Basil Okoh
Every one who loves Delta State should be praying for James Ibori to be endowed with the wisdom to help him mend the deep cracks in Delta State APC.
It is obvious that Ibori’s friend and president of Nigeria Bola Tinubu has demanded his intervention in the kerfuffle in APC Delta, Ibori’s state. The world regards James Ibori as the doyen of politics in the state.
APC fell into bad times when it received the entire state chapter of the PDP in defection. The ruling party in the state collapsed and every member including the reigning governor defected to the APC. PDP, continuing in its wayward ways, has sought to strong-arm the APC and seize its organization. The intention has been to run the original members of APC out and take full control of the party. With governor Sheriff as the man with the big purse, PDP has almost mutated into APC in Delta state.
But the main rump of APC is fighting back, trying to circle its wagons in defence of its rights of ownership of the party, but PDP has the money and is riding the momentum created by a president who is determined to bring all governors into the APC. Sheriff too is determined to buy off everyone at APC HQ and own APC in Delta state. So James Ibori has a though job in his hands. How does he persuade Sheriff with tons of money in his hands to be humble and fair, particularly when he has an effective mole working for him in APC EXCO.
The APC National caucus, I believe now exasperated, has taken the matter back to President Tinubu himself for final arbitration and the man has come down to asking Ibori, the doyen of politics in the state to intervene and put the Delta House in order for his election next year.
And then there is a catch. Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, the outgone governor of the state will not accept the arbitration and counsel of James Ibori who he sees as a political rival in the state and who he sees also as standing in his way of control of politics in the state. Okowa would not even accept Ibori as the doyen of politics in Delta state. But you don’t go back in time to change history. James Ibori is the indisputable doyen of politics in Delta state.
The matter can be so easily resolved by simple application of African sense of justice. You cannot ask to take over the house of the kind neighbour who gave you shelter on a rainy day your house fell, even if you provide money for feeding his household. That is what PDP is forcefully asking for by insisting on controlling the organs of the APC in Delta. That forceful demand should not be allowed to prevail. If you were such a diligent manager, your house should not have fallen in the first place. But Ibori must find common grounds for settlement. After all, politicians in Delta State are all soulmates, coming from the same origins and he remains their father.
The leading lights of the new enlarged party must come from its originating parts, APC. The party must grow organically, not from adding parts that are foreign and may not integrate with the original chassis. Added parts cannot form the main frame of a structure, otherwise the structure cannot stand. Every engineer knows that fact.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to peace in Delta APC will be the unrelenting deity called Ifeanyi Okowa. He will not accept Ibori ‘s intervention or counsel. Okowa is the originating instigator of the crisis, pursuing a dual agenda of controlling the executive council of the party and by so doing, guaranteeing for himself, the APC Senate candidacy ticket for Delta North. As is his methods, he is hiding behind the governor of the state, his protégé, to do all these, so that he carries no direct responsibility for rupturing the party and causing trouble.
Okowa clutches on to Delta North political control as a life raft, without which he sinks and submits to political death. He is not popular in Delta North but keeps grasping on to control of party structure to stay relevant. No previous governor of the state does that. Okowa will rather die grasping on to control of party structure even when he is not popular as a candidate because it is the party “structure” that influence the choices for the candidates for elections. That power over the choice of candidates for elections is what he sees as the power base of the party. APC can only make progress when it denies Okowa that control of his perceived powerbase.
Okowa has the opposite to the Midas touch, everything he touches in politics turns to ash. James Ibori left a robust PDP political party as governor in Delta state. Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, though provincial and clueless, had the purity of mind not to plant seeds of discord at the end of his tenure as governor.
But the end of Okowa’s tenure witnessed the largest ever internal political party disputation in Delta state. More than half of the membership of the PDP rejected imposition of candidates by Okowa and against tyranny in other forms and then the Delta Unity Group (DUG) , exigently formed to oppose Okowa, moved against dictatorship and eventually defected into the AAPC
With no capacity to stand on his own ideas or principles, Okowa has followed the rebels shamelessly into APC and is now causing further ruptures and disruptions with his insistence on taking on the powers he had in PDP even without going through a proper election to give him such powers.
To find peace and settlement in APC in Delta state, James Ibori and the grey hairs in APC National Caucus must find a gentle way to prod Okowa out of APC. Otherwise, the party will come to the same closure that happened to PDP in Delta State. APC will come to stew and will find no settlement particularly in Delta North.
It is the lingering aftermaths of the mischiefs and the bad blood Okowa left behind as PDP governor that is roiling the APC now today, and he knows it. If Ibori and the APC caucus do not find the inner strength to sideline the instigators of trouble, then they should stand askance and wait for the old tribulations of the PDP to overwhelm the APC in Delta State before the 2027 elections.
Ibori must dig deep to find the courage to tell Okowa to shape up or ship out.
