By UZODINMA EKECHI
I
have all along suppressed the urge to comment on the coming into the
political arena of Nigeria by the All Progressives Congress (APC), not
because there was no need to do so, but just to give the leadership of
the new party the benefit of realizing its mistakes and adjust
accordingly.
But, as it is now, the hopes of millions of Nigerians that the APC will provide a political messiah for the nation is fast proving to be no more than a day dream, mirage and a forlorn hope.
From the time the congress was registered, bad faith and political dishonesty set in with the inauguration of the party with deceit. The constitution was doctored by removing clandestinely, the stipulation of six (6) months for the tenure of the interim executive, as well as, the clause that provides that the members of the interim executive will no
t be qualified to contest for party offices at the initial convention. The interim executive over-stayed its tenure by almost one year and it took a lot of trouble to reinstate the clause that barred members of the interim executive from contesting for the positions they hold. (Tinubu, Buhari, Rochas and Akande were firmly responsible for this abrasion).
The foregoing is only a tip of the iceberg of the colossal inbuilt political contradictions that is bedeviling the party, some of them came early enough, right from the time of the conception and birth of the APC. These serious inherent elements of destabilization were carried into the new party from the merging parties and not less from the individuals without a party, but with over-ambitions like Rochas Okorocha, and some who actually went into the Congress on assignment to destabilize it. Others with unwarranted determination to fight for their ethic nationalities.
It is easy to perceive that the Igbo, for instance, have been edged out of the party’s sphere of influence, resulting from unwarranted Igbo-phobism in the party led by Owelle Rochas Okorocha using such leaders as Buhari and Tinubu. This stance has since the registration of the APC remained a latent volcano against South-East, but the likes of Ogbonnaya Onu and Senator Izunaso have allowed themselves to be blind folded by selfishness and double dealing of the south west, and northern political insincerity resulting from unwarranted apprehension of losing the presidency to the south east.
Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Governor of Imo State in his vaulting ambition in dirty politics is using the anti-Igbo elements’ support to weaken the Igbo position in the Congress. First, he used the anti-Igbo subterfuge inherent in the leaders from outside South-East to annoy Chief Achike Udenwa with his political formidable team out of the APC. He than moved against Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, also using forces outside Igboland to blackmail the man who was one of the front line architects of the APC.
Among the Igbo Rochas claims to be an Igbo man, but in the North, he claims affinity with the North. He is applying all this be-mining devices, just to deceive the party leadership to get the APC presidential or vice presidential ticket. And one begins to wonder whether a man who ascends a throne by falsehood can ever make a good king? The leadership of the APC appears to be playing along with him, just to ensure that Igbo influence in the party is whittled down to the barest level.
This now raises the question of who Rochas Okorocha is in Igbo land. He refuses to recognize the Oha-na-eze Ndigbo, rather he sets up a parallel pan Igbo organization which he calls “Igbo zuru mee”, using the name of Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to muster support against all that Ojukwu and Igbo people stand for, both now and in the recent past. The name Emeka Ojukwu strikes every true Igbo man with awe and reverence, yet one may wish to know (from the Governor of Imo State, the Chief Security Officer of Imo State – the Igbo heartland – and “a great lover of Ojukwu”) who organized and sponsored the partial knocking down of the Ojukwu Memorial Library being built by the MASSOB leader Barr. Uwazurike (Ijele Ndigbo) to immortalize the name of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
If only the dead could see, act or react, many of Igbo people who use the name of this great son of Igboland to feather their political nests but work against all that this great son of Igboland stood and died for, would have certainly met their doom. And I am not too sure that Rochas Okorocha may be spared. And when Rochas calls “my people! My people” the Igbo now ask: who are his people?
By dancing to the political drum beats of a man who has betrayed his people, the APC has dug its political grave – not only in the South-East; but throughout Nigeria by placing power in doubtful regions and areas susceptible to easy compromise and succumb to ethnic pressure anchored on rewards for sell-out. And, by allowing ethnic chauvinism to becloud or influence reason, the congress is surely playing into the hands of political opponents. The one thing that is pertinent is that nobody from the South-South can checkmate Jonathan, but would rather under pressure compromise in accordance with the will and wish of his people, for he who fights and runsaway lives to fight again. Tomorrow is always greater than today!
The APC leaders must remember that: he who steals for you will steal from you. And Nigerians are watching to see how a political charlatan can lead this nation. And the APC Governors should in acceding to Owelle’s antics remember that “lowliness is young ambition’s ladder where unto the climber turn his face, but when he attains the upmost height, he than unto the ladder turns his back, looks into the clouds scorning the base degrees by which he did ascend” .
Since Chief Achike Udenwa with his many supporters because of Rochas antics quit the APC, the Igbo has lost its voice in the Congress. And this has offered and provided Rochas a lot of opportunities to manipulate, blackmail, pretend and claim all sorts of things and situations without any fear of contradiction, and in the process clearly betrayed and compromised the hopes and aspirations of the south east. Another Esau selling his birth right for a pot of portage – Rochas must achieve his personal ambition to be president or vice president at the expense of Igbo people – a dream that can never be! For God does not allow anything obtained by falsehood and wounding and injuring others unnecessarily to thrive.
Those in the APC leadership who succumb to Rochas antics must be ready to bear the burnt, for the consequence of this will lead to the betrayal of the party as well. And the APC will lose the elections nation wide, including the presidential seat. The northern apathy against Jonathan may thaw or lead to the nomination of a northern presidential candidate, and the PDP will sweep the polls. Then Rochas having abdicated the Imo Governorship position, will in accordance with the plan now on ground, flee or abandon the APC and will be appointed either into the foreign service or made a minister.
But, as it is now, the hopes of millions of Nigerians that the APC will provide a political messiah for the nation is fast proving to be no more than a day dream, mirage and a forlorn hope.
From the time the congress was registered, bad faith and political dishonesty set in with the inauguration of the party with deceit. The constitution was doctored by removing clandestinely, the stipulation of six (6) months for the tenure of the interim executive, as well as, the clause that provides that the members of the interim executive will no
t be qualified to contest for party offices at the initial convention. The interim executive over-stayed its tenure by almost one year and it took a lot of trouble to reinstate the clause that barred members of the interim executive from contesting for the positions they hold. (Tinubu, Buhari, Rochas and Akande were firmly responsible for this abrasion).
The foregoing is only a tip of the iceberg of the colossal inbuilt political contradictions that is bedeviling the party, some of them came early enough, right from the time of the conception and birth of the APC. These serious inherent elements of destabilization were carried into the new party from the merging parties and not less from the individuals without a party, but with over-ambitions like Rochas Okorocha, and some who actually went into the Congress on assignment to destabilize it. Others with unwarranted determination to fight for their ethic nationalities.
It is easy to perceive that the Igbo, for instance, have been edged out of the party’s sphere of influence, resulting from unwarranted Igbo-phobism in the party led by Owelle Rochas Okorocha using such leaders as Buhari and Tinubu. This stance has since the registration of the APC remained a latent volcano against South-East, but the likes of Ogbonnaya Onu and Senator Izunaso have allowed themselves to be blind folded by selfishness and double dealing of the south west, and northern political insincerity resulting from unwarranted apprehension of losing the presidency to the south east.
Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Governor of Imo State in his vaulting ambition in dirty politics is using the anti-Igbo elements’ support to weaken the Igbo position in the Congress. First, he used the anti-Igbo subterfuge inherent in the leaders from outside South-East to annoy Chief Achike Udenwa with his political formidable team out of the APC. He than moved against Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, also using forces outside Igboland to blackmail the man who was one of the front line architects of the APC.
Among the Igbo Rochas claims to be an Igbo man, but in the North, he claims affinity with the North. He is applying all this be-mining devices, just to deceive the party leadership to get the APC presidential or vice presidential ticket. And one begins to wonder whether a man who ascends a throne by falsehood can ever make a good king? The leadership of the APC appears to be playing along with him, just to ensure that Igbo influence in the party is whittled down to the barest level.
This now raises the question of who Rochas Okorocha is in Igbo land. He refuses to recognize the Oha-na-eze Ndigbo, rather he sets up a parallel pan Igbo organization which he calls “Igbo zuru mee”, using the name of Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to muster support against all that Ojukwu and Igbo people stand for, both now and in the recent past. The name Emeka Ojukwu strikes every true Igbo man with awe and reverence, yet one may wish to know (from the Governor of Imo State, the Chief Security Officer of Imo State – the Igbo heartland – and “a great lover of Ojukwu”) who organized and sponsored the partial knocking down of the Ojukwu Memorial Library being built by the MASSOB leader Barr. Uwazurike (Ijele Ndigbo) to immortalize the name of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
If only the dead could see, act or react, many of Igbo people who use the name of this great son of Igboland to feather their political nests but work against all that this great son of Igboland stood and died for, would have certainly met their doom. And I am not too sure that Rochas Okorocha may be spared. And when Rochas calls “my people! My people” the Igbo now ask: who are his people?
By dancing to the political drum beats of a man who has betrayed his people, the APC has dug its political grave – not only in the South-East; but throughout Nigeria by placing power in doubtful regions and areas susceptible to easy compromise and succumb to ethnic pressure anchored on rewards for sell-out. And, by allowing ethnic chauvinism to becloud or influence reason, the congress is surely playing into the hands of political opponents. The one thing that is pertinent is that nobody from the South-South can checkmate Jonathan, but would rather under pressure compromise in accordance with the will and wish of his people, for he who fights and runsaway lives to fight again. Tomorrow is always greater than today!
The APC leaders must remember that: he who steals for you will steal from you. And Nigerians are watching to see how a political charlatan can lead this nation. And the APC Governors should in acceding to Owelle’s antics remember that “lowliness is young ambition’s ladder where unto the climber turn his face, but when he attains the upmost height, he than unto the ladder turns his back, looks into the clouds scorning the base degrees by which he did ascend” .
Since Chief Achike Udenwa with his many supporters because of Rochas antics quit the APC, the Igbo has lost its voice in the Congress. And this has offered and provided Rochas a lot of opportunities to manipulate, blackmail, pretend and claim all sorts of things and situations without any fear of contradiction, and in the process clearly betrayed and compromised the hopes and aspirations of the south east. Another Esau selling his birth right for a pot of portage – Rochas must achieve his personal ambition to be president or vice president at the expense of Igbo people – a dream that can never be! For God does not allow anything obtained by falsehood and wounding and injuring others unnecessarily to thrive.
Those in the APC leadership who succumb to Rochas antics must be ready to bear the burnt, for the consequence of this will lead to the betrayal of the party as well. And the APC will lose the elections nation wide, including the presidential seat. The northern apathy against Jonathan may thaw or lead to the nomination of a northern presidential candidate, and the PDP will sweep the polls. Then Rochas having abdicated the Imo Governorship position, will in accordance with the plan now on ground, flee or abandon the APC and will be appointed either into the foreign service or made a minister.
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