By Ochereome Nnanna
I would not
have commented on the recent appearance by a group of political adventurers in
Aso Villa if not for the fact that they were described as “Igbo leaders” in some sections of the media. If they
had simply gone as All Progressives Congress (APC) members from the South East
visiting the President and leader of their party for whatever purposes, it
would have passed as a non-event (though I have not seen APC leaders from other
geopolitical zones going similarly cap-in-hand for special attention of
President Muhammadu Buhari).
They called their
gathering South East Group for Change (SEGC), probably a name they coined just
for the Aso Rock trip, as nothing of such had been heard before now. Led by Mr.
Ken Nnamani, a former Senate President, some of the known names included Mr.
Osita Izunaso, a former one-term senator; Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, a two-term
Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr.
Chris Akomas, a former Deputy Governor of Abia State and Chief George Moghalu.
Apart from Moghalu,
the rest were in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) when the going was good.
They owed the high public offices attached to their names to the PDP, and now
that the APC has become the new party with the “knife and yam”, they have trooped over there to reap
where they did not sow. They are political opportunists, and it shocks many of
Nnamani’s former admirers that he has degenerated to this level after once
seeming a strong presidential possibility from Igboland.
Of this lot, only
Moghalu is a genuine, thoroughbred APC leader. From 1999, Moghalu has been in
the movement that eventually transmogrified into the APC – from the All
People’s Party (APP) to the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) to the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to the APC. He is a true party man; a genuine
politician who stuck with the former opposition party through sun, rain, storms
and high winds until it finally became the ruling party.
Buhari told us that
the reason he violated the constitutional principle of federal character in the
appointment of his inner government, was that he distributed positions to those
who toiled and suffered with him over the years as a reward for their loyalty.
I wonder how Moghalu could not qualify for appointment since he had been one of
Buhari’s faithful point men in the South East since 2003 when he first ran for
president. He was in that movement long before Dr. Chris Ngige decamped from
the PDP. Even though no communiqué or media statement was issued after that
visit (Buhari, knowing them for the opportunists they were, probably had
nothing tangible to tell them), I read a most annoying analysis credited to an
unnamed member of the group.
