THE ARENA: PDP Slow Death In Delta State

By Basil Okoh

The PDP ship in Delta state has caught fire and anyone in this passenger boat who plans to live must jump now before sinking with the burning ship.

There was no way a ship with two irreverent and wanton captains could survive a violent and stormy sea. The two who are in a fist fight have finally set fire to the troubled ship.

James Ibori, the retired captain who has been allowed to stay and play an advisory role to current captain Ifeanyi Okowa, eventually overreached himself and wants to wear the captains band on the matter of selection of a new captain. But Ifeanyi Okowa would rather be dead than be seen by the crew to be playing second fiddle to an old captain just back from jail for piracy and filching cargo on board. The ensuing fight has resulted in the ship being set on fire.

The PDP House of Commotion in Delta has taken more than two decades to unravel. The original formation of the party from the GDM in 1998 followed in the traditions of agreement among thieves. There was no honour among all the thieves at the table.

The opposing coalitions building around Sherriff Oborevwori and David Edevbie will set a final fire on PDP which will never end and will see to the slow burn-out of the party in Delta State. This is because the fight is not just about the sluggers in the ring, Sherriff Oborevwori and David Edevbie, but more about the promoters and financiers of the fight, James Ibori and Ifeanyi Okowa and their sing-along followers.

Their mutual and implacable determination to take control of and own the revenues of Delta state is the prize to be won from the fight. So you can see that there can be no agreement here on earth or in heaven. Anybody telling you of a fine or noble reason for the fight is raising a false flag. The crux of the raging matter is not complex as so many of the uninformed followers think.

Pics Inset: L-R: Sheriff Oborevwori and David Edevbie

Sherriff has no verifiable and documented educational credentials alright but this fight goes beyond Sheriffs lack of education, to the forward issues of Okowa’s very survival after his tenure. I have used this platform previously to call Sheriff a “dagbo governor” in the making but the fight has taken a more mutually destructive turn since then.

Okowa has taken so much and borrowed so much in the name of Delta state and cannot afford to let an untrusted and uncontrollable governor inherit his office because so much covered and hidden shit will hit the public space and the resulting stench can kill. Okowa is in a quandary and David Edevbie cannot assure him or guarantee his peace of mind.

Okowa made a starting mistake by first appointing David Edevbie into his government and later making him an enemy. It was an unforced error which will cost him dearly till the end of his political career. David Edevbie did not provoke this fight, Okowa did and he has remained implacable and unforgiving in spite of David’s solicitations.

The reasons given by Okowa that he does not want the man who contested the governorship primary with him to succeed him is just crap. He truly does not want the man who knows too much and is uncontrolled by him to succeed him.

James Ibori is the puppeteer of David Edevbie, sitting askance on the sides and winding the horns. Ibori is determined to lay his hands through David Edevbie on the treasury of Delta state, no doubt. His ravenous appetite can no longer be satisfied by the handouts from Okowa.

There’s also the matter of supremacy and control. This is the matter on which both puppeteers are implacable. The two carpetbaggers will rather see the death of PDP in Delta State than be defeated in this fight.

James Ibori and Ifeanyi Okowa at the 2017 Agbon Day Celebration

Okowa wants the two top prizes for himself, the governorship ticket and the PDP vice presidential ticket and as Iyorchia Ayu, PDP national Chairman warned him, “you cannot have the two top prizes to yourself. Take one and let your former oga have the other. Take the vice presidential ticket and give up the governorship to James Ibori”.

Iyorchia Ayu further warned Okowa that PDP National Caucus cannot afford to lose Delta State to another party because of disunity caused by the greed of one man which ends up dividing the PDP in Delta State. Besides, as Ayu further warned Okowa: “you need the unity of your own state party chapter to be relevant in the presidential election”. Okowa remains not placated and has stood behind Sherriff Oborevwori to file an appeal against the judgement of the Federal judge, Justice Taiwo Taiwo.

There’s no indication that this fight to the finish will be lost or won before the election season of 2023. The final outcome of this will be a legacy fight between the PDP and APC after the governorship election. And this will be a good thing for the political development of Delta state.

PDP, even as a ruling political party in Delta State has been a double nuisance to the state. First for its misrule and sleaze and secondly for its blindness and deafness to developmental issues. It has become the biggest industry in Delta State employing and benefitting only the well dressed loafers otherwise called Special Assistants, Senior Special Assistants, Executive Assistants, Personal Assistants and other fancy names and monikers. Nearly five thousands of them, laying siege to Government offices and social ceremonies statewide. Their salaries and other appurtenances compete with the total for the civil service while pensioners remain unpaid.

Whoever wins in this fight between Sherriff Oborevwori and David Edevbie which has divided the PDP in Delta State into two equal halves, it is to be made certain that the party can no longer remain the big, successful behemoth it once was and that the crew and passengers in this ship must begin to jump now for their own chance of political survival. The party is over for PDP in Delta State. The PDP ship is sinking.

***Basil Okoh can be reached at basil.okoh@gmail.com and @basilokoh on Social Media Networks.