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As Bianca invokes Ojukwu’s spirit against Obiano, whither APGA?

Published

3 years ago

October 31, 2022

Stories have gone round about how Willie Obiano, retired to a life of ease in the United States, when he was forcefully pulled back Nigeria and to Anambra to become the numero uno of Anambra State at the end of a gainful career as an Executive Director of Fidelity Bank Plc, one of Nigeria’s leading banks.

One account actually had it that he was lounging leisurely around the swimming pool, sipping his drinks and playing the guitar, when the emissaries came to persuade him to take up the tasking job.

In other words, what this translates into is that the former bank chief, neither dreamt nor sought for the job. It is therefore either he was persuaded to employ his vast knowledge in the financial world to to serve his people or he was lured by the allure of higher office and the appurtenances thereof to accept the challenge.

But in the way the story is told by mostly his lieutenants, indicates that the former is the case. In other words, the angle is being sold that his leaving the enjoyment of his retirement to “help” the state, was a sacrifice out of his love for the people and therefore he deserves accolades rather than denigration.

Of course, the argument is further stretched that the people of Anambra had since passed their verdict in giving the Akpokuedike, a second term in the most resounding manner in 2017, when he re-contested his office. That feat is what is gleefully tagged as 21-21, having won all the 21 local governments in the state during his return leg election. Therefore, to the camp, the jury is no longer out as the matter of his popularity has since been tested and decided.

But is that all there is to it? Certainly not. Most of the naysayers, indeed believe and argue otherwise. They try to blight the touted popularity as a farce, contrived through the emptying of the treasury of the state to buy favours from the powers that be in other places, who merely looked the other way and even gave their full support to the governor to perpetrate one of the greatest electoral heists in the state four years ago.

Whichever side one chooses of the two positions, depends on which part of the divide the assessor is standing. Picture these two submissions. C.Don Adinuba, spokesman of the government, rolls out some the astounding statistics of the state being the cynosure of all that is good in Nigeria, ranging from the lowest in unemployment, the highest in good lif and the most impressive in education at all levels, amongst others on the one side. On the other, it is that the state is a haven for infrastructure development, including a brand new airport and world-class conference centre.

He would also let his audience into how the governor, as a financial wizard has put his skill into play by making all the giant strides without borrowing a kobo. That was the crux of his revelations last week on Arise TV, where he weighed in on this week’s governorship election in the state to determine his boss’ successor.

But shortly after, even before the echoes of the submission of the Commissioner for Information, died down, Victor Afam Ogene, former member of the House of Representatives, was on the same seat in the television platform, to tell the world how the same state had degenerated to the extent that residents were now concerned to the level where they suffer almost zero governance in the state.

So damning was Ogene’s submission, he tagged the government as an administration that set off to deceive the people from the word go, citing earlier claim to the world, for instance about how the government had boasted that the state would reap not less than $300million yearly from ugu – alias pumpkins and millions of dollars more from agricultural produce, which had become mirage at best!

Of what use, he further submits, was an airport, for instance, when few minutes outside its precincts, the users are concerned to sweat it out for hours in life-threatening ditches, potholes and craters that passed for roads or where the people would now require to sell the graves of their forebears to pay for the huge debts the state had been plunged into without little or nothing to show?

Of course, the time has come again for the people of the state to declare where they stand once again on the opposite sides of the argument. The election of Saturday, is going to determine whether the people truly stand with him as he wraps up the last lap of his eight-year tenure.

But beyond that, there is yet, another fundamental issue – the political leg. The management of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the vehicle in which the government rode to power, has come into serious interrogation. Has Obiano been forthcoming with elevating the profile of the party? Has he been naive on the other hand as a political upstart? Is APGA going to survive or die under him? Those questions would answered on Saturday.

Not a few believe that the party has been gasping for breath due to poor management. Before now, the allegations of official malfeasance within the party leadership is rife. A monstrous cabal that has allegedly eaten its very soul is said to have left it in such a lethargic and prostrate form that it has become a shell of its old self. From the political movement from the South East, the original founders had envisioned, which made it win elections in far-flung areas, the critics say it has transmuted into a municipal platform, completely shrivelled and asphyxiating to make fresh impacts.

Bianca, widow of Ikemba Nnewi, Emeka Odumegw Ojukwu, generally seen as the alter ego of the party, right from the day she tested her own bitter pill, having been denied the ticket to contest election for the Senate on its platform, who thinks so, has never relented in taking its leadership to the cleaners and holding them squarely resposible.

In May this year, her bitter tongue was turned against the National Chairman, Victor Oye, for daring to ask for donations to complete the party’s four-storey state secretariat in Awka, dismissing the request as another in the series of scams wrought on unsuspecting public.

Hear: “Another season of party primaries has arrived and those whose stock in trade is to milk party aspirants dry all because they aspire to run under our party’s platform, have started sending out requests for funds for our APGA ANAMBRA STATE SECRETARIAT… “The completion of a simple bungalow that could not be achieved in 7 years will miraculously be achieved by transformation to a four-storey edifice in 5 months. Hooray! However, Is it the best option to set up yet another ‘money mop-up scheme’ for APGA guber aspirants or other political office aspirants by this solicitation of funds after the scandalous mop up in the lead up to APGA’s 2018 primaries which cost the party so dearly?”

She was again on song on Thursday. This time it was the turn of Obiano again. Assailing him in a fresh lacerating diatribe, she not only accusing him of letting her husband down, but lending his hand in acts that could finally sound the death knell on the party.

Highly emotive and dripping with obvious pain, the former beauty queen, who chose her husband’s birthday, of October 4, just two days to the election to pour out her heart to the husband about the governor’s alleged misconducts, specifically accused him of handing Ndi Anambra a parting gift of “wholesale importation of toxins into our political space…in turning brother against brother, Denomination against Denomination, union leaders against members, Communities against their Stakeholders, Subjects against their traditional Rulers and friends against friends in a craftily orchestrated chess game of divide and rule?”

It is with a heavy heart that I make this communication with your noble soul, now resident in the heavenly realms, on this occasion of your birthday anniversary, and literally on the eve of the Gubernatorial Elections in your beloved state, Anambra. I am filled with concern and anxiety about the current state of the legacy you left us…our party, The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Today I hear the bells tolling, and the chimes send shivers down my spine.

Today, Chaos reigns supreme in our once stable party; our party faithful are despondent and embittered; And many of them have taken their fate in their own hands by bolting away from our party like rats desert a sinking ship….

Some years ago, a carefree former banker called Obiano together with his locust men hijacked our political habitat APGA, and plundered and destroyed the house you toiled night and day to build…

They brought in their strange gods and made desperate party aspirants bow before them in a macabre dance of initiation;

They enthroned injustice and impunity, robbed their brethren and sent many to early graves..

Ikemba Ndi Igbo, you stood for justice and equity, and fought relentlessly for the protection of your people, for the poor and the downtrodden ….yet, these Party leaders always chose to play dumb in any critical issue affecting our people , neither did they condemn the unjust imprisonment and wanton killings of their Igbo brothers.

Nna Anyi, they removed your image from our party uniform, boldly labeling you a dead man who was no longer relevant, even to the beloved party you nurtured.

Who is that Herod that seeks to erase your memory from this noble cause, this roll of honour, this last stand for Ndigbo in the twilight years of your life? Obiano, whose greatest legacies are betrayal, distrust and ingratitude?

Obiano, whose parting gift to Ndi Anambra remains the wholesale importation of toxins into our political space…in turning brother against brother, Denomination against Denomination, union leaders against members, Communities against their Stakeholders, Subjects against their traditional Rulers and friends against friends in a craftily orchestrated chess game of divide and rule?

Arise, Odum n’eche Igbo…Arise on our behalf. May this Herod reap the harvest of his habitual treachery, and the first fruits of the turmoil he created as he literally sat back and watched as insecurity overran our space.

May the one who seeks to erase your insignia and obscure your legacy suffer the same fate he strives to inflict on a man of honour; May he suffer the shame and humiliation he gratuitously dishes out to his fellows…

Amuma n’Egbe Igwe, Intercede for us.

The eleventh hour is upon us. We are advancing into this electoral battlefield with untreated sores and bleeding wounds, but with our heads held high.

Should we fail to make it, Let it be on record that Willie Obiano destroyed APGA…an unenviable feat that will surely haunt him for the rest of his years. He will go down in history as the profligate who frittered away our collective patrimony.

This, we shall never forget…

Happy Birthday, Odum n’eche Igbo, our Hero. May you continue to enjoy a well merited rest in Heaven’s Land of the Brave.

Yours Lovingly,

*Iyom Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu*

4 November 2021.

Interestingly, the timing of the vitriolic attack a few hours to the symbolic election itself, seems to have put question mark on whether her true intention is actually for the purpose which she tried to establish.

But she is not alone. Many other APGA faithful had toed the same line and echoed similar sentiments at various times in the recent historic trajectory of the party, which at inception in 2002, was believed to be the platform through which the Igbo could achieve the tall dream of producing the first democratically elected President.

Tony Gray Okpe, a senatorial aspirant under the party in Imo State, recently tried to capture how the party has been depicted in recent times, when he described it as a ponzi scheme put up by a cartel for scamming people of their money during elections.

Hear him: “APGA is a fraud. It is more than a ponzi scheme and a continuous criminal enterprise. It is an Anambra business to defraud and make money using aspirants every four years. It’s a scam. Every four years, people are defrauded. It’s no longer nkea bu nke anyi, but nkea bu nke ndi ori (It is no longer this is our own, it now means this for thieves). Some people lost millions and millions to the cartel, some people were given certificates of returns four times.”

The abiding question now, is would Obiano eventually wear the toga of the man under which APGA died? For the fear is real that having not extended its tentacle beyond a state, the failure of the party not winning Saturday’s election, would be The End! Would the party see its 20th birthday in 2022, which is just a few months ago? Only the emergence of Charles Chukwuma Soludo, as Obiano’s successor on Saturday, would determine that. Having appealed to the spirit of her husband, may be the Ikemba might be roused to act once again to save his legacy. Just may be.

Posted by Sunny Igboanugo | 5 November 2021,

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News

APC wants to use INEC to kill our party, ADC cries out

Published

4 weeks ago

April 1, 2026

Whirlwindnews

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Tuesday, called out the Federal Government of attempting to destabilise the party following Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s defection, alleging pressure on Joash Ojo Amupitan, INEC Chairman, to interfere in its leadership.

Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the party, who made the allegation in a statement, detailed how a March 28 letter by some Senior Advocates, purportedly representing an expelled member of the party, is being used to push INEC to invalidate party actions and alter its structure before the court rules.

Stressing that part of the grand plan to destabilise the only viable opposition party left in the country was to use the electoral commission to cause havoc, over a matter that was in court, the party promised to resist it using all constitutional means,

The full statement reads:

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has observed a coordinated attempt to pressure the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN), and destabilise the David Mark-led leadership of the party.

The decision of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to join our party has understandably sent jitters through the ruling party. Since then, top officials within the Federal Government have renewed their onslaught against our party, in a bid to discourage other high-profile figures.

This conspiracy is centred on a legal dispute that is now being pushed beyond the courtroom. In a letter dated March 28, 2026, a team of Senior Advocates of Nigeria is asking INEC to enforce a curious and peculiar interpretation of a Court of Appeal ruling regarding what constitutes “status quo ante bellum.”

In the said letter, the writers even went ahead to threaten the INEC chairman with arrest if he does not grant their request within seven days. They want INEC to invalidate party meetings, remove recognised officials, and hand over the affairs of the party to a specific individual, even though the case itself has not been fully decided by the courts. Obviously, what the authors of this vexatious letter are attempting to do is to pressure INEC to take sides and grant them what no court in Nigeria has granted.

For the avoidance of doubt, Hon. Nafiu Bala Gombe, who is claiming to be aggrieved over the ADC leadership, was never the Chairman of the ADC. And, perhaps more significantly, Nafiu Gombe had earlier resigned his position alongside other members of the National Working Committee. He has also since been expelled from the party. Therefore, any attempt to recreate a “status quo” that upgrades his position to National Chairman of the ADC at any point in time is, at best, fictitious.

What we are witnessing is a convergence of legal pressure and political intent by a ruling party that is unsettled by the growing appeal of the ADC. But Nigerians can see what is happening.

No amount of pressure, no manufactured confusion, and no distortion of legal processes will stop what is already in motion. The ADC is growing. Nigerians are joining. A credible opposition is taking shape.

We call on INEC to remain guided by the Constitution, resist all forms of pressure, and uphold its duty as an impartial umpire.

This is bigger than the ADC. It is about whether Nigerians can freely choose a different path. And that must not be compromised.

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Editorial

Closure of Onitsha Main Market: How not to gaslight the people

Published

3 months ago

January 31, 2026

Whirlwindnews

In the early hours of Monday, January 26, 2026, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, stormed Onitsha Main Market, reputed to be the biggest enclave for trading and other commercial activities in West Africa, on what he called on-the-spot assessment.

It was a military-style display, reminiscent of the Muhammadu Buhari-Tunde Idiagbon, best-forgotten taskforce days, when soldiers, without warning swooped on markets, broke into their owner’s shops and practically sold available goods to the public at giveaway prices – many their cronies, in the guise of forcing their Essential Commodities policy.

In like manner there and then, the governor ordered the immediate closure of the market after accusing the traders of harbouring criminal intents and engaging in economic sabotage that costs the state a whopping N8billion in lost revenues. To boot, he even warned not only to close the market on a permanent basis, but if need be, even bulldoze it to the ground, should the traders remained recalcitrant in their decision.

Hear him: “Each Monday, we’ll come and inspect. If people are not in their respective shops, it will be shut down again. If you like I don’t mind shutting down this Main Market for the remainder of this year. If you don’t like it, go elsewhere and trade, but if you’re here, we’re not going to allow this plain economic sabotage. Also, we suspect whoever closes their shops to have some criminal intents.”

From the outset, we must state that what the world saw in that spontaneous encounter and subsequent days as the issues therein remained on the front burner, has little place in democracy, neither does it reflect sound, people-oriented leadership under the ethos of what has now been accepted across the globe as the best form of government.

Now, the last time we checked, Soludo is neither a military General nor even a soldier, but a highly-decorated academic, whose influence in the knowledge industry spans beyond education institutions, government – he was formally Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) – to international reckoning – consulting for some of the highest global bodies, including the United Nations.

Now, how does this selfsame global icon, reduce himself to a local dictator, dishing out orders as in regimental commands rather than employing that power of persuasion, which distinguishes brainpower – the emblematic factor of his training from raw strength of dictators in the gun business?

How does it fit? Do concepts like immediate effect and automatic alacrity form part of the recommendations Soludo makes to those global institutions he consulted for? Certainly no! So, why introduce them as his own governance template? That is the confusing, if not the disturbing part.

Is it not becoming clearer now? Is this military-style tendency not finding expression in the audacity captured in that ghoulish spectacle last year, where one Jennifer Elohor Edema, the young lady serving Nigeria under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, was stripped down to her birthday suit by some youths, visibly inebriated on influences of some brain-damaging substances, who were working for Soludo’s government?

By the way, when last did anyone hear anything about those criminals, outside the initial apparent crocodile tears at government places in Awka? Has anyone heard of any form of punishment? Have they been arraigned in court? If yes, what is the state of the trial?

In the instant case, we particularly detest the governor’s attempt to feign ignorance of the issues behind the conduct of the traders or his efforts to bury them under the veneer of righteous anger. To so do is deceitful, arrogant, if not self-serving – elements that seem to have, so unfortunately, formed part of the governance structure in Anambra State, as in most other states across the country, including the central government.

The issue here, if Soludo needs be reminded, is about the fate of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), currently serving life sentence at a facility in Sokoto, to where he was sent by Justice James Omotoso of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Of course, the governor was right in claiming that the dangerous security situation in the state has changed for the better and that Anambra is no longer the killing field it was until recently. Obviously, the blood-thirsty terrorists responsible for the carnages witnessed in the state, including those ostensibly aimed at enforcement of the sit at home orders, seem to be on holiday and from the look of things are no longer returning.

So, if the governor says security or insecurity of the traders is no longer the big issue, he has a foundation to so state. At least for the first time in recent years, Christmas was celebrated in the entire Igboland with the usual fanfare under the robust atmosphere devoid of fear. That alone gives credence to the extent of these changes.

But that is not the end of the story. Kanu’s fresh ordeal seems to have introduced a new chapter to the entire saga. Now, the current sit-at-home option appears no longer out of fear of being attacked or killed, but the willingness of the traders to donate every Monday, in solidarity with the IPOB leader. This was evident in the Tuesday demonstration, where the message of the traders who thronged the streets of Onitsha, was clearly delivered with renditions like – Nnamdi Kanu is another saviour.

Therefore, Soludo, must be a complete novice or pathologically naïve to claim he is not aware of this new sentiment. But he is neither of the two. There is no way the governor would not have been seized of the compelling emotions around him.

So, for him to put up that show on Monday, is nothing but a gambit tailored towards gaslighting the public. His feigned anger against the traders for not opening their shops is as manipulative as it is deceitful, just as argument thereto regarding the economy implications is as puerile as it is spurious.

It is demonstrative of lack of emotional intelligence, as it showcases the absence of the required synergy between the government and the people, a phenomenon that has become characteristic in the South East in recent years, where a huge gulf and trust deficit exist between the people and those who lead them.

It is indeed laughable when South East governors, including Soludo, lay claims to the current calm in Igboland, when on the contrary, many of them are accused of being collaborators, either as active agents of being complicit through their conspiracy of silence.

Who does not know that the late President Muhammadu Buhari, was the vector that transported that killer disease to Igboland? Dan Nwanyanwu, National Chairman of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), has remained relentless in establishing this fact most pungently in the past and even quite recently.

Soludo, in his chest-beating mode, gives the impression that he somehow sprung a genie out of the magic lamp to create a sudden miracle that turned the parlous security situation around. No! It was the death of Buhari that ended the blitzkrieg in the South East. Simplicita!

Where was this genie when during the Buhari days, when the Aguata Local Government headquarters, where he comes from was razed to the ground or when a swathe of Ihiala and adjoining areas in the state became a hunting ground for the rampaging terrorists, codenamed Unknown Gunmen.

He was only content in the open and shut attitude of dismissing the carnage they wrought as the handiwork of Kanu’s Eastern Security Network (ESN), even when the group swore on their father’s grave that they were not involved.

Indeed, if there is ever going to be anything good in the government of President Bola Tinubu, it is the fact that he is not as hungry for the blood of the Igbo man as Buhari, who never hid the fact of his desire to continue the civil war against Ndigbo, more than 50 years after.

Had Tinubu, who upped the ante in the marginalisation of Ndigbo in many ways, escalated this penchant by toeing the line as part of his continuation of the Buhari legacy, which he promised Nigerians, he might have renewed the military contract Asari Dokubo claimed to have with Buhari.

Yes, though he never revealed details of the so-called contract, its nature could be gleaned from the manner the people were dying wotowotowoto, as the Niger Delta warlord, himself gloated about some years back.

He even backed his gloating up in that viral video, with a display of an AK-47, boasting how he would use the weapon to cure Ndigbo their “madness.” Is it not surprising that in all his public comments, neither Soludo nor his South East colleagues ever mentioned this obvious threat to his people.

So, nobody is deceived by the governor acting like Idi Amin of Uganda, who went berserk because he could not get more money printed from his central bank. Nobody is moved by his threat to even bulldoze that market. He is only being clever by half, if not acting a script.

It does not remove the fact that he and his colleagues suddenly went mute, then and now and remained tongue-tied at a historic moment when Ndigbo are battling to extricate themselves from the soggy, foggy, belly of the whale, like the biblical Jonah, as they are in Nigeria today. It does not belittle the fact that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a metaphor for that horrible situation.

It is even worse that Soludo, arguably the most intellectually-gifted governor in Nigeria today, would be introducing some ethnic, sectional or indigene-based sentiments into the matter by trumpeting that those pursing the sit at home drive are not from Anambra. What a shame!

Who cares? Instead of such obtuse, infantile, if not asinine suggestion, would it not be more apposite for him to conduct a census in the entire Anambra, Aguata, his local government, Isuofia, his community and even the Soludo family to determine the number of Igbo people that are happy with the fate of not only Kanu, but Ndigbo in the hands of his friends in high authority today?

We hear that the traders have caved in. So, by Monday, expectedly, they would return to their shops – though definitely against their will. Soludo, would have scored another point and proven himself a strong man. But is it not a crab that makes itself king in shallow waters? Times shall tell!

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Valarian Okeke: A custodian of faith, a messenger of God, a gift to humanity

Published

6 months ago

October 20, 2025

Whirlwindnews

John Chuma Nwosu, candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the November 8, Anambra State Governorship Election, on Monday, joined other faithful in the Catholic Church across the world to celebrate Valerian Maduka Okeke, the Archbishop of Onitsha and the Metropolitan, on the day the renowned cleric turned 72.

Nwosu, himself a staunch Catholic, former Seminarian and Assistant Secretary to Francis Cardinal Arinze, who was a one-time Archbishop of the same diocese, before moving to the Vatican, where he is now one of the top leaders in the church, declared that Okeke, remained not only a true servant, but an example of God’s voice on earth.

He wrote: “Today, I join the Catholic faithful across the globe and the entire Christian community in Nigeria to celebrate His Grace, Most Rev. Valerian Maduka Okeke, the Archbishop of Onitsha and Metropolitan, on the glorious occasion of his 72nd Birthday Celebration.

“Your Grace, you are a perfect example that God indeed manifests Himself in diverse ways. You represent a demonstrable illustration of selflessness, piety, humility and holiness and through you, God has once again shown that the tortuous way of the cross will eventually manifest in the triumph of humanity.

“Your life of devotion, wisdom, and unwavering commitment to the service of God and humanity stands as a shining example of true leadership — the kind that inspires us to build a more just, peaceful, and progressive society. You have been a moral compass to our people, guiding us towards values that uplift and unite.

“As we celebrate you today, I am reminded that the kind of selfless service you embody is exactly what our beloved Anambra needs — leadership rooted in compassion, faith, and integrity. It is this same spirit that fuels my commitment to serve our people under the great umbrella of African Democratic Congress (ADC). You are indeed a custodian of faith, a messenger of God, a gift to humanity.

“May God continue to bless and keep you, Your Grace, granting you long life, strength, and divine wisdom to shepherd His flock and to keep inspiring a generation of leaders determined to build a better future.

“Your life remains a light to Anambra and beyond. Congratulations once again. Happy birthday, Your Grace!

“With deepest respect and warm regards.”

John Chuma Nwosu (ADC Gubernatorial Candidate )

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