BY JESUTEGA ONOKPASA

The Delta gubernatorial debate, which held on the 24th of March, 2015 turned out to be one of the strangest events in the build up to the Governorship elections thus far. It was an event that had long been anticipated by Deltans across all three Senatorial Districts with the organizers having gone the extra mile in sensitizing the electorate on the importance of the debate.

The first bizarre occurrence was a last minute communication to the organizers right there at the venue by Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, Governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to the effect that he was not going to show up! Immediately thereafter, as if acting out a script, Chief Great Ogboru, his Labour Party counterpart, stood up and walked out of the venue with his supporters in tow!

Interestingly, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor of the All Progressives Congress, APC, remained unfazed and sat quietly insisting that the debate would not be a flop in consideration of Deltans who had long anticipated it as well as the organizers who had spent a fortune organizing it. Chief Ogboru later returned only to disappoint the crowd once more by giving what I would consider to be a remarkably lame excuse to the effect that he would not participate in the debate unless Okowa was present!

What was intended to be a robust debate amongst the three main contenders for the Governorship of Delta, suddenly began to pan out as a one man show in which O’tega remained the last man standing to the delight and appreciation of both the audience and the organizers whose entire efforts would have been in vain but for the boldness and forthrightness of the APC candidate.

All alone on stage like a lone ranger determined to do whatever it takes for the good of his people no matter what it takes, O’tega Emerhor proceeded to answer question after question put to him both by the moderator and the distinguished panelists which included ace broadcasters Donald Ovberedjor and Adesuwa Oyenokwe as well as the highly cerebral Professor Emina. It was the quintessential master class as the APC flag bearer issued response after response with astonishing clarity on straightforward and feasible programmes he was obviously passionate about for the purpose of rescuing Delta from sixteen years of PDP misrule.

While I was initially confused by the strangeness of a medical doctor refusing to be involved in the debate with a banker and industrialist and why Ogboru similarly refused to debate him on the perplexing ground that he would only debate if Okowa was present, something O’tega later said placed the entire affair in clear perspective to me.

O’tega informed the audience that he had been uncomfortable with the organizers having placed him in the middle separating Okowa from Ogboru in their billboards advertising the debate. At the Grand Hotel, Asaba venue of the debate, the organizers had rearranged the participants with Okowa in the middle and O’tega and Ogboru on either side. O’tega thereupon thanked the organizers that in so doing they had unwittingly shown to Deltans that both Okowa and Ogboru were working together, noting that both men would be voting for President Jonathan while he would be voting for General Buhari.

Varied opinions are presently gaining currency in places like Sapele, Warri, Effurun, Ughelli, Oleh, Obiaruku, and the state capital Asaba pertaining to the debate. While almost everyone acknowledges the fact that it takes a bold man to stand alone and present his manifesto with the clarity of vision of a man on a determined mission to rescue his people, an assortment of conspiracy theories are equally flying around in the state. One school of thought claims that Okowa and Ogboru had apparently planned to combine forces against O’tega and when Okowa failed to show up, Ogboru simply lost the nerve to engage O’tega one on one.

At any rate, regardless of the truth or otherwise of this assertion, something Ogboru himself said while withdrawing from the debate would appear to lend credence to this idea. He said something along the following lines: “…Since my main contender, Okowa is not here, I cannot participate. Whenever he is ready to debate I will be here…” In this fantasy assessment of his prospects in the election, Ogboru of Labour Party – a party without even one Governor or Senator – rather comically sought to portray the game changing O’tega of APC, a party with an assortment of Governors and about half of the members of the National Assembly, as the underdog! What a fairy tale!

Many of us had long suspected Ogboru’s sudden romance with the PDP to the extent of printing posters of himself and Jonathan while Okowa was doing the exact same thing! We had pointed out that despite the laughable assurances of the likes of Joe Omene who tried to convince the Urhobo that Jonathan would stab his fellow and loyal party man, Okowa and switch his support to Ogboru, what the PDP is actually up to is what it does best: execute a grand political scam on the unsuspecting masses making up the electorate, use them and then dump them as usual.

By refusing to feature in the debate against O’tega, the agent of change, who was present with him at the event, Ogboru will have a difficult task convincing the good people of Delta that he is not working for PDP to retain Delta State in the PDP fold for another four if not eight years of merciless misrule and miserable underdevelopment.

 Barr. Jesutega Onokpasa,  178 Sapele/Warri Road, Sapele,Delta State.

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