Executive Row Tears Enugu APC Apart
In-house fighting among the executives of the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State, has further damaged the credibility of a party that is struggling to find a foothold in the South-east, writes Davidson Iriekpen
Recently, the Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said it would displace the Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the Government House come 2019. To realise the objective, it appointed a former speaker of the state’s house of assembly, Eugene Odoh and erstwhile military administrator of Gombe State, Group Capt. Joe Oji to important committees. While the Odoh-led committee is to ensure that the party wins the forthcoming local government elections, Oji’s committee is to oversee the reconciliation of the party.
The Chairman of APC in the state, Dr. Ben Nwoye, while announcing the setting up of the committees and other resolutions at the end of the party’s maiden state caucus meeting, also expressed the determination of the party to take over the local government areas when elections into the councils come up before the end of the year. According to him, the wind of change had started to blow in Enugu’s political atmosphere with unprecedented migration of political heavy weights from PDP to APC; such as former governor of the old Anambra State, Senator Jim Nwobodo; former governor of the state, Sullivan Chime; former Senate President, Ken Nnamani; former Speaker of the state assembly, and wife of a former National Chairman of PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, Dr. Dorothy, among others.
The caucus meeting which was inaugurated recently and chaired by Nwoye himself, was attended by Chime; National Vice Chairman of APC South-east, Emma Eneukwu; two transport moguls, Sam Onyishi and Onyemuche Nnamani of Auto Star.
Others are; the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu; Oji; Odoh; business mogul, Baywood Ibe; Chief G.B. Onoh; Maj. Gen. J. O. J Okolagu; Nigerian Ambassador to India, Maj. Gen. Chris Eze, and others.
Ironically, two weeks after Nwoye made the boastful remarks, the crisis which he had been trying to manage and conceal from the public erupted. He was, among others, accused of highhandedness. True to type, he slammed an indefinite suspension on the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Justice Reform, Mrs. Juliet Ibekaku. Ibekaku who is the former deputy governorship candidate of the party in the last general election, was suspended alongside 19 others for alleged misconduct and violation of the party’s constitution.
The suspension notice reads: “Notice of indefinite suspension for violation of article 21 (A) (v) of our party constitution.
“APC national secretariat has been notified of their suspension. The affected individuals have seven days from the date of this notice to appeal their case. The affected persons are barred from attending any function organised or sponsored by the APC. Any member of the public dealing with them as members of APC does so at their risk.”
Also suspended are, Lolo Queen Ngozi Nwankwo (Woman Leader), Mr. Ikechukwu Oloto, (Youth Leader), Mr. Louis Okolo, (Assistant Secretary), Mr. Sydney Eze (former Financial Secretary) and Mr. Ebere Okolo (former Treasurer). The deputy chairman of the party in the state, Adolphus Udeh, had earlier been expelled from the party.
However, the crisis rocking the party assumed a new twist when last week, some members of the party insisted that Nwoye remains suspended. While addressing the media in Abuja, the party’s governorship candidate in the 2015 election, Nnadozie Valentine, a member of the House of Representatives, Hon Ejike Njeze and Ejikeme Ugwu, said the suspension of Nwoye on July 3 by a panel for anti-party activities, high-handedness and mismanagement of party funds, complied with all provisions of the party’s constitution. They similarly directed the members of the party including the vice-chairman, purportedly suspended on July 4, by the erstwhile chairman, to disregard the order, stressing that in line with party constitution, suspension of members could, only be done at the ward level and not by the state executive.
Valentine, who spoke on behalf of other aggrieved members, appealed to the party’s national leadership to intervene in the ensuing crisis in order to save the party from an imminent collapse.
He said since 2015, petitions on the handling of the party were written to the national secretariat of the party and copied to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF). According to him, the embattled chairman shunned the invitation to defend himself before a panel set up by the party national leadership and OSGF, after key members of the party’s working committee, wrote a memo establishing the allegations against the chairman.
“He (Nwoye) refused to submit himself to the panel to defend himself. He claimed that he is not answerable to any government functionary. Afterwards, he set up a panel against those who wrote a petition against him and became a judge in his own matter. The kangaroo panel suspended 20 people, including three of us, who though, did not sign the petition, but were in full support. We must ease out the few people that have mortgaged the party in the state and avoid the miscalculation made in 2015, where APC only garnered 13,000 votes in the presidential election in Enugu State,” Valentine admonished.
He said the truce initiated last week by the party elders, including Senator Jim Nwobodo for a ceasefire and for all factions to stay away from the secretariat was breached by Nwoye, who broke into the secretariat on July 4, to hold an illegal meeting where members were allegedly suspended.
Many now wonder how a party in disarray will displace a party in power. They also ask how the party will win future elections in the state when it is in crisis. While APC is in crisis, PDP is consolidating.
Recently, former governor of the old Anambra State, Chief Jim
Nwobodo and the immediate past governor, Chime and a host of others have defected to APC. The defection, its was gathered, was because they did not stand any chance in displacing those presently representing Anambra at the National Assembly and House of Assembly members in the ruling party in the state. Analysts in the state feel that the calculation of the defectors, is to use federal might to muzzle the ruling party in the state into submission in 2019.
Not unaware of the machinations of the opposition party, the governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has remained focused his with his popularity soaring. His impressive performance has continued to endear him to his people. Not only has the state been adjudged the most peaceful in the entire South-east, across the 17 council areas, the governor has recorded achievements that the people are happy with. In the area of education sector, over 2,000 teachers were recently recruited and over 200 schools renovated.
As a result of the governor’s remarkable achievements, traders in the state under the auspices of the Enugu State Amalgamated Traders Association (ESAMATA) recently shut down markets for a solidarity rally in support of his good works of transforming the state despite the severe economic challenges in the country.
In the traders’ words, the rally was also organised to appreciate the governor’s empowerment programmes “carefully designed to assist the traders in Enugu State grow their businesses to improve their fortunes” and stimulate the economy of the state. In unison, the traders endorsed the governor for re-election in 2019, saying that he has performed creditably in just two years in office despite the daunting economic challenges in the country and therefore deserves another term of four years.
A week earlier, ESAMATA had advised residents to store food stuff and other needed items ahead as the plan to shut-down the markets to celebrate Ugwuanyi was a unanimous decision of the traders in the state. On the day of the rally, (last Thursday), like they promised, the traders did not disappoint. Not only were all their shops shut, they practically shut down the state capital to express how happy and pleased with Ugwuanyi for his visionary leadership and the empowerment programme initiated by his administration, where 100 lucky traders win N50,000 each every month. The President-General of the traders’ union, Hon. Temple Ude, noted at the rally, pointing out that his policies “are most favourable to traders doing business in Enugu State.”
Ude added that the cordial relationship existing between the governor and traders in the state “is equal to none” in contrast to other states in Nigeria, especially in the south-east.
“Your excellency, no government in the past has ever attempted to establish the existing relationship between traders and government. Traders in Enugu State have resolved that if tenure elongation were democratic, they will sponsor a bill that Ugwuanyi should be cleared for third term in office. We are happy that even with the current economic hardship you still positively navigate the affairs of the state for the betterment of the people of Enugu State. We have unanimously endorsed your re-election come 2019,” the president-general said to a huge applause.
Even the civil servants in the state are happy with the governor because while some states are finding it difficult to pay salaries, theirs are regularly paid. Over 100 units of one-bedroom apartments have so far been build for civil servants below grade level 10. Equally significant is the fact that the government has paid over 50 per cent equity contribution for the beneficiaries. Of course, employment generation, enhancing social services and good governance, are other areas the governor ranks high.