Former Nigeria’s ambassador to Spain and widow of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Bianca, has opened up on how the former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, failed to sustain the legacies of the late Igbo leader in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Bianca said Obi rode on the wings of the late Ikemba Nnewi to the government house on the platform of APGA but he had abandoned it.
She took her anger to a new level by laying curse on her late husband’s protégée, thus asking ‘history to judge him harshly’.
He told Sun that, “APGA’s political credo revolves essentially around those principles championed by Ojukwu in the Ahiara Declaration which constitutes the benchmarks of a well-ordered society.
“Ikemba envisaged an administrative model with a dynamic policy for industrialisation which concentrates on the employment of primary products in various domestic manufactures, a government which creates possibilities for citizens with talent in business and civil administration, agriculture, technology, trade and commerce, to mention but a few, to fulfil themselves and receive their due reward and appreciation in service to the state.
“It is simple. I maintain that Peter Obi betrayed Dim Ojukwu, and tried to destroy APGA for his own selfish interests. He has continued to undermine Ojukwu’s personality and recently, he has gone ahead to desecrate his legacy. From relative obscurity, Obi was brought into national prominence when the leader, Ojukwu, through his party APGA, offered him an opportunity and platform upon which he ran and became governor of Anambra State.
“Ojukwu sacrificed so much and laboured for him to become governor. He (Ojukwu) was fiercely protective of him and helped him overcome the various challenges that confronted him. Peter Obi had a difficult first tenure and stepped on so many toes that the majority of our party faithful were adamant that he should not be nominated for a second tenure. Yet Ojukwu stood by him when it mattered most, jeopardised his health by traversing all the local governments in a rigorous campaign on his behalf and begged the people of Anambra State to grant him a last wish by returning Obi for a second term.
“This feat was achieved for the first time in Anambra State’s history on 6th February 2010. Peter Obi swore to Ojukwu, upon his honour, that he would never abandon APGA; that he would quit politics or die; rather than leave APGA, and that he would preserve this legacy as a potent voice and rallying point for Ndigbo.
“History will judge him (Obi) harshly because the truth of the matter is that it is his pathological fear of political redundancy and oblivion that is now driving him dangerously close to the precipice from where he will soon commit political suicide. The people of Anambra State cannot be hoodwinked as they are determined not to indulge him with a third tenure by installing his candidate as governor.”
