By Francis Ewherido
The late Senator Akpor Pius Ewherido, you recall, was the only Democratic People’s Party (DPP) Senator in the Senate from 2011 until June 30, 2013, when he died. He had left the People’s Democratic Party for DPP due to political differences. He was grateful to the DPP that gave him the platform to go to the senate, but he was restless. The DPP was only strong in Delta State. He had two dreams which he shared with me. One, he said the DPP, as it were, could not make Delta State a strong force in national affairs. He said that a bigger platform was needed to achieve that. He was misconstrued, but he was not deterred. He was a man of vision and fundamental conviction who pursued whatever he believed in with utmost vigour. Two, he wanted APC to produce the governor of Delta State
Meanwhile, a lot was happening in DPP. It culminated in a national convention in Abuja. The main issue was the way forward for the party. The leaders of DPP could not come to a consensus on the way forward. Politics is a game of interests. They agreed to pursue their various interests. Sen. Ewherido, Chief Olisaemeka Akamukali, who was the National Vice Chairman, Dr. Iyke Odikpo, Chief Adelabu Bodjor, Chief Achibuogu and some other leaders and members of DPP joined the coalition from where APC emerged.
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria People’s Party(ANPP) and the nPDP, a faction of PDP, were apparently the bigger partners, but there was a faction of APGA led by Chief Rochas Okorocha and a faction of DPP, led by Sen. Akpor Pius Ewherido, which came together to form the APC on February 6, 2013. Before APC was formed as a party in February 2013, many meetings took place in Abuja among leaders of the various parties. Ewherido and Akamukali were mainly in Abuja representing the DPP faction, while other leaders were also working in Delta State since all politics is local. I remember my brother coming home every weekend from Abuja for consultations and meetings with leaders and followers of the group. He also held meetings/consultations with members of the other political parties in the emerging APC. I remember vividly the meeting he had with the late Chief Adolor Okotie-Eboh, at Ewhu, our hometown in Delta State. He also met in London with Hon. Temi Harriman who incidentally was in London.
Everything was going on smoothly until June 30, 2013, when tragedy struck. My brother died. A month after he died, APC received approval from the Independent National Electoral Commission on 31th July 2013 to become a political party. My brother was buried on July 19, 2013. Shortly after my brother’s burial, Chief Adelabu Bodjor led a three-man team that included Hon. Edewor Omonemu, a former commissioner for Commerce and Industry in Delta State, and the late, Chief Henry Olori on a condolence visit/consultative meeting with the Sen. Ewherido’s siblings in our home town, Ewhu. After another round of expression of condolences over his death, the delegation reminded us that our late brother had put in so much efforts and resources into the efforts to form APC and it should not be allowed to go to waste.
He was the leader of the DPP faction and DPP was the dominant party in the new APC in Delta State. Then the delegation asked the critical question, the main reason for the visit. They wanted to know if any of us (siblings) was willing to take over the leadership of the group. The response was a unanimous “NO.” “We just want to be left alone to mourn our brother,” we responded. Then they asked if they had the permission of the family to look for someone to take over the leadership of the group. We freely gave them the go ahead. Let me just add that the issue with the group was not really about leadership because they had people with the leadership capacity to lead the group.
Funding the group at that time was capital-intensive and needed a new financier, someone with a deep pocket. They left after our meeting. A few days later, Hon. Omonemu briefed us that he was sent to Lagos by Chief Bodjor and others to invite Olorogun Otega Emerhor to lead the faction DPP in the APC. Please note that Olorogun Emerhor was one of the financiers and a leader of DPP prior to the Abuja meeting where it was agreed that everybody should pursue their different political interests, but he did not follow the DPP faction into the coalition that gave birth to APC. When Omonemu came back from Lagos, he briefed us (my siblings and I) of the result of his meeting with Olorogun
Emerhor. It was positive. Emerhor took over the leadership of the group and funded it. Subsequently, it was easy for him to become the APC leader in Delta State because the DPP faction was the dominant group. There were initial squabbles and opposition from the other parties, but he triumphed.
Emerhor was the governorship candidate of the APC in the 2015 election, but lost to the PDP governorship candidate. But the APC won the presidential election. In Buhari’s eight years as president, the Delta State APC had Olorogun Festus Keyamo as a minister and other members of APC held various positions at the federal level. When HE Ovie Omo-Agege moved from the Labour Party to the APC, he became an APC senator. The icing on the cake was when he emerged the Deputy President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2019, which was possible because he was now in a big party, the APC. His position put Delta State further in the national scheme of things. Currently, Olorogun Festus Keyamo, occupies an omnibus and critical Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development. This is in addition to other vital positions occupied by APC members at the federal level. All the three Delta State senators are APC. Consequently, I say boldly that part of my brother’s dream to make Delta State APC to be at the centre of scheme of affairs in Nigeria has been achieved.
His second wish was for APC to govern Delta State. He was confident it could be achieved in 2015. But he could not oversee that because he died in 2013. Sometimes when people die, their dreams also die with them or they are delayed. Last week, the governor of Delta State, his executive, the legislators, local government chairmen, etc., resigned from PDP. They officially moved to APC on Monday, April 28, 2025. Ten years after Sen Ewherido anticipated Delta State would become an APC state and almost 12 years after he died, he dreams have been realized. “The war was won without firing a bullet,” figuratively speaking (there was no election). When you start a cup final, you hope to win within the regulation time. But sometimes African Nations Cup (1992 and 2015) and World Cups (1990, 2006, 2014 and 2018) are won via penalties. Even normal matches can be won via penalties. What history records in brief is which country won the world cup and Nations Cup.
HE Sheriff Obrorevwori, congratulations on becoming the first APC governor of Delta State. Your friend, Pius Ewherido, would be very happy where he is. Your friendship dated back to the early 90s when you were “happening young men” in the Effurun-Warri axis. You went your separate ways politically at some point when he moved to DPP. But today you are the leader of a party where he was a national founding father and the arrowhead in Delta State. My message to you is that he wanted Delta State to be great. That was why he joined the coalition that metamorphosed into APC. I was in Delta State earlier in the year. I went around to assess your performance. I was happy with what I saw, but there is still a lot to be done. As I once told you privately when I had the opportunity, “serve our people (Deltans) well.” I am saying it publicly, Your Excellency, serve our people well o! Welcome to APC.
Francis Ewherido is a brother to the late Sen. Akpor Pius Ewherido, one of the national founding fathers of APC
