[dropcap]O[/dropcap]gbuefi Ben Egwuatu has shown better skills in defending the good people of Delta North with his pen and within the last six years he has demonstrated clearly that he is a man with a vision and the “Standout Man” in Anioma Nation. In politically challenging times, there is always a standout man, a person who is diligent in his work, a man who subsequently stands before Kings, having made several sacrifices for his nation. In most cases, many do not agree with him. He is seen and described as ambitious,a tool in the hand of the usurpers or an instrument for a hatchet job.
However, in most cases such men endure the trying times, the name calling and insults to become a national symbol of peace and unity.This appears the path that Ogbuefi Ben Egwuatu, has placed or rather found himself in recent years of serving his people.
As it is known, politic is considered by many a dirty game. However, one fact remains that the player determines how dirty it can be, how dirty he is ready to go for the sake of his people, his brothers, sisters, the masses and even the electorates.This apparently is the case of Ogbuefi Ben Egwuatu,as Many will recall the politics that played out since 2019 because he is a core member of Senator Peter Onyelukachukwu Nwaoboshi (SPON) media,the senator representing Delta North at the National Assembly and a member of opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) in Delta State, the ruling government in Delta State is after his life for standing for the truth and  speaking for the opposition in the state. He bares his mind on the the threats to his life because of dirty  politics played in Delta State and what to expect in DELTA2023.

Good Morning Sir. Please tell us who you and your early life.

I am Ogbuefi Ben Egwuatu,a writer,artist, and public affairs commentator was until 2019, Am from Ukala Kingdom in Oshimili North, LGA, Delta State, the President General of Ukala Communities Development Union, in Oshimili North Local Government Area, Delta State. A member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and also a member of the SPON Media Team.. I am the 5th child of a family of 7 – 4 males and 3 females. My father was a Headmaster, while my mother was a trader. I can tell you that I have a privileged background. Growing up then as the son of a school teacher was an uncommon thing and we were seen as privileged. I tell people that I am a village boy because I went to my village public primary school, but of course because of the nature of my father’s job, we were always on the move on transfers. So early life was easy and normal, aside the fact that we lived under very strict rules.

You flaunt a multi-discipline Resume. How has it been as a practitioner in those fields?
I have over 30 years of experience in visual communications, advertising, newspapering and print production and I can tell you, it was a swell time and the best of exposure working in that industry. I am first a Fine Artist. I hold a 1985 Higher National Diploma in Fine Art (Painting) from Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, however, I have since moved on to exploring other interests including marketing communications, corporate charisma, perception management and Newspapering. I am a registered practitioner of advertising and an alumnus of the American Press Institute, Reston, Virginia, USA. Since graduation, I have worked in various capacities in the print journalism industry including as Senior Illustrator/Designer in the defunct Financial Post and also Banking and Finance Digest. In 1995, I joined The Corporate & Financial Communications Ltd. (a PR Company) as Head of Creative and Production Services where I first began to investigate images of organizations and how big brands evolve. I would rise to become Group Head, Creative Services when I moved to PMIDIRECT (a marketing communications company) in 2000. By 2002, I ventured into private practice with the setting up of Advertising Design Consultancy Limited (a concept agency). In 2006 I returned to paid employment and I joined Folio Communications and consequently was seconded to The Daily Times of Nigeria Plc. In Daily Times, I held various positions including Production Manager, Head of Operations, Group Head Creative Services, Group Head Corporate Communications and Group Chief Marketing Officer. Between 2012 and 2014, I served as Senior Technical Assistant (Publications) in the Office of the Special Adviser to the President (Goodluck Jonathan) on Performance Monitoring and Evaluation. Since then I have been in private practice in addition to my writings as a public affairs commentator and social critic.

You just talked about your writings. Some people think your writings are politically motivated and that you are being sponsored to attack the government in power in Delta State.

If the question is whether my writings are politically motivated, Why not? Look, I was a card carrying member of the PDP for about 10 years. So, why not? What is new is that we are tired of the deceitful dictates of a self-branded messiah and we are saying no, we are saying that the entire electorate voted you to office so, let the dividends of democracy flow evenly throughout the state. What is new is that our Emperor Governor wants to be the maximum leader, with the rest trotting behind him. And our principal,the Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi is saying no. He is saying no because it is a partnership. He is saying that we all are stakeholders with equal stakes in the enterprise that is Delta State. That you are the arrowhead does not reduce the relevance of others. So yes, I have been writing and I am expressing my views – my opinion on happenings in our polity. Of course you know that I left the PDP to join the APC. Yes, we left in solidarity with our leader Senator Barr. Nwaoboshi and the leadership of the PDP is not happy with our camp. That also has elicited a lot of concerns and attacks, but we are steadfast in our beliefs. We are not at all worried. For instance, during the last local government elections, they invaded my Ward and installed their cronies in the Ward EXCO, against the wishes of the leadership and the people. That is oppression and persecution. So what did we do? We left the party for them. I have written in defence of what I believe and have been receiving threats from those who are not comfortable with our position, but it won’t deter us.

Recently you raised an alert about threats to your life and obvious persecution. Tell us about it?

You know that I belong to the SPON Media Team and we have been very combatant with our writings. We followed them, every step, every path and we flattened them. I have personally made comments and shared specific opinion on activities of some individuals in leadership and that has infuriated a few powerful persons. For me, the question is: the issues that we are raising, are they true? Are we now in a dictatorship that we cannot speak freely? Well, I have been advised to go underground and to be careful.

In a few words, how would you describe the political situation in Delta state? What are the chances of the APC winning Osadebe House in 2023 gubernatorial election?

What is obvious is that the PDP is losing grounds in Delta State. In the past few weeks, we have witnessed an avalanche of defections from PDP to APC. What it tells you is that everything is not well with the PDP in our State. If Senator Barr. Nwaoboshi, a founding member of the party in Delta State would leave the party, then there is trouble. There is so much injustice. There is neglect and high-handedness. People are not happy with the leadership. The people you see still hanging there are those that receive some form of payment and they are waiting to at least earn that money till the end of this tenure. Before now there was no serious opposition but don’t forget that the people whom have been winning elections for the PDP are the ones that are leaving, The APC no doubt is working very hard and I can tell you that the party will secure enough vote to oust PDP in Delta State.

What is your advice to Deltans?
No form of persecution should make us faint, rather let’s work together to chase those peddlers out of Osadebe House.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hat Senator Barr Peter Onyelukahukwu Nwaoboshi is a veteran in political party administration is not at all in doubt and so, it is given that he would become a huge asset for the All Progressive Congress (APC), on his joining the ruling party. What was doubtful for me, was whether the APC would be composed to leveraging the freshness and the abundance of what the ‘oracle’ himself has to offer. The recent intervention of the Senator culminating in the re-zoning exercise supervised by the most distinguished Senator is a mere example in the many ways Nwaoboshi can help bring stability to the APC politics.
With a cognisant and superb tutelage, leading to cognate service, straddling several years, including a concluding headship as chairman, Delta PDP which was for two victorious terms, Senator Nwaoboshi is wholly equipped for what he is doing.
I have often advanced that knowledge, encompassed in hard work, envisages, and most likely would lead to success, but I also insist that this does not discount experience. Senator Nwaoboshi is a tested politician. Besides his administrative prowess, he has also proved to be a dependable ally, amplified in the partnership that now exist between him and DSP Ovie Omo-Agege.
Beyond the patriotism so displayed in the discharge of the onerous task to structure the emergence of an inclusive APC EXCO in Delta State, Senator Nwaoboshi, since his aligning with the APC, has visibly, in concert with DSP Omo-Agege extended the hope of a deserving victory for the APC in Delta State.
Senator Nwaoboshi is a well thought venture in APC, not because I said it but the reality is that his antecedents and previous
endeavours as a politician, coupled with a profuse capacity for intuitive engagement are reasonable collateral. That is my humble
opinion.
It is therefore baffling and exasperatingly mortifying, to see the stiffening of a few against what obviously is a turnaround in the
hitherto bleak fortunes of APC in Delta State, through the occurrence of a Nwaoboshi in party. It is more disturbing when one sees
that the loudest voices of opposition come from the immediate beneficiaries of the Senator Nwaoboshi’s rise to prominence,
particularly from the Oshimili North axis.
Ndi Igbuso have every reason to be proud of Nwaoboshi – an illustrious son whose political influence has brought multiplying gains
to Ibusa, evidenced by the several projects in infrastructure either attracted or personally provided by the Senator. In human
capital development, the Senator has, and is still empowering both youths and women in various trades and businesses to make
them self-reliant. Many more are also now on his payroll, sole effort of the Senator to alleviate the sufferings of his people.
Oshimili North as a whole, and indeed Anioma people cannot but extol Nwaoboshi. The nooks and crannies of Delta North are
witness to the Nwaoboshi factor in the distribution of social infrastructure that once eluded the region as stakeholders in the
NDDC. Nwaoboshi is willing to do more.
In conclusion, let us join the ‘new way’ to ensure this blooming partnership that will install good governance in Delta APC and
indeed, Delta State. As we march towards 2023, let us must to submit to our common interest, for discernibly, the coming together
of DSP Ovie Omo-Agege and Senator Peter Onyelukachukwu Nwaoboshi is a partnership that is working.
Ogbuefi Ben Egwuatu writes from Asaba.

By: Ogbuefi Ben Egwuta

[dropcap]D[/dropcap]r. Ifeanyi M. Osuoza, the current Publicity Secretary of the Della PDP is a complete oddball for the position he occupies and this opinion is beyond partisanship. To qualify for an assignment, one assumes that the candidate should, besides academic credentials, have understanding of the principles and indeed, the ethics of the practice for which he is nominated.
Dr, Osuoza;s penchant for vulgar language evidently betrays his lack of knowledge and understanding of his job.
I have written in the past, to alert on the lack of skill of the PDP spokesman. His 12th August 2021 Press Statement on behalf of the Delta PDP, titled “RETIREES: Delta PDP Lampoons APC’s Ignorance, Idiocy Over Pension Scheme Modalities” is a crass extravagance of a man bereft of discerning dialogue.
My worry stems from the knowledge that a Press Release is an official statement to the media from either an individual or an organization. I assume that Dr. Osuoza was speaking for the Delta PDP and that makes his statements the official position of the party. Publicity is defined as “advertising or other activity designed to rouse public interest in something”. Are we to accept that the singular intention of Delta PDP in this Press Statement is to reveal the “Idiocy and bellyache” of the APC? The central part and indeed, the essence of a Press Statement, is to present for consideration, the values of a “subject matter” and to persuade the public(s) for further study. This is repeatedly lacking in Osuoza’s attempts on communicating the PDP in Delta State.
I therefore submit that Dr. Osuoza needs much more than an induction on Public Relations practice. Frankly, he needs to step out of his office, wander to nearby Ogwashi Uku Polytechnic and maybe he can find an HND student of Mass Communication that can teach him the fundamentals of communication which in my sincere opinion he has not been privileged to learn. Only if he is willing to learn though!

By: Ogbuefi Ben Egwuta

By: Ogbuefi Ben Egwuatu

[dropcap]D[/dropcap]elta State has never in history been so besmirched. The Peoples Democratic Party once again has proven to be the proverbial leopard the can never change its spots.  The supposed suspension of Senator (Barr) Peter Nwaoboshi from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the State Working Committee (SWC) of the Delta State Chapter of the PDP for a period of one (1) month, now trending online-media outlets today Wednesday, 23, 2021 is an indication of the tattering of the already drowning ‘ship’, the PDP.

In the Press Release issued by the State Publicity Secretary, Dr. Ifeanyi M. Osuoza, the SWC, stated that “the action has become necessary against the backdrop of the recent romance with the opposition Party, verbal recklessness, and unprovoked utterances…particularly against the person of His Excellency, Senator D. Ifeanyi Okowa, the Executive Governor of Delta State…”

There is the possibility that Senator Nwaoboshi is yet to be informed officially by the State Secretariat of this contemptible action of the PDP under the guidance of His Excellency, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, but it is important to state that the suspension, by the constitution of the PDP is inconsequential, nevertheless a nullity divinely ordained by the Almighty to expose the weak, anti-democratic leadership of the PDP and it would become the ultimate shackle for the defeat of the PDP in Delta State.

With no prejudice to the Senator’s disposition to his continuous membership of the PDP, it is sad to note that the self-imposition of His Excellency, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as the Field Marshall, and his shenanigans’ exertion at pleasing himself only in the manner of medieval Kings, is the reason the PDP is now deep in the mud.

Back to the suspension tale and for the benefit of those who do not know, the PDP 2017 Constitution, As Amended, chapter 10, articles 5(7) and 99 stipulates that: “Notwithstanding any other provisions relating to discipline, no executive committee shall entertain any question of discipline as may relate to a member of the National Executive committee, Deputy Governor or members of the National Assembly…”

While it might be hasty to speak for the Senator at this stage, it is evident and the body of the said Press Release has further confirmed our position regarding the state of the PDP in Delta state – the deep-rooted fact that the PDP in Delta State has become a contrivance in the hands of the Governor for chastisement and bullying – A typecast despotism and tyranny.

The unrestrained manner of the ‘agents’ of the executive in other recent suspensions and or harassments of the political associates of Senator Nwaoboshi and indeed all perceived opposition within the party, resonates the brutish approach to leadership that has now consumed the PDP in Delta State.

What is the motive behind this evil subjugation?

Ambition! Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, the current Governor of Delta State will be leaving office in 2023. He has an ambition to be the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by 2023. He also desires to be the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and worst case scenario, he goes back to the Senate.

SPON MEDIA asserts that this ‘tumbo-tumbo’ possibilities is solely designed for the Governor to discount every other anticipation, hence the ruthless ‘jihad’ unleashed on influential Nwaoboshi, a likely clog on his hellish ambition.

How on earth can one man arrogate and appropriate so much to himself in the character of a god?

SPON MEDIA shall continue to watch the Emperor Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa and his overly ambition. No doubt, the end expectedly will humble him. “Ndi ibenyi si na nmadu ada eji ukwunabi agba nkuni”, meaning that you do not kick with your two legs at once.

It is no more news that a few unworthy bootlickers have been trooping in the State House to encourage His Excellency to ensure the downing of the political strongman, Senator Nwaoboshi. What is appalling is that these toadies who have become the mouth-pieces of His Excellency are known notorious racketeers and fraudsters whose bequeath to Delta state is the infamous heralding of an era of indolent and slothful generation of the get-rich-quick, superintended by a self-professed ‘angel of light’ who now in his folly hopes to become the replacement in the ensuing political ‘banishment’ of Senator Nwaoboshi. Obtuse!

It is not “Showtime” yet, and so we will lie low presently.

By: Ogbuefi Ben Egwuta