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Listen to this ignorant agboro senator from Anambra State installed by "DR." Nnamdi Ubah Ph.D
quote: ide 2010 �Annie Okonkwo From GEOFFREY ANYANWU, Awka Tuesday, September 9, 2008
One of those believed to be eyeing the Anambra State Government House Awka in 2010 when the four-year tenure of Governor Peter Obi expires, Senator Annie Okonkwo had said that only the people of Anambra State would decide who governs them then, not the governor.
Reacting to Governor Obi�s interview with the Daily Sun team, in which he inferred that the state should occupy itself with worrying about who will take over from him in 2014 and consolidate the achievements he has so far made or would have made then, Okonkwo who represents Anambra Central Senatorial District at the Senate wondered the platform on which the governor would return.
He debunked the allegation that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had plans to conquer the Government House by force, stressing that what was happening in the party now should leave no one in doubt that the party had come to respect due process. Okonkwo told Daily Sun that he only wished that Governor Obi would still believe in the rule of law and due process in 2010 and allow the people to decide who would govern them.
Gov Peter Obi and 2014 option for replacement We wish him what he wishes himself. In life, it�s all about ambition, he had his opinion and he has the mandate to contest for second term if the constitution still allows him to contest. If he has already contested election for 2010 and won, and decided to declare himself a winner, that is for him, you cannot dispute it, somebody can declare that he has already won the election, it�s all about politics.
But I believe that there is still due process to that effect and the most important thing is that people should try to put their houses in order because what we are asking today in this country is to have a political reform where the people should be able to determine who rules them. If people of Anambra State still want to re-elect Peter Obi, so be it but I believe that the power lies in the people of this state to decide who is going to rule them and of course, the person is going to come from Anambra State. So Governor Obi may have his own opinion and his own views, so I will like to leave it to him.
Obi chances with APGA Obi has his own thinking and of course, today I don�t even know the platform he will use but of course, there are 50 political parties in the country. So he may decide to choose anyone and if the option for independent candidacy is there, he can make do with it. So there are options for him, he may still run on any platform or as an independent candidate. He is entitled to vote and be voted for, so whatever happens, we will see it.
I only hope that he still believes in due process, free and fair elections. Because saying that the state should forget 2010 and search for who will take over from him in 2014 has a lot of undertones. Is he saying that there won�t be election in 2010 when his tenure would be over? Or is he saying that he will not allow any election in the state in 2010? But if what he is saying is that he will contest in 2010 though I don�t know under which party and must win, then let him prepare, because this time it is Anambra people that will decide who will govern them, in a free and fair election, not court or any single individual or group of individuals.
PDP wanting to conquer Anambra It is not possible for PDP to take Anambra by force. Like Obi is inferring, people should know that everyone now wants due process and that is the only way we can move this country forward. So, nobody is saying that the party will take the state by force, no, and that is why we are insisting that from our party congresses that due process should be followed and election conducted, contested, won free and fair.
President Yar�Adua�s ill-health Nigerians should know that this is a time to pray for our leader and President Yar�Adua. It baffles me when people talk as if they are God and when they rejoice over other�s misfortunes. One thing I know is that the God who brought out Yar�Adua to lead Nigeria will give him life to perform his duties. No one is above sickness, our President is only sick and by God�s grace, he will be well soon.
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___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2503 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
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Congratulations to the people of Anambra,despite all the hoodlums and thugs besieged on your state, you proved that you're democracy and the East remains a becon. Way to go, people's power.
Hail Biafra Posts: 1832 | From: Minnesota USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Obi: Forces that returned him to power Analysis By Chidi Obineche Monday, February 8, 2010
�Governor Peter Obi Photo: Sun Publishing More Stories on This Section Since his foray into partisan politics in 2002, Peter Obi (a.k.a Okwute) has had a resilience that is as baffling as it is rewarding. Clinching the ticket of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, at the time he joined, was not easy as there were more than six formidable aspirants, who had made considerable impact in the formation and building of the party. Against popular expectations that he was going to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because of his ultra-conservative background as a banker, he shocked many when he joined APGA.
From that small beginning, he inched his way to the hearts of the then National Chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, and the indefatigable leader, Chief Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu. He eventually surmounted all odds and clinched the ticket of the party, and commenced the hustings that was to dismantle the PDP from the seat of power of the state. The 2003 elections in Anambra State was a watershed.
The then governor, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju of the PDP, had been mired in several controversies and denied a return ticket of the party. In exasperation, he left for the Alliance for Democracy (AD), with his supporters, which greatly vitiated his strength and incumbency edge. The PDP in the state was in the grip of a godfather and lacked the desired cutting edge for victory. But the party�s rigging machine was in a killer mood. Overnight, just days to the election, the then zonal Assistant Secretary, Dr. Chris Ngige, was thrown up. He and the party had no time to campaign for votes. The electorates were, however, stunned when he was declared the winner of the election.
Obi, who took his campaigns to all nooks and crannies of the state, had apparently failed. He was not crest fallen, in spite of the thorns that were laid on his way. He battled on, taking it straight to the tribunal. Threats, and blackmail and even treachery did not dampen his desire for justice. The dictatorial and interloping tendencies of the then Federal Government failed to scare him. He plodded on for 30 tortuous months before he recovered his stolen mandate. He set the records as the first person in the country to unseat a serving governor through due process.
About eight months into his regime he was unconstitutionally impeached and he went back again to the courts to get back his office. When April 14 governorship elections came, Obi again headed back to the court to seek interpretation of his tenure, which he felt was yet to be exhausted constitutionally. The Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, both in Enugu denied jurisdiction to hear the case. He landed at the Supreme Court, which decided that his tenure, in line with section 180(2) of the 1999 Constitution started when he took the oath of office. That single judgment changed the tenor and face of politics in Nigeria.
Spirituality Obi has always attributed his success in all spheres of life to his rock-solid belief in the messiah-Jesus. As a Spartan Catholic, his passion for the rosary knows no bounds. He hardly misses early morning mass and all statutory devotions in the Catholic Church. Obi espouses piety and has often attributed his numerous political and legal victories to God. Ojukwu captured it succinctly when he said that �it was necessary to vote Obi in that he represents goodness, even as he has the type of spirit needed for the rebuilding of the state.�
This spirituality is built on steadfastness. When the crisis in his part, APGA worsened, there were speculations that he was going to realize his comeback bid on the platform of another party. He was said to have begun negotiations with some political parties. But, Obi chose to swim or sink with his party, in spite of the overwhelming odds. His celebrated skirmishes with the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Maurice Iwu, was another pointer. In the nick of time, against all logics, there was a turn-around and INEC endorsed him.
After he was re-instated as the governor on February 7,2007, by the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu, Mrs Virgy Etiaba, his deputy, who took over from him, was allegedly instructed by the Presidency and other forces that removed Obi from power not to handover to him. A meeting of APGA egg-heads in Ojukwu�s house for her to comply urgently with the ruling did not thaw the ice. Just when hope was fading and a declarative order from �above� was set to land in Awka, Etiaba, dramatically extricated herself from their hostage and handed over. That in itself was like the hand of God at work. Unlike some other governors who would have proceeded to hound her, they had a harmonious relationship until towards the end of his tenure.
Obi, many say, represents the forces of good, which is at conflict with the agents of perdition in the state. That Obi is a man of destiny, and has a winning aura has been exemplified all round in his politics. At critical junctures, something will always snap to swing victory to his direction. In his own words, when asked on how he relaxes, he said, �I pray my rosary, and read my Bible and Christian books.�
Vision His never-say-die spirit is encapsulated in his vision. His eyes are set wide on targets. Talking about his aspirations to come back to power he had said sometime last year that �My commitment is continuing implementation on the strategy that would bring us to achieving our vision and getting to our destination by 2015, which means that my eyes are on 2015 even when I will exit in 2014. So, I am actually looking beyond 2010. I am looking at 2015, knowing that 2015, somebody else would be here as governor.�
A commentator on Anambra State affairs, Mr. Chukwuma Okoye, described Obi�s struggles in politics this way: �Peter Obi is our living hero, because he has taught us salient aspects of a government�s responsibility in our present condition. He has taught us by the force of good example (including the proper alignment of positive energies) and in the most politically difficult, if not thoroughly dangerous context, why and how we must persist unto crowning victory in a struggle for truth and justice, for our dignity and rights. Thus to the Constitutional and political power which the Supreme Court granted him to make him a political hero, he has added the immense moral and spiritual authority of the authentic overcomer�
Philosophy and worldview Obi sums it all up. �People will query: why do you go to church every morning? I always work hard for what I get. I always tell people, I don�t expect 100 per cent result but I put in 100 per cent (effort) and leave the rest to God. In my family, my immediate elder sister is a Reverend Sister. My immediate younger brother is a Reverend Father. I believe this has a connection with the unrelenting way; my mother pushed us in the church. Maybe, if my father had been there, with the goodies and everything � maybe- it could not have been the same.
Ojukwu Perhaps more than anything else, Obi�s closeness and rapport with Ikemba of Nnewi, Chief Odimegwu Ojukwu, worked for him. Ojukwu is regarded highly in Igboland and his advice often taken seriously. It was not for nothing that he was handy at every major rally the governor had. His speeches and pieces of advice were usually collated, published and circulated. This helped immensely to situate Obi in a certain kind of way in the minds of the people. It brought more attraction to Obi, in spite of criticisms of his style of politics by some people. godfatherism The routing of PDP from government house Awka in 2006 by Obi, which signalled the collapse of godfatherism in the state, was widely celebrated. For the people, the return of the PDP to power will bring back sad memories of those days. So, it was convenient to stick with their �liberator�
Others Beyond all these forces are the strains for political stability, which Obi�s government has so far demonstrated. Financial prudence has also added value in the perception of the state. It was therefore understandable that while others were campaigning by shouting themselves hoarse by telling a fairly discerning electorate that Obi had not performed, the incumbent governor endeared himself more to the electorate by commissioning completed projects and initiating new ones. The projects simply did the talking and the campaigning. He did not have to make promises, he simply fulfilled them. These among many sundry ones presented the propelling forces that brought back Obi to power for another four years.
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