How Obuh lost Delta PDP ticket to Okowa dna-nigeria/obuh-lost-delta-pdp-ticket-okowa-2/ How the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary election was contested, won and lost in Delta State on Monday, December 8, showed clearly that Sir Tony Chuks Obuh, a frontline aspirant in the race to succeed Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan in 2015 dabbled into unfamiliar terrain. No doubt, Obuh’s stylish entrance into the race on the platform of the ruling party unsettled a lot of key players in the state. It was, however, obvious about 24 hours to the contest that, outside being an ‘anointed’ candidate, Obuh lacks the political experience, know-how strength and even financial muscle to do the battle. Facts emerged shortly after he lost the party’s flag to Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, representing Delta North Senatorial District, that the way in which he turned the contest into a battle royale for other gladiators in the race, especially those from his Delta North Senatorial District, within the four months he expressed interest, ruffled weathers. It is no gainsaying that the Ika nation and the entire Ibo speaking axis of the state suddenly turned into a theatre of war after reports indicated that Obuh had Uduaghan’s backing, following the way the likes of Okowa, the former Speaker of the state’s House of Assembly, Hon. Victor Ochei, former presidential aide on Project Monitoring and Evaluation, Prof. Sylvester Monye, a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, former Chief of Staff to Governor Uduaghan, Dr. Festus Okubor and the former Acting Governor of the state, Hon. Sam Obi, who hails from Obuh’s senatorial district engaged him in campaigns of calumny after an enlarged meeting of aspirants in Chief Edwin Clark’s house in Abuja. Despite all odds, Obuh was unapologetically optimistic about coasting to victory both at the party’s primary and general election. He soon crashed out of the race. The assurance given by the powers that be in the state and other professional kite-flyers that he was the “Right Man at the Right Time” for the job soon failed him. The reality came when Okowa, popularly referred to as the Ekwueme of Delta North politics, in a fascinating manner, after he felt betrayed by Uduaghan whom he stepped down for in 2007, walked over Obuh and other aspirants at the keenly contested primary election to emerge as the flag bearer of his party. Okowa’s victory left no one in doubt that he (Obuh) banked on the political strength of Uduaghan. No wonder, the force with which he went about his consultations weakened after Uduaghan allegedly withdrew his political machinery from his campaign organisation. The action threw up David Edevie, an Urhoboborn former Commissioner for Finance, barely 48 hours to the contest. The delegates soon caught up with him and exploited the loophole by taking their destiny in their hands proving to him that “power belongs to God through them”. That was how the intricacy associated with partisan politics in the state played against him. His pedigree as a civil servant for 32 years could not save him from the claws of the hi-tech political plot of deft politicians in the state, who are mainly of former Governor James Onanefe Ibori’s camp. The party’s South-South zone chairman, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, who would have been a threat to Okowa’s political strength because of his face-off with Okowa over who is the political leader of Ika nation, and an added advantage to Obuh’s aspiration, has since been compensated with a national office. Obuh, who relied on the agelong structure of Ibori, which was supposed to be in the hands of the incumbent governor, his supposed godfather, whom he worked with as Permanent Secretary for over 10 years until he retired four months ago, could not read the hand-writing on the wall. It dawned on him with his poor outing at exactly 10:10p.m. on the night of the primaries when Hon. Steve Karimi declared Okowa winner of the contest having scored 406, against Obuh’s 05. Besides, Okowa overran Obuh because the delegates were tired of politics of godfatherism. The delegates were also disappointed by the contradictory way the governor was dancing round the aspirants, especially the weight he eventually threw behind Edevie from Delta Central. “We know why we voted Okowa. We cannot imagine the governorship seat returning to Delta Central after James Ibori from the district was the governor for eight years. So, within us, we rejected the directive to give support to an Urhobo man becoming governor again for another eight years. So, in protest we cast our votes for a man (Okowa) who has been part and parcel of the successes recorded in the party in the state since 1999,” a delegate told the New Telegraph. Uduaghan has since congratulated Okowa, urging him to work with his co-contestants.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 19:45:08 +0000
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