Yesterday, Thursday, 24th September, 2026, Asaba woke to a different kind of traffic. Not the familiar rush of civil servants, school children, market women and the blaring of horns alone, but to a tide of NDC colours, banners, and expectant faces crowding Dr. Chimokwu Way, along Bush Meat Road, off Mariam Babangida Road.
There, the Nigeria Democratic Congress formally opened its Delta State Gubernatorial Campaign Office and the presidential candidate of the party, H.E Mr Peter Obi CON, former Anambra Governor had come to plant a flag in a state whose politics has long been written in older ink.
He arrived late because multiple flight delays held him back, and when he finally reached the grounds he apologised to the crowd that had waited.
Thousands of party faithful and supporters filled the venue, restating in songs, dance steps and in silent resolution, their faith in the country and in the unfinished promise of democracy.
They had come from wards and villages, offices and farms, from across the three senatorial districts, with the sense that 2027 would not be another rehearsal of the same script.
Around Obi stood the state ticket: Deacon Chris Iyovwaye, the NDC governorship candidate, together with other candidates, officials, and stakeholders.
Former Deputy President of the Senate Ovie Omo-Agege was among those present. The office itself was framed as a workshop rather than a monument: the starting point of organised grassroots work across Delta.
Peter Obi then spoke of his plans. Development, he said, should not be measured only by statistics that live on paper. It should be felt in ordinary lives. He returned to the theme that has followed him from one platform to another, an economy turned from consumption toward production, a country in which citizens need not travel far to find opportunity or decent public services.
The crowd answered in the language of movements: chants, raised hands, the refrain that a new Nigeria is possible.
For Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei, Esq., FNSE, the day carried a more personal weight. It was a moment of emphasis: the public crystallising of an intention he has already begun to live.
Engineer, lawyer, former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, and now the NDC candidate for Delta North Senatorial District.
Yesterday he stood not as a guest at someone else’s event, but as a principal in a coalition he has chosen and indeed greatly inspired.
That choice is the heart of his challenge to the status quo. He has framed his campaigns as a diversion into a New Direction for Anioma People, and to support Mr Peter Obi’s efforts for a New Nigeria, alongside Deacon Chris Iyovwaye’s bid to Reset Delra State
The seat is a means. The destination is a new political direction for the district, the state, and the country. With his record in the Assembly and his standing as a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, he offered himself as proof that the challenge need not be reckless.
After the speeches, Obi left the venue on foot for Springhill Hotel on DBS Road, a walk of about two kilometres through Asaba’s core area. The procession turned the evening into a moving rally, exciting commuters, motorists and businesses along the busy Okpanam road corridor.
At the hotel he spoke again to those who had followed. Then the crowd, still charged, dispersed with the excitement of people who believed the day had not been wasted.
The office remains. Campaigns, once opened, demand more than ceremony: agents in the wards, arguments in the markets, patience in the long interval before January 2027. The status quo is not overturned by a single visit. It is tested, day after day, by those who have already decided they will no longer wait for permission to contest it.
Vote NDC, Vote Victor Ochei for Senate!
Story By Ikechukwu Chukwudi-Abiandu(The Legacydreamz)