By Julius Oweh
In African folklore and metaphysical readings, the duck is a study of dignity and calmness that defies description in face of provocation. That is why the hawk hardly touch its ducklings because the duck would only keep silent .The silence of the duck sends ominous messages to the hawk. It is this defining reason that motorists find it difficult to run over the duck or ducklings but not so with the fowl.
In politics, silence is a powerful political strategy that makes your opponents keep guessing. Since the defection of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and other PDP members to APC, Senator Ovie Omo Agege has imbibed the culture of sealed lips and keeps his political thoughts and ambition to himself. Even his close aides do not know his strategy ,and whether he is still interested in the governorship race.
His latest political outing was the congratulatory birthday message to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori.
Even the recent adoption of Oborevwori as the sole candidate of APC by the South South APC in Benin city,Edo state did not move him. Like the duck, his deafening silence is a source of worry to the political handlers of the governor. Such people are hitting their heads against the wall and trying to fathom where Omo Agege stands as regards the 2027 Guber race. Would he contest election? Is he going to defect to another party? Would APC throw the governorship primaries open for all the aspirants? These and other questions and conjectures are the worries of other APC members and have nothing to do with the distinguished senator.
Love or hate him, Ovie Omo Agege, scion of Justice James Omo Agege had outstanding performances in the senate. He was instrumental in attracting projects to Delta central senatorial district. There is federal polytechnic in Orogun. Many people were also empowered.
Those who accuse him of taking a polytechnic to his native village glossed over the citing of a federal university in Kwale in Ndokwa West of LGA. It takes a man of large heart and political courage to take a university to another senatorial district. Kwale is in Delta North senatorial district.
This act of political generosity had earned him a lot of fellowship in Delta North senatorial district. The Ndokwa nation is neglected and disdained by the state government. It is on record that Ndokwa nation is the only ethnic group in Delta State without state owned teitary institution. Neighbouring Isoko nation has three state owned teitary institutions. Omo Agege put a soothing balm on the educational sore of the Ndokwa nation.
Omo Agege cannot be wished away in the political calculation of Delta State. After the 2023 governorship election, he was the anchor of APC activities in the state. When fair weather politicians were deserting the APC and flocking to PDP, Omo Agege kept faith and flame of the party burning. He was always keeping the PDP government on its toes by pointing out the fault lines of governance. But the collapse of PDP to APC, the political map had changed.
But it would be naive for any politician of stature to wish Omo Agege away in Delta State politics now and the future. Even the best of crystal ball gazers cannot predict correctly the political journey of Omo Agege.
Some new members of the APC are still jittery of Omo Agege despite his silence. Like the hawk avoiding the duck because of its mystic silence and aura, there is something mysterious and incomprehensible about Senator Ovie Omo Agege silence. As they say in soccer lingo, it is not over ,until is over. The road to 2027 is still laced with mines and intrigues. I rest my case.
