It is interesting to note that few days, Prof. Soludo had been reported to have said that he is on a mission to Anambra State house to "save" the state. We and any other indegine of our dear state has any issue with that. But what can be considered a careless statement by Mr.Soludo, who cliams to have toured everywhere in the world is the way he kept cally the incumbent Governor a non performer and that "he should prepare a hand over note immediately!". Below is the response from Gov. Obi's camp.
More details here:
GOV.OBI REPLIES SOLUDO
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Calling on ALL Anambra Indigenes
It is morally offending to hear so many people saying that politics should be left to 'dirty people'. The case of our dear Anambra state has really reached an alarming stage. For how long are we going to be at home and watch while our collective holdings in Anambra state are being blatantly shared by few charlatans.
Our present governor has done all he possibly could as human to show that being the governor of a state should not necessarily translate to being the Chief looter of the state. Nobody in this country, can rightly say that Mr. Peter Obi should ever be mentioned whenever corrupt governors are mentioned. I always want to add this whenever this kind of discuss come up:WHAT WE DO TODAY WILL DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY AFFECT US, WHETHER NOW OR IN THE FUTURE! Now, how does ill -governed Anambra state affect you, you may ask!?
You can count few states in Nigeria who are as enterprising and as dogged as Anambraian BUT where are we in Nigerian Politics?
Is it not a shame that there was no single federal government accredited government hospital in the whole of Anambra state before the advent of Mr. Peter Obi?
What do you think it will cost us to hand over the state treasury to looters again?
Don't you agree that it will be to our collective interest that we ALL rally round to see that PDP does not get to Awka Again?
Is what is happening in Lagos State whithout PDP not fit for Anambra state?
Mr.Ngige may mean good but I would be happy if the masses are left to decide.
Will it be so out of place to posit that Mr.Peter Obi can rightly be in record as the most persecuted governor in the history of Nigeria?
Then, wont it be just plain straight reasoning to give him a second term [in peace] so that he can show us what he has in stock?
A single sentence you joined here may seem small but it will go a long way in telling PDP [ a la Uba brother's] that Anambra has gone beyond few's interest!
WE WILL WANT TO HEAR YOUR OPINION......
Our present governor has done all he possibly could as human to show that being the governor of a state should not necessarily translate to being the Chief looter of the state. Nobody in this country, can rightly say that Mr. Peter Obi should ever be mentioned whenever corrupt governors are mentioned. I always want to add this whenever this kind of discuss come up:WHAT WE DO TODAY WILL DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY AFFECT US, WHETHER NOW OR IN THE FUTURE! Now, how does ill -governed Anambra state affect you, you may ask!?
You can count few states in Nigeria who are as enterprising and as dogged as Anambraian BUT where are we in Nigerian Politics?
Is it not a shame that there was no single federal government accredited government hospital in the whole of Anambra state before the advent of Mr. Peter Obi?
What do you think it will cost us to hand over the state treasury to looters again?
Don't you agree that it will be to our collective interest that we ALL rally round to see that PDP does not get to Awka Again?
Is what is happening in Lagos State whithout PDP not fit for Anambra state?
Mr.Ngige may mean good but I would be happy if the masses are left to decide.
Will it be so out of place to posit that Mr.Peter Obi can rightly be in record as the most persecuted governor in the history of Nigeria?
Then, wont it be just plain straight reasoning to give him a second term [in peace] so that he can show us what he has in stock?
A single sentence you joined here may seem small but it will go a long way in telling PDP [ a la Uba brother's] that Anambra has gone beyond few's interest!
WE WILL WANT TO HEAR YOUR OPINION......
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Andy Uba's Desparation!
A panel of the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu is expected to lay to rest today the long-drawn legal battle by Dr. Emmanuel Andy Uba who is seeking the revalidation of the governorship mandate given to him by the people of Anambra State in 2007.
Further hearing of the case was fixed for today. Uba had approached virtually all the superior courts in the land to seek redress over the constitutional issue that truncated his mandate after he had spent barely two weeks as governor of Anambra State elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Appellate Court, which on February 18 2008, upheld Uba’s election as governor of Anambra , had adjourned till October 19 to rule on an application by Uba who prayed for a declaratory order by the court for him to enforce the judgment by automatically taking over as governor on March 17, 2010 when Obi’s tenure is expected to expire.
But many observers who trooped to the court premises as early as 7 am Monday were disappointed as officials of the court told them few hours later that the case would no longer come up that day and went further to announce a new date which is today. No official reason was given for the shift.
The court presided over by Justice J. S. Ngwuta had at its sitting on September 28 adjourned the case following the receipt of an application from Chief Nwafor Orizu, counsel to the first respondent in the case and a governorship aspirant of the PDP in Anambra, Chief Nicholas Ukachukwu, in which he informed the court that he had already filed for adjournment of the case, pending the ruling of the Supreme Court in his application seeking for an order that election be conducted in the state on February 6 next year. The apex court has since thrown out the case setting the stage for hearing of Uba’s fresh case at the Appeal Court, Enugu.
The fresh application by Uba, no doubt, would change the political landscape in the country particularly if it is decided in his favour. It would not only enthrone another administration in the state after the exit of the outgoing Governor Peter Obi of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), it would also truncate the scheduled February 6, governorship election in the state for which former governor of the Central Bank, Professor Chukwuma Soludo had already been selected as candidate of the PDP.
While explaining the rationale for Uba’s return to the appeal court, Uba’s lawyer Wole Olanipekun (SAN) had said: “I, counsel to Chief Uba had told newsmen on September 28 when the new case was mentioned that my client was in court to possibly put an end to the controversies and confusion that had trailed the governorship seat of Anambra.”
He noted that it was not the intention of Uba to ridicule the judiciary. “It’s about law. We are very happy that one of the respondents to our application has gone to the Supreme Court seeking for an order for election to be held in the state next year. We are happy because there have been lots of confusion in the minds of the public as to what we are here for. We are here because Mr. A won an election which can only be nullified by the Tribunal or Court of Appeal, but another Mr. U went to the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court asking for the elongation of his tenure.
“The Apex court granted his prayers that he should go and exhaust his tenure, but later, the Court of Appeal sitting here in Enugu gave a ruling setting aside the ruling of the lower tribunal which had struck out the same case based on the Supreme Court ruling, making it clear that the dismissal of the matter based on the Supreme Court ruling was erroneous. We are therefore here to insist that there should be consequential relief that should be granted to the benefit of the appellant whose application had succeeded at the Appeal level” .
On June 14, 2007, the Supreme Court, acting on a motion by Governor Obi of All Progressive’s Grand Alliance (APGA) declared that Obi was entitled to a four-year tenure as governor and that the four year should begin counting from the 17th of March, 2006 when the Court of Appeal, Enugu, sacked Dr. Chris Ngige of the PDP as governor.
In a landmark judgment, the apex court ruled that the nearly three years spent by Ngige could not have been part of Obi’s tenure, and ordered Uba to vacate office for Obi to complete his tenure.
Following this judgment of the Supreme Court, the Elections Petitions Tribunal which had begun to sit in Awka, on July 19, 2007, citing the Supreme Court judgment, nullified Uba’s election.
“Since the gubernatorial election in Anambra State on the 14/4/2007 was a nullity, in the light of the Supreme Court judgment referred to above, we hereby declare the said gubernatorial election, the subsequent inauguration and any steps in furtherance of the said election a nullity”, the panel which comprised of Justices James Abiriyi, Ayuba Kwajaffa, Peter Isibor, Biobele Georgewill and Abubakar Lamido, declared.
The tribunal went ahead to strike-out the petitions, including the cross-petition, which it also held were nullity. But apparently dissatisfied, Uba approached the Court of Appeal, Enugu, praying the court to set aside the decision of the lower tribunal since, in Uba’s words, the tribunal erred in nullifying his election.
On February 18, 2008, the Court of Appeal in the lead judgment by Justice Mohammad Muntaka-Coomassie, affirmed: “By virtue of section 16 of the Court of Appeal Act, this court hereby order as following:- that the orders of nullification made by the lower tribunal on July 19, 2007 as they affect each of the consolidated appeals in the Governorship/National Assembly and Legislative Houses of Election Tribunal, Anambra State sitting in Awka are hereby revoked and discharged.”
Following this decision by the Court of Appeal which revoked the decision of the tribunal, Uba again returned to the same court to make a declaratory order on its February 18, 2008 judgment. Uba had told the court through his counsel, Olanipekun, that, “Our submission, is that the applicant’s reliefs are located on stronger legal ground than that of Rotimi Amaechi.
Source:Tony Edike
Further hearing of the case was fixed for today. Uba had approached virtually all the superior courts in the land to seek redress over the constitutional issue that truncated his mandate after he had spent barely two weeks as governor of Anambra State elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Appellate Court, which on February 18 2008, upheld Uba’s election as governor of Anambra , had adjourned till October 19 to rule on an application by Uba who prayed for a declaratory order by the court for him to enforce the judgment by automatically taking over as governor on March 17, 2010 when Obi’s tenure is expected to expire.
But many observers who trooped to the court premises as early as 7 am Monday were disappointed as officials of the court told them few hours later that the case would no longer come up that day and went further to announce a new date which is today. No official reason was given for the shift.
The court presided over by Justice J. S. Ngwuta had at its sitting on September 28 adjourned the case following the receipt of an application from Chief Nwafor Orizu, counsel to the first respondent in the case and a governorship aspirant of the PDP in Anambra, Chief Nicholas Ukachukwu, in which he informed the court that he had already filed for adjournment of the case, pending the ruling of the Supreme Court in his application seeking for an order that election be conducted in the state on February 6 next year. The apex court has since thrown out the case setting the stage for hearing of Uba’s fresh case at the Appeal Court, Enugu.
The fresh application by Uba, no doubt, would change the political landscape in the country particularly if it is decided in his favour. It would not only enthrone another administration in the state after the exit of the outgoing Governor Peter Obi of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), it would also truncate the scheduled February 6, governorship election in the state for which former governor of the Central Bank, Professor Chukwuma Soludo had already been selected as candidate of the PDP.
While explaining the rationale for Uba’s return to the appeal court, Uba’s lawyer Wole Olanipekun (SAN) had said: “I, counsel to Chief Uba had told newsmen on September 28 when the new case was mentioned that my client was in court to possibly put an end to the controversies and confusion that had trailed the governorship seat of Anambra.”
He noted that it was not the intention of Uba to ridicule the judiciary. “It’s about law. We are very happy that one of the respondents to our application has gone to the Supreme Court seeking for an order for election to be held in the state next year. We are happy because there have been lots of confusion in the minds of the public as to what we are here for. We are here because Mr. A won an election which can only be nullified by the Tribunal or Court of Appeal, but another Mr. U went to the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court asking for the elongation of his tenure.
“The Apex court granted his prayers that he should go and exhaust his tenure, but later, the Court of Appeal sitting here in Enugu gave a ruling setting aside the ruling of the lower tribunal which had struck out the same case based on the Supreme Court ruling, making it clear that the dismissal of the matter based on the Supreme Court ruling was erroneous. We are therefore here to insist that there should be consequential relief that should be granted to the benefit of the appellant whose application had succeeded at the Appeal level” .
On June 14, 2007, the Supreme Court, acting on a motion by Governor Obi of All Progressive’s Grand Alliance (APGA) declared that Obi was entitled to a four-year tenure as governor and that the four year should begin counting from the 17th of March, 2006 when the Court of Appeal, Enugu, sacked Dr. Chris Ngige of the PDP as governor.
In a landmark judgment, the apex court ruled that the nearly three years spent by Ngige could not have been part of Obi’s tenure, and ordered Uba to vacate office for Obi to complete his tenure.
Following this judgment of the Supreme Court, the Elections Petitions Tribunal which had begun to sit in Awka, on July 19, 2007, citing the Supreme Court judgment, nullified Uba’s election.
“Since the gubernatorial election in Anambra State on the 14/4/2007 was a nullity, in the light of the Supreme Court judgment referred to above, we hereby declare the said gubernatorial election, the subsequent inauguration and any steps in furtherance of the said election a nullity”, the panel which comprised of Justices James Abiriyi, Ayuba Kwajaffa, Peter Isibor, Biobele Georgewill and Abubakar Lamido, declared.
The tribunal went ahead to strike-out the petitions, including the cross-petition, which it also held were nullity. But apparently dissatisfied, Uba approached the Court of Appeal, Enugu, praying the court to set aside the decision of the lower tribunal since, in Uba’s words, the tribunal erred in nullifying his election.
On February 18, 2008, the Court of Appeal in the lead judgment by Justice Mohammad Muntaka-Coomassie, affirmed: “By virtue of section 16 of the Court of Appeal Act, this court hereby order as following:- that the orders of nullification made by the lower tribunal on July 19, 2007 as they affect each of the consolidated appeals in the Governorship/National Assembly and Legislative Houses of Election Tribunal, Anambra State sitting in Awka are hereby revoked and discharged.”
Following this decision by the Court of Appeal which revoked the decision of the tribunal, Uba again returned to the same court to make a declaratory order on its February 18, 2008 judgment. Uba had told the court through his counsel, Olanipekun, that, “Our submission, is that the applicant’s reliefs are located on stronger legal ground than that of Rotimi Amaechi.
Source:Tony Edike
More On PDP Anambra State Primaries
Aggrieved former aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Anambra State, have written a letter of protest to Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), urging him and the Commission to ignore the candidacy of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and Senator Emma Anosike, in the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State.
In a letter signed on behalf of the aggrieved aspirants by theirleader, Chief Chuma Nwofor, they claimed that selection of the Soludo/Anosike ticket was against a subsisting court order and against the guideline set by PDP for the election of the party’s governorship candidate.
The letter of protest dated October 19, 2009, titled, “the illegal,unlawful and unconstitutional selection of Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo as the Governorship Candidate of PDP for the 2010 Anambra State gubernatorial election,” said the selection was against a court order by Ekwulobia High Court of Justice, which “unequivocally restrained PDP either by themselves, their servants, from conducting the primary election on October 2, 2009, and the suit was adjourned to October 12, for hearing.”
The petition further said another court in suit AG/450M/ 2009between Alphonus Igwebuike and two others in the state, restrained PDP from conducting the said primary election and the suit was adjourned to October 7.Accordingly, the protest letter to INEC noted that the election of Soludo in Abuja, on October 9, 2009, was against the guideline issued by PDP for the election of the governorship candidate and therefore, “all resolutions, election, selection or anything whatsoever following from it are null and void, and of no effect whatsoever.Quoting Article 17.2 (b) of the PDP, the letter of protest noted that the selection of Soludo breached the party's constitution, especially clause No. 6 of the PDP guideline for the 2009 Governorship election, which said that the venue of the special state congress must name the venue of the election, at least seven days before the commencement of the election.The letter to INEC also said that Article 17 (1) which the NWC of PDP used to select Soludo cannot be exercised in a vacuum, but in conjunction with Article (2) of the party's constitution.Also, the group, quoting the 2006 Electoral Act Section 85 (1), said INEC ought to be given 21 days notice to observe the selection of Soludo and stating that where there were obvious violation of PDP constitution, guideline and the Electoral Act, that INEC should ignore Soludo's candidacy.
By Chuks Okocha in Abuja
In a letter signed on behalf of the aggrieved aspirants by theirleader, Chief Chuma Nwofor, they claimed that selection of the Soludo/Anosike ticket was against a subsisting court order and against the guideline set by PDP for the election of the party’s governorship candidate.
The letter of protest dated October 19, 2009, titled, “the illegal,unlawful and unconstitutional selection of Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo as the Governorship Candidate of PDP for the 2010 Anambra State gubernatorial election,” said the selection was against a court order by Ekwulobia High Court of Justice, which “unequivocally restrained PDP either by themselves, their servants, from conducting the primary election on October 2, 2009, and the suit was adjourned to October 12, for hearing.”
The petition further said another court in suit AG/450M/ 2009between Alphonus Igwebuike and two others in the state, restrained PDP from conducting the said primary election and the suit was adjourned to October 7.Accordingly, the protest letter to INEC noted that the election of Soludo in Abuja, on October 9, 2009, was against the guideline issued by PDP for the election of the governorship candidate and therefore, “all resolutions, election, selection or anything whatsoever following from it are null and void, and of no effect whatsoever.Quoting Article 17.2 (b) of the PDP, the letter of protest noted that the selection of Soludo breached the party's constitution, especially clause No. 6 of the PDP guideline for the 2009 Governorship election, which said that the venue of the special state congress must name the venue of the election, at least seven days before the commencement of the election.The letter to INEC also said that Article 17 (1) which the NWC of PDP used to select Soludo cannot be exercised in a vacuum, but in conjunction with Article (2) of the party's constitution.Also, the group, quoting the 2006 Electoral Act Section 85 (1), said INEC ought to be given 21 days notice to observe the selection of Soludo and stating that where there were obvious violation of PDP constitution, guideline and the Electoral Act, that INEC should ignore Soludo's candidacy.
By Chuks Okocha in Abuja
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Messy PDP
It is no longer news that over 50 persons are aspiring to take over from Mr.Peter Obi[the present governor of Anambra State]. What is of my concern here is that among the so-called 47 person coming in from PDP, 15 of them are alleged to have been sponsored by one shameless pretender, who prides himself in attaching a God-knows-where-he-got doctorate to his name and a former Mr Obasanjo's kitchen aide! Now, can it be true that this man whose younger brother once terrorized and destroyed every collective holdings of Anambra State just because he supposed god-son-governor, then, refused to open up the cash vault of Anambra State for him, paid a whooping =N=5,250,000 for this alleged 15 PDP aspirants? Has anybody asked what is appropriate for this kind of person? Why do we refuse to look into the activities of persons like this ,who had made up their minds to run Anambra state down, if they are not given opportunity to drain every penny Anambra will ever have? What do this kind of person has to offer to Anambrarians and why do his party[PDP] always have sympathy for him?
Can anybody here help us to define define the REAL meaning of nemesis? Is it affecting PDP now [ as they are yet to produce a candidate just few hours to the INEC deadline !] Whay all these fight ? Is it for our collective good as NDI ANAMBRA? Is not time this madness stops? While I refuse to admit that Anambra state is diffficult politically, can we see the kind of dare-devil oppositions that face the present governor? What can we as Anambrarians do to stop these asinine madness? Is it not proper that we do all we humanly possibly can to stop these pretenders from getting to the government house Awka?
Then what have you to say about Mr.Suzwe's[PDP Anambra State Governorship primaries Chairman] allegation that a certain aspirant offered to give him =N= 1 BILLION CASH!? :o Who offered this money and where did he get this kind of money to practically throw away? If he is ready to give out this sum of money, where did he plan to recover the money from? Should this kind of person become the governor of Anambra State, what do you think will be his first priority!? Time for us all to wake up and take the destiny of our dear blessed state in our hands.Enough of these madness! Your frank opinion will go a long way in this just cause.WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Can anybody here help us to define define the REAL meaning of nemesis? Is it affecting PDP now [ as they are yet to produce a candidate just few hours to the INEC deadline !] Whay all these fight ? Is it for our collective good as NDI ANAMBRA? Is not time this madness stops? While I refuse to admit that Anambra state is diffficult politically, can we see the kind of dare-devil oppositions that face the present governor? What can we as Anambrarians do to stop these asinine madness? Is it not proper that we do all we humanly possibly can to stop these pretenders from getting to the government house Awka?
Then what have you to say about Mr.Suzwe's[PDP Anambra State Governorship primaries Chairman] allegation that a certain aspirant offered to give him =N= 1 BILLION CASH!? :o Who offered this money and where did he get this kind of money to practically throw away? If he is ready to give out this sum of money, where did he plan to recover the money from? Should this kind of person become the governor of Anambra State, what do you think will be his first priority!? Time for us all to wake up and take the destiny of our dear blessed state in our hands.Enough of these madness! Your frank opinion will go a long way in this just cause.WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Monday, October 5, 2009
THE SPOILERS IN ANAMBRA STATE
How can we be awake and watch as our collectives are recklessly thrown to the dogs? It happens at every level of governance here in Nigeria , where our so called leaders are so ignorant [or pretend not to know] that the masses are at the point of eating from the dust bin. God in his every wondrous design deliberately wants to pull Anambra State from the mess called PDP. Mr Peter Obi may not be playing to the galary as many people may want but the man is very sincere,the areas he is touching are the areas most 'colorful and noisy' politicians will over look , simply because it will not bring immediate public applause. Talk about the health sector in Anambra State.He had done what he could as a human to elevate many hospitals in Anambra to accreditation. Some persons will readily say that a certain former governor constructed more roads! My questions are: did he have any more options given that his then godfather was after his head? What manner of roads were constructed when we don not have even one good hospital in the whole Anambra State then? What manner of charater is a medical doctor who does not 'know' that life/health should be first? And what kind of conscience does somebody like him has to dwell so low as to go to a shrine with a miscrant just because he wanted power so desperately? For once, lte's reason as humans should in this country. Close your eyes now and imagine the incumbent governor on his way to shrine! IT IS NOT POSSIBLE AND WILL NEVER BE POSSIBLE BECAUSE THE MAN DOES NOT PRETEND BUT LIVES HIS LIFE AS EVERYBODY CAN SEE. There is no basis of comparison at all. lets join hands and give Mr. Obi the needed support to complete the designs he has for Anambra State in the next four years.
=N=10 b Scandal in Anambra PDP Primaries!?
We are trying to be very objective in asking some questions regarding those who are aspiring to govern Anambra State in 2010. It is no longer news that PDP is well bent on taking over from from Mr Obi[the incumbent governor] through ANY MEANS possible! The drama that is now unfolding, even when they election proper is months away, calls for serious concern from ALL well meaning Anambrarians. How can we reconcile the fact or[ or is it rumor?] that the so-called would be gubernatorial candidates in the coming election, under the platform of PDP had to bride the party members that will monitor the proceedings of the primaries to the tune of close to =N=10 billion.This can not just be swept under the carpet because, it is very logical to ask this: is any sincere person who is going to the government house to serve ready to bribe his way to the top? Is the money being quoted not enough to transform the fortunes of some whole states in Nigeria right now? Where did the bribe givers got such money the practically threw away? Who are they? Who are the bribe takers? DO THEY HAVE THE INTEREST OF ANAMBRA STATE AT HEART? Lend your voice to this cause.....Posterity will soon judge the Uba's and his likes in Anambra State who are determined to drag that our dear State years behind. Will they succeed without our consent?
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Anambra Election 2010: PDP Must Learn To Be Honest
Anambra State, as part of old Eastern Nigeria had always had its flavour of tussle over sundry issues, particularly land. Discovering that political power is the root of all authority, the state has been turned into a theatre of the absurd since 1999 as a result of the contest for power.
Next February has been fixed for the governorship elections in the state and the contest gets fiercer by the day. This report attempts to deconstruct the many pockets of conflicts arising from the jostle for political power and concludes that whereas there ought to be one chief and many Indians, Anambra as a political entity suffers this aphorism in the breach rather than the observance, thereby creating a situation where everybody in Anambra is a chief.
By Jide Ajani
TUESDAY, September 24, 2002. President Matthew Okikiolakan Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo was obviously livid with anger, his voice, threatening. He had just got a security briefing from a team monitoring events in Anambra State. Obasanjo, dressed in a pale-coloured night gown, was in an interview session with this writer.
It was at the height of the impeachment saga mounted by the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Ghali Umar Na’Abba. Once Obasanjo got the briefing, he requested that a telephone call be placed to the then Governor of Anambra State, Chinwoke Mbadinuju.
Once the call came through, an enraged Obasanjo shouted: “Governor Anambra, I have directed that those people should come into your state and I don’t want you to disturb them. Let them do their work” At the other end, Mbadinuju was apparently attempting to find out the rationale behind sending a huge contingent of mobile policemen to Anambra State to keep peace when he as governor had not made such a request.
Obasanjo’s response was simple and clear: “Governor Anambra, I have told you not to disturb those people. They have orders to do what you have refused to do. Do not disturb them in the discharge of their responsibilities. If you disturb them they will disturb you. I repeat, Governor Anambra, do not disturb them; they have their orders to keep the peace”.
This was Tuesday, September 24, 2002. That encounter between Obasanjo and Mbadinuju came on the heels of several failed peace meetings between the then Anambra State governor and his godfather, Sir Emeka Offor, a friend of the Federal Government of Nigeria and an Obasanjo apologist.
This was also a time when schools in the state had been shut for about a year. At one of the meetings between the Mbadinuju group and the Offor group, Obasanjo had publicly admonished Offor to allow Governor Mbadinuju govern Anambra State, remonstrating that Offor’s conduct in the Anambra saga is tantamount to a hunter carrying a big elephant on his head and yet, using his foot to search for cricket in the sand.
But the many peace meetings did not yield peace in Anambra as the state governor attempted to also demonstrate that he was in charge with the introduction of the Bakassi Boys, a vigilante outfit which was to later constitute a dangerous nuisance to the people of the state.
Mbadinuju eventually did not get the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, gubernatorial ticket to run for a second term, even as a new godfather, in the person of Chris Uba, happened on the scene. Mbadinuju moved to the Alliance for Democracy, AD, on which platform he contested but lost.
Enter a new era in Anambra politics which featured the fractured story of two Chrises – Uba and Ngige, the Lilliputian governor whose election was nullified by the election petition tribunal. Whether it is Christopher or Christian, the godfather and his godson went to war early in the life of the administration. But before the dramatization of stupidity which the Anambra polity was turned into, something instructive happened.
Just before the swearing-in of Ngige as Anambra State governor, the leadership of PDP in the state visited Chief Anthony Anenih, the man variously described as The Leader and Mr. Fix It.
The meeting was in Anenih’s then Ministers’ Quarters. The Anambra State chapter of PDP had come to pay homage to The Leader. While introducing their team leader, Chris Uba (and not Governor-elect, Ngige), effusive obeisance was paid on Uba. After the theatrics, Anenih requested to know why the group visited. The response was that they had come to pay homage to The Leader.
As a respected elder, Anenih made it known to the politicians from Anambra that in his time, even a local government chapter leadership of a party could not have been so lowly represented. And then the overkill: Anenih told the visitors that they needed to manage their relationship very well.
fact, he disclosed to them that one of three things would likely lead to the collapse of the PDP in Anambra State. He said they needed to watch the triple evils of money, appointment to offices and award of contracts; that one of the three would likely bring about crisis amongst and between all of them. Anenih was prophetic.
Hardly had the Governor Ngige administration spent one year in office, he was abducted and forced to resign from office. That fiasco enraged right-thinking members of the public. But Ngige survived and with that survival, came sordid tales of oath-taking at the Okija shrine and other such ridiculous involvement of the governor, like the signing of an irrevocable standing payment order, ISPO, on a contract for a public building.
And at a time when Ngige lost out at the tribunal, it was expected that the emergence of Peter Obi, the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, candidate at the polls would breath an air of freshness in the state, matters got to a head with, first, the platform for his emergence which is the party, and, secondly, the state house of assembly dominated by the PDP.
His platform, APGA, went to town with a leadership crisis which made no sense and which could have been avoided. Victor Umeh chose to lead a faction of the party while Chekwas Okorie, whose name is engraved in stone on the party constitution as chairman, led another faction. Then came the members of the state house of assembly asserting their own authority.
The courts over-turned Obi’s impeachment by the house just as the election organised in April 2007 by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was deemed not to have held by the Supreme Court which insisted that Obi must serve out his four-year tenure. Hanging in the cold was Andy Uba, an Obasanjo aide, who had become lord unto himself in Anambra State and who insisted that he won the April elections which the Supreme Court nullified. As things are today, Anambra State remains a metaphor for the craze for power which Nigeria’s polity has been turned into.
PDP chairman Vincent Ogbulafor; Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and Senator Annie Okonkwo
PDP chairman Vincent Ogbulafor; Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and Senator Annie Okonkwo
Screening committee
More pitiable is the way the PDP has reduced the race for Government House, Awka. There are some 48 aspirants who have picked the forms for the race. Some 45 are said to have returned their forms while the screening committee of the party is about pruning down the number.
But historically, Anambra has been a state fraught with battles over land. The topography is such that arable land had almost always been a matter of disputation between communities in times past. Today, realising the new wisdom that political power guarantees economic and social uplifting, the turf battle is now on the political arena. Is it APGA, or the ruling PDP? All is not well.
Worse still, there is no visible solution in sight. And whereas some politicians who ought to know better are spoiling for a show down in Anambra, there are clear and present dangers ahead the 2010 gubernatorial elections. For instance, during all the bye-elections in Anambra State since 1999, the voter attendance has been just about 10 per cent. The about 90 per cent of the voting population withdrew and stayed back in bewilderment.
Anambra State, today, is an APGA state. The Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA, has attempted severally to cash in on the situation in APGA but PPA seems to be having problems of its own which it has not been able to come out of.
For APGA, the May 14, decision of the Independent national Electoral Commission, INEC, reversing the authenticity of leadership of APGA to the Chekwas Okorie-led group, remains a watershed in the on-going struggle to recapture the soul of APGA. But Governor Peter Obi has already picked the governorship ticket of the Umeh faction of APGA. And whereas that faction says Obi would be its sole candidate, some are questioning the wisdom in that decision as it may bar other aspirants from seeking the ticket of the party.
In the build up that is going on now, it would interest Nigerians to know that there are some powerful politicians in PDP who, decidedly, went ahead to buy the gubernatorial tickets for some other aspirants just to block some people from the contest. Out of the 49 aspirants who have picked tickets, only one would emerge as the candidate of the PDP.
When that person emerges as the party candidate, the 48 others would come out forcefully to demonstrate that they, too, are very strong and may likely attempt to disrupt whatever progress PDP intends to make at the polls. For, instance, Andy Uba, is alleged to be ready to block the guber ticket of Labour Party, LP, in the hope that should the PDP misbehave, as the party is wont to do, he would simply move into LP.
The reason Andy Uba is not particularly impressed with his PDP, relates to the decision of the party not to support him in his bid to force the hands of the Supreme Court to countenance the voting of April 2007 as valid, pending the determination of Peter Obi’s tenure as governor of Anambra State.
But more interesting things are happening. Already, a group, which has tagged itself “Association for Good Governance in Anambra State”, said last week that it was organizing a one-day prayer to ensure a successful election in the state. Speaking with Journalists in Abuja, Leader of the group and first civilian governor of the state, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, stressed that the organisation had already invited all the political parties, civil society organizations, town union bodies, professional and trade union bodies to the event.
In a related development, the Anambra Youth Alliance, ANYA, has said that certification from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, should be a criteria for the screening of aspirants of all the political parties with plans to field candidates in the election.
Ahead of the primaries for emergence of the governorship candidate of the PDP, the chairman, Ward Congresses Committee and Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswan, has called on the aspirants and people of the state to carry out their assignments.
Speaking with Journalists in Abuja when he paid a courtesy call on the National Chairman of PDP, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor and members of the National Working Committee(NWC),Suswan who appealed to Anambra PDP members and the governorship aspirants to cooperate with the committees geared towards conducting free and fair primaries and that which will be acceptable to all, said, “All I can appeal to them is that let them for the first time cooperate with us so that they can by the grace of God have something credible.
On whether he was not intimidated by the history of Anambra politics and the number of aspirants contesting for just one slot, the Benue State governor said, “No I am not. Anambra people are Nigerians who in the past years have contributed immensely to the development of the nation and the party. Other committee members have since Tuesday relocated to Anambra.
READ MORE HERE
With all the disruptions in his current mandate [via PDP past rigging!]. Don't you think that Mr. Obi deserves another four-year term to be able to really nurture this political sanity he has planted in Anambra State?
Next February has been fixed for the governorship elections in the state and the contest gets fiercer by the day. This report attempts to deconstruct the many pockets of conflicts arising from the jostle for political power and concludes that whereas there ought to be one chief and many Indians, Anambra as a political entity suffers this aphorism in the breach rather than the observance, thereby creating a situation where everybody in Anambra is a chief.
By Jide Ajani
TUESDAY, September 24, 2002. President Matthew Okikiolakan Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo was obviously livid with anger, his voice, threatening. He had just got a security briefing from a team monitoring events in Anambra State. Obasanjo, dressed in a pale-coloured night gown, was in an interview session with this writer.
It was at the height of the impeachment saga mounted by the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Ghali Umar Na’Abba. Once Obasanjo got the briefing, he requested that a telephone call be placed to the then Governor of Anambra State, Chinwoke Mbadinuju.
Once the call came through, an enraged Obasanjo shouted: “Governor Anambra, I have directed that those people should come into your state and I don’t want you to disturb them. Let them do their work” At the other end, Mbadinuju was apparently attempting to find out the rationale behind sending a huge contingent of mobile policemen to Anambra State to keep peace when he as governor had not made such a request.
Obasanjo’s response was simple and clear: “Governor Anambra, I have told you not to disturb those people. They have orders to do what you have refused to do. Do not disturb them in the discharge of their responsibilities. If you disturb them they will disturb you. I repeat, Governor Anambra, do not disturb them; they have their orders to keep the peace”.
This was Tuesday, September 24, 2002. That encounter between Obasanjo and Mbadinuju came on the heels of several failed peace meetings between the then Anambra State governor and his godfather, Sir Emeka Offor, a friend of the Federal Government of Nigeria and an Obasanjo apologist.
This was also a time when schools in the state had been shut for about a year. At one of the meetings between the Mbadinuju group and the Offor group, Obasanjo had publicly admonished Offor to allow Governor Mbadinuju govern Anambra State, remonstrating that Offor’s conduct in the Anambra saga is tantamount to a hunter carrying a big elephant on his head and yet, using his foot to search for cricket in the sand.
But the many peace meetings did not yield peace in Anambra as the state governor attempted to also demonstrate that he was in charge with the introduction of the Bakassi Boys, a vigilante outfit which was to later constitute a dangerous nuisance to the people of the state.
Mbadinuju eventually did not get the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, gubernatorial ticket to run for a second term, even as a new godfather, in the person of Chris Uba, happened on the scene. Mbadinuju moved to the Alliance for Democracy, AD, on which platform he contested but lost.
Enter a new era in Anambra politics which featured the fractured story of two Chrises – Uba and Ngige, the Lilliputian governor whose election was nullified by the election petition tribunal. Whether it is Christopher or Christian, the godfather and his godson went to war early in the life of the administration. But before the dramatization of stupidity which the Anambra polity was turned into, something instructive happened.
Just before the swearing-in of Ngige as Anambra State governor, the leadership of PDP in the state visited Chief Anthony Anenih, the man variously described as The Leader and Mr. Fix It.
The meeting was in Anenih’s then Ministers’ Quarters. The Anambra State chapter of PDP had come to pay homage to The Leader. While introducing their team leader, Chris Uba (and not Governor-elect, Ngige), effusive obeisance was paid on Uba. After the theatrics, Anenih requested to know why the group visited. The response was that they had come to pay homage to The Leader.
As a respected elder, Anenih made it known to the politicians from Anambra that in his time, even a local government chapter leadership of a party could not have been so lowly represented. And then the overkill: Anenih told the visitors that they needed to manage their relationship very well.
fact, he disclosed to them that one of three things would likely lead to the collapse of the PDP in Anambra State. He said they needed to watch the triple evils of money, appointment to offices and award of contracts; that one of the three would likely bring about crisis amongst and between all of them. Anenih was prophetic.
Hardly had the Governor Ngige administration spent one year in office, he was abducted and forced to resign from office. That fiasco enraged right-thinking members of the public. But Ngige survived and with that survival, came sordid tales of oath-taking at the Okija shrine and other such ridiculous involvement of the governor, like the signing of an irrevocable standing payment order, ISPO, on a contract for a public building.
And at a time when Ngige lost out at the tribunal, it was expected that the emergence of Peter Obi, the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, candidate at the polls would breath an air of freshness in the state, matters got to a head with, first, the platform for his emergence which is the party, and, secondly, the state house of assembly dominated by the PDP.
His platform, APGA, went to town with a leadership crisis which made no sense and which could have been avoided. Victor Umeh chose to lead a faction of the party while Chekwas Okorie, whose name is engraved in stone on the party constitution as chairman, led another faction. Then came the members of the state house of assembly asserting their own authority.
The courts over-turned Obi’s impeachment by the house just as the election organised in April 2007 by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was deemed not to have held by the Supreme Court which insisted that Obi must serve out his four-year tenure. Hanging in the cold was Andy Uba, an Obasanjo aide, who had become lord unto himself in Anambra State and who insisted that he won the April elections which the Supreme Court nullified. As things are today, Anambra State remains a metaphor for the craze for power which Nigeria’s polity has been turned into.
PDP chairman Vincent Ogbulafor; Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and Senator Annie Okonkwo
PDP chairman Vincent Ogbulafor; Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and Senator Annie Okonkwo
Screening committee
More pitiable is the way the PDP has reduced the race for Government House, Awka. There are some 48 aspirants who have picked the forms for the race. Some 45 are said to have returned their forms while the screening committee of the party is about pruning down the number.
But historically, Anambra has been a state fraught with battles over land. The topography is such that arable land had almost always been a matter of disputation between communities in times past. Today, realising the new wisdom that political power guarantees economic and social uplifting, the turf battle is now on the political arena. Is it APGA, or the ruling PDP? All is not well.
Worse still, there is no visible solution in sight. And whereas some politicians who ought to know better are spoiling for a show down in Anambra, there are clear and present dangers ahead the 2010 gubernatorial elections. For instance, during all the bye-elections in Anambra State since 1999, the voter attendance has been just about 10 per cent. The about 90 per cent of the voting population withdrew and stayed back in bewilderment.
Anambra State, today, is an APGA state. The Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA, has attempted severally to cash in on the situation in APGA but PPA seems to be having problems of its own which it has not been able to come out of.
For APGA, the May 14, decision of the Independent national Electoral Commission, INEC, reversing the authenticity of leadership of APGA to the Chekwas Okorie-led group, remains a watershed in the on-going struggle to recapture the soul of APGA. But Governor Peter Obi has already picked the governorship ticket of the Umeh faction of APGA. And whereas that faction says Obi would be its sole candidate, some are questioning the wisdom in that decision as it may bar other aspirants from seeking the ticket of the party.
In the build up that is going on now, it would interest Nigerians to know that there are some powerful politicians in PDP who, decidedly, went ahead to buy the gubernatorial tickets for some other aspirants just to block some people from the contest. Out of the 49 aspirants who have picked tickets, only one would emerge as the candidate of the PDP.
When that person emerges as the party candidate, the 48 others would come out forcefully to demonstrate that they, too, are very strong and may likely attempt to disrupt whatever progress PDP intends to make at the polls. For, instance, Andy Uba, is alleged to be ready to block the guber ticket of Labour Party, LP, in the hope that should the PDP misbehave, as the party is wont to do, he would simply move into LP.
The reason Andy Uba is not particularly impressed with his PDP, relates to the decision of the party not to support him in his bid to force the hands of the Supreme Court to countenance the voting of April 2007 as valid, pending the determination of Peter Obi’s tenure as governor of Anambra State.
But more interesting things are happening. Already, a group, which has tagged itself “Association for Good Governance in Anambra State”, said last week that it was organizing a one-day prayer to ensure a successful election in the state. Speaking with Journalists in Abuja, Leader of the group and first civilian governor of the state, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, stressed that the organisation had already invited all the political parties, civil society organizations, town union bodies, professional and trade union bodies to the event.
In a related development, the Anambra Youth Alliance, ANYA, has said that certification from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, should be a criteria for the screening of aspirants of all the political parties with plans to field candidates in the election.
Ahead of the primaries for emergence of the governorship candidate of the PDP, the chairman, Ward Congresses Committee and Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswan, has called on the aspirants and people of the state to carry out their assignments.
Speaking with Journalists in Abuja when he paid a courtesy call on the National Chairman of PDP, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor and members of the National Working Committee(NWC),Suswan who appealed to Anambra PDP members and the governorship aspirants to cooperate with the committees geared towards conducting free and fair primaries and that which will be acceptable to all, said, “All I can appeal to them is that let them for the first time cooperate with us so that they can by the grace of God have something credible.
On whether he was not intimidated by the history of Anambra politics and the number of aspirants contesting for just one slot, the Benue State governor said, “No I am not. Anambra people are Nigerians who in the past years have contributed immensely to the development of the nation and the party. Other committee members have since Tuesday relocated to Anambra.
READ MORE HERE
With all the disruptions in his current mandate [via PDP past rigging!]. Don't you think that Mr. Obi deserves another four-year term to be able to really nurture this political sanity he has planted in Anambra State?
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