AN interesting scenario seems to be playing out in the Nigerian political firmament which is becoming the norm today. It is the fact that there now seems to be a tacit order or progression in the choice of office to vie for by incumbents after office.
Expectedly as was the practice in the past, a candidate who would contest for the chairmanship of a local government council is supposed to come through the ranks of councillors in this tier of government, rather than come as an outsider to the local government council. After he must have served as the chairman of the council, he moves to the state assembly to prove his mettle there. And if he succeeds as a lawmaker in the state assembly, especially if he becomes the head of a unit or an important committee, he is thought to be gearing up to contest for a bigger office such as becoming the executive governor of the state. If he then follows this hierarchical order and has worked as the deputy governor or even the governor, his next logical ambition is to become a minister in the national cabinet or a senator and from there a vice president or even the president of the nation.
However, in the present experience, there is a particular configuration that is an arresting departure from this established norm. This is the configuration that expects governors after their tenure to become senators in their various senatorial districts and then to eye either the vice presidency or the presidency.
It is to this configuration that the ex-Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, seems to be vindicated in his reported ambition to represent Delta South Senatorial District in the Senate in the 2019 general elections. Without the shadow of any doubt, he would be aspiring to represent the three dominant ethnic groups of the senatorial district: the Ijaws, Itsekiris and Isokos.
Having been on political sabbatical for three years running and probably having had the time to review with the benefit of hindsight, his tenure as the chief executive officer of the state, the political reading must have been that he is now in a position to consolidate on his gubernatorial service to the state on a higher pedestal which would intersect with the national imperative of the sore need for quality governance vis a vis the initiation of national institutions and enduring political superstructures across the land.
As it often happens in such a charged political socialisation as ours, many cynics and outright political detractors have gone to town to discredit and antagonise him on this. Justly or unjustly, many feel that the ex-governor, having been in government in different capacities for almost 20 years, has no justification for this ambition to go to the Senate as such desire will further confirm the usual leadership sit-tight syndrome in Nigeria. And that this will put paid to the agelong marginalisation of the youths who should constitute the bulwark of fresh and innovative leadership renaissance in the nation, on the one hand.
On the other, others who are more amenable to Uduaghan’s ambition see nothing wrong and are quick to point out that senatorial representation of Delta South should not be the exclusive birthright of Senator James Manager who incidentally has straddled the top seat for 16 years running. Others too, including this writer, gaily turn the criticism on its head thinking that the long years of experience as a government operative makes Uduaghan’s credentials tower above the other candidates. Since his long experience would naturally enable him to proffer a more insightful representation than other aspiring contestants, having had a bird’s eye perspective of the peculiar problems and prospects of the state in terms of its developmental needs.
Another competence index in the Uduaghanal arsenal that surely stands him in good stead is his insider status in national politics: his compelling familiarity with the intricacies and peculiarities of national institutions, structures and the inner political geography of the various ethnic groups, especially garnered in the Governor’s forum.
Yet another streak in him, that’s bound to endear him to the people in relation to the job of a senator is his tact and diplomacy. Uduaghan, as people know him, is a bridge builder, a level-headed administrator of both natural and human resources who brought this innate quality in him to bear on his governance during the genocidal Warri crisis.
From all indications and not least from the impression he made on a group of newsmen who had an interactive session with him recently in Warri, Uduaghan seems to be imbued with the knowledge he carries on his shoulders. More relevantly, he is prepared to deliver the gains of democracy, from the heights of a senatorial perch, more appropriately and frequently to his people come 2019 onwards.
Legislation in the modern political world is not only about the intellectual capacity to put one’s finger on the natural needs of a people and articulate such in coherent terms but also about the interpersonal capacity to relate closely with others and to lobby them accordingly as a given imperative. It is pertinent to observe, even at the risk of sounding unduly repetitive, that this engaging fine art of leadership certainly comes naturally to Uduaghan, especially when we remember that the movers and shakers of society, some of whom are in the Senate are his former colleagues and friends in both the executive and legislature who at a moment’s notice, could be made to do requisite things for the senator to realize some senatorial aims and objectives. According to Uduaghan, holding powerful posts in the Senate or belonging to an influential committee is certainly not an end in itself but a means to an end. This implies that in the final analysis, only those who can lobby contacts built over the years to realize appropriate senatorial goals can be considered good senators.
However, one glaring challenge that could thwart his ambition is the tripartite composition of Delta South where there are as many as three distinct ethnic groups: the Ijaws, Itsekiris and Isokos as earlier enumerated hold sway. However, as far as Uduaghan is concerned, it is not a problem since it is the whole senatorial district and not a particular ethnic group he is representing, having represented the entire state as Governor without any due prefential treatment in favour of any particular ethnic group then.
And come to think of it, this seeming obstacle or drawback could even be the factor that would ensure his ultimate victory at the polls, since according to popular political barometric reading his own ethnic group, the Itsekiri, has never produced a senator in the state, even when the slot is not for any particular group. This, rather than being a problem, is what would be the ace when he toes the starting block with the incumbent senator representing Delta South, James Manager, who has almost patented his grip on the slot and Michael Diden in the PDP preliminaries. In every way, Uduaghan is priming himself up to step up to this latest challenge. He deserves the victory.
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