Uduaghan's Return and His Political Sojourn to Nowhere

 Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, former governor of Delta State has long dumped the People Democratic Party, PDP for the All Progressive Congress, APC in the buildup to the 2019 elections. At that time, it was an open secret that the medical doctor turned politician had a frosty relationship with his successor.

While leaving the PDP, the ex-governor told the world that he was joining the APC because of the good works President Buhari was doing in the Niger-Delta region. He boasted about making APC the party to beat in Delta State following his defection to the national ruling party.

Uduaghan moved to APC and he aligned with his former political foes. He vowed to deliver Delta, a staunch PDP state to the APC. To those in the know, this was merely wishful. APC was only quick to reward him for his defection with its ticket for the Delta South senatorial slot. However, that could not change the fact that it was a waste of expectations.

It is a usual situation in many states in Nigeria that once a person becomes governor, his political clout grows and he becomes a political force thus, an attractive bride for political parties. That was the assumption APC must have had about Uduaghan when he resorted to jump ship. They did not see him as the paper tiger that he is in Delta politics. Uduaghan has no real electoral value and APC wasted its senatorial ticket on him.

Yes, Uduaghan was a two term governor of Delta State but he rode on the political clout and machinations of political heavyweights in Delta. His predecessor, Chief Ibori was instrumental to his becoming a governor. His second term was also possible because of the support he got from the Ibori political family. His true political value was put to the test when it was time to select his successor. Uduaghan had his candidate and he was interested in becoming the senator to represent his senatorial district. Ordinarily, as the governor, he should have his way just like Ibori had his way and Uduaghan being his candidate got the party ticket and won the gubernatorial election.

Uduaghan and his candidate were trounced at the primary. Senator Ifeanyi Okowa who was allegedly backed by a militant leader, Tompolo was the one who clinched the party's ticket, a clear affirmation of Uduaghan's irrelevance in the scheme of things in Delta politics. 

A man who was asked what he had achieved in his eight years as governor could only nervously say that he had made expectant mothers to go to proper hospital for delivery and not homes of quacks. How laughable an achievement. He could not mention building hospitals, schools, good roads, providing potable water, resolving the problem of flooding, providing security, building modular refineries and so on. Of course, it did not occur to him in his eight years to do anything of such. All Uduaghan's achievements existed only on the billboards that littered the state during his reign as governor. On ground existed nothing.

When he announced in 2018 that he was moving to the APC, two reasons were clear; he was evading EFCC that had begun to probe him since APC as certified by its immediate past chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, is the haven where corrupt politicians run to and they are safe from prosecution. Secondly, he was looking for recognition which the PDP in Delta State refused to accord him. He was just on his own, sliding into political oblivion.

He claimed that he was moving to the APC because of the good works of Buhari in the Niger Delta region and claimed he was the John the Baptist of Delta State and assured APC that many people would follow his footsteps in moving to the APC. He got the ticket and contested all right. His opponent from the PDP is the one in the senate today because Uduaghan's electoral insignificance reechoed at the elections.

Nobody followed him to the APC. He was a miserable lone traveller. His assurance of ensuring that Great Ogboru, the APC's governorship candidate became the next governor in 2019 is still a hitsong yet to be written because Uduaghan only promised what he doubly knew he did not have and could not give. He had no electorate.

He failed woefully and he got nothing more from the APC that must have come to terms with his political insignificance. The government at the centre ignored him completely. He got no appointment of any sort. He seemed to have been forced into a political hiatus where his political end was imminent.

I hear, like a prodigal son, he is finding his way back to the PDP. His John the Baptist stunt yielded him no outcome. He was a lone Sojourner who went, saw and was conquered, then he ran away, back to the PDP. 

Uduaghan's return to the PDP would, like his exit substracted nothing from the party, add nothing to the party. He would be welcomed back to the party but he should not expect anything because it will only get worse for him. He cannot be trusted and he would always symbolise one who unmeritedly benefitted heavily from the party and willfully worked against the party.

Of course, his exit from the APC will go unnoticed and unfelt because he brought no weight for the party on the electoral scale. The APC will only look back and wish it did not throw away the senatorial ticket to the failed and disillusioned John the Baptist of Delta State. The John the Baptist is now the prodigal son who has journeyed to nowhere in search for political opportunities he has no political capacity to attract the actualisation.

Uduaghan remains a political spent force who has had his day when he rode to power on the back of James Ibori. He did nothing to build his political capacities and now he stands in a wide space in a political trance with a political career that has quickly become moribund.