Dear National Chairman, I am amused and not
surprised by your letter of December 6, 2004 because after playing hide and
seek games over a period of time, you have formally, at least in writing,
decided to unmask and show your true colour. Having made this introductory
point, let us go over systematically and, in some detail, through the whole
episode of the Anambra saga. I must add that I have expressed sadness and
condemned the wanton destruction of properties that took place in Anambra
recently.
When it turned out that Governor Mbadinuju was
an unmitigated failure in Anambra, as PDP governor in our first term, I made
it clear to you that I would not go to Anambra to campaign if Governor
Mbadinuju was being sponsored as PDP gubernatorial candidate in spite of his
calamitous failure. You did not tell me that you were sending a discrete
investigation team to Anambra to find out the situation on the ground.
You never said yes or no but I was determined
that, in good conscience, I campaign for support and seek edorsement for
Governor Mbadinuju. About six weeks later, you came to report to me that you
have sent two people discretely to ascertain on the ground whether people
wanted Mbadinuju or not and you have received report that 66 2/3 of the
people of Anambra did not want Mbadinuju. For me, what we knew about
Mbadinuju in terms of failure to pay salaries in some cases for over 7
months which led to school children not being able to take the WASCE did not
need your discrete investigation. However, your discrete investigation
convinced you that I was right that he could not be a gubernatorial
candidate of the PDP in Anambra. You rightly, I believe, requested that I
should work with you to give him a soft landing and we agreed to make him an
Ambasador after the election and we agreed on Mission abroad, subject to our
success in the elections. Mbadinuju asked for a letter from me and I refused
because I said that my word was my boride but that you were free to write
him one. A few weeks after that meeting, Mbadinuju decamped from our party
to the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and sought election as Governor of
Anambra on the platform of the AD.
When the members of our party started jostling
for nomination, as normal with me, I refused to endorse a candidate; it is
only after the primaries that the party's candidate becomes my own
candidates.
And in the case of Anambra, if I had wanted to
support anybody at all, it would have been Jerry U-gokwe because he was one
man I knew but, of course, I was consistent on my policy. And when Ngige
emerged as the candidate of the PDP from the primaries, he was brought to be
introduced to me and, of course, he becomes not only the party's candidate
but also mine. After enquiries about the situation in Anambra and about
Ngige himself, I made a point to him that he should go and reconcile himself
with his father with whom he was not on talking terms as I believed it was
an abomination for an Africa son to be in a state of enmity with his father
to the point of absolute non communication. I advised Ngige to reconcile
with his father and the rest of his family and he reported to me that he
did.
The election took place and Ngige was declared
the winner, I congratulated him, along with other victorious candidates.
Realizing that Ngige would need some assistance to help him through the
teething problem of his administration, I invited him to consider having a
non-partisan Honorary Committee elders of the State and he agreed, I talked
to Igwe Nwokedi, Chief Mbasulike Amechi and the Anglican Bishop of Awka to
get two more people with them to act as such honorary non-partisan advisory
committee of elders for the Governor. For them to maintain their
independence, I said that any transportation or administrative funds that
they might require would be provided from the Presidency rather than the
state.
After two months, Igwe Nwoke who was supposed
to be the chairman reported that theGovernor Was impossible tobe advised to
work with and that was end of that effort. Mr. Charman, I reported that
effort to you.
When on one occasion Chris Uba came to report
that things appeared to be going wrong between him and the Governor in the
presence of Chief Amechi, I asked the latter to go and sort it out for them
in his capacity as an elder of the state and veteran politician.
