Comrade Macaulay’s 2015 Bid A CURSORY glance at the power equation in Delta State reveal a startlingly remarkable political puzzle; and this is the glaring inequality in the distribution of the most juicy political appointments in the littoral state. As a matter of historical fact and figure, from the Western Region through the Midwestern Region, Midwestern State (later Bendel State) to Delta State, the Delta South Senatorial District has not had a taste of the office of Governor or Deputy Governor. The Pioneer Governor of Midwestern Region, Chief Jereton Mariere, hailed from Delta Central (1963 – 1966). The Premier of Midwestern Region (1963 – 66), Chief Dennis Osadebe was from Delta North. The Military Governor of Midwestern Region (1966 – 68) Maj – Gen David Ejoor was also from Delta Central. The Deputy Governor of Bendel State (1979 – 83), Chief Demas Akpore also had the same roots (Delta Central). And so did the Deputy Governors of 1983, Chief Patrick Odiete and Chief Ray Inije. The man who doubled as the Deputy Governor of both Bendel State and the state when it changed to Delta State, Chief John Dike Edozien, hailed from Delta North (1987 – 91). The First Executive Governor (1992 – 93), Chief Felix Ibru is from Delta Central, while his Deputy Chief Simeon Ebonka is from Delta North. Both the Second Executive Governor (1999 – 2007) Chief James Onanefe Ibori and His Deputy, Chief Benjamin Elue, are from Delta Central and Delta North, respectively. Thus, the conspicuous absence of the citation of Delta South happens to be a circumstantial evidence of the much–touted marginalisation of the Isokos Itsekiri and Ijaws of the Southern enclave, made all the more so as the southern communities allege to be the economic mainstay of the largely coastal state, allegedly contributing as much as 97.3% of the revenue accruable to the state. Deriving mainly from the foregoing, and perhaps naturally too, is the sentiment from the southern communities that, come 2015, there should be a distinct power shift from the Central and North towards the long – suffering South. Although despite the fact that this marginalisation seems to have been acknowledged and ventilated most unemphatically by politicians of the favoured divide, there seems to be no generalised assert to the methodology, or even the desirability of addressing the screaming anomaly in the forthcoming election year, especially considering the conflict interplayed by the great imperative bridging the yawning gap between the North, the Central and the South on the one hand and the greater need to ensure credibility of candidacy, on the other, thrown up by these convergent and divergent forces. As if all these were not enough, the issue of zoning, which the PDP through Chief Nwaobosi seen to have installed, but which even party members seem to continually bicker over, happens to be the last straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back, fuelling speculation as to who qualifies to occupy Government House Asaba next year. Yet, at the last count, as many as political titans of the state extraction, Mr. Tony Abah, Professor Sylvester Monye, Dr Festus Okubor, Chief Peter Okocha, Ambassador Gabriel Oyibode, Victor Ochei, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa and the Amazon, Dr. Ngozi Olejeme, all of the PDP, seemed to have primed their political guns in shooting for the coveted post. Even rumour has it that Comrade Onuozourie Macaulay, the articulate SSG, is expected to stake his claim in the make-or mar 2015 governorship election, possibly to be the incumbent’s Man Friday of continuity, or following in the foot step of his boss who was in government for long before becoming governor, first as a Commissioner for Conflict Resolution and later as SSG. It is actually in respect of this that I would love to ponder on the need to redress the injustice meted out to Delta South over the years. In a related development, it would certainly be interesting to explore the Macaulay option as a disquisition of the zoning formula of his party, especially on whether or not it ties in with the Uduaghan’s dynamics of visionary post-oil conceptualization of gubernatorial imagination and its adroit execution with a view to shoring up the state’s fortune in a potentially non-oil setting. To start with, the prospect of Comrade Macaulay emerging as Governor in 2015 is an inherently seductive and simultaneously logical one. It is pertinent, in principle, especially given the fact that the other contenders are relatively inexperienced. To start with, Macaulay has demonstrated that he is more of a brilliant, philosophical, issue-based administrator and political conceptualist, rather than a sentimental zoning – card – carrying demagogue expounding ethnic chauvinism and sectional jingoist rabble rousing. How do I mean? Had this brilliant ex-journalist been made of stuff other than the rational and the common-sensible, he would have been the one to latch up to the marginalisation and by that fact, zoning gambit offering a gubernatorial option foregrounded on extraneous and obtrusive geographical factors rather than on brilliant imagination tempered by proven capability. Others in his shoes would have demonstrated their desire by flying the sentimental kite sky – high. However, in expressing his position on zoning, published in the dailies, Macaulay exhibited the cognitive ability of the avant garde philosopher king, as he lambasted the primordial mindset, prefering effective statesmanship above all else, thus enlightening his older and more experienced party patriarchs in the process. Furthermore, Delta South needs to be compensated at last for the litany of errors of omission or commission that seemed to have deliberately passed up its nationals for the exalted posts of Governor and Deputy Governor. This expediency does not, however, have to sacrifice personality and merit on the altar of mere political equity and justice, which would have amounted to good cause without corresponding merit and situational relevance. However, where good cause meets merit, the ground is laid for a spectacular performance matrix. Now Delta South not only has a justified claim of being marginalised, it presently has a man who adequately fits the bill as a gubernatorial imperative for redress. Finally, and certainly most instructively, the much-publicized post-oil political engineering canvassed by Governor Uduaghan finds ready objectification in the cerebral personality of Comrade Macaulay who has over the years imbibed its essence and necessity from his boss. Mr. Gab Ejuwa, a journalist, wrote from Lagos
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 08:34:28 +0000
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