Ahamefula Azuonwu


By Tony Icheku 


Rewind to the 2023 General Election, Alex Otti was the beautiful bride with a spotless white wedding gown. In the  Western tradition, the White Wedding gown signifies  purity and innocence. White symbolizes the bride's pure and untarnished character as she begins a new chapter in her life.


And so Alex Otti was adored like  the bride with a White Wedding gown - He was considered pure, innocent with untarnished character. He was not, really. Abians choose to inflict amnesia on themselves to get rid of a greater evil - the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP which has assumed a conqueror's attitude and disposition towards Abians.

 

Gov Alex Otti 

Abians choose to forget that AIex Otti was part and parcel of the PDP's infamy. He was a bag carrier to former governor Senator T A Orji who appreciated his loyalty and plotted to crown him his successor. But that was not to be. Other stakeholders did not consider him a worthy successor, forcing his exit from the party to APGA  in 2015


From 2015, 2019 Otti fought the PDP monster at the polls, and finally succeeded in 2023.


Looking back, Otti was projected to win the Guber polls even  in 2015 - the people earnestly yearned for a change then.  From available facts, Otti's personal despotic character was equally a stumbling block to his victory then. It is simply his nature to always be the only captain on board, calling the shots as he pleases. He was allegedly the chief financier and thus he calls the tunes


Even in 2023, Otti would equally have lost to a united PDP. But the PDP that went to the polls in 2023 was a divided house - thus for instance, from the hitherto impregnable PDP zone of Isiala-Ngwa North and South, Otti gained the support of grassroots heavy weights like Hon Darlington Nwokocha, Hon Ginger Onwusibe and others - political players who on a good day would always emerge triumphant at the polls 


From the APC, it was also a fractured party that went to the polls. Thus APC heavy weights like Dr Uche Ogah had no choice than to align with Otti.


From other LGAs like Ikwuano LG where the politics could be unpredictable, there was a mass swing for Otti. The swing was such that Ikwuano rejected its own son, Senator Austin Akobundu and voted massively for Nwokocha of LP for the Abia Central Senatorial district ticket. It was LP all the way from House of Assembly, and National Assembly 


By himself, Otti lacked the structure to deliver himself in Ikwuano. Nwokocha had cornered a part of the PDP structure. Dr Monday Ubani mobilised and turned over the APC structure to the Otti's camp and the Obedient Movement did the rest 


But today Otti has become like the proverbial Achebean bird, Nza who so far forgot himself after a heavy meal that he challenged his chi to a wrestling duel.


The local government councils elections scheduled for November 2, 2024 has finally unmasked the autocratic Emperor Otti for Abians to see. First, for the first time since the dawn of this republic the sales of expression of interest forms and nomination forms for LG polls were run from Gov Otti's table - the LP whose fortune had been like that of an orphan was only given one set of forms with names appended on them. Thus only Otti's selected aspirants were given forms. Thus aspirants like Innocent Eleogu, Ikechukwu Orunta who had consulted and mobilised across the length and breadth of Ikwuano were not even permitted to purchase nomination forms and test their popularity at the primary. Few hours to the close of submission of forms to ABSIEC, a former aide to Gov Otti, Anthony Nwaubani was announced as the LP chairmanship candidate for Ikwuano LG.


Nwaubani never consulted anybody that he was running for the LG chairman. He had no vision, no agenda for the LG. He was simply sent as Otti's emissary.


But a hitch developed, other stakeholders need to be accommodated. The Nwokocha factor cannot be ignored, with Nwokocha himself looking towards 2027 to retrieve at the polls his Senate ticket which was taken away by the Court. Thus Ahamefula Azuonwu, a dogged grassroots mobiliser was copted to balance the ticket.


But Otti's narcissistic personality was unhappy over the deal. And today, three days to the election, Azuonwu was unceremoniously shoved aside and replaced with a more malleable replacement, Lucky Awuwa.


Awuwa is an aide to Hon Boniface Isienyi, a member of the Abia State House of Assembly which has since turned itself into Otti's personal second cabinet.


As this article is being read, no official communication has been made why Azuonwu was replaced. Ironically, speculations about his replacement was whispered as he was hosting the campaign train of the ZLP in his home


The likes of Azuonwu held the LP together at the grassroots before their surreptitious move to ZLP. What could be responsible for his sudden replacement? "I don't know....I can't explain...." was his curt reply when dailyledger com.ng sought his reaction via an SMS.


Though Otti had kept mum on the sudden emergence of ZLP in  Abia politics, but he cannot deny that the ZLP Chairmanship and councillorship candidates are not his personal selection. All the same, the sudden change of guards midstream shows that all is not well with ZLP, but more worrisome is the Brutus-like stab in  the back of loyalists who toiled to deliver him in 2023.