By Cajetan Mmuta Awka
There is no doubt that in a war situation, everything is possible. That explains why arch-rivals deploy every possible deadly arsenal to outsmart opponents, only to await whatever that the law may spell out, counting losses.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, and the Anambra State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the just-concluded election, Senator Andy Uba, are used to the fierce battle in the murky waters and slippery path of politics.

The latest brouhaha has been sparked during the recent past governorship election and the confusion that trailed the nomination of the party’s candidate for the November 6 poll.

It would be recalled that, before now, former chairman of APC chairman, Emeka Ike, had been accused of manipulating the list of delegates in favour of Senator Andy Uba, for him to secure the ticket of the party.

Ike had variously denied the allegations, but he was sacked from office in a bitter political drama. In his place, Basil Ejidike had emerged as the acting chairman of the party in the state, until the conduct of the party’s state congresses.

Following the approach of the November 6 election in the state, the national leadership of the APC had resolved that Ejidike should remain as the caretaker chairman, pending a scheduled party congress to elect a substantive state chairman.

The last straw that broke the camel’s back was controversies that trailed the conduct of the party’s governorship primary election.

Ejidike came under attack for endorsing Uba as the candidate of the APC for the election, a development that tore the fold apart, and there was no conduct of the party’s governorship primary.

Most of the aggrieved aspirants had accused the party’s leadership of lack of transparency and fairness to all the contenders. Specifically, they lashed at him for the ‘illegal emergence’ of Uba as a candidate.

However, barely three weeks after the November poll and Prof. Chukwuma Soludo of the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) was declared the winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), forces loyal to Senator Uba, in what seemed a night of many knives, booted Ejidike out of office, with a heap of allegations.

The anger of those behind Ejidike’s sack was further worsened when President Muhammadu Buhari congratulated Prof. Soludo and commended INEC for a peaceful outcome of the election.

Worse still, they had demanded Ejidike’s head for allegedly protesting against the election. The move was further compounded when Uba declared his resolve to challenge the outcome of the election at the election petitions tribunal.

The ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) took the turns, coupled with the timely restraint of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Val Ozigbo, Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, and others, to wash their hands off any move to drag Soludo and his party before the tribunal.

However, many had secretly taken steps to compel Senator Andy Uba not to go to the tribunal, but Uba remains unruffled and is presently tackling the Ifuofia-born governor-elect and his APGA at the tribunal over the results of the election.

Where is Nigeria going? by Charles Dickson P

Uba and Ejidike were seen by forces loyal to the Aso Rock in Abuja and Ngige as having lost sight of the ‘grave implications’ of their stand against the position of the president in the Anambra election.

Ejidike’s enemies waiting in the wings saw the banana peel and quickly used the ripped opportunity to nail him.

On November 25, the APC marksmen moved quickly and eased Ejidike out of office in what seemed a demystification of Senator Uba’s hold on to the party’s structure.

Initially, they had converged on the Marble Arch Hotel in Awka, the state capital, to perfect their ‘evil scheme’, but Ejidike made a deft move to stop a meeting organised to take a pound of his flesh.

But Ejidike had told the management of the hotel that he was never aware of any meeting slated in the area. The meeting by the coup plotters was punctured, despite all entreaties, and they were ejected from the hall.

Unbent as ever, Ejidike’s traducers deployed a ‘Plan B’, and before the media announced the suspension of Ejidike. In a statement signed by members of the State Executive Committee (SEC) and the chairmen of the local government areas in Anambra State, the spokesman of the group said; “Anambra State chapter of the All Progressives Congress APC yesterday announced that its state chairman, Chief Basil Ejidike, has been suspended as a result of insubordination and disrespect to President Muhammadu Buhari.”

A spokesperson for the committee, Uchenna Okonkwo Okom, a lawyer, told newsmen that the party had given Ngige 14 days to discuss the modalities for strengthening and repositioning of the party, and for moving the party forward in the state.

Ejidike had insisted that he remained the state chairman of the APC despite the judgment of the appellate court.

Undeterred as ever, the raging war for the soul and party’s structure on Friday, December 10, 2021, shifted to Abuja, the nation’s seat of power.

Uba and Ngige are both former governors. The latter currently holds a ministerial portfolio (Labour and Employment) at Abuja. They are not allowing anything to chance as the APC prepares for its congresses ahead of the 2023 general elections.

And there has been a null within the state chapter of the party. It has been crises unlimited in the wake of the party’s membership registration, governorship primary election, and the forthcoming congresses.

However, there is no holding back for the actors over who controls the party’s machinery in the state. Both political rivals are neck-deep in the battle over who wields more powerful influence at both the state and national levels.

The Abuja meetings of long knives

On Friday, Ngige and Uba held separate caucus meetings of the party in Abuja. While Ngige held his parallel parley with his men in his Abuja residence, Uba had his caucus meeting with his loyalists also in the Maitama area in Abuja.

It was evident that the number of members of the APC state caucus in attendance at both meetings would determine where the pendulum will shift too as the battle royale keeps festering.

Findings revealed that the Senator Andy Uba-led caucus meeting of the party in the state, indicate that some other stakeholders had adopted him as the authentic leader of the party in the state.

The state caucus took the resolution of adopting Uba following the outcome of the meeting held on Friday night. The meeting resolved, amongst others, to affirm Uba as the authentic leader of the APC state chapter.

The party caucus noted that the decision was in tandem with the standing paradigm that the current gubernatorial candidate of the party becomes the leader of the party in the state.

The state caucus also received briefings from Ejidike on the state of the party in Anambra and accepted and adopted the report given by the chairman, Ejidike.

The briefings included the suspension handed down to former state secretary, Chukwuma Agufugo, and erstwhile publicity secretary, Okelo Madukaife.

The meeting had in attendance former senators, current and former members of the House of Representatives, current and former presiding and principal officers of the State House of Assembly, 14 out of 17 members of the State Working Committee (SWC) of the party, a former minister, current and former zonal and national officers of the party, as well as the governorship and deputy governorship candidates of the party in the recently-held Anambra gubernatorial election, among others.

Among those in attendance were Uba, his deputy, Emeka Okafor, Senators Ik Obiora and Emma Anosike, Linda Ikpeazu, Vincent Ofumelu, Chidi Duru, Chiedu Eluemunor, Jerry Ugokwe, Ralph Okeke, Fort Dike, Chuma Nzeribe, Afam Ogene, Chizor Obidigwe, and Peter Madubueze.

But a faction of the APC, loyal to Ngige has rejected the emergence of Uba as the leader of the party, affirming the minister as the authentic leader of the party in the state.

Their version of the meeting was hosted by Ngige and chaired by a former speaker of the House of Representatives, Agunwa Anaekwe.

The group consisting of Federal Government appointees, ex-lawmakers, also met on Friday night where they held a parallel meeting to that where Uba was appointed leader.

The group met as a combined emergency caucus and SEC. The meeting called on the National Caretaker Committee/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) to dissolve the present caretaker committee of the party in the state.

With this, the stage was set for the intense battleground. In attendance at separate Ngige faction of the meeting were Senators Joy Emodi and Emmanuel Anosike, a former member of the House of Representatives, Gozie Agbakoba, Engr. Nelson Onubogu, the State Secretary of APC, John Agufugo, and other members of the SEC.

Others are governorship aspirants in the November 6, 2021 elections, Edozie Madu, Sir Paul Orajaka, Colonel Geoffrey Onyejebgu (retd.), Maxwell Okoye, and Hygers Igwebuike.

Several Federal Government appointees, including chairmen of boards and the 21 local government party chairmen in Anambra State were equally present.

In the eight-point communiqué read at the end of the meeting, Anaekwe, an APC stalwart, said, “After well-articulated deliberations on the state of affairs in our dear party-the All Progressives Congress (APC) Anambra State Chapter-the meeting resolved as follows:

“The meeting took notice of our aggrieved brothers who were disenfranchised in the 2021 Governorship Primary Election and appealed to them to sheath their sword and continue to assist in building a formidable party in Anambra State.

They called on the National Caretaker Committee and Extraordinary Convention Committee to implement the above and dissolve the present Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Anambra State chapter and put in place a seven-man Interim Management Committee to manage the affairs of the party in the state and oversee the conduct of all the congresses of the party in Anambra State, to hold in a fortnight after the New Year.”

According to Anaekwe, the meeting further called on the National Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Committee to put in place all processes leading to the conduct and completion of a free and fair state-wide congress in Anambra State within 45 days.

Ngige insisted that no governorship primary election be held on June 26, a development he said injured many people in the party.