•You cannot entrap Ijaw — Bozimo; Zoning can’t be on tribal lines — Amori

By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South

Okowa proved right months  after WHEN 

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, first proclaimed, May 2021, there was no written agreement on zoning of governorship in Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, stakeholders, especially politicians from Delta Central Senatorial District (Urhobo), felt like eating him raw.

Some persons practically called for his head for supposedly plotting to cede power to Ijaw ethnic nationality in Delta South senatorial district instead of Delta Central senatorial district (Urhobo) that should take over on completion of his eight-year tenure in 2023.

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However, eight months after his declaration, it has become palpable that the governor was right that there was nothing legally binding by the party on rotation of governorship among the three senatorial districts of Delta Central, Delta South and Delta North in the state, though by transcendent arrangement, governorship has swapped successively among the three senatorial districts since 1999.

A clear indication that the party was yet to come to terms on the issue of zoning of governorship was at the its last caucus meeting, January 21, at Government House, Asaba, where caucus members from Delta Central and Ijaw in Delta South senatorial districts had it jagged when the state chairman, Chief Kingsley Esiso, introduced the matter of zoning.  

Until date under the new political dispensation, Chief James Ibori from Delta Central governed the state from 1999-2007; Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan from Delta South governed from 2007-2015; and incumbent Senator Okowa from Delta North, who assumed office in 2025 is expected to exit power in 2023.

The rotation of governor or power shift from Delta Central to Delta South and to Delta North actually created a sense of belonging among people, but it was not in truth fashioned by the political class. Unmistakably, it was programmed spiritually.  

Gordian knot

 Esiso had wanted the leaders to consider zoning of governorship in the 2023 election, but two Ijaw governorship aspirants, Senator James Manager representing Delta South senatorial district and Deputy Governor, Deacon Kingsley Otuaro, almost went wild with those proposing zoning should continue with Delta Central.  

Former governors, Chief James Ibori and Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and other PDP leaders attended the meeting, but Governor Okowa, who presided over the caucus, postponed the “evil day” when he ruled that further deliberations on the matter be adjourned to the next caucus in not less than three weeks’ time.  

It was understandable that Delta PDP was heading for self-destruct on zoning of governorship for 2023 elections when the governor interposed, but more than three weeks after, the party is yet to come to terms on the matter.

Ijaw can’t be ambushed —Bozimo

Former Minister of Police Affairs and Leader of Delta-Ijaw for Governor 2023 Lobby Team, Alawoei Broderick Bozimo, has adumbrated copiously Ijaw nation cannot be ambushed politically in a bid to shut them out of their 2023 governorship race.

He said the Ijaw nation was quite unhappy over the manner the issue of zoning was raised at the Delta state PDP caucus meeting, as there was no notice that zoning was going to be discussed describing it as “political ambush.”

Bozimo hollered: “The Ijaw people cannot be shut out, we believe in inclusive government, we believe in the PDP because it is a people -oriented party…I cannot imagine a situation where they would have prevented the Ijaw nation that we could not field a candidate”.

 ”We do not want ambush, to say it is only the Urhobos that should contest amount to changing the goal post in the middle of the game. It is better that we all go to the field to test our popularity and not for any zone to pretend that they are anointed, we will not tolerate that anointing, it must be a level play field for the Ijaw nation.

 ”Urhobos have always contested every governorship primaries and to imagine that the Ijaw nation will be excluded; people who have been loyal to the state, loyal to Nigeria, especially loyal to the governor …to be shut out from a level playing contest would have been a disaster for the state and country.

“All these years the Ijaw people have supported other zones…..we supported Chief James Ibori who is maternally Itsekiri and of course, our own son, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, we stood solidly behind him to become governor and lastly we supported Senator Ifeanyi Okowa from Delta North.

“If you want to zone this political ‘osusu’ that has gone round, the next round should start from Delta South and for justice, fairness and equity the Ijaws should produce the next governor,” he postulated.

We can’t zone on ethnic lines —Amori

Disagreeing with him, National Chairman of Delta Central -2023, DC-23, a lobby group of PDP card-carrying members of Urhobo ethnic extraction, Chief Ighoyota Amori, noted: “Those who want to contest against the aspirants of Delta Central senatorial district have their argument for the governorship seat, likewise us, but we cannot talk of zoning on ethnic lines because the state is made up of various ethnic groups like Urhobo, Ijaw, Itsekiri, Isoko, Ika, Ndokwa, Oshimili, Aniocha and others, hence the appeal from us to maintain the zoning arrangement on the basis of senatorial districts in the state.”

“The claim by some persons that the governorship seat, since it had gone round the three senatorial districts, that it should be done as ‘osusu’ that can start from any district, and that they are canvassing for senatorial district and not ethnic is not right.

“My question is, if not an ethnic agenda, why is it that the Itsekiri and Isokos of Delta South senatorial district are not in their lobby team, like ours that you have leaders of the eight local government areas in the team.

“It is only zoning on senatorial district order that the PDP can continue with its winning streak in the state.

“So, what we are pushing for is how a sustainable system can be established where when it gets to the turn of your senatorial district, no one from other senatorial districts will contest against the benefitting district.

“The argument that Urhobo or other ethnic groups contested during the turn of other senatorial districts will no longer be there,” he clarified.

Delta Central should have it —Delta monarchs

Weighing on the matter when Amori and other DC-23 leaders, recently,  visited Delta North monarchs, the Asagba of Asaba, Obi (Prof) Chike Edozien, leading other Delta North royal fathers, endorsed the Delta Central to produce the next governor of the state in 2023.

The monarchs noted: “Our political class led by Chief Benjamin Elue, Former Deputy Governor and our respected governor, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, who is basically the leader of the political class have not come to tell us that there is change of plan.”

“What I meant as change of plan is because we supported our son, the present governor on the platform that it is the turn of our senatorial district. Since nobody has come to us that the plan has changed, we are giving the DC-23 the blank assurance that the way you received us and the support you gave to us when we crisscrossed round the country, is that same support we will give to you,” the monarchs declared.

Nwaoboshi supports Anioma monarchs

On his part, the Senator representing Delta North senatorial district and Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger-Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, commended and congratulated the monarchs of Anioma extraction, under the aegis of Delta North Traditional Rulers Forum, led by the Asagba of Asaba, Obi (Prof) Chike Edozien, for their firm stand on senatorial zoning for successive occupants of Government House, Asaba.

A one-time chairman of PDP in the state before he defected to All Progressives Congress, APC” Nwaoboshi asserted: ”What is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. The implied understanding, as to which of the senatorial districts should produce the state governor, one after the other should be maintained and be sustained.”

Clark thunders

Nevertheless, South-South leader and elder statesman, Senator Edwin Clark, who is Ijaw from Delta South, slammed Delta North monarchs, saying: ”Asagba is an old man, he should do things that will join all of us together, for him to come to me to say that we, Anioma people, should also be considered for governorship, if it was on senatorial basis, he would not have come to me because it is their right since after the turn of Delta South senatorial district, it will automatically come to them.”

“Who sat down to zone governorship on senatorial basis in Delta state, nobody did. Zoning of governorship office must be based on an agreement or negotiation where either a political party or the people sat down to say that this thing will go on rotation.

“This was not the case in 1999 when all those who contested, particularly the two – Chief James Ibori and Prof Sam Oyovbaire, only the late Philip Elueme from Ukwuani contested with them, so there was no question of who sat down to say the  position was zoned to the Urhobos, there was none.

 ”If the emergence of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan from Delta South in 2006 at Ogwashi -Uku was based on senatorial rotation, then Ibori could not have had trouble with us. We could have said okay, it was zoned to Delta South senatorial district, but our position is that he imposed his cousin on us.

 ”Ijaw is not campaigning for 2023 governorship that it is the turn of Delta South, we are saying that we too want to have it, that we produce most of the oil, we will like to have it, not on the condition of senatorial zone. What Ibori did was in abuse of his office as governor of the state and he paid dearly for it,” the elder statesman stated. 

No more room for ambiguity

PDP, the ruling party in the state, does not have the superfluity of time to continue vacillating on zoning of governorship or otherwise, it is a judgment the party’s caucus, which is its highest decision making organ should immediately make, to be able to put forward its 2023 gubernatorial standard-bearer and kick start campaign for Okowa’s successor.