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Anambra’s Difficult Political Story by scantee(m): 8:34am On Nov 15, 2013 |
Anambra’s difficult political story on november 15, 2013 at 12:32 am in politics Anambra’s political course since the advent of the Fourth Republic has been laced with deep intrigues. Tomorrow’s election of a new governor may finally turn the tide By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor Anambra State was the first state in the country to hold an off season gubernatorial election in 2010 when the incumbent, Mr. Peter Obi was elected for a second term in office. Obi had first emerged as governor in March 2006 when the Court of Appeal in Enugu ruled that he, and not Dr. Chris Ngige, was the winner of the April 2003 gubernatorial election. The first off season gubernatorial election in January, 2010 only helped to further symbolize the state’s awkward reckoning as the state of many political oddities. Before then, the state had drawn attraction for its spate of politically induced violence which climaxed with the kidnapping of Obi’s predecessor, Ngige on July, 10 2003. Obi had contested the 2003 election on the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, but Ngige had been sworn in on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP following the declaration of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC that the PDP candidate won the election. That declaration was to be upturned by the Court of Appeal in 2006. But Obi’s stay in office after his inauguration in March 2006 up till President Olusegun Obasanjo left office in May 2007 was exceptionally chaotic. A presidential aide, Andy Uba, a trusted confidant of the then president had eyes on the governorship of the state in 2007, and given the mood of the time, seemed to be a roller coaster to achieve his aim. Uba’s quest, sources in the state say, was perhaps the reason Ngige was in the first place pushed forward for the governorship in 2003. Dr. Chinwoke Mbadiniju who served as governor between 1999 and 2003 was denied the PDP’s return ticket for 2003 allegedly because of poor performance. However, beyond the reason of poor performance was the fact that those who wanted Uba in as governor in 2007 had to overcome the geopolitical balancing in the state on the fact that Mbadiniju and Uba come from the same Anambra South senatorial zone. It was thus in the permutation of those backing Uba that somebody willing to serve for one term from outside Anambra South senatorial zone should be made to fill in the gap between 2003 and 2007 when Dr. Uba would have finished his service to President Obasanjo in the presidential villa. Stakeholders in Anambra claim that that was really the reason Mbadopped in 2003. Ex – Gov Mbadinuju “It would have been very inconvenient for those working on the 2007 Uba projeiniju was drct for Mbadiniju from the same senatorial zone as Uba to continue in office till 2007 as that would have made Uba’s effort very, very difficult in 2007,” one of the stakeholders revealed. So, Ngige who had earlier desired to go to the Senate to represent Anambra Central Senatorial district was now lured into the gubernatorial contest under the patronage of Chief Chris Uba, junior brother to the then powerful domestic aide of the president, Andy. Ngige, however, very early in the day proved to be an unwilling man in keeping to agreements supposedly reached with his backers, and hence the troubles that shadowed him in the weeks that followed his inauguration in 2003. On July 10, a detachment of policemen led by AIG Raphael Ige arrived Government House, Awka and took Ige away in a scheme that was allegedly scripted to give the impression that the governor resigned from office. A resignation letter was available and the State House of Assembly had sat to accept it and approve the inauguration of the then deputy governor, Dr. Okey Udeh as Ngige’s replacement. Ige on arrival at Government House that morning upon his higher authority had commandeered all the policemen on duty to surrender their weapons and ordered a few policemen to take Ngige to Alor, his hometown where he was to be kept incommunicado in a government Peugeot 406. However, along the way Ngige pleaded with the policemen to pick some clothes from Choice Hotel, Awka where he was at that time keeping for his accommodation, having not taken residence at the Governor’s Lodge. Having arrived Choice Hotel, Ngige, however, played a fast one on the policemen as he refused to cooperate further with the policemen and dared them to shoot him in public. While the stand-off lasted, Ngige sat on the ground in the courtyard of the hotel and it was at that point that the abduction story unraveled. A billionaire businessman and a major shareholder in one of the country’s leading construction companies, an Igwe who was dressed in Igbo traditional regalia happened to visit the hotel at that time. Shocked to see Ngige sitting on the ground he expressed shock and following a brief discussion with the governor, the Igwe (names withheld) called former Vice- President Alex Ekwueme. The Igwe had addressed Ekwueme, Your Excellency, Mr. Vice-President. As a witness to the drama of that time disclosed: “Ekwueme was the person he called Vice- President, but people thought it was Atiku. Igwe asked him (Ngige), who is aware of what is happening, and Ngige said nobody, that they ceased all his phones and so Igwe now called Ekwueme and told him that there is confusion here (Awka) and that Ngige is here and Igwe now handed the phone to Ngige and Ngige was telling Ekwueme, yes sir, yes sir, and once the policemen realized that Ngige was talking on the phone contrary to the instruction that he was to be kept incommunicado, they ran and snatched the phone from him, but the Igwe screamed back at the policemen telling them “the vice-president is on the phone with Ngige and you are disrupting their conversation and the policemen now out of fear handed the phone back and when he finished speaking with Ekwueme, Igwe asked him to call anyone in Abuja. So, Ngige who had worked at the national secretariat of the PDP and is said to be good in memorising phone numbers called the PDP land line and incidentally the PDP National Working Committee, NWC was meeting.” So once Ngige’s call came through Prince Vincent Ogbulafor (then national chairman) and the journalists who were milling round his office at the Wadata Plaza to get the party’s reaction to Ngige’s alleged resignation ran to the phone. The phone was put on speakerphone mode and the journalists milling around heard Ngige speak. So Ngige with the aid of Igwe’s phone spoke to the journalists at the PDP secretariat and said that he had been abducted and that he had not resigned contrary to the reports coming out from Awka. That was how the abduction story changed for Ngige. Dr Chris Ngige Following his restoration as governor, the political trajectory of Anambra State changed and Ngige proceeded to make a name for himself as a performer through road constructions. His performance nonetheless, Ngige had been rejected by the PDP hierarchy under President Obasanjo’s influence and performance was not a matter. When Ngige lost at the Court of Appeal to Obi in March, 2006 it was an opportunity for Anambra State to turn a new leaf in the era of political gangsterism. But the political drama would not fade away. Obi was impeached from office on November 3, 2006 by the Anambra State House of Assembly sat as early as 5 a.m. in a process that was ostensibly teleguided. The impeachment sitting was not done in public and the announcement of the governor’s removal from office was announced by the speaker, Mr. Mike Balonwu who announced it. *Gov Peter Obi Obi challenged the impeachment and refused to partake in the April 2007 election that was won by the PDP’s Dr. Andy Uba. Obi’s patience was to prevail as the Supreme Court annulled his impeachment and ruled that he should be returned to power, and by that, puncturing Uba’s 17 day governorship. Following his restoration, Governor Obi’s performance in office has been hailed for its remarkable touch on the state’s infrastructure and development strategy using the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy, ANIDS. Obi’s re-election in 2010 was a hard fought victory that was partially helped by the division in the PDP’s divided house. Prof. Chukwuma Soludo who was the PDP flag bearer was not helped by the rancour that characterized his emergence as the PDP flag bearer, especially with his sister-in- law, Prof. Dora Akunyili, the likeable former minister of Information who won laurels in her earlier position as Director General of the National Agency for Foods, Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC. While Obi has won endearment from near and wide, given his portrayal of being apolitical, his recent actions in fighting for the soul of APGA with the national chairman, Chief Victor Umeh, his inability to conduct local government elections for the eight years of his tenure and his alleged efforts in getting his protégée and banker as his replacement have changed opinions that Obi is entirely apolitical. Tomorrow’s election would show how successful he has been in his endeavour. He is challenged by Ngige who is flying the ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC and the PDP which is now reinvented and near united behind the former students’ union leader, Comrade Tony Nwoye. www.vanguardngr.com/2013/11/anambras-difficult-political-story/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+vanguardngr%2FdIeb+%28Vanguard+News+Feed%29 |
Re: Anambra’s Difficult Political Story by scantee(m): 8:39am On Nov 15, 2013 |
hmm Anambra politics no be here o |
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