IT WAS SUICIDAL FOR NWOKO TO CHALLENGE OKOWA

By Williams Eghebi 

There are different reasons politicians contest elections. Some do it for pecuniary benefits while there are politicians that contest elections for social mobility even when it is obvious that they will be beaten flatly. Some run for elections with an inner conviction to win though they have no intention to positively influence changes in terms of human and physical developments. Only very few seek the mandate of the people with honest desire of using the victory to meet the multi-faceted needs of the people irrespective of partisan leaning. 

Alhaji Ned Munir Nwoko sought election into the House of Representatives in 1999 because he wanted both fame and money. As it was not possible to achieve the twin-goal, he repeatedly contested futilely until he rode on the ladder presented by Senator Ifeanyi Okowa to become a senator in 2023. In spite of his soft wealth, the politician was unable to tick some boxes. The quest to fill the holes may have led him into marrying a damsel with wide social media presence. Each complemented the deficiency of the other: money and fame. 

Despite riding on the crest of Senator Okowa to national assembly, he refused to enrol into Okowa School of Pragmatic Politics. Instead of relating with the party, delivering democratic dividends and building harmonious relationships with other legislators in the state as well as the governor, he made himself an emperor, Lord of the Manor, locking his ears against engagements. He turned into a leader and the led.

The people of Delta North(Anioma), kept their calendars at strategic points, chalking off days to calculate the remaining days, weeks and months left, waiting for an opportunity to replace him. While the clock ticks slowly, Senator Ned Nwoko told the world that he had a drug addict as wife and bedmate. This admission and incapacity to handle the issue privately paints him as a man not worthy to captain the political team of Delta North.  

When Senator Ifeanyi Okowa eventually succumbed to pressure and blackmail to contest for the senate, many observers and political analysts thought it was an opportunity for Alhaji Ned Nwoko to quietly walk away to political retirement. Instead, he flaunted his pride and arrogance more vigorously to the disdain of the people. Alighting from a private jet that dropped him at Asaba Airport, he announced his intention to return to the Senate in the presence of his cheerleaders and baggage-bearers as well as scornfully staring airport staff.  But for his teetotaler status, many would have subscribed his intention to challenge Senator Okowa as a Dutch courage. 

Senator Okowa is not a man that you must love all the time. After all, one who makes difficult decisions should not expect a pat on the back always. In the midst of the interplay of human nature in him, Okowa is a man whose political pedigree is not only intimidating but on a geometric rise. A man who served as secretary to local government from where he became chairman of local government. A man who was a commissioner for about eight years and later secretary to state government. A man who was a senator for a term before serving as governor for two uninterrupted terms. A man who almost became the Vice President of Nigeria. If you must throw your hat into the ring against such elephantine figure, you must ensure your passage notes are handy. 

I was blaming the minders of Nwoko for their impotent punches on social media platforms until I listened to his incoherent bytes on television. Like father, like son. How can a serving senator, a lawyer and an aspirant say in front of cameras that he relied on a message on his phone that results of the primaries would be announced in Abuja? Though he was shy to give out the source of the message, any statement of such importance would be to the public rather than to individuals. Again, he looked like a kindergarten when he stated that his people nudged him to announce the result of party primaries. He literally made himself an aspirant and electoral officer. Without any iota of immodesty, Senator Ned Nwoko brought Delta North political years to ground zero.

When the leadership of the party opted for direct primaries, I was convinced that the current senator would be able to get up to five percent of the votes. This stems from the incontrovertible fact that the party leadership he treated with scorn and levity would not give him a look-in in a consensus option. That he abysmally did not show meaningful presence was enough for him to hide his face instead of gyrating from one television studio to another, advertising falsehoods and political immaturity. The people of Delta North are not ready to bat an eyelid over a senator profusely crying like an urchin whose lollipop fell into a pit toilet. 

How can a senator absent at ward, local, senatorial and state congresses of the party held few months ago, pick the flag of the party? How can a senatorial aspirant who chose not to visit the executives of the party at the ward, local and senatorial levels be supported to attain his political ambition?

This is not the best of time to challenge Senator Okowa in an election. The bruises of the 2023 elections are yet to heal completely. He harbours no malice for the voting behaviour of our people in 2023 but he is painstakingly working hard to ensure that outcomes of future elections in Delta North did not reflect that pattern.  The energy he deployed during his consultation tour of the nine local government areas of Delta North clearly showed a man with a mission. The electoral annihilation of Senator Nwoko is a rehearsal of what to expect in future elections. The votes for Okowa in 2027 will be a loud statement engineered by supporters working hard to consolidate their political future. 

It is the patient that survives sickness that bears tales of its devastitation. The unlucky ones groan in the morgues. Senator Nwoko should use the remaining 370 days left in his membership of the red chamber to reconcile with Delta North for his woeful representation. Let the restitution start now. 

# Williams Eghebi, is Senior Special Assistant on Media to Delta State Governor.