PART I
According to Peter Drucker Foundation, leaders ascend to the altitude of immortality through their attitude, conduct and display of sterling managerial acumen at moments of challenge and controversy. Inadvertently, leaders are also consigned to the most pitiable chasm by the choices they made, while in office.
Judges such as; conscience and history weave narratives, define leaders and put them in their appropriate shelf and class. It is this scintillating and pragmatic leadership drives woven around intellectual vibes that Chief Edozie Njoku’s led APGA brings to the frontage.
Looking at the list of names that make up HE Obiano’s Reconciliation Committee, anyone with an in-depth knowledge of the intractable crisis in APGA will appreciate that the Governor’s Reconciliation Committee portrays him as a defiant and deviant leader that thrives in playing to the gallery.
As at today, APGA seem to be divided more than ever. It is worrisome that APGA is undergoing this despicable phase under HE Obiano. The crisis that has rocked APGA is as a result of the inability of HE Obiano to galvanize men and resources within the Party to provide timeless leadership, especially at this propitious time.
Unfortunately, HE Obiano’s advisers and aides have continued to tell the King that those seeking to reform the Party and align it on the path of self-redemption are his enemies. Rather than live above board by calling a meeting of those campaigning for Oye’s drive, with CONCRETE and VERIFIBALE evidence, the Governor has continued to advertise his detestable marriage with Oye at the detriment of the Party.
However, military science teaches that retreat is a conditio sine qua non at the battlefield; instructively, intelligence maintains the call of the tiger is the theatre of its death. The composition of that committee is a reflection of how HE Obiano understands and appreciates Party politics as the National leader of the Party.
Unarguably, one of the profound achievements of Ndigbo in the Fourth Republic maybe the conception and tenacity to have gifted APGA to Nigerians. At the emergence of APGA in 2002, our motto ‘Be thy brother’s keeper’ reverberated and resonated with all Nigerians seeking freedom and redemption. Nothing is as stunning as the success that APGA recorded in its first outing in 2003 election.
Regrettably, rather than take its pride of place as a formidable political platform, APGA has remained a victim of its managers and leaders. APGA is supposed to have been nurtured like a beautiful virgin and allowed to mature to marriageable age, painfully; it was introduced to horrendous and mind boggling incest which has left it battered and shattered.
Today, APGA is a shadow of the projection of its forbearers’. It has been reduced to Aguleri Progressives Grandstanding Alliance. Like every other victim of rape, APGA needs utmost attention and medication. Our inability to admit that APGA, the beautiful pride needs vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) attention is the reason why it cannot conceive, talk more of giving birth. No woman can conceive with battered and shattered gateway.
Irrespective of party affiliation, every Igbo man and other marginalized people have emotional and sentimental affinity towards APGA. To allow HE Obiano and his underlings to continue to mishandle our most cherished political heritage is to mock Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, whom Frederick Forsyth, a renowned British journalist devoted a reasonable hunk of his book, ‘The Making of the African Legend: The Biafran Story’ to edify his phenomenal and enigmatic nature. Are we no longer Igbos? We are reputed as a people that create a deity and when it strays from the terms of reference, we tie it up and reduce it to a heap of ruins. The success or otherwise of any organization rests with the leader’s ability to remain dispassionate, impartial and neutral on matters that challenge the foundation of the organization he presides; his ability to dispense justice and fairness determines his ascent or descent.
Muhyideen Imam
National Secretary
APGA