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By Iwemdi Nwaham

It’s been brewing gradually and it seemed to have come to a head when the senator representing Delta North in the red chamber, Sen. Barr. Prince Nedum Munir Nwoko visited Ndokwa land recently.

A few persons have written to draw Senator Nwoko’s attention to his flawed speech and thinly veiled attacks in a viral video that trended a few weeks ago. Dr. Festus Okubor went to the senator. They have met a few times and talked by phone a few times. Pissed out by what may be called our senator’s refusal to mend his ways, Okubor wrote to the new state chairman of our party requesting him to “call Sen. Nwoko to order”. Dr. Okubor is still being abused on social media. However, the piece I like so much is the one written by Onyemaechi Chukwuma. Let me acknowledge that in this matter and many matters concerning Ned Nwoko, most of the reactions on FB, WhatsApp and direct personal exchanges have been in favour of Sen. Ned Nwoko’s actions and speeches. And the tangential fallouts of his actions and speeches are what I have chosen to address hereunder, instead of his speeches and actions themselves. *This is a very long piece but you may find every paragraph of it engaging.*

THE OPEN GENESIS FOR ME

I saw political dysfunction when Senator Ned Nwoko tabled a bill formally before his colleagues, asking them to support the creation of Anioma State out of the present Delta State. Though not a novel idea of his, but it was a great and noble one coming from the blue blooded “Prince of the Niger”. The agitation for a separate state for the Ibo speaking part of old Midwestern Region was championed by our late Premier, Chief Dennis Osadebe. Many great patriots of our land also robbed off the sweat on their heads on this matter.

THE INSIDIOUS CLAUSE
What however jolted me and many Aniomas was a major upheaval in our senator’s bill.

*He proposed that his contrivance of our Anioma State should excise us from the South South geopolitical zone where we know ourselves to be, and graft us to the South East geopolitical zone.*

For me, my initial reaction when I knew about what Sen. Ned Nwoko did, was one of fright and panic. Why would this man ever contemplate this? I forced some calm on myself and began to nose around for his reasons.

The billionaire lawyer, like he is sometimes idolised, submitted that the South East geopolitical zone, of the six geopolitical zones in the country, has the least number of states. That zone has five states while four other geopolitical zones are comprised of six states each, except North West geopolitical zone that is made up of seven states. And so, in the thinking of our man, he reasoned that the South East geopolitical zone deserves understanding and empathy from the rest Nigerians and we must be our brother’s keeper and fight for fairness, equity and justice for the South East.

Our pensive and hardworking senator reasoned also that if Nigeria falls for that appeal to common sense, morals, reason and sentiment, and would shore up the number of states in the South East to equal those of the four other geopolitical zones, he can as well “smuggle” our Anioma state into the South East as their sixth state. Smart thinking I must acknowledge. And I like Thinkers. But such a proposal that would do major violence to our psyche is not what ONLY ONE PERSON would package, submitted and then come to market to his constituents, in my humble opinion. No.

None of our forefathers and prime movers of this project in the days of yore, ever had such fecund brainstorm. A few, thought of bringing Onitsha and Ogbaru and some settlements on the bank of River Niger, with close cultural affinities with us the real Anioma people, to join us this way. But the Igbos, the real Igbos of the South East, vehemently resisted that idea. Like now, the real Igbos are coupling their own sixth state together and the lobbying will be highly competitive which one will see the light of day, in both chambers of the National Assembly, in all the State Houses of Assembly, in referenda/ plebiscites across the affected places. So it is not a “stroll in the park” for our senator.

NED PLACED THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE
My grouse with our respected senator Ned Nwoko is that he submitted his bill with that insidious provision, to the Senate, pushed it through first and second readings and then began his so called “consultations” with his constituents. There’s something not only fundamentally wrong there, there’s something politically criminal in that approach.

If you take yourself as a member of a political party, inside of which you belong to a political family, then you must consult at least internally before throwing up an earthquake shake. Let me make myself clearer. If you are a senior pastor somewhere and a junior pastor under you has a brilliant idea about having outside branches for evangelism purposes, if he does not discuss his idea with you ahead, and you stumble into the idea, there will be issues. You can make up other examples for yourselves.

There must be subordinates in a relationship and the subordination must be obvious. No high shoulders, no puffiness, no arrogance, no disrespect . Show visible respect, not tremble, not fear, just recognise a line of hierarchy. But in his approach, Senator Nwoko has shown crass disrespect to his political base, that is, if he admits that he has one ab initio. He shown gross disrespect to his political seniors and leaders, that is if he admits that he has them. This his Anioma state pastime is all about him. He is eulogised, idolised and even worshipped as if him alone will make this thing possible. And Ned Nwoko is alone in that pinnacle of leadership, dragging every other Anioma person along. Put yourself in your ward where someone wants to contest for an office. You are an acknowledged leader but you only hear from others the person’s intention. Are you likely to give support? Then you find out compelling and distasteful reasons why you may not give support. Are you wrong? Should you be ridiculed and vilified? Remember, you are a leader not consulted but expected to come along all the same.

NWOKO SUCCUMBED TO GALLERY DISPLAY
I refer readers to what our exalted senator said in the video that went viral. If you haven’t seen it, please ask for it. There was absolutely no reason for a man that high up to “fly off the handle” and cast aspersions on his governor, his immediate past governor who made him this senator that he is now, and by so doing, bring his party to disrepute, scorn, ridicule and public opprobrium. No, the things he said are punishable. An opposition candidate of say APC or Labour Party could not have done better. Yes, you are working for your constituents but a process and a system brought you out first, before your constituents voted for you. And towards 2027, you will still go through that same process, procedures and systems before you emerge as a candidate for that coming election. So one is compelled to ask if a man that can exhibit diarrhoea of the mouth is safe to send back there again, if the first one was a mistake?

TYRANNY OF THE MOB
*So what went wrong that this same man, within the same party, is now a lone ranger, doing solo runs* and being cheered on by a motley crowd from his constituency? And this crowd is now being mobilised to attack, heckle and shout down anybody who dares raise a voice against anything Ned Nwoko does or says. And this “tyranny of the mob”, will not do our respected senator any good. In fact, his political future in the PDP may have been destroyed I dare say, not just by the mob, but by Ned himself.

Iam reminded of when Mr. Peter Obi left the PDP and joined the Labour Party to actualise his presidential ambition. The man said the right things and did the right things. The world’s airspace everywhere there were Nigerians was always electrified when talking about Peter Obi. Anybody who dared withhold support or had adverse opinion about the man was abused, insulted and maligned. And that did not do the man any good eventually.

WHERE OKOWA WENT WRONG
Ned Nwoko is not an independent candidate in the senate. He is from some organisation. He had flirted with the idea of returning to the National Assembly after his stint in the House of Representatives since 1999-2003. It was in Okowa’s first term as governor, when Sen. Peter Nwaoboshi decamped to APC, that Ned Nwoko put himself forward to seek opportunity to go to the red chamber. So it goes without saying that all the levers of power and structures of the PDP political family were mobilised to make Ned Nwoko Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And it was the governor then that pulled ALL the necessary levers of power. And indeed Ned became senator. In short, Gov. Okowa made Ned Nwoko senator. Should that turn out to be a mistake? Was that wrong? That appears to be what this matter is now gravitating towards.

NWOKO’S ERROR OF JUDGMENT
Our billionaire lawyer and senator has all the funds to make inanimate objects move. He has called an Anioma stakeholders’ meeting in Grand Hotel, Asaba. I was there. He is going round his constituency to bring his constituents on board his vision in what I call “placing the cart before the horse”. He is not relenting, not now. He has crossed the Rubicon and he either comes out victorious or be politically vanquished. For him, it will be a debilitating fight. If he escapes the punishment of his party, he should kiss goodbye to the ticket to contest for the next Senate under the PDP.

His next move of returning to the Senate, to fight for us, his constituents, that he loves so dearly, may be to seek another party platform. Labour Party is in tatters now. APC is formed as it is currently in the state, there will be no accommodation for him there. Is Ned Nwoko another Peter Obi that will give life to a moribund, sleeping party? We will see. His mob of social media “attack dogs”, LGA foot soldiers, high and mighty gladiators, will soon discover that they have cheered on the go-getting senator through their tyranny, to his political demise.

But the Ned Nwoko I know is not one to go down without a fight. And that is what he is doing now, running his mouth, talking unguardedly, causing irritation to the Governor and the immediate past governor and putting them on edge, because he may have seen far ahead that he may have no place in PDP anymore for the senate ticket. Perhaps, he may get accommodation by ruffling feathers. It is just that this is a needless fight, self-inflicted by Ned Nwoko himself. A leader should know when not to play to the gallery and call his supporters to order. Dr. Festus Okubor said as much in his meetings with our respected senator. But Okubor was abused blue black on social media, Facebook especially.

This writer is only two years in the PDP, and I now know that there is no party like PDP in Delta State, in terms of organisation and administration, where the party as a body has strength. Other parties exhibit the strength of an individual who comes across like “ACTOR”, in a cowboy film, and he mesmerises everybody. Like Dr. Okubor identified, Ned has grievances. He advised him to tread with caution and apprise the party leadership of his grouse. But no, Ned, chose to upturn the table, throwing caution to the wind. Again, it calls into question his judgement. Anybody who enters into a leadership fight in a party like PDP, should be prepared to confront “big brothers”. It is a fight of male lions; you win and take over the pride, chasing another male out or you lose and you are chased out. Those are the options before us all now.

GRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATION OF THE OPTION.
Before you can be the candidate of a party like PDP in an election, first you are an aspirant. Anybody can throw his hat into the ring. And there may be other aspirants for the same post. So there will be Primary to vote for the aspirants. Delegates from all the wards in Delta North Senatorial zone will constitute the delegates to the primary, to vote for who will be the party’s candidate for Senate, for instance, to slug it out with candidates from other parties in 2027. This process will start say, in January 2026. How many of those delegates (ward chairman and secretary, LGA Party Chairman and secretary, House of Assembly members, Council chairmen, party state Exco members from the zone, former party officials, etc) feel they owe their emergence, existence and party survival to Ned Nwoko? How many did Sen. Ned Nwoko install? How many of those applauding anything Ned Nwoko does or says today, hailing him as messiah, will be part of the delegates that would select a candidate for PDP?

OKOWA AND SHERIFF ARE NED NWOKO’S LEADERS
Sen. Ned Nwoko said that the Executive Governor of Delta State, Rt. Hon. Elder Sheriff Oborewerei, told him (Ned) that “he (Governor ) is paying back monies that Okowa borrowed”, explaining why the governor could not immediately set aside about N50 billion for projects in Delta North. How nasty and dirty can a beneficiary fight? Even if our governor told him as much, is Ned Nwoko a baby? Did Gov. James Ibori not borrow? Did Gov. Uduaghan not borrow? What happened to those loans? They were all paid back, abi? All debts are Gov. Okowa’s, abi? There’s something Sen. Ned Nwoko finds so offensive, either in the way he has been treated, that has made him throw caution to the wind and I am afraid he has courted quite a handful. He has not shown or exhibited maturity or discretion at all. In this video instance, Sen. Ned Nwoko is not different from garrulous Wike in content. It is just the style of delivery that differentiates them.

His conduct so far is one reason why those who embraced politics earlier, are reluctant to bring closer the highly educated and the monied class. Political leaders believe that the educated and monied class show no respect for their political seniors. And this case is a glaring example. Listen to that video again and see the way Sen. Ned was talking, with total disrespect, disregard and contempt for the immediate past governor, Sen. Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa and even for the current governor, Rt. Hon. Elder Sheriff Oborewerei.

Aah, there is hierarchy everywhere o, in the journalism profession, the legal profession, medical, artisans, teaching, everywhere. Why would Ned Nwoko show poor judgement? This is a big blur on his political career, unless he seeks accommodation elsewhere or he properly atones.

* NWAHAM writes from Asaba.