Have Buhari, Ribadu, Shekarau given up on Niger Delta?

Not much is seen or heard about the campaign of the three presidential   candidates from the North in the Niger Delta, home region of President Goodluck Jonathan. Have they given up on the region? Our correspondent who has been monitoring political events there reports.

Frontline Presidential candidates, General Muhammadu Buhari of the CPC, Nuhu Ribadu of ACN and Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of ANPP seem to have given up on the South-South geo political zone leaving it under the control of PDP’s President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Though Jonathan has the advantage of being a native of Bayelsa in the South-South zone which also include Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Edo states, the fact is that the CPC, ANPP and ACN haven’t done enough to register their presence in the Niger Delta.

Jonathan enjoys open support of governors in the region except Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, who is of the ACN. Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers is the south-south coordinator of the Presidential Campaign Council after serving in the same capacity in the defunct Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation. As such he has the mandate of persuading his colleagues and other political actors to deliver the zone to the President. Timipre Sylva has direct stake in ensuring he delivers the President’s home state to the PDP to avoid a ‘political disaster’ should Jonathan lose in Bayelsa. Should Jonathan lose the presidential election, Sylva may face unimaginable consequences ahead of his return in 2012. Rotimi Amaechi owes his candidature to Jonathan who didn’t allow his opponents within the PDP to take away his ticket by getting him substituted like the case in 2007. Amaechi openly campaigns for Jonathan. Godswill Akpabio, the loudest of all has a sort of sacred commitment to Jonathan’s candidature.

While Jonathan campaigners mount imposing billboards in major cities and around government houses across the states in the south-south, campaign billboards of Buhari, Ribadu and Shekarau are seldom sighted in some cities across the region. In Port Harcourt for instance, Buhari ostensibly has only one billboard erected along Azikiwe road some two months ago while Shekarau has virtually none. Ribadu’s is nearly absent as well. In Bayelsa, the story is worse because the entire streets of Yenogoa have been turned into Jonathan’s album- no other candidate’s campaign posters or billboards are noticeable. The situation is similar in Cross Rivers.

Buhari’s CPC headquarters is ‘hidden’ around Harbour road, which is not a major route while the ruling PDP has both its state and zonal headquarters separately located along Aba road, the busiest route in Port Harcourt. The CPC lacks presence in the garden city.

Even some leaders of the northern community in Rivers are actively working for the PDP. Alhaji Musa Saidu, chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) for South- South and South East who is also a factional leader of the northern community in Rivers State as well as Alhaji Muhammadu Ali Kwamde, another factional leader of the northerners in the state have both been integrated into Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s PDP campaign structure which works for the governor’s re-election bid and Jonathan’s presidency.

In fact, Saidu had said in an interview that he was in support of Jonathan, explaining that for him “it doesn’t make sense for northerners living in the Niger Delta and earning their source of livelihood there to oppose the son of that region and incur distrust of their hosts.” Though Buhari may enjoy the support of the common northerners in the state, such support is seemingly not being coordinated by the CPC from what people can see. Added to this, the party doesn’t have a formidable governorship candidate in Barr Otonye Briggs. He is seldom mentioned in the governorship race in Rivers.

The ACN equally has similar problem like CPC in Rivers though in its case the ACN has a strong governorship candidate in the person of Dr Abiye Sekibo, one time secretary to the government of the state and former minister of transport. He has been the main threat to Amaechi. But his structure hasn’t really been to the benefit of Ribadu because Ribadu isn’t as popular as Sekibo in Port Harcourt.

In its case, the ANPP has zero presence in Port Harcourt – Shekarau is hardly seen on campaign materials.

Since elections for governor may not hold in Bayelsa and Cross River in April, 2011, Jonathan may have increased commitments from Imoke and Sylva since the two governors would have fewer distractions.

In Akwa Ibom, the ACN is said to have strong presence ahead of the governorship but largely, there appears to be some unspoken resolve amongst citizens of the Niger Delta to support Jonathan as such none of the governorship candidates works against Jonathan in the open. In Delta, Uduaghan is a staunch Jonathan supporter who is reciprocating the President’s strategic refusal to allow PDP replace him as desired by Edwin Clark before the re-run in the state.

Uduaghan is facing familiar threats from Great Ogboru, candidate of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP). But even though they are staunchly opposed to the governor, Ogboru and Clark are not likely to work against Jonathan in the Presidential elections.

In Edo State, Jonathan may face some threats from Ribadu but then, he is likely to carry the day because the youths in the Niger Delta are generally behind the President as reflected in the native sentiment that the people of the region have been openly expressing for the president. With the amnesty package which provides them with free N65, 000 monthly stipends, youths across the region believe they are more secured with their own in power.

Another big advantage going Jonathan’s way at the moment is that natives and other residents across the region, who are predominantly southerners, are in support of his candidature owing to the PDP zoning controversy which took a toll on the polity prior to the presidential primaries of the party. This sentiment is still fresh and strong across the Niger Delta. In fact when Jonathan won the primaries in January, natives openly mocked northerners in most cities of the region. Interestingly, northerners resident in most parts of the Niger Delta seem different from their kindred back home because while those in the north appear to have political attachments to the entity called north, many of those in the Niger Delta seem to adopt the philosophy- ‘money first’ and as such, neither the northern youths nor their elder ones have open sentiments for any of the northern candidates. Most of them look out for what they could grab. Perhaps, all these and more explain why even Buhari, seen as the main threat to Jonathan, has hands-off the Niger Delta while Jonathan, comfortable that he has secured his native zone, goes after the north.

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