Imo PDP Delegates And ALGON Issue – By Chibu Obinna
Barring any unforeseen change in plans, the primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will begin on Friday, September 28, 2018,with the governorship primary election nationwide. In Imo State, about five persons will be competing for the party’s Prime ticket at the state level. They are Prof Jude Njoku, Chief Chukwuma Ekomaru (SAN), Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, Senator Athan Achonu and Senator Samuel Anyanwu (a.k.a. SamDaddy).
To merely state that these named PDP heavy weights are contesting election is not the essence of this piece. Rather, I am pre-occupied with addressing the furore being generated in the party over agitation for the inclusion of former elected Council Chairmen and Councillors as delegates to the forthcoming primaries.
It is instructive to recall that these Local Government Council officials were elected in August, 2010 but were sacked by the infamous All Progressive Congress(APC) government of Governor Rochas Okorocha on June 11, 2011, in his maiden broadcast to Imo people after being sworn in as governor.
The elected local government council officials under the auspices of Association for Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) were initially meant by the State law, to stay three years in office.
However, the Imo State House of Assembly then under Rt. Hon. Goodluck Opiah as Speaker, for reasons best known to them, chose to reduce the tenure of office of the ALGON officials in Imo to two years. One of the governorship aspirants in the forthcoming primaries, Senator SamDaddy Anyanwu who was also a member of the House then equally participated that exercise He can attest to this fact.
I have deliberately chosen to go down memory lane so that Imo people and particularly, PDP members, would understand the genesis of the unnecessary fire being ignited in Imo PDP again by some desperate persons who wish to impose an unpopular aspirant without capacity on the party as a governorship candidate. This was the same ploy they adopted in 2015 to destabilize the party’s electoral chances. The enemies within have come again.
On September 12, 2018, an Imo State High Court in Suit No. HOW/671/2018 vide a Motion Exparte brought by the sacked ALGON officials in Imo State, ordered the PDP to include the ALGON officials as delegates for the conduct of State Party Congresses and the forthcoming National Convention.
With due respect to the Honourable court, I dare say that the order was an aberration as it must have been made in error. The real ingredients in the matter were mischievously not presented before the court in order to assist it in making a rational order. Even the manner the State Working Committee (SWC) dabbled into the case without recourse to the national secretariat of the party was reasonably suspicious.
One can easily perceive a hatchet job to undo the party by some unscrupulous elements within, all for the governorship ambition of a desperate man, who all this while, has being playing hide and seek game with the party. To him, it is either he gets the governorship ticket or we destroy the party; and some gullible entities are supporting him.
By PDP constitution (2017 as amended), it was made clear that only elected and SERVING Council Chairmen and Councillors are to be part of the statutory delegates to PDP Congresses. It did not say FORMER Chairmen and Councillors. This is very clear and unambiguous. What then was the hulaboo over the exclusion former of elected Chairmen and Councillors.
Come to think of it, is it worth it to be accusing some people in the party for what they didn’t do. I have heard some say Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha stopped the former ALGON officials from participating in the congress. This is pure balderdash. Even common sense will tell you this is not true.
As a PDP member, I am very conversant with the party’s constitution. The problem is that some of us don’t make out time to read. They prefer beer parlour rumour and gossips, invariably making themselves vulnerable to be led by the nose by any desperate power monger.
If anything, Rt. Hon. Ihedioha should be commended for the monumental reforms he brought into the party’s electoral process. As Chairman of the Constitution review Committee for the 2017 amended PDP constitution, he made every effort to ensure these former ALGON officials enjoy automatic delegates status in the party but majority decision on the contrary, inserted the clause “serving” and elected ALOGON officials as earlier explained.
Rt. Hon. Ihedioha also made sure ward party Chairmen, Deputy Chairmen, Secretaries, Youth Leader and Women. Leader are made automatic delegates. Ditto for LGA executives. It was not so before. Ihedioha is a democratic by all indices.
In fairness, doesn’t a man who did all these for his party and enlarged the space for many others to be accommodated, deserve commendation? Is it right to keep on indulging in petty campaign of calumny against this patriot? To me, it is callousness and ingratitude.
I am of the strong view that former ALOGON officials should rather look elsewhere for the harbinger of their problem abinitio. For instance, who was part of the sinister act to reduce their tenure of office from three years to two years by the Imo State House of Assembly during the tenure of former Gov. Ikedi Ohakim? That same man is today seeking to be PDP’s governorship candidate at all cost with his ostrich kind of life. He is therefore, inciting pockets of confusion within the party not minding the damage the party may suffer. After using the former ALGON officials, he will definitely dump them as is characteristic of him. That is the chameleon at work.
Former ALOGON officials should see Rt. Hon. Ihedioha as a friend and not a foe. Even if they are to vote (as Ihedioha would have wished) majority of them whom I know believe in him, will still vote for him. It is therefore, irrational for anybody to tag the former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives to the travails of former ALGON officials. Their issue is a national one and also affected Katsina and Plateau States. Those states are in tandem with the realities on ground and have since adjusted, and moved on. Should Imo be a different case? Besides, there are legal implications too. The party is being conscious.
Gladly, the national leadership of the PDP had written to the State Working Committee of the party under Chief (Barr.) Charles Ezekwem, to hands off the case instituted by proxy through former ALGON officials against the party. It is no longer a hidden fact who the promoter of that suit is, all in any effort to become governor by blackmailing another person. That suit, simply put, is like the bible saying “hand of Esau, voice of Jacob.”
It is therefore, very important for the former ALGON officials to discontinue the suit. It is not necessary. They should look at the larger picture bearing in mind that “no man however great, ever wins judgment against his people”.
Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha is a man majority of party members and Imo people are yearning for his people oriented leadership. His governorship aspiration is another golden opportunity for the party to help Imo people get back on track from 2019.
The party delegates must therefore, choose rightly. Deviating from Ihedioha, the man with capacity, pedigree and panache in leadership, tantamount to pushing PDP into APC’s hand. This is because the fear of Ihedioha is the beginning of wisdom in APC.
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Signed
Chibu Obinna
Owerri, Imo State.
