Peter Obi’s defection from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not surprise me. Unlike Bianca, widow of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, I knew the former Anambra State governor was going to take that fateful political step. Every discerning political observer knew that despite Obi’s protestations and despite his vow that he would quit partisan politics any day he left APGA, he had a crush on the PDP. His body language betrayed him. That Obi had the patience to serve out his second term as governor on the platform of APGA was the only surprise. I did not want to comment on his defection until I read Bianca’s interview in the Daily Sun and Obi’s reaction.
Bianca is pained by what she calls Obi’s “betrayal and unimaginable breach of trust.” She is livid that Obi did not take her into confidence. “Close as I was to him, he did not even have the simple courtesy to inform me of this decision but continued to deceive me up until his defection,” she moaned. She is angry that he betrayed the trust Ojukwu had in him. She is fuming that Obi broke the promise he made to Ojukwu and dealt shabbily with a party that gave him everything. “What he has done is akin to desecrating his father’s grave. It is alu (taboo) in Igbo culture. I am deeply pained by this development. “How can it be so easy for him to trample upon the legacy of a man who gave him so much, even sometimes to his (Ojukwu’s) own detriment; a man, who had such high expectations of him?” She is angry because she feels Obi has, by his defection, handed not only her late husband but also APGA a very unfair deal. “Everything he is, today, he owes to Ojukwu and APGA. APGA catapulted him literally from obscurity to national prominence. “He served two consecutive terms, as governor of Anambra State, a first in the history of the state. This, he achieved under APGA. His decampment is shocking to our party members. He never gave them any indicationw that he was about to jump ship.” Very strong words. But it is instructive that Obi in his response refrained from joining issues with her. He was even charitable.
Claiming that Bianca was not a frivolous person, he said she spoke with sincerity; unlike others. But he denied the charges of betrayal and disloyalty, insinuating that he is the victim and not the villain. “I wish to reiterate that I am still loyal to our great leader, in terms of what serves the interests of our people and the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Obi said.
“Everyone knows today that APGA is not what it used to be. My assurance to our great leader did not imply that I would be loyal to a platform that some people have resolved to turn into an empty shell without an inner core of shared values. “I remain faithful to those values and principles our great leader asked me to stand by and defend.” At a meeting I attended the night he defected, Obi told his audience that his decision was hinged on the need to be a competitor and not a spectator in national affairs. He used an analogy of a man travelling from Awka to the United States via Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. He said while the traveler may travel to Lagos in a car, he will need an aircraft to complete the journey. In essence, APGA was the vehicle in which he travelled to Anambra Government House and it had served its purpose, but going to Abuja requires a bigger and more sophisticated means of transportation; hence an airplane, the PDP. But no matter how hard Obi tries, it has become almost impossible for him to convince anyone that his defection was for public good, particularly the good of the Igbo. Many see it as self-serving and a slippery slope that endangers even the very values and principles he claims to cherish. This is sad because we are talking about a man who held out so much promise for the Igbo that he was nicknamed Okwute Ndigbo (Igbo rock) and his political battles became a collective Igbo battle. There was a good reason for such expectation. Obi, in government, became a role model. He demystified governance by his sheer humility and simplicity. He elevated accountability to a level hitherto unknown in this country and fiscal responsibility became his middle name.
Above all, he proved that no matter how lean the resources of a state, a governor who is public-spirited can deliver on his electoral promises. For the first time, Anambrarians had quality governance and the evidence is there for all to see. He left government with his head high. But for reasons best known to Obi, he deliberately underdeveloped APGA. Even before his fabled quarrel with the party’s Chairman, Victor Umeh, his actions and inactions diminished the vehicle that conveyed him to Government House.
By virtue of his position as governor, he was the leader of the party for eight years. So, if the party plumbed the depths of retrogression, he should blame himself. He was there when the Ubas of Anambra politics rode roughshod against the party and its candidates at elections. Obi never lifted a finger for those whose electoral victories were subverted by the PDP. I had the uncanny feeling that he secretly loathed the APGA. It was a marriage of convenience only meant to last as long as the party remained a viable tool to access political power using Ojukwu’s mythical aura. But Obi’s first love was the PDP. I was so worried that the fortunes of APGA were diminishing under his watch that I sought audience with him in Awka twice to express my fears. The fact that he left APGA as a provincial party, so much so that he had to look for a national party to take him to Abuja, is a damning self-indictment.
Again, the excuse that he joined the PDP to help actualise President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election ambition is too simplistic. There is nothing that Obi wanted to do for Jonathan that he wouldn’t have done on the platform of APGA. After all, APGA had already adopted him as its presidential candidate. Obi did more for Jonathan in 2011 as an APGA governor than most PDP governors. As Southeast Governors Forum Chairman, Obi mobilised his colleagues, all of them PDP governors, to endorse Jonathan. As an APGA governor, he attended PDP rallies. And for his efforts, he was amply rewarded. As an APGA governor, he was, without exaggeration, the closest of the 36 governors to Jonathan. But all that will change now. Obi will meet a much more hostile political environment in Anambra PDP and I don’t see Jonathan helping him. What happened at his declaration at his residence in Onitsha on October 7, shows that he has no political clout in his home state. No notable PDP member was present. If his friendship with Aso Rock becomes a liability, Jonathan will sacrifice him, as he did recently when Anambra PDP members opposed Obi’s appointment as aviation minister. No notable member of Anambra APGA hitched a ride with him on his defection wagon. But when Senator Bukola Saraki, former Kwara State Governor, defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the current governor, lawmakers, and ministers moved with him.
Democracy is a game of numbers. Umeh mocked Obi for coming to the party alone and leaving alone. Coming alone in 2003 is understandable. But leaving alone 11 years later, after being governor for eight years, is a tragedy. It calls for introspection.