RE: {NTH:31127} NNU's Ndokwa 2015 Post-Mortem Meeting - Resent

[Sylvester Ogbolu-Otutu]

Nde ibe-enyi,

Let me begin by wishing every one a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of 2015.

The failure of our Ndokwa 2015 Project has caused the leaders of the Ndokwa Neku Union (NNU) to organize a Post-Mortem Meeting today at Utagba-Ogbe to discuss with Ndokwa leaders and people on the way forward; following the recent fiasco encountered in the Delta State gubernatorial party primaries. 

Even though we have all been advocating/agitating for many years for an Ndokwa person to become the next governor of Delta State in 2015, this hope was not realized. Many Ndokwa people stood up to be counted, and demonstrated ambition to aim for this high political office, but poor results were registered to our utter astonishment and obvious embarrassment as a people.  Ndokwa candidates performed so poorly, that it became glaringly evident that something must be done - to avoid a future recurrence; that is, if any important lessons have been learned from the recent past.

Many things went wrong with this effort, and some of them can be quickly itemized as follows:

1. Too many candidates - including some pretenders and those who were not serious. If a candidate only received one vote, then it means that candidate only voted for himself. The pretenders were even those that often had their telephones switched-off, and as such, they could not be reached. What type of person makes himself unreachable whilst trying to promote a prospective governorship candidacy? 
2. The effort to trim down the number of prospective candidates was done very late; and still left too many candidates in the field.
3. Many Ndokwa candidates failed to devise and work on a clear political strategy to achieve a viable candidacy.
4. Lack of bravery and boldness: A certain timid attitude was palpable on the part of some Ndokwa prospective candidates.
5. Faulty group strategy on the part of Ndokwa people - that is, as a group, we also behaved timidly and prtrayed ourselves as weak.
6. Lack of support for the efforts of Ndokwa prospective candidates. Support in cash and kind was generally lacking. We could not even make newspaper publications to assist the effective projection of a Pan-Ndokwa position, and strongly advocate for the emergence of an Ndokwa candidate. Ndokwa prospective candidates were unsuccessful in both the PDP and APC.
7. Many of our Ndokwa candidates were ill-prepared, and were unable to commence early consultations within and outside Ndokwaland. Against the backdrop that an Ndokwa person will invariably need the support and votes of non-Ndokwa people in Delta State to win the governorship, political outreach activities to other groups were poor, hence no inter-group ethnic political alliances were created.
8. The fact that all Ndokwa prospective candidates became disadvantaged because of political moves made by other groups and structures made it rather evident that Ndokwa people lacked any strong political influence within Delta State, and were considered as political lightweights, especially within the PDP.

One can go and on, to itemize the unique and specific types of institutional problems and other short-comings that Ndokwa prospective candidates encountered; and why our people failed to perform well, but in truth, the above list is just the tip of the iceberg. Our problems are far more deep-seated. In terms of long-term group strategy, we still have many foundational and structural difficulties to overcome. Therefore, any search for an enduring solution must attempt to answer the following questions:

• How did we become the most politically un-influential group in Delta State?
• Where does our interest lie: individual or group interest?
• If group interest - how do we address, once and for all, the perpetual problem of some Ndokwa people always working against the collective interest and aspiration of Ndokwa people?
• How can our group interests be achieved when our civic society leadership structures are not yet consolidated and strengthened?
• How come the human and capital resources of the Ndokwa Diaspora are not being harnessed and effectively channeled to support our group aspirations?
• What is our outreach strategy to other groups? Has the Anioma Alliance really helped our people - or should we build new alliances with other groups like the Urhobos, Ijaws, Isokos and Itsekiris?
• Why have we failed to capitalize on, or pursue the potential that is offered by the Pan-Ethiope Alliance that naturally means Ndokwa, Urhobo and Itsekiri - the peoples of the Ethiope River Basin? Of what use is Anioma, when our Anioma brethren are often the first to stab us in the back?
• How do we restructure and re-position all our civic society leadership structures for a focused and enduring Pan-Ndokwa interest?
• What role can our elected political office holders play in assisting the Pan-Ndokwa cause when most of them are also seen to be engaging in electoral rigging activities thereby subverting the will of the people, etc.?

Really, we need to tell ourselves the truth, and admit that we failed ourselves as a people. We need to rebuild and change our ways, and thoroughly fix our group weaknesses, without which, there would be no success for Ndokwa people in the future.

I would like to close by wishing the NNU success as it tries to conduct this Post-Mortem effort so as to enable Ndokwa's political resurgence in the near future.

Thank you for reading.

Yours sincerely,

Sylvester Ogbolu-Otutu

Principal

Unor-Ebedei on the Ethiope River

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia