DELTA: NORTH SQUARES UP AGAINST CENTRAL AND SOUTH

• Uduaghan’s Backing Flayed By Group

THE 2015 governorship election may still be some two years away but if Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State were to take a quick glance behind his shoulders, all that he would see is an array of politicians jostling for the plum position, which he presently occupies. And the list is endless, and still rising.

Notwithstanding the long and strong clamour by the Anioma people of the North senatorial district for power shift, which has lately gathered momentum, the other senatorial districts of Central and South are very much in the race. If feelers from those districts are not of microscopic consequence, candidates from there are ready and fully prepared to throw their hats in the ring in a determined bid to win the governorship come 2015.

From the North senatorial district, the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Chief Victor Ochei, seems to be nursing governorship ambition. So also are a former Commissioner of Economic Planning under former Governor James Ibori, Mr. Clement Ofuani and Presidential Adviser on Project Monitoring, Prof. Sylvester Monye.

Others said to be in the race from Delta North are Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, Chief Godswill Obielum, and former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Power, Mr. Ndudi Elumelu. Both Obielum and Okowa once contested the primaries in 2007 and lost narrowly to Uduaghan in a photo finish race.

Political analysts say the numerous candidates from Delta North may be the zone’s undoing, as no one may be ready to step down for another. As they say, a house divided against itself cannot stand a mighty wind.

It remains to be seen if the Anioma slogan of equity, justice and fairplay will cut any ice among the people of the Central and South districts. Only last April in Agbor, Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, declared that the Anioma people were fully entitled to govern the state in 2015, as it is the right of any Deltan to contest for the number one position.

Clark, who spoke at a civic reception organised in his honour by the people of Ika nation, emphasised that nobody is a second-class citizen in their state or country. The elder statesman, reputed to always say his mind, said that it would amount to hypocrisy if he stoutly defends Jonathan, a minority and do a different thing in his own state of Delta, stressing that like any other ethnic group in the state, the Anioma people have the right to aspire to the governorship.

The Ijaw leader from the South senatorial district advised the Anioma people to establish a cordial relationship with the other senatorial districts, as “Anioma does not exist in isolation in the state; they should work together with others and make their request and others will consider it though it is not a question of forcing it upon anybody.”

“This state belongs to all of us and we must be patient if we are not ruling. All I have said is that certain people should not arrogate to themselves the exclusive right to govern this state. We are all equal.”

Obviously unfazed by the fact that two former governors, Chief Felix Ibru and Ibori hail from their native Central district, the duo of Chief Great Ogboru and Senator Pius Ehwerido of the opposition Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) are said to be seriously warming up.

Ogboru has run in every governorship election in the state since 2007. This time around, it is not certain under which platform he will run. There are speculations that he may pitch his tent with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) instead of the DPP.

Aspirants from the South where Uduaghan is from are also warming up. The Minister of the Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe, is obviously still nursing his lifelong ambition of being the governor of the state.

If not for President Goodluck Jonathan’s bid in 2011, there is no doubt that Orubebe, a fellow Ijaw man, would have declared his intention. It is still hazy as to whether his boss’ second term dream will again stop him in 2015.

 TO the Igbo people of Aniomaland with nine Local Councils out of 25, it has been a long wait, almost 22 years after the creation of the state from the former Bendel State in July 1991. For the sake of equity, the zone should be next in line to produce the governor, as both Central and South senatorial districts have had it in the persons of Ibru and Ibori from Central and Uduaghan from the South.

Sometimes in 2011, shortly after the governorship election, Uduaghan tacitly threw his weight behind the Anioma Governorship Project; and when he recently advised them at rustic Onicha-Ugbo, Aniocha North Council, that they should be united to have a formidable strength to realise their political, cultural and economic aspirations, a group, Old Delta Province Stakeholders Forum (ODPSF), which comprises of the Urhobo, Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic nationalities, immediately rose up in arms against the declaration.

The ODPSF’s trio of Mr. Fegor Omokome, Peterson Umuajefe and Comrade Preye Brisibe said the governor had no right or power to decree where the next Chief Executive would come from, as there was no arrangement or understanding for the next governor to come from Anioma.

They said that the state was not the governor’s personal estate and so, whatever he said at Onicha-Ugbo was his personal opinion and could not be imposed on Deltans.

Their words: “We want to believe he (Uduaghan) did not mean what was credited to him. But if he actually wants it to be so, then he should be prepared for war. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which we all belong to, have (sic) no such understanding among the various constituencies. If PDP dares the might of the people, what happened in the last election in the state would be a dress rehearsal for more heart breaks.”

They warned that if the party makes the mistake of fielding the 2015 gubernatorial candidate of the party from Delta North, the resulting war would be too much for the sycophants to handle. “It is not the thinking of PDP in Delta State,” the statement said.

According to the group, Anioma should not start talking of producing the governor in 2015 because the old Delta Province has not recovered from the injustice of locating two state capitals in the old Benin Province, one in Benin City and the other in Asaba.

“If the people of the defunct Delta Province, which fought for the creation of Delta State, were cruelly denied the privilege of hosting the state capital, no power on earth can compel them to concede the governorship position to Delta North,” they added.

However, undeterred, another group, the Anioma Political Forum (APF) has vowed to pursue the aspiration to occupy Government House, Asaba in 2015 with all legitimate and civil political weapons, no matter whose ox is gored.

In a direct allusion to ODPSF, the APF secretary, Mr. Alex Onwuadiamu, insisted that a call for political war could not and would never deter the Anioma People from its legitimate aspiration for the governorship of Delta State, beating his chest that, “APF wishes to state unequivocally that it will support with all its might an aspirant of Anioma extraction to vie for the governorship of Delta State on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, come 2015.”

While warning the stakeholders and all political organisations to eschew rancour in their quest for relevance and attention in the political sphere, Onwuadiamu remarked that the Anioma People recognise Uduaghan as the leader of the ruling PDP in the state and by implication the political leader of Delta State.

The scribe argued that by so being, the governor has the inalienable right to offer political direction at all levels of our politics, saying all over Nigeria no ethnic nationality has ever been denied governorship on grounds of it hosting the state capital.

He said: “Whilst we lay claim to the governorship of Delta State come 2015, we recognise the fact that Delta State, being a multi-ethnic society, we shall at the appropriate time seek the understanding of other ethnic nationalities in Delta State in pursuance of our quest for the governorship of the state.”

AGAINST the backdrop of this cacophonous agitation for power shift to the Anioma people, three eminent Deltans waved a magic wand on how to actualise the dream.

Second Republic senator, Nosike Ikpo, a committed Awoist, advised that the Igbo-speaking people of Delta North must go all out to fight for power instead of sitting down and lamenting their plight.

Ikpo argued that in politics, people do everything politically correct to grab power and that power is not given because of sentiments, as the people of Delta North, which is the only district yet to occupy the governorship seat since the creation of the state in 19912, are wont to do.

“I have advised aspirants from Delta North, who came to seek my blessing, to take the battle to the other senatorial districts, as it is the only way to realise the dream of an Anioma governorship in 2015,” he said.

“Nobody willingly gives up power. We cannot sit in one place and continue to lament our plight. Appealing to sentiment will not help us but we should campaign hard in the other senatorial districts.”

A former member of the House of Representatives, Chief Paulinus Akpeki, told aspirants from Delta North to take the battle to the two other senatorial districts of Central and South, if they are actually desirous of clinching the governorship in 2015.

Akpeki, current Commissioner of Housing, recalled that former Governors Ibru and Ibori, both from Central and incumbent Governor Uduaghan were literally on their knees, campaigning from one district to the other during their time.

Akpeki, the Ugo of Okpe begged to sharply differ with Giwa-Amu, saying that a passionate appeal to other ethnic groups will not help, insisting that for any Anioma governorship candidate to be successful, he should be prepared to go cap in hand, wooing the other senatorial districts.

To Mrs. Theodora Gima-Amu, the former South-South Woman Leader of the PDP, for the sake of equity and fairplay, the other senatorial districts should concede the governorship to Delta North.

Culled from Guardian