As expected, Valentine Obienyem, erstwhile Special Assistant to ex-governor Peter Obi has performed his annual ritual of praise song for his principal. The 2018 edition is as elaborate as it has always been (see Fides, July 29-August 4) smoking with colours of praise and eulogy. Obi is now fifty-seven years old out of which he had spent eight at Zik’s Place, Awka from where he managed the affairs of the great people of Anambra State. As usual, Mr. Obienyem’s rehashed panegyric is rooted in presumptuous “selflessness, principles and integrity” proclaiming “how good they are” in his two page outing dotted with aesthetic stories of Obi’s hard-work and returns from primary school through secondary to university.

Obienyem unknowingly pegged the ungrateful character of Obi squarely where he said: “He once angrily retrieved what he bought for his girlfriend on discovering her liaisons with other men.” He did not tell us whether the said girl friend retrieved the orgy of sexual pleasures she supplied to Obi in the course of that relationship. And that quotation offers us the foci for understanding how Obi treated numerous ideologically committed men and women who sacrificed their resources to make him the governor of Anambra state in 2003. It was probable that APGA also won in the same gubernatorial election at Enugu state but by the nuances of his political conduct his gubernatorial candidate, Mr. Ugochukwu Agballah was not declared elected. In Anambra state, Chris Uba and other PDP cohorts hoisted Chris Ngige on Anambra people instead of Peter Obi of APGA whom the people actually voted for. Obi underwent horrible experiences in politics but luckily remains visible as Obienyem appropriately puts it. On reverse, it was the same horrible experience he inflicted on his party men who weathered storms to reverse his mandate that was already stolen. In the greed-dominant scenarios of Nigerian politics where pedestrian politicians are swayed by carrot, it was hard to believe that APGArians in 2003, as Ndi Igbo would say, sold their balls to defend their booth by booth result on the basis of which Justice Garba Nabaruma ultimately declared Peter Obi duly elected at the tribunal.


On the converse, Obi turned these ideologically committed corps of APGA faithfuls into laughing stock when he began to pick people like Val Obienyem as Special Assistant on media in place of men like Anayo Okoli, Emeka Obinwa etc. who actually shared journalistic doyenism in that struggle for power and in the reclamation of the stolen mandate. The data on Obi’s impunity are numerous that one finds it difficult to decide on which one to pick.

Hon. Levi Afusi, apart from the role he played in Obi’s election campaigns, was the prosecution witness No 23. He also participated in organizing prayer sessions at Obi’s residence in Agulu for the invocation of divine aide in the gubernatorial dispute. Well, Obi whom you are profusely praising found us unworthy of political appointments. But Mrs. Virgy Etiabia during her interregnum found both Levi Afusi and Sylvester Nwobu Alor worthy and appointed them. Levi Afusi, a former member of Anambra State House of Assembly was made the House of Assembly liaison officer to the governor. When Obi returned from ignoble impeachment nocturnally executed by Olusegun Obasanjo with members of the then House of Assembly, he removed Afusi and eventually replaced him with Hon. Sylvester Okeke, a PDP member that represented Anaocha 1 in the House of Assembly between 2003 and 2011. The special qualification that Val Obienyem and Sylvester Okeke could claim is sub-ethnocentric alliance of being from Agulu, just like Mr. Peter Obi. I know, for sure, that Obienyem apart from his writings in newspapers came into personal contact with Obi for the first time after the judgment of the Appeal Court that ultimately placed the gubernatorial crown on his master’s head. Many of us, apart from being field marshals in the struggle, also did handsome intellectual struggles to check the backslide in the practice of politics in Nigeria with Anambra as demonstrable microcosm. Up till now, Hon. Afusi had not been paid his severance allowance. I can vouch that Messrs Okeke and Obienyem have received theirs.

Realistically, a governor can hire and fire whosoever he wants in presidential democracy. But in the “spirit of perseverance and having undergone what he experienced” could the apostle of “selflessness, principles and integrity” you have portrayed Mr. Obi to have been appointed only one APGA member to wit: Ifedi Okwenna, a commissioner after such a long torturous struggle we underwent in the struggle for Igbo resurgemento which included making Obi the governor. I know that even the appointment of Okwenna had a very high pressure pleading from my friend, Chukwuemeka Ezeife. It is only a sadist that exhibits this kind of behavioural mode.

But these appointment-related scenarios are even minor exhibitions of political impunity when compared with Obi’s conduct in the process of selecting candidates for all elections into public offices that were conducted in his eight year tenure. Given that he could be exonerated in 2007 when Victor Umeh directed Ikechukwu Onyeabo, then APGA state chairman, over the phone, on whom to be issued APGA tickets in that years’ election, the scenario in 2011 had the same weight of putrid impunity. At the meeting Obi convened and chaired at the Governors Lodge on 5th January 2011, he “penciled down the candidates” for that years’ election. That was how his deputy, Emeka Sibudu put it after that meeting. Of course, at that meeting authority was issued to his foot soldiers to effect that weird list on the 6th of January. The outcome of that meeting, where he barbed ideologically committed APGA members in their absence was that 80% of the candidates he penciled down were not members of the party. From Nikky Ugochukwu to Chinwe Nwebili who were at that time yet to serve out their tenures as PDP ticket holders in the House of Assembly to Chuma Nzeribe, Joy Emodi, Romanus Obi and Mrs. Ebele Ejikeme etc who were not members of APGA but were given tickets, he inaugurated a conduct that was at par with Ibrahim Babangida’s denial of victory to Moshood Abiola after the latter had won presidential election in 1993. That meeting foreclosed the chances of frontline contenders to APGA tickets for various elective offices such as Solomon Anusike, Tony Okwuosa, Sylvester Agbapu and even yours sincerely. In the long period of reign of Chris Uba as enfant terrible in PDP, comparatively speaking, he never imported people from the streets of Onitsha, Lagos, Yobe, London etc. to impose as candidates in PDP. Obi imported Mrs. Beverly Nkemdiche from London and made her candidate over other toiling APGA aspirants in Onitsha North just as he imported Willie Obiano from Texas to become the governor.

One permanent imprimatur Obi left behind as governor was nipping in the bud any prospect of internal democracy and institutionalization in the party he benefitted handsomely from. Val. Obienyem needs not to be reminded that in 2013 so-called APGA ‘primaries’ for 2014 local government election, Mr. Ernest Eze scored 378 votes but John Onyeakpa who scored 63 votes was made the candidate for Orumba South. And in Nnewi North, Mrs. Ofordeme of Labour Party won in the actual election. Obi refused to swear her in as chairman. Rather, he appointed Emeka Ojukwu (Jr) as sole administrator. Tufia. I cannot stop Val Obienyem from praising his pay master but I have attempted a restricted challenge to his claim of Obi’s sainthood in the political realm.

Continue reading... https://emmnetblog.com/2018/10/09/peter-obi-a-lesson-in-impunity-oge-ezeajughi/

Where is our UGU?

APGA boys working hard for apc