* Achonu


* Uwajumogu 
BY Innocent Ebirim Okadigbo (mkpisi edemede)

 There is a very deceptive, destructive and dangerous propaganda going
on in the forthcoming Imo North Senatorial re-run election. The
propaganda is that if the APC Senatorial candidate, Rt. Hon. Benjamin
Uwajimogu wins; he will obviously do upset and take over the Deputy
Senate President’s seat currently occupied by His Excellency lke
Ekweremadu of opposition PDP from Enugu State.
This campaign is very dangerous and destructive both to Rt Hon
Benjamin Uwajimogu and deceptive to gullible members of Imo North
population who have already bought the idea and are itching to vote Rt
Hon on the basis of that. I will start from the simple to the complex
and from the known to the unknown to draw my conclusion why that
propaganda is deceptive, dangerous, destructive and an ill-wind which
blows no one good.
It is obvious and crystal clear that the APC led Federal Government
has no regard and recognition for the South-East and will continue to
exclude the South-East as long as they enjoy the exclusion.
During the permutation for the sharing of the APC Principal leadership
of the House of Representatives mid 2015, Speaker Yakubu Dogara
graciously shared the six major positions in the House to accommodate
the six different geo-political zones in accordance with the House
Convention and the Constitutional Provision on Federal Character and
communicated the sharing position to the President and the National
Chairman of APC. Luckily for the South-East, it has two APC members
and that made Speaker Dogara to allocate the Deputy Chief Whip to the
South-East and to be specific to Hon Chike Okafor representing
Ehime-Mbano, Obowo/Ihitte Uboma Federal Constituency.
At that time, the two chambers of the National Assembly were in
serious fire and imbroglio over the sharing of the Principal
Leadership in both chambers. President Muhammed Buhari which made
earlier declaration not to intervene in NASS leadership crisis later
chew his words, personally and directly intervened in the matter and
ceded two House of Representatives Principal Positions namely the
Deputy Speaker and the House Majority Leader to South-West and totally
excluded the South-East from any House Principal Leadership Position
of the ruling party.
This is the first time in the political history of Nigeria when the
ruling party deliberately excluded any geo-political zone from the
Principal Leadership Position. It is strange, disturbing and political
injustice to worsen the plight of the South-East in Nigeria political
prison. During that period, I heard some clowns, empty vessels and
nonentities making noise that if either Senator Osita Izunaso or
Senator Chris Ngige had won; one of them could have become the Senate
President.
I simply sympathized with their ignorance and drew their attention to
the House where South-East produced two APC members and Speaker Dogara
graciously allocated the Deputy Chief Whip to the Zone before PMB’s
intervention thwarted the arrangement. Have we forgotten our popular
proverbs that it is from the smell of the discharged gas that one will
perceive how the smell of the excreta will be and any man who buys
slippers has promised God he has capacity to buy shoe. The earlier the
South-East realize that Buhari hates the Ibos and he is hell-bent on
punishing the region throughout his regime and start avoiding anything
Buhari, the better for them.
Even if by any act of omission or commission; Rt Hon Uwajimogu becomes
the Senator, it will be very difficult if not impossible for him to
upstage Ekweremadu. In the first place, Saraki and Ekweremadu are
almost like one or joint ticket. The entire PDP Senators are 100%
behind both of them while APC Senators behind Saraki are equally
behind Ekweremadu. As a matter of fact, during the election for the
post of the Deputy Senate, many APC Senators voted for Ekweremadu
against the APC candidate for the position. More than 85% of the
Senate had twice passed vote of confidence on Saraki and Ekweremadu.
Assuming Saraki leaves that position which I am not praying for; a
core Saraki loyalist working in collaboration with about 50 PDP
Senators and about 35 Saraki super supporters from APC will emerge and
Ekweremadu will remain untouched. Again, nobody would ignore the
wealth of experience and social network of Ekweremadu as a Senator
from 2003-2007; and Deputy Senate President from 2007-2011; 2011-2015
and 2015 till present.
Ekweremadu of PDP became Deputy Senate President the 3rd time under a
minority party and with the prevalence a different majority party
because of his popularity among his colleagues; strategic and tactical
skills; PDP maneuvering and serious mistake by APC Senate.
The sun shines on those who stand before those who kneel under it. I
do not want Rt Hon and Imo North to commit political suicide by
wishful thinking that he will be in Senate to upstage Ekweremadu. From
the foregoing analysis, it is a tall dream and an impossible task. Is
Rt Hon Benjamin Uwajimogu going to kill His Excellency Ekweremadu in
order to replace him? This propaganda is very dangerous and risky in
view of the alarm raised by Ekweremadu that some people were after his
life. Assuming Rt Hon goes there with that frame of mind and
impression surrounding him; he will be marked an enemy and treacherous
from day one and political hell will surely visit him and he will end
up achieving nothing.
At the end, the Imo North which had voted him with the hope that
Buhari will replace Ekweremadu with him will be frustrated and feel
shortchanged. The entire propaganda is deceptive, destructive and
dangerous. Voting for Uwajimogu will in no way assuage Buhari’s hard
feelings against Ndi Igbo because Buhari did not compensate Rochas and
Ogbonnaya Onu for not only aiding the merger that produced APC but
fought assiduously for him; unlike Chibuike Amaechi who has been
compensated with two top and juicy appointments namely the Chief
Executives of NDDC and NIMASA.
I therefore enjoin Rt Hon Uwajimogu and Imo North people to please
jettison this idea and ambition of replacing Ekweremadu because the
bitter truth is that it cannot work. People should vote according to
their conscience and find justifiable reason why they are voting for
any candidate but certainly not because of deceptive propaganda that
Uwajimogu will replace Ekweremadu.
Finally, I urge my people of Imo North to exercise some restraints in
their campaign of vituperations, mudslinging, casting aspersion,
vilifications and character assassination against the candidates
already cleared and found fit to hold public offices by INEC and
Security Agencies. We should remember we are brothers and we shall
surely need one another after this Senatorial re-run election.
Ebirim (Mkpisi Edemede), a pro-democracy activist and media
practitioner writes from Abuja via innoebirim@gmail.com 08176311555