By Gab Ejuwa
IT is rightly said that politics is a game of number, conflict and compromise. It is a game of transitory alliances but permanent interests, even when there are no permanent friends and foes. In the entire nation as the year 2011 is fast approaching the political fervour is increasing, interests are allying and old alliances are shifting like quicksand.

In Delta State, an interesting and curious scenario is playing out between the incumbent Governor and Deltans and between the Governor and his compatriots who are eager to replace him in Government House, Asaba, come 2011. It is a groundswell of political stridency and volatility with which political pundits and bookmakers are having a field day, a decidedly compelling efflorescence which can be called the battle of the Deltan titans.

More than ever, the fate of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan’s second term bid seems to be hanging on the balance, despite the media binge of Deltans endorsing the stethoscope-hanging doctor on account of his much-trumpeted brilliant achievements in office. Who are the gladiators in this epic struggle of monumental import? And what other factors and personalities, apart from the sabre-rattling combatants, are likely to tip the scale of electoral victory one way or the other?

Dr. Uduaghan: He is easily the most likely candidate to be doing the victory lap next year round Government House Asaba if the  chorus of endorsements in the media occasioned by the success of the much-touted three-point agenda is anything to go by. Besides, it is on record  that Uduaghan won the CBN Award for the most investment-friendly Governor; implying that he has proven himself in the industrialisation of his state.

He also has his native wisdom and charisma to recommend him to Deltans, apart from his leadership role among the oil-producing states governors

Prof. Saliba Mukoro: A serious threat to the Uduaghan’s bid, this erudite anti-establishmental scholar and intellectual is one of the most brilliant minds to come out of Delta State.  Although presently out of the country, this stormy petrel has vowed to come back home to enrich the Nigerian democracy by truly returning power to the people if elected governor of Delta State in the year 2011.

And he must, I think, be taken seriously for he has the intellectual arsenal to make his candidacy real. Here is a man who by dint of brilliance bagged his Ph.D in Criminology while a junior officer in the army.

Mukoro, a Professor at the Mississippi Valley State University, USA has a cult following in Delta.
Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru: Another name bound to send chills up the spine of the double-talking Babangida, Great, as he is fondly called by his cronies, is a dyed-in-the- wool anti-establishment figure like Professor Mukoro who single-handedly financed the Gideon Orkar’s coup.

This is a man who knows his own mind and is not likely to suffer fools gladly. As he had caused Babangida untold embarrassment making him to tuck his tail between his legs and run hell-for-leather out of Lagos to Abuja – so can he still cause an incumbent governor same by snatching his swivelling seat from under him.

Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi: The former Chairman of Legal Aid Council, although certainly not in the league of Professor Mukoro and Chief Great Ogboru, is nonetheless poised to upset Uduaghan’s apple cart in the forthcoming polls, if he gets his political permutation and acts together.

Firmly convinced of the suitability of his pedigree, our amiable learned friend is resolved to have the Bible in one hand and a sword in the other to protect the sacredness of the people’s votes.

Chief Kpokpogiri is another big threat from the Isoko nation. Others in the race that Uduaghan will contend with are Elder Godswill Orubebe, current Minister of Niger Delta and Chief Ovie Omo Agege.

As to the other factors and personalities likely to tip the scales of victory…

Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark: A monumental and overwhelming Niger Delta statesman and leader of thought, his threat is not so much competitive as influential.

It is an open secret that for some time now, in fact even from the beginning, it has been glaring that this influential octogenarian has not been particularly convinced of the suitability of Uduaghan as the ideal candidate for the swivelling leather-padded chair at the Governor’s office in Asaba, believing as some people do, that the Ibori-Uduaghan dynasty must be broken to give the relatively young state a new lease of life and image.