Abia: Power Play Delays New Cabinet
05.21.2009

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On February 22, 2009, Abia State Governor, Chief Theodore Orji dissolved his cabinet. When he took the measure, barely eleven days after triumphing at the Appeal tribunal over his rivals in the April 2007 governorship election, many thought he would reconstitute the cabinet soon after. However, Emmanuel Ugwu reports that three months after, Orji has not been able to name his cabinet due to some powerful forces at play in the state’s politics

When Abia State governor, Chief Theodore Ahamaefule Orji dissolved his cabinet and sacked all political appointees expectations were that it would just be a matter of weeks before he reconstituted another executive council. But to the consternation of those angling to come into the cabinet either as fresh appointees or as reappointed office holders, the waiting game has dragged on with days turning weeks and weeks into months. In fact three months have rolled by since the commissioners, special advisers and special assistants were sent home in a shocking but dramatic move.
The waiting game actually commenced on February 22, 2009. On that Sunday evening, the governor had called his aides including men and women to a dinner, ostensibly in continuation of the appeal court victory party only for him to drop the bombshell. THISDAY learnt that Orji did not wait for his commissioners and other political appointees to finish winning and dinning before he announced that it was all over. Food turned sour and wine lost its taste in the mouths of the government officials at the dinner party.
So why has Governor Orji not been able to gather a new set of cabinet members having discarded his pioneer political appointees. Orji attempted to provide an answer for the delay when he returned from his vacation/medical trip abroad. On arrival at the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri, Orji said that he was not in a hurry to reconstitute his cabinet. Though he explained that he sacked his executive council members and personal aides not necessarily because they performed badly, he said he needed to inject fresh blood into his cabinet. Hence he insisted that he would take his time to pick those that would deliver optimum performance to the people of Abia.
He said: “I will reconstitute my cabinet at the appropriate time and this time around I’m taking my time to make sure that I get good people, who will perform better than the other cabinet members, people who are very diligent, who are very passionate about the state, committed to duty and people whom Abians would know that they deserve the position.”
The Abia chief executive may have stated his reasons but political watchers have different views. Indeed, there are strong indications that Governor Orji was bogged down by political interests believed to be major stakeholders in his ascendancy. Informed sources told THISDAY that Orji has been having it tough reaching a compromise with his political mentors on the composition of the new cabinet. Before the governor travelled out for his vacation, he was said to have attended a meeting at Igbere where the composition of the cabinet was the main agenda. But the governor was said to have come out of the meeting wearing a long face, indicating that things did not go the way he expected. In fact, sources said that Orji was given just two slots out of the 18 commissionership positions while the rest were to be nominated by the political interests that provided the platform for him to become governor. It was the same political interests that nominated almost all the members of the previous cabinet, which made Orji to describe them as “strangers” the day he swore them into office.
This time around Orji wants to have greater say in who comes into his cabinet hence the dingdong disagreement with the Igbere power house. The governor was emboldened after the appeal court finally confirmed his mandate on February 11, 2009 and when he dissolved his cabinet less than two weeks after political watchers saw the move as an opportunity for him to assert his independence in the appointment of people into his government. However, this independence movement has become a bridge too far given the umbilical cord between Orji and his predecessor and mentor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu. Kalu is believed to be calling the shots even though he has in several occasions denied any involvement in the running of the present administration.
Beside the former governor, his mother and the founder of Reality Organisation, Chief (Mrs.) Eunice Uzor Kalu is also strongly believed to be the numero uno decision maker when it comes to who gets what in Abia government. It was Mrs. Kalu’s political platform, Reality Organisation Worldwide that gave Governor Orji the ladder with which he climbed into Government House, Umuahia and also did same for all elected and appointed political office holders under the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) at local government, state, to national levels.
How would Orji refuse to do the bidding of these formidable forces behind his journey into Government House, Umuahia? That’s the big question bogging the mind and the answer can only be located in the action the governor would likely take to gain his “independence.” It is this quest for independence that made some Ibeku leaders to lose faith in Orji, whom they regard as a stooge.
Prince Benjamin Apugo, the Ochiagha Ibeku did not mince words when he told Governor Orji shortly after he was sworn into office that he should break free from the apron strings of Kalu and his mother. Apugo, a chieftain of PDP who confessed that he worked for the electoral success of Orji, his Ibeku kinsman, is today still disappointed that nothing has changed. Orji on his own has been claiming that he remains his own man and would not start picking quarrels with his predecessor and his mother in order for people to believe that he is not a puppet in their hands.
On May 2, 2009 some Ibeku leaders led their people in PPA to Kalu at his Igbere home to thank him for the role he played in making Orji governor, including the confirmation at Appeal Court. Political observers interpreted the visit as not merely a thank you visit but also an affirmation that Orji’s fate still lies at Igbere, especially his muted second term bid.
Even as Orji and his mentors bicker over the composition of the cabinet, extraneous sentiments are already being expressed on the criteria for appointing the commissioners. The organised labour in Abia has come out openly to canvass that those perceived to have stayed long in government should not be reappointed. The workers sentiment was amply expressed by the state chairman of Nigeria labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Lucky Akabuike, in his address at the 2009 May Day. He said: “We wish to inform His Excellency that the feeling of many Abians is that there are many politicians who as it appears, have the certificate of occupancy to any political post coming to their area. They are recycled from one post to the other to the detriment, if not embarrassment, of many other loyal and qualified ones. I do know that when one overstays in a system, he loses the challenging tendencies and having mastered the environment, he overtime, gets bored and before long begins to manifest negative tendencies.” Akabuike even offered that labour was ready to “make available” the names of the political “liabilities” that should not make the list of the incoming cabinet as well as tell the governor “in specific terms why they must give other people a chance.”
The waiting game for the reconstitution of Abia executive council has created room for fraudsters to start duping people with the promise of helping them to land juicy appointments. This racketeering became so fraudsters, saying that nobody should be deluded into believing that appointment would be got by pronounced that government had to issue a statement warning people to be on guard. Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Sam Hart, said in the statement that government was quite aware of the activities of the paying money to people purporting that they possess power to influence government appointment.
So when will the men and the women of integrity with passion to serve Abia emerge? The people of Abia would get the expected answer after the backroom wheeling and dealing comes to an end, when the harmonisation of contending interests is achieved. Yet another puzzle is whether the logjam will be resolved without bruising the fragile relationship between the governor and his mentors.