It was remarkable that last Friday’s open fight between Dr. (Mrs.) Mariam Ali, wife of Dr. Ahmadu Ali, the erstwhile national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Chief Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman of the Delta State chapter of the party, was over a seating position at a party function. Beyond the seat squabble is the subtle fight between the erstwhile political partners for the Delta North seat in the Senate.

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

The last time many saw the rough side of Chief Peter Nwaoboshi, the chairman of the Delta State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP was at the Asaba Arcade in early 2011 when he made a very public but fruitless effort to derail the Delta North senatorial primary that produced the incumbent, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.

Mariam Ali

In a display that was broadcast on national television, Nwaoboshi was seen visibly agitating against the conduct of the primaries saying that it was not sanctioned by him as chairman of the party in the state. Regardless of his protest, the congress proceeded and produced Okowa who dusted his opponent, Dr. (Mrs.) Mariam Ali to pick the PDP ticket.

Whatever were the reasons for Nwaoboshi’s strong assertions against the emergence of Okowa as the PDP Senate candidate remained in the realm of political speculations that were nevertheless all centered around an alleged political covenant between Nwaoboshi and Mrs. Ali.

Indeed, there were few political players in the state who doubted the allegiance of Nwaoboshi to the emergence of Mrs. Ali as the party’s Senate candidate. Nwaoboshi had allegedly followed up his protest of the conduct of the Senate primaries at the national secretariat but nothing came out of it giving Okowa an unhindered entry into the Senate.

Indeed, the tie between Mrs. Ali and Nwaoboshi flowed from a long way back. The two politicians had belonged to the same faction of the PDP led by Chief Edwin Clark that was against the mainstream of the party led by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. Nwaoboshi was one of the leading protagonists in the Clark faction, and it was a measure of his strategic value to the group that when Clark and Uduaghan eventually agreed to cease hostilities in 2008, that the governor accepted Clark’s nomination of Nwaoboshi as chairman of the   executive composed of the two factions.

Though the governor had conceded the chairmanship to the Clark/Mariam Ali faction, it did not take long before Nwaoboshi divorced himself from the militancy of the Clark faction having been fully dressed by Uduaghan with the rights and privileges of the chairman of Delta’s number one party.

Irrespective of his dislocation from the Clark faction, Nwaoboshi’s rapport with Mrs. Ali was unconstrained and it was not surprising that his action at the Asaba Arcade at the January 2011 senatorial primary was seen as supportive of her.

At that time there were many reasons that were adduced for Nwaoboshi’s strong opposition to Okowa and concurrent support for Mrs. Ali. Some at that time believed that Nwaoboshi had his eyes on the 2015 governorship and that by supporting Ali for the Senate he could stop Okowa’s political momentum for the 2015 gubernatorial race.

Peter Nwaoboshi

However, Okowa triumphed over Ali and is now building up his momentum for the 2015 governorship. Nwaoboshi meanwhile, is said to have also adjusted himself to vie for the Senate seat in 2015 a seat that Mrs. Ali is also said to be still keen in contesting for.

Though there are little doubts about the support Nwaoboshi gave to Mrs. Ali in 2011, sources say that the party chairman having been taken in by the calls from friends to fight for the seat himself apparently does not see eye to eye with his one time political associate.

So when the two politicians met last Friday at a party function where Governor Uduaghan was to launch a set of vehicles donated to the party, the issue between them was obviously more than where to seat. It was an issue of broken loyalties, aspirations and readjustment of political positions.

Nwaoboshi is, however, not the only obstacle to whatever Mrs. Ali may be desiring in 2015. Some in Delta State have in the past raised issues with Mrs. Ali’s determination to take the Delta North senatorial seat. Her critics had asked her to move over to her husband’s state in Kogi State to find political relevance.

In 2007 when her husband, was the national chairman of the party she managed to take the same PDP Senate ticket to herself. Nobody bothered with that, but in the main election she was trounced by the candidate of Accord, a party without root in the state.