Senior Correspondent, OKEY MADOFORO, presents excerpts of his encounter with former Anambra governor, Chinweoke Mbadinuju, on his defection to APC.
The news about his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) swept across the land at a time the later was battling for consolidation of its grip on power ahead of 2015 general elections.
Not too many people believed the story about the former Anambra State governor, Chinweoke Mbadinuju, abandoning the party that gave him fame for the opposition, especially when he had earlier reiterated his support for President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP.
While there were speculations on his intended move, Mbadinuju returned home to Awka, Anambra State capital, and hosted select journalists where he told the story of his travails in the PDP since 2003 when he was denied the opportunity of going for a second tenure.
Trouble, he said, started for him when at the 1999 PDP Jos, Plateau State, convention, he supported his former boss, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, against Olusegun Obasanjo, the eventual winner of the presidential primary.
“My role in galvanising support for our son, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to clinch the presidential ticket, was acknowledged by all and sundry. It was a hurting experience for me personally and for all Anambraians, and indeed for all Ndigbo, that Chief (Dr.) Alex Ekwueme (Ide) did not secure the ticket at that historic convention. That loss in Jos represented the first major blow to our efforts in producing a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction,” he recalled.
Mbadinuju lamented that even after he had explained to Obasanjo that he had no choice but to support his former boss whom he served as a Personal Assistant, he (Obasanjo) was still vindictive and ensured that he never got a second tenure.
He further recalled how he was roped into the controversy over the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Barnabas Igwe and the unborn child while he was in Boston, United States of America.
“I was to be the Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Onitsha, but I allowed Igwe to become chairman.
While as governor, he supported me. So why would I turn round to kill this man and his wife?” he asked.
Mbadinuju’s predicaments deepened when, according to him, he was denied his party’s ticket for a second term, even after winning its primary on three occasions.
He even noted that the then National Chairman of PDP, Audu Ogbeh, confirmed that he was unjustly disqualified from contesting.
“I was the only serving governor that the PDP unjustly denied its ticket for a second term. All Anambrarians will bear me witness that in 2003, for three times the PDP from Abuja conducted the governorship primaries, I won those primaries. Three times, PDP in Abuja cancelled the primaries. At the end of the day, I was denied the party’s ticket.
“Mrs. Josephine Anenih, a revered PDP Woman Leader, wept openly at the launch of my book, How I governed Anambra State: Stewardship and Accountability, as she remembered how unfairly the party’s national secretariat maltreated me then. But as a team player, I accepted it in good faith, out of sheer loyalty to the party and the country, and in the hope that things may change for the better,” Mbadinuju, lamented.
Mrs. Anenih, who was former Minister of Women Affairs, the former governor said, admitted that he was treated unfairly, adding that the decision of PDP not to allow him go for a second term was the greatest undoing of Anambra.
As if the unfair treatment by the PDP under Obasanjo was not enough, Mbadinuju further lamented how he and his followers spent days in Bayelsa in support of President Goodluck Jonathan, in addition to the numerous memos he sent to the president without any reply.
“I stayed in the party and once slept for eight
days during the 2011 campaign, together with my team in Bayelsa and some South South states to assist President Jonathan win the election. In addition, between 2011 and 2015, I went to press and granted about 60 interviews to point out lapses in the party and the government, and to support the administration.
“President Jonathan is now completing his five years in office, and in these years, I sent him about 10 memos on vital issues of governance, but not once did the president give me an opportunity to see him nor responded to any of my memos,” he alleged.
The apparent disdain towards him, it was learnt, may have informed his movement to APC. He however spoke more on his encounter with Muhammadu Buhari, the president-elect, who contested on the platform of the party.
“I first got to know General Buhari when I launched my book on, how I governed Anambra State. This was in 2012. Through a mutual friend, I simply sent him an invitation letter to attend the ceremony, and behold Buhari attended the ceremony at his expense. In fact, he drove from Kaduna to Abuja and sat at the ante-room even before many arrived the venue. That created a positive impression of him in my mind. It shows a trait of excellent leadership quality in the man.
“And now, having been forced by injustice to leave PDP, I thought the best place to be is where Buhari is,” he said.
He added that before he took the present step, he met and informed Buhari, adding that what sold him to the man was his humility and demonstration of accessibility.
Mbadinuju’s words: “I had a short but in-depth discussion with him, and I can confidently say that Buhari is a great man. The things going for Buhari are his humility and accessibility to people, punctuality and responsiveness to issues.
“He demonstrated these to me personally. And with these qualities, at least I am confident that I would no longer apply for about 10 memos to the president and still fail to get even one response. Buhari is the kind of leader Nigeria needs today.”