The Kingmaker and the Crown: Why Ede Dafinone rightly fits the bill

By Onajite Agbama,

Politics, like football, has different roles for different players. The goalkeeper cannot play the role of a striker or midfielder no matter how competent he is. If the goalkeeper dares to leave the goalpost to tend to other wings because of ambitious escapades or exigency of critical circumstances foisted on the team, he may pay a costly price that could rob his team of intended victory. All the wings in the field of play are important. It is the cohesion amongst the team members, effective communication and control of the ball in the various segments of the field that guarantee victory for any team.

Since the beginning of the fourth republic, circumstances have foisted the role of a Kingmaker on Chief Ighoyota Amori, the Odidimadi of Africa. Most of the dirty jobs carried out under the reign of Chief James Ibori were executed with Amori, not because he possessed any exceptional qualities but because of the trust and relationship between the then governor and the Mosogar political heavyweight. Through Amori, many local government chairmen were crowned across the state on the auspices of anti-democratic impunity. Amori and his likes in the PDP brought out the primitive and draconian political bestiality of Prof Maurice Iwu’s infamous days in INEC.

In those days, Amori was quick in telling the victims of his heartless political manipulations to ‘Go to Court’ after the deeds have been done. He was never a product of robust democratic engagement but a proponent of the devious misadventures of the Maurice Iwu era which Nigerians do not wish to be reminded of. Through his obnoxious but brutish and shrewd political capacity, he crowned many undeserving players in Delta politics many of whom are still in office today. He has played the role of a Kingmaker for almost 20 years.

Today, the political arena in Delta Central is massively dominated by Amori’s victims or carcasses of his victims. This is why the man is being visited by sundry vicissitudes in his ambition to represent Urhobo in the National Assembly. Many of those he could boast to have helped to power came through massively rigged electoral processes and the victims are either licking their wounds or have passed on. Today, the electoral process has evolved into a much saner and transparently acceptable manner.

Many are lurking in the corner to get their pounds of flesh. Even when he was declared the winner in 2015 as Senator for Delta Central, the landmines he planted consumed him in just six months. By 2019, he lost the senatorial ticket to a woman with over 100 votes. In the just concluded primaries of the PDP, Amori defeated his lone challenger, John Nani with just 20 votes despite the express directive from Governor Okowa for the delegates to hand him the ticket. This is why I express doubts about Amori’s capability to win the general election in 2023.

I dare say that Amori, like Macbeth, must remain a kingmaker. The moment he goes for the crown as Macbeth did, he won’t even go as far as Macbeth did. The ambition will be dead on arrival. But, of course, he can always try! His chances are slim because Amori is condemned to be a kingmaker but not a king. As he tries to cross from one threshold to the other, he will most certainly be met with nothing but tears, frustration and futility. His popularity within PDP is not popular amongst the electorates who are predominantly averse to PDP which administration in Delta State over the years leaves a sour taste in the mouth. A rotten fish may be pampered by the owner as the best but a third-party buyer will look deeply before making his choice. PDP is marketing a rotten fish and Delta Central will most likely not fly with him. This is where the likes of Chief Ede Dafinone come in.

Chief Ede Dafinone has a more remarkable credential to motivate the voters and inspire them to vote for APC. Because of Amori’s political “unbankability”, the Amoribility question may not be able to fly as expected among the electorate. 2023 will be about the individual and not political parties. There is a fresh consciousness which now impelled the masses to ask questions with regard to the pedigree and capability of the candidates. There shall be no bandwagon flow of emotions in favour of any political party. PDP and APC have been tested and the people now strongly believe that the problem is not with the party but the individual. For instance, despite 16 years in power, PDP could not make a Deltan Deputy Senate President, not even a principal member of the National Assembly. But just in four years, APC trusted Urhobo so much that an illustrious Urhobo son was entrusted with the huge responsibility of a Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate in the person of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.

Though under our unofficial rotational orthodoxy, Amori feels very “entitled” to that position in 2023, it is the masses that will decide their next senator. Amori is not in any way better than Ede Dafinone. In fact, the name Dafinone has a better aura and political fragrance than Amori. While those he, as Kingmaker, has helped to be Local Government Chairmen and Commissioners, past and present may be willing to enter the trenches for their master, the masses have nothing to fight for Amori for, rather, many have cantankerous issues to settle with him.

Amori has indelible stains on his political garment but Dafinone is as white as snow. With the way and manner INEC would be conducting the 2023 general elections as exemplified by the Ekiti and Anambra examples, the ‘Go to Court’ gangster mentality of the PDP which characterized ‘Amoriribility’ consciousness before the birth of the new Electoral Act, has been effectively curtailed and the best hands will triumph. Delta Central had had enough of benchwarmers in the National Assembly, the time to send highly intelligent, transparently patriotic and uncompromising Urhobo true born to the Senate has come.

Chief Ede Dafinone is a renowned technocrat of unimpeachable integrity with an acknowledged track record as a world-acclaimed Chartered Accountant. Dafinone rightly fits the bill. Amori should remain in his wing as a Kingmaker. The crown is not meant for him. It should go to Dafinone as a shining example to others that hardwork, probity and honesty pay.

Onajite Agbama writes from Oghareki, Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State.