In spite of the Delta State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC), cantankerous state of affairs occasioned by the fallout of the party’s governorship primary at which two prominent sons of the state, Hon Victor Ochei, who was one time the number three citizen of the state by virtue of the speakership position of the state house of assembly he once occupied and the erudite economist, Professor Pat Utomi, failed to get the party’s governorship ticket and the court case Ochei instituted against the party as a result of the way the primary was conducted, the party is growing in leaps and bounds in Delta South Senatorial District.
The party’s popularity in the district, which is made up of Isoko, Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic nationalities, is not because they believe that the party, through its members, will take the nationalities to their promised land.
No. Their new found love for APC, this writer, gathered is predicated on the equity slogan that gained currency in the days of Chief James Ibori as the governor of the state and on whose wings both Uduaghan and Okowa emerged as the governors of the state.
While both Delta central and north have embraced it in deciding who represents the districts particularly at the senate, such is not the case in Delta South where the Ijaw ethic nationality, through Chief James Manager, seem to believe that it has the monopoly of representing the district at the Sentate.
Except for 1999 when Chief Stella Omu, an Isoko daughter, who represented the area at the red chambers from 1999 to 2003 and vacated the seat for Senator Manager, it has been Ijaw nation all the way till date and may continue in 2019, as the ruling party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has handed its ticket once again to Manager to continue in office; that is if he wins the February 2019 general elections
Though, there is no limit to how many times a man/woman can represent his/her district at the Senate, those behind the idea, equity in the state, particularly Chief Ibori, had fashioned it out as a panacea to the unending bickering that usually arise in the state as to how those who are elected to contest for elective offices in the state are selected. And from 2003 till date, it (equity) had worked very well in almost all parts of the state.
However, the peace and tranquility, which the concept of equity had engendered for years, is about to be disrupted – no thanks to Manager’s insistence in returning to the Senate for a record four terms; and if that happens, he would have succeeded in representing the people of the area at the senate for 16 years.
On the contrary, Uduaghan, the immediate past governor of the state who is an Itsekiri son, is poised not to allow that to happen. He is prepared, ready to wrestle power from Manager and majority of his Itsekiri people including some of the people of Isoko ethnic nationality, are in agreement with him.
One of the reasons they – Itsekiri and Isoko – are quequing behind him is not because he did wonderfully well as a governor or that they believe that he will give them purposeful representation better than what Manager has done, but because Itsekiri nation has been marginalised as far as the issue of who represents the district at the Senate is concerned.
And in the words of an Itsekiri native who gave his name simply as Omawunmi, “we are not supporting Uduaghan just because he is an Itsekiri son. No, we are supporting him because of the injustice PDP is meting out to us. In a multi-ethnic senatorial district like ours, how can one man arrogate to himself the right to represent us at the Senate? How can he monopolise that. If it is a tenured post would he still be there? And as if adding salt to injury, PDP, keeps giving him ticket, that is indirectly telling us that we do not matter.
“We are also supporting Uduaghan because he is, for now, the only Itsekiri man capable of giving Manager a run for his money at the polls next year.”
The fact that Itsekiri nation is the only ethnic divide in the district that has not been to the Senate is another factor that is working in favour of Uduaghan who only recently defected to the APC. The people of the district are said to be tired of seeing docile Manager as their senator and are of the opinion that if he had done one term like Omu, the rotation would have gone round to Isoko where it all started in 1999 but that Manager’s refusal to vacate the seat, is constituting a clog in the wheel of equity.
Another point that may work for Uduaghan despite the series of defections by APC members in all parts of the state to PDP, the most recent one at Ndokwa area of the state in Delta North Senatorial District, is the growing popularity of APC in the area. The party’s popularity soared after the defection of Uduaghan from PDP to APC and described himself as John The Baptist.
His knowledge of where all the dead bodies are buried as far as election in the area, especially the riverine areas of the district is a plus for him. It would be recalled that Uduaghan had relied on votes from the riverine areas of the state to win elections a record three times and may still bank on votes from the area to snatch power from Manager.
All his foot soldiers like … Macaulay, his the former Secretary to the State Government (SSG), the former Delta State internal revenue boss, Joel Onowakpor, who is from Isoko and also contesting for the House of Representatives to oust Hon. Leo Ogor, another sit-tight NASS member are still there working for him in Isoko land.
However, while all the above looks good for Uduaghan, the PDP is not unmindful of that.
In Ijaw land, he will have Manager to contend with and if push comes to shove, the Ijaws might go for their brother. In Isoko, Ogor, is ready and well armed with all the war chess to dig it out with his former governor. Both Manager and Ogor, are also well versed in the act of winning votes in the riverine area of the district because they were there when Uduaghan triumphed three times in the governorship elections.
On paper, the odds favour Uduaghan to defeat manager at polls.
