By Akporkpokpor Mark Odedede
3rd September, 2025
The senator representing Delta Central, Senator Ede Dafinone, has introduced a brand of legislative politics that has been overlooked by many who are hitherto addicted to the politics of maneuvering the majority and empowering a few cronies. Since assuming office on June 13th, 2023, the chartered accountant turned politician is yet to rest on his oars, considering the impacts he has achieved within the eight LGAs that make up the Delta central senatorial district. Having watched him speak on several social and political forums, it can be clearly established that the Delta central lawmaker is well-suited for his role through the instruments of excellent legislative representation for social change and the overall capacity building of his constituents.
That Senator Dafinone has not been so loud and verbose on the media space, bragging about his unequaled first-time performance, is a clear indication that the lawmaker is on the verge of bridging the threshold of vast deliverables he has purposed for Delta Central. In just 2 years of effective representation on the floor of the Hallowed Red Chamber of the National Assembly, the glimmer of hope enthused by constituents of Delta Central across all eight LGAs is evidently reverberating and resounding, signaling that the incubative period deliberately intended by the Senator to cascade overwhelming reproductive harvests of human and capital development is a top-notch political strategy never witnessed amongst past senators from the district.
As a first-time senator from Delta Central in the 10th National Assembly, Senator Dafinone has demonstrated his commitment to the growth of the majority of his constituents rather than empowering a few cronies, thereby bringing a new horizon to the dynamics of human capacity development for constituents. This is a departure from the old order commonly observed with present-day career politicians in the country. An attribute peculiar to only transformational leaders who would rather not gamble in the form of a transactional motive with the future of the people they lead. Analysts have made huge predictions about the projected outcomes of the senator's legislative blueprints, which, from a glaring perspective, would be a hugely sooner reality, especially once the senator is given a second chance by the good people of Delta Central to consolidate on the gains he has made thus far.
The Vice-Chairman of the “Senate Committee on Local Content” has shown impressive dedication to educational upgrading by attracting the construction and equipping of state-of-the-art ICT facilities, establishing e-learning centres in a number of schools situated within Delta Central. The recent construction of the Egbo-Uhurie Railway Station, Ughelli South, attracted by the senator, is another cardinal example of how the Urhobo-born senator craves for his constituents to benefit from public transportation infrastructure to boost business and commercial activities within the rural-agro areas of Delta, Edo, and Kogi States.
For Senator Ede Dafinone, he has decided to follow the footsteps of his late father, Senator (Chief) David Omueya Dafinone, who during his time saw the entire Urhoboland as his primary constituents, when he represented at the Senate, in spite of originating from the Sapele local government area, Late Senator David Omueya Dafinone was instrumental to the citing of the Delta Steel Company (DSC) at Aladja in Udu LGA of Delta State. Thus, Senator Ede Dafinone has critically ensured that his footprints of projects and programs are attracted evenly to all the LGAs of Delta Central. A common piece of evidence for this claim is the training and empowerment of youth and women in agribusiness with a focus on livestock and aquaculture production, coupled with the microenterprise agribusiness training and provision of starter packs for selected beneficiaries across the entire Delta Central.
The Senator has also gone ahead to attract a host of other projects such as the construction of a 50-bed-space hostel at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), 500 kVA transformers, solar street lights, and school buses evenly distributed across Delta Central. As if those were not enough, Senator Dafinone has also attracted the supply of medical equipment to hospitals in Delta Central as well as free medical outreach programs to constituents. The list could go on, but for the limit of this article, I had to mention a few.
The people of Delta Central have hitherto witnessed a situation where all a first-time senator from the district could provide for the period of four years is one solar borehole water system that could not go round the eight LGAs. They have also witnessed where a ranking senator from the district could do even more because, by being a ranking senator, his influence over several senate committees could be more palpably felt.
Apart from the attracted projects and programs to Delta Central, Senator Dafinone has also put up a scintillating performance in lawmaking with several bills and motions to his name. Such bills include: the Federal University of Agriculture and Technology, Orerokpe; the Data Compensation Bill; the Federal University of Education, Isiokolo; and the National Institute of Planning Bill. Whereas his motions include: a motion on the need for strict regulation and labelling of GMCs in Nigeria, a motion on the need to teach CPR technique to secondary and tertiary students in Nigeria, a motion to compel metering of Delta Central, and a motion on the need to put an end to arbitrary bank charges.
While Senator Ede Dafinone is yet to make a formal declaration on the 2027 race, his rumored ambition has already drawn reactions from aspirants from other parts of Urhoboland, with some making references to his federal constituency as the same as that of the current Governor of Delta State, His Excellency Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevowri, forgetting that the office of the Senator is quite different from that of a Governor because lawmaking, oversight, and representation are a huge legislative tasks that a parliamentarian builds on over time for the people to immensely benefit from when the harvest phase is fully achieved. However, a good number of constituents have resolved that whatever the decision of Senator Ede Dafinone for 2027, he would be returned to the Senate to be a ranking senator to birth a full-blown harvest of the incubative growth legislative agenda he has already initiated since 2023.
Akporkpokpor Mark Odedede hails from Okpara Inland, Ethiope East LGA, Delta State.
