Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo reports about the political horse trading associated with the Abia State Peoples Democratic Party's primary held at the weekend which resulted in the election of former Chief of Staff to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Chief Ambrose Ahiwe, as the party's gubernatorial candidate
For the second time in the ongoing election process, a governorship candidate has been nominated by the Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Chief Ambrose Okechukwu Ahiwe, the immediate past Chief of Staff to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has now emerged as the governorship candidate of the ruling party in Abia State. He won the fresh primary election conducted by the party to elect a new flag bearer for the March 11, 2023 gubernatorial race.
The fresh governorship primary was not by design. It came about due to the vacuum created by the death of the PDP governorship candidate, Professor Eleazar Uche Ikonne. The former Vice-chancellor of the Abia State University Uturu (ABSU had emerged the party's governorship flag bearer at the first primary held on May 25, 2022. But the cruel hands of death stopped him from finishing the governorship race.
Abia PDP was in quandary. But the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) promptly clarified the apparent hazy situation cretaed by Ikonne's demise.
While the PDP leadership was still in a state of shock, wondering on the appropriate step to take, INEC came out to give direction.
Shortly after Ikonne's death was confirmed by his family, the electoral body announced that he could be replaced.
The INEC National Commissioner in charge of Publicity and Voter Education, Mr. Festus Okoye, explained that PDP still had a window of opportunity to continue the governorship race with another flag bearer in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act. He therefore directed that the bereaved political party should conduct a fresh governorship primary within 14 days beginning from the very day the candidate passed on.
"Section 33 of the Electoral Act, 2022 is clear, unambiguous, and unequivocal that a political party shall not be allowed to change or substitute its candidate whose name has been submitted to the commission under section 29 of the Electoral Act except in the case of death or withdrawal," Okoye had explained.
In directing PDP to replace its governorship candidate, INEC further clarified that the deputy governorship candidate of the party (Hon Okey Igwe) could not automatically assume the position of the gubernatorial candidate since the election was yet to start.
And so the Abia PDP on Saturday, February 4, 2023 assembled the same delegates that had elected the late governorship candidate at the same Umuahia Township Stadium to elect his replacement.
The delegates were to make their choice from among eight aspirants. Five of the contestants had participated in the first primary. They include the Deputy Governor of Abia state, Ude Oko Chukwu; former Abia PDP chairman, Senator Emma Nwaka; Hon Sampson Orji, Ezinwanyi Jonah and Lucky Igbokwe.
They were joined by three fresh aspirants, Chief Ahiwe, Bob Ogu, who resigned as commissioner for works to join the race and an international businessman, Dr Eric Opah.
Before the fresh primary, the State Caucus of the party had met and resolved that the replacement for the late gubernatorial candidate should come from the same local government the deceased hailed from. The decision was contentious as it threw up the issue of zoning which had last year generated internal crisis from which the party has not fully recovered. The zoning arrangement was resolved in favour of Isiala Ngwa North Local Government after it was put to voting.
An insider at the Caucus meeting held at Umuahia on January 29, 2023 told THISDAY that the issue of zoning was put to vote following "vehement opposition" by some party chieftains.
Those opposed to retaining the governorship ticket in Isiala Ngwa North had argued that it should go to Abia North Senatorial District.
Abia PDP had last year curiously zoned the ticket to both Abia North and Abia Central in order to wriggle out of the power rotation quagmire. Members of PDP from Abia North had reasoned that since the late governorship candidate was from Abia Central, a replacement should come from Abia North to balance up the double zoning. But the Abia chief executive had other ideas.
It was learnt that Governor Ikpeazu had insisted that his original plan to hand over to a successor from the Ngwa side of Abia Central remains sacrosanct hence he did not yield ground.
Right from the commencement of the ongoing transition programme, Ikpeazu has insisted that he "must point the torch" as his predecessors had done in deciding their successors. He had his way as overwhelming majority of the Caucus members sided with the man, who calls the shots.
It became obvious that Ahiwe has found favour with his boss to become the next governorship candidate of PDP.
Ahiwe, who assumed duties as CoS mid April last year resigned his position few days after Ikonne's death thereby fuelling speculations that Ikpeazu had picked him as the new anointed candidate. Ikonne enjoyed the same privilege which was the reason his emergence was a roller-coaster affair. It was not different for Ahiwe.
Ikpeazu deployed resources to ensure that his most recent CoS emerged as the governorship flag bearer. Apart from bearing the cost of Ahiwe's expression of interest and nomination forms, Governor Ikpeazu, it was reliably gathered, also picked the bills for Bob Ogu and Eric Opah.
This largely accounted for the drama that played out at the venue of the fresh primary.
The contestants were called out and given five minutes each to make a speech. When Ogu was called up he expressed his gratitude to the party for zoning the ticket to Isiala Ngwa North.
He then called Opah to join him and announced that "myself and Opah have in the spirit of togetherness adopted Ahiwe".
Opah said he he had "extensive discussion" with Ogu before they both arrived at their joint decision to step down for their kinsman, Ahiwe.
Earlier, the only female contestant, Ezinwanyi Jonah, announced her stepping down for Ahiwe and urged her supporters to vote for him in line with the zoning decision of the State Caucus.
After the three contestants stepped down for Ahiwe the remaining ones standing to slug it out with the anointed aspirant were from outside Ngwa area. Ude Oko Chukwu, Emma Nwaka and Sampson Orji, come from different local government areas all in Abia North while Lucky Igbokwe is from Umuahia North in Abia Central. Thus, it became clear that the fresh primary has revived the governorship ticket rift between Abia North PDP and their Abia Central counterpart.
There was a subtle attempt to compel the Deputy Governor to step down for Ahiwe.
After the four contestants had stepped down, the Vice-chairman/Acting state publicity secretary of Abia PDP, Hon Amah Abraham, who compered the event, repeatedly called Oko Chukwu to deliver his "goodwill message".
The Deputy Governor, who had already delivered his speech and called on delegates to vote for him, was palpably embarrassed with the prodding to step down for Ahiwe. Indeed, that was what he was expected to do in the "goodwill message" he was being asked to deliver. He didn't budge.
The delegates cast their ballots for the remaining five contestants. The exercise was conducted by an eight-member Special Electoral Committee headed by the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki. Other members of the Committee include Senator George Sekibo, Senator Felix Kola Ogunlawe, Hon. Binta Bello, Hon. Linda Ikpeazu, Mr. Atzer Terzungwe and Hon. Felix Hassan Hyatt who served as the Secretary.
INEC was on hand to supervise the fresh primary of Abia PDP with the presence of Festus Okoye and INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC) for the state, Ike Izuchukwu.
After collation and tallying of votes by the eight-member Special Electoral Committee of the PDP sent by the National Secretariat to conduct the fresh primary, the result was declared by its Chairman and Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki. He returned Ahiwe elected having scored 496 votes or 91 percent of the total 516 votes cast. Both Oko Chukwu and Igbokwe got 12 votes each to be placed in joint distant second position while Orji came third with 11 votes.
It turned out that the fresh primary was a no contest for Ahiwe due to the heavy influence of the governor. Though the three contestants from Abia North all went into the fray without presenting a single front, their collective tally of votes showed that even delegates from their zone were influenced not to vote for their own. It was learnt that delegates could not be rewarded with the new notes due to the ongoing nationwide cash crunch. Instead they went home with $3.000 each.
Ahiwe in his acceptance speech said his emergence was a product of "wide consultations" across the state. He noted that the decision to retain the governorship ticket in Isiala Ngwa North "has united our party and made it stronger".
The new governorship hopeful is from Eziama Ntigha while the late candidate hailed from Nsulu, all in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government.
Ahiwe appealed to his rival contestants to join hands with him and work for the success of the party in the forthcoming poll. He declared that "there is victor, no vanquished" in the governorship primary. "Our party, through consensus, has produced a candidate that has united our party," he said, adding that there was a wide range of consultations preceding the primary and his emergence.
Despite the drawback suffered by Abia PDP over the demise of its governorship candidate, the party regards the successful outcome of the fresh primary as a source of strength and unity. Obaseki and his committee delivered on their promise to make the process transparent and credible. The Edo governor had told the delegates that the emergence of a popular candidate through a democratic process would strengthen the party.
The state commissioner for trade, Chief John Okiyi Kalu said Ahiwe's victory was expected because of his popularity across the state. "We have given Abia a very popular man," he enthused.
The leadership of Abia PDP is riding the pink cloud over the successful outcome of the primary leading to Ahiwe's emergence. In a statement issued after the exercise, the Vice-chairman/Acting state publicity secretary, Hon Abraham, said the ruling party has really disappointed the opposition by conducting a seamless primary.
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He said: "The emergence of Chief Okechukwu Ahiwe as the Abia PDP guber candidate without rancour and bitterness in the PDP family as widely expected by the opposition and critics of the PDP is testimony that the PDP is stronger, more united and more formidable than ever".
The Abia PDP spokesman credited Ikpeazu with the overall success of the primary. "The Party is thankful to the leader of the Party in the State, Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, for mobilising and uniting all interests for the successful and hitch-free conduct of the primary election," he said.
Yet it could not be assumed that all is now well in the Abia PDP family as the leadership is trying to portray. One of the governorship aspirants, Sampson Orji, has not discontinued his legal challenge of the first primary before participating in the second one last Saturday.
His ground for going to court was the delegates list, which he said was concocted. The same delegates list was still used in the fresh primary. Since the beneficiary of the first primary is now late, there are fears Orji could initiate a fresh suit against Ahiwe's emergence.
It was obvious the contestants that lost to Ahiwe left the venue with bottled up anger. None of them formally conceded defeat and congratulated the winner. The general sentiment in Abia North that PDP has dealt with them unfairly by denying them the governorship ticket still persists.
Even though "the guided" delegates from the zone did not express this sentiment in their voting at the primary, it is not going to wane too soon before the March 11 gubernatorial poll.
Some of the aspirants that participated in the first primary were said to have questioned the eligibility of new aspirants, Ahiwe, Ogu and Opah to participate in the second primary. There could be trouble for the party if any of the aspirants that lost decides to seek judicial interpretation of Ahiwe's eligibility.
Whatever happens thereafter, the PDP in Abia has overcome the likely scenario of going into the 2023 governorship election without a candidate after Prof Ikonne's passage.
Ahiwe has stepped in to fill gap. He said that he came from the private sector with a successful oil and gas business. The former CoS assured the PDP faithful that, having worked with Governor Ikpeazu for the past seven years, he has garnered enough experience to pilot the affairs of Abia if given the mandate in March.
