Recently, there have been discordant tunes from a certain quarter, alleging that their two years of cold, fruitless, and meaningless representation so far in the National Assembly bests the enviable records set by Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, who, between 2015 to 2023, represented the Delta North senatorial district.
These discordant tunes have been the hallmark of a failed politician, and it is not strange because, in his first missionary journey to the lawmaking wing of the Three-Arms-Zone, his tenure then remains the most unfruitful witnessed in the annals of our political history. Nothing was achieved between 1999 – 2003 despite being a member of the ruling party then. No project can be traced to him, and neither was any of his 10,000 bills submitted in the Green Chambers of the National Assembly accented to by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria – despite both being of the same political family. The same rehearsed pattern is currently playing out with no trace of significant development in the past two years or so.
To compare the stewardship of Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi and the current mirage we’re witnessing, let us go head-to-head with the duo.
Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi in 2015, as a first-term Senator and a member of the opposition party, played a crucial role in the emergence of Distinguished Senator Bukola Saraki as the President of the 8th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and in that, he was graciously and meritoriously appointed the Chairman of a Grade A Committee – Senate Committee on Niger Delta and same position was merited on him in the 9th Senate.
Between 2015 and 2023, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, through the instrumentality of his good office, transformed the Anioma nation into a projects arena. Roads were constructed. Skills Centers were built in the three federal constituencies of the Anioma nation. Federal government empowerment programs became the order of the day, and the Anioma people, irrespective of political inclination, benefited immensely. All these were evenly distributed across the length and breadth of Delta North. No local government area nor community was left behind – including the beautiful and peaceful Idumuje Ugboko community.
Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, as a Lawmaker from the opposition political party had his Bill passed into law and accented to by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Similarly, Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi facilitated the pensionable employment of many Anioma people in reputable government agencies. Some of these beneficiaries, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi wouldn’t know them individually. That’s how broad-minded he is.
It was the stewardship of Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi that birthed, for the first time in the history of the Anioma nation, the inclusion of Anioma youths in the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).
The ideology of Senator Peter Nwaoboshi’s representation in the Senate was not anchored on unnecessary pestilence noise in the media, nor did he display absolute contempt for silence as a strong tool for tackling issues.
Senator Peter Nwaoboshi didn’t have to go infantile by trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to tag along with every national issue to gain illusional relevance. He was not desperate for the lenses of the camera. He was focused on representing his people and today, the facts speak for themselves.
The giant strides of Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi became so towering that plots were hatched and executed to “contain him” following his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the governing All Progressive Congress (APC). In that, an infamous judgment delivered by a judge of the appellate court, who unjustly convicted him, kept him away from the 2023 general election, and despite his absence, the margin of victory was a paltry 20,000 votes or so. Senator Peter Nwaoboshi would have attained a nigh flawless victory in that election were he not unjustly incarcerated.
The judgment of the Appellate Court was thrown into the judicial bin unanimously by the 5-panel justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria!
Conversely, what we’re witnessing today is a complete departure from the serenity and effective representation that characterized the tenure of Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi.
It is either a fruitless and meaningless Gun Bill (now dead), the impossible Anioma State creation (already dead on arrival), or discordant tunes about besting his predecessors.
Granted that they have managed to renovate the walls surrounding a Police Station in Idumuje Ugboko, drill a borehole in Issele Uku, and a paltry 2KM of road, these have been the only spoils of democracy merited on the Anioma nation from 2023 to 2025. In all fairness, that’s FAILURE (F)!
In the current 10th Senate of the National Assembly, Senate standing committees are chaired by Senators across the political divide in Nigeria and Anioma people got the Senate Committee on Reparations. This is equivalent to retrieving artifacts commandeered by the colonial slave masters- as if we’re still living in the colonial era. The truth is that the Anioma nation has no true political voice in the present Senate. What we are currently witnessing is a representative centered on the individual who delights in self-glorification and the center of attraction. Everything must be about him!
It is instructive to note that Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi is a happy and fulfilled man today. He has served his people and the nation graciously, and he knows that no individual can solve the entirety of the nation’s challenges, and others after him will also contribute to solving the ever-occurring challenges facing the country.
What has been established so far is that the footprints of Senator Peter Nwaoboshi in the Nigerian Senate between 2015 and 2023 cannot be equaled by his successor, and no amount of discordant tunes will change that fact.
Yes. Distinguished Senator Peter Nwaoboshi is still the best.
