BETWEEN ETHNIC SENTIMENT AND RATIONALITY: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE NOMINATION OF ADJOGBE AJENAKEVWE AS EDP IN THE NDDC

One of the inalienable attributes of human beings is their ability to reason which distinguishes their class from other earthly creatures. Propelled by this common knowledge which some have said is not common, I hereby invite all the members of the human community to examine the underscored subject.
As a graduate of Philosophy I am not oblivious of the temptation for humans with high level reasoning ability to become victim of ethnic or similar kinds of sentiments. After all, that is why we have fallacies.
I shall presently pose questions and attempt to answer them as a means of addressing the above issues.
We have had what I will call intellectual gymnastics over this issue in the past few days with some calling for a reconsideration of the nomination and others hailing the nomination. As
you read you might be on one side of this divide or even be neutral but whichever the case may be, I urge you to decongest your mind and examine this issue calmly for once.


Those who hail the nomination say:
1. The Itsekiris hate the Urhobos
2. It is greed and selfishness of the Itsekiris not to support the said nomination
3. That the rejection of the said nomination is a challenge to the Urhobos
4. That an Itsekiri governed the state for 8 years
An examination of these points:Points 1, 2 and 3 above do not have any bearing whatsoever with the issue at hand; they only seek to appeal to emotions. Is this about hate of love?
Point 2 is neither here nor there and bears no connection with the issue at hand after all the Urhobo have ruled this state longer than any other tribe so that is not an issue.
Now, let us examine the points of those who argue against the nomination:
1. That the spirit and intent of the law is that provided for in section S. 5 (2) of the NDDC ACT which inter-alia states that; “where a vacancy occurs in the membership of the Board, it shall be filled by the appointment of a successor to hold Office for the remainder of the term of Office of his predecessor, so however, that the successor shall represent the same interest and shall be appointed by The President, Commander-In-Chief of The Armed Forces subject to the confirmation of the Senate in consultation with House of Representatives”.

2. That there are two positions that routinely come to Delta State every 4 years and these are either the MD, ED, or Chairman as the rotation may be and the constant position of a Commissioner. This is shared on a rotational basis amongst the tribes in Delta State. The last of the first class of positions that came was the MD which was occupied by Engr. Godwin Omene, an Urhobo and it happened that he could not complete his 4-year tenure as Managing Director, MD of the NDDC Board, hence Senator Aguariavwodo Edesiri Emmanuel another Urhobo man was nominated by the Itsekiri Governor to the position to completed it.

3. Even if there was no law to this effect, it must be noted the Urhobos were the ones that just concluded the position of the MD immediately before the EPD came to the turn of Delta State. This is not equitable because the motto of APC is “Justice, Peace and Unity” (Article 3 of the Party’s Constitution) and whose fundamental objective is: “To actively condemn and resist all forms of oppression and exploitation of Nigerians” (Article 7 (xi) of the Party’s Constitution).

4. The BOT of the party has members from other ethnic groups in the state but the Itsekiris are again completely left out.

5. The Party’s Executive Committee is Chaired by an Isoko man and the Itsekiris are completely absent from decision making positions of the party.
An examination of these points:
Each of the above points bothers on the position of the law and equity. Even if there was no law, it behoves the leaders of the party Prophet Jones Erue and Olorogun Otega Emerho to ensure that they are leaders of all the tribes not just leaders of their constituencies.


The questions which the leadership must answer:


Question: was the law made to advance a situation where one ethnic group will have unfair advantage over the other?
Answer: We don’t think so.


Question: Is it possible for us to live in such a way as to respect each others dreams and aspirations?
Answer: We think so.


Question: Have we as a people before now agreed on a basis for rotating the positions from the NDDC ?
Answer: Yes we have.


Question: Is there any reason why we should jettison this arrangement?
Answer: We don’t think so.

I have endeavour to present the above to enable us engage in informed discussions on both sides without insulting any one because to insult will be demonstrate lack of intellect.
The best way to grow a party is to rule not sectionally but holistically. It would appear that the APC in Delta State is in need of proper direction and change of the leadership style. 

People only approach the court when there is lack of trust and this is likely to eventually be the case when we could have avoided all these by being the leaders representing the interest of all the tribes instead of our own tribe. Let us bear in mind that the Chairman of the party of ethnic extortion Isoko and the foremost leader is of Urhobo ethnic extortion. The two positions that came went to the respective tribes; Isoko and Urhobo. Is this a good signal?
Happy deliberations!

Barr. Ariyo Robinson