The Yoking of Asupa Forteta and Julius Pondi by Absence and Presence, By Enewaridideke Ekanpou

By: Enewaridideke Ekanpou

Presence births and foregrounds absence in the architecture of man’s journey on earth. Integrally, presence and absence are often part of human existence. The impactful presence of presence and the impactful presence of absence in the affairs of man, particularly political affairs, is deeply felt. In the political journeys of Hon. Asupa Peter Forteta and Rt. Hon. Dr. Julius Pondi the impactful echoes of presence and absence tell differing stories rooted in the developmental commitment of the two politicians clearly situated and distinguished by their ideologies of grass roots developmental empowerment through execution of meaningful development projects in their constituencies of representation in the State House of Assembly for the former and House of Representatives for the latter in their legislative engagements.

Vacation of a political or representational space occasioned by electorally imposed absence is usually celebrated by people who see the vacuum as a good riddance to a destabilising inhibition or barricade. With pomp and pageantry the vacated space is celebrated with triumphal dance steps. This is triumphally done even where the victim of the vacated space views it through the lens of hibernation.

Lovers of proverbs are not in a hurry to forget that whenever the flood grows too furious, the wisdom-laden Epain tree only lowers its head for the flood to pass over. The Epain emerges after the flood’s ferocious fury. However, there are special cases where absence causes regrets, pains and thoughts of deliberate repentant moves to bring back absence from the vacated space when ‘karmically’ battered by the cold and heat of the imposed absence.This is exactly how Asupa Forteta ‘s absence from the representative space is viewed in Burutu politics.

Hon. Asupa Forteta was the representative of Burutu North Constituency in the Delta State House of Assembly who lost his re-election bid in 2023. In his representational days meaningful development projects were legislatively attracted to the communities at the grass roots level. For communities like Akparemogbene, Oyangbene, Gogigbene, Ogbobabougbene and other communities developmentally marginalised for decades, they were given corresponding developmental attention. With the vacation of the space of representation by Hon. Forteta, these communities have receded developmentally.

Days do appear and disappear like phoenix. With every new day that comes and goes, these communities recite poems of lamentation because there is nobody to carry their afflictions to be sunk in the river so they can rise like the radiant morning sun. Asupa Forteta ‘s absence has become the breeding ground of developmental afflictions and obscurities. Contrarily, absence has become a river of afflictions and regrets where it is a bliss celebrated in some societies with triumphal abandon.

Asupa Forteta’s absence daily hurts the masses because the road to the dividends of democracy seems clogged by water weeds that proliferate here and there. Where absence obtrusively hurts rather than heals the masses, some presence could equally cause havoc.

Developmental havoc is the word where presence wears the scary garment of absence. Yet some presence does heal and place the masses on a progressive lane. This progressive lane is the one on which Rt. Hon. Dr. Julius Pondi journeys always in his legislative business.

Dr. Pondi is the person representing Burutu Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives who is accustomed to using the language of development in his daily conversations. In Burutu Federal Constituency there are visible number of developmental project s legislatively influenced and activated by Dr. Pondi. Besides developmental projects, there are also empowerment schemes that revolve around women and youths in his Constituency.

In Burutu Council there are accredited apostles of development. They are Forteta and Pondi. Pondi’s and Forteta’s identifiable development projects are not creations of Artificial Intelligence. The presence of Pondi is developmentally felt in every part of Burutu Council as it has dwarfed the achievements of his predecessors in the legislative business of representation just as the presence of the absence of Forteta is appallingly felt

Asupa is on a developmental leave of hibernation to be back more developmentally equipped, though even in his absence his executed development projects announce and reinforce his presence like Dr. Pondi’s presence. Where Pondi daily signals his presence with projects, Forteta announces his presence from absence through his legacy development projects executed while he was still in power. For Asupa Forteta his developmental presence is felt through absence from the space of representation. For Julius Pondi his presence is announced by the presence of developmental projects. For Hon. Asupa and Rt. Hon. Dr. Julius Pondi, absence and presence tell stories of their acceptability and popularity by the people anytime they choose to journey and fraternise with them on any developmental project. Asupa and Pondi are ideologically given to creation of developmental projects for their people through legislative intervention and influence.

Drawing inferences from the legislative performance history of Forteta and Pondi, absence and presence are always yoked towards the betterment of society. Already yoked, the transformation of absence into presence in alliance with the existing presence signalled by Pondi’s verifiable development projects, better developmental results would be produced.

Towards development, a political pact had long been awaited by keen observers of the political journeys of Forteta and Pondi. The anticipated pact of developmental breakthrough driven by effective, functional and result-oriented representation in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State is struck and confirmed when Hon. Asupa Forteta and Rt. Hon. Dr. Julius Pondi mutually create the space for absence and presence to journey together on one canoe where absence grows so radiant it transforms itself and gets merged with presence for synchronised articulation of two reinforced RADIANT PRESENCES without deflection in Burutu politics.With such political pact mutually okayed and perfected based on the metamorphosis of absence into presence, multiple channels of development are bound to proliferate in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State.

Dr. Ekanpou writes from Akparemogbene, Delta State