HOW THE PDP CAPITULATED IN DELTA

Basil Okoh

MaTaZ ArIsInG
Dallas, Texas

The irony seemed lost on Ifeanyi Okowa and Sheriff Oborevwori as they celebrated in Asaba yesterday. That they, sitting governor of Delta state along with the ex-governor and leading member of the PDP, the ruling party in Delta state for 26 years, had just by themselves, announced a capitulation to the opposition party APC in a grotesque celebration of defeat and shame. But somehow, without shame or regret, they turned defeat into a joyful celebration.

We have always known that these politicians in Delta state are worth far less than they make themselves to be and less than people’s estimations of them, that they stand for nothing and always fall for anything, have no sense of dignity or self worth. That they would engage in any self abnegation to stay put in politics, to serve nobody else but their own hedonistic predilections.

Yesterday’s announcement of the desertion of the entire membership of PDP in Delta state into APC was a tectonic shift in Delta politics. But it was not unexpected with the drip by drip decampment of the members of PDP since last year into APC. But the shift was not to bring any benefits in new thinking or ideas for development but to bring shame and political disruption to the state.

It was an announcement that showed all of us that for all the years of grandstanding and fatuous pretensions in the state, PDP stood for nothing and had no value to offer the state, the entire party edifice was as vacuous as empty drums left out in the rains to gather rainwater to fill its emptiness. It had nothing and meant nothing, only the personages were seen in fancy suits and agbada, strutting gilded offices and conference halls.

For over six months, Governor Sheriff was running helter-skelter, chasing president Tinubu everywhere, begging for permission to declare his membership of APC and ready to accept any humbling conditions thrown at him. And Tinubu who likes to play God, finally obliged him, with conditions that would make a grown man cry.

With the permission to defect finally given, Sheriff Oborevwori wasted no time to become the first sitting governor in Nigerian history to accept humiliating conditions imposed on him to defect to an opposition party.

Ifeanyi Okowa also became the first ex-governor to reverse the role of Godfather to godson of Sheriff Oborevwori. Sheriff is now the godfather and Okowa the godson, having led Okowa to defect to the opposition party and having made Okowa to depend on him to loosen a tightening noose from EFCC around his neck.

Okowa did not even secure any guaranty from EFCC of none prosecution in his fraud case at DESOPADEC. Tinubu did not offer any concessions to not prosecute him in the future for the theft of state funds and illegal borrowings to fund the presidential campaign of Atiku Abubakar in 2023. In fact APC dictated all the conditions for defection and PDP accepted all. A beggar indeed has no choice.

The very act of mass defection of PDP into APC is set to divide APC itself into more and deeper factions. Festus Keyamo took on the cause to have governor Sheriff defect to APC to save himself the shame of being unable to muster the popularity of standing for the governorship primaries and election himself. He had started the effort by publishing online seeking volunteer street activators. But the effort fizzled.

The whole point of rooting for Sheriff’s defection to APC was to stop the strong Ovie Omo-Agege from emerging as candidate of APC and winning the governorship election in the state. Ovie’s governorship victory would have upended the entire elite structure in the state. And they knew it. Ovie Omo-Agege was the front-runner by a long mile in the race to clinch the ticket and emerge as the governorship candidate of APC. Ovie also had the firm grip and control of the party machinery.

Unable to weaken or break Ovie’s firm grip on the party structure, Festus Keyamo, Omeni Sobotie (APC Party Chairman, Joel Onowakpo Thomas (senator), Stella Okotete (NEXIM Bank), Ede Dafinone (senator), Francis Waive (House of Reps.), Doris Uboh and other core members of the “Leadership Council” of APC began to look for outside help to undermine Omo-Agege and stop him from being the governorship candidate of APC, which he was in the last election.

They found a listening ear in President Tinubu who was planning a Southern coalition of his own to firm up his chances of meeting the emerging challenge from Northern politicians who are doing what they can to block his chances in the core North for the 2027 election. The council of leaders bad-mouthed Ovie Omo-Agege so heavily to Tinubu, citing his support for Lawan in the last presidential primaries.

So while Tinubu was thinking to survive the opposition onslaught from the core North, opportunity presented itself in Delta state for imposing his will and railroading every politician in the state into one bumper APC party to serve his presidential election purpose. He saw enthusiasm from PDP to his wish and quick acceptance from the Keyamo faction of the APC who had been rooting for Sheriff.

When later, one of his wild eyed aides suggested the idea of the one party state in the entire South as a means of guaranteeing voting for his unpopular presidency, Tinubu quickly snatched the idea and ran with it. He began earnestly planning for it, quickly roping the entire Niger Delta states and the Southeast into the rudimentary framework.

So it is necessary to remember that the leadership council of APC promoted by Festus Keyamo and his group, which was shot down and rejected by the APC National Working Committee, was ostensibly formed to counter Ovie Omo-Agege’s overweening influence and grip on APC foundational structure and wrestle the control of that structure from him.

So Ovie Omo-Agege who sweated profusely to build this structure and invited neophyte politicians like Ede Dafinone, PDP defector Onowakpo Thomas and many others, to benefit from this structure. He has now been shunted aside for Sheriff to inherit a party structure he did not build and for PDP to escape the defeat and death that awaited it in 2027. But we must all be mindful that this is a developing story and the beginning of an epochal development and that the final outcome may be radically different from what we know now. It’s early days yet.

PDP was a long running scam in Delta state

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