Follow Us on Google
Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki
Ebonyi is one of the few states in the country that has remained under the firm control of the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) since the return to democratic governance in 1999. It is under the party platform that the three governors of the state namely, Dr.Sam Egwu, Chief Martin Elechi and now Chief David Umahi were all produced with each winning for two consecutive times. The party has always produced all the three senators, overwhelming majority of the House of representatives members from the state as well as the state House of assembly since 1999 almost effortlessly. To put it more clearly, in Ebonyi from 1999 till date, to contest for any position, the real politicking has always been on how to win the PDP ticket because anyone with the party’s ticket has a 95 per cent chance of victory.
But such dominance of the party in the state seems to be under threat now given the recent defection of the state Governor, Chief David Umahi,from the party to the All Progressives Congress(APC).
Chief Umahi who was just re-elected for second term in 2019 confirmed his defection to the APC to newsmen on Tuesday in his office in Abakaliki.
Umahi gave the confirmation about one month after the only APC federal lawmaker from the state and member representing Ezza South/Ikwo federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Chinedu Ogah, revealed in a statement that the then PDP governor and Chairman of the South East Governors Forum had defected to the progressive party.
Ogah had broken the news on October 17th 2020 in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Charles Iteshi, while the governor was still in Abuja secretly perfecting the defection plot with some very influential leaders of the party within and outside the state.
The lawmaker in the statement which shocked PDP members in the state and indeed across the country, further congratulated the governor for taking the decision to join the party, describing it as a right step in the right direction.
He urged other governors from the South East to take similar step in order to prelaunch the zone into the mainstream of the nation’s politics.
According to him: “Governor Umahi’s defection to our great party, APC, is a right step in the right direction. We cannot afford to remain opposition. We must join the ruling party to continue to reap the dividends of democracy. I am calling on other governors in the South East to toe the line of Governor Umahi and join APC. We have to be at the centre, we have to join mainstream politics for the overall development of our zone and our country at large.’’
But the governor swiftly denied the report of defection, saying he remained a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The governor in a statement signed by his Special Assistant (SA) on Media and Publicity, Francis Nweze, described the report as false and urged members of the public to disregard it.
He said: ‘’the news is a product of a figment of imagination on the part of the carriers as Governor Umahi was, is and is still flying the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party.’’
However, a day after the governor returned from the Abuja trip, the 24 members of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly led by the Speaker, Francis Nwifuru, held a press conference where they gave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) a 7 Day ultimatum to zone the party’s presidential ticket to the South East.
The Lawmakers warned that the party would suffer severe consequences if after 7 days, it fails to adhere to their demand.
In the same vein, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by Onyekachi Nwebonyi, also gave the national leadership of the party 7 days within which to zone the party’s presidential ticket to the South East or face the consequences.
Two weeks after the expiration of the ultimatum, neither the lawmakers nor the state working committee (SWC) of the party said anything but a faction of the APC in the state led by Senator Julius Ucha at an emergency meeting at Salt Spring Hotel in Abakaliki told Journalists that the APC was expecting the entrance of Governor Umahi into the party. Addressing members of the party during the meeting, Senator Ucha who represented Ebonyi Central Senatorial District between 2003-2011, specifically stated that the governor would join the party in a matter of days.
He stated that the governor has done well in the state and should be supported to reintegrate the South East zone into national politics.
However, on Sunday, 15th November, 2020, the governor convened a meeting of all factions of the APC in the state at his Osborn Lapalm Hotel, Uburu , Ohaozara local government area where he officially informed them that he had joined the party. The meeting which was attended by government functionaries and APC stakeholders in the state was termed Unity Meeting.
The governor was said to have told them that by his entrance into the party, he has automatically become the leader of the party in the state. A source at the meeting told Daily Sun that the governor at the meeting announced the dissolution of all factions of the party, and urged them to go and wait for further directive. The meeting was attended by many prominent leaders of the party in the state except former Governor Martin Elechi and the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu.
Explaining the reason for his defection to the APC during a press briefing in his office on Tuesday, Umahi said he moved to the progressive party to protest the injustice and marginalization of the South East zone by his former party, the PDP, adding that he has no regret joining APC.
He accused leaders of the party of treating him so much with suspicion and distrust because he refused to castigate President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “I didn’t join PDP because they refused to give me presidential ticket. I never sought for the PDP presidential ticket and so whoever is saying that I moved to APC because they refused to zone the ticket to me is being very mischievous because even if PDP promises an individual a presidential ticket, how does it work when over 8000 delegates will be electing the person. Such promise cannot happen with ten or twenty persons.’’
Reacting to Governor Umahi’s statement that he defected to the APC because the PDP refused to zone the party’s presidential ticket to the South East, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP said the party cannot be stampeded into taking decision on zoning of 2023 presidential ticket, adding that the governor left the party for personal reasons.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, made the comment on Monday when he appeared on Arise TV to react to the governor’s planned defection to the APC.
The party spokesman however acknowledged that the concerns raised by the governor were genuine but added that the party does not act on the impulse of one man or two individuals.
‘’The concerns raised by Governor Umahi as it affects the South East, the party believes are genuine concerns and when the time comes and all the variables are considered and all the issues are taken into consideration, the party will take its decision. PDP is not a party that can be stampeded. We are not parties that take decisions on the impulse of one or two individuals; we are a structured political party.’’ he said.
The party also dissolved the ward,local government, state and zonal excos of the party, and appointed a 7-man new state exco for the state which is chaired by the former Commissioner for Donor Agencies in the state, Fred Udeogu.
Also reacting, the governor of Rivers States, Nyesom Wike, said the Ebonyi governor left the party because of his presidential ambition and not the issue of injustice and marginalization of the South East.
He acknowledged the right of the governor to join APC, but stressed it was wrong of him to attempt to blackmail the party and paint it in a bad light, describing it as mischievous and unacceptable.
The Rivers State Governor said: ‘’my friend Umahi wants to be president. There is no problem about that. You have a right to be president. Nobody can stop you. You are educated, you have been a governor for two terms. So, you are qualified to say I want to be president of Nigeria. But that should not be reason to blackmail your party and tell lies to the people that you are leaving the party because of injustice meted against the people of the South East. That is not correct.’’
Expectedly, in Ebonyi, the defection of the governor to the APC has continued to generate mixed reactions both within the APC and the PDP. While a section of the progressive party described the governor’s entrance into the party as a blessing to the APC family in the state and indeed the entire South East, another section of the party said the governor has come to destroy the party they have suffered many years to build in the state.
Some of the chieftains of the party who see Umahi’s entrance into the party as a blessing and indication that the APC will take over Ebonyi in 2023 include the Chairman, Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Elias Mbam; former Senators Anthony Agbo and Julius Ucha ,and the member representing Ezza South, Ikwo federal Constituency, Chinedu Ogah.
Mbam and Ucha in separate statements described the governor’s entrance into the APC as a boost for the party in the state and in the South East.
‘’APC as a party in the state was already moving forward and had a good chance of winning the 2023 election . Umahi coming into the party has added more advantage to the party. We can just go to sleep being sure that come 2023, APC will take over Ebonyi’’ Mbam said.
But for the former Commissioners for Information and State Orientation in the state, Chief Egwu Chima and Chief Abia Onyike, Umahi’s entrance into the party signals the total collapse of the party in the state.
While Onyike claimed that the governor’s name and reputation would make the party a hard sale in future elections in the state except ‘’he changes his focus, policy thrust and his self-opinionated style of leadership, stop elephant projects and pay civil servants their gratuities’’ Chief Egwu Chima posited that ‘’the entry of Umahi into APC will see the party losing reciprocity of respect; lack of time consciousness, greater subterranean and nepotic maneuvers, undemocratic, despotic and Nebuccadnezer- like tendencies.’’
Chima accused the governor of planning to factionalize the party in the state which he said already showed in the recent meeting the governor convened in Uburu and those he used to facilitate his defection to the party.
The major problem however for the governor and his team is no longer on how to perfect defection to APC, the challenge before the governor now is how to truly transform this bonafide PDP stronghold into an APC state. This is instructive because apart from having as many as 8 state assembly members reportedly refusing to join him to the APC, the governor also appeared to have failed to convince any of the five House of Representatives members and three senators from the state to join him to the APC.
One of the 8 state lawmakers who refused to sign for the APC, Chris Usulor (Ezza South) said the agitation for the Nigeria President of Igbo extraction should be done in PDP,adding that it was the reason he refused to join the Governor to the APC.
Also, two commissioners namely, Laz Ogbee of Intergovernmental Affairs and Mrs.Rebbecca Ogbuewu of women Affairs have reportedly resigned their appointments as commissioners in his cabinet.
Our correspondent also gathered that many of the governor’s appointees from the state executive council down to the Development Centres are deeply worried over the APC defection saga,expressing fear that the party may not be welcomed by the Ebonyi masses.
A council chairman from the Southern part of the state who is said to be nursing ambition to the National Assembly told our correspondent in confidence that ‘’there is serious work to be done. To market APC to the point of massive victory in Ebonyi,the way we used to win inPDP, is not a small job. We don’t have a choice anyway, but I wish we had, I would have personally advised against it. Of a truth, APC, not only in Ebonyi,is a hard sale now.”
Last line
Many critical observers argue that based on available statistics, it will be preposterous for Umahi to conclude that the PDP has been unfair to the South East since 1999.
Part of the argument is that PDP produced 5 Senate Presidents from the South East, namely, Evans Enwerem, Chuba Okadigbo, Adolphus Wabara, Anyim Pius Anyim and Ken Nnamami between 1999 and 2007 and under the same party, Ike Ekweremadu became Deputy Senate President for 12 years.
Similarly, under the PDP, Emeka Ihedioha was Deputy speaker of the House of Representatives for four years, and Prince Vincent Ogbulafor and Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo as National chairmen of the party respectively.
Also under the main opposition party, Azubuike Ihejirika became the Chief Of Army Staff, Dr. Charles Soludo governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Dr. Okonjo Iweala a super minister, (Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy.
Other appointments to the South East under the PDP also include Professor Maurice Iwu-(INEC chairman), Anyim Pius Anyim(SGF) even as Mr. Peter Obi, former Anambra State governor was nominated the PDP Vice Presidential candidate in the 2019 general election.
In the same party, Governor Dave Umahi was once acting state chairman, Ebonyi PDP chairman, deputy governor and later won the Ebonyi State governorship seat for two consecutive terms while his younger brother, Chief Austin Umahi was the National Vice chairman of the South East geo-political zone.
Those opposed to his move believe that with all the above privileges, it would be difficult to convince the average Igbo man that his move was for the collective interest of the Igbo.
