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ADC’s campaign council launch and Nwosu’s giant stride to Agu-Awka
“Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal: Tis not the trial of a woman’s war, The bitter clamour of two eager tongues, Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain.” When William Shakespeare wrote these lines in King Richard 11, one of his eternal epics, he was simply trying to emphasise the need to reduce noise and focus on the substance on whenever issues contend and clash against each other.
Fiery expressions neither supersedes, quiet, logical and concise argument, nor does it suggest the lack of zeal or energy. Matters must not be settled with the bitter clamour of eager tongues, like the trial of a woman’s war. This was what the iconic Shakespeare laboured to establish, using a depiction of the hot exchange that took place in the Court of King Richard 11, in that particular scene in the play.
Today, 427 years after that play, which debuted in 1597, the inherent message the renowned writer was passing is resonating in Anambra – achievements are not measured in the decibel of high-sounding words and cacophony of voices, but in the quietude of ideas and how they translate into real life.
So, as John Chuma Nwosu, governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the political platform under which Nigeria is finding a new essence as a nation, handed down the mandate to the 17-member John Chuma Nwosu Governorship Campaign Council (JCN-GCC), the message was very clear – this is neither a battle done with unsheathed swords or a bitter war by the clattering of eager tongues.
The event was the inauguration of the council on Friday, July 25, 2025 at the Number 4, Udoka Housing Estate Secretariat of the party, in Awka, the Anambra State capital. The event, which marked the commencement of one of the most significant steps in the move by the party, currently hosting the coalition movement by prominent Nigerians to take charge of the affairs of Nigeria, was another exhibition of great enthusiasm by party faithful, who came from all the nooks and crannies of the state to give fillip to the momentum in the new Nigerian political firmament.
The council made up of high-net professionals in different field, included Ike Iwenofu Campaign Chairman, an engineer, Ben Chuks-Nwosu, foremost lawyer, political icon and former Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Chief Of Staff, Celestine Okoye retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Security, Bonny Okoye Campaign Manager, Dr. C. C. Okeke, a renowned intellectual, Deputy Director General (DDG) Political Matters, Emeka O. Ekwueme Director Administration, Chief Emeka Anagor Director Finance, Reginald Akunekwe Director Mobilisation, Zelinjo Igweze, renowned academic, Director Women Affairs and Ricky Okechukwu, another erudite scholar, Director Research and Strategy.
Others were Samuel Ezedigbo Director Youth Affairs, Justina Nwafor Women Zonal Coordination South, Grace Oguelina Women Zonal Coordination Central, Christiana Iwuno Women Zonal Coordination North, Hygienus Anedo Coalition and Inter-Party Affairs and Paschal Azubuike Head Media Affairs, while Sunny Igboanugo, is to serve as the Director of Media and Publicity of the council.
His charge: keep it clean! No campaign of personalities, no name-calling, no mud-fighting. It must be all about issues in the state – about telling Anambra people the truth – about filling them in on the change that is coming and how the ADC bears the evidence of a major rescue and transformation of the land into a firmament of opportunities that it once was by tapping onto the ingenuity of its vast human and material resources.
The whole idea was encapsulated into the SHEEMS agenda – a template that outlines programmes to enhance the critical areas of development based on the prevailing issues in the state – Security, Health, Education, Economy, Markets and Social Welfare. His dissection of these seven critical areas, bore ample evidence of not only his clear knowledge, but the weight of his convictions and vision that they remain the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for preparing Anambra to take the giant leap into the enviable hub of world economies.
In his smart government idea, security will come onto the radar of technology rather than human elements. Tracking criminals and fighting crimes will be a function of hi-tech such as in modern societies where crimes could be detected in split-seconds through a network of alarm bells that would trigger off the relevant agencies that would move to check them within the same split-seconds.
The streets would be devoid of the eyesore optics of crudity where all manner of brutality are unleashed on citizens in the guise of fighting crimes, adding: “We will introduce the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI-enabled) security system that will run on face-recognition technology with a fully-equipped Command and Control (CAC) certre.”
Healthcare would also take similar pattern of modernity by procuring hi-tech medical facilities, with focus on first-class assessable and affordable programmes anchored on Primary Health Care (PHC), complete with Emergency Medical and Transport Services (EMTS), he said.
Education would run basically on the STEM model of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – the current global prototype to equip the children of the state with the ability of grappling with modern developments, in addition to the current system, with the focus of standing out once again as national bests in the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Education Council (NECO) examinations.
Even though the economy would be private sector-driven, the ADC government would take bold initiative of investing heavily in creating enabling environment, including investing in the domestic power sector to eradicate the current parlous state of affairs in the state. It would practically take the gown to town to attract investments from national as well as global players, one of the major economic visions missing in the state at the moment.
Regarding the Environment, he said: “We shall deliver a new infrastructural map for Anambra State with a solid Road Maintenance Department (RMD) similar to the PWD (Public Works Department) in compliance with the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS).” Recall that ANIDS was the template with which Peter Obi, former Governor of the state, achieved the feat of becoming the national best in the global programme called Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), for which he was invited to give a speech by the United Nations in 2014.”
In his Markets programme, Nwosu spoke ending the excessive taxing in the state rather than choking the people, stating: “To enhance enterprises and improve ease of doing business, we will ensure tax reduction and our means of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) recovery will have human face. We shall deploy technology in revenue collection instead of the use of thugs.”
Social Welfare – the last in his robust programme, he talked extensively on empathy towards the poor in the society, stating that the state would come into the aide of “members of our state population, who are indigent, fall on hard times or face catastrophes, especially in housing assistance, food and nutrition charity healthcare, orphanage or indigent child support while providing supplementary security income for the aged.”
Ndubuisi Nwobu, Deputy Governorship candidate, who was no less emphatic about task at hand – ADC berthing at Agu Awka by March next year as the government in power, spoke on the need for unity of purpose within the team, adding that all channels must be exploited, including knocking all doors to spread the message. “It’s not going to be easy, but it will be easier if we connect to the people with the right message.
The former Speaker, who expressed delight at the quality of the membership of the campaign council, maintained that with their experiences in their various fields and their individual attainments being fully unleashed and harvested during the campaigns, the envisaged victory dance at the end of the November 8, 2025 governorship election would be assured.
Earlier, Iwenofu, a renowned Engineer, had restated the need to staying on the path of the main issues and avoiding concentrating on personalities, adding that Anambra people already knew the issues at stake and why a change in the governorship of the state, remained the only option at a time like this in their history, promising to harness all ideas of the members in conducting the campaigns.
Indicative of high-profile the party has already assumed in the state, the increasing tempo and the momentum, the party officials moved from the inauguration to Ojoto, headquarters of Idemili Local Government Area to commission the main party secretariat and Oba, in the same local government, where two other offices were equally commissioned.
Addressing enthusiastic party members, who were waiting for him, Nwosu, reiterated the contents of the SHEEMS Agenda as the programme to drive the future of the state. “Our SHEEMS Agenda, is our roadmap for achieving Anambra of our dream. I take this opportunity to restate again that zoning has come to stay in Anambra. I’m going to do only one term to fix things and put the state on a sound footing to leap into the future,” he added.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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