Open letter to Governor Obi on local govt elections,… APGA (2)

[MrVan]

WHY do you feign unconcern and indifference when your party people complain of being abandoned by your government, especially when a little assistance could have prodded them onto genuine electoral victory? After such a long time you have no excuses not to hold and organise local government elections in your state.

Indirectly, by not holding local  elections in your state, APGA as a grassroots party as envisaged by Chief Ojukwu, is being minusculed  and weakened since you are making it impossible for the party to swim on your goodwill and good records of achievement as a governor.

You are not empowering those party faithful that worked for you.  Following the same proven political wisdom, observe closely how Chief Bola Tinubu is empowering the ACN in the West at the grassroots and you will be compelled to answer the public when they enquire from you: ''What sin has Chief Umeh committed by also insisting on  internal party democracy, growth and toeing the path of constitutional democracy in Nigeria via APGA?

Nobody destroys a house he has helped to build except  he intends seeking  shelter somewhere else. Is it true, as argued by Chief Will Ezeugwu of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties,(NPP, in his The Sun interview of Thursday,May 10, 2012 entitled ''Obi is the one killing APGA'' that ''this makes us fear that Obi, having secured his second term,is now working for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, by trying to portray APGA's government as one that can flout rules; he is now fighting the party Chairman who is working tirelessly to grow the party''? I pray this is not true !

The last thing you can survive is an all-out  war  with APGA chieftains over corrupt and undisciplined  party members whose behaviour or conduct you harbour and encourage as a source of destabilization of the party. If it happens, Ikemba will be crying in  his grave and, wait for it, your nemesis, Chekwas Okorie, would be drinking the finest champagnes  and will be celebrating mass by saying: "I told you that Peter will not be a good  party  man" – meaning   that since you have climbed to the top of the tree , you will not support and empower the party to develop a strong  grass root  base in Anambra.

It remains a shock  to most political scientists to witness the kind of anomaly and the electoral  somersaults suffered  by the party in recent memory in the state. You need to get in-house consensus and consult your bible of party discipline to stop  the folds of  the emerging war dance that could consume you and mess up all that you have achieved with APGA in good governance records.

The path of duty and moral governance as a philosopher king calls upon you to tread the line of modesty and amity  by calling Chief Victor Umeh and other  stakeholders  to a blue room conflict resolution and peace building meeting to smoothen and mend immediately the cracking  walls before it is too late.

This is  not the way to say "thank you " to the great Ikemba spirit of mentorship and to Chief Umeh who has chocked up the positive public profile  of APGA in the country. It is beginning to look like the perfidy perpetrated both by messers T. Orji and  the ''green planter'' Ohakim after Chief Orji Kalu made  both of them governors. In the case of one, nemesis caught up with him quickly as he suffered the political death he deserved.

In your case, you feel wrongly or rightly that, having gotten two terms as governor, you can bite the fingers of those who fed you.Even the lucre  of  the promised senatorial seat on PDP's poisoned chalice by 2015 will not lead you to political salvation.

Having sailed on the wings of APGA's goodwill and Ojukwu's grand stature in Igboland, it is too cheap for you to desert the party and start fostering 'parapo' politics of such green horns like Nwobu Alor and his ilk. History and posterity will not forgive you! Mark my words and remember an honourable legacy is better than a dishonourable one.Peter the Rock! Peter the philosopher!

Thank you, your Excellency and don't forget the pleadings of moral excellence and ethical governance. Please, do not be angry with me for giving a fellow philosopher king public advice through such a widely read media space in Nigeria—after all, those you sponsor also use the same to attack your party elders.

Mr. ANUWEZE CHUKWUNONYE, a political analyst, wrote from Awka.

Vanguard Nigeria