Sam Onwuemeodo
One Ifeanyi Maduako, who claimed to have written from Owerri, had authored a piece, with the referenced caption. A very disturbing title.
In the piece, he had given two reasons for writing under such divisive caption. First, he frowned at what he termed, the former governor “Okorocha’s domineering style of politics”. And then held the view that, “without the entrance of governor Hope Uzodinma into the party, APC would have become extinct in the state since 2019”.
He complained too about the love showed to Okorocha on his birthday celebration, last September. Maduka’s words, “the recent birthday celebration of Senator Okorocha had exposed the disloyalty of some party faithful who claimed to be loyal to incumbent
Governor Uzodinma. In the various advertorials by Okorocha’s loyalists, they referred Okorocha as a leader and with that, Uzodinma has known where the loyalty of these well wishers lies”.
With the logics or dispositions of Maduako, three claims could be made about him and they are all correct. One, he does not love Governor Uzodinma. He does not like APC. And he also lied profusely. If this Maduako is real, he should be one of those who have deceived or wrongfully advised Governor Uzodinma to think that, the only way he could survive politically as a sitting governor or secure his political future, is by being confrontational to Okorocha and other leaders who brought APC to Imo and had made the party thick in the state before his coming. The man wrote as if APC came from nowhere to be the ruling party in Imo State. Someone used his political content or clout to bring APC to the state and nurtured it to become the party to beat in Imo and the person is Rochas Okorocha. Maduako is a hatchet writer. Otherwise, he would have known that the APC in Imo and to a large extent, in the Southeast, would remain Okorocha’s creation for a long time. And under Governor Uzodinma, the party has gone into coma.
The PDP had governed Imo from 1999 to 2011, when Okorocha came. He ran for the governorship of the state on the ticket of APGA. He defeated an incumbent governor of PDP extraction with APGA that had not won even a councillorship seat in the state before
him. With APGA, Okorocha had 17 House of Assembly members, one senator and three House of Representatives’ members.
He later took APGA, at the risk of his second term, with the PDP government at the centre, to join other patriots to midwife the merger that gave birth to APC. And he paid heavily for that. At that time, Senator Uzodinma was still with the Alhaji Modu Sherriff faction of the PDP.
In the 2015 election, in the whole of Southeast President Mohammadu Buhari got the highest number of votes in Imo. Okorocha won his governorship election. Had 23, out of the 27 House of Assembly members, four House of Representatives members and one
Senate seat with the newly born APC. And if it was easy, why has Imo remained the only APC state in the Southeast and the party could not win even an Assembly seat in any other state in the Southeast in 2015? And Senator Uzodinma was one of those who called Okorocha names because of APC.
It should be recalled that Okorocha, as the pivot, on which the wheel of APC was rotating in the Southeast, had called a meeting of the party leaders in the zone in Owerri.
At that meeting, Ken Nnamani was announced the leader of the party in the Southeast.
But those whose own APC stops at Abuja opposed that lofty action. Today, they have relocated to the same Nnamani’s residence because he represents the Southeast in the Governor Mala Buni-led caretaker committee. The truth is that Okorocha is foresighted and visionary.
In the 2019 election, Okorocha’s Imo also gave President Buhari the highest number of votes in the Southeast. Senator Uzodinma could be said to be just a tool in Adams Oshiomhole’s hand. And the question is, at what point did Uzodinma join APC? For reasons only known to Oshiomhole, he had made up his mind to injure Imo APC. He promised more than four APC chieftains, including Okorocha appointees that he would give them the party’s guber ticket, while he had already settled for Senator Uzodinma for the ticket.
Okorocha also won his Senate election on the ticket of APC. Returned five House of Representatives members for APC. His governorship candidate, Uche Nwosu who ran on the ticket of AA came second in the election and got the required spread. Eight House of Assembly members won their election on the platform of AA. Six won on the ticket of APGA and the rest, PDP.
Senator Uzodinma, the APC governorship candidate came fourth in the election.
Oshiomhole and Uzodinma’s own APC in Imo didn’t win even one seat in the House of Assembly election. Senator Uzodinma could not win the seat of his Oru East State constituency. Reason being that he was not on ground. He has been solo in his politics and making do with few aides who constitute his Camp Hope structure. In most of the polling units in the 2019 governorship poll, APC had no agent.
On his own, Senator Uzodinma has said how he came on board. He was therefore expected to embrace the main APC members in the state. But, he has not done that. He has more than 100 appointees, and only six of them could be said to be core APC members. And that is the reason he is among those asking for a new registration in the party at the moment.
The truth is that the APC members in the state have decided to keep their fingers crossed and be watching him. Hence, if election is conducted in the state today, APC may not come the same fourth it came in 2019. He has not taken any step to galvanize the party and its members in the state. He has, instead, shown disdain against Okorocha, Araraume and other strong leaders of the party in the state. And these leaders are those who produced all the folks who are today, APC members in the State Assembly.
The governor has been busy with confidence votes acquisition. And celebrating politicians that do not have the political capacity to add value to the party. The other day, Chief Tony Ezenna (Orange Drug) visited Senator Uzodinma in the Government House with four traditional rulers. And the next story was that, Okorocha’s kinsmen have joined Uzodinma. Chief Ezenna has been contesting party primaries for the governorship, since 1999 and he has never had the third position but either 5th or 6th in all of them. He is from the same Ideato with Okorocha. And Okorocha has been wining in his polling unit. He has also celebrated Chief Martin Agbaso, a known politician in Imo. But who has no story to
tell with regard to successful political outings. He had the franchise of Imo APGA till 2011 when Okorocha came. Chief Agbaso is from Owerri North where the chieftains of PDP, Dr Mrs. Kema Chikwe, Chief Ambrose Ejiogu and so on, come from. They have never allowed Agbaso to breathe well with regard to political contests. Even as the highest figure in APGA then, he could not boast of winning one councillorship seat with the party.
These are the kinds of politicians Governor Uzodinma has taken delight in recruiting, just to deceive the party hierarchy in Abuja. These are Senator Uzodinma’s new APC leaders.Imo people, even Nigerians, know resourceful and productive politicians from Imo. They know the political values and worths of Okorocha, Araraume, Nwosu and so on. It is not a “shakara”, enterprise.
Any day Okorocha and Araraume leave APC for Governor Uzodinma, that will be the end of the party in Imo. There is no two words about that. He is yet to be embraced by majority of Imo people. And he is having issues with every sector in the state.
The problem with Imo APC is not who is the leader of the party. It is the failure or refusal of the governor to show the needed leadership in the affairs of the party. As governor of APC extraction, what step has he taken to move the party forward?. He does not have the kind of political chest Okorocha has. So, he needs to carry other leaders of the party along.
And for Maduako to take exception to good wishes Okorocha got on his birthday celebration, only shows how small he is in spirit. It means that APC governors who had congratulated Olusegun Obasanjo or Goodluck Jonathan or Atiku Abubakar on their birthday celebrations are no longer on the same page with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Very subjective logic and lopsided hypothesis. It all shows the pettiness the government in Imo is associated with. The government chases the shadow and leaving the substance.
Senator Uzodinma should simply tell himself the home truth. He can’t go far with Imo APC without Okorocha and Ararume. Simplicita.
• Onwuemeodo, former CPS
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