Tambuwal, Ihedioha: United in rebellion, separated by defection.. IMO GUBER RACE in the lens Emeka Nze informs; Politicians in Nigeria often wallow in self-delusion, an outcome of blind ambition to continue to rule the people, regardless of their poor performance records. One would have expected the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha to realise that the bell tolling for his boss, the Speaker Rt. Hon Aminu Tambuwal is no less exclusive to him, for what is good for the goose is good for the gander. After all, they were birds of a feather that benefitted from the rebellion against the power equation of the leadership of their party at the onset of the 7th National Assembly. From the last count, political sins have never been forgiven and if Ihedioha would think otherwise, to stay on in PDP would only amount to self-delusion. The event of a brigandage style which ushered the duo as Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively of the House of Representatives still reverberates in the memory of the PDP power echelon and the recent decampment of the Speaker to the major opposition the All Progressive Congress merely makes revisualization easier. To all intent and purposes, Tambuwal seemed to be a better student of political science than his deputy, who thinks that he can eat his cake and have it. One, Tambuwal apart from being mindful of the political configuration in his Sokoto state as an APC state, realised that for him to remain relevant in the scheme of things, he ought to have grassroots support – hence his decision to cross-carpet to the APC. Secondly, he realised the credibility problem his emergence as Speaker created between him and the PDP hierarchy and understood that the party merely tolerated him for the support he enjoys among his colleagues in the House. After this 7th National Assembly, the handwritings are not too difficult to decipher, that Tambuwal would be consigned to obscurity should he choose to remain in the party. Characteristic of PDP, its treatment of previous leadership of the House which rose in dissent against the President and the party leadership has never been palatable. The likes of Umar Gali Na’abba and his Deputy Chibudum Nwuche, Alhaji Aminu Masari and Austin Opara in the 5th and 6th National Assemblies respectively are good cases in point. Some Nigerians who have kept tabs on the Speaker’s dancing steps since he assumed the leadership of the House are applauding Tambuwal’s decision to berth his political ship on APC so as to further his career in politics. It might be germane to recall that Tambuwal had his roots in All Peoples Party (APP) – rechristened the All Nigeria’s Peoples Party (ANPP) – which fused with other opposition political parties to form the All Progressive Congress (APC). It was due to the political exigencies in the state that culminated into him becoming a member of the PDP. His governor then, Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, was a member of the APP. When Bafarawa moved to Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Tambuwal alongside the present Governor, Alhaji Aliyu Magatakardan Wamakko moved to the PDP. That movement paid off when he became the Speaker. Now that that same governor returned to the opposition and has completed his tenure of 8 years, the permutation is that the banner of leadership of the state might be falling on Tambuwal, thus remaining in PDP would amount to political suicide. The Speaker aside, his deputy Hon Ihedioha seems to be swimming against the tide in his state, Imo. Here is a politician whose attainment has been by dint of luck rather than by his political dexterity or hard work. Ihedioha is perhaps still counting that his luck is yet to run out. A beneficiary of the Atiku’s political network, Emeka climbed from being a political adviser to the former Vice President and moved up to become a member of the House of Representatives after Hon Greg Egu’s one term. Egu’s exit from the House of Reps, rather than being out of weakness, was in honour of the gentleman’s agreement between two LGAs, Aboh-Mbaise and Ngor Okpalla which form the Federal Constituency. Emeka on the other hand, has held in breach that understanding of switched representation between local governments areas in their AbohMbaise/Ngor Okpalla Federal constituency. This slight, more than anything else, has drawn the ire of the Ngor Okpalla people against him and pitched Aboh-Mbaise against Ngor Okpalla. Today Ngor Okpalla is praying to have Emeka to vacate the seat so that they can take their slot. This prayer is rarely borne out of love but out of the necessity not to compete with a man whose pocket has become very deep. The attestation to his bottomless pocket is the acquisition of property across the country and his alleged readiness to buy his way into the House by ‘settling’ some men and women of filthy lucre in Ngor Okpala, a source revealed. Today Emeka does not pretend that he wants the Imo Government House. Prayer answered. Unlike Tambuwal, it seems that Emeka is oblivious of his status as a “rebellious and a treacherous” politician. Like Tambuwal, his state is in opposition of the PDP government but he is at daggers drawn with Governor Rochas Okorocha, yet he is junketing around Imo state to become its governor on the platform of a party which he rebelled against to become Deputy Speaker. The question is: “Will PDP give him the ticket? Will the party forget too soon that he was key to the distortion of the party’s power equation at the commencement of this 7th national assembly, when the speakership of the House was ceded the South West?” Analysts say that even if PDP forgets its vindictive character and give Emeka the ticket; chances are that he remained an apostle of Atiku and may work against the party when it matters most. In the political journeys of the former Vice president, Ihedioha seemingly left his benefactor in the cold, succeeded in a blinding ambition to stay put in the House which observers believed depended largely on writing of results in his favour. As if that logic does not suffice, there is no doubt that the Mbaise Kingdom where Emeka hails from itches to have a go at the Government House in the state and there seems to be no love lost between the Mbutu-Mbaise born politician and his people. The feeling that if there should be anybody at all to govern Imo from the area, it should not be Hon Ihedioha, is very much palpable. The argument whether or not he has not done anything in the 12 years he represented the people at the House is still ongoing. It is also a palpable feeling that if Emeka contests for the governorship on any platform at all, he will be frittering the chances of the Mbaise kingdom which has not had a go at the Government House in Imo state. However, there is another feeling that he has so much money to do so. Feelers indicate that what the people of the area needed is a politician such as has a clean slate, who has not incurred the wrath of a section of the state or rebelled against party’s constituted authority. More so, the feeling of the people is that Emeka, solo has enjoyed and is still enjoying the largesse of office and the few who have benefitted from him were either his in-laws or the few from his maternal home among the Okerekes. When he allegedly embarked on the odious mission to remove Ms Aruma Oteh from the headship of Security and exchange Commission (SEC), many people did realise that Hamman Hembe was acting out the script written by Ihedioha who was on a revenge mission against Oteh who purportedly ousted from office his Auntie, Ndidi Okereke Onyuke formerly of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Today, Hembe is in the political wilderness in the House of Reps yet to recover from his ignominious role in that saga. Keen political observers have also expressed worry about the desperation shown by the Deputy Speaker to actualise his ambition. At an occasion of Yam Festival in Mbaise, Ihedioha and Okorocha were almost drawn into fisticuffs but for the timely intervention of the security agencies. Also, Ihedioha, while addressing his supporters was full of fury against the Minister of State for Education, Professor Viola Onwuliri. Those at the occasion who were dismayed by the warning said it sounded like a moving train ready to crush anything, anybody in its way. What was considered the hue of arrogance currently exhibited by Hon Ihedioha is nonetheless worrisome to concerned citizens of Imo , who are beginning to question his political pedigree. The question as to where Emeka had worked before he became a politician often recurs and this is underscored whenever he challenges people with great exploits, especially, in the academia. The view that he should mend fences with his state governor and seek accommodation in the APC if he wishes to aspire for governorship of the state might be well-meaning. Purveyors of this opinion said that the PDP is hell-bent on correcting the mistakes of the past when it shot itself on the foot by supporting another party to produce Chief Ikedi Ohakim, whose shoddy performance in the state backfired as a mass revolt against the PDP which gave vent to protest votes to the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) under which Okorocha came to power. If the PDP must correct the mistake in Imo, Emeka, among the aspirants, is the last under consideration.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 14:27:31 +0000
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