Governor Ugwuanyi of Enugu State may have crossed the line in political loyalty
OpenLife Nigeria reports that the executive governor of Enugu State, Lawrence Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, popularly known as ‘Gburugburu,’ has stylishly crossed the line on the basis of absolute loyalty to his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Among many other instances, this governor, yet again, demonstrated his sympathy for the All Progressives Congress, APC, last week when he hosted Senator Femi Ojodu in Abuja.
Babafemi Ojudu, 60, is a Nigerian journalist who was elected Senator for Ekiti Central constituency of Ekiti State in 2011 on the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) platform, now APC and currently serves as Special Adviser, Political Matters, to President Muhammadu Buhari.
During their conversation, governor Ugwuanyi, obviously referring to the Ekiti governorship race told Ojodu “Go for it my brother. You have paid your due.”
Femi Ojodu is in the Ekiti 2022 governorship race on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC. He is currently on consultation drive to shore up his financial base ahead of the election.
Governor Kayode Fayemi, the incumbent governor is an APC member. He definitely would have a say on who emerges the APC candidate during the primary election.
Information so far gathered by OpenLife Nigeria does not indicate any atom of support from governor Fayemi for Ojodu to emerge as the party’s candidate.
This is basically because the governor and Ojodu are technically not on the same page politically.
In many instances, Ojodu has resorted to public outcry over governor Fayemi’s high handedness on his person and political direction.
The tempo of the political face off between the duo arrested international attention when Ojodu publicly accused governor Fayemi of hoarding pandemic palliatives. That is partly how dirty the fight is.
At that time, it was a thoroughly embarrassed governor Fayemi that had to fall on his administrative and media machinery to reassert his image in the public domain.
For a man who is believed to be eyeing either the presidency or Vice presidential slot in 2023, Ojodu’s deep cut on Fayemi’s remains ever green in his memory and the revenge period would be the 2022 governorship.
The Ekiti 2022 governorship in which Ojodu has shown more than a passing interest is one area Fayemi intends to teach him few lessons in politics.
Conscious of this development, Okodu has learned to seek support from outside Ekiti government House by reaching out to allies in other political parties.
Meanwhile, even as former governor Ayodele Fayose and Senator Biodun Olubunmi are at logger heads within PDP enclave in Ekiti State, there is no doubt that the party is quite ready to contest the 2022 governorship and take over the affairs of the state.
This much governor Ugwuanyi knows.
But given that the political face off between governor Seye Makinde of Oyo State and Ayodele Fayose over the control of the soul of PDP in South West has set governor Ugwuanyi against Fayose who he feels should not contest South West leadership with Makinde, the Enugu governor is said to have bought wholesale into Ojodu’s guber aspiration with funds ranging into billion as support promise.
This, essentially, is to spite Fayose.
“They can sell Ekiti to APC just because of Fayose. Politics is like that. James Ibori sold a State Assembly seat to Oyefia of ANPP in Delta State just because, as of that time, he was angry with Ahmadu Alli’s wife. Therefore, I am not surprised at what governor Ugwuanyi is doing even though it is cleanly an anti party endeavour,” an Abuja based Professor of Political Science told OpenLife on Sunday.
Born on March 20, 1964, governor Ugwuanyi was sworn on 29 May 2015 as the Executive Governor of Enugu State.
Before then, he was a member of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for 12 years on PDP platform representing Igboeze North-Udenu Federal Constituency.
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