By Chinwe Nnopu
It amounted to a scandalous behaviour by the deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Iyom Uche Ekwunife (PhD?) at the National Peace Committee/Kukah Centre Peace Accord signing by the Anambra 2025 governorship candidates which took place at the International Convention Centre (ICC), Awka, Anambra State.
It does not tell well for a former Senator, and now Deputy Governorship candidate, to flare up and storm out of the hall of the signing of a peace accord. Astonished observers are now asking: Did she at all come for peace?
The seating arrangement for the signing of the peace accord at the ICC was for the governorship candidate to sit in the front seat while the deputy governorship candidate takes the seat behind. Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, the incumbent candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) came in time and took his seat while his deputy, Dr OnyekaChukwu Ibezim, took the allotted seat behind him.
The governorship candidate of the APC, Evangelist Nicholas Ukachukwu, came late to the event and hugged and exchanged pleasantries with Soludo in the spirit of peace before duly taking his allotted seat. As his deputy, Ekwunife had not yet come, the APC state party chairman, Chief Basil Ejidike, took the seat behind Ukachukwu.
It was much later that Uche Ekwunife made her stormy appearance, and Ejidike stood up for her and gestured that she should greet the sitting Governor Soludo. Ekwunife pushed aside Ejidike, turned her back and walked away with her supporters rowdily following her out of the hall.
Some of her agents have volunteered that she did not want to greet Soludo who had alleged that she was flaunting a fake PhD. But why did she then come to a peace accord signing to openly display her animosity to an opponent?
The National Peace Committee and the Kukah Centre, sponsors of the peace accord, may not have constitutional representation but they do have immense moral authority. To disrespect the bodies so flagrantly amounts to a scandalous deficit. It is akin to suborning the due process before the eyes of the world.
It is important to remind Ekwunife that the survival of the democracy that Nigeria practices today owes a lot to the phenomenal phone call of concession by then President Jonathan to General Muhammadu Buhari during the 2025 presidential election in the spirit of the National Peace Committee/Kukah Centre Peace Accord .
Ekwunife has indeed set a very bad example. Banters are always thrown by competing contestants in an election. We were used to the war of words in the old Anambra State between the then Governor Jim Nwobodo and Chief C.C Onoh on one hand and Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu on the other hand.
In Anambra State we are known for shooting with the mouth instead of bearing grudges and shooting guns. It’s unbecoming of a woman to set this dangerous precedent. It is a heavy moral burden on Ekwunife that she behaved so badly in the presence of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, even as she is a professed Catholic who built a church!
It’s frightening to think of how she would behave if she somehow manages to get elected into office! That she showcased her short fuse in front of her principal, Ukachukwu, should raise goosebumps in all.
Ukachukwu himself should be deeply worried to be in office with a harridan with such a short fuse!
The consolation for the people of Anambra State is that the duo is well-nigh unelectable. Iyom Uche Ekwunife (PhD?) can only display her scandalous disrespect as only pre-election tantrums.Such an ill-mannered vixen cannot occupy the Light House of Anambra State.
*Dr. Nnopu, a veteran journalist, writes from Onitsha, Anambra State.*
