By Eric Teniola

WE were singly and severally accused of connivance in action and so forth. Public anger reached its peak. You set up a reconciliation committee headed by the Ebonyi State governor, Dr. Sam Egwu, and we all thought this would help calm nerves and perhaps bring about some respite.

Audu Ogbeh

But quite clearly, things are nowhere near getting better. While the reconciliation team attempted to inspect damaged sites in Anambra, they were scared away by gunfire, further heightening public anger and disdain for us.

Bomb explosion in Government House, Awka on Tuesday, November 30, 2004, there was another shocking development – a reported bomb explosion in Government House, Awka. Since then, the media, public discourse within and even outside of our borders, have been dominated by the most heinous and hateful of expletives against our party and your person and government.

It would appear that perpetrators of these acts are determined to stop at nothing since there has not been any visible sign of reproach from law enforcement agencies. I am now convinced that the rumours and speculations making the rounds that they are determined to kill Dr. Chris Ngige may not be unfounded.

The questions now are: What would be the consequences of such a development? How do we exonerate ourselves from culpability?

Worse still, how do we even hope to survive it? Mr. President, I was part of the Second Republic and we fell. Memories of that fall are a miserable litany of woes we suffered, escaping death only by God’s supreme mercy. Then we were suspected to have stolen all of Nigeria’s wealth. After several months in prison, some of us were freed to come back to life penniless and wretched.

Many have gone to their early graves un-mourned because the public saw us all as renegades. I am afraid we are drifting in the same direction again. In life, perception is reality, and today, we are perceived in the worst light by an angry, scornful Nigerian public for reasons that are absolutely unnecessary.

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Mr. President, if I write in this vein, it is because I am deeply troubled; and I can tell you that an overwhelming percentage of our party members feel the same way, though many may never be able to say this to you for a variety of reasons. But the buck stops at your table, and in my position, not only as chairman but also as an old friend and loyal defender of your development programmes, which I have never stopped defending, I dare to think that we can, either by omission or commission, allow ourselves to crash and bring to early grief, this beautiful edifice called democracy. On behalf of the Peoples Democratic Party, I call on you to act now and bring any, and all criminal, even treasonable activity to a halt. You and you alone have the means. Do not hesitate. We do not have too much time to waste.”

Obasanjo’s response on December 12, 2004 was laced with bile even from the first paragraph where he wrote: “I am amused and not surprised by your letter of December 6, 2004 because after playing hide and seek games over a period of time, you have finally, at least in writing, decided to unmask and show your true colour.” Ogbeh refused pressures to resign from office and throughout the yuletide holidays of 2004 the nation was kept agape by the standoff between the party chairman and the president.

In early January, not even a reconciliatory lunch of pounded yam was enough to reconcile the two men and Ogbeh finally resigned following apprehensions about his life. The fact that the resignation was announced by President Obasanjo’s spokesperson, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, gave credibility to the rumour that Chief Audu Ogbeh resigned under duress.

He claimed later that he resigned only to avoid conflict within the party, and due to a desire to return to farming. He handed to someone from President Obasanjo’s military constituency, Colonel (retd.) Ahmadu Adah Ali (82) of the Ali Must Go fame, who was minister of education between 1978 and 1979 during the tenure of General Olusegun Obasanjo as head of state.

In December 2005, he formally resigned from the PDP. It was not until 2015 that he joined the All Progressive Congress, APC, as a pioneer member. In November 11, 2015 President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him minister for agriculture and rural development.

In March last year, he lost his brother, Michael and this affected him seriously for they were very close since they both lost their parents Pa Ogbeh Ejembi and Madam Egbi Ogbeh nee Odinya.

In the last three and half years, his work in the Ministry of Agriculture has been commendable. The political obituary of Chief Audu Ogbeh is yet to be written. Deputy Speaker, National Chairman of a ruling party, three-term minister, these are notable achievements of a worthy public servant.