Utterly dissatisfied with a home draw by his darling club alter a league match in Owerri years ago, a highly supportive football fan quipped rhetorically, “Is this the footsteps that will take the cow to Umuahia?” (Ihe a obu ukwu Nama ga – eji ruo Umuahia)
Another Igbo man, this time a retired teacher, saw his badly battered son being led home by a mob for stealing at the village market and muttered “I knew that this boy would be a kleptomaniac because my wife was very fond of dog meat during the pregnancy”.
These two common Igbo expressions aptly paint a lucid picture of the goings-on in the newly born, All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State. Upon its arrival, the party did not enjoy the euphoria that greeted and is still greeting its birth in some states of the federation. There was nothing to show that the “baby” which had seen many governors and leaders storming the Eastern Heartland to announce its imminent birth, has been delivered of. Several intriguing factors are responsible for this apparent still birth.
Prominent among these is the fact that there seem to have been no mutual agreement by the merging parties and or their leaders at home, before embarking on the enterprise. Hence, like any chorus without proper rehearsals, they are now singing discordant tunes. Put succinctly, the merging parties and persons have suddenly found themselves gyrating befuddly to two of Fela Anikulapo’s popular lyrics, “no agreement today, no agreement tomorrow” and “overtake don overtake, overtake” And like a group under a spell, there seem to be no foreseeable end to this macabre dance.
One even wonders whether strange bed fellows like Governor Rochas Okorocha, former Governor Achike Udenwa, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume (if he still carries ACN card) and whatever was left of CPC and ANPP in Imo State ever chanced on one another in any of the meetings that culminated in the merger. Perhaps, the intimidating eyeballs of a hound before a prey, would easily pass for a romantic admiration in comparison to the animosity emitting from their eye contacts in such a meeting. Even, the Bible did ask “can two ever work together except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3. Currently and curiously too, like the crooked man that found a crooked sixpence along a crooked path, the merging parties in Imo are enmeshed in a pot-pourri of sorts without any concrete agreement in company of Gov. Okorocha, who is gradually gaining notoriety for easily reneging on agreements.
From the look of things, the APC ‘concoction’ seems to have been brewed and bottled at the national level, by unfamiliar power brookers and being forced down the throat of her leaders in Imo for whom things had long fallen apart. There was apparently no recourse whatsoever, to the intra and inter party power plays among the merging parties’ leadership and followership in Imo State. It is also possible that Alhaji Senator Ahmed Tinubu, Alhaji Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and their co-sojourners were merely stupefied by the surging crowd at the wedding ceremony of Owelle Okorochas’s daughter that they took Imo for granted. Who ever told them that such a crowd comprised only potential APC members and devoid of a legion of PDP faithful who were on mere sight seeing? How wrong they were for the more they looked is now the less they see.
Another debilitating factor that will remain a perpetual pain in the fragile neck of the new party in Imo State is the eternal loyalty among the members to their individual leaders. It is a universally acknowledged fact that while the ‘Destiny’ group is perpetually loyal to Senator Ararume, the ‘Redemption’ family follows Udenwa with almost a hypnotic fixation. Here is where Gov. Okorocha will be highly disadvantaged because the larger percentage of his followership are mere fair-weather friends who like the proverbial goat, follows the man carrying the palm fronds at the moment. Politically, these are card- carrying members of Nigeria’s largest but unregistered political party- the AGIP (Any Government In Power). The romance will only last as long as the goodies flow failing which, the ‘Israelites’ will retire to their individual tents.
In the course of time it will become manifest that just like the waters of Ulrashi River will never blend with Oguta Blue Lake no mater the stir, the party’s followeship will surely disengage along their leadership lines. Afterall, like a satirical South Africian cartoon did portray, “there are only two ways of being together-one is by being frozen together, the other is by being melted together”. Surely, this APC union in Imo lacks any of these blending qualities both spiritually and physically. Truth is that any relationship with a ‘Redemptionist’ without Udenwa or that with a ‘Destinist’ without Ararume is highly fragile or even bellicose. This scenario played out during the 2011 gubernatorial supplementary election when at the slightest opportunity, the Redemption group in ACN followed Udenwa in support of Rochas while the Destiny members readily joined Ararume to fight for Ohakim. It is also most likely that the current face-off between the state ACN Chairman, Chief Charles Ubah and his Secretary, Mr. Chris Oguoma, is a spill over of this spiritual disconnect since it is common with the Igboman to easily bury the hatchet but eternally noting the mark. Beneath all these is yet another very pertinent question. Is it really possible for Ararume and Rochas to drink from the same cup with their case still pending in court or for Udenwa, who felt highly short-changed by Rochas, to eat from the same plate with him in the dark? Again this is like forcing a honey-bee into a hive. Methinks that the National leadership of APC was either ignorant or obvious of this cold relationship when they lopsidedly allotted two plum positions to Governor Okorocha leaving the trio of Udenwa, Ararume and Onyeagocha with nothing to show for their long leadership positions in Imo ACN. This humiliation also came shortly after Udenwa had boasted widely in the media that ACN is the primus interpares in the new company. One had therefore, expected that ACN which is a merger through Udenwa, would have upper hands in positions due to Imo State over Governor Okorocha who, unofficially, is said to be a mere joiner. To Udenwa’s chagrin, the first became a distant last in Imo APC.
Interestingly despite several sponsored radio announcements in Orient FM on Wednesday, August 14, to cancel the function, ACN through Chief Achike Udenwa and Chief Charles Ubah, the State Chairman, successfully same day, lowered the ACN flag and hoisted that of APC at their Onitsha Road Secretariat. The colourful event which took place in the absence of Governor Okorocha, who was away in the U.S. on official duty, still prognosticates the fact that if the erstwhile battle has been cold, then the ensuing one would be very hot and fierce thus leaving the fledging APC badly bruised in Imo State.
Meanwhile, the stage appears set for a titanic clash between Udenwa and Gov. Okorocha over the soul and leadership of the beleaguered party in Imo State. But while Udenwa and Co. are busy allaying the fears among skeptics of any possible hijack of the party, Okorocha on the other hand seems to be going about disdainfully believing according to highlife king, Late Osita Osadebe that ‘while a man is busy struggling for a piece of land empty-handedly, the other who has yams will also be busy tilling the ground and sowing his yam” (“A gbalu aka na-azo ani, onye ji ji ana akonye”)
It is doubtful however, how far Udenwa can go in this battle with Senator Osita Izunaso and Mr. Anyim Nyerere (all Rochas men) already ensconced at the party’s national exco ever ready to protect the interest of Okorocha under whose ticket they are where they presently are. Pity Udenwa, once favoured to emerge as National Chairman of the party but now cannot even nominate a Personal Assistant to Chief Bisi Akande who currently shepherds the flock. Just imagine how things that go around easily come around. Towards the last quarter of his eight years tenure as Governor of Imo State, Chief Udenwa used the power of incumbency to narrowly wriggle out of an intra-party political tsunami that nearly rubbished his leadership of PDP. Although he used his “Onongono” PDP faction to managedly crawl over the ravaging ‘Abuja’ group the pyrrhic victory incapacitated him from producing a successor.
Now, it is the turn of Owelle Okorocha using the Rescue Mission and incumbency to retributively do to Udenwa what he (Udenwa) used the Onongono group and incumbency to do to the Abuja PDP in that historic tussle for the soul of PDP. So, like Udenwa managed to survive it in his days, Rochas is even better placed now to coast home victoriously. This leaves Udenwa with two bitter options- lead his flock gloriously back to PDP were they rightly belong or, fight to finish and be forced ingloriously into compulsory political retirement after losing out. If I were Udenwa, I will immediately embrace the first option as the lesser of the two evils. But should they like the dinosaur, fight themselves into extinction, the PDP and APGA will happily inherit their kingdom.
For Rochas, even if he hopes to build on the relics of APC on the long run, he will have difficultly marketing it to the highly discerning Imo people whose apprehension about the imminent Muslim dominance of the party is growing by the days. A cursory look at the list of the founding Governors. Lends more grease to this pessimism. And as if to add insult to the injury, the recent back loading of Igbo people by APC henchman, Alhaji Tunde Fashola (SAN) of Lagos State portends more ominous signs that there might after all be “no sugar after the rebellion”
There is no doubt whatsoever, that all is not well in the new household as there are palpable fears and suspicion already of a possible hijack of the party by Gov. Okorocha and the “Agenda Army”. This explains why Chief Udenwa is sparing no efforts almost on a daily basis to allay the fears of his loyalists that nobody can hijack the party. Good talk for now, no doubts. But may we know what happens in the event of any attempted hijack or an eventual hijack before it gets too late in the day to cry. Only this can soothe
LAST LINE: The picture is currently not very clear about Senator Ararume. While reliable ACN sources have it that the party’s former gubernatorial candidate has never attended any ACN meeting since after the 2011 elections, PDP is emphatic than he has never been in their midst either. One of two things are therefore possible: the Isiala Mbano born political giant might be worming his way back to PDP or just lurking around for the newly registered PDM. Whichever way it goes, his absence in the APC, the absence of former ANPP Chairman, Chief Vitalis Orikeze Ajumbe and the almost non existence of CPC and DPP in Imo State, constitute a big minus to the already troubled party. And with a no nonsense Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN) now joining t
