Onyebuchi Ememanka, the chief press secretary to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has revealed the reasons Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, refused to give Prof Greg Ibe, the governorship ticket for 2023 gubernatorial election.
Ememanka, in an article responding to Prof Ibe’s comment on Governor Ikpeazu, described the now Abia APGA governorship candidate as a floating Political desperado with zero electoral value.
It should be recalled that Prof Greg Ibe dumped the PDP to the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, in Abia.
Reacting to Prof Ibe’s comment on Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration, Ememanka stated reasons the state ruling refused him the ticket. One of the reasons, according to Ememanka, is Prof Ibe’s “lack of political value.”
The article reads:
“Our attention has been drawn to a statement made by one Professor Greg Ibe where he made a feeble and infantile attempt to attack the person of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu using very complimentary and unprofessorial remarks.
“In his usual style, the Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, PhD will not give Professor Ibe the attention he desperately seeks while pretending to be running election for the lofty office of the Governor of Abia State.
“If it took Professor Ibe 7 years to realize that the Ikpeazu administration which he had consistently identified with and eulogized endlessly is now a non performing administration, simply because he didn’t get the ticket of the PDP, then it shows him to be suffering from massive integrity deficit.
“Integrity is synonymous with consistency. Professor Ibe has shown clearly with his latest statement that he is nothing but a political desperado whose actions in the political arena have all along been motivated by his quest for power and nothing more pretentious.
“On the 4th of March 2022, Professor Ibe visited Governor Ikpeazu at Umuobiakwa to seek his support and possible “anointing” as Gubernatorial Candidate of the PDP. The visit was widely publicized. Before that visit, Professor Ibe had set up campaign structures across the State under the PDP.
Abians and all people of goodwill should please ask Professor Ibe what has changed between March 2022 and now.
Why did he seek the support of a non performing Governor for his quest to be Governor?
It is ridiculous that Professor Ibe describes himself as an opposition candidate! This is a clear case of a butterfly thinking itself a bird!
Professor Ibe joined APGA in May this year after being a member of the PDP for close to 2 decades.
Political desperation and crass opportunism can and will never amount to opposition politics. Opposition politics goes beyond elections. The concept of the opposition in modern politics is about an alternative to the government in power. A credible opposition must have shown over a reasonable period of time that it is not part of the Government in Power and must have consistently done so. Any politician who hobnobbed with the government in power and enjoyed huge patronage therefrom and planned to get the ticket of the party to contest elections, only to run off to another party because he failed to get the ticket is nothing but the very antithesis of opposition politics.
When Professor Ibe joined APGA in May 2022 or thereabouts, he stated clearly that the reason for leaving the PDP was because the party didn’t want to give its ticket to a candidate from Abia North. He never mentioned non performance as his reason then.
Let me remind Professor Greg Ibe that there are two clear reasons why the PDP didn’t look his way when they sought for their Gubernatorial Candidate.
First, the clear basis of the Abia Charter of Equity didn’t support the emergence of a Governor from Abia North at this time. It is only commonsensical and just that the old Aba Division will produce the Governor for 16 years, just as their brothers from the old Bende Division did.
If Professor Ibe finds this simple fact difficult to understand, then he is on his own.
Secondly and perhaps, much more importantly is the fact that Professor Greg Ibe lacks Electoral Value.
No serious political party that desires to win a Governorship Election will give its ticket to someone who has never led his party to victory in his local government.
Professor Ibe is from Uturu in Isuikwuato Local Government Area where the PDP has always struggled to find its feet during previous elections. Currently, the House of Assembly member representing Professor Ibe is from the APC. The House of Representatives member and Senator representing him are all of the APC. So, where exactly is his much touted political relevance?
The truth is that Professor Ibe is just a floating politician with no real political base. Like Floating Charges in Company Law, the Professor keeps hovering over the political space and never crystallizes. He is a specialist in branding of campaign vehicles and painting emergency campaign offices giving him a false sense of comfort. Close watchers of politics in Abia State know that there is much more to winning elections than empty branding and grandstanding.
In the 2015 and 2019 elections, Professor Greg Ibe as a member of the PDP saw the decimation of an even better organized APGA than the charade he is using today. There is no better sign of his preparedness to lose woefully than his choice of Campaign Director General, a perpetual political leech of the PDP for several years.
Professor Ibe will not only lose the 2023 elections, he will do so scandalously. As usual, he will start losing from his home local government area.
In the statement under reference, Professor Ibe exhibited so much bitterness that Governor Ikpeazu “flew in” 4 other Governors for the PDP Campaign Flag off in Umuahia.
Instead of crying, Professor Ibe should also “fly in” the only APGA Governor in Nigeria and his “fellow” Professor to come and lead his campaign in Abia.
It is the antics of desperate and integrity challenged politicians like Professor Ibe that APGA in Abia State will continue to be vomitorium for unprincipled politicians.
Someone should remind Professor Ibe to go and concentrate on running his University because EKERE ORU EKE.
Sir Onyebuchi Ememanka
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor.
26th November, 2022.
