APC’s Threats of War in Anambra State

In a strange and unpleasant turn of events, the ruling All

Progressives Congress (APC) has suddenly swept through Igboland like

an invading army and swept away our ageing political leaders and some

businessmen. It is as though we are all watching a tightly scripted

movie and these red-capped Igbo leaders and businessmen are the

symbolic prisoners of war…victims of incendiary commentaries and

thinly veiled threats of scorched earth policies against the 5% that

failed to vote APC in the last general elections.
Instructively, before this sudden surge by APC, there had been subtle

threats by the party’s megaphones in the South East who felt

emboldened by its growing high-handedness at the national level that

have gone unquestioned for a while. The flagrant disregard for the

sanctity of human lives, the brazen contempt for the doctrine of

separation of powers and the iron-fisted crackdown on opposition

elements are just a few of the excesses of the APC that have

influenced the tenor of the rhetoric deployed by its stalwarts in the

South East to cow the decamping Igbo leaders to submission. In

mid-December last year for instance, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo

State fired the opening shots of APC campaign in Igboland when he

threatened that the party would take over Anambra State from APGA.

Okorocha was not clowning this time. He merely let slip a grand plan

that his comrades had hatched at the highest level. Since then, he had

ratcheted up more attacks on Anambra for obvious reasons…Anambra is

the very heart of Igboland. APC’s capture of Anambra is symbolically

the final conquest of an enclave where Nigeria has met the stiffest

resistance in both war and peace times. Okorocha’s masters are in full

awareness of this symbolism and have effectively primed him to lead

the assault.
As would be expected, Okorocha and his minions had gone on the

offensive, threatening in an uncouth language to take over Anambra

State and jabbing an insolent finger in the eye of Ndi Anambra in a

manner that could not have gone for too long without a response. He

took it rather too far when he promised that “We are also going to use

the Anambra election to show that APC has arrived Southeast.” That

fatal comment is a pointer to the undisguised plan of APC to deploy

conventional and unconventional means to force their way into the

government house in Awka later this year. It is therefore a note of

warning to Ndi Anambra who find a great deal of pride in the great

legacy that Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu left in the All Progressive

Grand Alliance (APGA) which has withstood the relentless assault of

all manner of political gang-ups to date.
The Minister of Labour, Senator Ngige felt that Okorocha was

outshining him in his own turf and picked up the inflammable

commentary where the former left it. He boasted that APC would

demolish the iconic flyovers built by the governor of the state in

Awka because they were a regrettable obstruction of the federal

highway. Senator Ngige issued other annoying threats also but to talk

about pulling down the three flyovers on the ground that they were

obstructing access on a federal highway that had been abandoned by the

federal government for thirty years was not only irresponsible but

provocative.
And sadly, because these incendiary comments by Okorocha and Ngige

were not sufficiently challenged by Ndi Anambra; the volume of threats

is growing in more decibels. The latest threats came from the former

governor of the old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo who is leading a

7-man Committee of political vampires set up by the APC to annex

Anambra State by any means necessary. Like others before it,

Nwobodo’s Committee has been issuing threats to forcibly wrench

Anambra off the grips of APGA and hand it over to the marauding APC to

cement the total annexure of Igboland by the invading army. Never

before has South East Nigeria heard the verbal violence currently

being spouted by the APC leaders in the region with regards to the

Anambra gubernatorial election. There is not the slightest attempt to

disguise the fact that its approach is essentially intimidation or

that it is hell-bent on foisting an electoral heist on the people.

Two things are involved in the recent APC invasion of Igboland. One of

them is the thirst for conquest by the coalition that formed the party

– the same coalition that came together in 1967 to crush the economy

of the old Eastern Region which was widely regarded then as the

fastest growing economy in Africa. The other one is the pride of the

Igbo man and his wish to preserve what is left of his pride and his

political heritage. As it stands now, the conquerors are wetting the

ground for an ill-fated assault on Anambra State. And once again,

Senator Jim Nwobodo is leading the charge. It is saddening to recall

that Nwobodo who’s greatest infamy is that he rose against his own

people at the PDP Convention in Jos in 1999 and spoke Hausa Language

to deny Dr. Alex Ekwueme the chance of emerging the party’s standard

bearer in the campaign that produced the Obasanjo presidency has not

truly repented. Even in his twilight years, Nwobodo has continued to

lend himself quite easily to the enemies of the Igbo. As for Kalu; his

antecedents are well known. He left Abia State in a decrepit state

after eight wasteful years in which he danced himself lame; careering

from one controversy to another. Kalu is all politics and not enough

leadership. These two leaders whose political careers have since

tipped over into the setting sun are leading a retinue of other

never-do-well politicians on a ruthless assault on Anambra State; the

pride of the Igbo man! These two political wolves are determined spit

on the grave of Ikemba Nnewi and all of our great ancestors who put

their lives on the line to preserve what is left of the dignity of

Ndigbo as a global race! Tufiakwa!
Will Ndi Anambra allow that? Can Ndi Anambra allow that? Alu!

Chuma Igbanugo is an Onitsha based Attorney