DELTA PDP - MUCH ADO ABOUT COUNCIL POLLS







ONE PRIMARIES MANY HEADACHES

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Primaries for elections into the Council Areas in Delta State have come and gone but the aftershocks of that primaries will be with us perhaps even after the main elections scheduled for October 25th 2014

The headlines are similar “Crisis brews in Delta over Imposition of Chairmanship Candidate”; "Delta Council Poll: Alleged Imposition of Candidates Tear PDP Apart” The Guardian Sunday 10 August, 2014; "LG Polls: Delta PDP hand-pick Candidates, Protest Spreads" Nigerian Pilot August 20, 2014; "LG Poll: Crisis rocks delta PDP over Ibori's 'imposition'" The Eagle Online August 18, 2014; "LG Polls: Delta PDP picks Candidates Amidst Allegation of Extortion." Leadership August 20, 2014  etc

The one that caught my attention was one credited to Ijaw Political Front of Warri South – West Local Government Area with office address of Ikeremi Quarter, Oporoza. Oporoza remember is home of High Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo. In a full page advertorial in the Vanguard of August 15, 2014 the group stated that they reject the imposition of the Chairmanship candidate for the Warri South-West Council Area Mr. Omadeli Weyinmi aka Bobby.
It is noteworthy to recollect that it is this same local Government’s Location and Relocation back in 1997/98 that lead to what is now termed the Warri Crisis. More worrisome is the fact that this strong dissent is coming from Tompolo’s Community a major player in the crisis and its resolution even though there is no indication that the group enjoys the support of High Chief Ekpemupolo.

Delta State last held it’s Council Polls in May/June 2008 and Some are of the opinion that it’s in order to avoid such acrimony that perhaps account for why many States including Delta had refused to conduct Council Polls and that the State Governor who will be handing over to another Governor May 28, 2015 may as well put off the elections.

While am not in position to ascertain if Candidates were imposed or not, going by the litany of Protest it will be fair to say that the Leadership of the Party at both the State and Ward levels have a lot of work to do in resolving whatever is the grievances of Party members in all Council Areas where there is discontent with either the choice of Candidate or the process.

It was Scranton and Chadwick who said “When followers fail to exercise the Power they possess over their Leaders, especially electorate power, the Leaders most often assume that they have the legitimacy to engage in Political Criminality and irregularities.” I hope that is not the scenario playing out in Delta State?


If indeed over 90 percent of the Candidates in the forthcoming Council Polls are imposed as alleged in some media reports, the Government ought to revisit the exercise and make corrections where necessary and in as much as possible carry not just the Leadership but the entire electorate along in the process. To despise the voters in any electioneering process is to accentuate the long held belief that Government officials are arrogant because the votes of the people do not count and that what we have in Nigeria is selection and not election. We must do everything possible to ensure that the process that produces candidates for elective offices is not only Free and fair but Transparent. Anything on the contrary will spell doom for our nascent Democracy.


Am very confident that His Excellency Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, has all it takes to sort out these pockets of dissent in these Council Areas. Being a major player in the previous administration and one committed to maintaining the hard won Peace in the State, he will not do anything to precipitate Crisis in the State. The Governors knowledge of the State, the Local Government Areas and the Wards is amazing. He is a grassroot politician who is in touch with all major actors and stakeholders in the State. He has done well for the State in his almost Eight years in office and is set to finish strong. Will this council Polls be his Achilles heel?

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