By Chuks Iloegbunam
Without Chief Victor Umeh, Governor Peter Obi would not
have had a second term of office. This declaration is an easy start to
explaining the title of this article. It happened this way. Well before his
first tenure ended, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, fed up to the hairline,
ruled Mr. Obi out of a second term. One morning, General Ojukwu arrived APGA
offices in Awka, to the cheers of party faithful and expectant journalists.
There, he lifted the hand of Mr. Emeka Etiaba, now a Senior Advocate of Nigeria,
and pronounced him the man to fly APGA’s flag in the 2010 governorship
election.
*Gov Obiano |
Government House, Awka, immediately went into
turmoil, with Governor Obi looking like someone poleaxed. Long hours later, he
ditched lamentation for counteraction. This came in his flying to Victor Umeh’s
patronage. They met later that week at the grounds between Government Lodge, Enugu and the Enugu State
House of Assembly, Governor Obi having chased security aides, drivers and other
convoy regulars to no less than 50 metres away. Left severely alone, Governor
fell to his knees, contrite, subdued and solicitous, pleading with Umeh for a
second chance. After some contemplation, Umeh, reluctantly decided to give Obi
a kind ear.
When Peter Obi spoke at PDP’s campaign flag off on October
14, he had denied Governor Obiano the benefit of the doubt that Ojukwu and Umeh
had generously accorded him. On and on he went, pillorying the Governor of
Anambra State. Dates must come into play here. Ojukwu died in November 2011.
Less than three years later, Peter Obi abandoned APGA he had vowed before the
Ikemba to sustain. This happened only six months after his governorship ran
out. Peter Obi plunged into the PDP, arguing that it was wiser “to be a
competitor and not a spectator in national affairs”!
Four months later, in
February 2015, Governor Obiano gave the boot to Joe-Matins Uzodike, his
Political Adviser. After another four months, Mr. Oseloka Obaze, who had
continued as SSG under Obiano was instructed to tender his resignation letter.
This shows that even before Obiano had done half of his first term of office,
the Peter Obi-inspired coalition against him was well in place. Clearly, Peter
Obi’s animus against Obiano was unconnected to the latter’s governorship
credentials. Thus before Governor Obiano had done two years in office, the war
of attrition against him had been joined.
By the time I joined the Obiano administration in July
last year, Mr. Uzodike had made 77 anti-Obiano appearances on various Anambra
State FM radio stations. Peter Obi’s men constructed, especially on airwaves
and the Internet, a skyscraper of lies against Obiano, denigrating the man,
disparaging him, minimizing his achievements, and cursing the flaming daylight
out of his good deeds. Remarkably, there is no record of Governor Obiano, a
perfect gentleman, ever repaying his traducers with swear words.
*Peter Obi |
If Peter Obi’s concern was quality leadership, why
didn’t he remonstrate with Governor Obiano for any perceived shortfalls? Hadn’t
Victor Umeh led him by the hand to obtain reprieve from General Ojukwu? Why did
he shun Obiano who publicly offered apologies to him for any perceived
infractions right in front of the casket of Revered Father Tagbo, their
principal at Christ, the King College , Onitsha ?
Why did he decide rather to upset the applecart? APGA is bigger than any of its
members. Why is Peter Obi on a course of destroying the party that gave him
eight years of governorship?
Let’s bring in Alex Ekwueme. In 1999, political generals
stopped Chief Ekwueme and handed national leadership to an Olusegun Obasanjo
they had spirited from the jailhouse. Yet, Dr. Ekwueme remained in the PDP. Had
he decided to pull from the party because he was given a short shrift, Peter
Obi would today probably not find a PDP platform from which to try and destroy
APGA, the only national party rooted in the Igbo country.
When, in the 2015-2016 English Premier League Season, Chelsea performed
abysmally, club owner Roman Abramovich didn’t throw away the baby with the
bathwater. He had the club reworked into winning ways and the League title last
season. Assuming Governor Obiano has performed below expectation, Mr. Obi’s
only right course of action would have been to locate ways of righting wrongs,
not demolish a house he had helped in constructing.
In 2006, when I was Chief of Staff at Government House,
one rich man gathered his disgruntled cohorts and unjustly impeached Governor
Obi. All our efforts to prevent the injustice were met with the prime mover’s
boast that he had the means to carry through the impeachment. It is the same
boast that we hear today: Peter Obi has the means to unseat Obiano! That’s
unjust.
To invite Dr. Ekwueme again. Speaking at the PDP
campaign flag-off, he said the party lost previous elections due to
indiscipline. Mrs. Uche Ekwunife left the party and joined another. Andy Ubah
left the party and joined another. Nicholas Ukachukwu left the party and joined
another. Well, isn’t the same indiscipline currently repeating itself? Whoever
saw Princess Stella Odua, Dr. Alex Obiogbolu, Chief Ifeanyi Ubah, Chief John
Emeka and many others at the PDP campaign flag off? Isn’t that a forewarning that
previous electoral defeats are on course for reenactment? Doesn’t it show that
the PDP is rallying for APGA’s continued supremacy?
Dr. Ekwueme for the final time, for he is a man without
cant. At PDP’s campaign flag-off, he had no ill word for APGA or Obiano.
His contribution was clearly a rally in APGA’s favour. Months earlier, he had
given this unequivocal endorsement: "In retirement I consider myself an
elder statesman. But at a personal level, I am close to Governor Obiano and I
think he is doing well and should be given a chance to complete his second
term. Even purely from a selfish point of view and as somebody from the
Southern senatorial district of Anambra State, it is in our interest that he
should have a second term of four years because once he finishes that, there
will be no question of anybody coming to contest with us.”
It leaves us all with the recurring
pertinent question: If it isn’t broken, why mend it when wisdom dictates that a
good first term deserves a second?
*Mr. Iloegbunam is chairman of Governor
Obiano's Media Team.
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