By Steve Osuji
As Super Saturday beckons, would Engr. Dave Nweze Umahi, Governor of Ebonyi State, be trump card of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC?
Again, as parties head for a make or break presidential primaries election this weekend, could Umahi be the anointed orient in the high wire power calculations currently simmering in the ruling party?
Political pundits have permutated themselves silly trying to second-guess the direction President Muhammadu Buhari leans. Just as in the contentious quest for the party chairman in which the president eventually played his hand, the trump card belongs to Number One. In other words, who becomes the APC flagbearer is ultimately, the call of the president.
Would the president swing north, southeast or south-south? The ruling party has the highest number of aspirants. Not even the humongous N100 million entry ticket deterred about 27 juggernaut contestants from stepping in the fight arena. The aspirants are heavy weights in their rights, bringing to the table, rich pedigrees of influence, clout and national reckoning.
It has been strongly conjectured that President Buhari is minded to tip the balance towards the Igbo nation. If politics and power game were a romantic flick, the southeast would without doubt, play the leading role here for the odds favours her in more ways than one. But this is politics; a bloody sword fight by another name.
But the three gladiators of southeast extraction in the race have been variously bandied as Buhari favourites. Ogbonnaya Onu, two-term Buhari minister and long-term ally has heen mentioned frequently. He was a core member of one of the fragments of parties that made up the APC. Though a brilliant mind, his age would be a negative if that factor counts here. He also has war chest issue, which would leave him relying much on the party to bankroll his campaign. But the sour point being made in some quarters is that if President Buhari regarded him so highly, he would made him a super minister. But all Chief Onu has been saddled with for the past seven years is a lowly Science and Innovation portfolio. That speaks volumes. He was a former governor of old Abia State, but that doesn’t seem to count for much today.
The other aspirant of Igbo extraction who is in the mix for the Aso Rock top job is Chief Emeka Nwajiuba. He’s been a junior minister for education in the last three years where he has been frustrated and marginalised by the top guns in the ministry.
Though Nwajiuba is also storied to be close to the ruling cabal of the north, this hasn’t been apparent by the shoddy sidelining that has been his lot over the last three years. He is also rather young by Nigeria’s norms; he lacks much hands-on experience, name/face recognition nor national clout. He is at best, a great material for the senate. But who can tell with politics.
The last of the Igbo triumvirate in the great APC quest is Dave Umahi, incumbent Ebonyi governor. His sudden flip over from opposition giant, PDP to ruling APC barely a year ago, sent tongues wagging. It was a political gambit no doubt; a naked one at that. He was received at the Villa by the president. He is perceived as an Hausa-Fulani apologist and sympathiser, but he fancies himself a bridge builder.
Early this month, President Buhari paid a presidential visit to Ebonyi State. Defying the tensions and bad blood oozing from the zone, Baba stayed overnight in Abakaliki. Hardly anyone remembers the last time Buhari allowed such comfort in Alaigbo. President Buhari disvirgined, so to speak, a brand new palatial, Presidential Lodge built by Umahi.
President Buhari also visited many other auspicious project effectuated by his host over the last seven years.
Without equivocation, Governor Umahi must be the biggest surprise of the Buhari era. He has turned out a great transformer and maker of modern Ebonyi. Umahi is clearly the best governor of all in the last seven years. In terms of bricks and mortar, no other governor in the land comes near him. He has accomplished a brand new international airport, a brand new government house complex comprising a governor’s lodge, office, Exco complex and presidential lodge.
Umahi built the best medical school in the land with an accompanying teaching hospital all huge, new and very well finished. The list is too long to be recounted here, but there are no fewer than 20 legacy projects. Put simply, Umahi has frog-leaped lowly Ebonyi State from the backwaters of the southeast to a contender for the best developed – in just seven years.
Let’s summarise thus: if presidency is won by ability to perform and deliver quality results, Buhari would anoint Dave Umahi. Plus the fact that he must be possessed of sufficient war chest to be able to bankroll his campaign.
Finally, Peter Obi junking the People’s Democratic Party a couple of days ago has introduced more complex quadratic equations into the mix. If perchance, APC is moved to match Obi with another Igbo candidate, Umahi is clearly first logical choice.
An Umahi/Zulum versus Obi/Kwankwaso tournament would give Nigerians excitement that is akin to a World Cup final.
Enough said.
• Osuji is a newspaper columnist and public affairs analyst.