Delta 2023: Uduaghan’s Face Saving Endorsement Of Sheriff Oborevwori, Height Of Self Mockery

Many are hardly sympathetic to former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan that the boomerang on his misguided bid to impulsively retire and impose confidant Permanent Secretary, Tony Obuh, as his successor in Delta state in 2015 has seen him (Uduaghan) punitively retired politically.

For me, the reason I’m not sympathetic to Uduaghan for shooting self on the foot in extreme impunity is divorced from same reason his successor, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and PDP associates have been so vindictive in paying back Uduaghan in his own coins.

By driving the impunity to the height of impose a nonstarter as successor above Okowa and other senior PDP allies from Delta North who have been in the party and politics even before Chief James Ibori drafted him in, the common fear was that if Uduaghan had succeeded with imposing Obuh as successor, the intention was to retire Okowa and co politically.

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Having been rendered politically irrelevant in the PDP, having suffered even more humiliation in failed defection to APC and eventual shameless returned to PDP where he is unwanted, it was so laughable to hear Uduaghan endorsing Sheriff Oborevwori, PDP guber candidate as next Delta governor.

First, it was apparent in Uduaghan’s body language that he never supported the Sheriff Oborevwori through the primaries, much like Ibori preferred David Edevbie for the PDP ticket. So, how does Uduaghan expect Sheriff Oborevwori and Ifeanyi Okowa to take his face saving endorsement serious?

Secondly, without a doubt, every Deltan knows Uduaghan has lost electoral value since exiting office with the unceremonious attempt to succeed himself with a surrogate. As proofs, he is politically retarded, he has lost all bids for a senatorial seat in and out of PDP. Ahead of 2023 elections, Okowa humiliated him with the defeat of his (Uduaghan) daughter in the PDP primaries for his State Constituency’s ticket.

Meanwhile, Ibori’s daughter got an elevating Reps ticket, Okowa’s daughter picked an easy state assembly ticket, so who would imagine that Uduaghan’s daughter would be denied a state constituency ticket. But it happened, to tell you how unwelcoming Uduaghan is to Delta PDP.

So, celebrating Uduaghan for endorsing Sherriff Oborevwori is like throwing a cube of sugar into ocean. Uduaghan who endorsed Chief Great Ogboru as APC governor lost to Okowa in 2019. Even Uduaghan couldn’t deliver himself as a senatorial candidate under APC then and lost to James Manager of PDP.

Uduaghan should know he is a political failure and still has no electoral value till present. He has no weight to throw behind Sherriff Oborevwori. Sherriff Oborevwori himself has no capacity to govern Delta. This is also known by every sane Deltan.
I respect Uduaghan, though, for being a much better governor than Okowa. He was always reading his letters directed to him but the truth remains that he was the governor who rode on the back of his younger cousin, Ibori to power but pushed his luck too far in the desperation to impose a preferred successor.

That flaw left him with no clique of active loyalists. Uduaghan is on his own in PDP, limited to compassionate privileges, like being allowed to nominate the Secretary to Local Government in his home Warri North Council. Glorifying Uduaghan for endorsing Sherriff Oborevwori is sheer self mockery.

Zik Gbemre
December 8, 2022

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