Going by dynamics of politics the quarrel over the new leadership of PDP in Anambra State is a continuation of the struggle for control of levers of power between Governor Chris Ngige and Chief Chris Uba, his estrange godfather. After the botched attempt to remove Ngige by Uba last year July 10th, the governor on surviving, moved to consolidate his hold on power in exclusion of the Uba interest in the state. Since then Uba has been said to be miffed that he has been reduced to a fringe player, thus depriving him of the benefits he believes should as of right come to him for installing the governor as chief executive of the state.
With several peace moves coming to nought, the last, the Owerri accord earlier in the year, over sharing of offices not seeing much light at the end of the tunnel, especially, when the two camps accused each other of bad faith. The Ngige forces on their part saying that Uba wants a return to the pre-July 2003 status quo when he dominated governance and determined what the governor did, and or did not do. They say Uba’s failure to realise that Ngige having been in office, should be allowed to function with minimal interference, is at the root of the crisis in the state. On the other hand the Uba group, very bitter with the turn of events, have never believed they should deal with Ngige on equal terms. Uba for instance it is said feels frustrated that a man he installed as governor could turn around to negotiate terms and even when some of the issues are agreed on, Ngige, Uba would allege implement only aspects that he likes, but neglects other items that are in Uba’s interest.
Somehow several attempts by the Uba forces to ground the state government and probably run Ngige out of office have not quite won them public support. The Enugu court order late last year instituted by an Uba crony declaring Ngige unfit to continue in office as governor was roundly condemned as abuse of court process. At the same time a Federal High Court order from Abuja removing the security detail attached to Ngige was successfully carried out such that till date, the governor has not managed to have his security personnel reinstated, despite the order by an Anambra High Court overruling the Federal High Court on this matter.
If Uba and his forces have had several of their schemes to get rid of Ngige blow up in their faces, the governor has even in office had little peace to govern the state. As it stands today Ngige must worry about how to survive, not just from Uba, but also from the petition against him at the tribunal lodged by Peter Obi, the APGA candidate. Though the tribunal proceedings might be slow, the point is that it is a matter that Ngige has to confront one day, especially when no one is certain how the legal process will climax. The uncertainties of this case must be nerve racking . Yet, Ngige has to keep soldering on hoping that things will turn to his side.
Till date Anambra is yet to conduct local government elections which much of the 36 states conducted in April. The principal reason for not having elected local government councils in Anambra is because of differences in the list of names released by the PDP national secretariate before the April election and that which Ngige believes should be the authentic list. The governor’s protest and refusal to release funds to have the elections conducted meant that the national leadership had to intervene and work on harmonising the lists of candidates for the party. To get the two factions working togther took quite some effort as they never tired trying to get one advantage over the other. Meanwhile, the governor, exercising his powers appointed caretaker, committee chairmen to run the local councils. The action of the governor did not go down well with some people and shortly afterwards there was rumour that the state government was interfering in funds disbursed for the running of the councils.
With such stories of financial misappropriations gaining ground, which was denied by the state government, Abuja apparently acting on the stories flying around reacted by suspending release of funds to the local government councils pending when elections are held and elected officials are in place. However, since the April elections a major breakthrough came with the recent publication of a harmonised list of party candidates for the election. If there is no grumbling and public altercation over candidates for local council polls it is because the two factions are satisfied with the reconciliation by the party headquarters.
Nevertheless, there is a growing standoff now over who constitutes the new leadership of the party. The difficulties Ngige is facing show clearly his inability to master the politics and power dynamics in the state. At the same time, what is happening demonstrates the unrelenting zeal by Uba to recover what he believes he has lost.
The struggle over who becomes the party chairman show that the two forces are aware of its implication in the future calculation of political power. Following the failed abduction of Ngige last year, the party leadership intervened and dissolved the then party leadership with the appointment of a caretaker leadership to reorganise the party in the state. The Dan Ulasi party leadership that was constituted became polarised and was shortly dissolved and a new one constituted in its wake. But as everyone knows for a governor or even the president to survive and retain its control over party machinery he must have a party leadership whose loyalty is not in doubt. To allow a party leadership to be in the pocket of an opponent, or allow somebody of doubtful loyalty to be in control is the easy ticket to political harakiri. With the National Working Committee of PDP ruling that time has come for a proper leadership to emerge and not one with questionable mandate, the battle for domination erupted again between Ngige and Uba. The initial plan to allocate positions to different factions never really worked and was part of the failure of the various caretaker leadership that took over since the July 10 abduction, because they were sucked into the rivalry politics between Uba and Ngige.
Indeed, the struggle between Uba and Ngige is reminiscent of the fight between Sir Emeka Offor and Governor Chinokwe Mbadinuju, and in the end Offor prevailed and had his way the result was that Mbadinuju never got the party ticket to seek reelection. The ghost of the Mbadinuju/Offor feud must be knocking on Ngige’s door, and he knows this as much as any practical politician should know that his grip on power is at best tenuous if he does not have the party behind him. This is so because the best time to start positioning himself for a second term, should he survive all his troubles both within and without is to have a party leadership that is totally committed to the 2007 project.
Thus, a lot is at stake in the incipient crisis in Anambra over the new party leadership.
If Ngige by virtue of his position as governor has somehow managed to use patronage to build a base for himself in Anambra, his penetrative influence in Abuja, especially at the upper reaches of the party has not been effective. On the other hand for Uba, Abuja, right from the beginning, has been a comfortable domain complemented with good links in Aso Rock, he never found his influence wilting even at the most difficult moments of his political career. Thus, with the National Working Committee involved in the special delegate election the advantage Uba has was always going to play on his favour.
Sensing the danger of what was about to happen the Ngige faction of the PDP protested, but the complaints were ignored by NWC. To stall what was about to happen loyal members of Ngige faction led by Princess Chinwe Onyeso, ( Woman leader), Oguguo Nwosu, ( Assistant financial secretary) and Emma Obele headed to the court and obtained an injunction restraining the party from going ahead to elected the party chairman. But the Uba faction had gotten the national leadership to approve Abuja as the venue for the special delegation election. With the election taking place on August 30 at the Hilton Hotel the quest by the Ngige faction to stop the party from proceeding was thwarted when the man entrusted with the court injunction Mr Emeka Agbapuonwu was prevented from serving the court documents on the PDP officials conducting the election.
The election went ahead and culminated in the election of Chief Uche Emordi who secured 45 votes to defeat Chief David Obaha who polled two votes. Both contestants are said to be associates of Uba. Somehow, the court action came to the attention of Chief Audu Ogbeh, who decided to delay for one day the swearing in of Emordi to seek legal advice on the matter.
Ogbeh was accordingly advised by Chief Akinlolu Olujimi, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, that the Ogidi High Court has no jurisdiction over an election that took place in Abuja. Armed with the AG’s advice Ogbeh proceeded to inaugurate the new leadership.
With a fait accompli stirring them in the face the Ngige faction protested and warned that it would take further steps to prevent the new leadership from functioning since the party had decided to ignore a court order. To stalemate the new leadership, the Ngige faction went back to court and obtained an order nullifying the election that took place in Abuja. Giving the order Justice Ernest Egbuna ruled that: “ Pending the hearing and appeal filed in this suit by 5th and 6th respondents namely Ifeatu Okoye and Reuben Okpalaoka, the parties are ordered to maintain status quo.”
A literal interpretation of this action means Emordi cannot function in Anambra State and is unlikely to enjoy the support of the Ngige faction if he were to show up in the state. The Ngige forces did not end the matter there, because by Tuesday September 7th they had gone to mobilise loyalists to embark on state protest against Emordi. So by the day, tension is building up, and it is quite possible that before long the Uba group will have to take some actions of its own. Whatever action the Uba group would embark on would be known in a matter of time.
