WHY WILLIE OBIANO’S SUPPORT FOR JONATHAN IS UNEQUIVOCAL

 

In recent times, there has been a well-organized and massively funded campaign by some out-of-favour politicians in Anambra State to poison the cordial relationship between Chief Willie Obiano and President Goodluck Jonathan. This campaign has been simmering for quite some time, showing itself in different ways.

Only a fortnight ago, the people behind this campaign created the illusion that Chief Obiano had referred to key PDP figures in Anambra State as “mad people” and by implication had also demonized the platform on which President Jonathan is seeking re-election. Preposterous as their claim seemed, they stretched it beyond belief when they said that Governor Obiano was also critical of Prince Engr. Arthur Eze, a formidable philanthropist and PDP financier who has also been a strong backer of his administration. Phew!!!

These mind-benders also stepped beyond incredulity when they fed the sensational press the curious information that the former Special Adviser on political matters to Governor Obiano, Chief Joe Martins Uzodike was relieved of his appointment for singing a pro-Jonathan song on a live radio programme. While this article is not about Chief Uzodike or his exit from the service of the government of Anambra State, it stretches the imagination to think that the same Governor Obiano who endorsed Chief Uzodike’s appointment into President Jonathan’s campaign machinery would turn around to fire him for singing a pro-Jonathan song. Hello! Is somebody following this logic? How incredulous can these people be?

 

Curiously too, long before Uzodike was relieved of his position, the group had also made a failed attempt to yoke Governor Obiano to Governor Rotimi Amaechi, the Director General of the APC campaign organization. The funny story here is that Dozie Nwankwo, an in-law of Governor Amaechi was the facilitator of this so-called alliance between Obiano and the DG of APC Campaign organization. Always misreading the capacity of their audience to sieve through their web of lies and deceit against Obiano, these calumny campaigners believed that once the Presidency is informed that Governor Amaechi has an in-law in Anambra State who is standing election on the platform of APGA, it would accept any story that seeks to establish a political dalliance between Amaechi and Obiano. But once again, they failed. Their wild claims have not in any way affected the perception of Governor Obiano as a known supporter of President Jonathan’s second term bid.

 

Still not daunted by the obvious lack of interest in the illusion they are vending, this shadowy group who are hell bent on forcing a wedge between President Jonathan and Governor Obiano made a bold attempt at the weekend to finally roll out an all-out smear campaign against Governor Obiano. If all things go as planned, the evil campaign is expected to break in the media Monday, February 23, 2015, with poorly written and logically inchoate advertorials in the newspapers. One of the materials intercepted by an Enugu based civil society and democracy watch group known as the Initiative for Change Organization was captioned Gov. Obiano, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing …Mr. President Beware! This copy carries some of the most spurious allegations against the person of Governor Obiano, questioning his well-known support for President Jonathan and selling the puerile argument that Chief Obiano, of all people, was surreptitiously working for the dictator, General Mohammadu Buhari.  

 

Were this group not so taken in by the sheer audacity of their illogic, it would have recalled what the records say about Governor Willie Obiano’s position on the second term bid of President Goodluck Jonathan. It would have realized that it is on record that Chief Willie Obiano is probably the first governor to publicly drum his support for President Jonathan, long before most PDP governors and long before Mr. President’s declaration of interest in the on-going race. It would also have found out that only few governors have matched Governor Obiano’s consistent campaign for President Jonathan, using every opportunity that he has to talk about the coming elections to remind Ndi Anambra and other Nigerians resident in Anambra State to vote for Mr. President. This faceless group that hides under the cover of the name “Concerned Citizens of Anambra State,” would also not have missed the fact that as Chairman of APGA Board of Trustees and National Leader of the party, Governor Obiano had worked assiduously to ensure that APGA adopted President Jonathan as its own candidate for the 2015 presidential election. And perhaps more importantly too, had this group not been thoroughly inebriated in its demented pursuit of vendetta on one hand and laughable relevance on the other, it would perhaps have remembered that Chief Willie Obiano is not the typical dyed-in-the-wool politician. He is not given to any duplicitous underhand dealings that make some leaders say one thing and mean another. He does not hunt with the hounds and run with the hares. So, it is totally inconceivable that he would declare an open support for President Jonathan in the day and go to bed with Buhari at night.

 

Regardless, in the tradition of true democrats, Governor Obiano does not hold any personal views against General Buhari or his supporters or even the APC as a political party. His position as a democratically elected governor has always been that Nigerians should be given a free hand to choose from a plurality of choices. And these choices include the choice of parties, the choice of candidates as well as the choice of ideologies. Nor does Governor Obiano believe that in a growing democracy like Nigeria, only the best candidates should run for electoral offices. No. Rather, like American author and clergyman, Henry van Dyke, Obiano is a firm believer that “the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”

 

Again, as a leader who is firmly rooted in the worldviews and ethos of his people, Governor Obiano holds expansive views about how a democratic society should run; drawing heavily from the Igbo concept of plurality that is deeply embedded in the witty philosophy of Egbe belu, ugo belu.

 

It is this solid cultural mooring that helps him take the destructive criticisms and mindless personal attacks on him and his beautiful wife, Ebele, in his stride as he invests himself in the task of building a New and prosperous Anambra State.    

 

James Eze writes from Ifite, Awka (eziokwubundu@gmail.com).