The Executive Assistant to the Delta State Governor on Public Enlightenment (Projects and Policies), Mr Olisa Ifeajika, has said Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s performance in office remains the strongest basis for his re-election bid in the 2027 general elections.
Ifeajika, who spoke on Politics HQ on News Central Television, said his support for Oborevwori was not merely because they belonged to the same political party, but because of the governor’s achievements in Delta State.
“The governor of this state, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, is my project in the forthcoming general elections because we want to return him as our governor, not just because he is our party man, but because of the work he is doing in Delta,” he said.
He also clarified the governor’s position that his political project was to ensure the re-election of President Bola Tinubu, saying there was nothing contradictory about the governor supporting the President while seeking a second term for himself.
According to Ifeajika, Oborevwori, having joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), was naturally expected to support the party’s presidential candidate.
“He is an APC man, so he will talk about the President of Nigeria, who is of the same party with him, being re-elected. That was what he meant when he said his project is to ensure that Bola Tinubu is re-elected as President of Nigeria,” he said.
Ifeajika said the APC’s strategy in Delta was to present the achievements of the Oborevwori administration to the electorate and allow the governor’s record to speak for itself.
“The performance of our governor speaks for itself. Everybody is applauding what the man is doing in the state,” he said.
He described Oborevwori as “a good product that is selling itself,” arguing that the governor’s popularity was based on his performance rather than party affiliation.
“Even if we were not in the APC, for instance, we would have still won the elections, because our governor is a performing governor acknowledged by everybody in the state,” he added.
Defending the Tinubu administration’s decision to remove fuel subsidy, Ifeajika said the policy, despite the economic hardship it initially created, was necessary to address what he described as an unsustainable system of government borrowing to finance subsidy payments.
He likened the current economic situation to farming, saying the difficult stages of clearing, planting and weeding must precede harvest.
“What we are going through in this country now is like a farmer. To farm, you first clear the bush before planting, weeding and eventually harvesting. It takes a process,” he said.
Ifeajika said Nigeria had previously reached a point where borrowed funds were being used to pay fuel subsidy.
“In this country, we knew that at some point Nigeria was borrowing money to pay for subsidy. Not the money we earned; we were borrowing money to pay for subsidy. That was so irregular,” he said.
According to him, one of the effects of subsidy removal had been increased resources available to state governments, which he said had enabled them to meet their obligations to workers and pensioners.
“In this country, I am aware that between 2018 and 2019, two states in the North-Central lost so many civil servants out of hunger and starvation because they were not paid salaries for periods ranging from nine to 11 months,” he said.
He argued that the situation had changed considerably, saying states were now in a better position to pay salaries and pensions.
“No state in this country is owing salaries anymore. Pensioners are being paid. Those times when you found pensioners lined up for screening, endless screening, with some dying in the process, you don't find such things anymore. That era is gone,” he said.
Ifeajika, however, acknowledged that Nigerians were still experiencing economic hardship, stressing that the priority should now be how governments deploy the additional resources available to them to improve the welfare of citizens.
“The issue is how the states are deploying the funds available to them to make sure that the people at the lower rungs of the society feel the impact,” he said.
He maintained that economic recovery would take time, urging Nigerians to view the current situation as part of a gradual process rather than expecting immediate results.
On the 2027 elections, Ifeajika said the APC in Delta was focused on winning through its candidates’ records and effective communication of government policies and projects to the electorate.
He said Oborevwori’s achievements had strengthened the relationship between the government and the people, adding that residents were increasingly appreciating what his administration was doing across the state.
“Delta State is one place that the political party we are in as a ruling party is almost synonymous with the people. The works of the governor have been able to take the people to accept that this is the way to go, that the man feels for them and feels the right thing for the people,” Ifeajika said.
