By Ethelbert Okere
I have not met Hon. Henry Nwawuba before but I have since called to commend him over his very brilliant outing on Channels Television the other day. On Monday, November 1, 2021, Hon. Nwawuba, member representing Mbaitoli-Ikeduru federal constituency of Imo state, was guest on Channels Television’s one-on-one session, Newsnight, where he took questions on sundry issues especially bordering on the current spate of insecurity.
I want to place on record that that outing was one of the best from our politicians here in Imo state, in contradistinction to what some fellow opposition elements in the state dish out to the public each time they have the opportunity. In terms of comportment and delivery, Hon. Nwawuba was a delight to watch and I am certain that some pundits would now wonder why the so-called opposition in the state has failed to put him on the front desk instead of the few ill tempered, uncouth elements that feature on its behalf.
Not too long ago, one leading opposition figure, my friend and brother, Hon. Ray Emeana, was on the same Channels Television to talk on matters concerning the state. Emeana, a former member of the Imo State House of Assembly, was so angry and agitated that at a point, you were almost certain that he was going to jump out from the television screen; his eyes bulging out so menacingly that you were also certain that the next thing was to pounce on the interviewer and deal him a deadly blow. Save the hackneyed allusion to a court ruling that robbed his party of its mandate to govern the state, Emeana said nothing that gave his viewers any inkling that the opposition he was speaking for had a better idea of how to do things assuming that it returns to power today.
But perhaps the lousiest of them all is Hon. Uche Onyeagucha, secretary to the government of Imo state in the immediate past administration. I have had cause in the past to make interventions over Hon. Onyeagucha’s penchant for very uncouth and pedestrian use of language in his public commentaries; such as referring to a governor as an “illiterate”. The first time I did so was sometime earlier this year, in the countdown to the election of a new president-general of Ohaneze Ndigbo, which position had been zoned to Imo state. For the likes of Onyeagucha, the position must be occupied by an indigene of Owerri zone; so that the moment reports had it that Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, one of Igboland’s most regarded sons, was galvanizing support for one of the leading candidates, Professor George Obiozor, hell was let loose. He went to town to describe Chief Iwuanyanwu as “a serial betrayer” and Professor Obiozor as an “expired drug”; and that Senator Hope Uzodimma is not the governor of Imo state. In an article entitled “Uche Onyeagucha And His Owerrinization Hyperboles” , I tried to disabuse the minds of the good people of Owerri zone, where we both came from, that the position was zoned to “Owerri Zone” , as Onyeagucha tended to suggest. I did that regardless of the fact that one of the top contenders to the office – and indeed one of the most qualified – Dr Joe Nworgu, is from my own local government area.
The next time I had to make an intervention was after Hon Onyeagucha’s outing in Arise Television sometime in May this year. That was shortly after the Easter Monday (April 5, 2021) attack on the Owerri Correctional Centre and the murder of Alhaji Ahmed Gulak on May 23, 2021. Naturally, Imo was on the news and it was under these circumstances that he appeared on what seemed like an arranged show. Not unexpectedly, Hon. Onyeagucha made a song and dance of the two incidents that occurred very close to each other, with a rather obtuse notion that the growing wave of insecurity in the Southeast geo-political zone of Nigeria had its roots in Imo state. In an article entitled “The Uche Onyeagucha’s Arise Television Interview”, I pointed out that both Onyeagucha and the crew, which included a very close friend of mine, that interviewed were biased and that they did a whole lot of harm to the entire nation by failing to give the viewers a proper and objective insight into the problem of insecurity in the Southeast.
The summary of Hon. Onyeagucha’s posturing was that Governor Hope Uzodimma does not consult “genuine” leaders like him but prefers to make do with “political jobbers”. However, I need not go into further details on that particular matter as that would be taking us back. The reason I decided to allude to that episode is to draw a nexus between it and Hon. Nwawuba’s television show under reference. Like Onyeagucha, Emeana and their ilk, Nwawuba, despite his very brilliant delivery as already acknowledged, wallowed in the same sophistry. His claim that Imo state has become or is rather the “epicenter” of insecurity in the Southeast is at once cheap and shallow, perhaps no more than the same out pouring of emotions over the setback suffered by the political tendency he belongs to.
To be sure, Hon. Nwawuba hit the point when he said that the spate of insecurity in the Southeast should not be treated with bias by the federal authorities but unfortunately, just in the next breath, he poured red ink on that testimonial by returning to the same sophistry for which the so-called opposition in Imo state is known. The difference was that unlike others, he was not rambunctious.
So, now that this refrain has become this hackneyed, might it not be better to interrogate its origin, which, in any case, is not far-fetched: The lingering bitterness of the opposition camp’s loss of power following a court ruling in January 2020.
In a couple of months from now, it will be two years since that constitutional and legitimate change of baton took place but alas, opposition elements in the state would insist that Imolites, a highly discerning and sophisticated people, dwell in eternal angst. This penchant for a few individuals, who have access to the media, to paint the state in the image of unprecedented anomie is both a mockery of opposition politics and an assault on the collective psyche of the people.
To insist, as the likes of Onyeagucha, Nwawuba and Emeana tend to, that insecurity in the Southeast begins and ends in Imo state is a trivialization of a highly vexatious matter in Igboland; and which could only arise from lack of intellectual rigour, the grandiloquence in front of television cameras notwithstanding.
The current problem of insecurity in the South-East transcends each of the states that make it up and as such, any approach to its solution that micro manages its inherent cause and effect is a disservice to the entire Igbo nation. For example, it is not a hidden matter that the opposition in Imo state is quite comfortable with the continued Monday sit-at-home – despite that IPOB has lifted it – for the simple reason that it sees it as a weapon for manipulating with the emotions of the people against the government of the day. Yet, the set back suffered by the entire zone over this unfortunate development is there for all to see.
The question then is, are these naysayers lovers of Ndigbo? Are they to be believed for possessing what it takes to provide the Igbo nation a better place in planet earth? As to the issue of being deprived of a fabled mandate to rule Imo state, let me quote some passages from Chief Willie Amadi’s memoir, SECOND CHANCE, published in November 2020:
“While the collation of votes was going on in the early hours of March 10, 201, insider information from INEC showed a likelihood of a run-off between Nwosu and Ihedioha. I reached out to Chief Tony Chukwu whom I knew had access to the Presidential Villa, Abuja. As collation entered into a critical and determining stage, I drove to his residence at Civic Centre. I met him with Chief Longers Anyanwu sitting alone in his expansive parlour.
I intimated them with the feelers I was getting from INEC and demanded to know from him, who, between Nwosu and Ihedioha, we should support. He replied angrily that Nwosu was a no-go area …. He explained that he was not ready to help sentencing Imolites to another gruesome eight years since he was certain that Nwosu was going to be a surrogate governor to his father-in-law, the outgoing governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha. On Ihedioha, he had mixed feelings based on the latter’s disrespect to him and an allegation that Ihedioha had told some powerful people in the presidency that he, Chukwu, voted for Atiku Abubakar rather than Buhari the previous week. It took me close to forty minutes to placate him with an appeal that he should forgive Ihedioha since time was of essence. Longers intervened and spoke in a similar vein, pleading with Tony to help in delivering Ihedioha.
Before going to Tony’s place, I had called Ihedioha to find out how he was faring and whether reports from his election control room was favourable. Typical of Ihedioha, he confessed that he was having problems with the issue of spread but that hoped that the six remaining local government areas would sway in his favour; a hope that was eventually dashed. While Tony was still trying to make up his mind, Chief Anyanwu took a step further by putting a call across to Chief Emeka Offor, a well known and influential business man from Anambra state and solicited for his intervention.
Not too long after, Chief Offor called Tony and spoke with him. After their conversation, Tony received calls from governors of Ebonyi and Abia states … When I realized that Chief Chukwu had been captioned emotionally, I conspired with Longers to take him to Senator Hope Uzodimma … We returned to Tony Chukwu’s house and once there, I called Ihedioha to alert him that action would soon commence….
As soon as we got back to his house, Chief Chukwu called Mallam Abba Kyari, the late Chief of Staff to President Buhari; the Minister of Interior, Major General Dambaba; the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami as well as the National Security Adviser, Major-General Monguno. According to him, they all agreed with him that Okorocha’s candidate, Nwosu, was not favoured by the new power configuration for 2023… When it appeared that our efforts were beginning to yield fruits – in fact 70 per cent successful – with directives communicated to the INEC Chairman from the appropriate quarters, I suggested to Tony to invite Ihedioh and Jones Onyereri for the final capture and possession. While the two were in Tony’s house, the result was announced and Ihedioha was declared winner. An obviously dazed Ihedioha turned to Tony and asked: “What is the Source of Your Power? Tony brought out his Rosary, waved it before him…”.
Interestingly, the book, from which the above passages were taken, was published while Barrister Willie Amadi, a very close friend of Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, was still a member of the opposition party.