By Basil Okoh
It is evident that many PDP members across Delta state did not join Governor Sheriff and ex-governor Ifeanyi Okowa in defection to the APC. What was expected to be a big stampede into APC, particularly by the big name politicians in PDP, didn’t just happen.
What we are seeing instead is the drift back into the old PDP and the regrouping of those who refused to defect. The big names are still reticent and holding back, keeping their cards face down on the political gambling table. The expected big lure of Sheriff, drawing people with him into the APC didn’t happen.
To find the reason for the reluctance of PDP members to join governor Sheriff into the APC will require us to examine the big fights in PDP since 2021 during the tenure of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, when he dissolved his executive council just because some members were using the EXCO platform to pursue their political ambitions and Okowa wouldn’t grudge them. Okowa was resolute in being the Lord who dispenses political favours to whomsoever he likes. In the reconstitution of that EXCO, all politically aspiring members were left out and the decline and freefall of the PDP started from there.
The seeds of discord having been planted in PDP, the primaries that held later, became a contest between factions, each contestant with his own retinue of loyalists. Okowa, using government money, controlled the process and bought off a majority of the electors for his candidate Sheriff. The result was chaos and litigations, costing Okowa and the government, N63 billion to make Sheriff governor of Delta state.
So this unusual behaviour of not following Governor Sheriff into the APC is a fallout of the PDP primaries. Sheriff was not popular in PDP and is not popular even now. This lack of followership is uncharacteristic of Delta politics of the 4th Republic. We are won’t to follow where the money goes. And since Sheriff is the governor who controls the money, it was expected that the crowd will follow Sheriff into APC. But this did not happen. If with the control of Delta state finances, Sheriff cannot muster followership among a hungry people, he should have no hope of winning the next governorship election.
To understand better this changing character of Delta politics, one must first appreciate the ruling Nigerian environment and politics under the present regime. People have suffered and in their suffering have learnt lessons. The knowledge acquired through suffering has taught people lessons in restraint in political behaviour. When asked why they have not followed Sheriff into APC, many young persons answered: “What’s my gain following Sheriff? “who Sheriff help”? In Deltaspeak, who Sheriff help, would mean how has Sheriff been useful to anyone? This dig means that Sheriff is inconsequential and travelling a lonely road to APC, all by himself. APC thought that they were buying a town but what they’re getting is just a household.
The understanding that most political actors in the state dread being in the opposition is a reason for expecting that most PDP politicians would follow Sheriff without scruples into APC. Politics is perceived here as a bread and butter contestation and every politician wants to identify with the winner who holds the big bread and butter to share. There are no dreams here, no visions and no ideological fantasies. Politics here is clear eyed about money and immediate gains, so wherever the man who dispenses money goes, there everybody else goes. They call it here “Follow who know road”.
Only a few men and women have had the courage not to follow the flow of money and power. For nearly three decades, PDP held the money bag in Delta state. But Okowa’s betrayal and now Sheriff’s defection has brought a new but confusing dynamic into the politics of the state. This is the first time PDP will be in opposition, not because it lost an election but because their own elected governor ran away. Now PDP is confused as to what to do with the wife who ran away. Do you follow her into her new husband’s home and suffer disgrace or gather your household together and find a new way to live without her? PDP men and women have largely decided to plod on, on their own and live without the run-away wife, Sheriff.
Sheriff is not liked in APC and has no support or strong presence there. He has been pronounced the leader of APC in Delta state but that’s just mere pronunciation by the national leaders of APC and the men who procured Sheriff from the PDP. He is not immersed in APC and may never be. His presence in APC has raised new quarrels over personal popularity and acceptance within the group. Opposition is already growing among the core owners like Mr. Collins Eselemo and joiners of the group like Mr. David Otiono that Sheriff cannot lead them into election because he is not one of them and does not share in their core values and previous struggles. Nobody can dispute the fact that Sheriff is anathema to the founding ethos of APC in Delta state.
It must be recalled that because of the imposition of Sheriff as governorship candidate in 2023, PDP members had been drifting out of the party since after the governorship primaries of 2022 where Sheriff got an undeserved ticket.
These groups insist that they left PDP because Okowa in his skullduggery imposed Sheriff as the governorship candidate of the party and because of the known cluelessness of Sheriff and his unpopularity among the voters of the state. No one should expect them now to accept Sheriff with open arms in their new abode in APC.
Everyone should remember that while expensive litigations were going on in PDP in 2022-2023, the left wing of the party, comprising of the professionals and intellectuals, “formed ourselves into the Delta Unity Group (DUG) and left the Party to join the APC in our mass, first at St. George’s Grammar School Obinomba, Ukwuani LGA, just before the elections of 2023”. And again, the other group of our DUG, led by Mr. Chiedu Ebie joined the APC in a well publicized mass defection from PDP and were received by the national chairman of APC.
“Now, we the men and women who fled from the PDP have been followed by the same disruptive persons, Sheriff and Okowa, into the APC. We watched with trepidation as leadership of the APC was awarded to Sheriff, the same man who every defector from senator to plebian, has been running from in PDP. If this reads like a zany caper from an American writers fictive imagination, please be persuaded that it is not. This is realpolitiks a la Delta state, Nigeria. We cannot keep running from Okowa and Sheriff. We will deal with the matter squarely this time.
So now there’s a growing rumble among the earlier defectors, swearing not to cohabit with Sheriff and Okowa in the same political party. They recall that both men are deeply unpopular and running away from a deserted house which they created in PDP and would do the same in APC. They ran PDP down and are now running to the APC to dodge the shame of defeat. Our group is sworn not to accept Sheriff as governorship candidate of APC and if he is forced on us, will work for a different candidate.
Sheriff will be the reason why APC will lose the governorship election in Delta state. It should be obvious to APC that Sheriff has no followership. The general did not surrender with any troops. The government officials who are still with him, Commissioners, Advisers, SA’s, SSA’s, Local Government Chairmen and Councilor’s do not number up to the voting population of one community in the state. Many are with Sheriff only because they need their salaries. They will vote for someone else when the time comes.
If Peter Obi comes with his gale force campaign again and the youth of the state back him in their numbers as they did in 2023, not even the rigging machine of governor Sheriff can hold back a determined governorship candidate backed by the youth in their fight for good governance. Delta politics is in animated suspension for now until a year to the elections when everything will be brought to the boil.
Time will tell.
@basilokoh.
