Uncategorized
As Bianca invokes Ojukwu’s spirit against Obiano, whither APGA?
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…
Read Also: Ogun PDP, Akwa Ibom APC won’t be on governorship ballot in 2023 – INEC
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,
By Sunny Igboanugo
I must confess harbouring genuine fear in the last few days. The signals filtering in from the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), kept me substantially restive.
But it immediately transcended to apprehension and trepidation when Henry Seriaka Dickson, National Leader, appeared on Prime Time, the public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television.
This is it, I told myself. Yes, I was becoming increasingly convinced that my fear that the Ofirimapepe – the Great White Shark from Bayelsa – was about to unravel. Knowing Nigerian politicians, I had not been able to wean myself of the fear that the former Governor did not have a hidden agenda.
Listening to the same ARISE NEWS panel, this time on The Morning Show, its breakfast programme, review Dickson’s outing in the earlier encounter with Charles Aniagolu, I knew I was not alone in entertaining this fear.
There, the panelists alluded to the same fears – probably picked from their individual antenna – to the effect that Dickson would betray Obi – confirming that I wasn’t just overthinking.
Now, among the different angles that had been bandied is the one suggesting that Dickson was actually not interested in Peter Obi becoming President – “because he knows he will not win” – but that he is actually using his name to build the party for the future.
In fact, they stretch the prognosis to suggest that the real interest is for the Senator to pair with Rabiu Kwankwaso, current running mate with Obi in the 2031 presidential election. In other words, it is all about 2031. For me, this wasn’t as dangerous as the one I had been pondering over since Obi’s entrance into the NDC.
Now, my own prognosis was that the entire scenario depicted APC at work. I confess this much. I had always believed that the process of Obi’s emergence and picking the NDC was too smooth for comfort. Were APC and President Bola Tinubu particularly, who had been accused of not wanting the former Governor of Anambra State on the ballot in 2027, knowing what he did to him in the 2023 edition, sleeping?
This naughty knot in my throat, too difficult to swallow, was reinforced by Dickson’s particular expressions during the encounter. First, came the fact that nobody – make it Obi – was doing him or the NDC leadership a favour by joining the party, but rather, it was the other way.
Then came the bigger one, when he began to boast that nobody was more “qualified” to run for the nation’s number one job than him – I interpreted it to be a direct attack on Obi. The question was why? Why would he be launching such needless blitzkrieg on his own party’s candidate – the same man he would be going to war with?
Then, I concluded that it was a gambit to draw Obi out to a fight – that he was deliberately baiting the 2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate – daring him to say piim in form of a reply and then – voom! The bloody battle will start and then, the inevitable – Obi’s name will either disappear from the NDC list or something close to it!
Both ways, it would be bad business for the Obi project – the only hope for citizens to get out of the nightmare they find themselves under the terrible disaster, called – APC’s Tinubu. I couldn’t bear the thought.
Now, I confess I was wrong! I have just listened to Dickson’s clarification and realised that this might not be the case. On the contrary, the culprit is actually Aisha Yusufu, arguably one of Obi’s most trusted allies. The rumble in the NDC, has all the trappings of a wounded ego she’s nursing at the moment.
It is clear that she is unable to manage her bitterness for failing to obtain the ticket of the party for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senatorial election in 2027.
It is a delicate situation, because of what such anger could wrought, as already becoming evident. What is more? It might all be a matter of the self-entitlement factor, given her profile.
I could imagine what she’s struggling with and the questions in her head right now. How could a whole Aisha, Nigeria’s tough-nail activist fail to clinch such a simple trophy given her status and what she had done for the party? Why wouldn’t she get what she wanted given “all she had done” for Peter Obi?
How would I know the angle Dickson just revealed – that he (Dickson) and Obi, sat down to practically beg the self-same Aisha to take the House of Representatives ticket of the party – for FREE! But she refused flatly. For her, it was the Senate or nothing.
Now, this is where politics is different from populism. Dickson didn’t just fall into the leadership of the NDC. So many things happened to that effect. Just like Aisha is Obi’s man-Friday, so too is Dickson supposed to have his own. Politics is all about give and take – quid pro quo – rub my back I nwekee yours!
Did Aisha expect that Dickson would not have his own interests? Did Aisha expect that Obi, after picking the presidential ticket, would also begin to scramble or contest with the Ofirimapepe for the FCT ticket, his own share of the booty?
Okay, did she expect that Dickson must subsume that interest under hers for there to be peace? Just because she is Aisha – Nigeria’s number one activist? Does she expect Dickson to go empty-handed – just because she has access to “important people?” Imagine!
Dickson claimed that he and Obi pleaded with her to take the House Representatives ticket for free, but she flatly refused. Pray! Is House of Representatives too low to start as a political fresher?
I saw her earlier video that went viral, where she was complaining before party leaders that she was denied the platform to contest the ticket. What platform was she talking about?
Isn’t it akin to Atiku Abubakar insisting on contesting the African Democratic Congress (ADC’s) ticket with Peter Obi, for which he is being called names till date.
Like Atiku, who says she wouldn’t have won the primaries for the FCT ticket? Yes, if allowed, she might have defeated Amanda Pam, the lawyer whom had reportedly been penciled down by Dickson’s choice.
But wouldn’t that mimic the nuances surrounding Atiku defeating Obi, et al in the ADC primaries? Would that be the end of the story? How would Dickson feel that his candidate was shoved out of the way in place of a newcomer?
Yes! She might argue that it is all about democracy. But even democracy must be given a human face. Much more than taking Tinubu and his wicked government out of power, a major reason many people also demanded that Atiku ceded the ticket to Obi, was for this same human face of democracy – including for the South to remain in power – moreso – South East.
Just in the same way many believed that Atiku could easily pick the ADC ticket but fail woefully in the main election, isn’t it also true that Aisha could have defeated Pam in the run for the NDC ticket, but fail at the main election – especially given what many see as her deep-rooted relevance in Abuja politics – even outside Dickson’s particular interest?
Now, I understand Dickson’s outburst clearly and it is as well that he came out to make clarifications. Now I know it is not about Obi. Now I know it is not a gambit to stoke an imaginary quarrel in the NDC just to endanger the ticket. Now I know it is not APC or the Aso Rock Villa or Bourdillon at work. Now I’m so happy!
In recent days since this imbroglio, Aisha has spoken less about the Peter Obi presidency, hitherto on her lips. I hope the apparent reticence is not her way of waying the option of joining the likes of Kenneth Okonkwo and other turncoats.
Surely, the naysayers, must be on her case by now, baiting her to take a bite. I hope she’s not pecking at it, not to talk about swallowing the line. I just hope she would take the more glorious option of dusting herself and re-engaging in what she is known for – crusading for the society.
Shakespeare once wrote that “hell hat no fury than a woman scorned.” Granted that it is human to feel angry or disappointed, but the cure cannot come from taking a dive into the sea.
Impulse or recklessness could lead to plunging into the morass of infamy. I should suggest she asked Okonkwo how it feels in there. Thank God they’re both still friends. It mightn’t only be critical, but indeed fatal – like from frying pan into fire. I won’t say more!
_ The Tiny Voice!
After allegedly being rejected as Nigeria’s ambassador to Germany, Femi Fani-Kayode, former Minister of Aviation, has been reassigned as Nigeria’s ambassador-designate to South Africa, while his place is said to have gone to Ita Enang, former Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Legislative Matters.
Reports had said as far back as March that the former Minister and vocal voice in national affairs was not granted a welcome to Berlin, the German capital, due to what was claimed as his divisive ethnocentric public commentaries, labelling his potential presence as destabilising to diplomatic relations, claims he promptly repudiated as fake news.
While no official statement has come from either the Presidency or the Federal Ministry of Information to confirm the new status of Enang, Fani-Kayode has since confirmed he is heading to Johannesburg.
Reacting to the news, which circulated widely on social media—particularly on X, claimed that Germany had declined to his appointment, Fani-Kayode, described the reports as “fake news” and accused political opponents of attempting to undermine his appointment.
“These opposition elements are so pained by my appointment that they are doing everything to discredit it. Whether they like it or not, I will serve my country,” he stated.
The former minister emphasized his commitment to serving Nigeria, dismissing the rumors as baseless attempts to scuttle his diplomatic role.
Regardless, the Minister confirmed on Thursday that he was how heading to South Africa, as his new posting, but quickly asserted that it was not out of rejection by Germany, but out of his own preference to serve in Africa rather than Europe where he had lived for a long time.
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.
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: Troops rescue wife of kidnapped General! *Terrorists flee scene
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: Count me out, Okonkwo tells Atiku *Amaechi VP’s choice an insult to Ndigbo
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism
-
News4 weeks agoDickson: Obi, a big asset to NDC, we’re working together … but!
-
News4 weeks agoOvia, ex-Zenith Bank boss swings into luxury apartments *Flats hit $2.8million price tag
-
News5 days agoBREAKING: EX-SSG mowed down by gunmen! *He resisted being kidnapped – driver
-
News2 weeks agoAbductors of Oyo teachers panicking, freedom coming for victims soon!
-
News2 weeks agoTwo hours after Igboho’s ‘red-eyes’ to ‘Fulani’ leaders, gunmen free kidnap victims!