RE: IJAW DIEHARD QUEST FOR DELTA GOVERNMENT HOUSE: CAN OKOWA BE TRUSTED?

By Anslem Etolor

Ordinarily it will make no sense responding to a man who we all know has a deficiency with his character when it comes to speaking the truth. Fejiro Oliver is known for blackmailing the Governor at every turn just to please his pay masters and at the same time, look like an advocate of the people when in actual sense he is out to do a hatchet job.

But as a student of Nigeria government and politics, i believe that if you refuse to tell your side of the story, people will believe the lies written about you once they are left unchallenged. That is the primary reason why i have decided respond to the phantom claims made by Fejiro Oliver who ordinarily is supposed to be a partner in progress.

Reading the tales written by Fejiro, one will only but see that the man clearly does not understand what it requires to be a journalist of noble repute. His submissions can only point to the fact that, he is someone who has lost every smack of decency required of the noble profession.

Three fundamental issues that needs to be addressed his spurious essay are the issue of governance, session and the Ijaw nationality.

Let us first answer why Governor Okowa will not concern himself with the pedestrian issue of who succeeds him in 2023, when he has just spent barely 7 months into a four year term goes to show that the writer is not sensitive enough to know the difference between governance and politics at time and such argument is too premature.

Gov Okowa is too preoccupied with the daunting task of governance and his promise of delivering a stronger Delta with utmost priority on infrastructural, economic and human capital development, than to start distracting himself with the politics of who succeeds him.

Secondly, Gov Okowa is a party man who believes in the supremacy of the party and allows the organs of the party to carry out its functions without interfering in the process. Therefore, when we we get to the bridge of who succeeds him, it will entirely become the responsibility of the party to midwife the processes leading to the emergence of the candidate of the peoples democratic party because the Governor and his team will be more interested in finishing strong.

For those who have good memory will remember that during the last general election, Gov Okowa ensured that there was transparency in the party primaries for various offices which resulted in overall victory for the party and near zero litigation on the outcome of the primary election. So it is instructive to state that 2023 will not be anything different from 2019.

Thirdly, the Ijaws are known for stability when it comes to the politics of Delta state and the peoples democratic party. They have stood shoulder to shoulder with successive administrations and have delivered massively for the party with the support of the Itsekiri and Isokos who make up Delta south. Only a man with hidden agenda will want to spark crisis within the larger political family of PDP in the state ahead of 2023.

For now, the Ijaws are more concerned in giving governor Okowa and their son Dcn Kingsley Otuaro the much needed support for them to achieve maximum success. If it is necessary to give credence to Fejiro claims, it is imperative to state that the average Ijaw man does not hide his disposition on any subject matter. Therefore it goes to show that Fejiro doesn't know the Ijaw man very well for him to start dragging Traditional practices of the Ijaw Nation into politics.

Conclusively, the reason Fejiro Oliver has continued to malign the Governor on several occasion is the principal fact that Governor Okowa is a true Democrat who does not believe in punishing those who have used the instrumentality of social media to write fictitious articles about his personality and administration with the sole intent of damaging his reputation which he has built over the years owing to his strength of character and dexterity.

The only advice i have for Fejiro Oliver is that, he should work on his character and try to salvage his brand of political journalism and also rescue his organisation, Secret Reporters that is known for rogue journalism instead of an information dissemination platform. It is the likes of Fejiro that has given rise to the clamour by the federal government to regulate the social media a position i still don't support.

Delta 2023 will be hot sha