Emeka Ihedioha does not threaten anyone’s ambition in the PDP, it is rather those outside the PDP that is threatened by the likelihood of Ihedioha’s emergence as the governorship candidate of that Party.
A political Party can be compared to a professional football team, they do not change their winning team, and when they do, they will experience a downward spiral in fortunes.
Politics is a serious business. It is not a game of emotions; it is a business in which you must plan and work to win or you lose and be left to lick your wounds. For a serious political Party, its sole business is to win power, because it is in winning power that it can implement its programs or manifestos.
General perspective
If the Likud Party in Israel had been swayed by the opposition sponsored propaganda about Netanyahu holding too firmly to the Party or having served too long as the Party leader, the Party might not have returned to power in the next decade.
But because they understood that Benjamin Netanyahu is their winning magic, even with personal weak points, they stuck to him, and in a matter of days, the Likud Party will be leading a coalition of right-leaning Parties to form a government.
You may say; “well, Likud had been in power for more than a decade through Netanyahu”, but I can talk about Marie Le Pen who took over the National Rally Party from her father and has continued to grow that Party to a point where the Party is making good inroads into Elysee palace.
I can also tell you about Anwar Bin Ibrahim who led his People’s Justice Party for about two decades until a few days ago when he finally led form the government in Malaysia.
In Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has always been a presidential candidate since 2003 when he filed his papers to contest for the presidency. He tried unsuccessfully thrice and in 2015 when a merger of opposition Parties happened, he was the easy choice of the delegates at their primaries, because he had the winning magic.
Ihedioha as a threat?
In Imo State, any ruling Party would invest anything to stop Ihedioha from clinching the gubernatorial ticket of the PDP, because they know that fielding Emeka Ihedioha as PDP’s governorship candidate goes halfway in returning the PDP to power.
In 2019, as the leader of the major Party’s media, I had a simple strategy; “Do everything to stop Ihedioha from getting a PDP guber ticket.” When he eventually did, I told everyone close to me that it was going to be a tough battle to defeat the PDP in the governorship election.
I tactically left Samdaddy alone and prayed silently that he was elected as the PDP’s governorship candidate because I knew that he would have been an ofe nkupu for our then Action Alliance.
I am not surprised that members of the 3R media gang are copying my 2019 strategy by giving Samdaddy some tactical support and dumping all sorts of mud on Ihedioha. That’s because they know who their problem is.
Ihedioha is an asset
Ihedioha as a governorship candidate of PDP will be hard to defeat though the Labour Party would have taken over the federal government by that time. Imolites will not vote for just about anybody because he is of Labour Party, and the APC knows this.
That’s why they are neither focusing their fight on the numerous candidates who have indicated an interest in the governorship nor on Samdaddy who is the only other person to have shown genuine interest in challenging Ihedioha for the PDP ticket.
Ihedioha is an asset to the PDP and over the last two decades and more, he has helped in no small measure to solidify the structures of that Party in Nigeria and his brief stint as Imo governor under that Party’s platform has further enhanced the acceptability of that Party across the State.
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When people talk about him holding the Party’s ticket for a record three times, that’s the kind of thing I would have written and championed against him if I was in APC, and that’s because any opposition to the PDP in Imo State would do anything and pay anything to stop the immediate past governor from being on the ballot.
- Written by ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES
Disclaimer: “The views/contents expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of Onwuasoanya FCC Jones and do not necessarily reflect those of The World Satellite. The World Satellite will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article.”
