By Kizito Duru (Owerri) –
A report in Vanguard Newspaper has revealed that a former legislator, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, has kicked against the nomination of Senator Samuel Anyanwụ (SamDaddy) as the South East consensus candidate for the position of the PDP’s National Secretary ahead of the party’s National Convention.
We read the report thoroughly, hoping to read a tangible reason from the two prominent sons of Imo State on why their friend and brother SamDaddy shouldn’t be supported for the post but found none. It is not that Sen Samuel Anyanwu is not qualified to man the office nor that the slot shouldn’t have been Imo’s.
One of Ihedioha’s henchmen, Madu Chinemerem and the immediate past LGA Chairman of the PDP in Ezinihitte Mbaise whose article the tabloid based its report on gave the reason why Ihedioha is kicking against SamDaddy’s candidacy.
He said: “What was most annoying to South-East leaders was that Sen Sam Anyanwu is being imposed on them by a Governor from South-South who nominated him.
“He is forcing down his choice on the governors from the South-East, just because he serves as his Special Assistant.
In a contradictory comment, Madu who Ihedioha promoted to becoming a member of the party’s executive in the South East said SamDaddy is a candidate of a South-South Governor, but also confirmed that SamDaddy is the choice of the two PDP governors in the South East, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi respectively of Abia and Enugu states.
Hear Madu: “Gov Ugwuanyi and Ikpeazu came to the meeting and just announced the selection of Sen Anyanwụ.”
This, therefore, calls for the question which many are now asking: how is SamDaddy an imposition from the South-South when his nomination is supported by Governors of the party in the South East?
We think that it is insulting to the persons of Ugwuanyi and Ikpeazụ for the said Madu to insinuate that the two South-East Governors danced to the whims of a co-Governor from another geopolitical zone and it wouldn’t be a bad idea for leaders of the party across the nation to call him to order. No one would disagree that SamDaddy is a full-fledged, loyal, and committed PDP member known across South East, and it is ludicrous for one to think that his emergence as a consensus candidate is not a product of his reach.
As of today, the leaders and stakeholders of the PDP in the South East have decided on Senator SamDaddy. Ihedioha should see this as a win for Imo State. The PDP is one of the largest parties in Africa and Imo people would fancy seeing one of her finest lawmakers become the scribe of the party.
Although things were not rosy between him and SamDaddy after the Imo PDP guber primary election in 2018, a reconciliation between the duo was reported this year. Most people are now surprised that Ihedioha is still opposed to the progress of his party man. Could it be that in the thinking of Ihedioha, SamDaddy would gain political millage if he assumes duty as the party’s scribe at Wadata Plaza, Abuja, and put his leadership of Imo PDP in a shaky position?
Many argue that although Ihedioha’s media aide, Chibuike Onyeukwu, has written that his boss is not against SamDaddy, Madu’s report which has gone viral on social media contradicts this, especially as the PDP Chieftain who is a close ally of Ihedioha has yet to distance himself from it. Could it also be that Ihedioha through Madu was only trying to stoke up the pressure and bring SamDaddy to a roundtable by purporting that other leaders in the South-East were averse to the choice of SamDaddy?
Whatever be the case, we do not like to hear that Ihedioha, one of Imo’s revered statesmen who had in the past preached “Imo first”, would make a summersault and kick against the elevation of another illustrious Imo son.
Ihedioha enjoys an enviable level of goodwill from Imo PDP. Many believe it is an opportune time for him to reciprocate the goodwill by thinking Imo first and supporting his brother from Owerri Zone to serve the party in Abuja. Otherwise, posterity would record that should Imo lose such a juicy political position that Ihedioha was behind it.
9News Nigeria (Owerri)
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