For the second time in one year, Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, wife of the late leader of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu had cause “to explode”.

The first time was a reaction on her failed ambition to clinch the Senatorial ticket of APGA to fly the party’s flag in the Anambra South district.

Ambassador Ojukwu had plunged into the murky waters of politics taking politicians for their words. Many people thought that the ticket was already hers as wife of the leader of the party and that the party primary was a mere formality. The chairman of Capital Oil and proprietor of Ifeanyi Football club, Mr. Ifeanyi Uba who also hails from Nnewi had just been disqualified by the party as he was not given a waiver, leaving the battle front for Ojukwu and Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu. So her supporters thought the party primary would be a walk over and she wore her celebration dress to the venue.

However, things turned out differently. Daily Independent learnt that while Ojukwu was preparing for celebration, her opponent was busy poaching her delegates. On arrival, the delegates were there, yes, but they had changed their mind. When the result was released, the Ambassador was thoroughly embarrassed and she gave a no-hold bare press statement which received wide publicity.

Part of it read: “At no time in the 16 years that I have been a member of this great political movement, have we in the course of routine primary exercises witnessed such despicable levels of violence, vote rigging, and the wholesale importation of terror by political desperados intent on hijacking the electoral process at all costs.

As an aspirant vying to represent Anambra South Senatorial zone, I was both a witness to, and a victim of the gross irregularities, intimidation of delegates, excess voting and the state of siege and violence, which held sway at many voting areas. The venue of my zonal primary election, Ekwulobia Stadium, was literally turned into a theatre of war with several busloads of armed hoodlums invading the venue, firing sporadic gunshots, terrorising delegates with police firing tear gas canisters in order to repel their assault. As might be expected, there were several casualties.

“I experienced through each stage of the process the living hell that the ordinary members of this party go through in a quest to fulfil their political aspirations. This process turned out to be, for most of us, nothing other than a series of transactional arrangements with the prize going to the highest bidder. At every stage there was a concerted subversion of the democratic process with the active connivance of party officials. As a foundation member of this great party and wife of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who gave his all to ensure that this party remains a credible and ideologically focused platform for our people to achieve their political aspirations, I am dismayed at this turn of events.

As a member of this party’s Board of Trustees, I am deeply concerned that mercenaries would appear to have hijacked the operations of our party machinery. APGA is today facing an existential threat and the overall image of our party is in tatters. This will certainly have serious repercussions going into the main elections”.

Many people have, however, blamed Ambassador Ojukwu for dabbling into the contest of senatorial seat in the first place. They wondered what she lacked, financially and materially that she wanted to get by going to the Senate.

A high ranking APGA official told Daily Independent: “Iyom Bianca stood as one of those who can say, she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Her father, Chief C. C. Onoh was very wealthy and her husband, just the name Ojukwu opened doors not just in Nigeria but beyond. As wife of our leader she was a Queen Mother, lacking nothing. Every month, our Governor paid her her allowances. Combined with the fact that she was an Ambassador of Nigeria to Spain, what else did she want? In addition, with the cordial relationship between Governor Obiano and President Muhammadu Buhari, she could have bagged another appointment”.

But, he, however, believed that Ambassador Ojukwu must have been deceived in the cause of her political ambition. He reasoned that Ambassador Ojukwu could not have jumped into the ring if she didn’t have assurances from the party leadership of a ticket and support to win the election. It is believed that her failed ambition was the cause of her present frustration and antagonism against Obiano.

A highly dependable party source traced the matter so. According to the source, the relationship between Obiano and Ambassador Ojukwu soured after that party primary election. He told The Daily Independent that after she failed to secure the ticket, Ambassador Ojukwu unleashed negative publicity on Obiano through her Iyom Bianca Ojukwu Media (IBOM) which “she gave free hand to insult Obiano”. It was at this point that Obiano withdrew her allowances and the relationship between the two worsened.

However, Obiano had his own share of blame. First, it is seen as a letdown to bring Ambassador Ojukwu out and allow her to be disgraced, even though it was said in some quarters that she didn’t seek anybody’s advice before jumping into the party primary election.

These strings of events culminated in the estrangement of relations hip between the two and she saw an opportunity in the absence of the Governor in last week’s Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Lecture at the University named after her husband. Of note is that the governor absented himself at the first lecture series and so she siezed the opportunity of the governor’s absence last week.

Although Obiano was represented by his deputy, Dr. Nkem Okeke, Ambassador Ojukwu still observed that “this is the second time the event is holding and Obiano doesn’t want to attend by himself”.

While thanking the former Governor Peter Obi who actually renamed the University after Ojukwu she lamented that “it is unfortunate that Obiano has not attended the memorial lecture since it started last year, but that is not to say that he will not attend. The governor still has time in office and could still attend in future. She then dropped the last word: “Lastly, tell him that he is gratuitously handing over the credentials for history to call him an ingrate, who stepped on fingers of all the benefactors that held the ladder for him to climb to political power”.

Public opinion has blamed Obiano for not finding time to attend the Ojukwu lectures. Some people said: “Obiano’s inability to attend any of the Ojukwu lectures aggravated the whole matter. If he didn’t have time to attend the first what of the second”.

The University authority has however distanced itself from Ambassador Ojukwu’s utterances which it described as an embarrassment. A statement issued by the university’s public relations officer, Dr. Chukwueloka Christian C said “the lecture organized on November 4 at the Igbariam campus was to showcase issues of national importance and also to immortalize Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu whose name the university bears. It has never been a forum for politics or vendetta of any sort.

“The University feels most embarrassed when one of the invitees used the forum to embarrass the Executive Governor of Anambra State who approved the Memorial Lecture and was effectively represented by the Deputy Governor (His Excellency, Dr. Nkem Okeke) The University hereby disassociates itself from all acts and the obnoxious language used against our Governor and Visitor to the University”. (Daily Independent)

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