Tag: Delta 2015

As the count-down to the 2015 general election gathers momentum across the country, a lot of politicians – the pretenders, the down-right-unserious, the serious, the rank outsiders, the true contenders as well as the ‘anointed’ are throwing their hats in the political ring for one position or the other. In all of these categories however, one characteristic remains constant- the courage to dare.

Knowing the treacherous character of politics, especially of the Nigerian hew, it, in fact, demands a huge dose of courage for anyone to aspire to any elective position. But that is as far as the element of courage goes. To be able to galvanise the needed groundswell of enthusiasm, support, and actually emerge victorious at the end of the day, requires much more than courage. Here intellectual acumen, vision equally matched by a road map and implementation strategies, charisma as well as the human touch, are the irreducible minimum.

To be sure, not so many politicians in our clime are endowed with such leadership qualities. But the few so endowed have them in abundance. Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Olejeme is one of the rare few amongst us. Born in Asaba, Delta State on December 18th, 1961, Olejeme is the quintessential candidate any electorate should hope for in an election year. An intellectual, accomplished entrepreneur, astute administrator, philanthropist without borders, and a visionary par excellence, Dr Olejeme has all it takes to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best and brightest in Delta State. Fortunately, she has not disappointed those who have long seen her as a leader. She has expectedly thrown in her hat in the gubernatorial ring of the oil-rich Delta State.

Olejeme brings to the table a reputation of extraordinary successes borne out of personal industry in both private and public life. In the private sector, she is Chairman/CEO of some reputable companies that are presently, true national institutions, employing thousands of Nigerians and foreigners alike. She is Chairman/CEO Able JES Nig. Ltd; Chairman/CEO, Fresh Energy Nig. Ltd; as well as Executive Director, JULIND Nig. Ltd. She had also previously been Chairman, Board of Directors of several public institutions, including the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund and Trust Fund Pensions Plc. She has also served as member, Board of Directors of several companies, including the Ajaokuta Steel Company Ltd, Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) as well as Sheraton Hotels and Towers, amongst others.

Politically, Olejeme is no neophyte. Apart from featuring prominently as one of the contenders in the PDP gubernatorial primary in Delta State in 2007, she was also the Director of Finance, Goodluck Support Group (GSG) in 2007 and only recently, the Federal Government (female) Delegate representing the South-South region in the just- concluded National Conference (2014).

Although the foregoing towering credentials aptly qualify Olejeme to vie for the top executive job in Delta State, she is not running on these alone. She is certainly running on a New Vision for her beloved state. It is a vision borne out of a passion for service to man, God and country (state).

At different fora and interview sessions, Olejeme has spoken passionately about her dream for Delta State. Although she believes in the consolidation and continuity of the present governor’s mantra of “Delta Beyond Oil”, she wants to take this one notch higher- certainly a Delta Beyond Oil, but one that is anchored on participatory democracy, inclusive growth and equal opportunity for all citizens of the state. She believes agriculture holds the key to the actualisation of the ‘Delta Beyond Oil’ philosophy. As she puts it in a recent interview: “Delta Beyond Oil is a programme that must of necessity be encouraged and sustained for the good of our state. One way to do this is to embark on large scale agricultural farms to employ thousands of workers directly and create tens of thousands of jobs indirectly”. She says this can be accomplished through the training of youths on agricultural models which they would eventually take up as businesses, institute agricultural credit schemes in the state, provide tools, fertilizers and improved seedlings, amongst others. Apart from encouraging the formation of farmers’ cooperative societies, she says under her agricultural master plan, the state will be divided into three “agricultural zones, each producing crops in which it has comparative advantage over others”.

The very hopeful gubernatorial aspirant spoke further about her vision. “My vision is inspired by the passion to serve and uplift the people of Delta State to greater heights. It is a clear goal that seeks to harness the huge potentials and capabilities in the human and material resources available in the state and ensure an all-inclusive growth and development of our beloved state”.

Olejeme also has a great blueprint on enhancing education, healthcare delivery, housing, industrial development, security, sports, youth and women empowerment, rural and urban renewal, transportation and infrastructural development and expansion; especial in the area of road construction.

She has no illusions about the huge governance task ahead as the potential chief executive of a state, but she remains confident in her abilities to not only meet, but also surpass the expectations of Deltans when given the opportunity to serve. This confidence is certainly borne out of her track record of successes in the past in both the private and public sectors. “My record is there for all to see”, she enthused.

At the last count, over 15 aspirants have indicated interest to vie for the post of governorship of Delta state. We cannot begrudge or deny anyone his or her constitutional right to vie for any office in the land, including Delta State. The sky, as the saying goes, is big enough for all birds to fly.

It is however hoped that the tragedy of the Nigerian situation where merit, competence and suitability for office are often relegated to the background in favour of mediocrity, nepotism, god-fatherism and candidate ‘anointing’ would not be allowed to derail, once again, the gubernatorial ambition of this amazing Amazon with a vision and mission to consolidate and regenerate the fortunes of Delta State. Only time would tell.

•Omonigho  wrote  in  from  Asaba

The intrigues of the 2015 gubernatorial election in Delta State have started with the usual claims of politicians assuming larger than life image. It is even more worrisome that those who ought to know the political intricacies in the state are already fanning the embers of tribal sentiments.

The report credited to the Secretary to Delta State Government, Ovouzourie Macaulay, on Monday, 20th January, 2014 that no power shift pact exists among the three senatorial districts of the state is the high point of executive rascality coming from the SSG. His baseless, half-truth and misinformed analysis of events in the state’s politics has exposed his ignorance and shows how intellectually bereft the SSG could be.

Looking at the issues that Macaulay raised in his analysis of the campaign slogan of ‘’fairness and equity’’ by Anioma/Delta North gubernatorial contenders, it is rather strange and mischievous that the SSG could interpret the campaign slogan to mean vendetta against other senatorial districts in the state. What an uninformed interpretation of a simple phrase!

I am surprised that the SSG accused the aspirants of negative campaign against the past leaders of the state. Agreed that the SSG is doing his job by defending the institution that puts food on his table, but if the truth must be told, both present and past leaders of the state failed woefully. I advise him to visit Akwa Ibom State and make a comparative analysis.

M r. Macaulay goofed woefully when he asserted that people from Delta North and their leaders did not vote for Uduaghan wholeheartedly during the 2011 gubernatorial election. The fact is that out of the nine local government councils in the senatorial zone, Uduaghan won five while Great Ogboru, the candidate of Democratic People’s Party, won four.  Mr. Macaulay, the self-acclaimed member of G3 (Association of the Ijaws, Isoko and the Itsekiri’s), lost his Isoko North local government council to the opposition in the said election. What a paradox, the SSG failed to look at other elections conducted in the state since 1999. It is either he is suffering from memory failure (amnesia) or he is a poor student of history.

Let me remind the SSG that the PDP under Governor James Ibori won all the nine local government areas in Anioma area in 1999. In the 2003 gubernatorial election, the feat was repeated across the senatorial zone. The Aniomas voted for Uduaghan in the 2007 governorship election overwhelmingly. The incumbent governor had a landslide victory in the area. The SSG in his spurious and mischievous claims deliberately denied this obvious fact just to score a cheap political point. I wonder why a high government functionary of the status of the SSG could result to flagrant distortion of contemporary historical facts.

He equally alleged thus: “I am afraid that people like us will not support an Anioma person for the governorship as we are afraid.’’ Someone should please ask him his political pedigree that makes him think that Aniomas need his support to produce the next governor. Even as a high ranking commissioner with all the paraphernalia of executive powers, he could not deliver his local government to the PDP in the last election in the state.  The truth is that the Aniomas are not ignorant of the clandestine move that the SSG is nursing towards being imposed as the next governor of Delta State.

He may be an insider in the Uduaghan- led government, but what is his political standing in the state? I do not want to describe him as a political neophyte; he is certainly a political opportunist. He came into the state’s political limelight albeit controversially when Governor James Ibori appointed him committee chairman of internally displaced persons of Ijaw/Itsekiri crisis. His abysmal failure and funds misappropriation is a story for another day.

The late literary legend, Chinua Achebe, in his classical book, “Things Fall Apart” advised several decades ago that “those whose palm kernel were broken for them by some benevolent spirits should learn to be humble’’. In advanced climes where merit and competence are cardinal considerations for appointment in government, the likes of Macaulay Ovouzourie can never come close to the corridors of power, not to talk of being a secretary to the state government.

The SSG also said he is afraid that if anybody from Anioma is elected as governor, the person may seek for vengeance.  This means the SSG is already aware that the Anioma people are not being fairly treated in their own state – Delta.  And if that be the case, shouldn’t all of us be thinking of how to redress the injustice instead of one of us scheming to remain in power in perpetuity?

There is a saying that you can fool some people sometimes but you can’t fool all the people all the time.

Back to the issue at stake, the Aniomas are poised to produce the next governor of Delta State come 2015. It is clear to all right-thinking Deltans that all the aspirants from Delta North senatorial zone who have already declared their intentions to contest for the governorship election are men and women of impeccable and unblemished pedigree. The likes of serving senator Ifeanyi Okowa, erudite Professor Sylvester Monye, the Presidential Adviser on Project Monitoring, Hon Victor Ochei, Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, among other contenders, distinguished Nigerians with track records of service and requisite experience to take our dear Delta State to a higher height.

In summary, these words of the SSG can best be described (according to Chuba Okadigbo of blessed memory) as reprehensible ranting of an ant.

•Uju wrote in from Issele-Uku in Delta State

The uncertainty that has characterised the race for the Delta State government house in 2015 seems far from being over with the speculated interest of presidential aide, Professor Sylvester Monye, reports Remi Adelowo

Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, seems to be in a fix of sorts.

The dilemma of the medical doctor-turned-politician may not be unconnected to the schemings among leading political stakeholders and powerful interests within and outside the state to determine who succeeds him in 2015.

In the last six months when political discussions in the state have centred on Uduaghan’s likely successor, the governor on his part has remained coy on the subject.

Sources disclosed that so tactful has the governor been in discussing the issue that in both private and public functions, he has kept insisting that only God and the people of Delta State will determine his successor in 2015.

With the vociferous agitation by Delta North senatorial zone (Anioma) that it is its turn to produce the next governor of the state, coupled with the increasing number of governorship aspirants from the other two senatorial zones, observers fear that the contest for the exalted position, particularly in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may turn out more acrimonious than imagined.

At the last count, over 15 aspirants from across the three senatorial zones in the state have reportedly signified their interest to contest for the 2015 PDP governorship ticket.

They include the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Victor Ochei; Senator representing Delta North, Ifeanyi Okowa; former acting governor of the state, Sam Obi; Chief of Staff to Governor Uduaghan, member of the House of Representatives, Ndidi Elumelu and Festus Okunbor (Delta North).

Making the list from Delta South where the incumbent governor hails from are the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe and former minister and businessman, Kenneth Gbagi.

The new mega party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is also not short of governorship hopefuls. Vice Chairman, Standard Alliance Group, O’tega Emerhor took not a few people by surprise when he announced his ambition via newspaper advertorials to rejoice over the emergence of APC. He hails from Delta Central.

In the north senatorial zone, a retired Airforce sports and physical education instructor, Ben Williams, has also signalled his desire to vie for the APC ticket.

And back to the intrigues in the PDP for the governorship ticket. A few weeks ago, news filtered out that the Special Adviser on Performance Monitoring and Evaluation to President Goodluck Jonathan, Professor Sylvester Monye, may have also thrown his hat into the ring.

That his entry created quite some buzz within the Delta State political terrain was understandable.

The heavyweights behind Monye

The Nation reliably gathered that some prominent indigenes of Delta State of Anioma extraction are reportedly backing the governorship ambition of Monye.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who hails from Ogwachi Uwku like Monye and former CEO, United Bank for Africa and now helmsman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, have been mentioned as some of the powerful individuals rooting for the presidential aide.

In the calculation of Monye’s backers, selling his candidacy to the president will not be too much of a problem, it was further learnt.

This group, according to insiders, believes that the next governor Delta State needs is a proven technocrat who is not tied to the apron strings of the old order. Monye, it was argued, perfectly fits the bill.

If the president succumbs to the pressure to back Monye’s aspiration, it is believed that the task of installing him as the next governor of the South South state is halfway accomplished.

Can Delta North reach a consensus?

Like in most states in the country where the issue of zoning of the governorship seat has taken the front burner, Delta State is not an exception.

The unwritten zoning policy which favours the North senatorial district to produce Uduaghan’s successor may have informed the high number of aspirants from the zone, a development observers fear, may prove the achilles heels of the area to actualise this objective.

Before Monye’s governorship ambition became public knowledge, the Delta North boasts of aspirants with the clout and resources to run a good race.

Leading the pack was the youthful Speaker of the House of Assembly, Victor Ochei, an engineer; Okowa, who before his election as a senator was a former commissioner and Secretary to the State Government; Okunbor, a former Commissioner for Information during the administration of ex-Governor James Ibori and the current Chief of Staff.

Before his current appointment, Okunbor served as the Deputy Director-General of the the governor’s campaign organisation, a position that reportedly brought about his close relationship with the governor.

For Okowa, his supporters claim that he deserves to be chosen as the consensus governorship candidate of PDP from Delta North based on his political antecedents as a former local government chairman, commissioner, SSG and now senator. They are also quick to refer to his loyalty to the party, having stepped down for the current governor in 2007 despite reportedly winning the PDP governorship primaries.

Ochei’s camp is also optimistic of his chances. A Fellow of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), the speaker who also boasts an MBA from the University of Benin, a degree in law from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and certificates in leadership and goverance from Oxford and Havard Universities in the United Kingdom and United States respectively, has been busy holding consultations across the state on his speculated ambition.

Within the governor’s camp, there are unconfirmed reports that he is favourably disposed to Okunbor’s aspiration. However, this notion was quickly dimissed by other sources who insist that the governor will throw his weight behing whoever emerges the candidate of the party.

With the calibre of the aspirants from Delta North, observers say the earlier the zone sorts out the issue of the consensus candidate, the better for the zone, as aspirants from Delta Central and Delta South are waiting to catch in on the perceived disunity among the aspirants in the Delta North once the battle for the governorship race gets under way.

Does Monye fit the bill?

A greenhorn in politics, Monye is, however, a technocrat of high standing.

Said to have attained his professorship in his late 30’s, the presidential adviser was a former Director of Marketing at the Nigeria Development Tourism Corporation (NDTC) during the tenure of Mrs. Omotayo Omotosho as the Director-General.

He is also a former Permanent Secretary of the National Planning Commssion (NPC) and also currently serves as the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Port Reforms.

With the speculation that Monye may allegedly be imposed as the PDP 2015 governorship candidate gathering momentum, it remains to be seen how the party will navigate through the attendant crisis that will likely trail this decision.