Ifeanyi IbeThe primary election result of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State will appear to be the most contested in court towards the 2023 election. Whereas the Presidential election is billed for 25th February 2023 and the Governorship election for 11th March 2023, the party’s primary election was still being contested in the courts up to 9th February 2023, just a few weeks to the election. This is indeed scandalous, and speaks ill of the internal political dynamics of the party that has a candidate for the presidential election. It is more scandalous for the South-East which should have been the heartbeat of the party but “is dancing naked in Abia State.”
The controversy that resulted from the party’s primary election of 29th May 2022 is a product of lack of a robust internal settlement mechanism in the party. This must be the reason behind the spate of court actions that followed the party’s declaration of Prof Greg Ikechukwu Ibe as winner and the 2023 Guber candidate of the party. The declaration set the stage for legal actions as three contestants including, Gen Ijioma Nwokoro Ijioma (rtd), Etigwe Uwa (SAN) and Sir. Chikwe Udensi rejected the result.
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Legal fireworks after the primary election had begun with Gen Ijioma who came a distant third. The Umuahia Federal High Court upheld the election and affirmed Prof Greg Ibe as the valid candidate of the party. But Ijioma filed an appeal at the Owerri Court of Appeal. As if this was not enough, Sir Udensi himself proceeded to the Federal High Court Abuja to cancel the Umuahia ruling. The Abuja court headed by Justice Binta Nyako nullified the primary election on ground of irregularities and ordered a rerun in 14 days. All the candidates at this time layed claim to the election.
The stage was set for another motion as Sir Chikwe Udensi approached the Court of Appeal, Abuja. He came up more determined this time, asking the court to either declare him the APGA candidate or order a rerun. This was while the appeal at the Owerri division of the Court of Appeal was still subsisting.
Matter soon took a dramatic twist as the Abuja court of appeal on 8th February 2023 not only sustained the Justice Binta’s ruling that annulled Prof Greg’s election but went further to strike off the name of the party from the ballot. This would seem like “let all the candidates and the party lose out.” This ruling was shocking, with APGA and Prof Greg describing it as a travesty of justice. Prof Greg indeed described the Abuja appellate Court as “playing Father Christmas to Sir Udensi.” This expression was pointblank as the judgement offered the plaintiff what he never sought in his motion. He maintained that he was the valid candidate of APGA. He also instructed his lawyers to head to the Supreme Court.
The APGA drama on the 2023 Guber election continued within barely 48 hours at the Owerri division of the Court of Appeal. The court in a swift dispensation of justice quashed all seven counts which Gen Ijioma had brought against Prof Greg and sustained the Umuahia trial court judgement. The Hon Justice S. A. Bola therefore reaffirmed the election of Prof Greg. The APGA and Prof Greg’s supporters across Abia State broke into wild jubilation as this judgement was announced over all media. The campaigns had remained atop even during the challenging legal issues. It is hoped that this will bring an end to the troubles of the party as it goes into the Governorship poll on 11th March 2023.
For Prof Greg Ibe, the contentious road to the election cannot be forgotten in a hurry. A Professor of Entrepreneurship, it must have been the most trying experience of his life. How did he cope? It will not be further from the truth that as a Professor of Entrepreneurship he wasn’t a bit surprised or shaken for in the turfs of business and management one must have ingrained in one all that it takes to survive and excel.
It’s not surprising that the APGA candidate has handled himself with so much candour, dignity, forthrightness, openness and faithfulness. As the legal fireworks lasted, the campaign grew louder. The robustness, the expansion and support leapt beyond imagination. Support groups emerged in all the nook and cranny of the local government areas of the state. Prayer warriors increased on several WhatsApp platforms. He had received a variety of endorsements from Abia State Stakeholders, pensioners, varsity students, Abia Good Governance Forum, market unions and civil servants. All of this was to show the people’s love and yearning for Abia State to reposition itself through the man whose life is a blessing to humanity; a man who has served Abians in greater capacity as a private citizen. The people cannot wait for him to be in government house to chart a new leadership course for a state always derided to suffer from leadership dearth and curse.
Prof Greg Ibe was born on December 10, 1963 in Kaduna. He attended Boys High School, Ihube, Imo State. Later he attended School of Accountancy, Aba, and proceeded to Enugu State University of Science and Technology. Thereafter he went to the California Coast University, Santa Ana where did his Master’s in 2003 and PhD in Management in 2006.
A man whose heart flows with extraordinary human kindness, the Professor of Entrepreneurship established the Gregory University Uturu in Abia State to cater for the educational needs of Nigeria from the Abia end. The school which is reputed to be among the top best private universities in Nigeria has over 2000 students and over 500 employees. Enamoured by human capital development he established the Gregory Iyke Scholarship Scheme through which indigent students actualise their educational yearnings. The scheme has awarded over 500 student scholarships. His medical interventions, including free eye surgeries, have seen 17,299 beneficiaries.
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There is also another humanitarian angle in the Professor’s commitment to touch human lives. That is the Greg Iyke Foundation through which he touches in the most direct manner the lives of diverse people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof Greg gave four ambulances, and 800 bags of rice and other testing equipment to Abia State government under the PDP. Through these he intervened in the circumstances of the 17 LGAs. This was a time Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, the state governor was sick. Prof Greg took food to all the political wards of the state to give succour to the people during the COVID-19.
At this time he was not in the country. He sent the sum of ₦200 million and food items through the university officials to the people, not only Abia State but the other South-East states. In Imo State he gave medicines in addition. In December 2021, Prof. Greg shared another set of rice, to the tune of 4000 bags to help give food and fun to the people in Christmas.
This is the heart of the man who wants to lead Abia in 2023. He is not a typical Nigerian politician. How can anyone compare a man of this quality with the political jobbers in Abia whose stock-in-trade is political arithmetic to position themselves in the corridors of power to squander the revenues of the state. Abia which is an oil producing state is almost the least in infrastructure development in Nigeria. Abia’s oil has turned out a curse as greedy politicians cart away every penny that accrues to the state, leaving tears, sorrow and blood.
This report card is not surprising. Talking about leadership he was recently quoted as saying, “in Nigeria, leadership recruitment has been a problem and as soon as we get it right then things can happen. But the recruitment process keeps on bringing mediocrity into the system. Now that people like us have decided to join in the force, we believe that the country will give us the opportunity so that we make the country what to expect or to be comparable with overseas.” Indeed, there is no state that suffers from acute leadership challenge like Abia State. The state needs Prof Greg Ibe now more than ever.
It is no wonder the entire Abia, from LGA to LGA, is in jubilation mode. It feels like the Professor of Entrepreneurship has already won the Governorship election. For him, it has been a unique March from triumph to Triumph. His supporters are already exuberant for another triumphal March come March 11, 2023.
Ifeanyi Ibe is a Media Consultant and can be reached on 08038945092/ifeanyibe1969@gmail.com
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