Betraying the Peoples Mandate :
By Joshua Salem
The meeting between the top hierarchy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and party chieftains from Anambra State last Monday was as usual expected to spark the kind of fireworks and tension that is characteristic of political meetings involving Ndi Anambra.

When last year the same party chieftains met at the serene Musa Yar‘Adua Centre in Abuja to choose a governorship candidate for the party, furniture and fittings at the venue were physically uprooted in a melee that forced the cancellation of the meeting leading to the conscription of Prof. Charles Soludo as the party’s candidate.

Last Monday’s meeting at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja presided over by the national chairman, Chief Okwesileze Nwodo, however, had a different type of tension.

Chief Okey Aroh, an erstwhile Chairman of the Anambra chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and former Senior Special Assistant to Governor Chris Ngige had launched a verbal attack against the presence of Senator Alphonsus Igbeke, who entered the Senate only two months ago on the ticket of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) following a controversial and seemingly contradictory appellate court judgment that ousted Senator Joy Emodi, the PDP senator representing Anambra North.

Aroh had frowned at the presence of the opposition Senator saying that he had no right to be at the meeting of Anambra PDP chieftains and especially after his controversial judicial effort to denigrate one of the more pleasant faces of Anambra in the person of Senator Emodi.

A calm Igbeke was alleged to have replied that he was set to decamp to the PDP as he asserted that he had already written the Senate President of  his intention.
Intention remains intention until carried out, Aroh was said to have replied. The verbal outrage, however, came from Chief Frank Oramulu, an erstwhile Chairman of the State chapter of the PDP who expressed his bitterness at what he claimed as Igbeke’s usurpation of Emodi’s mandate from the people of Anambra North.

“We want people who will represent us and not people who just want to go to the Senate through any means because they want to be called Senator, no, that is not what we want,” Oramulu was quoted as saying.

True to his words, Igbeke the following day formally defected to the PDP on the floor of the Senate betraying as it were, the  goodwill that those who do not know him had for him.

Remarkably, and as feared by Oramulu the day before, Igbeke was not even present when his defection to the PDP was read on the senate floor by Senator David Mark, the President of the Senate. The normally vociferous chants of  camaraderie from PDP Senators at such occasions was equally missing.

The hostility against Igbeke in the Senate and in Anambra maybe on account of the immense goodwill Senator Emodi may have garnered in the Senate where she was popularly referred to as “The Joy of the Senate” and in Anambra where she is hailed as Adadioranma, that is, beloved daughter.

Igbeke is, however, not alone among politicians who have lately seemingly betrayed the causes they championed.

Among others who have gone back to their vomits include Atiku Abubakar, erstwhile Vice-President of the country, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, the immediate past Governor of Abia State and in the eyes of some, President Ibrahim Babangida who has lately stepped down from a national leader to a regional, nay northern champion.

All but Babangida interestingly are presently trapped in ongoing schemes directed at stopping their return to the PDP.

Atiku’s return to the PDP is partly inspired by his passion to again run for the presidency and partly because of the internal schisms between him and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu over control of the Action Congress (AC).

The internal crisis in the AC it was believed arose from Atiku’s refusal to pick Tinubu as his running mate in the 2007 presidential bid, a move some close observers say made Tinubu to be lukewarm towards Atiku’s bid. When after late President Umaru Yar‘Adua offered a hand of fellowship to other political parties in the form of participation in a national government, Atiku strongly objected to the invitation beleiveing that he could upturn the 2007 presidential election in the court.

Tinubu’s pleas for participation were largely overwhelmed by Atiku.
Following that, Tinubu retreated to strategise and bounced back to take full command of the AC leaving Atiku as a mere spectator.

Boxed into a corner, Atiku started reaching out to his old adversaries. First was President Olusegun Obasanjo with a widely publicized visit to the former President’s Abeokuta Hilltop mansion in 2008.

That meeting which was to have been a private visit brought much criticisms against Atiku.

Following that attempt, Atiku it seemed retraced his steps to another adversary, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari with whom he teamed up alongside former Governor Attahiru Bafaraawa to form the National Democratic Movement (NDM). The NDM was expected to play a leading role in opposing the PDP’s hold on national politics.

However, the kind of regard Buhari had for Atiku was displayed in a plenary session of the NDM at the Sheraton Hotel Abuja last November when he openly rebuked Atiku and Lawal Kaita for distracting him during a speech presentation. Buhari who was flanked by Atiku openly chastised Atiku for conversing loudly with Kaita while he was reading his welcome speech, an action that shocked many people in the hall that morning.

When President Yar‘Adua went out of circulation on account of his ill-health shortly after, Atiku it seemed started another move to return to the PDP hopefully believing that the presidential ticket would be his. Not surprisingly, Atiku and his other associates began to downplay their involvement in the NDM, a move that apparently inspired Buhari to seek his own tent in the CPC.

Atiku was to then publicly announce after a meeting with some of his associates that he was returning to the PDP, a party he had earlier castigated for its lack of internal democracy.

He, however, had his old nemesis in the person of Senator Jubril Aminu waiting for him.

His return vide the national headquarters of  the PDP was frowned at by some of his local detractors who were obviously bothered that his return could reduce their influence in their local Adamawa State.

Not surprisingly, a faction of the party loyal to him has welcomed him while the other faction supportive of the establishment in the State claims that Atiku is yet to return to the PDP.

Their point is that the PDP constitution provides that anyone joining the party must join from the ward level.

So despite his campaign for the zoning of the presidency to the North ,many in Adamawa State say that even if the campaign is successful, that Atiku would not be a beneficiary as they claim that he is technically not a member of the PDP.

The Atiku treatment is perhaps what is also awaiting former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu who left the PDP in 2006 to pursue his presidential ambition on the platform of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA). The PPA was reportedly financed by Governor Kalu who after his unsuccessful presidential run and mandatory exit from power after eight years, made himself the Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees.

Though the conscience of the party, Kalu had no scruple to ditch the party last Monday when he announced his return to the PDP.

His return followed the exit of the only surviving Governor in the party and his erstwhile Man Friday,Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State.

Orji exited the party alongside Senator Uche Chukwumerije, the PPA’s only Senator alleging that the PPA was a family business of the Kalu family.
Remarkably, the PDP in Abia which has a history of internal division upon which Kalu successfully exploited in the past seemed united in rejecting Kalu.

The PDP has until now been divided along loyalties to Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, the party‘s 2007 gubernatorial flag bearer, Chief Ojo Maduekwe and Prince Vince Ogbulafor with each of the three continuously undoing the other to the delight of Kalu.

Party sources claim that members of the state caucus in the National Assembly and leading chieftains have now forged a strange unity all determined against a common foe in Kalu.

The Abia PDP interestingly for the first time is finding unanimity under Chief Emeka Wogu, the Minister for Labour and Productivity, the highest political office holder from the State who has been adopted as the leader of the party in the State.

Party members were expected to meet with the national hierarchy of the party yesterday where the Kalu return is expected to feature prominently. But for now, nothing it seems binds the party members together than their dislike for Kalu!