Posted by By Prince Abugo on
THESE are extremely grave times in Delta State, as the race to occupy Government House Asaba in 2007 beckons. We have collectively accepted a strange culture of pretence because the dubious persons in terms of material benefit gain while the righteous wallow in penury.
THESE are extremely grave times in Delta State, as the race to occupy Government House Asaba in 2007 beckons. We have collectively accepted a strange culture of pretence because the dubious persons in terms of material benefit gain while the righteous wallow in penury. People may be blind to the basic reality on ground but the few who meditate deeply know that the fate of the state is dangling like a carcass in a hawk's legs and does not lie in the many Gladiators trying all the tricks in their arsenal to lure Deltans and their sponsors, to be anointed as favourable candidates among the litany of fortune seekers. This is supposed to be the season of stock-taking, counting, achieving and looking behind at the many blessings of democracy. These are the times to cherish democracy in its entirety, as was handed over to us by the ancient Greeks.
This is the time to open pages of history and look at our mistakes and resolve never to fall into dictatorship and all it allows, for many are worried that six years on, many of our rulers have not learnt their lessons; they are feasting like Emperor Nero while Rome was in flames. With what we operate as democracy, many are mortally bereaved of ideas and morally stagnant, making the future of our beloved state uncertain. However, the signs are there that there is an air of uncertainty hovering over Delta State; Vultures in the state are being assisted by an army of fortune seekers who have continued to dictate the destiny of the state at their pace. We cannot, however continue to lay a watery foundation on a soil of ineptitude.
When President George Bush of U. S. A. won the presidential election against Democratic candidate John Kerry, both candidates agreed in their post election speeches that the elections rather than act as a catalyst for unity had greatly divided Americans. They both pledged to work together in other to heal the wounds inflicted on the country by the elections. President Bush and his Democratic challenger knew too well the political and economic implications to the development of their beloved nation, if they failed to heal the wounds of the post election era. They both also know the consequences that await a divided people and nation, and it was in realization of this that both pledged to work together in order to heal the many wounds that the electoral process had inflicted on the nation.
I think part of this agreement emanates from the fact that the elections were reasonably free and fair; it is unlike Africa where elections rather than bring joy, perpetuate dictatorship and crisis. The frequent repetition of electoral fraud in our chequered political history is a pointer to our colossal ineptitude as a People; Togo is a recent evolution of the electoral madness that has become our collective shame as Africans. The 2003 electoral process is an unfinished business that has left the state and many states of the federation in the hands of orphans.
Delta State needs a healing balm that can cement the various divisions within the state into one compact entity of strength and unity. However, as the countdown to 2007 beckons, acrimony rather than unity is what people hear on their rooftop, giving us a sad picture of a State and its people that are uncertain of their future. Many of these office seekers may pretend in order to get official nod but those who may want to discard the heavy toga of deception foisted on them, can see clearly that, the state is heavily fragmented into different camps, each ready to outdo one another. This has exposed Delta State as an edifice of a big heart in pains and anguish. We struggle to create a climate of uncertainty that we are the big heart when in reality we belong to a deflated heart. Our character has been defective, our unity deceptive, while our future as a people, is colourless. Delta state has been economically, politically and socially deflated in our desire to grab government house, Asaba.
As the countdown to 2007 beckons, all what we can see is the picture of uncertainty and confusion. One of the various groups that makes a sizeable fragment in the State, in its struggle and partition, is the Great Ogboru political machinery. The 2003 electoral contest between Governor James Ibori and Chief Great Ogboru had opened a deep gulf between their supporters. Though the Ibori administration has a lot of empowered followers who are ardently committed in successfully handing over to another known horse within their camp, the greed that united them under Governor Ibori has given way to self-ambition and survival.
This camp is greatly fragmented along ethnic divisions and economic /political interest over who becomes Governor in 2007. The Ogboru group too has been heavily fragmented and mortally injured due to the litany of judicial defeats by the Ibori camp. However, despite the absence of a rallying point and an able motivator to galvanize them, many in this camp are uncertain of the future and just want to sit and watch events. They, like others who are in the followership of Great Ogboru are disappointed and strongly hope for a messaiah to rescue them from their difficulties because most of them have lost faith and confidence in the Nigeria Judiciary. However some are of the opinion that in as much as the various cases in the electoral tribunals are pending, the road to 2007 Government House may be littered with thorns and uncertainty.
There is one certainty however. Many who are in the Ogboru camp, disillusioned and confused as they are may likely individually begin to trace their steps in order to find political relevance in the unfolding drama of 2007 politics.
However, the Ibori camp is bubbling with life as their various activities have shown. This is a camp that has been united by power and all the allures that come with it for over six years. They have been empowered and many of them rightly feel that the quake period of the Ibori travails are over for good and that no miracle can upturn the status quo again. Despite the economic and political benefit of the Ibori camp, it remains fragmented into three groups as the race to 2007 beckons. The Delta North, Delta South that goes by a political name-G3 and the Delta Central populated by the Urhobo that has held on to power since 1999. Despite their deep divisions, the Ibori camp no doubt seems to be the most financially stable.