By DADA AYOKHAI
“The fear of the Labour Party, LP, is the beginning of political wisdom in Nigeria. From nowhere, the party has sprung into an octopus while also spreading its tentacles across the nooks and crannies of the country.
In Edo North, the Labour Party, LP, candidate for the Edo North senatorial election, Comrade Eragbe Anslem Aphimia is in the same mold as the presidential standard bearer of the LP, Mr. Peter Obi, who is daily gaining popularity and ascendancy among the potential voters.
Comrade Eragbe will be squaring against two formidable opponents in both the PDP and the APC. One of them is Senator Francis Alimikhena of the PDP who is the incumbent senator representing the district at the Senate.
The other contestant, Comrade Adams Oshiomole a former Edo governor and National chairman of the rulling party, All Progressive Congress APC is an old fox and also hugely popular.
The Okpekpe Born activist and politician was Born on October 7, 1972, in Ibadan, Oyo State
Eragbe had the inkling that one day he would mount the soapbox to campaign and seek the mandate to serve his people. And, so, he knew he had to first get educated and other things will then fall into place.
Thus, he first cut his education teeth at Ortsele Primary School, Okpekpe, in the old Bendel State and now Etsako East LGA, Edo State from 1979 –1981, where he had a brief two-year stint before moving to the Army Children School 2, Epe, Lagos State, between 1981–1984.
Between 1985 –1991, he attended the Army Children High School, Epe, where he wrote and passed his WASCE as part of the pioneer 6–3–3–4 system of education.
At ABU, Zaria, from 1997 to 2005, while studying for his degree course in Metallurgical Engineering, Comrade Eragbe was also a student activist and as this interest deepened, further exposing him to various leadership roles and capacities, he ultimately emerged as the first elected Executive President of the Ahmadu Bello University Students Union Government, ABUSUG 2002-2004.
Since he caught the political bug at ABU, Comrade Eragbe, also the incumbent National Youth Leader of the Labour Party, LP as well as the National Organizing Secretary of the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions in Nigeria, ASURI till date 2011–2023 has not looked back.
Even his job as a civil servant with the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, NASENI, a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, FMSTI, does not in any way deter him from partisan politics.
Though NASENI is now directly under the Presidency. Comrade Eragbe is a unionist and also the branch chairman of the ASURI-NASENI.
And, as if to further demonstrate the seriousness he attaches to the project, not taking it to be a child’s play, there is a spiritual dimension to his preparation.
As a minister of the gospel, Comrade Eragbe can be said to be fully fortified both politically and spiritually, something his opponents lack and which may likely make a whole lot of difference in the poll.
His deep spirituality is supported by certificates in different spheres of evangelism obtained from the Word of Faith Bible Institute, WOFBI, and the Living Faith Church Worldwide, namely the BCC (2013), LCC (2014), and LDC (2020)”
