The Governorship primaries of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, Imo State Chapter took place on Saturday, December 8, 2014 at Dan Anyiam Stadium Owerri, with a winner announced, yet the battle has just begun within the PDP family in the State.
After the exercise, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha was announced the winner with three hundred and forty-six (346) votes, followed closely by Senator Ifeanyi Araraume who polled 336 votes, while the immediate past Governor of the State, Dr. Ikedi Ohakim had 231 votes.
However, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume has since petitioned the PDP hierarchy, asking that he be declared the winner, as he claimed that the total voters accredited, out-shot the number of ballots cast and counted.
According to the two-time Senator, the number of delegates was 1,064, total number of votes cast was 1,017, total number of void votes was 11, while total number of valid votes was 1,006. He is therefore saying that the number of votes obtained by over twenty-six Aspirants that participated in the exercise as announced by the Electoral Committee, far exceeds the total number of votes cast by 21 votes.
Whatever be the case, while one is not here to support Araraume’s logic or praise the Electoral Panel for announcing Ihedioha winner, what remains a fact is that the Imo PDP Governorship primaries, as usual, has developed K-Leg, apologies to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
It is very unfortunate that against wise counsel and loads of write-ups by political analysts warning that Imo PDP must do everything possible to have a clean Guber Primary that will not lead to squabbles, the Leopard has not changed its spots.
Whether anybody likes it or not, with Senator Araraume challenging the result, the situation can never be the same again, had all the aspirants embraced each other, and moved on after the exercise.
Knowing Senator Araraume for who he is, this matter may drag on while other parties are busy on the field foraging for votes for the 2015 elections.
And for Senator Araraume, he has met his match in Ihedioha who will not easily relinquish the hard-earned trophy which consumed much energy and tumultuous funds.
However, in the end, Imo PDP will as usual, discover that when two Elephants fight, the grasses suffer. In this case, it is very unfortunate that the party is going into the election as opposition party, and confronting an incumbent Governor in the person of Owelle Rochas Okorocha, a politician who does not take prisoners.
Before Imo PDP will realise what is happening, its Leaders would have exhausted all the strength in the fight within the party, and later face the main battle as a fractured Army headed by various Generals.
Even as it is now, it still remains a guess work if Araraume could be appeased with any thing short of the Governorship ticket he is demanding for now. He is not even calling for cancellation, but that he should be handed over the mantle from Ihedioha who I am sure will not let go since he was announced the winner that night by the Panel.
Yet again, Imo PDP Governorship has entered into a stalemate. Has the long-suffered PDP members the patience to wait for Araraume and Ihedioha to finish with their slugfest, when there are other alternative parties?
In the first place, the result of the primaries threw up a lot of variables in Imo politics. These include that the electorate were getting wiser, politics is unpredictable and it is never over, until is over.
Right from the beginning of the primaries, starting from the Delegate elections, Senator Araraume complained bitterly how he was out-manoeuvred, leaving him out high and dry without his preferred delegates. In fact, some of his protégés went to court to challenge the Delegates’ list.
Therefore, as Delegates filed into the Dan Anyiam Stadium that Saturday, many Pundits had believed that the fight was a two-way battle between Ihedioha and Ohakim.
But beyond all permutations, Araraume sprang a surprise that shocked many people.
How he came second is a political mystery that needs empirical study to decipher. Therefore, did Ararume know that he had a chance, but was simply flying a Kite so that he would be underrated, and therefore left out so as to spring his political surprise?
Before even accreditation started, Owerri town was booming with the story that Ikedi Ohakim had won. Since the voting had not began before this news started flying about, the whole thinking was for the Delegates to finish quickly so that the former Governor would be crowned winner.
So what happened? Was it that the thinking of the Delegates was different from that of the majority of Imolites outside the venue, clicking glasses and shouting “Let us do more!”
For Ihedioha, even though he was declared the winner, he was certainly rattled. I am sure that he never thought he would win the contest with such a meagre margin of votes separating him from Araraume.
In the event that the PDP accepts the result as it were, Ihedioha and Owerri zone should thank Ohakim. Had Ohakim not joined the race, even though he came out two months ago and yet polled such massive ballots, it still remains a conjecture if Ihedioha would have come out unscathed against Araraume.
One of the factors that also played in Ihedioha’s favour was the sudden withdrawal from the race by Chief Jerry Chukwueke, who instructed his Delegates to join forces with Ihedioha.
But from all indications, politicians have now realised that Imo voters are no more gullible as they used to be.
If not, the result, even though still under contention, did not reflect the thinking of the Aspirants. They all have learnt their lessons and henceforth, will be careful when dealing with the Imo masses and electorate in the future.
Most of the Aspirants hinged their confidence on the quantum of money they could throw about. Realising that this was a chance in every four years, the Delegates dared the Aspirants. In fact, some of them were ready to collect even what was placed on the manhood of the Devil himself.
There was hardly any Delegate that did not collect whatever the Aspirants placed on the table. They were seen moving from one Aspirant to the other, promising each of them the same thing, while pocketing the largesse even if placed on the head of deities.
One thing about the primaries was that the money which Okorocha restricted only to a chosen few has now trickled down to the grassroots that need it most money flowed like River.
I know of Delegates who have started building Houses now, some bought cars. Most of them who left the rural villages for the cosy Hotel rooms in Owerri in the last one week are now back “home” to the realities in the mosquito infested homesteads.
Those of them who may not manage this windfall prudently will soon go back to square one, begging and going from one politician to the other gossiping and blackmailing others for a penny.
And for the politicians, it is a payback time. Those of them who have not been seen for four years now have paid their “tithes”. But the unfortunate thing is that a man who paid millions of Naira to obtain a party ticket could not have been doing that for the reason of serving the masses. They surely will recoup their booties. But who cares?
However, since Chief Achike Udenwa governed Imo State for eight years, from 1999-2007, the PDP has never had a smooth Governorship primaries. And the former governor, Achike Udenwa cannot go free in this case.
For the years he was there, he never had anybody in mind to hand over to, until his bosom friend, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume “reminded” him of the “needful”.
Udenwa pretended he was on one page with Araraume only to disappoint him at the last minute. Araraume fought up to the Supreme Court to retrieve his ticket, but was abandoned at the political warfront by the PDP that preferred Dr Ikedi Ohakim, who had switched over to the Progressive Peoples Party, PPA, after he was frustrated out of the PDP because he wanted to be Governor. After winning the Governorship election, Ohakim returned to the PDP.
In 2011, the “hangover” of the 2007 debacle resurfaced, forcing PDP members to sabotage their own party, after Senator Araraume had joined forces with the ACN to fight the PDP to a standstill, with the former Governor, Achike Udenwa.
In fact, if not for the PDP members who pitched tent with ACN and decimated votes that ought to have gone to PDP, Owelle Rochas Okorocha would not have ran PDP out of Douglas House Owerri.
Therefore, while PDP members are yet to get out of the suffering Okorocha has subdued them to for being in opposition for the first time in Imo State since 1999, the party is once again trying to shoot itself on the foot, by engaging in another internal fight over Governorship Primary as the 2015 general elections approach.
Is Imo PDP doomed? My fear is that there is no time for this fight that is about to break out. If the party is polarised ahead the elections, the APC is bound to cash in and wreck havoc.
You don’t step into a river twice, but Imo PDP has broken that adage many times. PDP followers in the state may have a rethink except that even APGA and APC are not better in internal squabbles.
In the case of the present situation posed by the Imo PDP Governorship primaries, the matter should be resolved in a win-win situation, and fast so that all parties involved can put hands on deck for the onerous task of winning the 2015 Imo Governorship election.
Late ace Broadcaster, Boma Irokosima used to say “If dog bite you de first time, that dog dey mad. But if de same dog bite you for de same place a second time, na you de mad.” Is Boma speaking to somebody? Is Imo PDP headed to 2007 debacle again?
