Like the sword of Damocles, impeachment is hanging on the neck of Abia deputy governor for a reason that is not unconnected with the role he played in the now resolved feud between Governor Orji Uzor Kalu and Chief Anthony Anenih.
When the member representing Isiala Ngwa North constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly, Prince Christopher Enweremadu, indicated his intention to introduce a matter of urgent public importance on the floor of the House during one of the sittings last month, little did anybody know that the issue would create a political storm reminiscent of the crisis that engulfed the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the State during the Kalu - Abaribe feud between 2001 and 2003.
Enweremadu had during the sitting, chronicled the events that led to the face-off between Governor Orji Uzor Kalu and the Acting Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih following the allegation that Anenih had threatened to kill Kalu. The conveyor of the information, he recalled, was the state Deputy Governor, Dr. Chima Nwafor, who had an encounter with Anenih during one of the Council of State meetings in Abuja where he represented his boss.
The House, he said, was taken aback when the same deputy governor said that he never told Kalu that Anenih wanted to kill him (Kalu). Based on the deputy governor’s action, Enweremadu said that the House felt that Nwafor was not fit to hold his office and therefore has to be impeached.
He read out names of 11 members of the House who had already appended their signatures to commence impeachment process against Nwafor.
Initially, political watchers thought that the lawmakers action was a mere threat aimed at extracting some form of favour from the executive arm of government. But when the number of signatures increased to 17 which is more than two-thirds of the lawmakers in the House and the subsequent notification to the state chief judge to set up a panel to investigate the allegation against the deputy governor, it became clear that the lawmakers were indeed serious.
When the threat was issued, Kalu pleaded with the House to drop the impeachment move, saying that he had forgiven Nwafor on the trouble he caused him, the people of the State and the leadership of the PDP over the controversy. Seeing that the lawmakers were adamant, the governor, along with his embattled deputy, visited the House to further plead with them. However, members of the House did not take kindly to the plea, wondering why the executive should interfere with the matter which is an exclusive issue for the legislative arm.
Although on the face value, the problem is between the House and the deputy governor, it has however assumed clannish and political dimension. For instance, the Ngwa part of the State from where the deputy governor hails, see the impeachment move as the alleged usual knack of the old Bende people to undermine its people by creating the impression that Ngwa people are not reliable. But a close look at the entire scenario shows that the deputy governor’s fellow Ngwa started Nwafor’s current problems.
For instance, the mastermind of the impeachment exercise, Enweremadu, is an Ngwa while other Ngwa PDP lawmakers in the House are also supporting the move. Besides, since the deputy governor’s ordeal began, no fewer than four Ngwa sons in the State administration have started lobbying to take over from Nwafor.
On the political level, opposition to the deputy governor from the home front follows from the fact that he has not been able to erect a formidable structure capable of placing him on a strong pedestal for the control of his area.. For instance, his Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area is the stronghold of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in the State as both the House of Assembly and House of Representatives members from the local government are ANPP members. This, however, makes his fellow PDP members in Ngwaland look down on him.
Also, his ordeal is worsened by his perceived moves to succeed Kalu as the governor of Abia State in 2007. Although he has of recent denied having such ambition, his earlier utterances showed that he is eyeing the governorship position.
Early in the year, the deputy governor was said to have confronted Kalu, inquiring whether it was true that he was preparing his chief of staff, Chief Theodore Orji, to succeed him. Kalu later told the chief of staff that it would be better for him to resign if it is true that he would be contesting for governorship in 2007. Orji has since denied nursing governorship ambition.
Expectedly, the impeachment move has divided the ruling PDP at both the national and state levels. Leading the campaign to save the deputy governor is the PDP National Vice-Chairman in charge of South-East, Chief Fidelis Ozichukwu, who, after several peace meetings in Abia on the issue without success, threatened to sanction members of the House for opposing party directive that the impeachment exercise should be stopped.
This, perhaps, infuriated the lawmakers who then took a firm decision to remove the deputy governor by listing fresh allegations against him in a petition to the state chief judge who has since set up a seven-member panel to investigate the allegations.
The House went further to hire a Lagos lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, to represent it at the panel. Apparently worried by the way the exercise was going, the National Chairman of PDP, Chief Audu Ogbeh, took officials of the party to Abia House of Assembly where a marathon meeting was held between the two parties.
Present at the meeting were the deputy governor himself; the Deputy National Chairman (South) of PDP, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun; national PDP scribe, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor and Ozichukwu. Others who were part of the parley include presidential adviser, Chief Ojo Maduekwe; NDDC chairman, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu; former Deputy Governor, Abia State, Chief Enyinnaya Abaribe and former state PDP chairman, Tony Ukasoanya.
But while Ozichukwu used threats on the lawmakers to stop the impeachment during his earlier visit, Ogbeh adopted a different approach. The national chairman said after the meeting with Abia lawmakers last Tuesday: “We believe that the House would respond reasonably. The aim of our efforts is to have peace in Abia State.
We know that the House is an autonomous institution approved and recognised in our constitution, but we believe that having spoken to them, they will reflect on what we said to them so that at the end of the day, there will be some positive outcome.
According to him, the final decision on this matter rests with the House and it is the House that will decide, adding that nobody would question the House if the members decide to or not to impeach the deputy governor. But the Speaker of the House, Chief Stanley Ohajuruka, insisted that the impeachment of the deputy governor would in no way cause any trouble, but would rather douse the tension already created as a result of his inconsistency in the discharge of his duties.
Ohajuruka, while testifying before the impeachment panel, disagreed with the insinuation in some quarters that Nwafor is being persecuted because he is an Ngwa man. According to him, Abia State would rather enjoy peace if Nwafor leaves the scene, adding that the double talk which he engaged in made him unfit to be the number two citizen of the State.
However, the chairman of the judicial panel, Mr. Emmanuel Nwonye, has warned interested parties in the matter not to distort facts, saying “We in this panel do not want to be dragged into the politics of the state”. “As far as the panel is concerned”, he added, “all interested parties would be given ample opportunity to present and prove their cases”.
In a similar reaction on the matter, a member of Board of Trustees of PDP, Prince Benjamin Apugo, wondered why the party should waste its time dabbling into a matter that is solely the preserve of the House of the Assembly. To him, the removal of a deputy governor is not a national issue, insisting that like what is happening in Anambra State, PDP is planning to re-enact such a scenario in Abia. He faulted the party for always intervening to save the heads of alleged wrong doers under the guise of ensuring party discipline.
Indeed, the on-going impeachment exercise has pitched most of the Abuja based Abia politicians against those in the State. At Tuesday’s peace meeting in the state, party members in support of the Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, mobilized and positioned themselves as the group defending the Deputy Governor.
In the group were those who had either served in Kalu’s administration, but were later dropped and those who felt the state government had wronged them in one way or the other.
But the state Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Chief Ralph Egbu, described them as political detractors of the administration, who, according to him, have again failed in their bid to make leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) believe that crisis has taken over the State. Egbu said critics of the state administration recorded huge failure when they could not prevent the PDP national chairman and members of the National Working Committee from coming to the State to verify who between them and Kalu was in firm control of the State.
He said, government was happy that the PDP leaders did not only come: “but observed that detractors were not on ground” and commended PDP supporters in the state for their total support during the visit. Disclosing that it was heartwarming to note that while real PDP supporters turned out to welcome the PDP leaders in a convoy of over one thousand buses, the detractors showed lack of support in the State by coming with only seventeen buses, looking miserable and pitiable against “the formidable government supporters”.
Chief Egbu said the outing restates in clear terms what the future of detractors in the state will be, and called on Abians who want progress and opportunity to serve the people to cast their support firmly with the Orji Uzor Kalu political machine.
He assured the people of Abia that the issue of who occupies seats in local government councils was a rested matter, adding that to those who know politics, with the governor’s supporters holding firm at the grassroots, the view as to who controls politics in the state between now and 2007 was already settled.
