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No PDP government in Nigeria is legitimate unfortunately

-------------Prof. Chima Njoku

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December 6, 2004

His Excellency,

The President, Commander-In-Chief,

Federal Republic of Nigeria, Abuja

RE: ANAMBRA AND RELATED MATTERS

About a month ago, the nation woke up to the shocking news of a devastating attack on Anambra State resulting in the burning down of radio and television stations, hotels, vehicles, assembly quarters, the residence of the state Chief Judge and finally, Government House, Awka. Dynamite was even applied in the exercise and all or nearly most of these in the full glare of our own police force as shown on NTA for the world to see. The operation lasted three days.

That week, in all churches and mosques, we, our party, and you as Head of Government and Leader of this Nation came under the most scathing and blithering attacks. We were singly and severally accused of connivance in action and so forth. Public anger reached its peak.

Recommendation

You set up a reconciliation committee headed by Ebonyi State Governor, Dr. Sam Egwu, and we all thought this would help calm nerves and perhaps bring about some respite. But quite clearly things are nowhere near getting better.

While the reconciliation team attempted to inspect damaged sites in Anambra, they were scared away by gun fire, further heightening public anger and disdain for us.

Bomb explosion in government house, Awka

On Tuesday, the 30th day of November, 2004, another shocking development – a reported bomb explosion in Government House Awka. Since then, the media, public discourse within and even outside of our borders, have been dominated by the most heinous and hateful of expletives against our party and your person and government. It would appear that the perpetrators of these acts are determined to stop at nothing since there has not been any visible sign of reproach from law enforcement agencies. I am now convinced that the rumours and speculations making the rounds that they are determined to kill Dr. Chris Ngige may not be unfounded.

The question now is, what would be the consequences of such a development? How do we exonerate ourselves from culpability, and worse still, how do we even hope to survive it? Mr. President, I was part of the second republic and we fell. Memories of that fall are a miserable litany of woes we suffered, escaping death only by God’s supreme mercy. Then we were suspected to have stolen all of Nigeria’s wealth. After several months in prison, some of us were freed to come back to life penniless and wretched. Many have gone to their early graves un-mourned because the public saw us all as renegades.

I am afraid we are drifting in the same direction again. In life, perception is reality and today, we are perceived in the worst light by an angry, scornful Nigerian Public for reasons which are absolutely unnecessary.

Mr. President, if I write in this vein, it is because I am deeply troubled and I can tell you that an overwhelming percentage of our party members feel the same way though many may never be able to say this to you for a variety of reasons.

But the back stops at your table and in my position, not only as Chairman but also as an old friend and loyal defender of your development programmes which I have never stopped defending, I dare to think that we can, either by omission or commission allow ourselves to crash and bring to early grief, this beautiful edifice called democracy.

On behalf of the peoples Democratic Party, I call on you to act now and bring any, and all criminal, even treasonable, activity to a halt. You and you alone, have the means. Do not hesitate. We do not have too much time to waste.

A.I. Ogbeh, OFR

National Chairman

cc: Vice President

Chairman, Board of Trustees

Speaker, House of Representatives

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Obasanjo blasts Ogbeh


"Again, I did and that was when I got the real shock of my life when Chris Uba looked Ngige straight in the face and said: 'You know you did not win the election' and Ngige answered 'Yes, I know I did not win.' Chris Uba went further to say to Ngige 'You don’t know in detail how it was done.' 1 was horrified and told both of them to leave my residence"

LAGOS — PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo has blasted the national chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh, for "playing hide and seek games," in his running of the party affairs.

The president in a 10-page reply to a December 6, 2004 letter from Chief Ogbeh on the political situation in Anambra State made starting revelations about the emergence of Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State in last year’s election.

The PDP chairman in his letter had drawn the president’s attention to "the most scathing and blithering attacks" on the government from Nigerians on its handling of the Anambra problem.

Comparing the situation in the country under the NPN government in the Second Republic and the Obasanjo government, Chief Ogbeh said: "I am afraid we are drifting in the same direction again. In life, perception is reality and today we are perceived in the worst light by an angry, scornful Nigerian public for reasons which are absolutely unnecessary."

But in his reply, President Obasanjo said: "I am amused and not surprised by your letter of December 6, 2004 because after playing hide and seek games over a period of time, you have finally, at least in writing, decided to unmask and show your true colour. Having made this introductory point, let us go over systematically and, in some detail, through the whole episode of the Anambra saga. I must add that I have expressed sadness and condemned the wanton destruction of properties that took place in Anambra recently.

"When it turned out that Governor Mbadinuju was an unmitigated failure in Anambra as PDP Governor in our first term, I made it clear to you that I would not go to Anambra to campaign if Governor Mbadinuju was being sponsored as PDP gubernatorial candidate in spite of his calamitous failure. You did not tell me that you were sending a discrete investigation team to Anambra to find out the situation on the ground. You never said yes or no but I was determined that, in good conscience, I could not go to Anambra to campaign for support and seek endorsement for Governor Mbadinuju.

"About six weeks later, you came to report to me that you have sent two people discretely to ascertain on the ground whether people wanted Mbadinuju or not and you had received report that 662/3 of the people of Anambra did not want Mbadinuju. For me, what we knew about Mbadinuju in terms of failure to pay salaries in some cases for over seven months which led to school children not being able to take the WASCE did not need any discrete investigation.

However, your discrete investigation convinced you that I was right and you brought Mbadinuju to me, for you and I to tell him that he could not be a gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Anambara. You rightly, I believe, requested that I should work with you to give him a soft landing and we agreed to make him an Ambassador after the election and we even agreed on which mission abroad, subject to our success in the elections. Mbadinuju asked for a letter from me and I refused because I said that my word was my bond but that you were free to write him one. A few weeks after that meeting, Mbadinuju decamped from our party to the AD and sought election as Governor of Anarnbra on the platform of the AD.

"When the members of our. party started jostling for nomination, as normal with me, I refused to endorse a candidate, it is only after the primaries that the party’s candidate becomes my own candidate. And in the case of Anambra, if I had wanted to support anybody at all, it would have been Jerry Ugokwe because he was one man l knew but, of course, I was consistent on my policy. And when Ngige emerged as the candidate of the PDP from the primaries, he was brought to be introduced to me and, of course, he became not only the party’s candidate but also mine. After enquiries about the situation in Anambra and about Ngige himself, I made a point to him that he should go and reconcile himself with his father with whom he was not on talking terms as I believed it was an abomination for an African son to be in a state of enmity with his father to the point of absolute non-communication. I advised Ngige to reconcile with his father and the rest of his family and he reported to me that he did.

"The election took place and Ngige was declared the winner. I congratulated him along with other victorious candidates. Realising that Ngige would need some assistance to help him through the teething problem of his administration, I invited him to consider having a non-partisan Honorary Committee of Elders of the State and he agreed. I talked to Igwe Nwokedi, Chief Mbasulike Amechi and the Anglican Bishop of Awka to get two more people with them to act as such honorary non-partisan advisory committee of elders for the governor. For them to maintain their independence, I said that any transportation or administrative funds that they might require would be provided from the Presidency rather than the state.

"After two months, Igwe Nwokedi, who was supposed to be the Chairman, reported that the governor was impossible to advise or to work with and that was the end of that effort. Mr. Chairman, I reported that effort to you. When on one occasion Chris Uba came to report that things appeared to be going wrong between him and the governor in the presence of Chief Amechi, I asked the latter to go and sort it out for them in his capacity as an elder of the state and veteran politician. I requested Chief Amechi to report back to me. The truth is that as far as Anambra was concerned, I considered it my duty to work with all stakeholders in the area of avoiding conflict and on that ground I promised to act on any report or advice from Chief Mbasulike Amechi.

I never had warning that things were going sour in the state any more until I was in Maputo, Mozambique on July 9, 2003 when I received report that the governor had resigned. I did what normally I do not do except in an emergency by using government facility for strictly non-governmental purpose. I instructed that an airplane from the Presidential fleet be made available to a team to rush to Anambra to investigate what was happening. That team went on Friday morning while I was still in Mozambique and returned on Friday evening. You will recall that the team reported to you and I that what was happening in Anambra required urgent party action to resolve it as a family affair. A Senate panel that followed in the same vein reported something similar.

"Mr. Chairman, the following Sunday, you received and opened a brown envelope in my residence in Abuja that contained three different letters of resignation and a video of announcement of resignation of Governor Ngige. You were as shocked as I was and you promised to do something about it that night. You left with copies of the documents and the next thing you did after that was to insinuate that Ngige’s problems were caused by me. Unfortunately, as in many other instances, you failed to do what you should have done as the chief executive of the party and rather prefer to insult me not only as the president of the nation but also as the leader of the party which you seem never to recognise or acknowledged.

From that point on, I only did my job as a President by investigating what the Police did or did not do and dishing out punishment to be confirmed by the Police Service Commission which in its own report asked for a complete investigation of the matter. That investigation was carried out by the Attorney-General and his report was acted upon. After that, I deliberately remained aloof about political events in Anambra except whatever may affect security and loss of life and property. I, in fact, asked both Ngige and Chris Uba never to come to my office or to my residence and you know this. As far as I could remember, a childhood friend of yours came with you to discuss the issue of Anambra between you and I on one occasion.

"Soon after, I briefed the party, caucus in detail on my role on what I saw and did and the party caucus endorsed every action that had been taken by the executive arm of government in respect with Anambra. A few months later, two members of your Working Committee— Olisa Metu (an Ex-Officio member) and Farouk (the youth leader) — came to appeal to me to specially intervene in reconciling Ngige and Chris Uba. I refused initially because I believed it was really the responsibility of the party. But since you had shirked your responsibility as party Chairman, I conceded and asked the two members of the NWC to bring Ngige and Chris Uba to me. That was the only time, after several months, that I allowed them to enter my residence.

"I was shocked that a man in the position of aspirant or one elected as governor could actually resign on three different occasions in writing and on one occasion, the resignation was on videotape. I, also, was of the opin ion that for Ngige to have allowed that to happen, there must have been some extra-legal motivation. There has been accusation and counter-accusation as reasons for such ungainly behaviour. When the two of them came to see me, the two young men who had brokered the opportunity for Ngige and Chris Uba to see me wanted to leave. I refused and insisted that they had to be at the meeting because I wanted them as witnesses.

"After almost two hours of talk, we dismissed hoping that fences would be mended and reconciliation would be fully established. They left and waited on the corridors for a while. Olisa Metu came back and requested that I should meet with Ngige and Chris Uba alone without witnesses for them to feel free to unwind. Again, I did and that was when I got the real shock of my life when Chris Uba looked Ngige straight in the face and said: "You know you did not win the election" and Ngige answered "Yes, I know I did not win." Chris Uba went further to say to Ngige: "You don’t know in detail how it was done." 1 was horrified and told both of them to leave my residence. This incident was reported to you because although constitutionally, Ngige had been declared winner, for me and, I believe, for you there remains a moral burden and dilemma both as leaders in Nigeria and leaders of our party. You did not consider it important enough to do anything or talk about it. I told Ngige that the only way I could live with this moral dilemma since he had been constitutionally declared as governor is that I will continue to deal with him in his capacity as the governor of a state in Nigeria purely and strictly on formal basis either until he runs out his term, he decides to follow the path of honour or until any competent authority declares otherwise. That remains my position to date. That notwith’standing, immediately after the Court of Appeal overturned Justice Nnaji’s order, the Police promptly obeyed. That is what rule of law is all about.

Furthermore, based on all that I had heard, I told Chris Uba and Ngige that their case was like the case of two armed robbers that conspired to loot a house and after bringing out the loot, one decided to do the other in and the issue of fair play even among robbers became a factor. The two robbers must be condemned for robbery in the first instance and the greedy one must be specially pointed out for condemnation to do justice among the robbers. To me, the determination of the greedy one is also a problem, maybe they are both equally greedy. Justice, fairness and equity are always the basis of peace and harmony in any human organisation or relationship. Anambra issue is essentially a human organisational and human relationship issue.

"I was on a tour of five countries in five days going from the UK through Finland and and Sweden with a stop-over in Libya to Tanzania last November when the recent issue of violence broke out. The Inspector General of Police who claimed that the crowd was overwhelming for the Police strength was instructed to double the number of mobile police unit by bringing additional men and women from the adjoining states. He did so and he reported that 19 looters and destroyers were arrested and charged to court with some vehicles seized. NTA coverage of that unfortunate incident is not the issue, wars are watched like theatrical plays in the contemporary world. The issue is whether or not the Police performed or did not perform their duties.

"Mr. Chairman, obviously you do not expect me to do less than I have done. I even went out to do more because since you failed to either resolve the political issues that are intra-party matters and they have then spread to engulf the entire state or decisively punish any offender, 1decided, in consultation with Governor Ngige, to set up a fact-finding and reconciliation committee under the Governor of Ebonyi State to put an end to the violence, create a conducive atmosphere for the governor to return to his station and to ensure permanent peace, security through reconciliation of the known warring party members Christ Ngige and Chris Uba - and their supporters.

And this was after I had a meeting with both the PDP State Chairman and the Governor. Since the Governor of Ebonyi, whom I have asked to keep you fully posted on his findings and progress of his committee, has not yet reported to me, and since I have taken every necessary step to ensure a resolution of the political problem in Anambra which you have failed to confront the issue, I consider your letter opportunistic, and only a smokescreen and I believe I should answer it in some reasonable detail as I have done. I also took every reasonable step to beef up security to deal with the situation.

On Tuesday, December 7 2004, after the Party meeting on the crisis in Kogi State, you told me that you had written me a letter on threat to Ngige’s life and you indicated to me, which you did not do in the letter, that one Honourable Chuma Nzeribe was the culprit. As I will not dilly-dally on an issue of security, even before I received your letter, I directed the Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS) to look into the matter. It may interest you that almost on daily basis letters are received in my office of people alleging that other people want to assassinate them. All such allegations are forwarded to security people for investigation. None has been substantiated yet. But we will not take any issue of security lightly no matter who claims to be in danger.

"And contrary to your belief and insinuation, just today, 9th December, the Governor of Anambra came to me to seek my opinion and advice on whether or not to constitute a Commission of Enquiry into what happened in the state. I did not hesitate to advise and encourage him to do so in order that all the facts would be exposed and verifiable truth be established rather than trading in rumours.

Let me end on this note: whatever may be your reason for the ambivalent disposition and handling of the party problem in Anambra like you have done in other places and the ulterior motive for your letter, if and when in my capacity as President of Nigeria duty calls for me to act, I will not shirk my responsibility and we will all at the end of the day be at the bar of the public both at the party level and national level. Let me also say that it is, indeed, unfortunate that you make so many unnecessary and unwarranted insinuations in your. letter about our great country. I have taken judicial note of the ominous comparisons you made between a government in which you participated that was overthrown in a coup d’etat and this present administration.

"I wonder if that is your wish since you may not now go out penniless. But whatever agenda you may be working at God is always in charge and in control. Warped perception must be differentiated from reality. Perception created and manipulated for a sinister purpose cannot be reality. The greatest danger to any country is putting truth out of favour; extolling evils of lies, deceit, treachery, disloyalty, unpatriotism, corruption and unconstitutionality. That is my greatest fear for Nigeria and it should be yours and that of any right-thinking Nigerian. Not too long ago, I challenged you to think beyond the ordinary, the expected and the self, I still put that challenge on the table.

"Let it be on record that I do believe that 1 have invested the totality of my life in what I may call ‘enterprise Nigeria’ and if it means that in the process of repositioning our dear country for sustainable greatness, what is dearest to me would have to be sacrificed, I will, in good conscience, not hesitate to do so. And if that will enhance Nigeria’s. development, it is a sacrifice that I will be glad to make. I have reached a stage in life that I have passed the state of being intimidated or being flattered.

"I can stand before God and man and in clear conscience to defend every measure that I have taken everywhere in Nigeria since I became the President and will continue to act without fear or favour or inducement. And it does not matter to me what is sponsored in the Nigerian media, in particular, the print media. I believe that our vindication will come through the truth which is the only thing that can uplift a nation and make an honest man and a sincere believer in God free. May I crave your indulgence to copy this letter to all those to whom your letter to me was copied. In addition, I am copying the President of the Senate, the number three man in the present hierarchy of this government and a party leader in his own right, whom you deliberately left out of the distribution list of your letter for reason best known to you.

"One thing I will never stop doing is praying for Nigeria in general and Anambra in particular. May God continue to bless and prosper Nigeria. In spite of the malevolence of some Nigerians, Nigeria is moving to the cruising level and cruising speed. That is the work of God and what all Nigerians and friends of Nigeria should do is to join hands in hastening the work of God in Nigeria at this juncture.

May God help us to help ourselves. I wish you well.

OLUSEGUN OBASANJO

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I am amused and not surprised by your letter of
December 6, 2004 because after playing hide and seek
games over a period of time, you have finally, at
least in writing, decided to unmask and show your true
colour.

Having made this introductory point, let us go over
systematically and, in some detail, through the whole
episode of the Anambra saga. I must add that I have
expressed sadness and condemned the wanton destruction
of properties that took place in Anambra recently.
When it turned out that, Governor Mbadinuju was an
unmitigated failure in Anambra, as PDP governor in our
first term, I made it clear to you that I would not go
to Anambra to campaign if Governor Mbadinuju was being
sponsored as PDP gubernatorial candidate in spite of
his calamitous failure. You did not tell me that you
were sending a discrete investigation team to Anambra
to find out the situation on the ground.
You never said yes or no but I determined that, in
good conscience, I could not go to Anambra to campaign
for support and seek endorsement for Governor
Mbadinuju.

About six weeks later, you came to report to me that
you have sent two people discretely to ascertain on
the ground whether people wanted Mbadinuju or not and
you had received report that 66 2/3 of the people of
Anambra did not want Mbadinuju.
For me, what we knew about Mbadinuju in terms of
failure to pay salaries in some cases for over 7
months which led to school children not being able to
take the WASCE did not need any discrete
investigation.

However, your discrete investigation convinced you
that I was right and you brought Mbadinuju to me, for
you and I to tell him that he could not be a
gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Anambra.
You rightly, I believe, requested that I should work
with you to give him a soft landing and we agreed to
make him an ambassador after the election and we even
agreed on which mission abroad, subject to our success
in the elections.

Mbadinuju asked for a letter from me and I refused
because I said that my word was my bond but that you
were free to write him one. A few weeks after that
meeting, Mbadinuju decamped from our party to the AD
and sought election as governor of Anambra on the
platform of the AD.

When the members of our party started jostling for
nomination, as normal with me, I refused to endorse a
candidate; it is only after the primaries that the
party's candidate becomes my own candidate.
And in the case of Anambra, if I had wanted to support
anybody at all, it would have been Jerry Ugokwe
because he was one man I knew but, of course, I was
consistent on my policy. And when Ngige emerged as the
candidate of the PDP from the primaries, he was
brought to be introduced to me and, of course, he
became not only the party's candidate but also mine.
After enquiries about the situation in Anambra and
about Ngige himself, I made a point to him that he
should go and reconcile himself with his father with
whom he was not on talking terms as I believed it was
an abomination for an African son to be in a state of
enmity with his father to the point of absolute
non-communication. I advised Ngige to reconcile with
his father and the rest of his family and he reported
to me that he did.

The election took place and Ngige was declared the
winner. I congratulated him along with other
victorious candidates. Realizing that Ngige would need
some assistance to help him through the teething
problem of his administration, I invited him to
consider having a non-partisan honorary committee of
elders of the state and he agreed.
I talked to Igwe Nwokedi, Chief Mbasulike Amechi and
the Anglican Bishop of Awka to get two more people
with them to act as such honourary non-partisan
advisory committee of elders for the governor.
For them to maintain their independence, I said that
any transportation or administrative funds that they
might require would be provided from the presidency
rather than the state.

After two months, Igwe Nwokedi, who was supposed to be
the chairman, reported that the governor was
impossible to advise or to work with and that was the
end of that effort. Mr. Chairman, I reported that
effort to you.

When on one occasion, Chris Uba came to report that
things appeared to be going wrong between him and the
governor in the presence of Chief Amechi, I asked the
latter to go and sort it out for them in his capacity
as an elder of the state and veteran politician. I
requested Chief Amechi to report back to me. The truth
is that as far as Anambra was concerned, I considered
it my duty to work with all stakeholders in the area
of avoiding conflict and on that ground I promised to
act on any report or advice from Chief Mbasulike
Amechi.

I never had warning that things were going sour in the
state any more until I was in Maputo, Mozambique on
July 9, 2003 when I received report that the governor
had resigned. I did what normally I do not do except
in an emergency by using government facility for
strictly non-governmental purpose. I instructed that
an airplane from the presidential fleet be made
available to a team to rush to Anambra to investigate
what was happening. That team went on Friday morning
while I was still in Mozam-bique and returned on
Friday evening. You will recall that the team reported
to you and I that what was happening in Ananm-bra
required urgent party action to resolve it as a family
affair.

A Senate Panel that followed in the same vein
re-opened something similar. Mr. Chairman, the
following Sunday, you received and opened a brown
envelope in my residence in Abuja that contained three
different letters of resignation and a video of
announcement of resignation of Governor Ngige. You
were as shocked as I was and you promised to do
something about it that night. You left with copies of
the documents and the next thing you did after that
was to insinuate that Ngige's problems were caused by
me.

Unfortunately, as in many other instances, you failed
to do what you should have done as the chief executive
of the party and rather prefer to insult me not only
as the President of the nation but also as the leader
of the party which you seem never to recognize or
acknowledge. From that point on, I only did my job as
a President by investigating.

What the police did or did not do and dishing out
punishment to be confirmed by the Police Service
Commission which in its own report asked for a
complete investigation of the matter. That
investigation was carried out by the Attorney General
and his report was acted upon. After that, I
deliberately remained aloof about political events in
Anambra except whatever may affect security and loss
of life and property.

I, in fact, asked both Ngige and Chris Uba never to
come to my office or to my residence and you know
this. As far as I could remember, a childhood friend
of yours came with you to discuss the issue of Anambra
between you and I on one occasion.

Soon after, I briefed the party caucus in detail on my
role, on what I saw and did and the party caucus
endorsed every action that had been taken by the
executive arm of government in respect with Anambra. A
few months later, two members of your Working
Committee -Olisa Metu (an Ex-Officio member) and
Farouk (the youth leader) -came to appeal to me to
specially intervene in reconciling Ngige and Chris
Uba, I refused initially because I believed it was
really the responsibility of the party. But since you
had shirked your responsibility as party chairman, I
conceded and asked the two members of the NWC to bring
Ngige and Chris Uba to me. That was the only time,
after several months, that I allowed them to enter my
residence.

I was shocked that a man in the position of aspirant
or one elected as governor could actually resign on
three different occasions in writing and on one
occasion, the resignation was on videotape. I, also,
was of the opinion that for Ngige to have allowed that
to happen, there must have been some extra-legal
motivation. There has been accusation and
counter-accusation as reasons for such ungainly
behaviour. When the two of them came to see me, the
two young men who had brokered the opportunity for
Ngige and Chris Uba to see me wanted to leave. I
refused and insisted that they had to be at the
meeting because I wanted them as witnesses.
After almost two hours of talk, we dismissed hoping
that fences would be mended and reconciliation wou1d
be fully established. They left and waited on the
corridors for a while. Olisa Metu came back and
requested that I should meet with Ngige and Chris Uba
alone without witnesses for them to feel free to
unwind.

Again, I did and that was when I got the real shock of
my life when Chris Uba looked Ngige straight in the
face and said, "You know you did not win the election"
and Ngige answered "Yes, I know I did not win."Chris
Uba went further to say to Ngige, "You don't know in
detail how it was done." I was horrified and told both
of them to leave my residence.

This incident was reported to you because although
constitutionally, Ngige had been declared winner, for
me and, I believe, for you there remains a moral
burden and dilemma both as leaders in Nigeria and
leaders of our party. You did not consider it
important enough to do anything or talk about it. I
told Ngige that the only way I could live with this
moral dilemma since he had been constitutionally
declared as governor is that I will continue to deal
with him in his capacity as the governor of a State in
Nigeria purely and strictly on formal basis either
until he runs out his term, he decides to follow the
path of honour or until any competent authority
declares otherwise. That remains my position to date.
That notwithstanding, immediately after the Court of
Appeal overturned Justice Nnaji's order, the Police
promptly obeyed. That is what rule of law is all
about.

Furthermore, based on all that I had heard, I told
Chris Uba and Ngige that their case was like the case
of two armed robbers that conspired to loot a house
and after bringing out the loot, one decided to do the
other in and the issue of fair play even among robbers
became a factor. The two robbers must be condemned for
robbery in the first instance and the greedy one must
be specially pointed out for condemnation to do
justice among the robbers. To me, the determination of
the greedy one is also a problem, maybe they are both
equally greedy. Justice, fairness and equity are
always the basis of peace and harmony in any human
organisation or relationship. Anambra issue is
essentially a human organizational and human
relationship issue.

I was on a tour of five countries in five days going
from the UK through Finland and Sweden with a
stop-over in Libya to Tanzania last November when the
recent issue of violence broke out. The Inspector
General of Police who claimed that the crowd was
overwhelming for the police strength was instructed to
double the number of mobile police unit by bringing
additional men and women from the adjoining states. He
did so and he reported that 19 looters and destroyers
were arrested and charged to court with some vehicles
seized. NTA coverage of that unfortunate incidents is
not the issue, wars are watched like theatrical plays
in the contemporary world. The issue is whether or not
the police performed or did not perform their duties.

Mr. Chairman, obviously you do not expect me to do
less than I have done. I even went out to do more
because since you failed to either resolve the
political issues that are intra-party matters and they
have been spread to engulf the entire state or
decisively punish any offender, I decided in
consultation with Governor Ngige, to set up a
fact-finding and reconciliation committee under the
Governor of Ebonyi State to put an end to the
violence, create a conducive atmosphere for the
Governor to return to his station and to ensure
permanent peace, security through reconciliation of
the known warring party members - Chris Ngige and
Chris Uba - and their supporters. And this was after I
had a meeting with both the PDP state chairman and the
governor. Since the Governor of Ebonyi, whom I have
asked to keep you fully posted on his findings and
progress of his committee has not yet reported to me,
and since I have taken every necessary step to ensure
a resolution of the political problem in Anambra which
you have failed to confront, I consider your letter
opportunistic, and only a smokescreen and I believe I
should answer it in some reasonable detail as I have
done. I also took every reasonable step to beef up
security to deal with the situation.

On Tuesday, December 7, 2004, after the party meeting
on the crisis in Kogi State, you told me that you had
written me a letter on threat to Ngige's life and you
indicated to me, which you did not do in the letter,
that one Honourable Chuma Nzeribe was the culprit. As
I will not dilly-dally on an issue of security, even
before I received your letter, I directed the
Director-General of the State Security Service to look
into the matter. It may interest you that almost on
daily basis letters are received in my office of
people alleging that other people want to assassinate
them. All such allegations are forwarded to security
people for investigation. None has been substantiated
yet. But we will not take any issue of security
lightly no matter who claims to be in danger.

And contrary to your belief and insinuation, just
today, December 9, the governor of Anambra came to me
to seek my opinion and advice on whether or not to
constitute a commission of enquiry into what happened
in the state. I did not hesitate to advise and
encourage him to do so in order that all the facts
would be exposed and verifiable truth established
rather than trading in rumours.

Let me end on this note: whatever may be your reason
for the ambivalent disposition and handling of the
party problem in Anambra like you have done in other
places and the ulterior motive for your letter, if and
when in my capacity as President of Nigeria duty calls
on me to act, I will not shirk my responsibility and
we will at the end of the day be at the bar of the
public both at the party level and national level. Let
me also say that it is, indeed, unfortunate that you
make so many unnecessary and unwarranted insinuations
in your letter about our great country. I have taken
judicial note of the ominous comparisons you made
between a government in which you participated that
was overthrown in a coup d'etat and this present
administration.

I wonder if that is your wish since you may not now go
out penniless. But whatever agenda you may be working
at God is always in charge and in control. Warped
perception must be differentiated from reality.
Perception created and manipulated for a sinister
purpose cannot be reality. The greatest danger to any
country is putting truth out of favour; extolling
evils of lies, deceit, treachery, disloyalty,
unpatriotism, corruption and unconstitutionally. That
is my greatest fear for Nigeria and it should be yours
and that of any right-thinking Nigerian. Not too long
ago, I challenged you to think beyond the ordinary,
the expected and the self, I still put that challenge
on the table.

Let it be on record that I do believe that I have
invested the totality of my life in what I may call
"Enterprise Nigeria" and if it means that in the
process of repositioning our dear country for
sustainable greatness, what is dearest to me would
have to be sacrificed, I will in good conscience, not
hesitate to do so.

And if that will enhance Nigeria's development, it is
a sacrifice that I will be glad to make. I have
reached a stage in life that I have passed the state
of being intimidated or being flattered.
I can stand before God and man and in clear conscience
to defend every measure that I have taken everywhere
in Nigeria since I became the President and will
continue to act without fear or favour or inducement.
And it does not matter to me what is sponsored in the
Nigerian media, in particular, the print media. I
believe that our vindication will come through the
truth, which is the only thing that can uplift a
nation and make an honest man and a sincere believer
in God free.

May I crave your indulgence to copy this letter to all
those to whom your letter to me was copied. In
addition, I am copying the President of the Senate,
the number three man in the present hierarchy of this
government and a party leader in his own right, whom
you deliberately left out of the distribution list of
your letter for reason best known to you. One thing I
will never stop doing is praying for Nigeria in
general and Anambra in particular.
May God continue to bless and prosper Nigeria. In
spite of the malevolence of some Nigerians, Nigeria is
moving to the cruising level and cruising speed. That
is the work of God and what all Nigerians and friends
of Nigeria should do is to join hands in hastening the
work of God in Nigeria at this juncture.
May God help us to help ourselves. I wish you well.

Signed President Olusegun Obasanjo

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Anambra poll: Ogbeh begged me to keep quiet –– Uba

•He’s a drowning man, says Ngige

•It’s absolute nonsense –– Ogbeh

SIMON IBE, Snr Political Editor, TONY AILEMEN, Yola and NKIRU OKEKE, Enugu (with other reports)


SELF-ACCLAIMED political godfather of Anambra State Chief Chris Uba yesterday raised the stakes in the state’s political imbroglio when he marshalled how he allegedly masterminded the wholesale rigging of the governorship election in the state last year.

Chief Uba even claimed that, till date he still retained custody of the electoral "Certificate of Return" issued to Gov. Chris Ngige by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), even as it emerged that the Senate may compel INEC to annul the entire election.

Uba threw the "bombshell" in a statement he issued from his Enugu, Enugu State base in which he apoligised profusely to Anambra people for helping to wrought on them the fraud he claimed he masterminded.

But, the Anambra State Government and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh reacted sharply to the claims, saying that Chief Uba was merely raising the stakes to keep himself in the limelight.

Government House, Awka, responding to the latest twist in the Anambra tale insisted last night that the matter of who won the election, now the subject of a case before the elections tribunal should be left to the tribunal to determine.

Gov. Ngige’s spokesman Mr. Fred Chukwuelobe said on the telephone that, "Chris Uba is an aggrieved party in this matter and he was not to be taken seriously (in his latest statement)

"We should allow the tribunal to do its work as only the tribunal is in a position to determine who won or lost the election of April 19, 2003.

President Olusegun Obasanjo had, two weeks ago in reply to a letter addressed to him by Chief Ogbeh on the matter stated that, in a confrontation in his presidential villa home Uba had got Ngige to admit that he (governor) did not win the election.

Yesterday, however, the state government claimed that "Chris Uba denied saying that PDP lost the election at the World Igbo Congress in the United States", and asked: "Why is he suddenly claiming it happened?"

Also, Chief Ogbeh dismissed Chief Uba’s claims as absolute nonsense and challenged him to take his case to the election tribunal.

But, Chief Uba said in his seven-paragraph statement that he was making the confession in the hope that the people would forgive him for the role he said he played in the dirty game.

"I believe that the moment of truth and remorse has come", he wrote while pleading "for forgiveness and understanding from the people of Anambra in particular and Nigerians in general"

He signed the statement himself, and reconfirmed to Daily Champion in a telephone encounter that he had more grim tales to tell of the matter and would say so soon.

"As the truth of Anambra issue is being gradually revealed and denials and lies are being traded, I believe that as one of the main activists in the whole issue, the moment of truth and remorse has come: let me express my heart-felt regret for my error and the activities involved with others in Anambra to put Ngige in power as the governor of the state".

The statement read in parts: "My mistake for which I ask for understanding stemmed from my belief that election is like a battle and since all is fair in war, I believe that the end justifies the means in an election.

"In the presence of President Obasanjo, I asked Dr. Ngige whether he actually won the election, he confirmed he did not win the election; the president drove us out as from that point, he did not want to listen to our story.

"At another occasion soon after that, I had the opportunity, when Chief Ogbeh invited Dr. Ngige and myself to his house to tell the same story, again Dr. Chris Ngige confirmed before Ogbeh that he did not win the election, when I asked him the same question.

"Because he was more attentive than the president, I told him that even the certificate of return of the governorship election was in my custody and at the appropriate time: I will make the copies available to the press.

"Chief Ogbeh advised that we should all keep quiet on the issue of governorship election in Anambra, I obeyed".

In its reaction last night, Government House, Awka insisted that Chief Ubah was raising the stakes afresh merely in a grand effort to drag the names of Gov. Ngige and Chief Ogbeh in the mud.

Chief Ogbeh on his part, described Chief Uba’s claims as "absolute nonsense", challenging the businessman to go to the electoral tribunal if he had any evidence that would help the tribunal reach a just conclusion on the case.

Speaking through his special assistant (media), Mr. Abu Thompson, Chief Ogbeh denied the claims of Uba as unfounded and a figment of the imagination of the controversial political godfather.

The party chairman said "as a good and patriotic citizen, if he (Uba) has any evidence of electoral malpractices in the elections in the state, he should go to the tribunal and allow the tribunal to come to a just decision on the case rather than addressing the press and making claims that are false."

Meanwhile, the Senate may compel INEC to annul the 2003 Anambra gubernatorial election and prosecute perpetrators of electoral fraud in the state.

Sen. Jubril Aminu gave this indication in Yola on Monday, while reacting to revelations by President Obasanjo on the matter.

Aminu said if it was true Gov. Ngige admitted electoral failure and Chief Ubah confessed to have aided the fraud, then there were enough indications that the 2003 gubernatorial election in Anambra was rigged in favour of the PDP.

The only panacea for peace in Anambra now is to deal with these trouble makers, by annulling the 2003 gubernatorial election and hand over Dr. Chris Uba to the police for prosecution.

In the letter to Chief Ogbeh, President Obasanjo had stated inter-alia: "Again I did and that was when I got the real shock of my life when Chris Uba looked Ngige straight in the face and said "you know you did not win the election" and Ngige answered "Yes I know I did not win". Chris Uba went further to say to Ngige "You don’t know in detail how it was done" "I was horrified and told both of them to leave my residence."

Sen. Aminu who faulted President Obasanjo’s reaction to the revelation said, the President would have saved the state and the entire nation the ensuing embarrassment by calling on INEC to annul the election.

"I think people would have expected the President to call the INEC chairman and say that this man (Ngige) in front of me said he did not win the election so do something about him and also call the Inspector General of Police and hand over Chief Uba to him for perpetrating electoral fraud," he said.

Aminu, PDP senator representing Adamawa Central, however allayed fears that the crisis may cripple democracy, noting that "those involved are matured enough especially as they are both concerned with enthroning lasting democratic values not destroying it."

"The leaking of the letter may appear to be a deliberate act of mischief especially if it came from the party apparatus; this makes it even more serious because it means that it was a deliberate attempt to bring out the differences between the party chairman and Mr. President

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