2023 election: No dominant party in Delta as electorate set to vote individuals

As the battle for Nigeria’s presidency inches closer to a climax, the electorate in Delta State is aware that the election is a contest between two parties, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The Delta election has symbolic importance, the state being the home state of the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, the incumbent governor of the state.

The importance of Delta is evident in the simple fact that the three leading presidential candidates, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (PDP), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (APC) and Peter Obi of Labour Party, had staged campaign rallies in the state.

After weeks of monitoring political activities and development across the state, Track News findings, however, indicated that there is no dominant political party in Delta State, especially where the presidential election is concerned.

Although, traditionally a PDP state since 1999, the electorate, this time is warming up to vote for individuals and not political parties. This has implications for APC which is seeking to secure votes for all its candidates, an ambitious objective that has been turned into the party’s 5/5 campaign slogan.

That Delta State has been a PDP State since 1999 and now holds little comfort for the ruling party in the state.

It is an easy possibility for the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to lose votes in the presidential election not so much because he selected Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate, but because of the latter’s choice of Sheriff Oborevwori, the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, as the PDP governorship candidate in the State. In many quarters, there is simmering resentment against Okowa for ‘imposing’ Oborevwori on the people of Delta Central. In a worst-case scenario, aggrieved voters might be waiting for election day to pay Governor Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa back in his own coin, in both presidential and governorship polls.

Another uneasy development that cast a dark cloud over PDP’s chance in the coming elections is the silence of the former governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori.

Ibori, who wields a big political influence in the state, has not made any political comments thus far. He has been politically silent, but some of his key men have pitched their tents with the opposition APC.

While his cousin and former governor, Dr Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan is campaigning for Okowa, Oborevwori and other PDP candidates in the state, some analysts averred it is out of a sense of duty, after all, he has been a staunch party man.

Certainly, Uduaghan and Ibori cannot be at political odds.

The stock of APC, on the other hand, has risen spectacularly in the state. The party, this time, might have its way in both the governorship and presidential election in Delta State because the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege had tilled the ground. A man of the people, he is widely accepted by Deltans irrespective of political affiliation and has been tipped to be the next governor of the state.

Omo-Agege, who had been strategic in providing districts transformers, solar lights and empowerments for various communities under his senatorial district, has wormed his way into the hearts of Deltans. More so, the Deputy Senate President is a friend and strong ally of Chief Ibori.

The odds that favour APC has given the party sufficient electoral sinew to slug it out with PDP in Delta North while maintaining its vice-grip on its strongholds in Delta Central and parts of Delta South (Isoko, Ijaw (Gbaramatu) and Itsekiri axis) of the state.

The positive developments have given the Delta State APC Publicity Secretary, E.V. Onojeghuo hope as he conveyed to Track News correspondent in a text message: “In the first instance, the status of APC as the dominant party in Delta State is right now beyond contestation.”

Citing the mammoth crowds that graced the party’s ward-to-ward campaigns across the state as one of the bases of his optimism, Onojeghuo also substantiated his claim with a more tangible development: A series of defections of thousands of former members of PDP, particularly the Delta Unity Group that recently collapsed its statewide structures into the party.

What’s more, there is no division amongst the leaders of the Delta State APC, he enthused.

“All the leaders of the party are working very hard to deliver their respective units and wards for the party, hence we have the rallying slogan of win your unit 5/5. This is the driving desire of every leader to deliver their units and wards,” he further averred.

The presidential campaign spokesman of the PDP in Delta State, Commissioner for Information Ehiedu Charles Aniagwu neither picked up his calls nor responded to a message sent to him.

Aside from APC and PDP, other parties have not shown the zeal and strength that can win an election.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, is restricted to only Abraka, Ethiope-East Local Government Area, the only stronghold of Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru who is contesting the governorship