Fred to Ex-Governor Okowa, "Leave Oborevwori To Govern Delta State,"

Fred to Ex-Governor Okowa, "Leave Oborevwori To Govern Delta State,"



One of the best power rotation models ever established in Nigeria is the one adopted by Delta state PDP by which power rotates to the three Senatorial districts in turn.

It started from  James Ibori(1999-2007) who took the Delta Central turn, then Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan (2007-2015) who took the Delta South turn and then Dr Ifeanyi Okowa (2015-2023)who took the Delta North turn.

This governorship rotation model had been so successful that the PDP has had an unbroken grip on governorship power for 25 years. The immediate past chairman of the Delta PDP, Kingsley Esiso once succinctly captured it as the “Principle of Turn by Turnity”

Trouble started for the Party, when in 2022 Senator Dr Ifeanyi decided he must produce his successor single handed, irrespective of the input of major stakeholders, including his once political mentor and Godfather ,Chief James Ibori who preferred a much more grounded aspirant, Olorogun David Edevbie.

As it turned out to be , the PDP governorship primary was a travesty, a grand circus show organized and implemented by one man; Dr Ifeanyi Okowa. His motives were suspect as he bothered more  about an aspirant that would be fiercely loyal than about competence. Some political analysts believed that Okowa wanted a weak protege that would run his third term for him. No wonder that the choice of Oborevwori was fiercely opposed and resisted, leading to about 38 court cases that made the litigation experience of Dr Uduaghan a child's play.

No one dared challenge Dr Okowa at the time because he was brutal, deft, manipulative and adept at Political brinkmanship.

One early warning that Dr Okowa was going to thoroughly teleguide the Oborevwori administration and ultimately stifle its independence was the midnight appointment and hurried inauguration of DESOPADEC management at the twilight of Okowa's administration, In fact few hours to his exit as Governor.

Immediately Oborevwori was sworn in, Deltans began to see the hands of Dr Okowa in every key appointment of the new administration. As a matter of course appointment seekers thronged the residence of Dr Okowa to seek his validation before they could get an appointment.

The Vice Presidential bid of Dr Ifeanyi Okowa was allegedly so expensive that it threw the economy of Delta state into tatters. Atiku Abubakar was believed to have chosen Ifeanyi Okowa as his vice -presidential candidate over a more popular and powerful Nyesom Wike because of Okowa's readiness to bankroll the 2023 Presidential election.

Progressive Deltans at the time cried foul as Dr Okowa allegedly took state loan after loan to finance the election with the ready assistance and acquiescence of Oborevwori who was the Speaker of the Delta state House of Assembly at the time. There is another conspiracy theory that Dr Okowa chose Rt Hon Oborevwori as his successor to cover his financial deals, especially at the twilight of his administration.

Today as Governor, Oborevwori is suffering the consequences of his indiscretions. He is not in charge. Dr Okowa remains the Governor by proxy. The ward , local government and state PDP congresses were firmly in the grip of Dr Okowa. Major Political stakeholders had no say as many of them could not even produce their ward chairman.

The  2024 local government elections followed the same pattern, with Okowa being the holder of the knife and the cutlass in virtually every local government. Oborevwori had no choice than to watch helplessly as the entire political structure of Delta North was sequestered and dominated by Dr Ifeanyi Okowa alone to the chagrin of major political stakeholders.

It was this penchant for sole power proprietorship by Okowa that made PDP to lose both Delta Central and Delta south to APC Senators. Okowa cared more about loyalty than competence and he masterminded the emergence of candidates who were Political misfits provided they satisfied his loyalty criteria .

In his bid to have no challenger and no rival, Okowa manouevered  James Ibori out of his former rated status as the general leader of PDP in Delta. Today Okowa is literally the owner of the jungle.

So it is that Deltans are stuck with a Governor who cannot  take an independent decision unless he seeks the permission  and gets the nod of his oga. We sympathize with Governor Oborevwori as he labours against his inner will to hurriedly pay off the debts he inherited from his immediate predecessor. One of Oborevwori,s media Aides recently shocked the world when he gleefully announced that the Oborevwori administration as at March 2024 had paid about N130 billion naira out of the humongous debts he inherited from his predecessor.

Oborevwori was said to have privately  voiced his frustrations to Senator Ned Nwoko that he is preoccupied with paying inherited debts and so will be unable to take upon extra burdens of projects financing as requested by the Senator.

What these scenarios tell us is that Oborevwori is an unhappy governor who is hamstrung by the overbearing influence of his predecessor on him. Delta Central should not be fooled into believing that they have their man on the saddle. Until Oborevwori makes bold to break away from this encircling burden the way Obiano did in Anambra and the way Siminalayi Fubara is struggling to do in Rivers state, it would be difficult for Oborevwori to govern Delta State on his own terms.

I have noted  that Governor Oborevwori is a good man. He has the passion for good governance. He has zero tolerance for shoddy projects. He abhors borrowing and has so far shown that he is a good manager of men and resources but he lacks the will to be his own man.

His decision to engage Julius Berger, the construction giant to do three bridges, cloverleaf and road expansion networks in Warri and Effurun are testaments of his love for quality projects. But he cannot go far if he continues to allow Dr Okowa's  Political shadows to over shine his.

Ibori left Uduaghan to govern, Uduaghan left Okowa to govern. Let Okowa do likewise to Oborevwori. By appearing in every government activities, every burial ceremony, every child naming ceremony and all political gatherings , the impression is being inadvertently created that we have two governors in Delta state running concurrent tenures.

We call on Governor Okowa to give Oborevwori a breather. We know he has 2027 Senatorial ambition or as some people say even presidential ambition . But let him listen to the recent advice of President Biden to world leaders at UNGA and I  paraphrase “Something is more important than staying in power;it’s the people” President Biden sacrificed his second term so that the younger generation can move the Nation forward .

Okowa has been a local government Chairman, Commissioner in Several ministries, SSG, Senator, Governor for 8 years, a Vice- Presidential candidate. What else is Okowa looking for? He has succeeded in making her daughter a member of the Delta State House of Assembly and Chairman appropriation committee. Let the ambition of one man not destroy the development of Deltan State.

The time has come for Okowa to step aside so that Delta state can be governed by people who consider development a higher virtue than raw , unbridled craving for temporal power.
That is what Oborevwori is trying to do but the hands of Okowa stands on his way to making progress.

Oborevwori fears 2027 believing that only Okowa can make that possible. He should rest assured that a man who embarrassingly lost his own state in the 2023 Presidential cannot deliver him in 2027. A man who allowed APC to take over two senatorial seats in Delta State cannot be his saviour.
The earlier Oborevwori trusts and relies on his own government  rather than on  extraneous powers, the better for him and the better for us Deltans

Fred Akpewe
Senior Media Analyst