By Olorogun Olori Magege
Ovie Omo-Agege thinks he is the beloved son of President Buhari. Of course, he is not. A Fulani man has no abiding love for anyone. His love is as fleeting as the moving cloud above, changing as it dissipates over the horizon. That is strange to Ovie because he stole the mace of the Senate of the Federal Republic to stop the phantom impeachment of Buhari. Shouldn’t Buhari forever lick his backside? So he thought. Of course, Ovie didn’t know that Buhari knew there was no impeachment plan on that day and he is only amused by the dexterity of the mace snatchers. It was a comic relief from an otherwise tense Executive/Legislature relationship of that era. But Ovie in his self-induced egomania, overstretched his goodwill with President Buhari.
When he got rewarded with the plum job of the Deputy Senate President over his role in the mace snatching, he got giddy-headed; he nicknamed himself Ovie Omo Buhari, he was unstoppable, the anointed of Aso Rock. He had direct access to the President of the Federal Republic.
His first plan was to be anointed as the APC leader of the South-South Zone. But he was rebuffed by the big boys of Rivers, Cross Rivers, and Akwa Ibom. ‘Who are you?’ they asked him. He staged a quick retreat. Buhari was silent, amused by the antics of the mace snatcher.
Not done yet he set his eyes on the NDDC Board. He reckoned as the Deputy Senate President who hails from the South-South he is the alpha and omega of the NDDC and he should decide who gets nominated into the Board.
So he sold the idea of the Board to the then National Chairman of APC Comrade Oshiomhole and together they got to work. Ovie knew the Managing Director position would guarantee him the funding of his Guber dream. But he sold a dummy to Adams that the position of the Board Chairman is more befitting to him to appoint as the Chairman of APC. Adams swallowed the bait and he nominated his ex-Deputy to the position of Chairman. Of course Ovie nominated Bennard Okumagba who is said to have bankrolled his second Senate bid. They got some others to nominate for the remaining positions. The job was done and dried, so they believed.
They bid their time until Buhari had left the country for medical treatment, and they forged a letter to the Senate announcing the nominations and Ovie sought for Senate clearance. Of course, the Senate screened the nominees and passed them. Ovie had delivered, Ovie had vanquished, Ovie had triumphed……Ovie Omo Buhari!!!!
Ovie in his wildest dream did not anticipate the revolt his actions would provoke; in intensity and severity. Buhari was not amused. Many claimed to be the son of Buhari just because he took pictures with them or because they ran errands for him sometime ago. But only Buhari knows his sons; if you doubt me ask El Rufai.
Ovie grossly underestimated Buhari’s resolve to clean the augean stable that NDDC had become. The forensic audit would be carried out to catch the thieves and to reposition the Commission for effective mandate delivery.
So Akpabio didn’t really have any convincing to do on Buhari for Buhari to jettison Ovie NDDC Board.
The problem with Ovie is his ego. He believes he is the smartest person God has ever created, he knows it all, the alpha the omega. Anything he does not know does not exist. Because of his superego, he did not believe he needed to carry anyone along in his mischief-making. In the art of diplomacy, he has no knowledge of and therefore no need for it.
How he thinks he can single-handedly nominate a board of such an important interventionist agency beats all imagination. But that is how the world of sadists and despots revolves and the innocent suffer the consequences.
So when the new Board was being selected Ovie was denied access. He had done his own and alone. This time around his input was denied, and his advice was not needed.
And the Urhobos, the Isokos, the Delta Ijaws, and the Itsekiris were left out of the Board. Ovie’s arrogance of purpose has cost my people a no representation on a Commission specifically created and mandated to ameliorate the hardships arising from oil exploration and oil degradation of their ancestral lands.
And Ovie wants to be their Governor. God forbid!
– Magege wrote from the oil-degraded swamps of the Gbaramatu Kingdom.
