ANALYSING OKOWA’S PAN DELTAN MAKEUP
By Michael Tidi
In a manner completely devoid of reason or factuality, a host of clueless commentators have been going to town trying to cast Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa in the mould of an ethnic champion. While Governor Okowa has studiously refused to join issues with them, ironically, the Governor can actually boast of coming to power on the most all-embracing pan-Deltan platform ever assembled in the state. In the first place he was an aspirant who though hailing from Delta North Senatorial District never keyed into the so-called Anioma Agenda many other aspirants relied on as their chief qualification for the gubernatorial race. Furthermore, he relied more on political heavyweights and stakeholders from the two other Senatorial Districts of Delta Central and Delta South as the main facilitators and drivers of his campaign. The Director General of his campaign organization as an aspirant was Rt. Hon. Festus Agas, the present Secretary to the State Government, SSG, from Delta Central a leadership role handed over to Professor Sam Oyovbaire when he became candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
Apart from other key players from Delta Central, there were unquestionably influential participants from Itsekiri, Ijaw, Isoko and even Urhobo areas of Delta South as well. While an impressive contingent of political heavyweights pitched in from Delta North, it is noteworthy that throughout the campaigns, the leaders of Team Okowa from Delta Central and Delta South were never figure heads in any way. Not only did they have real power and control over the structure and operations of the campaign organization, in one way or the other, every participant from both the Governor’s Ika ethnic nationality and the wider Anioma axis of Delta North were all answerable to their bosses from Delta Central and Delta South. As a member of the team I can authoritatively attest to that. Okowa’s campaign philosophy and the makeup of his electioneering team thus made his aspiration easily attractive to stakeholders from these two Senatorial Districts, a development that in conjunction with similarly massive support from Delta North only served to consolidate his candidature into a solid pan-Deltan juggernaut that became the widely sought after bride across the state.
While a few one-sided individuals have tried to insinuate ethnic colouration into some of the Governor’s actions so far, part from the Governor himself, the two most senior officials in the executive arm are his SSG from Delta Central and his Chief of Staff, Rt. Hon. Tam Brisibe from Delta South. Also crucial to Governor Okowa’s pan-Deltan status is the composition of the State Executive Council, as so far constituted, in which anything but an Ika or Anioma Agenda is visible. There is no indication whatsoever that the Governor has given preference with regard to number of Commissioners or allocation of portfolios to either the Ikas or other Anioma people. Equally interesting is the state-wide spread of the aides Governor Okowa has appointed so far. Not only are Ikas a minority amongst his aides, the total number of the Governor’s aides from Delta North as a whole is dwarfed by those of us from Delta Central and South with many of the more critical portfolios, duties and schedules being manned by persons who are not in any way from Anioma.
Significantly, the Governor is on record to have authorized release of funds for only one project thus far. Against the backdrop of the onerous financial challenges currently facing the state, an ethnic jingoist would have been more inclined to concentrate on projects in his immediate locality. On the contrary, the project the Governor made provision for is Sapele Main Market in far away Delta Central, a project over which he was people-oriented enough o appeal to His Royal Majesty, Orhue I, the Orodje of Okpe to ensure will benefit the original traders in the market before it was burnt many years ago. I doubt that there are many Ikas or Aniomas who own shops in Sapele Market. While the naysayers and their cohorts may choose to continue spinning baseless tales of a nonexistent ethnic agenda in the state, the truth remains that they lack even an iota of evidence to substantiate their concocted accusations. Unfortunately for them, they will only continue to be exposed as the real ethnic champions in the state as the people of Delta continue to witness their detribalized Governor delivering on his pan-Deltan vision for the state.
Tidi, Special Assistant on News Media to Governor Okowa, wrote in from Asaba.

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