By Cornelius Okoro
As a card-carrying member of the APC in Enugu State, I have taken this time to alert the members within our state and leaders within the zone and at the centre of the continuous sinking of the chances of APC to beat the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming elections in 2023.
I am mortified and petrified that a party that parades the stellar constellation of politicians like one time governor Sullivan Chime, former Senate President Ken Nnamani, JOJ Okolagu, General Chris Eze, one time speaker of the Enugu State House of Assembly Rt Hon Eugene Odo, Princess Ada Ogbu and Hon. Ginika Tor should be at home with being a poor opposition party when it has all it takes to give the PDP a run for its money in the state.
What then could be the problem? It lies largely in the actions of its serving acting chairman, Dr. Ben Nwoye. As I write this, I am bewildered at the numerous acts of the chairman which seem to be eroding the goodwill of APC as a party in the state. If he is not insulting Ken Nnamani, a man who has sought to add verve to the APC in Enugu State, he is harassing a number of elders or mortgaging the APC’s chances of becoming the ruling party. This has led to his estrangement with numerous stakeholders, many of who were previously his allies.
The Enugu APC Ward Congress, which was held nationwide, was supposed to elect the 27-man executive who would supervise the ward activities. Fearing that the party could suffer an implosion, leaders of the party met repeatedly to ensure that the congresses were smoothly conducted. They adopted the consensus mode but then stated that where consensus could not be reached, party members should peacefully vote their preferred candidates.
A day to the D-day, news began to fly about the process being hijacked by some Abuja politicians. This was even as the members of the Enugu State Ward Congress Committee mandated to supervise the process were just arriving Enugu before holding a stakeholders meeting with Nwoye present at the meeting. At the said meeting, the chairman of the committee, Dr. Arodiogbu Ijeomah, addressed party faithful and even presented the voting materials which appeared to be intact to the satisfaction of the members there.
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Saturday, July 31 saw party members trooping out to vote. In most areas it was the adoption of the consensus mode that prevailed. Leaders such as Senator Ken Nnamani, Sullivan Chime, JOJ Okoloagu and Geoffrey Onyeama gave their appraisals of the process, likewise the committee members who moved about the state, monitoring the process alongside other constitutionally backed agencies such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigerian Police and the State Security Service (SSS).
As at then, it seemed like the APC in Enugu was coasting home to becoming one of the few states that organised a seamless congress. But another figment of mischief makers seeped its way into the media sphere via some cheap blogs, alleging that the result sheets for 206 wards were missing. Such outlandish and puerile story should have been dismissed outright, but Nwoye was said to have confirmed the story from the very low budget blogs, saying that he had heard such rumour. This could not have been true, as throughout the exercise, no such complaint had been made. The acrimony that greeted the exercise in 2018 seemed absent.
Everything went well and even those who had planted such a mischievous story were nowhere to be found, at least to protest to the Congress Committee which was accessible to all. However, by Monday, we were shocked to the bone marrow when the same Nwoye, who had told the world that there was no form of factionalism in the Ward Congress process, organised the inauguration of his own ward executives at a point when the original results from the properly conducted congresses were still in transit to the National Secretariat.
Now, how Nwoye arrived at his selection/election of ward executives is a case that requires comparison with other brazen acts of impunity. Here is a man who had told the world that there were no factional congresses doing an about turn and conducting inaugurations. Funny, isn’t it?
Thankfully, party leaders have risen in unison to condemn his action. But then this cannot be enough, the CECPC led by Mai Mala Buni must also react to such impunity, deploying the much needed sanctions. Otherwise, many may see such a putrefying action as legal, thus nullifying all the work the CECPC has done. The party at the centre must act fast! A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.
- Okoro wrote in from Enugu
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