Delta State is reputed to be the Big Heart of Nigeria. It is barbed by the Atlantic Ocean and by River Niger, making it an epicentre of the oil-rich Niger Delta region. But this is obviously not what makes the state one of the most sophisticated in Nigeria. What makes Delta thick is its people. It harbours the best brains in every field of human endeavour. Deltans are one of the most enterprising people in Nigeria. At a time in this country, over 30 percent of chief executives of banks in Nigeria were from Delta State. And they got there on merit.

From medicine to law to the media, Deltans have continued to hold the ace and to represent the beacon of hope for a new Nigeria. Even in entrepreneurship, Delta State boasts a retinue of icons and exemplars who have taken on the most arduous tasks and made a success of it. It is Nigeria’s sports nursery producing the best of the best in every sport. The list is long of men and women from this ‘small’ state who brought both fame and honour to the nation.

Add to this bouquet of contribution to national development the fact that Delta is the undisputable entertainment capital of Nigeria. From Nollywood to comedy to music, no state in Nigeria has thrown up a superior constellation of stars that bestride this landscape than Delta State. Again, here, the list is long and we need not name names.

In effect, Delta State is home to rare Nigerians endowed with cognitive intelligence, sporting excellence, entrepreneurial knowhow and leadership acuity. The average Deltan is a bold species of Homo Sapiens, full of chutzpah and uncommon gumption to dare; to challenge the establishment and never one to follow the crowd just to make up the number. They are outliers, iconoclastic with a tendency to positive rebellion.

However, there is something else that is common to the state, though not peculiar. It is the high level of political awareness common among Deltans. Such awareness has made every Deltan a social critic or a commentator on public matters. Confront a Delta man or woman of any age and you would be amazed at his or her knowledge of contemporary issues; even more amazing is the fact that such person would be able to effectively communicate his or her opinion in free-flowing pidgin English, a genre of corrupted English which Deltans have over the years mastered, refined, updated and handed down to rest of the country.

Inherent in this socio-political sophistication is a tendency to political Svengali, deviousness and treachery. Delta comes top in this Machiavellian art of political brinkmanship. Ask the immediate past Governor of the state, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and he will tell you governing the state is not a piece of cake. His tenure was dogged by litigations and wickedly contrived interjections. His ‘sin’ was that he has filial affiliation to James Ibori, his predecessor. His other ‘sin’ was that he is Itsekiri, perceived as a minority group in the state hence has no part in the power equation.

His policy in health, education, peace and security, public infrastructure and agriculture portrayed him as a man who desired good for his people. But no matter how much he strived to beget good in the state, a particular sly and sneaky class of politicians was intent on having his head on the platter. It is a miracle that Uduaghan survived impeachment and removal from office by an army of political wheelers and dealers.

But Uduaghan is a good man who during his tenure spread development among the three Senatorial districts. Under his watch, Delta North, the predominantly Ibo-speaking part of the state perceived as outcasts, for once felt a strong sense of belonging. Uduaghan wrought development in Delta North more than any past governor of the state, civilian or military.

This is the sense in which one finds the apathy towards Uduaghan especially among some persons from Delta North both pathetic and nauseating. Even more atrocious and fiendish is the intent of certain elements in the state to pit the Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa against Uduaghan. They want Okowa to see Uduaghan as his foe, a man he must hunt and heckle. They spin tales and conjure shadowy allegations to make Okowa’s bile run over just to make him bay for the blood of his predecessor in office. Okowa must resist the urge to surrender to this army of political charmers. He must not buy into their hallucinatory theory that Uduaghan worked against him. In actual fact, Okowa must see through this loose-tongued swarm of politicians and anarchists. He must see them as his real foes; an inconvenient brood of political vipers. The same way they are biting Uduaghan today is the same way they will bite Okowa tomorrow. Such is the lot of bootlickers. They are like fleas, only interested in the next drop of blood.

Okowa must look beyond the groveling antics of these merchants of power. To pit him against Uduaghan is to take his focus away from good governance which is what Deltans demand of him. He must stay on the course of development. Uduaghan has done his bit and he is gone. Okowa should do his bit today because tomorrow he will quit the stage and nobody, not even the gossipmongers that surround his table today, but history, would be there to testify for him.

The Okowa-Uduaghan narrative mirrors the tragedy that hallmarks Nigerian politics. It appears some persons profit from pitting one political gladiator against the other. It is a perfidious art of politics. We see it in Lagos, Ambode versus Fashola; in Akwa Ibom, some persons are working hard to set up a fight between Udom Emmanuel and his predecessor Godswill Akpabio. It is a worrisome trend because at the end of the day, politics triumphs but governance suffers.

Okowa must not allow politics to triumph over governance. He must avoid dancing to the fatal tunes of the morbid gong-beaters. Where is Ibori today? When Ibori was in power, he was festooned by a colony of courtiers who serenaded him with accolades and laudatory chants of Odidigborigbo of Africa. But now in jail, the same ‘admirers’ have abandoned him to his fate; they have moved their tents to safer grounds, far removed from the bars and barricades of the UK prison where Ibori currently serves his prison term. Strangely, none of those voices fawning around Ibori in his days as governor, could be heard today defending the same man they once mouthed as the best thing to have happened to Delta State. Such is the hypocrisy and traitorous nature of men whose forte is to massage the ego of the man of the moment, the one in power. Today, Okowa is the man of the moment. He must not use his position to hunt those who paved the path for him. The truth is that without Uduaghan, there would have been no Okowa.

• Author: KEN UGBECHIE…First published in Sun newspaper