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By Fred Edoreh

Even as our friend, Ovasa Ogaga, continues to pretend that he is not an apologist of the APC in Delta State, he continues to betray his partisan sentiments.

In a recent article titled “What’s Delta PDP Trying To Prove With Its Mega Rally?”, he argues that the outcome of the forthcoming local government elections “seems predetermined”, the reason why the leadership of the PDP and Governor Sheriff Oborevwori are confident and “boastful” of victory, but he ended up proving that the PDP is a far better party than the APC and truly deserves to win.

The problem with Ogaga is that he does not sieve his thoughts before expressing them, “dem no dey done well.” So he often ends up with contradictory and illogical assertions.

In the first place, he acknowledged the attitude of the Governor on the local government elections, in his assurance to Deltans that the process would be free and fair, and that he charged members of the PDP to campaign hard, warning that no ingenuine result shall be accepted.

“Don’t assume that they will write any result because any result that is not genuine, whether for Chairman or Councillor, will not be accepted,” he quoted the Governor as telling his party candidates, supporters and members.

Truly, the warning had been driven down all quarters of the party and Deltans have seen the PDP campaigning hard, from unit to unit, ward to ward, local government to local government and holding a mega rally at which the party received many prominent decampees from other parties across various wards and local governments areas, which effectively deflates any remaining flex of the opposition.

Deltans also have seen that the opposition parties, probably still traumatized from their defeat in the last general elections and possibly out of any iota of steam, have failed to campaign.

How can a party that fails to campaign expect to win an election, and how do we accuse a party that is visibly seen to be campaigning hard of having pre-determined the result?

What would be the point in campaigning and wasting their own funds if not that they are expecting the game to be played by the rules and are therefore working hard, like any serious student would read hard for his examinations?

But Ogaga comes with even more contradictions. He acknowledged that the PDP is the dominant force in Delta State, that it can win in any free and fair election, yet he still alleges that it is planning to rig the council elections.

Here are some of his descriptions of the Delta PDP, in his own words:

“One thing you can’t take away from the PDP in Delta State is their electoral strategy prowess. This is why the party remains a dominant force in Delta State.

“Despite the predictability of the local government elections’ results, the PDP mobilized all its resources, campaigning from one unit to another, sweeping through all wards in the 25 local government areas of the state.

“The PDP treats every election seriously, even though they are the ruling party…The party deployed all its resources, with leaders, including the State Deputy Governor, Commissioners, and all appointees of Governor Oborevwori, leading from the front…

“The Delta PDP, like in all previous elections, undertakes strenuous campaigns to cover all grounds and plead for votes. They fight for every vote…”

He concluded by declaring that “credit goes to the PDP.”

On the other hand, here also are his descriptions of the opposition parties, also in his own words:

“The major opposition leaders from other political parties are currently not in Delta State. They visit like tourists during elections and disappear afterward, leaving their mansions under lock and key.

“The major opposition party, APC, despite significant support from Deltans in the last governorship election, is currently disorganized.

“It lacks a strong base in parts of Delta North and South, except for the two Isoko local governments.”

Just as an aside, while not losing sight of his descriptions of the APC, I however do not know which Isoko he is referring to, because despite the emergence of Joel Onowakpo-Thomas of the APC as Senator representing Delta South in the last general elections, he lost in Isoko North while his victory in Isoko South, the only place he won out of the eight local government areas, was due to the spirit of nationalism of the people and not because they have any latent or innate interest in the APC as a party.

This was clearly demonstrated in the Gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections in which the people of Isoko South reverted to their traditional PDP.

Continuing with his description of the APC, Ogaga further testified that: “Internal leadership crisis further weakened the party, leaving it unable to pose any threat to the well-organized PDP.” These are his words.

Seeing and knowing all these: that the PDP is strong on ground, have been the dominant party for 25 unbroken years, takes elections seriously and campaigns hard, indeed acknowledging that its current campaign has been very “robust” (his word), while the APC is disorganized and weak, with it’s leaders lacking in commitment, responsibility and responsiveness to their party and followers, it seems to me that it is even the writer himself that has predetermined and called the outcome of the local government elections.

What is there to add or to explain why and how the PDP would win?

By his own admissions, the APC and any opposition party stand no chance in any elections in Delta State because the PDP is strong, organised and with wide and deep penetration in the state.

Also, having admitted that the PDP takes every election seriously and works hard to canvass for votes, what then is the basis of questioning why they are campaigning and holding a mega rally for the local government elections?

Even when he suggests rigging, he also admitted, again in his words, that “rigging occurs where the opposition is weak, allowing PDP to dominate Delta State politics for 25 years.”

Deltans can see through his contradictory reasoning and illogic as merely an attempt to discredit the electoral process, to give excuses and to soften the trauma of the expected all-round failure of his disorganized, confused, weak, rudderless APC and its opposition allies. Such wimpish propaganda is called political skulking.