The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Chris Anyanwu

  • 2015: PDP’s new calculation in Imo

    2015: PDP’s new calculation in Imo

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has held a rally to welcome defectors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Owerri, capital of Imo State. Correspondent KINGSLEY NDIDI examines the implications of the defection for the ruling party in the Southeast state.

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is on the prowl in Imo State. At a rally in Owerri, the state capital, party leaders vowed to reclaim power from the All progressives Congress (APC) governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha. But, the governor is not sleeping on guard. He said that the PDP chieftains were day dreaming. The rally took place at the Dan Anyiam Stadium. It was attended by President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo, PDP National Chairman Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, Chairman Board of Trustees (BoT) Chief Tony Anenih, Senate President David Mark, and some governors. .

    The rally was organised to welcome defectors from the APC. The defectors include former Governor Achike Udenwa, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume Imo East), Senator Chris Anyanwu, and Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN).

    President Jonathan urged party members to gird their loins, ahead of the 2015 polls. He said they should learn from the wrangling and discord, which permitted a crack on the wall in 2011.

    The governor of Akwa Ibom State and Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, Chief Godswill Akpabio, said that, with the return of the old members, the PDP will reclaim the state.

    He charged the party leaders to to promote unity in the fold. “We are not just here to receive the returnees, but their thousands of supporters and, with what we have seen so far. the PDP has recaptured Imo State. The will of God is that, in 2015, the PDP flag will fly again in Imo government House,” he said.

    The Senate President advised the PDP family to forget the past and forge ahead in the spirit of new understanding. His deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, assured that the party will bounce back next year after the polls.

    Anenih was more optimistic that the PDP will regain power in the state in 2015. He said: “With the return of our great members, the job is already done.”

    Mu’azu, who was impressed by the huge crowd, said: “The

    he journey to recapture Imo has just started and the new leadership of the PDP is committed to reclaiming all the states we have lost as a result of internal problems”.

    He added: “Now, that we have found the answers to our problems and, with the returnees, I want to assure you that Imo State has fallen”.

    The national chairman however, appealed to the aspirants to thread softly. He said: “This is a brand new PDP and only our very best will be fielded during the 2015 election”.

    The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and governorship aspirant, Hon Emeka Ihedioha, said: “Imo is a PDP state and today we have earnestly began the journey to take back the state. We made mistakes in the past, but we are back. We misunderstood ourselves and power slipped off our hands, but today, our brothers who strayed away are back and that is one of the things we need to return to Douglass House”.

    President Jonathan described the rally as a reunion that will strengthen the party. He said: “We are here for unity rally because of our brothers that stepped out, but have stepped back. The PDP is the only stable party in Nigeria and we will continue to play a major role in the country”.

    However, observers contend that the PDP has some some hurdles to cross. Certain elements in the party are not comfortable with the return of the founding fathers. The governorship race is already crowded. No fewer than 10 strong members of the party are struggling for the ticket. They belong to the various caucuses. They cannot be ignored because they are party financiers. They Ihedioha, Senator Hope Uzodinma, Acting Minister of Aviation Prof. Viola Onwuliri, Chief Jerry Chukwueke, former Governor Ikedi Ohakim and Ararume.

    A political analyst, Chief Stanley Egwudia, expressed doubt about the ability of the different factions to agree on a consensus ccandidate. He said: “The storm is brewing in the state chapter of the PDP. The celebrated return of these heavy weights to the PDP will do more harm than good for the party. It will further break the rank of the party. All of them returning to the party have one ambition or the other they could not realize outside the party and they returned with the hope of getting retribution”.

    A clear pointer to this fact was the move by a faction of the party to concede the governorship slot to Ararume as a compensation for the injustice done him in 2007, which made him dump the party after the governorship election.

    Another challenge is that Okorocha has performed creditably to earn the people’s loyalty.

    In Imo State today, the feeling is that the PDP has ruled the state for 12 years without anything to show for it and the electorate are known to be resolute and cannot be easily swayed by political statements or monetary inducement.

  • ‘Anyanwu’s exit good riddance to bad rubbish’

    ‘Anyanwu’s exit good riddance to bad rubbish’

    The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Imo State chapter, dismissed yesterday as deceitful and ridiculous, the claim by the lawmaker representing Imo East, Senator Chris Anyanwu that she returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 27 council party chairmen and 17 members of its state working committee.

    APGA’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Tony Mgbeahuruike, said the senator left the party with only her campaign structure from the nine local governments in Owerri zone and not 27 local government party chairmen as she claimed during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rally organised to receive her and other returnees.

    Mgbeahuruike, who described her exit as good riddance to bad rubbish, said she did not add value to APGA while she was a member.

    He said: “It is fallacious for Senator Anyanwu to claim that she was compelled to quit APGA due to its crisis. The party is intact. APGA is the only democratic party in the country, which believes in the rule of law. APGA, Imo State branch, is intact. Why should a distinguished senator indulge in falsehood and deceit?”

    On whether the party would take a legal action against the lawmaker to reclaim the mandate given her, Mgbeahuruike said: “We are a law-abiding party. We believe in the rule of law. Her case will be handled in the same manner we handled that of Governor Rochas Okorocha. Although hers is worse than Okorocha’s.”

     

  • Re: Okorocha, Chris Anyanwu flex muscles over 2015

    Re: Okorocha, Chris Anyanwu flex muscles over 2015

    I  write in direct response to two of your publications on the face-off between Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Senator Chris Anyanwu who represents Imo East Senatorial district (Owerri zone) at the Senate. The first was the opinion piece written by Jide Oluwajuyitan on January 3, while the second was the features article in The Nation Politics of your January 7 edition, written by Okodili Ndili.

    In the January 7 piece titled “Okorocha, Anyanwu flex muscles over 2015”, Okodile got the facts obfuscated, leaving the innocent reader with a confused impression of what happened that fateful day of December 26, 2012 and the real issues at stake.

    Without attempting to rehash the accounts of the incident, it is necessary to state clearly that contrary to the writer’s statement that “the convoys of the two eminent politicians nearly collided in Owerri, the state capital…”, what happened was an unwarranted excessive show of power by the governor and his men. Senator Anyanwu and her “convoy” of three cars had pulled off the road to make way for the rampaging convoy of the governor coming behind them. Instead of passing, the governor’s men blocked their way, swooped on them and unleashed raw, brutish violence on her men.

    Again, Okodile quoted the governor’s spokesman, Ebere Uzoukwa. as saying that “the senator’s vehicle suddenly rammed into the governor’s car, close to the staff car….” The question to ask here is “how could Senator Anyanwu’s car, which was ahead of the governor’s car ram into it?” Could it have suddenly made a backward movement?” He equally reported Uzoukwa as having said that Senator Anyanwu ordered her security orderlies to open fire on the governor’s convoy. How conceivable is it, that an individual with only three security escorts would give such an order in the face of over 50 better armed security personnel in the governor’s convoy. Such a person must be on a suicidal mission, especially after having the temerity, as Okodile reported, to slap the governor’s ADC; but definitely not Chris Anyanwu.

    Okodile also passed a very wrong impression when he stated in his own words that “Okorocha in his New Year message has forgiven the erring senator”. This implies that the writer himself is telling the reading public that Senator Anyanwu was in error. He thereafter quoted Okorocha’s spokesman asking “her to apologise for her wrongs”. This is a clear case of turning the truth on its head. Here is a classical example of an individual’s fundamental human rights being grossly abused by the very same person who is supposed to protect him. Instead of the aggressor swallowing his empty pride to apologise, he is demanding apology from the oppressed. Yes, Governor Okorocha owes Senator Chris Anyanwu an apology, and he knows it.

    Unfortunately, most of the reportage published so far on the incident interpret it as flexing muscles over 2015 race for the governor’s seat in Imo State. Chris Anyanwu is perceived as having gubernatorial ambition, while Okorocha wants to hold on to the coveted seat or go for the presidency. But can anybody say that Anyanwu has declared that intention to him or her, or at any forum? Yet, is the right to run for an office not her constitutional right? Assuming she comes to say “I want to run for the governorship seat in Imo State”, should she be killed for it? Should her rights be grossly abused by the governor? Should she be harassed and intimidated so that she chickens out? What gives Rocha Okorocha or anybody else more right to contest than Chris Anyanwu? Is she not eminently qualified for that position, going by her education, capability, experience and her position as a distinguished two-term senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Yet Anyanwu has not declared any interest so far. If anything, she is pre-occupied with how to deliver to the people of Owerri Zone, who took extra-ordinary steps to get her re-elected in the face of overwhelming odds. Knowing her passion for uplifting the living standards of her people and put smiles on their faces, she would rather devote good time now, delivering on this, than focusing on 2015, which is still two clear years ahead.

    My guess is that she will not let herself to be distracted. She will continue to work hard to satisfy her conscience and the people she represents and if in the end she decides, and the people decide too, that the next step in her record of service is to run for governorship, why not?

    So why should gross violation of human rights by Governor Okorocha be seen from the prism of her so-called 2015 ambition. What does 2015 have to do with breaking the head of Anyanwu’s driver and injuring others in her team? Yet, Okodili described this deliberate brutality as resulting from an accident. His words: “one of the senator’s drivers was injured in the accident”. What gross misinformation is this?

    Equally in his own analysis titled “Imo’s Battle of Convoys”, Oluwajuyitan wrote without having all the facts at his disposal. True enough, Senator Anyanwu visited the governor earlier that day on a courtesy call, but not in the manner Oluwajuyitan presented. According to him the Senator visited Okorocha “with a convoy of cars probably bought, fueled and driven by public officials at the expense of the tax payers”. Haba! Dr. Oluwajuyitan, this is a very unfair assessment of Chris Anyanwu, who I believe you should know to some reasonable extent; at least that she is a woman of means enough to afford and maintain three cars in her entourage: one for her escorts, another for herself and a back-up, in a state and country where insecurity is quite high.

    I also think it was most uncharitable of you to describe Chris Anyanwu as a “warlord”, when all she did was to make way for the all-powerful governor, who didn’t consider her human enough to ply the same route with him. You also overdid it by grouping Senator Anyanwu in the class of overpaid legislators and undisciplined governors who unleash corruption on our nation. Accepted, there are corrupt politicians in our system, but there are also very good politicians in Nigeria, who are doing their best for the society. It is definitely on overstatement to brand all of them in the negative.

    Chris Anyanwu is indeed one of the new breed politicians who are out to serve. Just check out her records since she entered politics and you will discover a hard working, passionate woman who takes her job very seriously; she would rather leave the job than not deliver on her mandate. I think such persons should be encouraged, rather than being harassed, intimidated and lampooned.

    Onuoha, is Special Assistant to Senator Chris Anyanwu.