Why Obiano’s support for Jonathan is unequivocal

In recent times, there has been a well-organized and massively funded cam­paign by some out-of-fa­vour politicians in Anambra State to poison the cordial relationship between Chief Willie Obiano and President Goodluck Jonathan. This campaign has been simmer­ing for quite some time, show­ing itself in different ways.Only a fortnight ago, the peo­ple behind this campaign creat­ed the illusion that Chief Obiano had referred to key PDP fig­ures in Anambra State as “mad people” and by implication had also demonized the platform on which President Jonathan is seeking re-election. Preposter­ous as their claim seemed, they stretched it beyond belief when they said Governor Obiano was also critical of Prince Arthur Eze, a formidable philanthropist and PDP financier who has also been a strong backer of his ad­ministration.These mind-benders also stepped beyond incredulity when they fed the sensational press the curious information that the former Special Adviser on Political Matters to Gover­nor Obiano, Chief Joe Martins Uzodike, was relieved of his appointment for singing a pro- Jonathan song on a live radio programme. While this article is not about Chief Uzodike or his exit from the service of the government of Anambra State, it stretches the imagination to think that the same Governor Obiano who endorsed Chief Uzodike’s appointment into President Jonathan’s campaign machinery would turn around to fire him for singing a pro-Jona­than song. Hello! Is somebody following this logic? How in­credulous can these people be?

Curiously too, long before Uzodike was relieved of his po­sition, the group had also made a failed attempt to yoke Gover­nor Obiano to Governor Rotimi Amaechi, the Director General of the All Progressives Congress APC campaign organization. The funny story here is that Dozie Nwankwo, an in-law of Governor Amaechi was the fa­cilitator of this so-called alliance between Obiano and the director general of APC campaign or­ganization. Always misreading the capacity of their audience to sieve through their web of lies and deceit against Obiano, these calumny campaigners believed that once the Presidency is in­formed that Governor Amaechi has an in-law in Anambra State, who is standing election on the platform of APGA, it would accept any story that seeks to establish a political dalliance be­tween Amaechi and Obiano. But once again, they failed. Their wild claims have not in any way affected the perception of Gov­ernor Obiano as a known sup­porter of President Jonathan’s second term bid.

Still not daunted by the obvi­ous lack of interest in the illusion they are vending, these shadowy groups that are hell-bent on forc­ing a wedge between President Jonathan and Governor Obia­no, made a bold attempt at the weekend to finally roll out an all-out smear campaign against Governor Obiano. If all things go as planned, the evil campaign is expected to break in the me­dia today, with poorly written and logically inchoate adverto­rials in the newspapers. One of the materials intercepted by an Enugu-based civil society and democracy watch group, known as the Initiative for Change Organization, was captioned Gov. Obiano, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing … Mr. President Be­ware! This copy carries some of the most spurious allegations against the person of Governor Obiano, questioning his well-known support for President Jonathan and selling the puerile argument that Chief Obiano, of all people, was surreptitiously working for the dictator, General Muhammadu Buhari.

Were this group not so taken in by the sheer audacity of their illogic, it would have recalled what the records say about Governor Willie Obiano’s posi­tion on the second term bid of President Goodluck Jonathan. It would have realized that it is on record that Chief Willie Obiano is probably the first governor to publicly drum his support for President Jonathan, long before most PDP governors and long before Mr. President’s decla­ration of interest in the ongo­ing race. It would also have found out that only few gover­nors have matched Governor Obiano’s consistent campaign for President Jonathan, using every opportunity that he has to talk about the coming elec­tions to remind Ndi Anambra and other Nigerians resident in Anambra State to vote for Mr. President. This faceless group that hides under the cover of the name “Concerned Citizens of Anambra State,” would also not have missed the fact that as Chairman of APGA Board of Trustees and National Leader of the party, Governor Obiano, had worked assiduously to ensure that APGA adopted President Jonathan as its candidate for the 2015 presidential election. And perhaps more importantly too, had this group not been thor­oughly inebriated in its dement­ed pursuit of vendetta on one hand and laughable relevance on the other, it would perhaps have remembered that Chief Willie Obiano is not the typical dyed-in-the-wool politician. He is not given to any duplicitous underhand dealings that make some leaders say one thing and mean another.