Ministerial appointment: Give us a new face, Anambra APC stakeholder writes Tinubu
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President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
I write with a great sense of concern and humbly appeal to the President of Nigeria and National leader of our great party the All Progressives Congress (APC) Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu to look away from the old brigade and appoint a new face as next Minister from Anambra state. This I believe is the only way to bring the nearly dead Anambra APC back to life. I owe nobody any apologies as I have done my due diligence as regards this matter. We have an opportunity to resurrect our party only if Mr President gives us the right person as Minister and Leader as he announces his cabinet in the next few days.
There is no condition regarding this appointment except Merit. No Anambra APC member in good conscience can boldly lobby to be made a minister because we failed woefully and most of us betrayed Tinubu. Almost all APC candidates for National assembly elections were openly Campaigning for Peter Obi as a means of achieving their own goal of victory. Guess what? It backfired on all of them. Anambra scorecard: No single Senator. No single House of Representatives member. No single house of assembly member. I wonder where the State Chairman and his excos will muster the temerity to demand for anything in Tinubu’s administration.
Pls don’t even tell me a non APC Anambra member cannot be made Minister. Everybody and anybody can be Minister for Anambra state as long as President Tinubu appoints him and the NASS approves. Maybe we even need a non member who does not know us and will not sustain the discrimination to energize us. Geoffrey Onyema wasn’t a member of APC when Buhari chose him in Enugu state. It’s about the choice of the leader. The only constitutional provision (by implication) is that he or she will be onye Anambra.
I saw a trending online publication which projected Ambassadors Elijah Onyeagba and Jerry Ugokwe, Andy Ubah, John Bosco Onunkwo and Nkem Okeke as possible Minister choices for Tinubu, and hereby urge Mr President to ignore all of them and look in a totally fresh direction.
Our so-called leaders have played the selfish politics and have taken care of themselves and their families. Which regular APC member benefitted anything from the Ministerial appointments of Dr Chris Ngige and Barr. Sharon Ikeazor?
What did the duo do to uplift the party in Anambra state? How many times did they gather the party? These two are the major undertakers of the internment of APC in Anambra state. I thank God they have left with Buhari and I am confident that Tinubu will not look their way for advise.
The most baffling and regrettable is the fact that rather than supporting the APC presidential candidate, our then leader Dr Chris Ngige who was a serving Minister had the guts to publicly deny the party and it’s candidate by announcing on Channels television that he will vote his conscience.
We know his conscience was Atiku Abubakar who allegedly saved him when he was kidnapped as a governor. But we also know that Dr Ngige is a beneficiary of Chief Bola Tinubu who gave him his first bullet proof car when his life was endangered.
APC Anambra needs redemption and this cannot be achieved by these men sponsoring “positive” posts for themselves in the media to confuse and cajole Tinubu to make a mistake. Again, I urge Mr President not to consider any of them for the job as they do not deserve it.
1. Elijah Onyeagba: He is a serving Ambassador (appointed by Buhari) attached to Burundi and all he could muster for Tinubu with his clout and resources in his polling unit was a mere 24 votes. He is a renegade whose loyalty is clearly not for Tinubu as was manifested in his support for Orji Kalu’s Senate Presidency bid. It is public knowledge that even when the National working commitee of our great party and the then President-elect Tinubu had in their wisdom settled for Godswill Akpabio as choice for Senate President, Elijah Onyeagba was standing behind Chief Orji Uzo Kalu as he addressed the press to the contrary. They didn’t agree with the party and held their guns until they were defeated on the floor of the senate. We don’t want dissident members who have benefitted from APC without any positive effect in their wards to be made our Minister. He is still part of the plans to scuttle the Senate leadership (an indeed Nigeria) by decamping to PDP with Yari.
2. Jerry Ugokwe: The PDP man who suddenly found APC attractive this time around is also in the promo as a possible choice for Tinubu? His penchant for sharing his campaign activities online is amusing. It was obvious he was up to something sinister. He was bold enough to share photographs as he was hopping from one aeroplane to another “following” his governor friend in far north and even hosting campaigns in for them. Was he even in Nnobi during the Presidential election? What is his electoral value at the grassroots considering his constituents’ assessment of his nearly two terms sojourn in the house of reps and 4 years as Nigerian Ambassador to Austria? Did Jerry Ugokwe even vote in his polling unit at Nnobi on the election day? Now he wants to be Minister?
3. Andy Ubah: This Abuja based highly unpopular Senator is clearly and verifiably not grassroots oriented. He is also proved not to be a good manager of man and materials. His only touch down in Anambra state so far in 2023 was the day he flew in to witness Tinubu’s rally and promptly vanished immediately Tinubu left Anambra. Of course, Andy was nowhere to be found on the election day. He is a political baggage and not who we need as our Minister at this trying time.
4. John Bosco Onunkwo: This serial aspirant who has nearly offered himself for any available position is an over zealous youth who dreams big. This APC member who went to contest for house of reps after contesting for Governor was seen campaigning and telling voters to vote for Peter Obi for President and himself for house of reps. He lost his election and now wants to be Tinubu’s minister?
5. Nkem Okeke: This former Deputy governor who clearly had very little or no electoral value even as an APGA leader, begged Buhari for appointment the moment he met him at the villa after leaving APGA for APC. Buhari did not give him any appointment. He failed woefully in his ward. Tinubu lost in his polling unit. I actually doubt if he voted for Tinubu. He is from the same ward as Elijah Onyeagba where they raked in less than 100 votes for Tinubu. He also wants to be Minister? Hmmmm.
The Anambra state APC is in tatters and needs a redeemer as Minister. The men and women who have led us so far are very big disappointments. For my fellow members who love the truth, may the truth set us free. We need a new face, a new agenda, a new template and a new action where each APC member will be proud to identify with the party.
Chief Okey Ukekwe
A Stakeholder of the All Progressives Congress from Anambra state writes from Aguluzigbo.
