By Clement Nwanga
The gale of defections from main opposition political Parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC sweeping across the entire Ebonyi landscape by politicians of significance and others who think themselves of value have obviously gained national attention. In less than two weeks or so, aspirants and candidates who contested for elections in the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, some of their supporters and a handful of others have dumped the now wreaked but formerly reigning umbrella platform that held sway in the State’s politics since the return of democracy in 1999.
It is germaine to recollect that the APC only became a ruling Party by default following the defection of the former Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Umahi who dumped the PDP for the ruling APC in November 2020. Whether moved by his vaulting ambition as was then widely speculated by many or otherwise, fact is that he has since been appointed in a strategic Ministry of Works by the Tinubu-led administration after a brief stint in the Nigerian Senate and only after his initial shot without target in the APC Presidential primary.
From the defection of the immediate-past Senator for Ebonyi Central and an aspirant for the PDP Governorship ticket, Senator Obinna Ogba and some of his supporters penultimate week at his Nkalagu country home in Ishielu Local Government Area of the State to the defection of a former House of Representatives member , Hon. Lazarus Ogbee- an Ezza South born politician who’s also of the same Party’s candidate for the Ebonyi Central Senate who was of the PDP Governorship candidate, Chief Ifeanyi Odii’s camp, to the most recent defection of loyalists of former Senate President, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim who had earlier worked for the ruling APC in the last election in protest against his loss of grip of the PDP in the 2023 general elections, fears have been raised by many that the Ebonyi political space may be shrinking into a one-Party State. Watchers of political events in the State may also recall that the opposition Parties had lost a handful of it’s supporters to the ruling APC in the same Ebonyi South Senatorial District during the February 3rd bye-election which the ruling Party’s candidate triumphed.
On his part, the State’s Party Chairman, Stanley Okoro Emegha has continually assured the decampees of equal treatments, chanting a mantra of; “we are better together” and “the more, the merrier”. The APC in Ebonyi strongly believes it is harvesting politicians of value into it’s fold and as such there’s no longer fear of opposition forces rising against the ruling Party in the State.
Apart from the fear of imminent internal implosion which must definitely happen in the near future, many reasonable pundits have queried the altruistic dispositions of some of the defectors, especially considering the fact that they are more or less nomadic politicians who are not only desperately ambitious but governed more by their selfish interests and inclinations. To these category of analysts, they believe that the ruling APC in Ebonyi is merely gathering some mass of protoplasms who may dump the ruling Party once their interests or ambitions are not met or protected.
Their argument is that if politicians like Hon. Lazarus Ogbee, a man who prides himself as the ‘headmaster of Ezza South politics’ who has been around and has occupied both elective and appointive positions since 1999 could dump the PDP Governorship candidate for the 2023 election and Billionaire Business mogul, Chief Odii about a year after he failed election and just few months after the battle at the Courts from Tribunal to the Court of Appeal, who then could he be trusted to ride with in rough times? Ebonyians recall how the same Ogbee around 2022 publicly heaped praises on Odii as, “the man who gave me legs to walk when I had lost hope of ever walking again in this life”.
The above was following a terrible and unfortunate domestic accident which the former (Ogbee) had that almost claimed one of his legs, if not his life and reduced him to a mere walking-stick-bearing retired ‘principal of Ezza South politics’. Who then can ordinarily trust going to bed with such an unstable character? Among several other factors, his defection ought not to have been celebrated by reasonable minds needless to decorate it with some mentions in both a few mainstream and social media as though the APC has found some precious mineral deposits at Amaeka pit in his same Ezza South Local Government Area. This is moreso because he took a lone walk mainly to look for food without majority of his key supporters from the said PDP also declaring for the ruling Party. As a matter of fact, some of them have even voiced out the fact that they are not part of his ‘arrangee defection’ on some of their social media handles.
For saner minds therefore, Hon. Ogbee’s defection can best be dismissed as driven largely by a combination of hunger and vaulting ambition or even over-ambition laced with gargantuan political bitterness, jealousy and bitter rivalry. Or was it not the same Ogbee who became a food-is-ready politician since being dislodged as a member of the House of Representatives by Hon. Chinedu Ogah in 2019 who, ironically is one of those that came to welcome him into the APC fold during the said decampment in Ezza South? Oh, I even forgot that his days in the Green Chambers between 2015 and 2019 were widely reported in the media as very horrific as he rather concentrated all the energies he should have channeled into the tasking legislative business in National Assembly to strengthening cultism and cult-related vices in Onueke and other parts of Ezza South cum Ebonyi Central.
That must have explained the jubilation and a sigh of relief which the people and other critical political stakeholders of Ezza South extraction felt when he was eventually sacked by the Court of Appeal, Enugu division in November 2019, barely six months after he rigged himself back to the Green Chambers.
Similarly, Sen. Obinna Ogba who was earlier hailed by some in APC circles for dumping the opposition PDP, at least officially, after his failed bid to grab the Party’s Governorship ticket for the 2023 general elections can almost be meted with the same characteristics of unstableness and also largely driven by his ‘enlarged stomach’. For him, the alleged gracious decision of the Governor of Ebonyi State, Rt. Hon. Francis Nwifuru to place him on some stipend, just like he allegedly did to some other opposition Party stakeholders that worked surreptitiously for his emergence in the 2023 elections is even enough food already on his table and a valid reason to decamp so as to expect more, especially going forward. I recall his then back and forth during the commissioning of his Ebonyi maiden private Radio station, Legacy FM in Abakaliki sometime last year during which a surprised Governor Nwifuru had publicly opened up that he had attended the ceremony in person and alongside his Party’s Chairman, Emegha in anticipation of the fulfillment of their earlier discussion that he (Ogba) would officially defect to the ruling APC.
But Ogba in reacting to the Governor’s position claimed he needed more time to decide. And so for many in the know, it is not ordinarily news that his was an action of a rather sore loser, just like former Senate President, Anyim Pius and his supporters who were also roundly beaten blue and black by the then new entrants into the PDP in Ebonyi – a Party they boasted of building from scratch to roof but were no longer allowed to occupy and continue to cherry pick who to give what, when, where and how as they had always done for some returns and kick-backs. One can therefore only recollect and agree with Umahi’s public boasts in late 2020 when they failed to defect to the APC with him in November that year that “they, (referring to the PDP NASS members and the Party’s stakeholders) are indeed, ‘his children’, and whenever they are hungry, they will come (to him) for food”. It is therefore wise to conclude that the profound prophetic statement of Umahi whom they had called all manner of unprintable names in the media is now being fulfilled, less than four years after.
However, beyond the generally known facts expressed by this writer above are other undercurrents which these dangerously ambitious decampees are plotting ahead of the 2027 and then, 2031 elections which needs to be exposed for what it is; extreme self-seeking and self-serving ambitions especially those within the Ebonyi Central Senatorial zone. It was reliably gathered that the decision by Ogbee to defect to the APC for instance was facilitated by some group of Ezza South APC stakeholders plotting first and foremost; for the retention of the Chairman of Ezza South Local Government Area, Mrs. Euphemia Nwali for a second term in office in the forthcoming Local Government election in the State. It was reliably gathered from the grapevine that the support this group is giving to Mrs Euphemia Nwali to retain her position as the council boss is to enable them gain firm control of the Party’s structure through fussing their subjects into the party’s different positions at Wards and Local Government levels during next year’s APC’S Congress, which they believe will enable them achieve their ambitions as being hatched.
The same group while desperately plotting to stop Senator Ken Eze from returning to the Senate is also alleged to be scheming for the former SSG in Ebonyi State, Dr. Kenneth Ugbala to vie for the position of Governor in 2031 while Ogbee steps down his earlier tall Senatorial ambition to vie for the House of Representatives. Hon. Chinedu Ogah on the other hand is allegedly aiming for the Ebonyi Central Senatorial position. Also allegedly in the pipeline of the group’s plan is a proposal for the serving Commissioner for Environment and immediate-past member of Ebonyi State House of Assembly who represented Ezza North West Constituency, Hon. Victor chukwu to vie for the Ezza North/Ishielu Federal Constituency in 2027 to replace the incumbent Rep. member for the Constituency.
The rumour mills are also rife within the group’s fold that should they fail to achieve their plans in the APC, they may all move in droves back to the either the PDP or any other viable opposition Party and as such weaken the APC particularly in the zone.
According to multiple sources within the group, both Moses Ogodo Ali- Ezza North LGA and ALGON Chairman and his Ezza South counterpart, Mrs. Euphemia Nwali are alleged to be strategic keys to this group’s plans, as both are being pushed by the group for a second term in office as council bosses to enable them gain control of the party’s structure at the LGA levels.
Also, a few serving Exco members in Nwifuru’s government is also being pencilled down for other elective and appointive positions in the zone.
For this rapaciously greedy and selfish group, the elephant has already been hunted and shared even before the hunting expedition date is announced!
But the people of Ezza South and Ezza North, nay Ebonyi Central Senatorial zone and indeed, Ebonyians are not fools. They know these characters, what they represent and their selfish cum self-serving antecedents. They have also seen what they represent in leadership; selfish and self-serving interests all for themselves and their families, not for the masses or communal interests or goals. The people in whose powers it squarely rests upon to enthrone and dethrone kings will therefore not allow the wishes of these selfish and self-serving few to prevail over theirs- which is for the collective good of the people.
Just time,and nothing else shall prove true the views in many quarters that it is for some of the decampees, a time to dream and such is allowed as all part of politics! I am only minded to remind them of a caution piece I saw boldly written at the back of an old rickety tipper that used to be parked in Onueke Motor park: ” _Only Time Shall Tell”.
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~ Nwanga, a political Affairs commentator wrote from Ameka in Ezza South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
