A LOOTING GOVERNOR AND HIS INORDINATE SENATORIAL AMBITION

Fejiro Oliver

How this man swims in self delusion and adulation makes one to wonder what planet he fell from. How could he ever think that we all have so become gullible to believe his symphony of lies? So sweet a liar he must be in his young days in the street.
I am not talking about the nonperforming governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji, who specializes in spewing out tissues of lies on achievements done by his fraudulent government, when such truly never exist. Of course, I do not mean the ‘donatus’ governor, Godswill Akpabio, who is a master in buying of awards for achievements which do not reflect the amount taken monthly as allocation, neither do I refer to the average performing governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime, who has sworn with his father’s testicles to take the senate seat from the current holder, Ike Ekweremadu.

I simply mean PDP worst performing governor in the South South, Mr Emmanuel Uduaghan, a looter par excellence, brilliant liar, smooth deceiver and grand master of betrayal. Whatever gave this governor the conviction that he will win the Senate election if conducted free and fair must be a conviction that can cause the Dead Sea to be alive. For crying out loud, here is a governor who was offered the governor seat on a platter of gold by his cousin, James Ibori, even when it was obvious that he can never win the Great Ovedje Ogboru in any election or Ifeanyi Okowa, who willingly let go for him to have a smooth ride, yet dashed the hope of consolidating on the achievements of Ibori. Here is a man who came to government very wretched becoming a billionaire overnight through the loot from Delta State treasury.

It is this same man today who knows within his heart that he has performed beyond expectation, standing before 300 Journalists to announce his intention to contest for the Senate. It has never come to me as a shock as I had reported it exclusively last year in the Paradigm News on his Senatorial ambition, when one of the sources in government house squealed it to me, but I had expected him to be gentlemanly by quietly leaving office without another political wilderness journey. 

Hear an ambitious man telling Deltans of zoning the Senatorial position in Delta South. Even if we are to go by zoning, does it mean that he Uduaghan is the right man to go to the National Assembly? I hope to see him hand over power to Delta North since he has began his new song of zoning. How men of low character think just to favor their position. Let’s analyze this political thief and his ambition. First, he agrees that he does not have the interest to contest for the Senate, but his people want him there. We cannot crucify him for having the ambition to go to the Senate; for it is his legitimate right, but we will crucify him with his words.

No man goes to a battle field unprepared, even if he is being pushed by the people, for doing so will not only spell doom for him but bring shame, disgrace and disaster to the entire community. This is where we will hang Uduaghan. He is not prepared for the onerous task of lawmaking, but going there because his people want him there; to go and do what? The Senate is not a place for bench warmers or onlooker as Uduaghan is likely going there to be, since he has no personal or national interest of going there, but because his ‘people’ want him there. A man who is being pushed cannot represent the interest of the people, since he has nothing to offer and don’t give us the crap that lawmaking is about the people. Will the ‘people’ who push you be in Abuja as you debate on bills?
For all we know, he is not a good candidate for the Senate for various reasons. Uduaghan that we all know is a VERY corrupt man who has looted the Delta State treasury, alongside his wife and daughter, that the only place he feels safe after office is to jump on to the next available plane to the National Assembly, where the anti-graft agency will have to battle with the entire Senators to arrest their ‘colleague’. This is a governor whom a caretaker committee chairman publicly confessed coerced them into parting with N5 million for his daughter’s wedding event, thus turning Delta State into a government of Uduaghan, for Roli Uduaghan and by Oroje Okpu Uduaghan. Is it this thief we want to send to the senate when he should be facing corruption charges the moment he steps out of the Unity House?

As a medical doctor, he was fantastic, at least I know of someone he operated on, though any medicine/surgery graduate can perform such, but we give it to him that he did his best while in medical practice; but as a politician, he has not done one tenth of his best. For the first time in the history of Delta State, we have a governor who single handedly ruled a state for three years and still counting without conducting elections into the local government areas. He has spent millions in setting up the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) and yet has refused to allow them conduct election into the various LGs. What this simply means is that he has been pocketing the billions of naira allocated to these local governments in the state. Oh No! We cannot afford to have a Senator who will pocket our constituency project. This man has not been faithful in big things; how then shall he be faithful in little? 

Any attempt by Uduaghan to muzzle his way to the Senate should be vehemently rejected by all who hates mis-governance, as he has shown to all and sundry that he is not competent for leadership position. I do not bite tongues when I call him a clueless dictator, whose next ambition will be to become the Senate President should he succeed in rigging his way through. This power drunk man had told the press that as a governor; he had the power to take and give life and up till this moment, he has not retracted the statement. No one wants a killer in the Senate and Delta South has not told anyone they want such.

This government of fraudulent men and women run by Uduaghan may just be the ones telling him to run for the Senate as all notable men whom I have had cause to interact with via phone and social media are still at shock when and where they told the lying governor to gird his loins and represent them in the Senate. The people have not said that they are tired of Senator James Manager representation, neither are they in a hurry to remove him; even if they wish to remove him; it is certainly not to replace him with an under performer.

For a governor who has spent seven years to still be grappling with construction of road to his Abigborodo village goes to show that he is not wanted in his own community, yet has the guts to lie to us that his people who are not happy with him as a governor are asking him to be their Senator. Who will tell Uduaghan to wake up from his slumber and face the reality of life? Who will be bold enough to tell him to use these remaining months to complete his abandoned projects and forget the senatorial election? Which prominent Deltan can throw away sycophancy and tell him to his face how unworthy is he to represent Deltans in the committee of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), talk less of the hallowed Senate Chambers.

I personally have no doubt that with men like governor Uduaghan in the Senate, the rot there will stink to the sky, so much that the Senators will wish he is never their colleague. Men like Uduaghan in the Senate will be worse that the pedophiles among them, as he will sponsor bills legitimizing corruption and other nefarious laws. It is never too late for him to stop his dance of shame in the market square, neither is it too late for him to deliver on his promises to Deltan. He should focus solely on the task of consolidating on Ibori’s gain and not go about flaunting the achievements of his predecessor, who never had such opportunity to do so. There is no denying the fact that he has demystified the notorious Enerhen Junction, by turning it into a road of pride, but governance goes beyond that. There are many things left undone than heating the Delta polity with his inordinate senatorial ambition, when indices available to him shows that he may not be able to win a local government election as it stands today.

There is no man without ambition, but this one by governor Uduaghan is simply uncalled for, realistically unnecessary and grandiosely democratically impossible and while his trumpeters may not tell him to his face, we owe it as the conscience of society and voice of the voiceless to pass on the message of the populace to him; how Deltans home and abroad completely rejects his newest bride and wishful day dreaming.

Governor Uduaghan must be told in clear terms that he is not the only man who is a politician from Delta South and thus must not occupy all positions created in Nigeria. His ‘navel’ as they say in Warri pidgin is not planted in the Senate, neither was his placenta planted in government. He has been opportune to be a Commissioner, Secretary to the State Government and now a governor. He should shamefully take a bow and exit the stage for real democrats who know the tenets of leadership, craft of lawmaking and the beauty of democracy to represent Delta South. 

Yes we can halt this journey of perfidy and help him to save his already hated image by Deltans, by calling on all well meaning Deltans in Nigeria and Diaspora to call him to order, by allowing Senator James Manager to continue or allow his people whom he has tortured psychologically and emotionally chose their Senator.  
Uduaghan’s ambition must not be allowed to override the will and wish of the majority, nor should his quest for continous power be forced on the generality of Delta South who clamour for effective representation in the Senate. “All ambition are lawful except those that climb upwards on the miseries or credulities of mankind”, says Henry Ward Beecher and this one by Uduaghan is just one of those inordinate ambition to increase the miseries of men.

These little things matter…

Fejiro Oliver, a Journalist can be reached on secretsreporters@gmail.com and +2348026797588 (sms only please). Follow on twitter @fejirooliver86 and Facebook  fejirooliver86. Like our Facebook page – secretsreporters