APC: DEAD ON ARRIVAL IN IMO STATE Nwamkpa Modestus Before I attempt a synopsis of this subject matter in this auspicious outing, please ladies and gentlemen permit me to use this opportunity to announce to the glory of God the birth of this column which I have decided to use to always inform, educate, entertain and of course provoke the public especially my numerous fans on diverse topical issues – politics, economy, education etc. This is in response to avalanche of calls, appeals and promptings by many of my admirers and those who have come to know my style of writing. This column promises to be quite dispassionate frank, verifiable as it will also be thought provoking. I shall be prepared at all times to take criticism as well. For now the column shall be coming out every Monday via this medium. However, back to the issue at stake, last month All Progressive Congress (APC) got their registration from INEC after so many months of political horse trading which ultimately resulted into a tensed political atmosphere in this country. Expectedly, the public especially politicians and political analysts were divided on the appropriateness or otherwise of the registration. INEC, the only organ permitted by law to have the final say on the matter was pushed to an edge and the commission after staggering recovered its stamina and finally stamped the registration of APC signifying the birth of a new political party in Nigeria. Much as I am happy for the eventual registration of APC as a full brown political party for I believe it will help to ventilate our political airspace and clear it from unhealthy political propaganda and also cement INEC authority as an Independent umpire, I am particularly skeptical how this political party will survive in Imo State in particular and the entire South East in general. My doubt stemmed from the fact that APC which is purely a Bola Tinubu/Buhari autocratic political baby with its members drawn from those aggrieved, selfish, disillusioned and in fact frustrated politicians who either have not been able to advance and achieve their political ambition in PDP or who have been harboring deep rooted animosity against the PDP and thus diametrically opposed to the PDP. Some still are people whose second, third or forth term ambitions were thwarted and also who have lost base with the masses because of their perceived poor outing in the Governorship, Senate, House of Representatives, House of Assembly etc. They lost control of structures and therefore out of frustration are now hibernating at a new political party called APC. These are the bulk of the members of this new political party. In Imo State, APC can be likened to a seed or crop, for instance carrot or water melon which can only grow effectively in the North but when planted in the soil of South East like Imo State cannot grow. It will either die off or at best have a stunted growth. This is what APC is in Imo State. A strange crop or plant indeed! Again, come to think of the main proponents and leaders of APC in Imo State. On one side is Governor Rochas Okorocha who came into power through APGA ticket and now in his true nature has secured a temporary political abode in APC and Chief Achike Christopher Udenwa the former Governor who abandoned the party that brought him to political lime light and moved to the defunct ACN and now APC. Already, this is a very funny relationship. Achike Udenwa, a former Governor for 8 years and a leader of one of the main merger political party ACN claiming to be the leader and Rochas Okorocha, an incumbent Governor from a political party that bluntly refused to be among the merging political parties also claiming to be the leader. It is just a matter of time for the political under belly of these powers drunk political strange bed fellows of APC in Imo state are exposed. Furthermore, the Governor maybe unknown to him has shot himself in the leg with his abandonment of the only party that gave him the political luck to win his only election as the Governor. There is no gain saying the fact that he has further lost his popularity with that particular political miscalculation. He would have remained in APGA and become the lord or generalissimo as he has succeeded in pushing the Agbasos out of the way with little or no opposition for him again in APGA. In Imo State, out of the three original political parties that merged into APC, that is ANPP, CPC and ACN, only ACN is on ground in Imo State before now which has Udenwa as their leader. Rochas Okorocha went to APC with less than 40% of APGA in Imo State while over 55% of APGA are still with Chief Martins Agbaso and Senator Chris Anyanwu. In other words, these remaining APGA are now his political enemies. Obviously, they are poised to take their pound of flesh should any election present itself in Imo State. They are now feeling disappointed and betrayed. So what is Governor Okorocha’s real political strength in Imo State today when one removes the usual braggadocio and razzmatazz by Okorocha? Did Governor Okorocha win more supporters or loose more supporters since his sojourn to APC? So what you see in APC in Imo State today is only the carcass. Finally, I make bold to say that every zone in this country has peculiarities in terms of political party. Apart from PDP, Buhari’s CPC strives only in the North, Tinubu’s ACN dominates only in the South West while Ojukwu’s APGA strives in the South East. And this will to a great extent determine the chances of any person in an election. This is the bitter truth. In fact, this is the problem Sen. Chris Ngige will have in the November 16th Governorship election in Anambra because of his membership of APC. Equally, that is also why CPC could win Governorship election in Nasarawa state in 2011, ACN could also win in the South Western states but could not win in South East. The Igbos knows their enemies no matter any camouflage. The truth is that APC cannot win any election in Imo State and I stand to be vindicated very soon. This is because nobody can convince an Imo indigene or even an Igbo man generally to support a party that has a Muslim coloration; a party that have the real enemies of Igbo as its leaders; a party that one of its Governors approved the deportation of Igbos. Or how can any right thinking person from Imo State support APC when the Governor of the state joined without consultation and approval from his party APGA which is seen as Igbo party just as his brother Governors did in the South Western and Northern part of the country? APC is simply alien to Imo State political ideology and out rightly antithetical to our ‘Imoness’. It is an ill wind that will blow no one any good in Imo State. Nwamkpa Modestus.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 07:14:29 +0000
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