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Paul Osuyi, Asaba
GOVERNOR Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State may not have a tough battle to secure the ticket of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But he will surely face a titanic battle in the main election against various opposition party candidates including the All Progressives Congress (APC).
While the governor has not formally declared his intention to seek a re-election, it is believed that the party hierarchy in the state is working very hard to hand him the ticket on a platter. This appears glaring as there is no other visible governorship aspirant on the party’s platform for now. Okowa may be enjoying the goodwill of his party members, but the APC appears very determined to dislodge him.
Although, there may be some dark horses who are yet to be open about their ambition, there are some leading aspirants on the platform of APC.
Chief Great Ogboru
As constant as the northern star, Chief Great Ogboru has been in the political scene of the state since 2003 when he first contested the governorship election against the then incumbent governor, Chief James Ibori of the PDP. The ‘People’s General’ as he is fondly called lost that election. And since then, he has not given up hope of governing the oil rich state.
One sour point of his political career is his perceived penchant to move from one political platform to another, apparently in search of an unopposed governorship ticket. In 2003, he contested on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD) as the sole governorship candidate. In 2007, following the transformation of AD to Action Congress (AC) and later Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Ogboru brought Democratic People’s Party (DPP) into Delta State and was also the sole candidate.
In 2011, he consolidated his grip on the DPP where he also flew the party’s governorship flag. Although he was again unsuccessful as he trailed behind the then incumbent governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan with about 13,000 votes. But the party secured ten seats at the state House of Assembly and one senatorial seat at the National Assembly, obviously a testimony to his popularity.
In 2015, Ogboru dumped the DPP as a faction of the party joined other legacy parties to form the APC. He opted for Labour Party along with his supporters. Ogboru, like in previous elections, was the sole candidate of LP after the leadership structure of the party was changed to accommodate the DPP entrants in a marriage of strange bed fellows.
Again, Ogboru and LP lost the election to a familiar foe, the PDP. Immediately after the Supreme Court judgement that upheld Okowa’s election, Ogboru led his supporters, under the Light of Labour, into APC. But this did not come without cost for the LP in the state, as Ogboru left the party polarised.
Chief Tony Ezeagwu, his long standing political ally refused to go with him to the APC. When Ogboru was resigning from LP, he said he was returning the party to its status quo where Comrade Emeka Nkwoala was the chairman before the alliance. Now, Nkwoala is at loggerheads with Ezeagwu over the leadership of the LP in the state. A state High Court in Kwale is presently handling the matter.
Meanwhile, going by an unwritten zoning arrangement in Delta State politics, Ogboru might not be favoured to clinch the ticket of the APC. The party, it was gathered, is looking towards the north senatorial district for a governorship candidate to slug it out with Okowa who is also from the zone. Ogboru is from Delta central, and going by the rotational understanding, the central will have to wait till 2023 so that Delta north can complete its two terms of eight years.
At the beginning of the present democratic dispensation in 1999, Ibori from Delta central was elected as governor, and was re-elected in 2003 to complete eight years. Uduaghan from Delta south also ruled for eight years. By 2019, Okowa from Delta north would have completed the first four years for the zone, hence, the APC is looking in the direction of a Delta northerner to complete the other four years of 2019 – 2023 should it win the governorship election. Thus, an alleged plot by APC power bloc loyal to Ogboru to recently upturn this understanding by getting local government party chairmen to endorse him at a meeting in Abraka, Ogboru’s hometown in Ethiope East council was foiled. Sources close to the People’s General hinted that he is undeterred by that development as he vowed to actualise his governorship dream in 2019.
Prof. Patrick Utomi
A technocrat by all standards is a professor of Political Economics. Utomi, a management expert is not Nigeria’s everyday politician. He was one of the egg heads that put together the APC constitution and manifestoes. He cut his teeth in politics as far as back the early 1980s when he was appointed an aide to the then President Shehu Shagari. Since then, he has been part of several development committees at the national level. He is therefore seen as a national figure in the politics of Nigeria. Utomi, a director in the famous Lagos Business School, once contested the presidential election on the platform of one of the opposition parties but failed to make a mark.
Over the years, however, the Ibusa-born technocrat has been accused back home of not bringing his wealth of experience to bear in assisting the state government on developmental issues. The state government, both past and present claimed that the motivational speaker and development expert has been maintaining an Olympian aloofness from issues concerning the state. This no doubt appears to have affected his popularity among grassroots politicians who are very critical in the emergence of a flag bearer of any political party.
In 2017, Utomi showed a little of the stuff that he has got when he took the PDP-led state government to the cleaners, contending that the ruling party in the state since 1999 has only succeeded in spreading hunger and poverty in the land. After that outing, nothing more was heard of him. But sources close to his camp say he is oiling his political machinery with a view to changing the perception among local politicians that he is an Abuja-based or Lagos-based technocrat who will only come home to seek votes.
His closeness to the party hierarchy at the national level may swing the pendulum in his favour, as insider sources within the APC insist that the party needs to field a candidate who has not tainted himself with any form of romance with the PDP in the past. Other contenders do not have this going for them as most them are defectors from the PDP. Utomi hails from Ibusa, Oshimili North council, Delta north senatorial district, the zone that the party might be turning to for governorship candidate. However, Utomi’s name is mentioned as one of the arrow heads of Obasanjo’s third force. If the rumour is true, he may be running at the national level. But at 62, should he win the party’s gubernatorial ticket, APC will have a lot of work to do in mobilising local populace to ensure victory.
Dr. Cairo Ojougboh
Unlike Prof. Utomi, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh is a core politician who has held elective position in the past. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2007 on the platform of the PDP. He contested the governorship primaries of the PDP in 2007 and lost, but has since remained relevant in both national and state politics. Ojougboh is a player in local politics coloured by mud and intrigues.
He was Senator Modu Sheriff’s alter ego in the factional PDP at the time, where both of them almost gave mainstream leaders of the party heart attack. He joined the APC shortly after the Supreme Court judgment that affirmed the Ahmed Makarfi-led caretaker committee as the authentic national leadership of the PDP. The judgment was in August 2017, and by September, Ojougboh publicly destroyed his PDP membership card along with his teeming supporters at Agbor, his hometown in Ika South LGA. Since joining the opposition party in the state, the state government has been put on its toes every now and then.
His allegation that Governor Okowa was running the state on a blank budget took the government by storm. In fact, his entrance into the APC re-awakened the spirit of opposition in the state, as he became the unofficial mouthpiece of the party, issuing statements and granting press interviews, under the auspices of the media coordinator of Delta APC Elders’ Council. He has consistently denied eyeing the ticket on several occasions. In the recently concluded council election, Ojougboh campaigned for some APC candidates in Delta north, to demonstrate his grassroots appeal.
Victor Ochei
The former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly is the youngest among those aspiring for the APC governorship ticket. By February, he will be 49. He is seen as a dynamic politician, grassroots mobiliser with a mass appeal across the three senatorial districts of the state. Victor Ochei cut his political teeth in 2003 when against all odds; he won the House of Assembly seat for Aniocha North constituency on the platform of a less fancied opposition party, the United Nigeria People’s Party (UNPP). The election was historic as he defeated the incumbent who was the candidate of the PDP in the said election. At the House, Ochei emerged as the Minority Leader, a position he held till 2006 when he defected to the PDP, and got re-elected in 2007. Between 2007 and 2011, he was chairman of the House Committee on Education. Perhaps, the climax of his exploits as a state lawmaker was his emergence as Speaker of the House in 2011, a position he held till he voluntarily resigned in 2013 in the face of overwhelming pressure to cut him to size following his burgeoning popularity as he was gunning for the governorship ticket ahead of the 2015 election. As Speaker, his tenure witnessed an appreciable infrastructural transformation of the Assembly Complex. And in spite of the fact that he was forced to resign, Ochei had a good outing during the governorship primary in 2014 when he came third with 185 delegates’ votes.
After the governorship primaries, Ochei opted for the Accord Party to contest the Delta North senatorial election but was unsuccessful. He had since joined the APC with many seeing him as the rallying point of the party in Delta north. Most APC sympathisers and observers feel that the party should look at his direction if it is really determined to sack the PDP.
