Former Senator Emma Anosike yesterday joined the bandwagon of chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Anambra State exiting the former ruling party; thereby causing a setback to the once flourishing market that fetched million of naira for PDP big wigs.

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

The exit of former Senator Emma Anosike out of the PDP is the latest blow to strike the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the Southeast. He joins former speaker of the House of Representatives, Agunwa Anakwe and some other leading politicians from Anambra State, who have exited the PDP. The case of the former state chairman of the party, Dr. Tony Nwoye remains a matter of much speculation especially given the number consultative meetings held between his supporters in the PDP in Anambra State and All Progressives Congress, APC chieftains in the state.

Successful state congress

The implosion of the PDP in Anambra State was a prediction that had been long awaited. Perhaps the most crisis-ridden state chapter of the PDP or any other party in the country, the party has the reputation of not having conducted a successful state congress since the advent of democratic rule in 1999. It also has the unenviable reputation of being the only state chapter of a party to have two blood brothers – the Uba brothers-  in open confrontation for political office.

Anambra State had along the way acquired a national reputation of being a honey pot for PDP national officers, given the prevalence of multi-billionaires in the state willing to part with a little of their money to get the ascendancy in the political terrain.

Anosike confessed as much in his letter of resignation submitted to the PDP’s national chairman last Monday:

“It must be conceded that the party apparatchik at the national levels had come to view party politics and intrigues as vintage harvest points of sorts in terms of loyalty trading, finances and perquisites of office. These contours of aberration took bold imprints as the honey pot ascription in matters that relate to Anambra State particularly and closely knit camaraderie prevail, with it a solid mechanism of oiled party administration, dynamics, and maturation.”

Given the perceived reign of impunity in the PDP in Anambra, it was not surprising that some the party chieftains who in the past brought glory to the party took a backstage in the affairs of the party.  Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the former vice-president, has since kept himself away while Senator Joy Emodi has returned to education her first love with the establishment of the upscale The Brickhall Schools in Abuja.

National enforcers

Anosike

If the PDP is losing steam in Anambra State, it should have quietly gone home to lick its wound. However, all across the Southeast geopolitical zone, the party is in a meltdown as leading members of the party increasingly turn their backs on the former ruling party.

The meltdown was partly indicated by the attendance at the Southeast Caucus of the rival APC in Enugu last Saturday.

Among them were some of the regional and national enforcers of the party, the men who had in the past been called upon to carry out major assignments for the PDP. Among them were former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Emeka Wogu, Senators Emma Agboti, Jim Nwobodo, Nkechi Nwogu and Ifeanyi Ararume.

The meeting hosted by the national vice-chairman, Southeast, also had in attendance, former speaker of the House of Representatives Agunwa Anakwe; Senator Chris Adighije. The extent of the meltdown was also shown by the presence of Dorothy, the wife of Dr. Okwesileze Nwodo, the pioneer national secretary and also a former national chairman of the PDP.

While Nwodo has since denied that he has defected, the presence of his wife is reflective of the fact that the Nwodo household, once a bedrock for the PDP is no longer what it used to be for the PDP.

The exit of some of the PDP chieftains to the APC was, however, stoked by several stories. Most of the PDP defectors were those who received the short-end of the stick ahead of the 2015 general elections. Wogu for example left his position as minister to partake in a governorship primary that his supporters claimed were rigged to favour the governor’s handpicked successor.

Senator Nwobodo, who was a presidential aspirant in the PDP and senator, resigned from the PDP despite the position of pre-eminence given him by the new administration in Enugu State. Nwobodo, who was one of the elders of the PDP in the Southeast that managed the presidential campaign funds, allegedly sourced from erstwhile National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.) left the PDP not long after his name was mentioned as one of the beneficiaries of the funds.

Senator Agboti’s decision to leave the PDP was also despite the fact of his place of prestige as one of the egg heads in the party and involvement in several trouble shooting committees of the party.

The indications of a meltdown in the PDP may have surprised some outside the region, but not all. Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State had in an interview with Vanguard applauded the role he said the Igbo nation played in the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari. Using statistical records, he showed that enthusiasm for the PDP seriously waned between 2011 and 2015.

“One thing people fail to appreciate is that the Ibo nation played a silent but extremely strategic role in the emergence of President Buhari. You may not believe it, but the statistics are there. In 2011, the Igbo nation gave Jonathan about 8 million votes, so when people start accusing Ogbonnaya Onu or Chris Ngige of not doing their own part of the job, people are not being fair to them.

Quantum of votes

“In 2015 Jonathan got 300,000 votes in Ebonyi, go and juxtapose the quantum of votes he got in 2011 in the Igbo heartland with what he got in 2015! If the Igbo had produced the quantum of votes they gave him in 2011 in 2015, the story would have been different.”

Such confidence in the present APC leadership in the Southeast may have become the inspiration for the rallying call by the chieftains to project themselves ahead of the Buhari succession.

It was thus remarkable that the communiqué of the Enugu meeting ended with a claim for the 20123 presidential ticket of the party. Speaking at the end of the caucus meeting, the host of the gathering, the national vice-chairman, and convener of the meeting, Emma Eneukwu said better days were ahead for the party in the region.

“With the array of prominent politicians from the South-East joining us now, we shall work hard this time and turn things around,” he affirmed the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting said among others that: “We believe by 2023, the president of a united Nigeria will be a Nigerian of Igbo extraction from the South-East.”