Says Okowa’s rating in Delta is high

Karo Ekewenu, a United Nations Ambassador on Millennium Development Goals, speaks on the general elections in Nigeria, Delta State politics, President Goodluck Jonathan and the roles of the international community and personalities of note in the democratic journey to the polls.

By WALE AKINOLA

What is your take on the 2015 general elections bearing in
mind the propaganda, hate campaigns and alarming predictions that went with them?

First and foremost, permit me to congratulate all Nigerians irrespective of party affiliation on the success of the March 28 presidential election in particular. The peaceful outcome of the exercise is a blessing for our beloved country. I give kudos to Professor Attahiru Jega, the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for his brilliant performance. In Jega we found the hope for a new Nigeria. What we are celebrating today would have evaporated but for the calmness, sense of mission and thoroughness of Jega and his working team.

I equally acknowledge the patriotism and sense of leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan for having the inner mind and eye to appoint Jega who has proven to be the right man for the job, and for allowing him the free hand needed to do the delicate but important national assignment.

President Jonathan further demonstrated his high level of patriotism and leadership in view of his calm disposition through the course of the electioneering exercise and crowned this when he conceded defeat when it became glaring that his opponent had won the contest. The rare action in this part of the globe was most necessary to douse the fear across the nation at the period. That was probably the most difficult decision ever taken by the President but, trust me, that’s the wisest and most profitable as well. It was a display of true leadership statesmanship.

Having eulogized the action of President Jonathan in ensuring peace after the presidential election, are there no other efforts within and outside the country that helped in this regard?

 A lot of Nigerians, friends of Nigeria and the international community played great roles in ensuring peace before, during and after the elections. One cannot underestimate the powerful intervention of the United States

Buhari, Jega and Jonatrhan

of America (USA), the European Union, the United Kingdom, the African Union, ECOWAS, Dr Kofi Annan, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana, the Sultan of Sokoto, Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, General Abdusalam; Abubakar (rtd) and so many others who worked frantically for peace.

The churches/mosques prayed and fasted. The youths of Nigeria on their part took to the social media to canvass for peaceful general elections. They demonstrated their seriousness about the type of government they want at all levels in Nigeria despite being let down by some of their hustling celebrities and role-models who tried everything to kill the dream. The determination to achieve peace was hugely massive.

Now that the presidential and other elections have come and gone, what advice do you have for all contestants?

 First, I congratulate all the candidates who contested for different positions from the presidential to the state Houses of Assembly. It is not always about winning, I know that participation is always the beginning of a long journey in the wilderness of politics. I congratulate the winners as I implore the losers not to be disillusioned. Losers genuinely concerned and doubtful about their loss should address their grievances through recognized channels instead of instigating crisis that will not take the nation anywhere. Losers of today can be winners tomorrow.

What are the experiences in Delta State where you come from during the governorship election?

 In Delta, I was surprised at the level of awareness from the urban to the rural areas about the contesting candidates in each of the political parties. From Ethiope -West to Ethiope-East down to Okpe, Sapele and the entire Ughelli, everybody knows Senator Ifeanyi Okowa who was then contesting to be governor. I was moved to ask one of the old women in one of the villages in Okpe local govt who saw me in my PDP outfit on why she was supporting Okowa. The response I got from her in Urhobo language was, ‘Where we are heading to is greater than where we are coming from’.

She further said that if the Urhobo can fully accommodate strangers and make them, part of them then why can’t we as Urhobos give them a chance to share their goodness to the land. And I must confess that this is the mentality of the Urhobo nation. From 1999 when an Urhobo son in person of Chief James Ibori became the Governor of Delta state, the state has been flourishing in harmony as a multi –ethnic state despite the fact that the Urhobo nation is the largest ethnic group in the state.

No ethnic group can claim to be marginalized under Ibori and, just as the old Urhobo woman in Okpe said, the Urhobo are very charitable with everything and that explains why an Ibori can conveniently allow the principle of power rotation to hold after eight years in power despite the scandalous calls from some people to give power to another Urhobo man from Delta Central. From what is well known among the political class in Delta, Ibori had arranged that after the turn of Delta South, Delta North would take over and what is more was that Okowa had received the blessing of the Urhobo at that time. This is how charitable the Urhobo nation has been.

And the truth is that, we must also appreciate the Peoples Democratic Party for its policy of power rotation and fairness to all. We must be grateful to the PDP for doing a thankless job almost perfectly. Standing heavily behind a minority in a multi ethnic state in politics is not easy and, frankly speaking, all that made the person of Okowa stronger in Urhobo land and that explains why even the PDP, in a free, fair and square election, could defeat all other political parties in Urhobo land.

What is more is that as I moved round the nooks and corners of Urhobo land through the electioneering period, the people seemed to know the political agenda of Okowa.

The expectation from Okowa among the people of Delta Central is high and to whom much is given, much is expected. Okowa is thus expected to be the Lamb of God to carry the sins of the world. It is believed in Urhobo land that he possesses the power of optical illusion to perform instant magic in a land on its bent knees. In fact, some of the keen supporters of the opposition parties told me they do not envy Okowa on his victory and that the cross he would have to bear would be a heavy one but re-affirmed that Okowa actually have all it takes to take on the demons plaguing Delta.

What is the way forward for the Peoples Democratic Party in Delta to consolidate its political grip in the state?

What is more interesting to note is that Delta people are completely of the position that the political class in the state should come to accept the final verdict of the credible governorship election. In the journey of life, there is bound to be the victor and the vanquished, there is bound to be a winner and a loser. In principle, the jostling for a political office is to consent to the fact that one person is bound to triumph and the rest aspirants are obligated by the rules of the game to accept defeat.

Indeed, this understanding is a golden rule. At the initial stage in the contest, the outcome of the Peoples Democratic Party gubernatorial primary election in Delta exposed some lapses in our political culture. A few disgruntled politicians and their hangers-on, who lost in the race for the party’s gubernatorial ticket, took to a new vocation commonly called pull-him-down syndrome, by hacking down the winner and throwing venom at the party’s hierarchy. The tracks of the journey that culminated in the December 8 Delta gubernatorial primary are sadly being missed in the hysteria of the bitter defeat that the unsportsmanlike aspirants are finding hard to swallow. The outpouring of vitriol by a few persons at the flag bearer of the Delta PDP, Okowa, is a defective strategy.