By Emelayo Nwosu
A release issued by the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Thursday confirmed rumours that were going on in hushed tones over the outcome of the party’s primaries in the Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Mbaise Federal Constituency. The APC had returned Chukwudi Anyanwuocha, a lawyer from Mpam Community, Ekwerazu, Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area, as the winner of the primaries. Video clips showing the conduct of the primaries, which had officials of the APC in the local government in attendance to monitor the exercise and give it authenticity, were also circulated.
Not long after, it was revealed that Hon. Raphael Nnanna Igbokwe, who represented the
constituency for eight years (from 2011 to 2019) in the House of Representatives, was scheming to have the APC’s ticket withdrawn from Mr. Anyanwuocha. The speculations over who the rightful candidate to fly the party’s flag for the constituency in the 2027 general election came to a head on June 8 when its publicity secretary in Ahiazu Mbaise, Dr. Emma Anyanwu told party members that Hon. Nnanna Igbokwe had emerged as candidate. He warned members to desist from going against what the party had decided on the choice of candidates. He added that the Chairman of the party in Ahiazu Mbaise, Chief Mike Uzodinma, would not take it lightly with any member who did not obey the party.
Curiously, the release by the APC, Imo State last Thursday, issued by Ambrose Nwogwugwu, like the one by the party’s publicity secretary in Ahiazu Mbaise, Dr. Anyanwu, did not say that Nnanna Igbokwe won the primaries. If he did not win the primaries, why did the APC decide to throw away the choice its members made at their party’s primaries?
According to Ambrose Nwogwugwu, “the State Chairman, speaking on behalf of the State Working Committee, informed the excited Party officials that even though there were efforts by some aspirants to lodge petitions against those who emerged victorious at the primaries, the
National Working Committee, upheld the decisions of the Appeals Committee which found that the majority of the petitions were frivolous, except in Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Mbaise where a former member of the House of Representatives and current coordinator of the Forum of Former Legislators of Nigeria, Rt. Hon. Nnanna Igbokwe, had his petition upheld and was thereby duly nominated by the Party as our flag bearer in the upcoming general election.”
Nothing explains in clearer terms the disrespect for voters, disdain for the choice of the people,
and disregard for the need to give all parts of the Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Federal Constituency a sense of belonging than the decision of the APC to review the primaries that produced Chukwudi Anyanwuocha as candidate and hand the ticket to Raphael Nnanna Igbokwe.
For the party’s leadership in Ahiazu Mbaise and Imo State, not speaking against the substitution
of Chukwudi Anyanwuocha’s name with that of Nnanna Igbokwe means they support the imposition of a candidate on the Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Federal Constituency by the National Working Committee of the APC. Aside from that, it means, especially for Chief Mike Uzodinma, Chairman, APC, and the party’s leadership in Ahiazu Mbaise, that the NWC of their party sees them as people not worthy of occupying their positions. It’s a glaring vote of no confidence in them. Is there any other angle from where this could be viewed?
APC and its leadership at the national level, in Imo State, and in Ahiazu/Ezinihitte could also be seen from the perspective of cognitive dissonance–that is, “the psychological discomfort you feel when your actions, attitudes, or beliefs clash with one another.” Leon Festinger describes it as “doing something you know is bad….” APC’s actions in the Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Mbaise House of Representatives ticket clashes with its position on upholding democratic values. By overriding the choice made by its members, who picked Chukwudi Anyanwuocha and replacing him with Nnanna Igbokwe, the APC is, according to what Leon Festinger posits, doing something the party knows is bad for itself. Or how else could the party decide to give its ticket to a serial loser?
Hon. Nnanna Igbokwe represented the Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Federal Constituency as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from 2011 to 2015. He was re-elected to the position in 2015, serving out his second
term in 2019. Towards the end of that tenure, he defected to the APC, and contested election with the party’s ticket for the same position in 2019 and lost to the PDP candidate, Hon. Emeka Chinedu. Hon. Igbokwe contested again in 2023 as candidate of the APC and lost to PDP’s
Emeka Chinedu.
It is this same person who has lost twice in his bid to return to the House of Representatives that the APC is said to have given its ticket to fly its flag in 2027. What’s the basis for this decision?
If Nnanna Igbokwe were as popular, as APC appears to make us believe, he would not have lost in 2019 and 2023. Popular candidates win elections, irrespective of the party on whose ticket they run. We saw with it Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who moved from the PDP to the All Progresives Grand Alliance, APGA, and got re-elected as the Senator representing Abia South. That’s the mark of popularity.
If the APC had any respect for the people, it would not have given its ticket to this serial loser whom the people have rejected twice. Unless the APC has another plan, different from winning by popular votes in 2027 for the
Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Federal Constituency next year, Nnanna Igbokwe is a very bad choice. He lost in the last two elections – and from all indications – his popularity has not improved since then.
Then, there is the question of which section of the Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Federal Constituency that should produce the representative to the National Assembly in 2027. The position has, since 1999, rotated between Ahiazu and Ezinihitte. Within Ahiazu, it is between Ahiara and Ekwerazu.
At the dawn of this republic in 1999, the first person elected into the House of Representatives was the late Hon. Tony Anyanwu from Ekwerazu, Ahiazu Mbaise. He was replaced by the late Hon. Independence Ogunewe, who represented the constituency from 2003 to 2011. Hon. Ogunewe was from Ezinihitte. It was after the late Hon. Ogunewe that Hon. Nnanna Igbokwe was elected into the House of Representatives. That was in 2011. He won a second term in 2015, and has since decided not to respect the rotation that brought him there. Instead of allowing Ezinihitte to go in 2019, he defected to the APC, contested and lost. Again, in 2023, Hon. Igbokwe contested and lost. The APC doesn’t need a prophet to tell it that the people do not want Igbokwe. If the APC considered inclusivity and the need to give all sections of the Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Federal Constituency a sense of belonging, its leaders should have ensured that a community in Ekwerazu, Mpam, which has never had any political position since 1999, should produce the next member of the House of Representatives.
As activities for the present election cycle commenced, people thought that the APC would consider the fact that Hon. Nnanna Igbokwe had only brought them losses, and would bring in fresh blood for the next election. The party did not. It defied the rotation between Ahiara and Ekwerazu and gave its ticket, again, to Nnanna Igbokwe.
Like a greedy fly hovering over a piece of ogiri on which its life depends for survival, Hon.
Nnanna Igbokwe has shown that his life depends on the National Assembly. That is why, after losing the last election, he lobbied and got appointment as Special Assistant to the Speaker,
Intergovernmental Affairs. Some constituents in Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Mbaise were embarrassed
when Hon. Igbokwe was appointed to that position, wondering why the man they sent to the National Assembly had sunk to the level of accepting a position that some described as that of glorified messenger instead of aiming for something higher.
To remain relevant in political circles, Hon. Raphael Nnanna Igbokwe became the leader of the Forum of Former Legislators of Nigeria – an association whose name suggests its members are jobless after their tenure in the legislature. The former lawmaker is now doing everything to return to the House of Representatives, even after losing the primaries. It’s sad.
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