Eneduwa-George: We’re still doing post mortem to know what went wrong

… Obidents factor cannot be overlooked.

Austin Eneduwa-George is a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State. A committed party man that work assiduously to win the state for the President-elect at the just concluded presidential election.

Eneduwa

He spoke exclusively to Charles Okogene on the party ‘s fate at the March 18 elections and concluded that the party is still doing a post mortem to know why it lost the governorship poll.

Excerpt.

Now that the elections have been won and lost, lost in the state by your party, APC, what next for you?

Nothing special, we are still in the process of the post mortem to evaluate what went wrong,  what we didn’t do right, what factors were a hindrance. We definitely are going to need to overhaul the leadership body in all the wards for better repositioning. Surely, the struggle continues till we secure Delta State from the PDP

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From your own perspective, what do you think is responsible for the poor showing of your party after the impressive outing during the presidential election?

I honestly can’t say, hence I told you we are doing a post mortem to unravel all things.

APC got three senators during the presidential/NASS election  but lost the governorship to our surprise, what happened ?

That’s politics for you. It could swing in any direction. Sometimes it’s just a single factor that can truncate a two years planning. The Obidients factor can’t be overlooked either. Delta North is basically Igbo speaking and the tribal and religious factors introduced into this election had a thing or two to do with how votes went in Delta North, thereby reducing projected voting outcome.

Don’t you think that the in-fighting among Cairo Ojugboh, Lauretta Onochie and DSP Omo-Agege who was you governorship candidate might have been responsible for the poor showing of your party.

I honestly can’t say on any of the individuals. I don’t know the facts of any issue other than what I read in the social media just like you too. There can be disagreements even among siblings but that doesn’t mean the siblings would want to burn down the house. I still say, we are evaluating all that happened to arrive at a roadmap.

In 2015 you ran for the house of assembly to represent the good people of Aniocha South State Constituency but lost; why did you not try your luck again being more mature and experienced?

I didn’t bother mainly because I saw how things were tilting in the party and that didn’t so much encourage me then. If you recall, there were internal issues. We had two people laying claims to state chairmanship that we even ended up having two factions, two congresses with Prof Utomi on one side and Ogboru on the other side as gubernatorial candidates. That I felt wasn’t the best time for me to step forward

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You seemed to be well loved by citizens of communities that make up the constituency especially indigenes of Adonte whose road you had tried to fix with your personal fund, why did you not capitalise on that factor to throw your hat into the political arena again?

1. I’m glad to know I’m loved or rather appreciated. The people of Adonte in particular and other towns around the axis have shown me love from time to time, which I also  appreciate. There are many factors to consider before one decides to join a political race.
   I know better not to be swayed into assumptions as there are other towns that might not share same love for me
   Also the support they gave to our candidates in trust that we could do them better was overwhelming and we shall continue to strive to bring them democracy dividends.

Eneduwa

How much support did you render the president-elect, TInubu, during the campingn era?

Oh! I gave him 100%. I served in the Presidential Campaign Council of the party in the grassroots and enlightenment South South committee and served also as the secretary of the Delta State chapter of the committee. We worked assiduously to ensure victory for our presidential candidate with all that’s required from personal funds, sweat, time and all the campaign travels, canversing etc.

Eneduwa

Now that he is the president-elect, what are you expecting from him in that the last time Aniocha South person was a minister was during Jonathan time in the person of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iwuala? 

Eneduwa

We await the inauguration of our president- elect as the climax of all the efforts, then go back to my vocational business as we also continue to do party work as prescribed in the constitution.