By Dan Phidel Akpenyi,
He had just one vote. He voted for himself. No other person believed in him, because they knew him not. He was aspiring for Delta State House of Assembly membership at the 2023 primaries.
It did not matter to them that he was then Senior Special Assistant to then Governor of Delta, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa. They obviously see him in political cycles but they did not know him too well. But in the students' world of Delta and Edo, he is conspicuous, known and revered. He was the national leader of Ika Students Association.
A critical look at him and close interaction with him will reveal a youth with a head of a wise elder and a sagacious disposition of a university professor that is highly cerebral. In him is effective combination of book knowledge and native intelligence, making his mental age to out run his chronological age.....a real blend.
His demeanor and general disposition is magnetic as it is infectious. He is cool, calm and collected. He cannot be seen without a smile on his face.
The combative and combustive traits common with the youths of our time is not in him. The crazy fashion trends of saggy trousers, wearing of earrings, adorning of loud wears and body tattoos is not his thing. Other known vices of excessive drinking and getting drunk, and engaging in reckless relationships with the opposite sex, cannot be associated with him. Flagrant disregard and disdain for constituted authority and societal norms as it is common with most youths, cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be linked with him. He is a bridge connecting the young and the old in our locality. Chronologically, he is a youth, mentally, and by cerebral composition, an elder.
He is spin and span, and conservatively dressed all the time. He is like a peddle dropped in a pool of water, which ripples seem endless to the notice of all. He can also be akin to a sweet wine, which when taken, takes gradual possession of the drinker. He has taken possession of those he has encountered. One cannot know him and not like him. Over time, he began to be known and perceived as a good aroma of a pack of potentials.
His abysmal and colossal failing in his first political outing in the muddy waters of politics, and securing only one vote did not dampen his desire to serve his people. He kept being whom he has always been. He refused to be demobilized. He is everywhere, relating and fraternizing with his people, the old, the young, the good, the bad and the ugly. Naming, marriage and burial ceremonies. He is always there for them all.
Factions were erupting everywhere in Ika South political landscape. He refused to be factionalized. The political elders and eggheads of PDP could not help but noticed the golden fish in the political pond of Ika South.
As always, there are political issues to be amended or resolved or erased.
The issue of who to be recommended for commissionership slot came up. Of the penciled political giants recommended, taking one and leaving others would have distorted the political table, spelling political doom for PDP in Ika South. To resolve it, Jerry was appointed instead. His appointment was greeted with general jubilation. There was not a breath of opposition from any quarter, even from those who were initially listed for recommendations. Anticipated political storm was instantaneously calmed. There was relative period of political tranquility in Ika South, thereafter.
Then, echoes of local government elections rend the air. The existing political peace quickly evaporated. Political mumblings ensued. Agitations and clamouring for the post of council chairmanship on parochial and sectional basis became people's preoccupation in Ika South. Polity became heated up. Tension high. Sectionalism and parochialism took a new colouration and dimension.
The immediate past council chairman was staging a comeback. He didn't look like a politician who could be dismissed with a wave of hand. Though from Abavo kingdom, he has ardent supporters from Agbor kingdom. His increasing popularity was a source of serious concern to Agbor people. It must be noted that at this point, many political grassroot politicians of Agbor extraction showed interest in council chairmanship. These development no doubt started brewing serious political imbroglio and disconcerting uncertainties. There were talks everywhere that the minority (Abavo) was at the verge of marginalizing the majority (Agbor) in an event of an Above person becoming the council chairman. Ika South PDP seemed to be suffering from what an uneducated friend referred as " political high fever" . She, no doubt needed urgent political medications. The elders and the political eggheads were again forced into a meeting to brainstorm and thereafter came out with a long list of criteria that prospective chairmanship aspirants must meet. Jerry met them all; the aspirant must be a youth, have quality education, unwavering loyalty to the party, neutrality in an event of factionalism etc.
His subsequent recommendation and victory at the primary were greeted with thunderous celebration and jubilation, even by other contestants, who expressed satisfaction with his choice as the party's candidate. A wonderful sportsmanship manifestations in political arena.
There was no political hangover of bitterness arising from this in-house victory. The general acceptance and jubilation is the first of it's kind in the annals of politics in Ika South.
Jerry's choice is a political master stroke of PDP in Ika South.
First, it will help to draw the votes of great numbers of youth sitting on the fence.
Secondly, it will help to block any political upper cut that the combine forces of Doris Uboh, Felix Morka and Chiedu Ebie, would want to unleashed on PDP in Ekuku-Agbor area.
Already, as commissioner of Power and Energy, he had put in motion acts that will light up Ekuku-Agbor axis, as the community had been without electricity for long.
APC and Labour party, have youths as their candidates. If comparison is to be made of the three, Jerry towers over them, head and shoulders. His behavioral disposition is faultless, a political sheep without blemish. He is good. He is good looking. He is kind hearted and caring. He has quality head on his shoulder. He is highly educated. He is very experienced, politically, haven been a national leader of Ika students, Senior Special Assistant to a governor and an ex commissioner. No local government of the 774 councils can boast of having a more qualified candidate.
He is humane and humble. He is very mobile with incomparable outreach, identifying with all, the high and the mighty, with the low and dregs of the society. Courting his people all the time, eager to serve, and always ready to discomfort himself to bring comfort to his people. He is the people's delight and the Storm Calmer of our locality.
