APGA should be worried about its foreseen relegation instead of jubilating over a purported endorsement
By Chukwuemerie Uduchukwu
Yesterday, some supporters of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), went gaga over a perceived endorsement of Prof. Charles Soludo who claims to be an aspirant of the party by two great sons of Nnewi. In a widely shared short video, the Chief Executive Officer of Ibeto Group, Chief Cletus Ibeto (Omekannaya) and the Chief Executive Officer of Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Company, Chief Innocent Chukwuma (Ifediaso Nnewi) urged Ndị Anambra to support Soludo who paid a visit to Chief Ibeto at his Nnewi residence. Also in the video, the Innoson boss said that as long as Chief Ibeto supports Soludo, ‘they’ will also support him.
A close look at the video showed that the two great sons of Nnewi only gave their political blessings to Soludo which is normal in politics where stakeholders always wish aspirants who visit them well. Also, the funny part of the purported endorsement is that the Innoson boss made it clear that his own support for him is not sacrosanct but only based on Ibeto’s wish meaning that such support can be withdrawn at any time if Chief Ibeto announces another candidate as his choice to ndị Nnewi which he usually does at an official Nnewi Stakeholders meeting or Nnewi General Assembly.
Meanwhile, it is laughable that some people think that political endorsement by “big men” works these days. Any endorsement that is not backed by grassroot forces is useless. In fact, only political hawkers who is afraid of relating with the masses or not getting their votes move around to receive ‘endorsements’ under camera instead of proving their capacity to convince the people at the grassroots. It is even more laughable that these APGA Petite bourgeoisie focused their uninformed analysis of the purported endorsement on the Candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) for the forthcoming Anambra Guber poll, Senator Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah. Many of them claimed that Senator Ubah’s Senatorial victory in Nnewi was because Chief Ibeto endorsed him.
Anyone who lives in Nnewi knows that the name Ifeanyi Ubah moves mountains in the town. Even before his entrance into politics, Senator Ubah commanded a cult of followership in Nnewi because EVERY FAMILY in the town has benefited directly or indirectly from his benovelence. Even presently, Ifeanyi Ubah is the only politician from Nnewi that attracts mammoth crowd anytime he walks or drives through the streets of the town. The kind of love the Senator enjoys from ndị Nnewi is uncommon and that was confirmed when he stepped out of his comfort zone during the #EndSARS protests to calm the protesters. During the protest, he moved round the town with thousands of youths without any security officer and the protesters happily toured the town with him and abided by his plea for the discontinuation of the protest in Nnewi in order not to give hoodlums the opportunity to hijack it and destroy private and public properties. Only a man with the heart of gold who is widely and strongly loved by his people can make such risky move.
Moreover, for ndị APGA to throw parties because two great sons of Nnewi allegedly left Ifeanyi Ubah and gave their blessings to Soludo means that Ifeanyi Ubah is indeed Odogwu and a great threat to the party. APGA should focus on addressing present issues that may make the party to have the Zamfara experience instead of masturbating in celebration of a purported endorsement of a man that was afraid of a free Primary due to his unpopularity among the party members and ndị Anambra.
These online masturbators should note that Senator Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah (Ebubechukwuzo Nnewi) DOES NOT need any big man endorsement to win bulk votes in Nnewi. Even if 100 candidates sponsored by 100 big men emerge from Nnewi to contest with him, they will not get upto 100 votes as ndị Nnewi will as usual, follow Ebubechukwuzo who remains their big brother with a heart of gold. Ndị APGA should better go and check if they have Malaria if they keep dreaming of winning Nnewi when Ifeanyi Ubah is contesting on the platform of another political party. They should also remember that the victory of the outgoing governor Willie Obiano in Nnewi was the first time the party was able to win Nnewi votes in a decade, and that the victory was actualized because Ebubechukwuzo went Ward to Ward, village to village, market to market and on radio and begged ndị Nnewi to vote for the governor because of him.
You can disagree with these at your own peril.
- Chukwuemerie Uduchukwu