By John Uwa (PhD)
The first time I heard of the endorsement of Olorogun David Edevbie by the Urhobo apex body, the UPU, was from a message on my Whatsapp; my response to that message was that “I didn’t know UPU has picked a candidate”. Since then it has become common knowledge that UPU has picked Olorogun David Edevdie, from the pool of aspirants, as the choice of Urhobo Nation to contest on the platform of PDP. Just to be sure that the UPU is not biased toward other political parties and Urhobo aspirants in those parties, I have had to read and digest the press release, and saw where the UPU says it will do the same for other political parties to ensure that all the parties present Urhobo flag-bearers. Since then, I have read all manner of comments and press releases trailing the endorsement. As I would reckon, from my reading, some of the backlashes are either a manifestation of poor understanding of UPU’s release, oblivious of the political undercurrent and the subterranean architecture building up to 2023, mischievous or all three. The tragedy of these kinds of perceptions is that they provide the unsuspecting or innocent public with a skewed sense of direction for a problem that should be solved by logical and strategic thinking. To that extent, I thought it was time to join the conversation by interpreting the spoken and unspoken languages of the critical players in the build-up to 2023. And unless the rotational precedence of the PDP has now been scuttled, I will ride on the premise that it is the turn of the Urhobo nation to produce the next Governor of Delta State after waiting for 16 years.
To understand the intrigues playing out in the buildup to 2023 in Delta state, we should avoid perceptions and unfounded accusations suggesting that the endorsement was traded to the highest bidder or that it was a “paddy paddy” endorsement; and unless such claim can be validated with evidence, I would like to treat such as items at the lowest ebb of knowledge, and therefore unworthy of attention here. I had rather we look at the substance and intents by looking at the precarious situation in which the UPU finds itself. First, the candidates lined themselves up paying visits one after the other to seek the blessing and endorsement of UPU; at that time, no one talked about UPU being a socio-cultural organization that should not be involved in politics—as if Urhobo, which the UPU represents, has no interest in politics, or as if nonpartisanship translates to abstinence from Urhobo political interest; no one saw UPU as ‘political’ when it reached out to other ethnic groups and organizations to lobby support for Urhobo nation to produce the next governor in 2023 and to uphold the sanctity of ‘rotation’ when the body language of the Governor suggested otherwise. So I ask, were we not expecting UPU, like the Afenifere, Arewa and even the Izu Anioma group that endorsed the present Governor of Delta state to take a stand or choose from the plethora of aspirants in the overall interest of Urhobo? And if we weren’t expecting UPU to endorse an aspirant why were the aspirants presented to the UPU? Should we stand aloof while we allow politicians with vested interest to choose our governor without anyone raising a finger of protest or insisting on the best? When it comes down to choosing for Urhobo Nation should we entrust it to the politician or the UPU? These are critical questions that can help anyone with an open mind to understand that UPU finds itself in a position where it must have to choose; to do otherwise would have been even more tragic because another 8 years of visionless leadership would spell doom for Delta. So in my thinking, the most intelligent way to confront the UPU over its endorsement of David Edevbie is to ask whether the UPU has chosen well in the interest of the Urhobo nation and Delta State. In the days to come, I would love to hear or read discussions around the credibility of the aspirants—a feat which the Oja R’Urhobo group was almost achieving before the public with aspirants was suspended “until further notice”.
Again, when it was speculated, that the present governor, who is from Delta North plans to hand over power to an Ijaw candidate; and later, that he wants to anoint his preferred Urhobo candidate for Governorship, Urhobo people went to town in protest. While some held the view that Okowa cannot choose for Urhobo, others thought that UPU, in staying neutral or keeping mute, has become the puppet of the Governor. And I can’t quite remember an article or commentary that admonishes the UPU to stay neutral; rather there were calls on the UPU to rise to its responsibility of defending the Urhobo interest. What example of this call-to-duty can be more compelling than the words of Okowa himself at the epoch event of UPU’s 90th anniversary? In a very unambiguous term, Gov. Okowa implored the leadership of the UPU to come up with a unified candidate if Urhobo is to rightfully stake its claim to the governorship position in 2023. Now that the UPU has fulfilled this responsibility, I am surprised that politicians under the auspices of Council Chairmen in Delta Central and other proxies have gone to press with disclaimers that ridicule the Urhobo nation. Even more ridiculous is the fact that these disclaimers, other than claiming that UPU is biased or has no right to choose for Urhobo, give no sensible solution on how the Urhobo nation can project the best candidate for the position of the governor. They seem to be more concerned with the politics of choosing a candidate than concerned with the quality of the candidate to represent the Urhobo nation. I would rather we open conversations around the projection of the best Urhobo aspirant by deemphasising the endorsement by UPU and emphasising the quality of the aspirants. In the days to come, I want to see superior arguments contesting the choice of the UPU by comparing the quality and capacity of David Edevbie and other Urhobo contestants to educate Deltans on the validity or otherwise of the endorsement by UPU; because as it stands, we don’t have problem with endorsement but with quality leadership in Delta state. This approach is important if Urhobo Nation wants to continue with the culture of producing the best Governors since the creation of Delta state.
In recent times, states in Nigeria that have managed to drive verifiable development and provide sustained employment are states that have taken the courage to trust their leadership to technocrats. To that extent, I look forward to a Delta State Governor that will sit down with counterparts like Charles Soludo, Godwin Obaseki and Seyi Makinde and Babajide Sanwo-Olu to discuss state development through revamping of IGR, foreign partnership and investment, digital economy and technical knowhow; and not a Governor that will wait to share federal allocation at the end of each month and can only boast of an employment index of gratuitous florae of personal assistants for another 8years.
Finally, let the conversation continue around the quality of aspirants available to the Urhobo nation since UPU would have to make a choice anyway; let the commentators provide verifiable pieces of evidence or “let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right, so that others may hear and say, “It is true.” Isaiah 43:9.
Isiagwareeeeee!
John Uwa (PhD), Wrote from the University of Lagos.
