By Banji Ayoola
“I am pleased, therefore, to announce here my choice of Running Mate who will help to lead us to victory next year not only in the Presidential election but also in the governorship and legislative elections.
“And he will be by my side as I work hard every day to provide our people with security, revive our economy, improve education and unite our country. He has both Legislative and Executive experiences.
“Please join me in welcoming to the ticket the next Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Governor Dr. Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa,”
With the above announcement by Nigeria’s former Vice-President and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 election, Delta State Governor, Ifeanyichukwu Arthur Okowa, has finally emerged as Abubakar’s running mate in the forthcoming election.
Making the announcement on Thursday at an unveiling event of his running mate held in Abuja, the party’s presidential candidate said that making a choice between the three names submitted to him by the party had been a difficult decision.
Reeling out the qualities he looked out for in his running mate, he said he needed someone who understands the enormity of the challenges facing the country and one who has demonstrated, from experience, that he can proffer some solutions.
A committee set up by the party’s national working committee was expected to screen Okowa.
The party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, had said that a 17-member committee was set up by the party to pick a running mate for Atiku.
He said the committee had submitted three names including Okowa, Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike and Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel. to Atiku.
Ayu, however, said the final decision on the party’s vice-presidential candidate was for Atiku to make.
It was gathered that NWC members voted 13-3 to endorse the report of the stakeholders’ panel which had earlier nominated Wike to be Atiku’s running mate. Okowa got only three votes.
Nevertheless, the party paid glowing tributes to Wike, who came second in the party.s primary to elect its presidential candidate.
When there were feelers that Atiku might not pick Wike, the party’s national spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, had in a statement, said: “If anything, our Party reiterates its confidence in Governor Nyesom Wikes’s outstanding ability and commitment to the ideals and values of the PDP.
“His records of achievement as a Local Government Chairman, Chief of Staff to the Rivers State Governor, Minister of State for Education, currently Governor of Rivers State and the runner-up in the PDP Presidential Primary stand him out as possessing requisite qualities, qualifications, capacity and wide acceptability for the position of the Vice-Presidential candidate of our Party.
“The various positions creditably held by Governor Nyesom Wike distinguished him as an excellent team player in public governance.”
The man Okowa
Born on July 8, 1959, in Owa-Alero, Ika East Local Government Area of Delta State, Okowa attended Edo College, Benin City between 1970 and 1976. He got the second-best result in the Higher School Certificate Examination in the then Bendel State in 1976.
He later proceeded to the University of Ibadan where he obtained an MBBS in Medicine and Surgery, graduating in 1981 at the age of 22. After his youth service the following year, he worked briefly as a medical officer with the defunct Bendel State Hospital Management Board. He was later to go into private practice when he established the Victory Medical Centre at Igbanke, a border town between Delta and Edo states.
He delved into politics when he served as the Secretary of Ika Local Government Area in 1991 and by 1993, he became the Chairman of the Council. Following the restoration of democracy in the country in 1999, he joined the PDP, which formed the government in Delta State headed by Mr James Ibori.
He was first appointed the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources from 1999 to 2001 and was redeployed to the Ministry of Water Resources where he was until 2003 when he was reassigned to the Ministry of Health.
After serving in the three ministries as commissioner, he resigned to run for governor but failed in the primary election. He was subsequently named Secretary to the Delta State Government in 2007 in the administration of former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, Ibori’s cousin, who won the election.
In 2011, he showed interest in the senatorial election. He won the primary but his election was challenged by some leaders of the party, who preferred Marian Ali, wife of the former National Chairman of the PDP, Ahmadu Ali.
In a rerun, he polled 1,446 votes against 108 votes secured by Mrs Ali. That year, he was elected into the Senate to represent the Delta North Senatorial District after securing 98,140 votes ahead of Ned Nwoko of the DPP, who incidentally recently won the PDP primaries to represent the district. At the Senate, he headed the Committee on Health and also belonged to other committees.
In 2015, he ran for the governorship seat of Delta and won on the platform of the PDP despite opposition from the outgoing governor, Uduaghan, who preferred another aspirant, an Urhobo, the largest ethnic group in the state.
At the time, the Delta North senatorial district, otherwise referred to as the Igbo-speaking area of the state, was favoured to produce the governor, going by the unwritten agreement for rotation of power among the three senatorial districts. Ibori had taken the slot of the Delta Central (the Urhobos) and Uduaghan, an Itsekiri, had taken the slot of Delta South comprising the Itsekiris, Isokos and Ijaws.
Although Ibori was serving a jail term for corruption in London at the time, he allegedly rooted for Okowa against a fellow Urhobo, in keeping with the agreement. Okowa’s victory at the primary was also made possible by the votes of the Ijaws who supported him in the belief that after his tenure, the governorship seat would go to them in their quest for rotation among ethnic groups instead of senatorial basis.
He subsequently won the governorship election with 925,274 votes, beating his closest rival, Great Ogboru of the APC, who polled 215,938 votes. With his election, he became the first Anioma (Igbo-speaking) man to be the state governor. He also became the fourth democratically elected governor of the state after Mr Felix Ibru (1991-1992), Ibori (1991-2007), Udughan (2007-2015). He was re-elected in 2015.
Analysts say that his choice is a strategy to placate the Igbo, who have been agitating for the number one political office in the land.
Okowa hails from Ika, an Igbo-speaking part of Delta, and his choice may secure some votes from the five South-eastern states for the PDP in the February 2023 presidential contest.
