Posted by John Ameh on
SOME top functionaries of the Anambra State Governor, Dr. Chris Ngige, including cabinet members, are now sneaking to the residence of the acclaimed godfather of the state politics, Chief Chris Uba, in Enugu to pledge their allegiance.
SOME top functionaries of the Anambra State Governor, Dr. Chris Ngige, including cabinet members, are now sneaking to the residence of the acclaimed godfather of the state politics, Chief Chris Uba, in Enugu to pledge their allegiance.
The development is coming barely a week after the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] readmitted Uba into the party after his initial suspension along with the governor from the party.
A number of political aides of Ngige have also joined the fray in the discreet contacts to team up with the business mogul over the supremacy battle between the two personalities for the soul of Anambra.
Some others, including a top official, who oversees highly classified schedules on behalf of the Anambra State government (names withheld), yet to make physical presence at Uba's house, have however, reportedly made contacts with him on telephone.
At least nine members of the State House of Assembly have also been reported to have either sneaked into Uba's house by night or used certain contacts to reach him after the PDP pardoned him.
About four commissioners, two special advisers, some former commissioners and one official, who recently swapped his portfolio, have also allegedly gone to Enugu to discuss with Uba about their political future.
But, the government in a swift reaction, through the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Chief Charles Amilo, told Sunday Punch that it would amount to 'political suicide" for anybody to place his hope in Uba.
'It is only a fool who lacks the capacity to read the political barometre accurately that will think that Uba is a force to reckon with in the new Anambra State that we have built and are still building under Ngige", Amilo said.
Investigations by Sunday Punch revealed that the officials were jittery over what would become their fate in the political calculations of the state ahead of 2007, in view of the apparent posture of the national body of the PDP to consolidate Uba's hold on the party.
The officials and some politicians in the Ngige camp of the PDP are said to be unwilling to leave the party, as the governor, who has been severally linked to other parties, seems set to do.
In spite of his expulsion from the PDP, Ngige has maintained that he remains a member of the party in view of a court order voiding the expulsion, but he has also remarked frequently that at the appropriate time, he will not hesitate to dump the party.
A source, who witnessed some of the nocturnal visits to Uba's home, confided in Sunday Punch on Saturday that the governor's latest link with the Movement for the Defence of Democracy (MDD), a group made up of aggrieved PDP members, had further compounded the anxiety of the officials and the said aides.
'Some obviously want to remain in the PDP, but they are caught up in this problem of factions.
'Some have future political ambitions and they don't know what will happen next. They are not in a position to resolve the dispute between the factions. So, they think that it is better to start doing some calculations.
'Besides, some of the officials complained that they have not made money from this government. The majority of them have not received their housing allowances and other entitlements for the larger part of this year.
'The truth is that they are ‘broke' and probably wish to start thinking about something, to make moves", the source added.
It was gathered that the anxious officials also secretly participated in the recently-concluded PDP re-registration exercise in their wards in spite of their claim that they boycotted the exercise just as Ngige did.
Sunday Punch learnt that a former member of the National Assembly, reported to be close to Ngige, is coordinating the activities of the MDD in the state, an indication that the governor might also ask his followers in the PDP to begin to fraternise with the group.
But, Amilo, who also denied that Ngige was in a hurry to abandon the PDP, told Sunday Punch that '95 to 99 per cent" of PDP members and 'all government officials" pledged their loyalty to the governor.
He said, 'What is the sense in thinking that people will flock to Uba's house? This man was not there when we formed the PDP; he is no longer relevant, especially in the Anambra State of today.
'It is rather the opposite; people are flocking to Ngige instead because of what he stands for. Anywhere you go, the people struggle to touch him.
'Nobody is talking about Uba and I can't see why any government official will place hope in him except those who want to commit political suicide."
SUNDAY PUNCH, November 20, 2005