Senator Pius Ewherido emerged as a phenomenon in Delta State when he reshaped the political configurations in his native Delta State with his election as a senator on the platform of the opposition Democratic Peoples Party, DPP. He was a man many said was destined for higher office in Delta, but all the hopes on him crumbled at the point of death a year ago today

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

Late Pius Ewherido

DAys after Senator Pius Ewherido died exactly a year ago today, a national officer of the then emerging All Progressives Congress, APC lamented in a private conversation that the party had written off Delta State.

“Between you and me, we have given up on Delta State, there is almost nothing we can do to win the state again with the death of Ewherido,” the officer, a member of the then interim national executive of the new party said.

The party had unwisely built its fortunes on only the senator. It was thus not surprising that despite a spirited effort by some of the dead senator’s associates that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP mobilised its forces to regain the seat that Ewherido had occupied on the platform of the opposition Democratic Peoples Party, DPP.

A lawyer, Ewherido started his political odyssey with his election for two terms to the Delta State House of Assembly between 1999 and 2007. In between that period he served as deputy speaker, and for one year when the House could not agree on a speaker, he served as acting speaker of the House.
Ewherido was to turn his back on the party after the 2006 governorship primaries.

Governorship primaries
He was to join forces with Chief Great Ogboru, in the period leading to the 2011 general elections combining with him to undermine the dominance of the PDP in Delta Central.
The late Ewherido had in 2011, alongside his then comrade in arms, Chief Great Ogboru mobilised the opposition DPP to push the PDP to the point of extinction in Delta Central.

The PDP, which had by hook or crook depending on local political perceptions, had almost become the indomitable political platform in the senatorial district, nay Delta State, was demystified by the 2011 election in Delta Central.

Remarkably, Ewherido did it in style, but not before he overcame the initial opposition to him within the DPP.
First he had to win the DPP senatorial ticket in a tough contest with Ede Dafinone, whose father, Senator David Dafinone occupied the same Senate seat in the second republic.
In the DPP primary, Ewherido prevailed albeit narrowly by 125 votes to the 108 polled by Dafinone.

In the senatorial contest, Ewherido dusted the incumbent senator at that time, Senator Adegeor Eferekaya and a political colossus of the region, Chief Ighoyota Amori.
Eferekaya a pharmacy lecturer who was elected to the Senate on the platform of the PDP in 2007 was in 2011 easily shoved aside by the PDP in favour of  Amori, famously hailed by members of the PDP in Delta as the leader.

He was a local political enforcer who assumed a position in Delta State that many have nationally come to ascribe to Chief Tony Anenih.
In the famous contest in 2011, with Efekaraya flying the banner of the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Amori the flag bearer of the PDP and Ewherido the ticket bearer of the DPP, the election was declared in favour of the DPP which polled 102,313 votes, to beat the PDP to second place with 85,365 votes.

The incumbent senator,  Eferakeya was credited with 10,190 votes to come third in an election that shook the political landscape in Delta State.
Ewherido remarkably was able to pull in his coattails, one member of the House of Representatives and nine members of the State House of Assembly.

It was an election result that almost brought the PDP to the point of extinction in Delta Central given that all nine members elected on the platform of DPP were from the region.
He was the only senator elected on the platform of the DPP in 2011. After his inauguration when senators met in party caucuses, Ewherido drifted on his own. It was a sort of joke among senators for Ewherido to be teased as a political loner. He often jabbed back that he was the leader of a party in the Senate!

He was arguably, the most productive of the four senators that represented the Delta Central Senatorial District up to his time and only Senator Felix Ibru, may have come near him in terms of legislative activities.
Ewherido’s representation was symbolised by his repeated articulation on motions of interest to his constituency and the nation as a whole and his presentation of bills.

By his second year in the Senate, he had marshalled four bills, the most notable of which was the bill to punish the offence of corporate manslaughter.

It was a bill that divided him and some eminent lawyers in the Senate, but Ewherido was unflinching in his determination to make the big companies in the country to pay for the negligence he claimed had repeatedly killed many Nigerians in the work place. The bill is still making the rounds of the Senate even after a public hearing.

Despite his vivid attention to his duties in the Senate, Ewherido was also busy in his native Delta. It was one of the most open secrets that he was the leading contender for the Delta State gubernatorial ticket of the APC.
Months before his death, the legwork with senior national leaders of the party had been completed to invest him with the duty of leading the party in Delta.

His drift to the APC followed the not too secret discord he developed with Ogboru over the emergence of the APC. Ogboru sought to sustain the DPP as the main opposition in Delta, but Ewherido was not for that. As he told associates, a big fish in a small river would not thrive.

Ewherido’s decision to move into the big river of the APC and his decision to contest the Delta gubernatorial election in 2015 was bound to upset many especially Ogboru with whom he had broken ranks at the time of his death. The political permutations in his favour in the 2015 governorshi p race were simply enchanting.

Maternal ancestry
Married to an Ijaw born wife from the famous Bozimo family in Delta South, and with a maternal ancestry flowing from Isoko in the same Delta South, and with the Delta Central at his feet, Ewherido was simply seen as well positioned for the governorship. But death spoilt all the permutations on June 30, 2013.

One year after, the political landscape the Iroko built around himself in Delta Central has been practically reshaped.

The PDP has drifted from the point of near extinction to retake its dominance. Ewherido’s own political family is drifting in three directions. Some are perching on to Ogboru, some are in the mainstream APC and quite a few have adjusted to reality and gone back to the PDP!