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Coming fast
on the heels of the recent emergence of Chief Willie Obiano, governor of
Anambra State, as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) and Leader of
APGA, the two events speak to the clarity of vision that informed the choice of
Governor Obiano as the party leader. Perhaps nothing could have spoken louder
about the party’s obvious low aim in the past than the near instantaneous rush
of hope that Obiano’s new leadership has fueled, leading to the two great
events under review. For a while APGA had seemed content with its narrow
canvass, straining against the leash of a leadership that obviously lacked the inspirational
leadership to attract people of note in the region where it is supposed to have
its strongest roots. But with the entry of Dr. Alex Otti, a thoroughgoing
technocrat with a towering reputation for excellence in the nation’s private
sector, APGA looks sure enough to reclaim the promise it once held for Ndigbo
by offering a credible alternative to Ndi Abia; a great sub-sect of the larger
Igbo nation whose known capacity for greatness seems to have been stultified
for years by bad leadership. It is this low aim that Alex Otti has obviously
come to change…
Indeed,
there is a growing feeling in most parts of the South East that with Alex
Otti’s entrance into APGA, Governor Willie Obiano is quickly bringing his
well-known people skills to bear on the fortunes of the party; that APGA would
finally shrug off its age-old lethargy and strike out with greater boldness on
the journey to reclaim the entire region from the ruling party. Political
observers point to Obiano’s impressive records in governance so far as proof
that he can turn things around in record time. They argue that with his
inclusive and open approach to leadership, APGA would cast aside its famed
narrowness of vision that hitherto seemed to mirror a seeming inability to see
the big picture; the insular instinct that drove the desire to keep the party
as nothing more than a symbolic flag that flutters only when there is a
negotiation to make at the center. It was this anachronistic vision that
stymied every chance of the party ever spreading beyond Anambra State. It is
this paradigm that Governor Obiano has finally come to change….jpg)
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Speaking at
the Amawbia Governor’s Lodge during his visit, Dr Otti bristled with
brilliance; a striking effervescence that Ndi Abia may have missed for a while.
“I have always known that APGA is home to me,” he intoned. “I must thank His
Excellency, Governor Obiano for those calls that you made a couple of months
ago that said I should come and join you to rebuild Igbo land and Nigeria. I
have answered that call in the affirmative,” he declared, then quoting Edmund
Burke on the conspiracy of silence among good men that allows evil to thrive in
society, Otti enthused that people who sit in silence while evil reigns have
lost the right to complain. Comparing his technocratic background with Chief
Obiano’s, he recalled that his journey into the political race began when “I
looked at myself and said, we cannot all sit idly by and complain and
criticize. If we do nothing about the situation, we lose the right to complain.
I told myself that I better stand up or shut up. And I choose the former. And
very soon, we shall see a radical transformation in Abia State.” Dr Otti also
thanked Governor Obiano for providing a quality leadership that has inspired
his erstwhile colleagues in the private sector into envisioning a role for
themselves in political leadership to retrieve Nigeria from the depths.
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For the
National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, the entry of Alex Otti into the
gubernatorial race of Abia State on the party platform is the turning point
that the people of the state have been waiting for. Umeh has no doubts that in
Otti, Ndi Abia do not only have a credible alternative but the best hope for an
assured renaissance. He also expressed satisfaction that Igbo professionals
were finally heeding the call to serve, pointing out that APGA remains the only
viable platform for the realization of Igbo aspirations in a united Nigeria as
it draws its sustenance from the support of the grassroots.
It is
gratifying to see that Obiano is fully aware of the need to instill a
team-spirit in the party and rebuild APGA into a forceful political movement
that can fulfill its earliest promise as a party for true progressive in
Nigeria. If his performance in the past seven months as governor is anything to
go by, Chief Obiano looks certain to move the party beyond the threshold of
hope. Perhaps nothing else captures the growing hope of the people in his
ability better than the statement issued by Hon. C.C Nnoli, an APC stalwart in
Anambra State, to justify the defection of 3500 APC members to APGA at the
weekend. In an emotion-laden voice, Nnoli had informed Obiano that “as a
leader, you have used wisdom in handling issues, so much that there is
tranquility, harmony, fairness and equity in the polity; unlike where we are
coming out from; we had dictatorship, acrimony, selfishness, greed and
dishonesty as the bane of the day. We the members of APC in Anambra State,
having taken time to analyze and evaluate your person, performance, and
fatherly leadership, we have fully decided to decamp to APGA without going
back.” There might be no stronger gauge of the great expectations that the
people have of Obiano’s leadership of APGA than this.
Indeed, if
Eric Hofer’s position that “the only way to predict the future is to have the
power to shape it,” is true, then Chief Willie Obiano evidently sits in a
vantage position to carve out a new and brighter future for Ndigbo because
right now, he has the power to shape it.
James Eze writes from Ifite, Awka
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