Okungbowa Paul Ovbokhan is the candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in the September 21, 2024 Edo State governorship election. The University of Benin graduate, who hails from Uhunmwonde Local Government Area of Edo State, was at The Nigerian Observer offices on Airport Road, Benin City, recently, where he interacted with a team of the newspaper’s journalists. He spoke on his candidacy, his plans for the people of Edo State, and his campaign so far. Below are excerpts:
Could you please tell us about yourself?
My name is Okungbowa Paul Ovbokhan. I am an Edo son. I hail from Uhunmwonde LGA. I was born January 3, 1984. I attended Iyore Primary School and rounded off my primary education in 1995. I rounded off my first degree at the University of Benin and I also started my Master’s programme there, which I abruptly truncated because it wasn’t reasonable to pile up certificates that will have no value in the marketplace. So this is basically a summary of who I am.
I am married. I’m a father of four. I am a business owner. Basically, I am into the education space, but I’ve done a bit of other things. I own the famous first class tutorial in Benin City known as Gorilla Brains. It currently has 24 centres across the state. I am also the proprietor of Calvary Crown Academy, which has about five branches across the state as well. I own a tech hub where I teach young persons how to maximize their God-given potential in the world of tech, and essentially teach them how to make money online without leaving them to wander about wherein they might be prone and susceptible to fraud. I am the Chief Executive Officer of Simba Technology and Incubation Centre. I also own a gadget place where I sell gadgets. And then, I am also a restaurant owner. I own car washes across the city and I also own laundromats in the city. I own an advert company as well. So, anything that is within the purview of what legality and morality will allow, we are open to it. Basically, the summary is that I am a serial entrepreneur.
Have you been in politics previously?
Well, I was once a NANS presidential aspirant for the University of Benin Zone B. I was also given an appointment letter once by a former local government chairman of Egor LGA, on the basis of what I have done, but I graciously turned down the appointment. People like me have not had the opportunity to serve in the core of government and then have that as a manifesto attached to what we have been able to do. And it is because the political circle is basically that of clientelism. It is friends of friends, the web of people, and people like me have always felt the process is too encumbered with too much insincerity. So I have to stick to what I can control, and so far, what I can control has been result-oriented, so long as it is people-centric.
You are in the race for the Edo governorship seat and, as you know, politics is very expensive. How do you intend to fund your campaign?
People like me believe that for every season there is an allotted time. Some will call it chance, some will call it destiny, others will call it luck. But for us, the best way to judge a process is to be part of the process, and when good fortune smiles, some may want to arrogate certain glories to themselves as to their level of pontifications or brainstorming. But others will say that this has been the work of the divine and it is this divinity that has caused it to be so. But the best thing would always be to start.
Our political and leadership selection process has been lobotomized completely with moneybags which obviously does not and should not form the basis upon which we should select those who lead us. I think so far it is pertinent to say that the wealthy man has commercialized our leadership selection process, because just recently the Senate President was seen in a trending video saying that Nigerians can suffer, but the needs of the President, particularly the new presidential jets that they are trying to procure, must and should be the focus of those of them in leadership. And I dare to say that this in itself has further proven to me that the wealthy class only fends for themselves because the ordinary man in Nigeria has been accursed with terrible economic situations. However, those who have human sympathy and empathy today will be abdicating certain financial appropriations, even if it’s their right, for the sake of the greater good. So, whether or not the political process has now been awash with money, it is pertinent to say that there is an appointed time, such as it was in the last presidential election, where Peter Obi swept Edo State by a landslide. Because I studied the results, it was a landslide even in the face of copious financial inducements by the ruling party and the opposition party. Even in the face of this heavy financial inducement, people went to the polls and spoke their heart out, and that gave victory in Edo State to H.E. Peter Gregory Obi.
The reason why I’m very particular that the Edo people gave victory to Peter Gregory Obi and not the Labour Party is that before Peter Obi’s emergence as candidate of the Labour Party, the Labour Party in Edo State was just another political appendage. It had no office”, it had no spread of local government, it had no spread of wards. But when the movement of the people, enraptured by the possibility of a new Nigeria, took over the process, Nigerians were donating their houses and their offices as ward offices for this emerging possibility of a rebirth of Nigeria via the candidature of Peter Gregory Obi. So if Peter Obi had come to my party, the YPP, as at then, the YPP today would have enjoyed that pride of place. Even the political godfathers could not control the votes. In my village, for example, money was spent and yet the APC got three votes. Peter Obi did not even come to my village.
I believe that if God wants to cause a revival, it is regardless of you, if this movement is still in the heart of the people. We know that the political actors and those of the wealthy class have somewhat made budgets to lobotomize the process further, but we would rather stick our necks out in hopes that the people will be tired, which means they will take the money from the high and mighty and they will still go to the polls and vote for he who has made sense to them. And I believe that God does not take credit for what comes easy to man. So there might be no reasonable wealth on our side, but what is reasonable on our side is a working, actionable, doable manifesto, something that we have fearlessly put in video forms so that the people will not say it was written, because somebody once said that if you want to hide something from the black man, put it in print. It is in video form so they can study our body languages. And if we, by God’s grace, become their choice, the political class can come with their thugs, they can come with their INEC, they can come with anything. But if it is God’s will, it will happen that the ordinary man had won the election on the backs of the ordinary people.
There are three major political parties in the governorship race. What then is that magic wand you hope to wave to get the heart and support of the Edo electorate?
Out of the three major political parties, we are x-raying the candidatures of the candidates of these parties and pressing the people to ask for evidence of their content; to ask for methodologies. How do you intend to do what you say you want to do? The political class has been making promises and it’s very easy to do that. I could promise you that when I become governor, The Nigerian Observer will become the best news media platform in the entire sub-Saharan Africa, and you will clap for me. But a more curious person will ask, how do you intend to do this? So that those of you who are practically involved will know that whatever it is I have to say is now subject to your ratification and scrutiny. In which case, if you realize that I’m trying to fool the people, you can now know that I have nothing to offer the people. And the question you asked me is still going to be on that basis, because the people are going to ask the other candidates the same question: How? I am going to raise that stage for the ‘how’ because until that ‘how’, they are going to make a mockery of the process of selection.
Sometimes when we are trying to elect leadership, we should get so thorough, because even if you are a government institution, the very thing that matters to you is if life is going to get better for you. Not necessarily because you are against or for, but because you want to personalize that government and say, how is this going to benefit me?
You were in the Labour Party and also played an active role in the Obidient Movement. Why did you leave the Labour Party (LP) for the Young Progressives Party (YPP)?
I’ve always told people before now that I’m not a politician in the sense of what Nigerian politics is. I would have done a lot of things before now because I have a lot of followership at the grassroots level. I would have made a lot of moves that would make the political class give me one or two appointments to follow them. I’m not a politician in that sense. I’m a passionate person who just feels like every day our lives are wasting and we have to do something about it. More so, I’ve been a direct victim of poor leadership. I lost my father seven years ago when the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) went on strike. I watched him die because there was no hospital to take him to. Between the time it took for me to get a doctor from Warri in Delta State and the time it took the doctor to drive from Warri to Benin, my father could not stand it, so he died. Few months ago I lost my mother at the age of 67. Same thing happened: poor health care. I took her to University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH). Her blood pressure was going low, and there was nothing to stabilize her. They put oxygen in her nose and were walking up and down and my mother died. So, I’m speaking from a point of strength. My mother would wish that I continue telling the people the truth and that gives me the impetus to continue. I’m not in this race because I feel I’ve figured out everything or because I feel like everything is going to be dandy. It is that I have practically nothing to lose if I don’t get on the race, but I know the people have a lot to lose if this leadership cycle is repeated.
I did not succumb to Labour Party and her politics. I refused to be used as a pawn in a game. The leadership of the Labour Party in Edo State had completely predetermined in their heart that because the Obi mantra has given them some level of prominence, that it was going to be sold, it was going to be completely commercialized. I started our ward tour in April 2022, going from ward to ward. It was during the ward tour I met my campaign manager. He was a Labour Party ward leader. But what was happening? Everybody there would tell you the honest truth that your ideas are good, but that anybody who wants to come now must bring something tangible. On top of this, at the state level before you convene them for a meeting, we were given a budget of N3 million, hotel venue, food and all. The N3 million is going to be transportation cost. I rebuked the Labour Party Chairman. He wrote me a letter in response.
Therefore, because moneybags had come into the party, and having done my findings, I realized that there was no point even wasting the time that was not available. So I took a bow and I said to myself, because the labour ward has become too expensive for us to deliver the promised Edo child doesn’t mean we cannot go to any other labour ward, even if it doesn’t have light, to deliver this child. That was where the Young Progressives Party became a vehicle that was necessitated to keep marshalling up our ideas. So, we did not leave the Labour Party because we were angry. We admit that we could not play the politics there. The money interest was too much. This is not something that is peculiar to me alone, you can ask the other aspirants who also left.
You have been going around, interacting with Edo people and feeling their pulse. How do the electorate view your candidacy and your party?
If the response wasn’t hopeful, I’m telling you, we would have long stepped down. That’s the honest truth, because we don’t even have the money. In one month of advocacy, the YPP got her 18 local government offices, rented and furnished on the backs of those calling to say they want to support the voices they are hearing. On the basis of this mandate, a lot of wards have been set up vis-a-vis, even people’s offices, some in their homes as meeting points for wards. And on a daily basis, the litmus test will be the next time we go on radio. It’s becoming clear that the people are resonating with the possibility that an ordinary people’s government can be created for the sake of the ordinary people in hopes to live an extraordinary life. So the feedback is really encouraging. It is why we have not given up. It is why we have hope that they can take money from the first three political parties and still go and vote their conscience. After all, it happened in the 2023 election. So because we can stay in the media, we are hopeful that our common sense, which is actually not common in the marketplace, is getting to the hearts of the people.
We have met people who stopped us to say, ‘I initially said I will never vote again, but after I heard you talk, my PVC is ready to go and cast that vote for you.’ So, while we may or may not fear that our electoral process has been fraught with fraud, we will not rule out the fact that when God is involved, INEC will do the right thing without even knowing they are doing so. That hope gives us the cause to continue.
Assuming you go into this election with all the hope that you will emerge victorious, and then at the end of the day, it doesn’t happen and the eventual winner calls together all his opponents, asking that everyone should bring their ideas forward and work together, how are you going to take that?
I will work tirelessly for the sake of the people and, very importantly, for the memories and the legacies of my struggling mother who raised six of us single-handedly. I will do everything I can to make sure the people, if it is just within my control, keep heaving some sighs of relief. So I’ve said to myself that there are some prayers God does not answer. When you say the voice of the people is the voice of God, that is correct. So if the voice of the people speaks and the voice of the people is in the public office, then when you pray, God will answer. But if whoever emerges as governor steals the process, I’ll be very foolish to go to such a person. Instead, what I will do is to keep taking my ideas around people who may have the capital to put it in place, so that we keep creating more employment, more utility for the lives of the people. After all, we’re already doing so without the government. I have not counted my recent car washes today, but if nearly 500 persons today can heave a sigh of relief via our little efforts, it is pertinent to say that when we get to the stage, we will do much more. So for us, it’s a win-win situation. There is no losing with us, because we are committed to serving the people. We will write propositions across the government concerning our security architectural project, this time perhaps asking them for partnership. They will fund it, we will take our charges and commissions as a company, but the service will go to the people. Our health care plan, we will still suggest to them, but to call that we should come and serve, we are not looking for offices. We are not looking for self-aggrandizement or power by all means. We’re not looking to be identified as that big man, that street man, that is now in government. We’re looking to serve. So we will serve privately, because it’s what our conscience can carry.
If the victory doesn’t happen in 2024, are you looking at going in again in the future?
No one knows tomorrow. Politics is not my career. I am always passionate about serving. I can serve even at the lowest capacity you can conceive of as a person. I’m not nursing ambition. There’s no projection. I’ll just guard my peace and move on with my life. But if an opportunity presents itself again and it’s something that will seemingly make sense, my instinct to serve may arise.
I had an interview with one of the international media, where somebody wrote a comment and said, ‘This guy is very sound, his ideas are good, but I want him to bring this idea to the candidate of so-and-so political party.’ Another person replied, ‘Is this not foolishness on your part?’ So we don’t believe that there should be carryover in quality of life, even while there is carryover in politics. We are not pursuing the theatrics of politics. We are just a passionate group of people. If our time is going to be in five years, ten years, or twenty years, then fine. If we are available, we will serve, but we are not dogged on it like it’s our career.
So, if the people don’t want to miss what we have to offer, they will at best need to come out in good numbers and fight for what we are saying, so that we can have a semblance of relief because for every day that passes, we’re ageing, we’re wasting away and we’re dying. Assuming I was governor eight years back and I was able to bring my healthcare reform package into being, I’m not sure my mother would have died. Not because I’m governor. I’m just using my mother generally for those who have lost their loved ones due to just poor health care. I’m not sure what would have happened. Why do a carryover if we can get it done now?
