Asaba, Delta State Nigeria – By Sonde Ojeikere.
The Ibori/Uduaghan political dynasty may be heading on a collision course with President Goodluck Jonathan over the choice of who succeeds Dr. Uduaghan in 2015 as the Governor of Delta State.
Insider’s source said it is a situation now threatening the once savoring relationship between Dr. Uduaghan and President Jonathan.
It was gathered from the source close to Chief Ibori and Dr. Uduaghan that while the former Governor Ibori wants power to return to Delta Central in 2015, the incumbent however wishes to handover to a Delta North person whom he thinks would be loyal to him completely.
According to our source who spoke anonymously: “the Uduaghan game plan is to bring a young and loyal candidate from Delta North who can cover his tracks by the time he leaves office in 2015, just as he did for Ibori.
He added that Uduaghan is not too sure if the Urhobo PDP aspirants could do same for him, since most of them are men who have made their marks politically and may not be easy to manipulate after he might have handed over power.
Our source stated further that, in order to feel the pulse of the President if they are on the same page, Dr. Uduaghan allegedly took two aspirants from Delta North whom some consider as his joker to Mr. President.
However, the meeting according to sources didn’t yield the desired result as Mr. President allegedly told Uduaghan to look deeply and see how he could project a candidate that would be acceptable to the Urhobos, whose votes he is not willing to lose in the forth-coming presidential election.
Not satisfied, according to the source, the Governor allegedly went to sell the idea to Chief Edwin Clark in order to help him convince the President on his move, but Clark was alleged to have told him that, “those who don’t produce oil in Delta State cannot appropriate the oil money, and that if power must go to Delta North, the person must come from an oil producing Local Government Area of the district”.
Meanwhile, the Governor is not leaving anything to chance as he has also tried repeatedly to convince Chief James Ibori on the need to allow power shift to Delta North, a position our source said the former Governor has refused to accept as he is disposed to power coming back to the Urhobos.
