By Kingsley Emereuwa

AT last the first round of delegate elections in the build-up for the 2015 general elections  has ended in Abia state. Candidates have emerged under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party to fly the party’s flag in the main election. It has been a very tensed and uncalm period with tensions and anxiety building up. A lot of horse-trading and intrigues pervaded the polity within the period.

Reason for this is due to the undisputed fact that a PDP ticket in Abia is almost a forty-nine percent success record even before the election proper. Although in politics, anything can happen within a given period that even that one percent needed to attain the pass mark may be akin to searching for a needle in a hay sack. It is on the strength of the above assumption that I may not wish to waste time discussing other political parties that exist only in the INEC register as far as Abia State is concerned.

Before the primaries, there were doomsday prophesies by those who hate to love the governor. Many paid commentators and a section of the media for some parochial interests were busy insulting their readers’ reasoning by tales of impending implosion in the state chapter of the party. They had predicted that the state would boil if things were not done in the way of their paymasters which to them was the only right way. Some even became President Goodluck Jonathan’s apologists by showing more concern to the presidential project of Jonathan more than even the president. A case of a mere roman parishioner being more Roman catholic than the Pope. They asked the president to call the governor to order or else he should forget Abia, as if they cared whether the president succeeded or not. Yet, these threat-mongers neither belonged to the party of the president nor do they have current voter’s card.

But sentiments apart, can it be said that the PDP has faired badly under the leadership of the incumbent governor Chief Theodore Ahamefule Orji who returned to the fold of the party in August 2010? This is assuming that we give any serious thought to the false alarm by the detractors. In arriving at the answer, it is only helpful we look at the fortunes of the party under the incumbent governor, in comparison to what it was and what it is likely to be from all indications.

Under his shepherd, PDP would for the first time since its  formation in 1998 be  hundred percent in control of all the elective offices in the state. The feat started in the 2011 general elections.

In the last four years that the governor has watched over PDP in Abia, there has not been any form of unnecessary bickering that may lead to division or factionalism within its fold. Party EXCO members elected in 2010 have served out their full term without any in-fighting for party structure. Nobody has pocketed the party officials or subsumed its roles and functions into that of any parallel campaign organization or group. No officer has been forced to resign. Look beyond your shoulders and see events and hyped political tension in other neighboring south-east states of Ebonyi and Enugu states. Simply put, PDP IN THE SOUTH-EAST STANDS strongest in Abia today and this is an incontrovertible fact. That did not come by happenstance. It is a leadership virtue which every good leader must aspire to possess. To leave the scene better than you met it.
The last litmus test is the just concluded party primaries upon which the doomsday prophets have hinged their clairvoyant skills of foreseeing doom. The exercise has come and gone with the climax being the election of party’s governorship candidate Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu on Monday 8th December 2014. He slugged it out against seven other eminently qualified contestants and eventually emerged victorious. His entrance into the game had altered the political permutation. What many of his co-contestants did not know was that they were actually the ones that made Ikpeazu to tower high above them. No sooner had he indicated interest to run than others brand him “the chosen” one. They were the ones who took him to the media and in the attempt to demonise him gradually brought him into the forefront. Before you knew it, the race was certain to be between Ikpeazu and the others.

While trying to drag him down, the commoners stretched their necks to catch a glimpse of this man who had become the centre of the talk-show.  They wanted to know who was this man that did not wait for election to show his wealth and capacity to help their state. When they  inquired, they were told that the man was only known to be carting away the refuse generated by the same wealthy chests. Rather than dampen their spirit, they saw the hand of God and the coming to fruition of that biblical prayer of Hannah, “ana esi ebe ana ebufu ahihia bulie nwa ogbenye elu” , meaning  “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifted up the beggar from the dung hill, to set them among the Princes and make them inherit the throne of glory” (1Sam 2:8). They remembered he was once incharge of refuse disposal in Aba and Abia South have never tasted the pie. He did not receive any subsidy money for election, neither did he sit on the board of any bank with access to depositors fund as remuneration. Ikpeazu did not mann any federal ministry and felt the world revolved around him. Gradually everything fell into place and the man who had equal stakes with the others in the “Project Abia” was undoubtedly emerging a front liner courtesy of those who thought they were dragging him down.

In all fairness to Governor Orji, there was nothing to show that he had a preference for any candidate. He maintained his mien and stoic character in the face of all the horse-trading. Not even from his body language did he let out any whiff of suspicion as to his choice. If he had any preference for any of the contestants, he kept same to his chest so as to create a level playing ground for all.

Little wonder the exercise in Abia was as peaceful as it was interesting.

So what do we make of those who predicted that Abia will boil as a result of the alleged attempted manipulation of the process.?

No candidate walked out of the exercise. None alleged any form of manipulation. How come it was only a section of media that was in possession of that intelligence report that Abia PDP will expode? Your guess is as good as mine. Many have continued to remain as typewriter repairers in the ICT age, and the earlier they wake from their slumber, the better for them. Abia is on the move and when the harvest time is ripe, posterity will no doubt show its kind face on a man who laboured to unite all interests for the peaceful co-existence and progress of his state.

Mr. Emereuwa, a political analyst, wrote from Aba, Abia State.