By Dr Chinedu Jideofo
Your Excellency Sir, given time factor and to make publication of this open letter easier for the media, I will make it short and straight to the point.
In your long relationship with Enugu State APC, I besiege you to consider sportsmanship for once, by conceding victory to APC in the Isi-Uzo state assembly constituency bye-election, which will hold on 5th December 2020.
Like the PDP and other political parties, APC exists solely to field candidates in elections and hopefully win and implement or influence implementation of its manifesto in full or part.
In Enugu State, it has been highly odd that APC that is in control of the Federal Government, that is in control of majority of the states, that controls both chambers of the National Assembly, that is unarguably the biggest political party in not only Nigeria but in the whole of Africa since 2015, has not won any election since same 2015 that you have been PDP governor in the state.
Yet, in Enugu and Abuja, much is said about your closeness to APC. Between 2015 and 2019, many Enugu State APC chieftains – perhaps naively – swore that you would decamp to APC ahead of 2019 general elections, on the basis of which it is said that Enugu State APC did little or nothing to prepare for 2019 primary and general elections.
With hindsight, Enugu State APC should have learnt from our experience of 2017 local government area elections conducted by your Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC). In those elections, despite a measure of spirited campaign by your friends in Enugu State APC, you awarded all chairmanship and councillorship positions to your party, PDP.
In spite of this potential lesson and for reasons best known to them, some Enugu State APC leaders still believed the rumour that you would decamp to APC – presumably with all or most of the elected and appointed officials of your state government – before 2019.
Close to 2019, some of the said Enugu State APC leaders even led you to the Presidency, who you persuaded that APC was safe in your PDP hands!
I knew of Maradona of Argentina (may his soul rest in peace) as I knew of the Minna maradona, but none compares to your dribbling skills. I mean, how could you have persuaded the Presidency under APC and in control of all government organs involved in INEC-organised elections to rely on you – a PDP governor – to dash 25% of the votes cast in the presidential election to President Buhari in exchange for your own re-election and re-election of all other PDP candidates (senatorial, house of representatives and state house of assembly) in 2019?!
Even more shocking to me is that no questions have been asked since, instead of the 25% you had promised President Buhari, he scored only about 5% of the votes cast in Enugu State – his second worst in Nigeria.
You may have got away with that monumental dribble, as you had got away with unfilled expectation of your defection to APC since 2015, but no maradona always gets away with hand-of-God antic. A time must come when the dribbler must play straight and honourably.
For you, that time has come and the test ground is Isi-Uzo. Having recently learnt few lessons from our past experiences with you, we approached Isi-Uzo with clear determination to win, starting with reconciliation and unity of Enugu State APC (you should be happy about this) and our choice of candidate.
As one who believes so much in “hand of God”, let me inform you that hand-of-God is clearly in APC’s Isi-Uzo campaign. One evidence of that is that, against APC’s excellent candidate whose record of entrepreneurship and philanthropy in Isi-Uzo is unrivalled, PDP is fielding a candidate wrapped in cultural sacrilege.
Another evidence was what I personally witnessed during our campaign flag-off at Eha-Amufu. On that faithful day, as we arrived Eha-Amufu for the flag-off, thick rain-bearing cumulus cloud that hung over treetops, as if rain makers had been paid by PDP to visit heavy downpour upon us, miraculously receded back into the distant skies.
As Chief Security Officer of Enugu State, your security reports may have shown to you what most close observers of the Isi-Uzo bye-election anticipate will be an embarrassing but deserved defeat for PDP in the order of about 95% for APC, 4% for PDP and 1% for other parties.
If PDP’s knowledge of what will befall your party in Isi-Uzo is the reason why APC’s candidate, his family, his campaign handlers and supporters are being threatened with violent attacks, murder, arson and other forms of intimidation, I must advise against such. Not only have we made reports to all the security agencies, we shall defend ourselves if attacked.
In the spirit of sportsmanship, however, I appeal to you as my governor and friend, to honourably concede Isi-Uzo to APC. God has given us the state constituency, and you should not fight God.
Finally, sir, with the wind of change blowing all over the South-East, which South-East APC Presidency Project 2023 is playing a major role, if you didn’t defect to APC before now, we expect and will warmly welcome your defection if you concede Isi-Uzo to us.
Our candidate, Engr Prince Macdonald Ejiofor Okwor, would, as Minority Leader of Enugu State House of Assembly, host your reception into APC.
And, on his presentation to President Buhari as the first elected APC person in Enugu State, which Senator Ken Nnamani would lead, I can see you in that delegation.
Leave Isi-Uzo for APC for the good of Enugu State in the emerging 2023 Nigerian scenario in which PDP should virtually die in the South-East for Nigeria to become peaceful, united and prosperous – with a South-Easterner as president of Nigeria on APC platform.
Your purported friendship with Enugu State APC will remain worthless and mere deception if APC does not win this one election.
Kindest regards,
Dr. Chinedu Jideofo-Ogbuagu
Member, Enugu State APC National Coordinator, South-East APC Presidency Project 2023.
09052910866, 08023163451
