IBORI: WHAT A JOURNEY?

Former Governor of Delta State, Nigeria, Chief James Onanefe Ibori will be grateful to God for clocking 56 on Tuesday August 4th and hopes to celebrate more birthdays with relations, political friends and well wishers when he finally returns back to his fatherland.

Chief Ibori, also called Odidigboligbo became

Governor of Delta State at 40 from May 29 1999 to May 29, 2007 under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP.
Born to the late Chief Ukavbe Ibori and Mrs Comfort Oji Ibori of Otefe in Oghara clan, Ethiope West local government area of the state, the young Ibori attended Baptist High School now renamed Oghareki Grammar School before proceeding to the University of Benin where he obtained a Bachelor of Science (Bsc) degree in economics and statistics.
He worked for a while at one of the major oil companies before travelling to the UK to seek for more golden fleece and later married his wife Theresa Nkoyo Ibori even though he had some children from other women.
Back home in Nigeria, between 1994 & 1997, he served as a consultant to the Sani Abacha led federal government on public policy formulation and implementation.
Earlier in 1990, Ibori joined the National Republican Convention NRC, and in 1991, he contested to represent Ethiope Federal Constituency but lost to the candidate of the Social Democratic Party SDP.
He later joined the Grassroot Democratic Movement GDM, founded under the Abacha military regime, but with the death of Gen Abacha, Ibori joined other politicians to form the Delta National Congress DNC, which later merged with some political groups to form the current Peoples Democratic Party PDP.
Despite his incarceration in the UK for money laundering, Ibori remains the most influential governor since the return to democratic rule in 1999.
Aside putting his full weight morally and materially for the election of late President Umaru Musa Yar'adua ,a Muslim north, he championed the struggle for resource control which compelled the Obasanjo led federal administration to approve the 13% oil derivation funds for the gas and oil producing areas of Nigeria.
Today, Ibori's numerous followers and political friends sing his praise as a man who provided purposeful leadership and political empowerment for men and women.
As he turns 56 on Tuesday August 4,2015, it is our hope that at the end of his incarceration in the UK, the federal government should consider his contributions to the growth of Nigeria,s political history and grant him amnesty as was the case of former Bayelsa Governor, Diepreye Solomon Peters Alamieyeseigha.

No doubt, kill him, hail him, crucify him, glorify him....Ibori was a former governor of the state and he means different things to different citizens of our state including the Aniomas who were brought up with the knowledge and teaching that ''GOOD NAME IS WORTHIER THAN MONEY''

IBORI.....What does he mean to you?

By Patrick Ogbogu.