Throughout his eight-year reign, Anambra State Governor Peter Onwubuasi Obi was dogged by rumours of serial schemes to dump the All progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) even as Obi and his senior aides kept issuing one denial after another. But, on Tuesday, October 7, 2014, in a classic portrayal of life imitating art, Obi finally played out the script long written for him by formally defecting to the PDP at an elaborate ceremony held at his private residence in Onitsha.
His defection was a bitter pill to swallow for his numerous supporters and foot soldiers, who have grown to fondly call him Okwute (Igbo word for ‘rock’ as in the biblical Simon Peter). Prior to his defection, Obi was the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees. He’s certainly a big fish and no one should pretend that his defection didn’t leave loyal party members demoralised, confused and jittery about their future.
What galled them the most was that Obi was the metaphorical rock on which the party was to be built with its motto of Onye aghana nwanneya (literally meaning “Don’t abandon your brother in a lurch”) – and the supposed messiah was jumping ship in midstream and abandoning his brethren to an uncertain fate! Obi disclosed that his decision to defect to the PDP was driven by the need to be a competitor and not a spectator in national affairs. But was he really a mere spectator even while he was the governor of Anambra State and the main promoter of APGA? I certainly don’t think so.
Obi was one of the closest governors to the president even though he was an APGA governor. He was an honorary special adviser to the president on finance, was a prominent member of the Economic Management Team and frequently accompanied the president on many of his official tours abroad – quite unusual for a politician who is not a card-carrying member of the ruling party at the centre.
He was also a recipient of the national honours award of Commander of the Niger (CON) at a time when only very senior members of the PDP and the party’s mega-bucks contributors scaled through the needle’s eye. The point being made is that Obi didn’t need to defect to PDP to continue doing what he has always been doing, more so when APGA had issued an official statement to the effect that the party would wholeheartedly support Jonathan’s candidacy in 2015.
To give Obi his due, it is undeniable that he left Anambra State in a much better position than he met it. His reputation for fiscal prudence and sound financial management earned him tremendous respect with international development agencies who were ever ready and eager to do business with his administration. It came as no surprise that he reportedly handed over a very buoyant public treasury to his successor.
Obi equally made immense contributions to APGA. As the only APGA-controlled state government for a very long period of time (before the brief appearance of Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha under the APGA banner), his administration virtually bankrolled every activity involving APGA.
Our elders say that when you see a deaf man running towards the bush, you don’t ask him what he heard, you ask him what he saw. The occasion gave Obi the opportunity to repudiate and recant his belief that APGA existed principally to serve as the rallying point for the people of the South-East. In his acceptance speech, Obi concurred with the view expressed by leaders of the PDP delegation to the effect that he would contribute more to Nigeria by joining a ‘national party.’ This was a tacit acknowledgment that APGA was no more than a provincial political party. Coming from a man whose primary responsibility it was to nurture and transform APGA to a truly national party, Obi’s confession amounted to a damning self-indictment.
Makes one wonder that, perhaps, if a senatorial slot had been available just as Obi was quitting office, he’d have followed the example of his class-of-two-term colleagues to contest a senate seat on the platform of APGA in order to remain politically relevant. If you ask me, I’d say that by dumping APGA, Obi lost a great opportunity to be counted among the same class of iconic Igbo leaders like Nnamdi Azikiwe, Francis Akanu Ibiam, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Michael Iheonukara Okpara, Mbonu Ojike, Raymond Njoku and Alvan Ikoku, among others.
There are many – including Mrs. Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Jr., widow and son of the late leader and BoT chairman of APGA, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu – who strongly perceive Obi’s defection as a betrayal of the late Biafran leader and a slap on the face of APGA members in particular and Ndigbo in general.
But we must not forget that it was this same now-pilloried Obi who made Ndigbo glow with pride as he used his enormous influence with Jonathan to get approval for Ojukwu to be accorded a full State burial – something no other Nigerian president or Head of State – dead or alive – would’ve had the liver to do considering lingering animosities over the first military coup of January 15, 1966 and the three-and-half year civil war.
