The bid by the late Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu to build the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) into a modern-day National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) may have failed, with the party’s dismal performance at the polls since 2003. Realising this, Chief Orji Kalu, erstwhile governor of Abia State, founded the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) just before the 2007 election. The party succeeded in making impact only in Abia State. Since then, Igbo leaders have continually bemoaned the fate of the Igbo in the federation.
While the Alliance for Democracy (AD) succeeded in coming up with a reincarnation of the Action Group (AG) in the Southwest at the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1999, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that had emerged the national dominant party moved in powerfully four years later. The trend continued in 2007 , but the courts intervened to retrieve from the PDP the people’s mandate that had been freely given the Action Congress (AC).
The AC now as Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), has consolidated its hold on the Southwest. But, both APGA and PPA appear to have been destabilised. In 2007, there was really no governorship election in Anambra State as the one conducted by INEC was disregarded by the Supreme Court that held that Governor Peter Obi’s tenure would not be up, until February 2010. However, the PDP won all the House of Assembly seats. It was obvious to all that the PPA was declared winner of the Imo governorship election owing to the discord within the PDP. It was a matter of time before the main beneficiary, Governor Ikedi Ohakim, would defect to the ruling party. He did in 2009.
The Igbo political scene has been unsettled since 1999. Different strategies aimed at restoring the relevance of the Igbo as the third leg of the Nigerian political tripod have failed thus far. In 1999, many Igbo leaders, including the late Chief Sam Mbakwe, the late Chief Evans Enwerem, Chief Arthur Nzeribe, Ojukwu, among others, moved to occupy space in the All Peoples Party (APP). However, the strategy failed after the first set of elections. They drifted to the PDP that had better prospects nation-wide.
In the PDP, their fate has not been much better. There has been rancour over all the major positions allotted them. No sooner was the Senate Presidency zoned to the region when every Igbo Senator began to see himself as the potential head of the federal legislature. Then came the PDP national chairmanship. It was attended with so much dissension that the party and polity became very unsettled.
Now, seven months after the inauguration of new governments all over the country. Where do the Igbo stand? What are the new plans to regain foothold of relevance in national politics? How would the death of Ojukwu, the prime mover of APGA politics, impact on the place of the party in the scheme of things? It took a frail Ikemba’s campaign to win the governorship poll in his Anambra State.
Even then, the legislative elections this year did not follow the pattern. The Rochas Okorocha victory is seen more as evidence of the people’s dissatisfaction with the PDP than either the new governor’s sagacity or APGA’s acceptance.
The struggle continues for the opposition parties in the five states of the Southeast. How do APGA and PPA stand? Correspondents in Anambra, Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu survey the political horizon of the troubled region.