With less than one month to the rescheduled parliamentary election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Chief Correspondent SEBASTINE EBHUOMHAN analyses how the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the Social Democratic Party, SDP, will slug it out for the three senatorial seats in Edo State.
The present arrangement of the three senatorial seats in Edo State is, once again, set for a change after the parliamentary poll of the general election scheduled for Saturday, April 11.
Based on the pre-election representation, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, currently has an upper hand over the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, with the control of two of the three senatorial seats available in the state.
Presently, two lawmakers, the representative of Edo Central District, Senator Magnus Odion Ugbesia and that of Edo South District, Senator Edobor Ehigie Uzamere, fly PDP’s flag in the Senate. Senator Domingo Obende of Edo North District flies the APC flag.
Unsurprisingly, none of the three senators would be returning to the floor of the hallowed upper chamber of the National Assembly when the roll-call of the next lawmakers is taken in June.
While the determination of the leaders of Edo Central District and people of Esan land not to return any lawmaker that has served for two consecutive terms in a chamber consumed the ambition of Senator Uzamere, who lost his primary election woefully, intra-party politics is believed to have put paid to the ambition of Senator Obende, who is believed to have been the best performing of the three lawmakers of Edo State.
As for Senator Uzamere, who wasted no time in defecting from the APC once he realised that his ambition to return to the Senate or scheme for party’s governorship ticket for next year’s election was receiving the cold shoulders of APC leaders, party members as well as many other citizens of the state, see his entry into the PDP as a wand that lacked any magic and saw him being overlooked for a return to the Senate. This is even as his nominee was eventually picked as Edo State Commissioner in the board of the Federal Government-funded Niger Delta Development Company (NDDC).
The pre-election status of the two major parties was decided in January 2014 when Senator Uzamere announced his defection from the APC to the PDP, which instantly meant that the state ruling party lost its influence and power with a sole senator in Obende.
Yet, it should be clarified that Uzamere had also helped the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, from which ashes the APC emerged, with a similar defection from the PDP after his election in 2007. The move had fetched him ACN’s ticket for a landslide re-election in 2011, led by Governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole himself.
This is the political background to what promises to be a fitting contest between the APC and PDP in the senatorial election scheduled for Edo State next month.
For the 2015 senatorial election in Edo South District next month, Hon. Samson Osagie of the APC would be trading tackles with Mr. Matthew Urhoghide of the PDP. In Edo Central District, Chief Clifford Ordia of the PDP would be contesting against Chief Francis Inegbeneki of the APC. For Edo North District, Dr. Francis Alimikhena of the APC would be squaring up to Hon. Pascal Ugbome of the PDP.
Yet, the two parties are not the only seeking elective votes in Edo. For example, the Labour Party ,LP, which claimed to have had a weak hold on the lever of politics in the state before now appears to have been buried ahead of the 2015 general election, the new voice in the political wilderness, especially in Edo North, is the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
In Edo North, the trio of APC’s Alimikhena, PDP’s Ugbome and the candidate of SDP, Alhaji Abubakar Momoh, would slug it out in a race that appears evenly balanced on the scale.
Alimikhena, a loyal party man, retired Nigeria Army major and a lawyer by profession, was considered to be a political dark horse until his emergence as APC candidate. However, all that appears to be changing now for Alimikhena as flag bearer of APC, a party that is considered to be the strongest in Edo North and which is poised to win with the backing of Comrade Oshiomhole. His biggest opponent undoubtedly is the SDP candidate, Alhaji Momoh, a serving member of the House of Representatives and an experienced politician who has been saddled with political responsibilities in the past.
Momoh defected from the APC in April last year along with thousands of his supporters, first to the PDP that denied him a ticket to contest to return to the Representatives, and later in December to the SDP, a party that is still considered to have a weak political structure in Edo State. In spite of this belief, political watchers say his chances appear even brighter than that of the man that defeated him in the PDP primary, Hon. Ugbome especially with an alleged romance of the SDP by Senator Obende; threatened, perhaps, only by SDP’s adoption of President Jonathan as its candidate for the presidential election.
Until Obende formally defects, it will be premature to discuss any impact of his anticipated movement on the fortunes of APC in Edo North District.
On the other hand, the defection of Momoh from the PDP to the SDP might have a negative effect on the fortunes of Ugbome in spite of his past experiences as a council chairman, member of the board of NECO and a loyal PDP membership, according to observers.
In Edo Central, the APC faces a Herculean task in a two-horse race. Chief Inegbeneki faces a mountain of opposition in Chief Ordia, who, predictably, will be backed by all the might and forces of Abuja, not the least to be influenced by the Chairman of PDP Board of Trustees and Adolor of Esan land, Chief Anthony Anenih as well as the Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen.
While political watchers have insisted that Inegbeneki, a grassroots mobiliser, would not be intimidated by the armies of Abuja, his shortcoming would predictably be his inability to match the PDP camp resources-for-resources. Such experts have backed their prediction with the past results in the district, which remains the one Oshiomhole has yet to conquer in his conquest of Edo State.
Although Edo South Senatorial District remains an open field for another free, fair and credible two-horse race, the APC says it remains very confident of overcoming the PDP challenge in the district as it has been doing under the Oshiomhole era. As our analysis found out, the party’s confidence stems from the fact that its candidate, Hon. Samson Osagie, is not only popular in Edo State and beyond but also considered as one of the few lawmakers of the state in Abuja that have creditably disposed their responsibilities in the past four years.
Osagie, a lawyer, the current Minority Whip of the House of Representatives and a loyal member of the APC, is believed to possess a wealth of political experience unlike his PDP opponent, Mr. Mathew Urhoghide, a pharmacist whose closeness to power remains the office he held as Publicity Secretary of the PDP in Edo State.
Although Urhoghide remains a loyal and likeable party member, a reason that many people believed gave him the party’s ticket, but the inability of the PDP to present a formidable front after the primary election that has resulted to the defection to APC last month of the man Urhoghide defeated, Hon. Ehiogie West-Idahosa, might hunt the party on the day of election. While the PDP was unable to maintain a united house, the APC contrary to expectations, has continued to unite the winner and losers of its senatorial primary election in Edo South District.
Furthermore, if the present division in the Benin Traditional Kingdom over who to support between General Muhammadu Buhari of the APC and President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP and statements by members of the royal family and high palace chiefs are anything to go by, then observers predicting an APC victory may just begin to celebrate ahead of time.
Yet, PDP leaders insist that the party is ready to upstage the apple cart and status quo. Only time will tell.
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