Ironically, even the opposition parties
in the state, especially the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are also
waiting to see which direction the governor is headed.
Although, Okorocha has said that he
would not make the mistake of his predecessors who could not anoint a
successor, he has made it abundantly clear that the likes of Senator
Ifeanyi Ararume and his immediate predecessor Dr. Ikedi Ohakim will
never succeed him.
However, Okorocha may inadvertently be
walking on the same path, former governor, Achike Udenwa walked in 2007,
by excluding those who are not from his inner political family from the
gubernatorial contest. But in spite of Udenwa’s opposition, Senator
Ifeanyi Ararume who was regarded as an outsider picked the gubernatorial
ticket of the party. However, the stiff opposition from the Udenwa
political camp, with the active collaboration from the then president,
Olusegun Obasanjo, Senator Ararume was not only denied the ticket, but
the PDP ended up having no candidate in that election.
Even when the Supreme Court pronounced
Ararume as the authentic candidate of the party, PDP would have none of
that. It rather declared that the party had no candidate, a situation
that led to the factionalisation of the then ruling PDP ahead of the
2007 governorship contest, a situation that led to the emergence of
Chief Martins Agbaso as governor under the platform of the All
Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) before the election was curiously
cancelled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, in the re- run that followed,
the PDP having realised its mistakes decided to back Chief Ikedi Ohakim
who was also denied the ticket in the PDP, but was running on the
platform of the Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA) with an
understanding that “he must return to the PDP after winning the
contest.” In the end, Ohakim won and “in keeping faith with the
understanding,” he returned to the PDP before the expiration of his
tenure in 2011.
Analysts say that the current scenario
in the Imo APC is akin to the situation of the Imo PDP in 2007. And that
by excluding those who Okorocha said are not “ Ndi Agburu anyi” which
literally means “those who are not members of our political family” he
appears to have planted the seed of internal cold war in the ruling APC.
Already, Daily Sun gathered, the action
has pitched the governor against major stakeholders in the party, which
may ultimately be a stumbling block to the APC’s desire to hold on to
the state after the election in 2019 .
Okorocha joined the APC with a faction
of the Imo state chapter of APGA that are loyal to him during the
formative stage of the APC in 2014. But some of the APGA members who had
earlier gone with him to APC had either defected back to APGA or the
PDP, leaving behind only members of the Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC) and All Nigeria Peoples party (ANPP). But after the APC won the
governorship election in 2015, many had expected that Okorocha would be
magnanimous to concede some political positions to them. He never did as
the CPC and ANPP blocs in Imo State were left out in appointments and
were never carried along in the affairs of the government.
Owing to the above fact, it was gathered
that the old CPC, ACN, and the ANPP members who are the foundation
political parties that formed the APC, appear to have also factionalised
the party along that line. One of them is Emeka Nwajiuba, the Executive
Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fundf (TETFUND), a Buhari
loyalist and member of the CPC who had played a key role in the
formation of the APC in 2014. He had also served in one of the
committees that shaped the formation of the APC at the national level.
Nwajiuba who was a member of the House
of Representatives and former gubernatorial aspirant of the defunct
ANPP was never accommodated by the APC government in the state. Last
year, he launched a political group, the Grassroots Liberation Movement
which is said to be the rallying point for the old CPC political bloc in
the state and ostensibly a counter force to the loyalists of Okorocha
in the state and especially in the Okigwe zone.
He is said to be allegedly enjoying the
backing of President Muhammadu Buhari for the senatorial seat of Okigwe,
while Okorocha has endorsed his current Information Commissioner, Prof.
Nnamdi Obiaeriri for the same position as a replacement for Senator
Benjamin Uwajumogu who the governor alleged” has not performed
creditably well.”
One of the leaders of the Nwajiuba
group, said “it is unimaginable how the mother political parties that
formed the APC at the centre are been relegated to the background in Imo
State. There is nobody from the old CPC, ANPP or the ACN blocs that was
accommodated in this government. This has to stop”.
Similarly, Okorocha appears to have also
fallen out with Senator Osita Izunaso the party’s National Organising
Secretary, as well as Senator Ifeanyi Ararume who had played a strategic
role in the supplementary polls that had returned Okorocha to Douglas
House.
To compound the internal squabble in the
ruling party is the rumour that Okorocha has allegedly anointed his son
– in – law and his Chief of Staff, Uche Nwosu from Nkwerre Council of
the state from the same Orlu senatorial zone, to succeed him. But the
governor’s loyalists have consistently denied the rumour.
Only recently, the governor came out to
say publicly that his successor would be produced by the people of the
state. But he was categorical on the fact that Ararume and Ohakim would
never succeed him, saying that his successor must not be “proud,
arrogant, vindictive, greedy and narrow minded or clannish,” adding that
if Ohakim succeeds him, “his mission would be for vengeance.“
A party source who spoke on the
condition of anonymity alleged that Okorocha has not been funding the
party in the state and that the party has almost gone into extinction at
the local government areas and wards levels across the state, adding
that if the governor does not call for a meeting which is usually held
at the Government House, nobody can call for the meeting, not even the
state chairman.
According to him, “ the party is almost
dead because the governor is not funding the party and that has resulted
in the near comatose of the party across the state. If the governor
does not call for a meeting nobody does, not even the state chairman. If
you go to the state secretariat at Works layout you will find out that
the place is always empty because nothing is happening there.”
He added that “the state chairman is
always in Government House instead of staying at the party’s office. The
only person who has been funding the party especially at the local
government level is Senator Ararume and even at that the governor sees
him as an opposition to him and has sidelined everybody who identifies
with Senator Ararume because he is eying the governorship seat in
2019. Now, that the governor is not on good terms with Ararume who is
the political leader of Okigwe. He should know that without Ararume APC
cannot win majority vote in Okigwe because those people Okorocha are
banking on cannot march Ararume when the election comes, and I think
that the best thing is for him to allow the party members to decide who
is their gubernatorial candidate will be through the primary election”
the source said.
Another party source told Daily Sun that
“if governor Okorocha does not change his current tactics, the party
will not be able to retain the Douglas House in 2019 as there is no
unity among members especially as they are now divided along the
supporters of the governor or that of Ararume. This does not augur well
for the party especially in a pre- election year.”
He equally pointed out that what would
be the final nail on the coffin for the party is the proposed mock
primary by the governor, saying that “the mock primaries for all
aspirants for elective positions, is viewed by majority of the party
members as a ploy by him to foist his preferred candidates on the
people.”
“Governor Rochas Okorocha two weeks ago
announced that he is going to conduct mock primaries for aspirants to
test their popularity and many party members have already said that they
will not accept that if he goes ahead to conduct them, as it is seen as
a ploy to impose on the people his chosen candidates. I think that what
is needed right now is not to compound the problems within the party
but to find a way to ensure that there is peace in the party” the party
chieftain added.
Given the prevailing atmosphere in Imo
State APC, analysts are of the view that Okorocha may be his
own obstacle in producing his successor.
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