By Tochukwu Okorie
The recent revelations by a certain Mohammed Lawal, Special Assistant to Ibrahim Magu regarding the unsavory ordeals of Orji Uzor Kalu should be of benumbing concern not just to every well meaning Igbo but more seriously to the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that has been taken on a rollercoaster by the duo of Senator Ken Nnamani and Sir Emeka Offor.
For the people of the Southeast who have gruelled cocooned in a political isolation since their miscalculation of 2015, such conniving characters must not be allowed to sabotage the chances of the Igbo at political self reinvention and relevance plunging their people into a deeper political cul-de-sac once again especially as 2023 horse trading gets underway.
Besides, one would have expected the APC to be more circumspect in it’s advance in the Southeast given the peculiarities of the region.
Part of the dynamics of the former Senate President’s influence peddling in APC typifies a Jacob-Esau scenario: Emeka Offor’s leprous hand visibly pushing a vicious mercantile self interest, Ken Nnamani’s voice faint, glib and subdued at the background mumbling a few APC mantras.
Once again, President Buhari is being misled into trusting a self-enveloped political liability and a betrayer who was so shy of the APC that he was never once seen or heard throughout the presidential election campaigns of 2019 in Southeast despite his position as leader of the campaign in the region.
Senator Ken Nnamani’s voice has never been heard in Igboland defending President Muhammadu Buhari against scathing criticism of the misguided majority or at least celebrating the huge stride the president has made in infrastructural development in the region. Rather, Nnamani’s voice is loud, heavily supported by Emeka Offor’s steady hands when it comes to sharing appointments and dividends of Buhari’s electoral victories.
The APC leadership and the Presidency have failed to deconstruct Senator Ken Nnamani and his ally Sir Emeka Offor. Right from the time Nnamani sneaked into the APC after the initial denials, without the fanfare that should accompany the declaration of a politician of his standing as a former Senate President of Nigeria, for the APC, he has managed to hijack every important appointment reserved for the Southeast.
His ulterior intent has always been that of dominating the political space in the zone not without the active connivance of his co-conspirator and business associate Sir Emeka Offor, a mission which has left most APC stakeholders in the Southeast exasperated and disenchanted.
APC leaders from Chief Nnamani’s Enugu State are thoroughly embarrassed to see that Abuja has been taken in by the false posturing of a man whose interest in APC is limited to using the party as a springboard for contracts, appointments and political mercantilism.
Ken Nnamani was appointed the Chairman of the Committee set up by the Government to make recommendations for Electoral Reform. He was appointed the Deputy National Chairman of the Presidential Campaign Council for the 2019 presidential election. He is now the only member of the 13 member National Caretaker Committee of the APC from the South East geopolitical zone. For all these, what has APC got to show? Resounding, isn’t it?
One does not know which is more befuddling, that Ken Nnamani has never at any stage openly promoted the APC among Ndigbo or that he has never spoken to highlight the laudable accomplishments and developmental strides of PMB in the South East.
The result of the 2019 presidential election is an eloquent testimonial of Nnamani’s work of wonders as it shows clearly that it is only Enugu State and Anambra State that failed to meet the basic requirement of 25%. Chief Nnamani is not bothered about that or the fact that PDP still dominates the political landscape in the Southeast. Instead he openly mingles with his PDP collaborators to the utter embarrassment of the South East APC leaders.
For Emeka Offor, the game of politics could only serve as a tool to push his business frontiers which oftentimes may be seen as being below all ethical bars. He does not appear to hesitate at the chance of latching on to a willing lackey in political frontlines such as Ken Nnamani to execute one or another of his perceived heists carefully concealed as innocuous business agenda.
Talk about a Turnaround Maintenance of the Portharcourt refineries that gulped billions of dollars but was never done, or his suboptimal handling of Nigeria’s interest in Sao Tome and Principé Joint Development Agreements, you would have no difficulty at unmasking a man who, it would seem, has a voracious appetite for whatever brings in the dollars however shady or dubious.
From what many saw as a savage milking of Afex bank to the now struggling Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, Offor’s adventures in politics can and should easily be deconstructed. All of that should suggest an empire founded on grabbing public assets and stripping them to his pecuniary advantage. That is the behind-the-scene influence on Ken Nnamani’s pretenses as an APC chieftain.
It would be a sad commentary on President Buhari’s efforts at rallying the Igbo to have such elements as Nnamani and Emeka Offor hijack once again the interest of the Southeast in APC and the prospects of a president of Igbo extraction in 2023. Tufia kwa.
