AS DELTA GOVERNOR SHERIFF OBOREVWORI SUCCEEDS TO BE TAKEN INTO APC

Basil Okoh

MaTaZ ArIsInG
Dallas, Texas

“May we not die because so many are dying”

The quote above is an Agbor prayer for the challenged and the unwell. We do not surrender to suffering or death just because so many are suffering or dying. And that is exactly what PDP in Delta stat is wishing their governor of Delta state to do, defect to APC because governors of the South-South and other states are surrendering to APC in order to win a second tenure and remain in office.

After the Edo election experience, APC has wrestled politicians in our region into a corner and is now presenting itself as the guarantor of political survival for South-South governors and politicians, offering them a seeming carte blanche guarantee for second tenure, even without the voters say so. Many of them without belief or principles have swallowed this spin, conveniently forgetting that Bola Tinubu himself was once in the situation that they find themselves now but fought his way out to build the APC ruling party of today.

APC is not acknowledging that the political dynamics in every state in the Southern region are different. Cross River already has APC as the governing party, so the question does not arise of anyone forcing a defection on the governor of Cross River. Akwa Ibom is a peculiar case. It is a staunch PDP state, ruled by PDP since the beginning of the fourth Republic in 1999. Governor Godswill Akpabio was charged to court by EFCC for massive fraud during his tenure as governor of Akwa Ibom state (2007 -2014). To head off a long jail term, even as a senator, he defected to the ruling party APC. APC hierarchy then intervened to pacify the EFCC and the case has since been put in limbo. Akpabio is now selling the entire Akwa Ibom state to APC to keep heading off prosecution for his alleged theft of state funds.

In Rivers state, the reigning governor Siminnalayi Fubara has been bludgeoned into submission by the former Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike with the collaboration of APC Federal government. Now suffering an illegal suspension as governor, he is being steamrolled to defect to APC for his personal survival as governor. But no one can trust how the mind of this man of deep thoughts and intrigue works. By declaring for the APC, he has defeated Wike in his own game and earned the right to President Tinubu’s direct protection from Wike.

Bayelsa, the smallest state in the region remains solidly in the corner of the PDP and the governor seems untroubled by the turmoil in other states around him. Governor Diri is so self assured and does not appear to be a man that can be bamboozled and turned easily.

The former PDP Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has been crowded out of the government House Benin and an APC governor installed by Adams Oshiomhole’s avenging mob. Obaseki’s ambition to install a PDP governor has literally met the rocks, ruined by the APC capacity to mobilize a potent mob to teach Obaseki that there is only but a thin line separating democracy and mob action. Edo State by law and by fact is now an APC state.

Delta state politics encapsulates the mystery of the seven headed devil and comes complete with its herd mentality known by the local name of “follow who know road”. There are no principles, no policies, no likes or dislikes, no pretensions and no shame in Delta politics. You just follow who knows the way and make money. Money is the overriding object of Delta Politics. The man who pays money takes the crowd. For the 26 years of the fourth Republic, PDP has been paying good money under the principle of “PDP, share the money”. Everything went well until Okowa became governor and started playing coy with the money.

While he was in a frenzy to enrich his own family members, he started distancing the party men and women he didn’t like and the ones who had a mind of their own. And then he decided to force on the party, someone they didn’t like to become the governorship candidate. He chose big biceps and a reputation of brigandage for governor, instead of brains and bravery. He didn’t know that big biceps does not make a strong man. He wasted N63 billion of state funds to make a street enforcer governor of the state.

And now the well crafted succession plan has gone awry before midway into the tenure. PDP in the state is bleeding members to APC. And without brains or a cerebral advisory council to help him, Humpty Dumpty cannot put together a viable plan for resurgence. Big biceps has capitulated and decided on a race to APC before other defectors take all the good places.

No thanks for Wike’s vice-grip and the reigning dissonance in PDP, Tinubu’s gambit to seize the South-South states for the 2027 elections is now the reigning agenda. In the reckoning of Tinubu and APC, voters don’t really count, only the governors, senator and federal House members bring in election results. They are the ones who pay the required fees and get INEC to write the needed results.

But then, if we must face it, the fact that governors of the South-South are being railroaded into pledging allegiance and joining APC does not guarantee the votes of the unwilling masses for the candidates of APC across the South-South. Popular candidates win elections, not party membership. It is sheer futility to presume the loyalty of the regions electorate just because governors and senators have fallen to blackmail. Wrong. let’s not get lost in idealism, Tinubu and APC have their own thinking on the 2027 elections and it does not factor in a fair contest.

We also know that even the fact that APC has earned hatred and opprobrium across the entire nation does not preclude the party from being declared winner of elections by INEC willy nilly. Elections are mostly won here by money and power and a hold on the judges, not only by votes. APC has money, power and a strong hold on the judges.

For Sheriff, governor of Delta state, nobody is railroading him to join APC. He is the one begging to join and has been running, chasing Tinubu to Aso Villa and to France, begging to join the APC. He has been stung by the bees of failure in his own state and is seeing failure staring him boldly in the face, so he is running on his own, begging to be let into APC. The man lost his mojo long before the big dance started.

He was faced with the task of remolding PDP in the state after his imposition and victory as governorship candidate of the PDP. He could not however stop the membership hemorrhage that followed which would have helped him win the next election. He had not the intelligence and sagaciyy to get the party together again. The fight he was faced with was for the intelligent and the brave, not for big biceps or brawn. And so he was defeated by his own lack of ideas on what to do to solidify his rule. His crying lack of political ideals and the lack of the power of speech to whip the members together again did not help his situation.

So his fear of failure in a dying PDP Delta, is the reason why he is running away to APC. He wants to escape to a party made ready by another group. The prognosis is that from whichever party Sheriff runs, he has lost his mojo, his self respect and assurance even as a sitting governor. He cannot get back the confidence and psychological standing to campaign and win governorship election anymore in Delta state.

His desperation and lack of dignity in the pursuit of second tenure without rebuilding his own PDP base, has destroyed his political standing and undermined his ambition, to the point now that from whichever party he runs, he will lose because self doubt has defeated his confidence and lack of will and principles. He could not conjure the decency of waiting for APC to come for him. Instead, he was flailing and ran to the president in desperation, bribing presidential aides to get audience and to plead his cause.

When a Commander runs from the battlefield even before the guns start booming, you don’t begin to ask if he is a coward. Battles are not won by the size of your biceps but by your wits and bravery, your willpower to take on challenges. If you don’t have these, nobody needs tell you to run. You see, Sheriff’s godfather Okowa will no longer be there to rouse the base, so without his Oga, the man runs. Even for Okowa who will likely end up in the crypt, Tinubu has brought in a new audacious gambit of wanting to forcefully take the entire South-South by force. For his protégé, engagement and communication in the public arena now will not be the same experience as pounding a hassled taxi driver at Refinery Junction in Ekpan.
@basilokoh.

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