RE: EDO STATE APC GUBER PRIMARIES; OSITA OKECHUKWU AND HIS NIGHT BUS TO ABUJA;

 RE: EDO STATE APC GUBER PRIMARIES; OSITA OKECHUKWU AND HIS NIGHT BUS TO ABUJA;

By Hon (Amb) Stanford Arinze Nwokedi 

The normal Nigerian Gubernatorial Primaries, nay elections, do not end without rancour. It is even becoming a global trend. Only a few examples exist where electoral losers brace up the odds and offer congratulatory handshakes to their winners. Former Nigerian President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan put a call through to his successor and opponent, Former President Mohammadu Buhari. The former Liberian President, Mr George Weah showed that sparkle that made the transition of power in his former war-torn West African country very peaceful. 

That was wildly celebrated because such was rare. But America, the Global Democracy Model did not have it easy with the rancorous transition from Former United States President, Trump to the present United States President, Joe Biden. By the rancorous transition marred with a borderline political Armageddon,  America perhaps re-taught the rest of the world the extremes to which dissention could be towards electoral outcomes.   Most of Nigerian politicians are sore losers, therefore, when they lose elections. The winners take it all. There is no laurel for the runners up. The losers most often than not grumble. 

The fireworks are usually very high: money, influences, interests and all sorts of things go into the game. The stakes are usually very high. No loser loses without acting up a drama: From Anambra to Osun, to Zamfara, Ekiti, Enugu, Kano, Rivers, Bayelsa, et cetera, the trends are the same: Courts are the final arbiters of electoral outcomes. The winner also knows how not to wait for any congratulatory messages from the vanquished. They grab their victories and run with them, leaving the losers grumbling noisily. 

There has never been any Gubernatorial Primary Election since 1999, either in the past or in the present that ended without outcries of one allegation of electoral fraud or the other, no matter who chaired or chair  the processes, within  Parties - be it PDP, APC, LP, Accord, etc - or without the Parties, even by the Independent Electoral Commission, (INEC). That's the consequence of the new American Model vide Former President Trump's and the incumbent President Biden's transition. There still are echoes from that election 3 years after.

Edo 2024 Gubernatorial Primary Election came with all the pecking of hyperactivity in politics of who flies the flags of the different Political Parties: the APC, the PDP, the LP et al. Edo State is politically highly controversial and the politics of such a highly politically aware State is characteristically wired in controversies and attendant high risk factors.  Such is the reason why all the Parties recorded their equal shares of controversies surrounding their different outcomes in their different Primaries conducted by different people. 

You see, the struggle for Power is a very complicated and complex chess game. Igbos call "Politics" "NDỌRỌNDỌRỌ ỌCHỊCHỊ"! It is like a thug of War. You drag from your different directions with all within your powers. As you draw and drag, your opponents do the same thing. The tension exerted on the parties/polity is such that it could really cause a breakdown of the binding forces holding the system together. 

 You risk being checkmated in any Chess game once the game is on and every player wants to win. 

There are banana peels everywhere; mines are laid and you never can tell when, where, who, what and how? It is really that tricky and risky.

The National elite League is played politically by whiz kids of the game. Up there is crowded and full of intrigues, antics and deceits. The okro-soup-floors are in different shapes and forms. Falls may be fatal. You wear your caution gear, ALWAYS.

So, what exactly was different with the persona of HE Dist Sen Hope Uzodimma conducting a Primary Election for APC in Edo State? Was he also the one who conducted the Primaries for PDP and other smaller Parties like Labour Party, Accord Party, etc ? Were there no similarities with the contested outcomes even of the repeated Primaries? Eventually, as expected and always the case, the Court steps in to finish the Primary processes. QED. 

What then was the business of one Osita Okechukwu in a national Television after his Night Bus sponsored trip to Abuja? Was he merely using the Edo State APC Gubernatorial Primary Election as a vent to air his political frustrations or those of his sponsors? It was obvious he was in a sponsored political flight to witchhunt the Imo shining Star whose contemporaries are either afraid of his rising National profile or are envious of his achievements for the APC National, for all Igbos and in deed, for Nigeria? What exactly was Osita Okechukwu saliva-spitting on his Television outbursts for? What does the cheap blackmails do to obliterate the intimidating national political profile of a sitting Governor who has made Igboland a prospective destination for international trade and commerce via the Orashi dredging project? How does a hired dirty jobber situate his vitriolic attacks on a man that the National Executive Council of APC had always counted on severally to tame turbulences in the Party?

God gives Power. How He does it beats humans. THAT MAKES GOD GOD. The crown is not for the swiftest; the glory is not really always for the most clever; it is a game of times and chances. Does Osita Okechukwu with his bleached hair know these? 

Apparently, yes, it was not an easy outing for Gov Hope Uzodimma. He has always demonstrated strength of character and swims very tough political waters for the stability of APC nationally. Knowing Gov Hope Uzodimma very well, one is rest assured he gave it his very best and the complexities of Edo State political realities already have vindicated him. The hues and the cries are indicative of the acculturation to the realities on ground in not just Edo State but across the Country. Nobody loses or wins peacefully!

So, the political adversaries of the Imo State Governor, HE Dist Sen Hope Uzodimma should not merry over his apparent "misfortune". It really was not it.

Gov Hope Uzodimma is an exemplary National Political player. He knew that in such a complex situation, personal sacrifices suffice. The law holds an axe. Any head the axe falls on is crushed. He would easily sacrifice anything to ensure that APC did not suffer the Zamfara consequences over a process that could be repeated, even if he would not be the Chairman of the re-do Committee.

Gov Hope Uzodimma is a man who brokers peace even in dire circumstances. He has always been behind the Chess games that begat the previous and present National Chairmen of the APC right from the time PDP lost him to APC, with each of them having his timelines accurately but delicately worked out to stabilize the Party. The stability of APC has been the fortress of the Party in facing and squarely withstanding an opposition giant that today looks for its political legs. That's the genius we are talking about - Gov Hope Uzodimma!  That's the Imo political exponent that is doing Igbos proud on the national stage!

Knowing the enigmatic Hope from the East and of the East, nothing is beyond sacrifice, once political stability of national implication is concerned. Given that the APC National appreciated and always appreciates Gov Hope Uzodimma, it was mooted that he (Gov Hope Uzodimma) deliberately opted out even at the cost of being blackmailed.  That was vintage Odidika,  the one and the only NIGERIA'S Hope Uzodimma.

Yes, he played the self-victim card to navigate the miry and tricky political terrain of Edo with its wild political life so clear and obvious.

How may Osita Okechukwu and his co-travellers know and stop the Political hasty vitriolic and their misdirected blackmails?

 All diligent eyes are still on the Edo Chess board. Team APC had a tactical switch; the Captain of a winning team could be and was substituted. The gameplan remained to win Edo State; to avert possible judicial hammer that could give away the coveted trophy on a platter, even before the election proper. 

Now that PDP and the other smaller Parties like Labour Party and  Accord have had their own fair shares of Post-Primary Election normal trauma, only a Party that knows how to stabilize and mobilize will be in Edo State Government House. And APC is sure to emerge victorious.

Visit Our Website @ www.ansamediahub.com for more News Updates, Comment like Subscribe and Watch our YouTube