Those who knew him then only discovered him in the business world where his name was a household name in the fishery and shipping business locally and internationally. Others who discovered him earlier met him in the philanthropic scene where he has helped a lot of Nigerians home and abroad. Chief Ogboru however amassed to himself, inadvertently, the steam of a political liberator after he allegedly bankrolled the Gideon Orkar coup which was targeted at emancipating Nigerians from the draconian military regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. Although the bloody coup was allegedly foiled by some uncalculated intelligence errors, the names of its plotters, dead or alive, were etched in the minds of many Nigerians as daring revolutionists. No doubt, it was this revolutionary clout that followed Great Ogboru when he returned from exile to step into the Nigerian political space. However, when Oliver was quoting Mandela to excoriate Ogboru, he could not identify the sterling intentions of a revolutionist that both of them shared in different magnitude at separate times in history.....Advancing on his polemic, Oliver wrote: "He (Ogboru) pulls the crowd and woos the populace, especially the motorcade whenever he arrives at a city, town or village. He is a General of the masses with charisma to make them do his bidding. He runs the town with his political slogan of 'Alternative Change' said only in phrase, but never telling those he intends to govern on how he will effect the change". Here, Oliver only helped to contradict himself in his analogy on the quote he made of Mandela in the first paragraph of his writing by playing up the front line role of Ogboru in fighting danger within the socio-political milieu in Delta State.....Upon arrival from exile in 2000, Ogboru must have sensed 'danger' in the political hemisphere of Delta State, like he sensed in those dark years of military dictatorship in Nigeria. He was able to identify the grey areas in the Ibori hegemony and cried out how marginalised the people of Delta State have been under an oligarchic exploitation. He responded by indicating his interest to run for Delta State governorship in order to cause a change. With the help of hindsight, the people invoked their long-standing affection for his revolutionary grit and followed him. So, if according to Oliver, Ogboru ever "pulled the crowd", "woo the populace", and caused a "motorcade whenever he arrives at a city, town or village", it is because he wields the proclivity to "take the front line when there is danger". Oliver can sit down and eat his feeble analogy here.......I have also heard and read for the umpteenth time the insinuations that Great Ogboru is a party to the looting spree of the PDP government in Delta State. Oliver emphasized this falsehood by pointing out in his harangue that "What Ogboru is not telling his followers is that he is a big beneficiary of the so called looting government". He continued, "Deltans cannot afford to have a man like Ogboru whose only aim is to make money during electioneering period knowing that he has become a sort of colossus amongst the people. If in doubt, anyone should pay a visit to FIOGRET (Ogboru's multinational company) and see how the place bubbles with life, yet two years ago, this same company was already dead. What happened? He has once again gotten money from prominent and wealthy Deltans to pursue his election, and while he uses half of the money for the electioneering process, he pumps the other half into his business. Ogboru is simply a business and career politician whose sole aim is to make money from the masses he wishes to govern"......This wild claim is as ridiculous as it is unfounded. Some people amongst Ogboru folks have been so fooled into believing that each of the time Ogboru runs for the governorship race in Delta State he is being sponsored by the PDP just to create a level of electoral balance in the system. To evaluate this mendacity, the question here is, of what benefit is it to the PDPs to cart away the money they looted for themselves to a man who goes to the electoral field to fight and rob from them vital constituencies at the state Legislative House and Federal Houses? How could the PDPs have paid Great Ogboru in 2011 to help dislodge them in elections that robbed them of over nine legislative positions including a senatorial seat? Great Ogboru is too established, too contented, too fulfilled, too magnanimous and altruistic to condescend so low to such level of avaricious propensity which is the dominant characteristic of the PDPs in government. These gullible elements must have forgotten so soon, or have never been acquainted with the fact before, that the man in question was many years ago the youngest and highest donor to the Namibian Solidarity Fund on August 10, 1989 during her pursuit for independence. A man who could help to rescue a country from the shackles of imperialism with his hard earned money cannot deign aground for stolen money that he has been struggling to come and protect for the interest of all and the state. And again, the most risible imputation on this aspect of the propaganda is where Oliver wrote that "Ogboru is simply a business and career politician whose sole aim is to make money from the masses he wishes to govern". How has Ogboru been going about that was never told. What means has he been using to make money from the ordinary "masses he wishes to govern" was also not told. Apart from fund raising dinner parties mostly organised locally and internationally by friends and business folks for the Ogboru course (an exercise that is typical of every political aspiration anywhere in the world), is there anyone amongst the Ogboru followers who can come out with evidence that Great Ogboru has made money through him for his political ambition? One just cannot imagine the absurdity in such calumnies which strive to present a man who has been a colossus in philanthropy to indigent masses around the world for over 30 years now in a very dim light. I strongly believe that Oliver and those who employed him to crank this calumny never made a good research before embarking on their mission......And Oliver went on: " I have refused to talk on the Ogboru movement based on hearsay and in my usual manner have gone round Sapele, Abraka, Ethiope West, Ethiope East and the Ughelli axis to carry out investigations about him. For years, Great Ovedje Ogboru has strutted the Delta political theatre preaching on the necessity to save the state from God knows what using himself as the singular for change. While we speak for change and progress, we cannot hand over our state to one who has blood stains in his hands". It is very clear that the title of Oliver's revilement was drawn from this angle. What is he seeking for here? Obviously to stress that the blood of the martyrs of the Ogboru struggle since 2003 are speaking against him. From the Americas to Europe, from Australia to Asia, down to Africa, most redemption struggles have their own history of martyrdom. So what is the strangeness in having that in the Ogboru struggle to redeem the people of Delta State from almost two decades of oppressive and exploitative leadership of the PDP? The apartheid struggle under Nelson Mandela in South Africa had its martyrs. The French Revolution had its martyrs. The American struggle for independence had its martyrs. The Cuban Revolution had its martyrs. The Indian Revolution under Mahatma Gandhi had its martyrs. Here in Nigeria, the June 12 struggle had its own martyrs. Show me one tense struggle for redemption across the globe and I will show you its martyrs. These heroes and heroines in history believed while alive that the act of giving one's life for a noble course is the most beautiful act of sacrifice. In the spirit of redemption, they pursued their respective courses with grim fanaticism believing, like the anti-apartheid activist, Bantu Stephen Biko, that "It is better to die for an idea that will live than to live for an idea that will die". Oliver and his sponsors should have realised from the lessons of history, that in every struggle for redemption, the simple actions and small sacrifices of the people who fight for a just course in the same society are just as important as dying in the name for it. The followers that Great Ogboru has attracted to himself over the years in the pursuit of the liberation of Deltans from the stranglehold of PDP oppression, are people who are embalmed in that courage. Such a people do not need you to share their pains. And to correct the mischievous title of Oliver's diatribe, 'Great Ogboru And The Innocent Blood Crying Against Him From Being A Governor', it must be said here that reverse is the case. The souls of all the martyrs of the Ogboru redemption struggle have refused to take a rest until victory is ascertained. In apparitions we can see them, like Banquo's ghost in Shakespeare's Macbeth, beckoning on us with their gory faces, that there must not be peace between the hammer and the anvil until the iron of liberation is straighten. That the only way they will go to take their places in Elysium is when Great Ogboru is finally sworn in as the governor of Delta State. And this is one of the boosts to the resilience of the struggle. Believing in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, that "Strength does not come from winning but from persistent struggle and never surrendering". Ogboru and his retinue of followers have made a solemn resolve to destroy the manacles of oppressive governance for the gentle souls of these great martyrs to rest in perfect peace while their names are ingrained on the sands of time......Oliver rolled on: "Call him (Ogboru) a political whore and you are not far from the truth. Which serious politician comes home every four years with a new party to introduce to his people? He is likened to a man who changes wife every four years and bring them home to his parents". To answer to this, first I believe strongly that there has been no electoral law in Nigeria that forbids any politician from leaving one political party for another just as it is with most countries in Africa. Not going too far, President Muhammadu Buhari is a quintessence of one who has transcended three parties to victory. He moved from the All Nigerian People's Party, ANPP, to the Congress for Progressives Change, CPC, and eventually to the All Progressives Congress, APC, which brought him to power. Those who called him a political whore then, like the Oliver of today, ate their words and recoiled into their shells when he emerged as Nigeria's President from the 2015 general elections. Many prominent politicians in Nigeria who have attained one political offices today or in the past have a long history of travel from one political party to another. So what is new here if Ogboru, one of such politicians, is travelling a similar route to political victory? Oliver never thought enough. Politics, according to Harold Lasswell, the renown American political scientist, is all about "Who Gets What, How And When?"..... And he (Oliver) fired on: " Consequently, his elder brother, Julius Ogboru dumped the defunct Democratic People's Party (DPP) for the PDP. What greater shame can be worse than that coming from ones own household?" This part of the calumny is so interesting, and it would have lost all of its insipidity if it didn't touch this subject. The news of Julius Ogboru, Great Ogboru's elder brother, dumping the DPP for the PDP in 2011 was shocking to a lot of people in Delta State and beyond. But of what effect was that to the whole political fortress that Great Ogboru had built up before Julius' departure? It was just like removing a pin from a sac full of sand, what effect does it have on the weight of the sac? For Great Ogboru, he felt ill about the incident but had to mantain his usual equanimity by taking solace in the prophylactic message of T. D. Jakes, the popular American oratorical pastor, who said, "When people can walk away from you, let them walk. Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left. People leave you because they are not joined to you. And if they are not joined to you, you can't make them stay. Let them go. And it doesn't mean that they are bad people, it just means that their part in the story is over. And you have got to know when people's part in your story is over so that you don't keep trying to raise the dead. You have got to know when it is over. Let them go". And so Chief Julius Ogboru was let go. It never stopped the Great Ogboru train from going on. It has been said before, that politics is a moving train, any couch that refuses to move is detached while the rest move on with the steaming engine. However, I was surprised when on the same row with Chief Great Ogboru, Frank Kokori, Ovie Omo-Agege and others, at the APC Convention at the Eagle's Square in Abuja, Chief Julius Ogboru was allegedly spotted closely seated by his brother, The General. There is no doubt he had seen the vanity in PDP government and had to retrace his steps back home. However, while his departure could be accepted as one of his weaknesses then, we hope he has corrected that before his return. So Oliver and his sponsors can now bury their heads in shame......And finally, Oliver wound up his vituperation by spilling out one of the most common propaganda: "Why is it that General always runs from the battlefield? Ogboru does not only run from the battlefield, but he causes the crisis, drag his supporters into being killed and when it matters most, he flees to Lagos. He only comes, sees and runs away"......The big question here is, has Ogboru ever run away from his political responsibities since 2003? One fact that is incontestable is that Great Ovedje Ogboru is like every politician under the sun who has been running in electoral races. In this part of the world, it is a commonplace that aspiring politicians come on stage to propose their ambition, gather their supporters by coming around them every now and then, contest the election on the confidence of the people they have gathered, and when they win, they are hardly seen amongst the people who worked to vote them in except a few. I believe many Nigerians can testify to this fact in their respective political environment. Great Ogboru is one of those politicians that has been proposing their ambition, gathering supporters who work arduously to vote him in but has never been declared a winner, yet he has always acknowledged and cherished the support of his followers in several regards. As a man into multinational business, after the outcome of each of the elections, also needed some time to attend to that aspect of his life. And while doing that, Ogboru has never ceased to get in touch with the leaders of his parties at different stages, who were supposed to be passing the General's goodwill messages and gratitude to the grassroots. It is quite understandable that the love of Deltans for Chief Great Ogboru is immeasurable. And it is also understandable that in human nature, there is the general notion that to whom much is given much is expected. For the fact cannot be gainsaid, that on the surface Great Ogboru is an object of admiration. His adorable picture on postals and billboards have gathered much more fans than his political oration and mien have ever wooed for him. Amongst the little children, teenagers, adults, and aged ones (many of whom have not met him in person), there has been one common song since 2003, 'Ogboru We Want'. The zest and gusto that have been invested in the Ogboru project by all of these folks, no doubt, have been crying for consolation. Many of these fans, after all of the strains and stress, actually want to see Ogboru on any of the mass media (if not physically) reassuring them of better days to come. Psychologically, with the human nature, that alone is an assuagement, for they have been wounded too much at heart seeing their electoral labour being thwarted always by the machinations of people without electoral value. However, Ogboru, the subject of this issue has never run away from all of these responsibilities. After every election in the past, Ogboru had always expressed gratitude to all his supporters in Delta and across boards. The only challenge he had in this regard is poor Public Relations handlers who were not helping to express the General's messages of goodwill and gratitude effectively at the end of every election he ran for. On this, Great Ogboru has expressed soothingly, that he has never run away from his people and will never run away from them forever. He admitted that he needs to step up the efficiency of his public relations network to meet the burgeoning demands of all his supporters before, during and after any election that concerns him......Generally, in spite of the torrents of criticism from within and without, Chief Great Ogboru still remains The People's General. Waxing stronger by his experiences, in strength and wisdom, to carry the good people of Delta to the Promised Land. He stands with his people with a Lincolnic courage, that even though he has been a victim of misjudgement, he still nurtures the same vision, the same dream, the same mission, the same course with the same spirit and the same people since 2003 till till this moment. And the platform under which he rears this great desire currently, the All Progressives Congress, APC, is a better advantage to realising the greater will of the people of Delta State.....Thus, while the likes of Fejiro Oliver and their sponsors are very free busying with their thinking and aspersions in the streets and in the media, the Grassroots Movement for Ogboru, OGM, assures you all of a good date with Chief Great Ogboru in government come next year. We need all of us on board for LIBERATION 2019. It is an idea whose time has come. ---- Avwioroko Solomon, Publicity Secretary, Ogboru Grassroots Movement (OGM)GREAT OGBORU: A Victim Of Misjudgment
By Solomon Avwioroko
One of the greatest challenges man has come to face on earth is what people think he is while he is not. Evidently, human thoughts are what form the basis of their beliefs, and what they believe is what determines the tune of their actions and reactions. Psychology has confirmed that the type of person you are also has a great influence on the way you think and make decisions. For it has been proven before that more imaginative and creative people are better at seeing the bigger picture and paying less attention to details. Nevertheless, this does not rule out the fact that there are people who are pathological sticklers for questioning anything in search of a meaning. These could be the probing minds who often engage in social diagnosis and prognosis. However, while this psychological condition is quite acceptable across all social strata in the construction of an ideal society, its danger lies in when the outcome of such thinking is completely based on the tendency of human spontaneity and outright gullibility......Over the years, especially since the re-run election of January 2011 in which Chief Great Ogboru was declared a loser against Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan of the PDP, there has been an avalanche of pervading insinuations about the exploits of Ogboru in politics in Delta State, bordering much on 'after election behavioural tendencies'. Although all of such insinuations could best be debunked as the mischievous opinions of men in a bid to bedim the glow of a never dusky star, they are nonetheless like a dreaded disease sipping through the pores of a healthy body and leaving it with a stigma. However, while having that feeling, we must endeavour to subscribe to the reasoning of always knowing the difference between what people think and what they rationalise. I have been ruminating over all of these and have wondered why people really think the way they sometimes think...... I had never been so stimulated by criticisms against Ogboru as when I stumbled into the diatribe published in an online publication, Secrete Reporters, by one Fejiro Oliver, who claimed to be the chairman of the editorial board of the publication. The content of the tirade titled 'GREAT OGBORU AND THE INNOCENT BLOOD CRYING AGAINST HIM FROM BEING A GOVERNOR' was not only challenging but provocative. One interesting thing about this write-up is that it encompasses almost all of the aspects of criticisms against Chief Great Ogboru in politics, as expressed by detractors at one time or the other, so it goes for a good case study..... Indeed, I have read and listened to a lot of vituperations denigrating the personality and political reputation of Chief Great Ogboru, but none has ever stirred up my reactive impetus in anyway because I had always disdained them as the desperate machinations of propagandists. The story which was published on October 27, 2016 seems to have been the first to achieve that feat. From the tone of the write-up, one can easily conclude that Fejiro Oliver was one of those guys who the Okowa's government hired to do a dirty job to smear the political image of Great Ogboru with the intention of whittling down his admiration in the minds of his many followers before the run-up to the 2019 elections......And Fejiro began with a quote from Nelson Mandela: " It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory, when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger, then the people will appreciate your leadership". It is much interesting that the man being quoted by Oliver was a revolutionist that the entire world has acclaimed in fighting racial discrimination (Apartheid) in South Africa and emancipating his people from racial prejudice. There are indeed a few in Mandela's shoes in modern African history. However, Oliver's interest in quoting Mandela must be the revolutionary attribute that he shares with his counterparts in the history of Africa and beyond. That rare courage to combat oppression and injustice in a bid to liberate their people from dehumanisation. While Oliver quoted Mandela in the denotative sense, he could not explore the connotative message of the quote which represents those who can stand at any point in time to question and fight injustice against a people. Oliver only saw in the quote, the picture of a man who is standing gallantly in the front like a warlord and leading his people to war. He never saw the position of a man who rises in agreement with a few elements to say that a nation must be revolutionised in their own way.....Until the April 20, 1990 Gideon Orkar coup, Great Ovedje Ogboru, a young dynamic millionaire, was not known in the Nigerian political scene. Those who knew him then only discovered him in the business world where his name was a household name in the fishery and shipping business locally and internationally. Others who discovered him earlier met him in the philanthropic scene where he has helped a lot of Nigerians home and abroad. Chief Ogboru however amassed to himself, inadvertently, the steam of a political liberator after he allegedly bankrolled the Gideon Orkar coup which was targeted at emancipating Nigerians from the draconian military regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. Although the bloody coup was allegedly foiled by some uncalculated intelligence errors, the names of its plotters, dead or alive, were etched in the minds of many Nigerians as daring revolutionists. No doubt, it was this revolutionary clout that followed Great Ogboru when he returned from exile to step into the Nigerian political space. However, when Oliver was quoting Mandela to excoriate Ogboru, he could not identify the sterling intentions of a revolutionist that both of them shared in different magnitude at separate times in history.....Advancing on his polemic, Oliver wrote: "He (Ogboru) pulls the crowd and woos the populace, especially the motorcade whenever he arrives at a city, town or village. He is a General of the masses with charisma to make them do his bidding. He runs the town with his political slogan of 'Alternative Change' said only in phrase, but never telling those he intends to govern on how he will effect the change". Here, Oliver only helped to contradict himself in his analogy on the quote he made of Mandela in the first paragraph of his writing by playing up the front line role of Ogboru in fighting danger within the socio-political milieu in Delta State.....Upon arrival from exile in 2000, Ogboru must have sensed 'danger' in the political hemisphere of Delta State, like he sensed in those dark years of military dictatorship in Nigeria. He was able to identify the grey areas in the Ibori hegemony and cried out how marginalised the people of Delta State have been under an oligarchic exploitation. He responded by indicating his interest to run for Delta State governorship in order to cause a change. With the help of hindsight, the people invoked their long-standing affection for his revolutionary grit and followed him. So, if according to Oliver, Ogboru ever "pulled the crowd", "woo the populace", and caused a "motorcade whenever he arrives at a city, town or village", it is because he wields the proclivity to "take the front line when there is danger". Oliver can sit down and eat his feeble analogy here.......I have also heard and read for the umpteenth time the insinuations that Great Ogboru is a party to the looting spree of the PDP government in Delta State. Oliver emphasized this falsehood by pointing out in his harangue that "What Ogboru is not telling his followers is that he is a big beneficiary of the so called looting government". He continued, "Deltans cannot afford to have a man like Ogboru whose only aim is to make money during electioneering period knowing that he has become a sort of colossus amongst the people. If in doubt, anyone should pay a visit to FIOGRET (Ogboru's multinational company) and see how the place bubbles with life, yet two years ago, this same company was already dead. What happened? He has once again gotten money from prominent and wealthy Deltans to pursue his election, and while he uses half of the money for the electioneering process, he pumps the other half into his business. Ogboru is simply a business and career politician whose sole aim is to make money from the masses he wishes to govern"......This wild claim is as ridiculous as it is unfounded. Some people amongst Ogboru folks have been so fooled into believing that each of the time Ogboru runs for the governorship race in Delta State he is being sponsored by the PDP just to create a level of electoral balance in the system. To evaluate this mendacity, the question here is, of what benefit is it to the PDPs to cart away the money they looted for themselves to a man who goes to the electoral field to fight and rob from them vital constituencies at the state Legislative House and Federal Houses? How could the PDPs have paid Great Ogboru in 2011 to help dislodge them in elections that robbed them of over nine legislative positions including a senatorial seat? Great Ogboru is too established, too contented, too fulfilled, too magnanimous and altruistic to condescend so low to such level of avaricious propensity which is the dominant characteristic of the PDPs in government. These gullible elements must have forgotten so soon, or have never been acquainted with the fact before, that the man in question was many years ago the youngest and highest donor to the Namibian Solidarity Fund on August 10, 1989 during her pursuit for independence. A man who could help to rescue a country from the shackles of imperialism with his hard earned money cannot deign aground for stolen money that he has been struggling to come and protect for the interest of all and the state. And again, the most risible imputation on this aspect of the propaganda is where Oliver wrote that "Ogboru is simply a business and career politician whose sole aim is to make money from the masses he wishes to govern". How has Ogboru been going about that was never told. What means has he been using to make money from the ordinary "masses he wishes to govern" was also not told. Apart from fund raising dinner parties mostly organised locally and internationally by friends and business folks for the Ogboru course (an exercise that is typical of every political aspiration anywhere in the world), is there anyone amongst the Ogboru followers who can come out with evidence that Great Ogboru has made money through him for his political ambition? One just cannot imagine the absurdity in such calumnies which strive to present a man who has been a colossus in philanthropy to indigent masses around the world for over 30 years now in a very dim light. I strongly believe that Oliver and those who employed him to crank this calumny never made a good research before embarking on their mission......And Oliver went on: " I have refused to talk on the Ogboru movement based on hearsay and in my usual manner have gone round Sapele, Abraka, Ethiope West, Ethiope East and the Ughelli axis to carry out investigations about him. For years, Great Ovedje Ogboru has strutted the Delta political theatre preaching on the necessity to save the state from God knows what using himself as the singular for change. While we speak for change and progress, we cannot hand over our state to one who has blood stains in his hands". It is very clear that the title of Oliver's revilement was drawn from this angle. What is he seeking for here? Obviously to stress that the blood of the martyrs of the Ogboru struggle since 2003 are speaking against him. From the Americas to Europe, from Australia to Asia, down to Africa, most redemption struggles have their own history of martyrdom. So what is the strangeness in having that in the Ogboru struggle to redeem the people of Delta State from almost two decades of oppressive and exploitative leadership of the PDP? The apartheid struggle under Nelson Mandela in South Africa had its martyrs. The French Revolution had its martyrs. The American struggle for independence had its martyrs. The Cuban Revolution had its martyrs. The Indian Revolution under Mahatma Gandhi had its martyrs. Here in Nigeria, the June 12 struggle had its own martyrs. Show me one tense struggle for redemption across the globe and I will show you its martyrs. These heroes and heroines in history believed while alive that the act of giving one's life for a noble course is the most beautiful act of sacrifice. In the spirit of redemption, they pursued their respective courses with grim fanaticism believing, like the anti-apartheid activist, Bantu Stephen Biko, that "It is better to die for an idea that will live than to live for an idea that will die". Oliver and his sponsors should have realised from the lessons of history, that in every struggle for redemption, the simple actions and small sacrifices of the people who fight for a just course in the same society are just as important as dying in the name for it. The followers that Great Ogboru has attracted to himself over the years in the pursuit of the liberation of Deltans from the stranglehold of PDP oppression, are people who are embalmed in that courage. Such a people do not need you to share their pains. And to correct the mischievous title of Oliver's diatribe, 'Great Ogboru And The Innocent Blood Crying Against Him From Being A Governor', it must be said here that reverse is the case. The souls of all the martyrs of the Ogboru redemption struggle have refused to take a rest until victory is ascertained. In apparitions we can see them, like Banquo's ghost in Shakespeare's Macbeth, beckoning on us with their gory faces, that there must not be peace between the hammer and the anvil until the iron of liberation is straighten. That the only way they will go to take their places in Elysium is when Great Ogboru is finally sworn in as the governor of Delta State. And this is one of the boosts to the resilience of the struggle. Believing in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, that "Strength does not come from winning but from persistent struggle and never surrendering". Ogboru and his retinue of followers have made a solemn resolve to destroy the manacles of oppressive governance for the gentle souls of these great martyrs to rest in perfect peace while their names are ingrained on the sands of time......Oliver rolled on: "Call him (Ogboru) a political whore and you are not far from the truth. Which serious politician comes home every four years with a new party to introduce to his people? He is likened to a man who changes wife every four years and bring them home to his parents". To answer to this, first I believe strongly that there has been no electoral law in Nigeria that forbids any politician from leaving one political party for another just as it is with most countries in Africa. Not going too far, President Muhammadu Buhari is a quintessence of one who has transcended three parties to victory. He moved from the All Nigerian People's Party, ANPP, to the Congress for Progressives Change, CPC, and eventually to the All Progressives Congress, APC, which brought him to power. Those who called him a political whore then, like the Oliver of today, ate their words and recoiled into their shells when he emerged as Nigeria's President from the 2015 general elections. Many prominent politicians in Nigeria who have attained one political offices today or in the past have a long history of travel from one political party to another. So what is new here if Ogboru, one of such politicians, is travelling a similar route to political victory? Oliver never thought enough. Politics, according to Harold Lasswell, the renown American political scientist, is all about "Who Gets What, How And When?"..... And he (Oliver) fired on: " Consequently, his elder brother, Julius Ogboru dumped the defunct Democratic People's Party (DPP) for the PDP. What greater shame can be worse than that coming from ones own household?" This part of the calumny is so interesting, and it would have lost all of its insipidity if it didn't touch this subject. The news of Julius Ogboru, Great Ogboru's elder brother, dumping the DPP for the PDP in 2011 was shocking to a lot of people in Delta State and beyond. But of what effect was that to the whole political fortress that Great Ogboru had built up before Julius' departure? It was just like removing a pin from a sac full of sand, what effect does it have on the weight of the sac? For Great Ogboru, he felt ill about the incident but had to mantain his usual equanimity by taking solace in the prophylactic message of T. D. Jakes, the popular American oratorical pastor, who said, "When people can walk away from you, let them walk. Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left. People leave you because they are not joined to you. And if they are not joined to you, you can't make them stay. Let them go. And it doesn't mean that they are bad people, it just means that their part in the story is over. And you have got to know when people's part in your story is over so that you don't keep trying to raise the dead. You have got to know when it is over. Let them go". And so Chief Julius Ogboru was let go. It never stopped the Great Ogboru train from going on. It has been said before, that politics is a moving train, any couch that refuses to move is detached while the rest move on with the steaming engine. However, I was surprised when on the same row with Chief Great Ogboru, Frank Kokori, Ovie Omo-Agege and others, at the APC Convention at the Eagle's Square in Abuja, Chief Julius Ogboru was allegedly spotted closely seated by his brother, The General. There is no doubt he had seen the vanity in PDP government and had to retrace his steps back home. However, while his departure could be accepted as one of his weaknesses then, we hope he has corrected that before his return. So Oliver and his sponsors can now bury their heads in shame......And finally, Oliver wound up his vituperation by spilling out one of the most common propaganda: "Why is it that General always runs from the battlefield? Ogboru does not only run from the battlefield, but he causes the crisis, drag his supporters into being killed and when it matters most, he flees to Lagos. He only comes, sees and runs away"......The big question here is, has Ogboru ever run away from his political responsibities since 2003? One fact that is incontestable is that Great Ovedje Ogboru is like every politician under the sun who has been running in electoral races. In this part of the world, it is a commonplace that aspiring politicians come on stage to propose their ambition, gather their supporters by coming around them every now and then, contest the election on the confidence of the people they have gathered, and when they win, they are hardly seen amongst the people who worked to vote them in except a few. I believe many Nigerians can testify to this fact in their respective political environment. Great Ogboru is one of those politicians that has been proposing their ambition, gathering supporters who work arduously to vote him in but has never been declared a winner, yet he has always acknowledged and cherished the support of his followers in several regards. As a man into multinational business, after the outcome of each of the elections, also needed some time to attend to that aspect of his life. And while doing that, Ogboru has never ceased to get in touch with the leaders of his parties at different stages, who were supposed to be passing the General's goodwill messages and gratitude to the grassroots. It is quite understandable that the love of Deltans for Chief Great Ogboru is immeasurable. And it is also understandable that in human nature, there is the general notion that to whom much is given much is expected. For the fact cannot be gainsaid, that on the surface Great Ogboru is an object of admiration. His adorable picture on postals and billboards have gathered much more fans than his political oration and mien have ever wooed for him. Amongst the little children, teenagers, adults, and aged ones (many of whom have not met him in person), there has been one common song since 2003, 'Ogboru We Want'. The zest and gusto that have been invested in the Ogboru project by all of these folks, no doubt, have been crying for consolation. Many of these fans, after all of the strains and stress, actually want to see Ogboru on any of the mass media (if not physically) reassuring them of better days to come. Psychologically, with the human nature, that alone is an assuagement, for they have been wounded too much at heart seeing their electoral labour being thwarted always by the machinations of people without electoral value. However, Ogboru, the subject of this issue has never run away from all of these responsibilities. After every election in the past, Ogboru had always expressed gratitude to all his supporters in Delta and across boards. The only challenge he had in this regard is poor Public Relations handlers who were not helping to express the General's messages of goodwill and gratitude effectively at the end of every election he ran for. On this, Great Ogboru has expressed soothingly, that he has never run away from his people and will never run away from them forever. He admitted that he needs to step up the efficiency of his public relations network to meet the burgeoning demands of all his supporters before, during and after any election that concerns him......Generally, in spite of the torrents of criticism from within and without, Chief Great Ogboru still remains The People's General. Waxing stronger by his experiences, in strength and wisdom, to carry the good people of Delta to the Promised Land. He stands with his people with a Lincolnic courage, that even though he has been a victim of misjudgement, he still nurtures the same vision, the same dream, the same mission, the same course with the same spirit and the same people since 2003 till till this moment. And the platform under which he rears this great desire currently, the All Progressives Congress, APC, is a better advantage to realising the greater will of the people of Delta State.....Thus, while the likes of Fejiro Oliver and their sponsors are very free busying with their thinking and as
persions in the streets and in the media, the Grassroots Movement for Ogboru, OGM, assures you all of a good date with Chief Great Ogboru in government come next year. We need all of us on board for LIBERATION 2019. It is an idea whose time has come. ---- Avwioroko Solomon, Publicity Secretary, Ogboru Grassroots Movement (OGM)
