TARAKIRI News - I did not see any reason to join in the national discourse on the flim flam of party defection, not even after Dr. Eweta Emmanuel Uduaghan, the immediate past governor of Delta State, and an Itsekiri man, decamped from the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, on a not too convincing reason that his defection would stabilise the polity of the Niger-Delta region.
To a large extent, the notoriety of party defection by the political class has not helped the political narrative of a nation ranked among the poorest in the world. Politics is ideology-based. In other civilised climes, party membership is traditional. Most times, membership is carried through a second to a third generation. Suffice to say that in Nigeria, party membership is munificent and frivolous!
It sticks out like a proverbial sore thumb that the reason Dr. Uduaghan ran away from the PDP is the conspiracy against the Itsekiris over the party’s ticket to contest the seat of Delta South Senatorial district in the forthcoming general election. Masquerading behind a cloak of Niger-Delta politics, to me is too piety of a full blooded Itsekiri son. One had expected that the ex -governor would have been bold enough to say it without fear of whose ox is gored that he left the PDP because the interest of the Itsekiris was no longer guaranteed in the party.
I am not in any doubt that the Isokos and the Itsekiris are coterminous in the James Manager’s tyranny of appropriating the Delta South Senatorial seat to himself for life! Manager’s action is like urinating on the intelligence of both ethnic nationalities. In lieu of the foregoing, I have no reservation, so too must all patriotic Itsekiris worthy to be counted in the struggle to reinvest the relevance of the tribe to douse the Manager’s fire and sulphur.
Senator Manager had argued, even though unconvincing and laughable that the Ijaws had sacrificed eight years to stabilise the tenure of an Itsekiri governor in the person of Dr. Uduaghan. But those who bought into Manager’s skewed argument failed to see that the issue was limited to Delta South Senatorial district where there is an existing agreement among the three ethnic groups in the district, and not the entire state per se. If I may quickly add here, the tenure of any governor of the state is a sacrifice on the part of every other ethnic nationality except the one that produced the occupier of the office.
Again, it is absurd, unthinkable and lacking in moral circumspect that Manager could think of returning to the Senate for the fourth time at the expense of the Itsekiris and the Isokos who are by right, owners in common of the senatorial district. More disturbing is the fact that the Itsekiris as co-owner of the Delta South Senatorial district, have not had a shot at the red chamber since the dawn of the 27years rebirth of democratic practice in Nigeria. Significantly, one cannot impugn the fact that the Isokos share the same thought with this writer. I speak for the Isokos and the Itsekiris on the grounds of equity, and not for Dr. Uduaghan as a political mind or any other politician for that matter.
A push for the Itsekiris by the Isoko is a push for the Isokos in 2023. It is dolorous that politics is being used to further balkanise Delta South. The filial disposition of the Itsekiris, the Ijaws and the Isokos is sacrosanct and should transcend parochial interest. Manager’s breach of trust is regrettable. Though this might not be a collective resolve of the Ijaws as a nation, it will be honourable for Manager to quit the stage when the ovation is loudest.
To me, the defection of Dr. Uduaghan is chiefly one of political survivism. He is rational enough to discern when it hurts and when it soothes most. But the truth must be told, his defection will cause a great upset at home in the three Warri local government areas.
With regards to the interest of the Itsekiris, I do not know how his defection would be of benefit to this ethnic group as he has not given enough explanation for his action. If his defection was in the interest of the Itsekiris, then it must be the birth of a political revival. However, I have my doubts and fear. Can the Itsekiris trust the Uduaghan who was governor of the state which was fraught with multiple and triple challenges especially for him for eight years? There is so much political mistrust among the Itsekiris to support a renaissance coming with the defection of Uduaghan to the APC.
Suffice to say that the confidence in Uduaghan as the foremost political leader of the Itsekiris is ebbing and evanescent. Perhaps, there is a need to convince the Itsekiris that the echelon of the PDP in Delta State is working against their interest with regard to her senatorial bid.
This done, Uduaghan must demonstrate an unfettered sincerity of purpose in heralding a broad based adoption and acceptance of the APC in the three Warri LGAs. He must reach out to the elite who presently are caught in the web of ‘to be or not to be’. The Itsekiris have the numbers and their allies in Isoko and Ijaw LGAs are battle ready to go all the way to put an end to Manager’s diktat.
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