By Henry Ayanruoh

LAGOS MAY 7TH (URHOBOTODAY)-In the 80s as a student of Dom Domingos College, a friend of mine once betrayed me and I felt he stabbed me from behind. So, during one of our literature classes while we were studying the book Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare, I likened the actions of that friend of mine to that of Brutus and during the study I assumed that I was standing at the beginning of time with the possibility of taking a general and a panoramic view of our history till that moment, to enable me diagnose and dissect the processes, just to fully understand the extent of the  betrayal that led to the death of Julius Caesar.

These past few days has been a very hectic one for me because of the critical level of betrayal, hatred, bitterness that has occupied the political space in Delta State. And so now I would assume I’m standing on that same platform Mark Anthony stood years ago, It is indeed a privilege and a distinct honor to have the

It is indeed a privilege and a distinct honor to have the opportunity of sharing the platform with him but in this case I’m not addressing his friends, the Romans or his countrymen but PDP Elders and Leaders, PDP Youths, PDP Women and Party delegates.

PDP, Power to the People, Power to the People, PDP. This is a very serious business, I’m addressing my distinguished Elders and Leaders, Youths, Women and Party delegates because first and foremost I’m a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Delta State. Okpe Local Government Area and from Jeddo. I’m a member and a Responsible, Committed and Dedicated Leader of PDP Okpe Ward 10 and so I’m determined to apply my membership at this time to the fullest of its meaning. I’m addressing you today because of my love for our party and of our democracy. And because of my deep-seated belief that democracy transformed from blackmail, bitterness, hatred and anger is the greatest form of Government on earth.

It behooves on me to properly introduce myself at this time to each and every one of you so that you can lend me your ears and know that I’m not doing this for stomach infrastructure but for the reasons earlier stated.

My name is Henry Eloho Ayanruoh, a graduate of Geology from the prestigious University of Benin. I did my Youth Service in Shell Petroleum Development company Western Division and got employed two months before the end of my youth service and have worked in the following companies

1 United Geophysical as a Seismologist;

2 Shell Petroleum Development Company as Operations Geophysics DTW-GPH (Western Division)

3  BGP Saudi Arabia, Alkhobar as HSE Advisor;

4 Frontier Oil as HSE Co-ordinator

5 CNPC Niger Republic HSE Supervisor

6. SHELL PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY Completions and Well intervention. HSE Goal Zero Officer (HSE Advisor Contract)

7  TECON OIL SERVICES LTD. Group QHSE Manager

8  Former Member Delta Waterways Security Committee.

9. Former Speaker of an NGO, Niger Delta Dispensers of Peace. A group of responsible young men and women saddled with the responsibility of advocating peace in the region.

10. Was the national Co-ordinator Concerned Deltans for Uduaghan Inc, USA. 2007

11. Former PDP Delta State House of Assembly Aspirant Okpe constituency.

12. Former PDP House of Representative Aspirant Okpe, Sapele, Uvwie Federal constituency

13. Senior Special Assistant to the Governor (Oil & Gas)

Though I’m pained, please know that I’m not addressing you with a feeling of bitterness but with deep tones of love in my heart, with great hope and with a feeling of the ultimate triumph of the Rt. Hon Sheriff Oborevwori. It is expected that in any political process there is always an onslaught of the recalcitrance of the old order at the emergence of the new order.

There has been political disturbances in the past few days though expected in the social space but it is very important for you to be aware and I’m sure that you have been reading about them in the social media and you have been talking about them as well. And I know that you have been thinking about these things but I also want you to seek in doing the right thing. As it stands, we cannot afford to make mistakes, so party faithful’s try at every point to be wise in your decisions. Don’t depend only on your judicious capabilities, don’t depend only on your power to speculate or on your knowledge and supposed wisdom but on the guidance of the Almighty God.

I’m speaking in support of Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, he is my friend, leader and elder brother. He is faithful and just to me. I know some of you must have been wondering, ‘’If Henry Eloho Ayanruoh says he is not doing this because of stomach infrastructure then he must be doing this because he is an Okpe man” that in itself is not true as well.

Let me shock your sensibilities my distinguished delegates, do you know that the plan to discredit the Rt Hon was plan, brood and hatched by some Okpe sons and daughters? How else can you explain the emergence of an Okpe aspirant a month before the primaries? He never consulted or visited any of the delegates, their thinking was that the Rt Hon will be disqualified and they will meet the party leadership to lay the assumed claim that since it has been speculated that it was zoned to the Okpes, this aspirant should be considered because he is an okpe man from Okpe Local Government Area. They got the other aspirants involved and sent the details to the APC Candidate preparing ground for what?

I called him a friend because I operate in a realm that lift neighbourly concern beyond tribe, class and Senatorial District.  And I also operate international politics in the local scene.  What do I mean? I have no permanent friend but permanent interest and any person or group of persons that protects my interest is my friend. He has the interest of the Okpe people at heart, he has the interest of Delta State at heart.  He has a deep grasp of the dynamics and the necessity for social change but the problem here is that most people Judge Mr Speaker with the youthful mistakes of the past.

What is Politics? Politics is local but for you to fully understand politics and power in our context let me give you a background information so that you understand the mindset of Mr Speaker then and now. This is one of the reasons my heart bleeds when young graduates that are supposed to be looking for jobs or creating one addresses Mr Speaker as Agbero and night class graduate. A man that reassessed his life early enough and set out goals and vision to transform his life, family and society.

In the dynamic mechanism of the human brain, anger and fear are opposing forces. Dr. Martin Luther King (jr.) pointed out that fear can suppress anger, while anger can produce the courage that overcomes fear. From the days of Isaac Adaka Boro till the time of Kenule Saro-Wiwa, there has been so much social pressure against the expression of anger in our culture that it was often unrecognized and repressed.  If anger is repressed then fear is left as the dominant emotion. Such repression of anger leads to helplessness.

During the regime of Gen. Abacha the youth of the Niger Delta region where invited to Abuja by Daniel Kanu through his infamous one-million man-march, to whip up the badly – needed support for Abacha’s regime.  And also some of the youth started traveling too due to the fact that their rural farming and fishing background gradually gave way to the urban busy life.

Then they began to think of their own conditions.  They came to realise that it was not only poverty that torments them but the fact of poverty amid plenty. It was a misery generated by the gulf between the affluence they have seen and the deprivation they experience in their every day life.  They lived in the ghetto and have seen the problem of poverty and despair graphically illustrated.  The phone rings daily with countless stories of man’s inhumanity to man, and they found themselves struggling constantly against depression and hopelessness which the heart of our society pump into the spiritual blood stream of their lives.  Their television sets bombard them day by day with the opulence of the larger society that was not as endowed in terms of oil and gas.  From behind the ghetto walls they see glistering towers of glass and steel springing up almost overnight.

Anger started building up in the region till it reached fever pitched.  Majority of the youth started seeking freedom against oppression through violent means.  Different illegal militia youths bodies sprang up over night all claiming to be freedom fighters.  But because their anger was not harnessed through constructive means it became diverted into desperate and anti-human activities.  They craved for political and economic resources to achieve power.  Saying power is the only thing that is respected with it they can get the much needed development.  They made reference to the power of the major tribes. The major groups in Nigeria are powerful not through violence or uprising but through group unity, determination and creative endeavour. To be like them, if not even better, what we must do, is to use every constructive means to amass economic and political power.  We must build a beloved community and refute the notion that violence is strength.  We can achieve this through a program.

I went to visit the Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori to inform him and fortunately for me one of my elder brothers from Jeddo, my community, met us discussing and when he contributed to the discussion, he said and I quote ‘’leader, leader the person wen you go give this position to enh, go get money well well o’’. Not minding my feelings, I was surprised but not disturbed.

A week before I was asked to step down, I went to see Mr Speaker to give him an update on my consultation, he asked how far I had gone and he wanted to confirm, so he called a leader, then I never knew who he was calling, he said and I quote ‘’has Henry consulted you’? The leader said no, he asked again, Ayanruoh, has not consulted you? the leader said no, who are the aspirants that have consulted you he asked? The leader mentioned 3 names, my name was not mentioned and when he sensed that I was there because I was protesting, informing Mr Speaker that I had met this leader twice, he now told Mr Speaker that I mentioned something like that on phone that I was coming. This leader is from my ward, highly respected by me and was among the leaders I meet for advice. When I later met him, he said the Speaker said Consultation but I did visitation.

From my State to Federal Ward level the story is the same, betrayal, backbiting and push him down syndrome. I’m talking of my Ward leaders and it extends to the LGA. They believed that by their actions subtle and sometimes not so subtle, that God Fearing, Resourceful and Intelligent, Henry Eloho Ayanruoh should not be politically and economically empowered, for reasons best known to them.

In 2019, I was so frustrated that I had wanted to decamp from the party, I told the critical leaders of our party in my LGA, of the intention to decamp they gave me this I don’t care attitude, are they doing this to me I wondered, Henry Eloho Ayanruoh, a Strong Party Stalwart and a Political Juggernaut, but at the same time while all these were going on, they were busy running after political neophytes from other parties to decamp into PDP, what an irony of life. Someone some where once said ‘’and it may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, “Wait on time.” Only two leaders showed concern, the Rt Honourable Sheriff Oborevwori and the wife of one of my top  leaders whom I will not like to disclose her identity here. The Speaker held my hand and he said Henry, don’t do this, I understand your frustration and we went on discussing the political situation then and he made a call to Asaba in my presence.

The experiences I described above from PDP leaders in my ward and that from the LGA is not an isolated case, it is wide spread in Okpe politics and so they tried to make it enormously difficult for us as politicians to arrive at an awareness of our latent strengths. We were buffeted by defeats and schooled assiduously to believe in the lack of our capacity because there was no empowerment in terms of contracts or appointment. But with the coming of Mr Speaker, his activities now reveal to us that we have broken out of the fog of self denigration and we are now beginning to discover the forms of action that influence society.

So you see my distinguished delegates and leaders if it is for the OKpe Cause or agenda I will not take it personal because at the end there will still be betrayals at the corridors of power.

Mark Anthony said and I quote when that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; There was this Wednesday Morning in 2019, I called Mr Speaker for something and while we were discussing he stopped talking and he asked me if everything was, okay? I told him no, he asked me what the problem was, I told him I was having marital problems, he collected my ex wife number and called her with an advice to still keep it secret, that it will be resolved. Even though he was insulted Mr Speaker never took it personal, he said Henry for you I’m willing to take the insult.

What is imperative today is the development of a strong voice that is heard in the smoke-filled rooms where party debating and bargaining proceed. A face that is mute is not political representation. The ability to be independent, assertive and respected when the final decisions are made is indispensable for authentic expression of power. As a Speaker he has over 20 personal aids and facilitated the appointment of over 30 politicians of Okpe sons and daughters.

I told you earlier on that he has changed the face of politics in Okpe because of his commitment and ability. He is a fighter for a new life and a new society not a figure head of the old. All over the state today he enjoys loyalty and qualified support because he is impressive and illustrious to our Federal Constituency.

I am a member of the commonwealth of goodwill and there are some members who operate in this commonwealth of goodwill that can be described as majority, we need such people in this state and in this country, such people have an eagerness to please that is enduring, we can use one of such men, the Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, is the man. We can and should support him, This is a man whose recent record justifies our confidence. We can because of our strength, we should, because those who work with us must feel we can help them concretely.

I tell you most solemnly, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori, he is not only a grassroot man but a good man. The words of Alfred the great are still true. ‘’Power is never good unless he who has it is good’’.

God Bless you

God Bless Henry Eloho Ayanruoh

God Bless Rt, Hon Sheriff Oborevwori

God Bless Okpe Kingdom

God Bless Delta State