Chief E.K. Sajini is a former chairman of Otu-Jeremi Community, Ughelli South local government area. He has held several leadership positions both within and outside the community. In this exclusive interview with our Delta Central Correspondent, Omoghene Faith, he bares his mind on the political situation in Ughelli South and Delta Central in general.
Excerpt:
What is your take on the just concluded voter registration exercise?
The exercise has come and gone, not without his flaws though.
Are you aware there were reported cases of movement of people from one area to another for multiple registration?
Yes, it was reported that some groups/political leaders moved people to register in their ward and polling units to increase their registered voters so as to enhance their chances of rigging election since the cards will not be given to those people to vote.
If really INEC is up and doing, they should be able to detect these flaws and do something about them. But from the way things are going, it is very obvious that INEC is not Independent in anyway. It is only playing a role given to it by the ruling party. And as such nothing good will come out of the whole exercise. In other words, rigging can not be ruled out, as it was very evident in the Delta State rerun election.
What if INEC is for real?
Then it will help to checkmate next registration exercise since such registration will be nullified and instead of increasing the population, it will rather decrease it as a result of some registration being nullified.
Are you aware that PDP had two primaries in Delta State?
Yes! However, I am not too keen on issues that have to do with PDP anymore. It should have dawn on PDP by now that its house has crumble on its members. As ruling party, they should know that a lot has gone wrong since they cannot carry out credible primaries. All over the country, you hear of states where there are factions of PDP, thereby resulting to PDP having different versions of primaries thus having more than one candidate for a single position.
Who would you say is the most credible candidate for the Delta State House of Assembly position in your constituency?
In Ughelli South, the parties that are popular are PDP and DPP. PDP have Hon. Taleb Tebite, an incumbent in the House as their candidate, while DPP is featuring Engr. Eme Umukoro.
Hon. Taleb Tebite ought to have the upper hand if he had put features on ground to buttress his past achievement. But he has nothing to show for his four years in office, rather he has only succeeded in empowering tugs and godfathers whom he believes can enhance his 2nd term bid via rigging. Engr. Umukoro on the other hand is a fresh politician who has no past record of active participation in politics. I believe Eme is a better candidate than Taleb. If given the chance he can do better. It may be very difficult to ascertain if he can perform.
……. I mean at the House of Representative?
As you are aware, at the National level, things are different, it is a broader dimension, we are talking about several persons running into thousands coming together to represent millions of people. Therefore we need a person who is very vibrant. In the three different local governments which make up the constituency i.e. Ughelli Noth, Ughelli South and Udu, we have four persons coming out: Harvest Igben, ACN,
Austin Ogbaburhon, DPP, Andrew Orugbo, UDP and Solomon Awhinawhin, PDP.
For one to have a strong voice in the house, you need seasoned personality and someone who is very vibrant. For Awhinawhin, the incumbent who represents PDP, he has not really performed.
Apart from having nothing to show for his four years, he has been very docile, his voice has never been heard in the house for the past four years. Harvest on the other hand, has been up and doing at the state level and it is supposed to be the turn of Udu to produce the next House of Representative member. But judging from the number of people coming out from the Udu axis, if nothing is done, they may lost out.
However, in my candid opinion, Orugbo is the best candidate, but the odds are not in his favour judging by the platform, UDP, a party that does not have another aspirant. How is he going to win?
Judging from the way events are unfolding, is it not enough to look beyond party level and look at the level of the individual?
If we are to look beyond party level, then there will be no need for parties.
However, the need to look beyond party becomes inevitable if the popular party fails to produce popular candidate who is not in the interest of the people. That may force people to vote anybody who they deem fit, like what happened in Lagos state in the case of SDP and NRC where SDP produced Yomi Edu against the wishes of the people and it made even its members to vote Otedola who was the NRC candidate then.
How will you access the politics of Delta Central in general, particularly our representation in the past twelve years?
The problem with Delta Central is not that of not being represented. We have been represented but not well represented. Delta Central happens to be the focal point of the state. The persons who have gone out to represent us in time past have all gone there to represent themselves. This is because nobody voted for them. They were aided there by their party, PDP and as a result they didn’t deem it fit to be responsible to anybody. The situation is now very tensed up, it has risen to the point of diminishing return, it is now falling down. The people have lost hope and patience is out, hence everyone is calling for a change. Let’s hope things will get better this time around.
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