Monday 4 January 2016

Delta APC Leadership Synergy And Collective Party Loyalty To Take Over Unity House, Asaba




Welcome to a brand new year, 2016.
I am extremely grateful to God Almighty for making it into the new year for many reasons.

First, Delta politics took a different dimension making the Political terrain very tensed and dynamic.



I was deeply involved in the most controversial part of 2014/2015 political scheming both at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where I played a sensitive role as an Urhobo man from Delta central defending the aspiration of my then Principal, Sir Tony Chucks Obuh against the interest of the Urhobo Nation yearning and strategizing to produce Urhobo governor through the instrumentality of UVWIAMUGE DECLARATION.

Done with the PDP as a result of strange and undemocratic political scheming to produce Senator Ifeanyi Okowa as the party candidate, I moved on to the All Progressives Congress (APC) into the waiting hands of its governorship candidate, Olorogun Otega Emerhor (OON).

On December 19, 2015 morning, I had a brief meeting with Olorogun Emerhor mainly on strategies to effectively place APC in the forefront of political media campaign having in hand the PDP and Chief Great Ogboru. Done with that my new principal issued a press statement confirming my appointment as his campaign Director of Media & Political Communication (DMPC).

As soon as the release got out on social media and to the over 208 political and news editors e-mail addresses on my database; my phones started ringing; congratulations, insults and abuses came in droves.

The goodwill messages came from friends, media partners while insults and abuses came from members of my former party, the PDP, calling me all sort of names: political harlot, betrayal, hungry man, et al.

The job started and media war temple increased, APC facing so many challenges ranging from the deception associated with Uvwiamuge Declaration to crafty synergy between PDP, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) and Chief Great Ogboru of Labour Party.

It became obvious that UPU, PDP and Chief Ogboru were working together in a confused and controversial manner.

The APC strategists had to introduce measures to take on the multiple opposition of the PDP, Chief Ogboru and the UPU. It turned out that 2015 became my most challenging period in political communication and mass media coordination.

My media partners and former colleagues stood by me and did the needful to make sure I succeeded in my new assignment by not being partial and selective in publishing stories and materials from our strong contenders without using our version. So, Olorogun Emerhor, APC DELTA and my name started making waves via mass media, sometimes for good and at another in a controversial dimension.

The high-point of my job in 2015 was a press statement wherein I stated that Chief Great Ogboru, the Labour Party candidate had given up his governorship ambition by stepping down for the APC candidate, Olorogun Otega Emerhor. Come and see! Delta was on fire. Labour Party and Ogboru supporters disguised as APC members and were looking for me everywhere.

I changed hotel temporarily and instructed spies to nose around. It was that bad but I survived it.

The fact remains that UPU confused the Urhobo Nation and the two Urhobo governorship candidates. Their decisions at crucial meetings were unreliable and inconsistent.

The Ogboru story stepping down for Emerhor was a product of the deception that bedeviled UPU Uvwiamuge Declaration under the ex-UPU President-General, Chief Joe Omene.

The double dealings in the UPU political arrangements gave birth to another faction led by Chief Tuesday Onoge. Onoge and his group insisted that the APC candidate should be the beneficiary of Uvwiamuge Declaration for the fact that APC granted UPU request as per the governorship ticket of Emerhor. UPU wanted Urhobo governorship ticket either from the APC or PDP but was fraudulently given to Labour Party.

All that is now history. Only recently the Royal Fathers of Urhobo Nation dissolved the two factions of the UPU and set up a caretaker committee to move the Union forward and to operate million miles away from partisan politics.

EMERHOR AND OGBORU.
From the lessons learnt from Uvwiamuge Declaration, it is my humble advise that these two illustrious sons of Delta and Urhobo Nation should put away their past and come together under one political party, the APC so as to mobilize their supporters with those of other party leaders in the three senatorial districts to quickly and effortlessly dislodge Deltans common enemy, the PDP and their looting cabals.

WAY FORWARD FOR APC DELTA, 2016 AND BEYOND.
It is a solid fact that our party leaders at both national and state levels already mapped out both internal and external strategies on how to unseat PDP and bury the party finally in Delta State.

Therefore APC supporters and party faithful should consistently intensify efforts at the grassroots; mobilizing Deltans in the three senatorial districts from now and beyond.

It is my humble recommendation that leaders of our great party at the state level should unite and work together to flush-out Deltans common enemy, the PDP.

I also respectfully suggest to us that individual or group ambition or interests must not over-ride or be greater than the party interest if we must win the Political battle against the PDP.

Therefore, party leaders and their supporters as well as loyalists must put our great party's interest first and above group or personal interest. This way, APC DELTA will in no time extinguish the PDP political fire that had been reduced to a mere candle light by APC political fire fighters in 2015.

We must work closely and in harmony with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources cum Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Barrister (Dr) Ibe Kachikwu, Olorogun Otega Emerhor, State Party Chairman, the three Senatorial leaders of South, North and Central to facilitate APC take over of Delta State in the near future.

Chief Ayiri Emami and Olorogun Jaro Egbo must be highly commended for their efforts, time and synergy with our party national officers to strategically win some big time politicians and their huge supporters to our party in 2015; and it is hoped that their efforts and achievements shall be doubled this year. These duo are a mega political force that must be commended and appreciated by our party men and women.

MEDIA & PUBLICITY.
I will go all out to our party men and women to seek financial support, fund and sustain the huge efforts already made by the Rescue Delta Media Group (APC) which is an enlarged Publicity team of APC DELTA.

We are increasing daily on social media and it is hoped that a stronger synergy shall be crafted through adequate funding and regular meetings to perfect political communication strategies.

The media group and its head of operation will henceforth work for the party at state level in particular and APC in general; meaning that the focus will shift from individuals to the party, its activities and leaders from the three senatorial districts up to social events of members and supporters.

This working relationship is key from 2016 onward so that the media unit is not seen as just serving certain individuals and personalities to the neglect of the party's interest and objectives as crafted by the national and state executives of our great party.

It is necessary that those APC supporters who are yet to formally register as members of the APC family should as a matter of urgency contact the party Ward Chairmen and Secretaries in their communities to register immediately and obtain their membership cards.

Party faithful and supporters should always consult their leaders and political mentors to get genuine information about latest developments in the party and not rely on some mischievous and fake information sometimes posted on facebook pages by PDP agents to cause confusion and division in APC Delta.

I look forward to a better and brighter year for our great party as we all resolve and agree in one accord to put party interests higher and above individual or group interest.

The Author: Dr Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe is the Convener/Head of Strategic Political Communication, Rescue Delta Media Group (RDMG). He is a full member of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) and Human Rights and Political Communication committee member of the American Political Science Association (APSA) domiciled at the New York University, USA.

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