By Charles Okogene
There is a saying in the part of the country where I come from that when banana peel is floating on top water, the person who peeled it is under the water.
Likewise, if a child jumps up and slap an elder, those who sent him are lurking around.
These sayings sure describes Senator Peter Nwaoboshi’s new offensive against the governor of Delta State, Sen (Dr.) Ifeanyi Okowa.
Surely those who are drumming for the senator to embark on this dangerous dance of shame are lurking around. They are in dark allays in the streets of Asaba, Warri and Abuja waiting for an opportuned time to move in and finish off Okowa’s political career that is on the rise.
Nwaoboshi
I called the recent attacked a new offensive because the no love lost relationship between the duo dates back to 2011; and here is how it all started.
In 2011 when The incumbent Governor of Delta State, Sen (Dr.) Ifeanyi Okowa, sought the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) to represent the good people of Delta North Senatorial District at the senate, one of the people he had to contend with was Chief Peter Nwaoboshi.
This was aside other fellow contestants like Mrs. Mariam Ali and others too inconsequential to mention here.
Nwaoboshi who was referred to then by his court of admirers and hailers as oracle, was the chairman of PDP in the state and Mariam was and is still the wife of Ahmadu Ali; Ali was the national chairman of PDP. Nwaoboshi was not only the longest serving chairman of the party in the state at that time; he was very powerful and influential, determining who gets what political position in the state. His words were law.
It was at that time that Okowa who has just resigned as the Secretary to the State Government of Delta, had thrown his political red cap into the Senatorial race. Mariam Ali was also in the race. Three times the primary to choose who gets PDP ticket to fly PDP flag at the senatorial election was conducted in Asaba, three times it was disrupted that year just because Okowa appeared to be coasting home to victory. From his body language and action, it was crystal clear that Nwaoboshi was disposed to supporting Mariam who was hurriedly given the chieftaincy title of Kpakpandu of Asaba.
During one of the primaries, some louts suspected to be Mariam’s supporters turn the venue of the primary into a shooting range shortly after her arrival in the company of Nwaoboshi into the venue. They let out a volley of bullets and everybody ran Helter skelter. Luckily, the bullet did not hit anyone and the election became inconclusive.
But what did Nwaoboshi who was the chairman of the party in the state and who witnessed the madness do? Nothing order than to fix a fresh date for the primary. Yet Okowa still carried the day.
Fast forward to 2015, Nwaoboshi was still the chairman of the party in the state and Okowa filed out again to succeed Uduaghan based on the unwritten rotation rule. Nwaoboshi had no choice but to side Okowa who was the most popular and experience candidate from Delta North having won a mock election conducted in the palace of Asagba of Asaba, Obi (Prof) Chike Edozien. Okowa defeated the likes of Olikeze Victor Ochei, his fellow Agborman, the late Sir Tony Obuh among others to win PDP’s ticket to contest the election which brought him to office in 2015.
While all these were playing out, Nwaoboshi was also neck deep in his struggle to win the party’s ticket to represent Delta North Senatorial District at the Senate; in fact, to succeed Okowa who was then the occupant of the position. Then, he, Nwaoboshi, had the likes of Ochei to contend with. Ochei had just resigned as the speaker of the state assembly following his misunderstanding with the then governor of the state Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan over a parcel of land a private school is sitting then and still sitting presently. The rest over the land will be another topic for another day. Ochei had also contested to secure the PDP ticket to seek election to govern the state alongside Okowa.
After a grueling campaign, horse trading and what have you, Nwaoboshi triumphed over Ochei with the backing of the likes of Okowa against Ochie whom it was alleged had extricate a promise from Okowa to back him because in the history of Delta, an Aniocha person has never represented Delta North at the Senate.
Ochei
In the past, it has been rotated among Ndokwa,. Oshimili and Ika people in the persons of the late Nosike Ikpo, (Oshimili, Ibusa like Nwaoboshi to be exact) who represented the senatorial district first on the platform of Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and later defected to the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Chief Patrick Osakwe (Ndokwa) PDP, Okowa (Ika) also of PDP. But for reasons best known to Okowa, he reneged on the said ‘promise’ and decided to back Nwaobshi as against Ochie whose Aniocha person has never been to the senate. Talk of maginalisation within the state. This angered Ochie and he defected to Accord Party. Secured the party’s ticket that year and contested the election and got a bloody nose from Nwaoboshi at the polls. Still bitter over the treatment, Ochie who started his political journey on the platform of United Nigerian People’s Party, UNPP, is today a strong member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with a comfortable appointment at NMASA.
In 2019 Nwaoboshi defeated another Aniocha man in the person of Hon. Ned Nwoko to secure PDP’s ticket to return to the senate a second time. With the massive support of PDP in the state, the government of Delta headed by Okowa, he won the 2019 election and was returned to the red chambers.
But today, how has Nwaoboshi treated Okowa order than to join those muddling the political water of Delta and heating up the polity over which senatorial district in the state succeeds Okowa in 2023. He has openly challenged Okowa in a statement that the governor of the state is for Delta Central (Urhobos) for their asking, credited to him by the media. Rather than go to Okowa privately to discuss the issue, he chose to say it in the market square. As if that was no enough, he told a political gathering in Asaba that since 1999 when partisan politics returned in Nigeria and that of all the governors that have govern the state, that Okowa’s performance is the worse.
And the party replied and slammed him a year suspension for anti-party activities.
As 2023 approaches and both men continues to roll their sleeves in readiness for the big political battle, Deltans are waiting with berthed breadth to see who carries the day.
Some people who are grounded in the political history of the district called Delta North, at least from 2015, would say, “Okowa armed or fetched the insect infested firewood in the person of Senator Nwaoboshi that wants to ‘kill or bite his political career to death.” To a section of them, the governor deserves what he is passing through in the hands of the senator. And to buttress their point, they alluded to 2015 general election to drive home their point that he nurtured the tiger he can no longer tame.
However, for those who know, it is doubtful if Nwaoboshi would have made it to the senate in 2015/19 without the massive support from Okowa against Ochie who was better loved by the voting youths and adults in Anioma land. But today, Nwaoboshi has forgotten all of that. He has pitched his tent with members of the opposition who have seen in him a willing tool to pull down Okowa on the altar of 2023. He is now everywhere in Anioma with his cohorts building massive support base in places like Ilah, Abbah Unor etc ahead 2023.
This article was written before Nwaoboshi’s defection to APC.
