GREAT EXPECTATIONS FOR 2015 GUBERNATORIAL POLLS

Willy Bee Bozimo, a veteran journalist believes the gubernitorial election for 2015 in Delta State is not about to follow a new pattern in selecting the canditate for the Office of the Governor… 

Effectively, while Nigerians ‘are being treated to speculations in some national media with front page screaming headline telling readers –OBJ, JONATHAN SCRAMBLE FOR NORTHERN GOVERNORS, WITH SOME RIDERS- Sambo entangled in battle for the soul of the North, with two northern governors eyeing vice president’s position and mobilizing for Jonathan as OBJ also canvassing for the return of the presidency to the North during the condolence visit to Kaduna state late Governor’s wife.

What concerns this columnist is the alignments for the governorship ticket of Delta state in 2015. Most Deltans are equally persuaded that the 2015 governor ought to come from the Anioma area of Delta.    The misgivings in the minds of political watchers in the state are currently upping their alignments and   with everything remaining equal, the position of deputy governorship slot has been earmarked for Delta south while the speakership slot, if the Central failed to reach a consensus who to present for the contest for the plum job would grudgingly settle for the Speakership of the DTHA in 2015.

A few PDP members in the Assembly are already positioning themselves for the Speakership seat, with the Majority leader Chief Monday Igbuya, from Sapele as the front runner, with Talib Tebite from Ughelli South as a possible contender for the prestigious Speakership slot in 2015. They are the visible pdp Assembly members who retained their positions in the 2011 elections.

The situation in the Central senatorial district was such that  the main opposition party – the DPP almost cleared all the assembly seats  so it has become fairly difficult t for the first term DPP members to want to upstage the older members  of the ruling party- PDP for possible consideration for the Speakership  window.

If all the calculations for the Deputy Governorship position remains as I had predicted   in my earlier postulations in 2012, the roll call for that seat is likely to be contested for by the current secretary to the state government, Comrade Ovuozorie Macaulay, from the Isoko axis, with formidable support from his people and his influence across the three senatorial zones, with his Labour union days as a miracle worker for the government of the day. He is credible and quite solid like Olumo Rock. No words had been heard from his stable yet but his body language is suggestive of a possible candidate for the position of Deputy Governor in 2015.

Other contenders  have not given one any signs that they  are likely to run for the post except until the eleventh hour when some of them who had wanted to be governorship aspirants in 2015 decided again to step down  for the number slot in 2015.

One has in mind names like Senator James Manager, Godsdey Orubebe or Nicholas Mutu, who is winding down his fourth term members of the House of Representatives representing Bomadi and Patani federal constituency.

Coming to the main Delta jackpot Governorship for 2015, a few contenders and pretenders, from within and outside the state are rumoured to be scheming. The pattern in the last 13 years or so had been for the PDP to pick insiders of government at whatever levels to run for the ticket. In 2007, as the former governor James Ibori was about to wind down, he carefully looked at the PDP members within the government of the day and settled for insiders for purposes of continuity of programmes and projects. At the back of his mind, he felt an Ovie Omo Agege, his former Executive Assistant or an Emmanuel Uduaghan his former Commissioner for Health would fit the bill. At the end of the day a lot of candidates turned up for the primaries at Ogwashi-Uku- numbering 15 in all.

They cut across the three senatorial zones   and as documented in my BOOK FROM UDUAGHAN CAMPAIGN TRAIL, published in 2009 by Sky Communications Limited. From Delta south, we had the incumbent Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, scored 2,448 votes; Mr. Albert Okumagba scored 50 votes; Young Daniel Igbrude scored 39 votes- all from Delta south.

From the Central, we had  Chief Ovie Omo Agege- scored 951 votes; Barrister Pius Ewherido scored 807 votes; Barrister Ufuoma  Obule 176 votes, Olorogun Ortega Emerho 76 votes; Chief Napoleon Gbinije 20 votes, K3enneth Gbagi 4 votes; and Olorogun Oscar Ibru 3 votes. And from Delta North or Anioma, we had Dr. Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, 1,142 votes he came second to Dr. Uduaghan; Dr. Cairo Ojougbou 280 votes; Prof. Andrew Oditah 19 votes and Mrs Ngozi Ilojeme 7 votes.

From the pattern so established, we discovered that Dr. Uduaghan, a former commissioner emerged with the highest votes- 2,448. And he was given the PDP ticket. Times seemed to have changed and with a lot of water flowing under the bridge. The contenders for 2015 will still come from within the state’s political circle referred to as ‘Insiders’ as against the ‘Outsiders’ essentially those based in Abuja.

The candidates who lost out in the 2007 gubernatorial primaries seem still alive and kicking, especially, from the Anioma axis. The main contender from the 2007 governorship primaries, who seemed poised for another crack at the plum job, is Dr. Arthur Okowa, two times commissioner under Ibori and Uduaghan- of Afgricluture and Natural Resources and Health ministries. He rounded off his public appointments as the Secretary to the Delta state government before he made a triumphant bid for the Senate in 2011.

They call him Ekwueme and also a popular grassroots politician from the IKA NATION.  He took over from where Senator Patrick Osakwe left after three times as senator representing the Anioma area of Delta. He is a worthy contender for the gubernatorial battle in 2015 if he so desires. The choice is either he would want to go for two more terms as Senator in Abuja or return home to vie for government house in Asaba.  It is tricky. Many poll watchers believed he lost his best governorship chance in 2007 when he came second to Dr. Uduaghan at the Ogwashi-Uku primaries and if he had gone for a rerun if the duo of Okowa and Cairo Ojougbou were not disqualified by the PDP national headquarters. That is neither here nor there.

The other candidate of clout in  Delta north today seemed to point at the direction of the Speaker of the  Delta State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Victor Onyeakachi Ochei, a third termer in the DTHA from Aniocha- North. An Engineer, whose political trajectory has been powered over the years, first as a businessman and philanthropist with a liberal disposition, looking well – built and robust and had piloted the state Assembly as a practical businessman and political strategist, and from all indications, the Legislature under him   has had an exemplary working relationship with the Executive arm of government under Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan. With this kind of rapport in these dragon- ridden days of kidnappers, floods and political noise makers, who see nothing good in the present dispensation, Speaker Ochei, during the annual lecture series of the DTHA had spoken well of the Governor and even went ahead to say that with the kind of Governor in Dr. Uduaghan, the state might be hard put to call for the independence of the Legislature.

The mutuality of respect that exists between the Executive and the Legislature has   been so beneficial to both arms that he would love it to continue as partners in progress. It is not yet known if he would contest but from the whispers from within his camp seem to indicate that come 2015, an Ochei, the Olikeze of Onicha- Onolo, a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers [FNSE] and a lawyer in the making, as he has already started the final lectures at the Law School in Enugu, he wants to be as formidable in terms of his credentials for the plum job in 2015.

It has always been the  culture of out- going incumbent Governors not to impose any candidate on the party but  from the several addresses Governor Uduaghan had given to Anioma political stake-holders, the nearest he had told them is for them to be united and speak with one voice. Without unity in their ranks they could well sacrifice their dreams on the altar of   personal greed and mutual backstabbing. The governor may not necessarily know who will take over from him but I can bet my life that he knows clearly all those who will not take over from him.

Any candidate who will not continue with the legacy of peace and prosperity of Dr. Uduaghan’s vision might find it difficult to earn his support in what ever form.   I know that Delta has a surfeit of bright and intelligent politicians, who can steer the state into a safe harbour in 2015. If Delta north allows disunity to dog their steps and they throw spanners in the gubernatorial ambition of their people in 2015, they may be vicariously responsible for the change of baton go the way of the Central senatorial zone that are prepared to put their all into wrenching the gubernatorial baton from the people of Anioma. Next week, contenders from the Central are determined to call the bluff of the Anioma Great expectations for 2015 gubernatorial polls.

Culled from Daily Independent