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There are moments in politics when the real test of a man is not whether he wins easily, but what he does when the outcome turns against him. This is one of those moments for Senator Ned Nwoko, who is contesting the result of the recent APC senatorial primary for Delta North — and disputing it through the party’s internal channels and, ultimately, the courts.
In the aftermath of the controversial APC senatorial primary for Delta North, Nwoko has chosen neither despair nor surrender. Instead, he persuades his supporters to remain calm, maintain faith, and allow the legal and democratic processes to run their course.
The Asaba APC’s officially announced result of the May 18, 2026 primary declared former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa the winner, with 113,309 votes to Nwoko’s 2,612. Nwoko rejects that outcome, and his legal team has put his own count at roughly 123,000 votes — a gap wide enough that both sides cannot simply be describing the same event from different angles. One of these accounts is substantially wrong, and that is precisely what the appeal process and the courts now have to determine.
This situation leaves a bitter taste for scores of thousands of his teeming constituents in Delta North, and by extension, millions of his followers across the country.
But in moments of despair, especially when situations cast doubt in the air, whether real or imagined, good leaders motivate their followers, carrying them along to have a clear view of the scenario at play. Senator Ned Nwoko knows that, hence in a recent radio interview monitored in Abuja he revealed the status of his case with regard to the stalemate surrounding his re-election bid.
Shortly after the Asaba APC released its result, Nwoko’s legal team maintained he had won overwhelmingly, and pointed to videos from wards across the Delta North senatorial district as supporting evidence. They allege the panel sent from Enugu to organize the primary was compromised and did not visit the polling units it claimed to oversee. These are serious allegations left for the court to settle, strengthening the reasons why Nwoko proceeded to court, and he has committed to make his evidence public rather than simply assert it.
Giving up in pursuit of one’s mandate could be inspired by strands of cowardice or weakness of mind. As a man who never gives up on what he believes in, and being a lawyer familiar with the law, Nwoko is different.
Directing attention to millions of his followers he told them: “I am in court,” via a recent radio interview monitored in Abuja.
“What happened was a travesty of justice, and there are various other options. I am sure that I will contest the election. I am going to come back to the Senate. My governor and his people are trying to impose Okowa. I clearly won the primary with over 123,000 votes, but they had a different plan. They wrote the result for Okowa in Asaba because they controlled the panel that was sent from Enugu to organize the primary. They didn’t even bother to go to the field. So I beat Okowa completely.
“Okowa cannot match me at any public election. Okowa was a governor when he contested to be VP to Atiku. As a governor, he lost Delta State — he lost his own local government as a sitting governor. So Okowa cannot beat me in the primary election. We have the videos, we have the evidence, and we are contesting it. If there is still justice in Nigeria, I will be back in the Senate.”
His message is simple: all hope is not lost. The battle is not over until it is over.
That attitude recalls the famous observation attributed to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”
The meaning is profound. A person can be defeated many times in his mind before he is ever defeated in reality. Fear, despair, and premature surrender can kill a cause long before the final battle is decided.
Nwoko appears determined not to make that mistake, even as Okowa’s camp relies on the backing of the governor, whose influence at the APC national headquarters in Abuja appears monumental.
Rather than allowing anger over what he and his supporters regard as an unjust outcome to spill into confrontation, Nwoko has chosen the language of law over the language of violence. His legal team explicitly said, “We don’t believe in unleashing violence to cure any wrong,” and pursued the party’s appeal mechanisms before taking the matter to court. It is a demonstration of faith in the institutions he has been elected to serve. Furthermore, Ned Nwoko has chosen the courtroom instead of the street, the petition instead of the protest, the evidence instead of the anger, and the law instead of rascality.
Whatever position one takes on the competing claims, one thing is unmistakable: Nwoko has refused to accept defeat as the final word.
Nwoko’s insistence therefore speaks to something beyond the immediate contest for a senatorial ticket. It speaks to his belief that a political mandate belongs ultimately to the people and should not be determined merely by the calculations of political power.
And sometimes, what appears to be the end of a political journey turns out to be merely the beginning of another chapter.
To millions of his supporters, Nwoko’s message — as a statesman — is perhaps the most important one he can give at this moment: stay calm, stay focused, stay within the law, and do not lose hope.
Because sometimes the greatest test of political courage is not how loudly one celebrates victory, but how gracefully and resolutely one responds to adversity.
As counsel from old wisdom says:
The odds may be formidable. The road may be uncertain. The opposition may be powerful. The immediate circumstances may appear discouraging. But none of these automatically determines the final outcome.
It is not over until it is over.
And perhaps the most important battle is the one fought inside the human spirit. Once a man convinces himself that he has lost, the battle is finished.
But if he retains the courage to stand, the patience to pursue lawful remedies, and the conviction to keep fighting for what he believes is right, then the story remains unfinished.
For Ned Nwoko and those who believe in his cause, that may be the meaning of the moment.
Charles Ozoemena, who is a Communication Consultant and Public Affairs Analyst, writes from Abuja.
