BY DAN EKWU
Enugu State governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is in a dilemma. The national chairman of his party (PDP), Dr Iyorchia Ayu, has directed him to prepare the venue of a presidential rally in Enugu on Saturday, February 4, 2023. Ayu has also reminded the governor of his obligation to welcome the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and his entourage at the Enugu International Airport, on that day, as well as foot the campaign logistics bills.
Just a few hours later, Gov Ugwuanyi received a call from Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike, leader of the G-5 of which Ugwuanyi is a member. “Don’t try it o!” Wike was said to have told him. He warned that any attempt by Ugwuanyi to receive Atiku at the airport would attract severe sanctions, and much more if he hosts an Atiku presidential rally.
Thus hanging between the proverbial devil and the deep blue sea, Gov Ugwuanyi reportedly panicked. He gathered his close associates to advise him on what he should do. They too went blank, it was learned. A chieftain of the Ebeano clan in Enugu, however, advised the governor to feign illness and get admitted to hospital.
As a member of the G-5, Gov Ugwuanyi has ostensibly been opposed to the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku, since after the party’s primaries in June last year. Unlike Benue State governor Samuel Ortom who has declared support for Labour Party’s presidential candidate Peter Obi, Gov Ugwuanyi has yet to take a clear stand. His body language, however, indicates he sides with APC candidate Bola Tinubu.
Only recently, he was in Abuja to plead with the PDP national Exco which had threatened him with a suspension and possible dissolution of the Enugu State Exco on account of his anti-party activities.
Now that the day of reckoning has come, Gov Ugwuanyi must confess his preferred presidential candidate. The dribbler seems to have reached the end of the road and is now at his wit’s end.
