Why David Mark won fifth senatorial bid

Prior to the release of the results, there was tension among well-wishers of the long serving Senate President following unofficial reports that the opposition party All Progressives Congress (APC) was clearing the polls in the district popularly referred to as Zone C.But results turned in later showed the PDP wining the various local governments with […]

Prior to the release of the results, there was tension among well-wishers of the long serving Senate President following unofficial reports that the opposition party All Progressives Congress (APC) was clearing the polls in the district popularly referred to as Zone C.
But results turned in later showed the PDP wining the various local governments with margins not quite as wide as expected by the ‘die hard’ Mark supporters, who had predicted a landslide victory for their principal.
The reason for Mark’s win, despite the ‘change’ sweeping across the nation, analysts say, was however not far-fetched as his personality of being the country’s Number Three Citizen did not let him down at the last minute, while his position as the Senate President played a unique role in the minds of the electorate to vote him again.
The Idoma people hold the office of the Senate President in high esteem and would rather want Mark to retain the office so that they would continue to remain in the mainstream of the nation’s polity in order to sustain their minority agitation for Apa State and other dividends of democracy, which have eluded them at the state level.
Besides, Mark himself was able to persuade the people to vote for him the fifth time because of the College of Medicine of the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi and a teaching hospital, which he attracted to the area. The people see the educational and health projects as a reason enough to queue behind him again.
The man also did not leave anything to chance as he engaged in vigorous campaigns to all nooks and crannies of his senatorial district. In fact, Mark embarked on elaborate campaign in the last one week to the election during which he raised the hope for Apa State creation, a major concern for all Idoma people.
No doubt, Mark could have lost big in the election simply because majority of the people in the area were tired of his sole candidature. However, the fact that the opposition party before the election was scarcely on ground helped him in no small measure to win.
The Zone C, as past records show, has never been in the opposition since return of democracy in 1999 coupled with some federal projects that the senate president has so far attracted to the area such as the construction of the Otukpo-Oweto road and a bridge to link the state to Loko in Nasarawa State, which would serve as a shortcut to Abuja, the Otobi dam and building of rural access roads among others.