In
recent times, there has been a well-organized and massively funded
campaign by some out-of-favour politicians in Anambra State to poison
the cordial relationship between Chief Willie Obiano and President
Goodluck Jonathan. This campaign has been simmering for quite some time,
showing itself in different ways.
Only
a fortnight ago, the people behind this campaign created the illusion
that Chief Obiano had referred to key PDP figures in Anambra State as
“mad people” and by implication had also demonized the platform on which
President Jonathan is seeking re-election. Preposterous as their claim
seemed, they stretched it beyond belief when they said that Governor
Obiano was also critical of Prince Engr. Arthur Eze, a formidable
philanthropist and PDP financier who has also been a strong backer of
his administration. Phew!!!
These
mind-benders also stepped beyond incredulity when they fed the
sensational press the curious information that the former Special
Adviser on political matters to Governor Obiano, Chief Joe Martins
Uzodike was relieved of his appointment for singing a pro-Jonathan song
on a live radio programme. While this article is not about Chief Uzodike
or his exit from the service of the government of Anambra State, it
stretches the imagination to think that the same Governor Obiano who
endorsed Chief Uzodike’s appointment into President Jonathan’s campaign
machinery would turn around to fire him for singing a pro-Jonathan song.
Hello! Is somebody following this logic? How incredulous can these
people be?
Curiously
too, long before Uzodike was relieved of his position, the group had
also made a failed attempt to yoke Governor Obiano to Governor Rotimi
Amaechi, the Director General of the APC campaign organization. The
funny story here is that Dozie Nwankwo, an in-law of Governor Amaechi
was the facilitator of this so-called alliance between Obiano and the DG
of APC Campaign organization. Always misreading the capacity of their
audience to sieve through their web of lies and deceit against Obiano,
these calumny campaigners believed that once the Presidency is informed
that Governor Amaechi has an in-law in Anambra State who is standing
election on the platform of APGA, it would accept any story that seeks
to establish a political dalliance between Amaechi and Obiano. But once
again, they failed. Their wild claims have not in any way affected the
perception of Governor Obiano as a known supporter of President
Jonathan’s second term bid.
Still
not daunted by the obvious lack of interest in the illusion they are
vending, this shadowy group who are hell bent on forcing a wedge between
President Jonathan and Governor Obiano made a bold attempt at the
weekend to finally roll out an all-out smear campaign against Governor
Obiano. If all things go as planned, the evil campaign is expected to
break in the media Monday, February 23, 2015, with poorly written and
logically inchoate advertorials in the newspapers. One of the materials
intercepted by an Enugu based civil society and democracy watch group
known as the Initiative for Change Organization was captioned Gov.
Obiano, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing …Mr. President Beware! This copy
carries some of the most spurious allegations against the person of
Governor Obiano, questioning his well-known support for President
Jonathan and selling the puerile argument that Chief Obiano, of all
people, was surreptitiously working for the dictator, General Mohammadu
Buhari.
Were
this group not so taken in by the sheer audacity of their illogic, it
would have recalled what the records say about Governor Willie Obiano’s
position on the second term bid of President Goodluck Jonathan. It would
have realized that it is on record that Chief Willie Obiano is probably
the first governor to publicly drum his support for President Jonathan,
long before most PDP governors and long before Mr. President’s
declaration of interest in the on-going race. It would also have found
out that only few governors have matched Governor Obiano’s consistent
campaign for President Jonathan, using every opportunity that he has to
talk about the coming elections to remind Ndi Anambra and other
Nigerians resident in Anambra State to vote for Mr. President. This
faceless group that hides under the cover of the name “Concerned
Citizens of Anambra State,” would also not have missed the fact that as
Chairman of APGA Board of Trustees and National Leader of the party,
Governor Obiano had worked assiduously to ensure that APGA adopted
President Jonathan as its own candidate for the 2015 presidential
election. And perhaps more importantly too, had this group not been
thoroughly inebriated in its demented pursuit of vendetta on one hand
and laughable relevance on the other, it would perhaps have remembered
that Chief Willie Obiano is not the typical dyed-in-the-wool politician.
He is not given to any duplicitous underhand dealings that make some
leaders say one thing and mean another. He does not hunt with the hounds
and run with the hares. So, it is totally inconceivable that he would
declare an open support for President Jonathan in the day and go to bed
with Buhari at night.
Regardless,
in the tradition of true democrats, Governor Obiano does not hold any
personal views against General Buhari or his supporters or even the APC
as a political party. His position as a democratically elected governor
has always been that Nigerians should be given a free hand to choose
from a plurality of choices. And these choices include the choice of
parties, the choice of candidates as well as the choice of ideologies.
Nor does Governor Obiano believe that in a growing democracy like
Nigeria, only the best candidates should run for electoral offices. No.
Rather, like American author and clergyman, Henry van Dyke, Obiano is a
firm believer that “the woods would be very silent if no birds sang
there except those that sang best.”
Again,
as a leader who is firmly rooted in the worldviews and ethos of his
people, Governor Obiano holds expansive views about how a democratic
society should run; drawing heavily from the Igbo concept of plurality
that is deeply embedded in the witty philosophy of Egbe belu, ugo belu.
It
is this solid cultural mooring that helps him take the destructive
criticisms and mindless personal attacks on him and his beautiful wife,
Ebele, in his stride as he invests himself in the task of building a New
and prosperous Anambra State.
James Eze writes from Ifite, Awka (eziokwubundu@gmail.com).
