By Ediri Oyibo
While elections are not do-or-die affairs, they have come to be known literally as battles. Most times, fierce.
The battle for who takes over from Governor Ifeanyi Okowa is currently raging in Delta State while Okowa himself is fighting his own battle to become the next vice president of Nigeria.
The governorship primary election of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and that of the All Progressives Congress (APC) pitted the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Sheriff Oborevwori against the Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege for the Delta 2023 gubernatorial election.
Riding on the popularity of the PDP in Delta State, Oborevwori is being tipped as the candidate likely to win the 2023 governorship election in Delta and take over the helm of affairs of the State from Governor Okowa at Osadebey House.
Senator Omo-Agege, however, won’t give up, despite the political configuration of Delta being perceived to be working in favour of the PDP. He is doing everything possible to overturn the applecart and emerge Governor of the State.
Some pundits are of the view that given the history of PDP in the Delta and its stranglehold on power for 24 years now, Oborevwori will likely defeat Omo-Agege by a reasonable margin. They say Oborevwori is projected to garner the majority of votes and win in Delta North because of the Governor Okowa factor.
According to these political seers, Omo-Agege’s deputy, Friday Osanebi, who is from Delta North as Okowa, does not have the weight to outdo the PDP vice presidential candidate in the district. This is more so as the Governor is said to have done creditably well in Delta North.
With Delta North in the kitty for the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Delta Central, where both Omo-Agege and Oborevwori hail from, will be a battleground. Nevertheless, both candidates will likely share the spoils but Oborevwori, by their calculations, will defeat Omo-Agege in the Senatorial District by a slight margin.
This is even as Oborevwori’s popularity vote is judged to be weakened in Delta Central by the effect of Chief James Ibori, who is said to be currently sitting on the fence, nursing the aftereffects of the PDP governorship primary, which failed to come out well for his anointed candidate, Olorogun David Edevbie.
Reconciliation efforts to reunite the Ibori and Okowa factions of the party are still askew but ongoing.
Meanwhile, it is public knowledge that Omo-Agege is an associate of Chief Ibori who brought him into politics when he was Governor of the State. Given this situation, Omo-Agege is fancying the chances of the former Delta State Governor pulling his weight behind him.
As a pointer, his Deputy Governorship candidate was recently seen dining and winning with the former Delta State Governor at a location in Lagos State.
For Delta South, the Delta State House of Assembly Speaker is said to be favoured too. This is especially so, as the people of the two Isoko local government areas there have pledged their backing.
In the same Delta South, former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan is marshalling the campaign to pull the block votes of the riverine local governments for Oborevwori.
Most Deltans who have monitored the political campaigns so far have observed that the campaign trail of Oborevwori has gathered more steam than that of Omo-Agege.
Recall that the PDP candidate has taken his campaign to all the 270 wards of the party in the State garnering support of party faithful.
These notwithstanding, political watchers are sounding a warning that the biggest mistake the PDP and its candidate can make is to take Omo-Agege and APC for granted.
For example, they warn that he can still spring a surprise. They particularly point out the PDP must put into consideration the fact that the Deputy Senate President can pull the proverbial federal might to enhance his chances of prosecuting the election.
However, with the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the federal might just be of no effect.
The BVAS, which has been described as a game changer, is expected to drastically reduce the usual malfeasance associated with elections in Nigeria.
Also, true is the fact that with this being a general election, the federal might of the administration would be overstretched not to have effects on States elections.
These are some of the factors that will come into play as Oborevwori and Omo-Agege battle it out in this 2023 governorship election in Delta.
But at the end of the day, only Deltans will decide who will be their governor, going forward. The only punches expected to be thrown in the 2023 elections are the casting of votes.
Oyibo, the Editor of TheNewsGuru.com (TNG), writes from Abuja.