By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
The intrigues, behind-the-scenes brinkmanship and the trade offs that culminated in the appointment of Ambassador Bianca Odinaka Ojukwu as Minister representing Anambra State were a precursor to a far- reaching configuration of the state’s political landscape that will soon happen.
A major stakeholder in the politics of Anambra who declined to be mentioned told Daily Sun that the appointment of Bianca Ojukwu was part of the initial steps to perfect the re-election ambition of the Anambra governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo.
A member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, now Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ojukwu, widow of the late leader of the defunct Republic of Biafra, General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, belongs to the APGA faction controlled by Anambra state Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo. Her choice as Minister representing Anambra in the federal cabinet, impeccable sources told Daily Sun, has a bold imprimatur of the governor and fits into his next political move should the pendulum in the battle for APGA’s soul eventually swing in a different direction not favourable to him and his re-election bid.
“Bianca is not a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC which is the President’s party, yet she was selected for a ministerial appointment over notable APC chieftains in Anambra. The scenario signposts a major Soludo-driven shift in Anambra’s political firmament which will soon be out in the open. Watch out”, a source told Daily Sun.
Her surprise emergence as Minister, Daily Sun has learnt, is a dress rehearsal for the defection of the governor to the APC preparatory to next year’s governorship election in the state. However, there are feelers of imminent mass defection from the party to the Labour party should Soludo be rewarded with the APC 2025 governorship ticket upon defection. “A major revolt is brewing in our party, major stakeholders, including frontline governorship aspirants, are threatening to dump the party and move to the LP or remain in it and work against it in next year’s governorship election should Governor Soludo defect and get rewarded with the governorship ticket. He cannot reap where he did not sow; it is against natural justice”, an APC stakeholder who didn’t want his name in prints “due to the volatile nature of our state, Anambra politics”, told Daily Sun.
APGA, the party on which Soludo was elected in November 2021 is currently engulfed in a leadership crisis. In June, the governor’s faction which has Barrister Sly Ezeokenwa as national chairman was de-recognized by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC following a court order. The Chief Edozie Njoku’s -led APGA national leadership is currently enjoying recognition by INEC. Political analysts and legal experts say INEC’s recognition of the Chief Njoku-led APGA has unsavoury implications for Soludo. According to them, unless there is another court pronouncement reversing the current status quo or the governor joins another party or decides to eat the humble pie and makes peace with the Njoku-led APGA before nomination closes for the Anambra 2025 gubernatorial election, he will be out in the cold, without party and watching the election from the sidelines.
Governor Soludo does not recognise the Njoku leadership and has allegedly vowed that he would rather leave APGA than acknowledge the legality of the APGA National Working Committee, NWC Chief Njoku leads.
On its part, the APGA national leadership is not mincing words about its preparedness to punish the governor for alleged anti-party activities. Chairman, BoT of the party and its founding national chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie in July threatened that APGA would sanction the former Central Bank Governor for allegedly destabilizing the party and refusing to recognise the Njoku leadership. “I strongly advise that the Party’s disciplinary measures must include but not limited to Prof Chukwuma Soludo. The sanctity of the supremacy of the political party in party democracies all over the world must be sustained and maintained.
“The entire members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Nigeria and abroad, especially the good people of Anambra State, will bear out that the leadership of our great party under Chief Edozie Njoku as National Chairman, has repeatedly offered Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the Governor of Anambra State extended latitude to halt his continued sponsorship of crisis in APGA. I do not wish to bore you with the plethora of anti-party activities perpetrated and sponsored by the only governor produced on the platform of our party in the present dispensation.
“Highly respected and very senior clergymen in Anambra State, traditional rulers, association of town union presidents-general, several Anambra State business and intellectual elite have at various times appealed to Governor Soludo to cease his unprovoked destabilizing war against the survival of the party that provided him with the singular opportunity to realize his long elusive life time desire to become the governor of Anambra State, after two previous failed attempts,” Okorie had said during a press conference.
Already, several members of the party in Anambra who are also aides to Governor Soludo have been slammed with suspension for anti-party activities by the NWC. The NWC, Daily Sun was told, is waiting for the appropriate time to apply the sledgehammer on the governor.
Faced with uncertainties with regard to APGA and his re-election bid, Professor Soludo, Daily Sun gathered, has given the APC option a serious thought and may have decided to pursue his second term on the party’s platform. Having been previously under serious pressure from the leadership of the APC in the South East to abandon APGA and join its fold, the governor saw the current debacle in his party as an escape route to the APC where he has allegedly been assured of automatic ticket for next year’s gubernatorial election in the state.
Sources however, told Daily Sun that Professor Soludo is insisting on fusing the APGA structure in Anambra with the existing APC structure and then assuming total control of the expanded and enlarged Anambra APC structure. Bianca’s ministerial appointment, notwithstanding not being an APC member, it was learnt, was the fallout of the governor’s insistence.
Her appointment reportedly came as a rude shock to APC and APGA chieftains in Anambra who were not in the know of the undercurrents of her emergence. Reacting to Ambassador Ojukwu’s appointment, the state chapter of the APC, during a stakeholders meeting in Awka, the Anambra state capital, described the situation as a violation of party loyalty which could dampen morale of loyal members.
According to High Chief, Bunty Onuigbo, South East Zonal Secretary of APC and member of the APC Elders Forum in Anambra who spoke on behalf of the party at the meeting, “this is nothing but an act of anti-party, and it is detrimental. By empowering members of other political parties at the expense of the APC in Anambra State, Mr. President is not supporting party loyalty.
“Does Mr. President want a mass defection of APC members in Anambra to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)? Is he indirectly working for APGA in Anambra State?”Speaking further, Onuigbo lamented that President Tinubu rewarded a party (APGA) that despises APC. “This is a group that despises the APC and wants nothing to do with us. Mr. President is encouraging them by making such appointment”, he added.
Coming to the stout defence of the President and Ambassador Ojukwu, however, is the former Spokesman of the Tinubu presidential campaign, South east Zone, Josef Onoh. According to him, President Tinubu did no wrong in his choice of Ambassador Ojukwu as Minister, stressing that it was in line with the President’s policy of giving women a voice. “In line with his personal belief in uplifting women, the President appointed former Minister Uju Ohaneye and today Mrs. Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu. He appointed Mrs Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu of APGA Minister just like he appointed Nyesom Wike of the PDP,” Onoh, a younger brother to Ambassador Ojukwu said.
Meanwhile, Anambra APC may have more crying to do as Governor Soludo is reportedly gearing up to draft an APGA member as a candidate of the APC in the coming Senatorial by-election in Anambra South Senatorial district to replace late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah who represented the district before his sudden death in July. The national leadership of the APC, in consonance with the party’s resolve to yield grounds to the governor preparatory to his defection, party sources claim, has given him a blank cheque to nominate and present a candidate for the Senatorial by-election.
Rumours about Governor Soludo’s alleged APC moves started last year shortly after President Tinubu was sworn-in following his victory at the 2023 presidential election. However, APGA and Soludo’s aides have often dismissed it with a wave of hands.
Speaking to Daily Sun in July over his principal’s alleged defection moves, Christian Aburinme, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Soludo had said: “it is not true. It cannot happen. It’s a mere rumour that only exists in the figment of the imagination of the peddlers.
“The truth is that no party can beat APGA in Anambra State. Ndi Anambra love APGA, APGA is Anambra and Anambra is APGA, APGA is the dominant party in the Southeast, APGA cannot die.
“As His Excellency would always say, APGA is Nigeria’s first truly progressive party and that is why we call it All Progressives Grand Alliance.”
“So, I can confidently tell you that come 2025, APGA will have no rival here and His Excellency has performed creditably well and will win convincingly.”
Also reacting in a similar fashion, an APGA chieftain, Chinedu Obigwe had said in a statement: “It is a confirmation of what we have been saying that Governor Soludo remains the best and that he cannot be compared with anybody.
“For me, this is a welcome development because it has shown that Governor Soludo is a beautiful bride and that his good work in Anambra turned him into a good product that markets itself.”
Bianca Odinakachukwu Olivia Odumegwu Ojukwu, daughter of the second Republic Governor of the old Anambra state, Chief CC Onoh, is a lawyer and former beauty queen. She was a presidential advisor under former President Goodluck Jonathan. The former President later appointed her as Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana and later became Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain in 2012. She was recalled from her Ambassadorial posting in 2015 by former President Muhammadu Buhari following the defeat of Jonathan in that year’s presidential election.
Ambassador Ojukwu, one of the three junior Ministers President Tinubu gave to the Southeast, replaces Mrs Uju Ohanenye who until she was booted out from the federal cabinet in the recent cabinet reshuffle represented Anambra State in the cabinet.
