Who does not know that Obi's spirit had long deserted APGA for PDP and that he wants his tenure to run out fast so that he can formally declare for PDP?
Writing in his most famous book in 1961 � The Wretched of the Earth � Frantz Fanon said: �Each generation shall, out of relative obscurity, discover its past, fulfill it or betray it.� Though writing specifically about developments in Algeria, the above quotation can be applied to other nations and peoples desirous of helping themselves out of peculiar situations. Today, there is no doubt a peculiar situation in the party believed to be associated with the Igbo of South Eastern Nigeria�The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). In the June 10, 2012 edition of this weekly under the headline � Obi, Umeh, APGA and South East �, I acknowledged that crisis in political parties does not necessarily mean a death sentence if only the actors in the party in question possess the necessary competences to turn around the so-called weakness into strength.
I did say that APGAs journey has been tortuous, even from the time Chekwas Okorie was the National Chairman, and that for any one to think there would not be intra and inter-party crisis means the person is bereft completely of the knowledge of how political parties function.
I have not forgotten that I postulated that the so-called crisis within the APGA family is being orchestrated by unseen hands poised to alter the template with which Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State used to make a difference in the governance of his people for nearly seven years now he has been in the saddle with the total support of the APGA National Chairman, Victor Umeh.
My conclusion in that essay was that Obi and Umeh and by extension Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State should, once more, rise to the challenge of rescuing the party from the hands of killjoys who want to see the party dead. �This is not the time to recall who did or did not do what. The issue at hand now should be how to tell those who have been striving to kill APGA that they have met another brick wall,� I had advised.
If recent developments in APGA are anything to go by, then, some of my fears are fast becoming real.
The coming into being of APGA in the first place as a political party did not go down well with those who thought the Igbo had finished as far as having a party the people could look up to in the entity called Nigeria was concerned.
The notion was, and still is, that the Igbo lack the capacity to organise themselves into one common umbrella for the purpose of furthering their interest. And as God would have it, APGA, despite the thought of men, flowered and made tremendous impact that most ethnic nationalities in the country have, today, come to see the party as the face of the Igbo should there be nothing like Nigeria now, that the sermon on regionalism and effective fiscal federalism are beginning to gain monumental ground and occupying the centre piece of national discourses. We will talk about all that some other day.
Let us start with the purported sacking of Umeh and his Secretary, Alhaji Sani Shinkafi from the National Working Committee (NWC) of APGA without recourse to the constitution of the party and the coming into being of characters like Alhaji Sadeeq Masaala and Dr. Ifedi A. Okwenna who volunteered themselves to be used by those unseen hands that have refused to come to the open.
Is it therefore a surprise that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) came out to put them where they belong by calling them political jobbers without their knowing it?
Any one who has been following events as they unfold in the APGA would shudder at the rate of desperation in the fellows who are out to destroy the party.
After the Masaala saga came the Jude Okoli Enugu High Court matter where a man said to have long seized being an APGA member went to court, asking that Umeh be restrained from functioning in his capacity as the Chairman by not conducting either the national, state or local government functions.
Of course, the idea of the same unseen hands was to stop Umeh and his National Executive Committee (NEC) from holding the meeting they called for August 1.
And in this era when judges are being told to be painstaking in granting injunctions, the Enugu State Chief Judge, Innocent Umezuruike, on July 26 granted the prayers of the said Okoli, and those who were in Awka Government House said the place erupted in jubilation when the news filtered into the place. And what does that tell you, other than that they are winning the war against Umeh. But are they? Where I come from, there is a popular saying that it is not the man that calls the police for his opponent who always wins in a case. For Umezuruike�s ruling on July 31, on Umeh�s application for the court to vacate the injunction placed on his NWC, I see it as a temporary set back and in the fullness of time the God of justice will manifest himself.
Many, both the Igbo and non-Igbo have often wondered whether Obi is working to build or destroy APGA. Those who have little sympathy for Umeh in the unfolding drama in today�s APGA do so because they felt he supported Obi to remove Okorie.
What it means, however, is that there were so many things Obi kept from Umeh and it is only now that the latter is appreciating the true colour of the man he served from the depth of his heart.
It pains that most of those who are today trying to demonise Umeh are those who, yesterday, were blaming Obi for not doing enough to grow APGA, not even in the state he governs. For the avoidance of doubt, Obi almost lost his re-election but for Umeh�s political deftness and zest.
He not only acknowleged that, the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumugwu Ojukwu also did. All those who are today beating the �Umeh must go drum� with Obi also acknowledged that fact.
Truth be told, Obi has demonstrated the highest level of ingratitude to Umeh if he could orchestrate issues around the APGA National Chairman, simply because he has his eyes on the PDP.
By the way, is Obi the only governor of the opposition party that is close to President Goodluck Jonathan? Who told him he is close to Jonathan more that Adams Oshiomhole, Babatunde Fashola or even Olusegun Mimiko? What even makes him think Jonathan loves and respects him more than those other governors in the opposition?
Who does not know that Obi�s spirit had long deserted APGA for PDP and that he wants his tenure to run out fast so that he can formally declare for PDP? After all, he demonstrated his �membership� of PDP in 2011 when Jonathan was running for the presidency by the number of times he attended the PDP rallies with the President. Which other opposition party governor could have behaved that way and still retain his office much less of being in the same party and calling the shots?
� Ubochi, a political analyst, lives in Owerri.
