By Abraham Ogbodo
Delta State politics follows a pattern. It is a turn-by-turn arrangement to ensure that the governorship of the State follows equity. And equity here, requires the number one political office in the state to sequentially swing to and remain in each of the three senatorial districts for eight years in the first instance. It started with the Central Senatorial District in 1999, and then shifted South, after eight years, in 2007. The rounds were completed when the governorship moved to the North Senatorial District in 2015, causing it to return to the starting point, the Central, in 2023.
This seemingly equitable arrangement was put in place by Chief James Onanefe Ibori, who was governor between 1999 and 2007. He is from Central, which is exclusively populated by the Urhobo. He might have reasoned that without this measure of affirmation, the contest for the high office among the many ethnic nationalities in the state would be cut-throat. After him came Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, an Itsekiri, from the South Senatorial District who also enjoyed a full measure of eight years, from 2007 to 2015. Dr. Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, who represented the North, had it full too, from 2015 to 2023.
In conception and implementation, the idea was beautiful. It is still beautiful. But it remains an arrangement by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which others have found useful too. When Ibori desired it in 1999, not too many people were convinced about the sincerity of purpose of the originator. The acceptance was not wholesale. It was largely seen as some gimmick by the Urhobo-born contender to appear nice to other ethnic stakeholders in the short run but with a hidden desire to consolidate in the long run and exclude other groups from accessing the State House Asaba.
Even when the governorship went South in 2007 after Ibori, there were still doubts. The geography and demography of the South and Central Senatorial zones appear too intertwined to inspire confidence. The composition of the South Senatorial zone that limits the occupants to Itsekiri, Ijaw and Isoko (The Three Is) is only for political convenience. In reality, the Urhobo who exclusively occupy the Central are still in the South and could share in the zone’s gains and pains. Everything, therefore, had depended on Ibori, who was the subjective factor in the equation, to play fair and make the governorship to move to the South senatorial district and outside the reach of another Urhobo man. In the build-up, the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) under the leadership of late King Benjamin Okumagba, wanted the governorship to remain with the Urhobo after Ibori.
On the surface, the move to retain the number one seat, after eight unbroken years, was selfish. In context, however, it was a legitimate quest by the Urhobo. And here is the context. The choice of Asaba, which was not part of the original Delta Province, as headquarters, when Delta State was created in 1991 was considered most insensitive by the Urhobo who are the majority ethnic nationality in the state. While it was jubilation in Anioma, the lamentation in the actual Delta enclave was deep. In a larger section of the newly created state, there was a strong feeling of betrayal of a legitimate hope by the Nigerian State. Outside pretences and attempts to be correct by current political actors, the real issues in Delta politics, even now, are woven around the naming of the headquarters when the state was created.
The Urhobo, and by extension, groups in the old Delta Province, saw and perhaps still see this as an injustice that can only be assuaged by the continued retention of the governorship by them. Under this situation, good politics in Delta State has meant a delicate balancing of interests and feelings to create a consensus on Asaba as State Capital. This was why Ibori’s call for bridge building at the very beginning in 1999 was taken with a pinch of salt. Elements in the North thought he was only buying time to consolidate. His succession politics did not help matters also. Having an Uduaghan immediately after an Ibori looked more like power transmission than it looked like power transition. James Ibori and Emmanuel Uduaghan grew up under the same roof in Oghara, Delta State. Dr. Okowa had hoped to follow Ibori, but he was told to tarry for Uduaghan to come first.
Thus, the real test of the Delta-For-All campaign of Chief Ibori was in 2015 when it became the turn of the North to have the governorship in addition to the headquarters. A kind of double Northern portion that might have proved difficult to swallow by the Central and South, even 24 years after the creation of Delta State. All the same, it was agreed in principle to move the governorship to the North. The only indeterminate factor became the person to have it among the Northern hopefuls. The then incumbent Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan was holding too much to his chest. In the circumstance, Okowa, who stood strong in the Anioma line-up, had appeared completely exposed and vulnerable. A not-so-enthusiastic Uduaghan was playing a number of variables against Okowa as a fixed factor of an Anioma united front. First, it was Mr Anthony Chuks Obuh, Permanent Secretary in the Government House and confidant of Uduaghan. Obuh had hoped for a smooth transition from the civil service to the ultimate political seat in the state.
When he failed, there was a radical back-pedalling to the Central Senatorial zone by Governor Uduaghan to throw up Mr. David Edevbie as a preferred candidate. Truth be told, it was one unique instance that the PDP in the State showed good character. Ibori refused to be persuaded by arguments to abort the power rotation principle of the party even when things looked good for him with the option of a David Edevbie. From his prison cell in the United Kingdom, he gave an order for Okowa to be returned in the PDP primary to choose the candidate for the 2015 governorship election in Delta State. Other forces, including the respectable Prof. Sam Oyovbaire and the Field Marshall of the creeks, Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, joined to work victory for Okowa in the PDP primary. He won in the general elections.
Like an elephant, Okowa did not forget the near-political death experience he had with David Edevbie in 2015. He only pretended to have forgiven. He even proved magnanimous in victory. Edevbie was his Chief of Staff for four years. When the pendulum, however, returned to Delta Central in 2023, it became payback time for Senator Ifeanyi Okowa. David Edevbie was among the options on the succession chart. He opposed, till the end, the candidature of Edevbie against mainstream thinking in Urhobo land and in spite of the declared preference for Edevbie by the Grand Master, Chief James Ibori. Okowa had his way.
While taking out his pound of flesh, Okowa inadvertently infused an unintended dimension into the power game in the state. The governorship, which had hitherto remained on a pseudo aristocratic pedestal, was taken down and placed on the street for good effect. The favoured Sheriff Oborevwori, former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, entered with a baggage. He was tagged an ill-cultivated street boy. He was therefore under tremendous pressure to prove that he had brought so much from the street to bear on governance at that level. What appeared as a disadvantage has been converted in the last two years to a unique selling point. His ability to walk through the political landmines and create his own safe paths without occasioning any explosion or implosion has been attributed to his street wisdom. The resistance that attended his emergence is not showing in unnecessary street quarrels with perceived enemies. He has chosen working over walking in the streets. The former is engagement, while the latter is idleness that breeds quarrels. I may not be able to speak across the board. But in my part of the State, which is the Ughelli/Warri area, Sheriff has been working in the street. I am talking as a reporter and not as a street gossip.
Something else has attended the politics of the state. The understanding to move the governorship among the three senatorial zones does not mean suspension of Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. This section guarantees freedom of association, including freedom, to operate a political party to capture power. The power rotation thing is a gentleman’s agreement in the first place. It is not enforceable, and a breach does not avail the injured party remedies at the wider common law or Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence. Which is why in each electoral season, the contest is never restricted to only the zone to produce the governor. It has been open bidding in which the underlying dynamics only help to streamline choices in a direction. It is not going to be different in 2027. It remains the turn of the central quite alright, but candidates from the other two zones will effectively bid for the office too.
There could be upsets, and heavens will not fall. In other words, the headwinds are real, and there is absolute need for caution. It is just that the incumbent, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, true to his name, already has some things in his kitty. Oborevwori means ‘’ a bird in hand …” “ What is yours .” “ Asset .” And there are three key assets, which, if properly harnessed, could create the tailwinds for the incumbent in 2027. First is that most of his opponents shall come from within Delta Central. Here is the advantage. Changing him midstream for another Urhobo man is too much of a gamble to be allowed by other groups. The new man may insist on the full measure of eight years, thereby holding back the governorship from moving to the next zone in 2031. That is like dashing the Central extra four years. The next zone in turn will be too itchy to play that Father Christmas. Two, the wholesale defection of the PDP, aptly captured as migration, has taken out the real area of conflict. Governor Oborevwori only needs to play the intra-party game to become inevitable in the APC’s choice of candidate for the state governorship election in 2027.
But the real joker against possible upsets is in how much more that Sheriff is able to discharge his street profits in the remaining part of his tenure. He has been identified with the streets and leaving the streets for the luxury of power lounges may spell doom for his second coming. He will lose all the accumulated political capital and street credibility and become insolvent and an electoral liability. He cannot allow this to happen. While the mandate renewal politics is important, the Governor must remain intentional. He is the sole proponent of the Street Credibility theory in Nigerian politics. It is an emerging adventure that must not turn to a misadventure. He must display the courage of his conviction and continue to choose working in the street over walking in the street. Going forward, the Governor should create the right team for more scintillating street spectacles in the months ahead. It is the only way to guarantee 2027.
