“EBEANEJE- Our Journey Destination”: The Lost Political Compass

When Ugo Agballa first took on the mantel of leadership of APC Enugu State, it came with a lot of expectations from his supporters and from those who enthroned him into power.

He promised to revolutionise the position of opposition political parties in Enugu State. He boldly promised to turn Enugu State to APC by electing the first Governor of Enugu State from APC. Ugo didn’t stop their, he promised to win all the 24 State House of Assembly, 8 House of Representative and 3 Senate seats. He said he came with the broom ans he will use ot to sweep away PDP from Enugu State.

In order to achieve this lofty height, Ugo set out to cut off all those he considered as obstacles on his way to successfully political journey. So, without wasting anytime, he made an infamous list of those eligible for suspension and expulsion. Top on his list of political obstacles are: H.E. Sullivan Chime (Former Governor of Enugu State), H.E. Senator Ken Nnamani (Former Senate President), Rt. Hon. Eugene Odo (Former Speaker of Enugu State), Dr. Ben Nwoye (Former Chairman APC Enugu State) and many others.

Ugo was hailed by his supporters for taking the bold steps to clean the house. He called these great men despicable names.

Few months down the line, election result was announced. APC Enugu State recorded unprecedented low number for the Presidential election. APC Enugu scored a little over 4,000 votes for the Presidential election. APC Enugu State led by Ugo Agballa lost all three Senatorial seats and 8 House of Representative seats badly.

Then came the excuses. Ugo claimed that the Obidient movement was responsible for his poor showing. He took over the streets and boasted to his supporters that he was on his way to enthrone Chief Uche Nnaji as the Governor of Enugu. As expected, APC came a distant 4th position in the Gubernatorial election. All the State House of Assembly candidates made very poor showing in the polls. They all lost badly.

After the 2023 election, it became clear that Ugo Agballa lost the political Compass to lead APC Enugu. Ugo Agballa led APC lost all elections, lost party membership, lost personal relationship and lost all the goodwill he inherited when he took over the leadership of the party. Above all, he lost the people’s trust as a leader of the party in Enugu State.

I followed Ugochukwu Agballa for many years during his struggle with the former Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani. I admired his courage, his oratory prowess and his sharp delivery of political strategies. So, when he took over the leadership of APC, I welcomed him as a political saviour. Little did I know that all that have left him.

Ugo has lost the trust of his people as a leader. The power of leadership trust I was told, “is a precious commodity that is earned through resilience, integrity, and consistency.”

Trust in of itself must be built over time through the “leader’s unwavering commitment to his followers.” Building and maintaining trust requires continue faithfulness and protection of that trust.

Unfortunately, in Ugo’s world of Ebeaneje the leader is not committed to the needs of those that are been led. It is a classic example of selfish leadership style. This explains the reason he always threatened his followers with suspension and expulsion.

The followers know this bitter truth but they follow him pretentiously with the hope that one day they will be rewarded. This explains why those who contested in the last election followed him blindly until they fell into political graveyards. Now, more people are still following him blindly based on a false hope of getting federal appointment.

To booster his damaged image and lost trust he has been busy promising his followers that they will be appointed to Federal Boards and Parastatals on the basis of their unalloyed support to his leadership.

He has even extended his fake promise to the area of employment. Recently, he announced recruitment into unidentified federal jobs. He asked his followers to submit their resumes to him through the office of the State Organizing Secretary.

At the Ward level he demands 20 resumes per ward. At the LGA level, he also demanded 20 resumes per LGA. The Ebeaneje political delusion is made clearer when you add up the numbers. To his supporters at the ward level he would employ 5,200 persons. To his supporters at the LGAs he would employ 340 persons. The total of his proposed phantom employment is 5, 540. This is incredible!

Truth is that a leader can not build trust with falsehood. Instead, a leader must be truthful to his followers at all time. Ugo must make a u-turn and engage in trust restoration.

First, he needs to admit that he needs help. But it takes humility and self awareness for him to recognise that he cannot do it alone. Unfortunately, Ugo’s stock of humility has long expired.

Second, he must acknowledge that he made mistakes. But how can a man who is self absorb and self centered admit that he made mistakes?

Finally, he must acknowledge that he needs help and he must be open to accept help when it comes. This is an other character challenge for Ugo. A man who has god complex cannot accept help. He knows it all.

Ugo needs to realize that admission of one’s limitation is not a display of weakness. Rather, it is the key that opens the door for growth and transformation.

Simply put, Ugo needs to admit that he needs help. Otherwise, he will continue to lead a skeletal structure of Enugu State APC. At this time no body is interested in what happens to Ugo with his APC. Most serious members of APC Enugu have moved on to other things.

Furthermore, the politics of suspension and expulsion that defined Ugo Agballa’s Chairmanship needs to be jettison. We know that nobody takes Ugo’s pronouncement of suspension and expulsion seriously.

Almost all the people he claimed to have suspended or expelled have continued to be relevant at the National level of the party. For example, Sen. Ken Nnamani whom Ugo claimed to have suspended has continued to play important roles at the national level. We witnessed the solidarity bestowed on him by the President when he lost his wife.

The same thing applies to Barr. Ben Nwoye, the former Enugu State Chairman whom Ugo claims he expelled is currently serving as the Chief of Staff to the Deputy National Chairman North.

I took a interest at Ugo Agballa’s Ebeaneje political concept because of some of the comments I read coming from supporters of Ugo against Dr Oby Ajih. For the past few days Dr Ajih has been on the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

As a feminist I took interest in Dr Ajih’s political journey when she took her case to the election tribunal after she lost her election. At the tribunal she argued that her party APC was excluded from the election in that APC logo was not printed in over 166 polling units. This was a matter her party supposed to take on but they did not. She took it on single handedly and won at the appeal level.

I commend her efforts and her fighting spirits. I donated the little I had to her campaign. Like most APC members, I thought that the party at the national level should have taken over the campaign but no, once again they dropped the ball.

At the State level I was happy to hear that Ugo Agballa was mobilizing support and finance for her campaign. Ugo held his State Executive meeting and instructed everyone to support her for the election. Ugo also promised to raise funds for her. A campaign council was formed with Ugo and many other prominent members of APC Enugu State taking front stage.

Unfortunately, the whole thing ended poorly. Ugo did not join Dr Ajih in any of her campaign outings. He did not raise any funds to support her campaign. On election day proper the party failed to timely deliver party agents tags. Sadly, the party at the national and State levels did not send any team to monitor the election. Needless to say that the party abandoned the seat for Labour Party and PDP to take.

Labour Party brought down the national leadership of the party to Igboeze-North. The Labour team was led by the National Secretary of Labour party. Two days to the election, Mr. Peter Obi led the campaign of Hon. Denise Agbo. Mr. Obi was campaigning from Enugu Ezike to Obolo Afor for the Labour Party Candidate.

On the election day proper, the National Secretary of Labour Party was on ground to check the excesses of PDP and the corrupt practices of INEC.

PDP on the other hand, saw the Deputy Governor of Enugu State leading the campaign. The same Deputy Governor was on ground at Udenu all day on the election day proper.

The leadership of APC Enugu, Southeast and National were no where to be found. Dr. Ajih was left to her fail. She had no campaign support, no finance, no monitoring team on the ground.

The Ugo Agballa I know from the late 90s would have been front and centre on the election day. The same Ugo Agballa would have been on ground on the election day to checkmate the PDP, labour and INEC excesses. Ugo was a no show!

After the election, I expected Ugo Agballa to issue a statement concerning the out come of the election. He did not. Instead, he hired specialised WhatsApp Terrorists to lunch attacks in Dr Ajih. Shamelessly they went after her claiming that she sold her mandate to PDP. The said WhatsApp Terrorists also claimed that the party at the national level gave her over 50,000,000 naira to prosecute the election. To prove their point they attached a transfer receipt of 2,000,000 that was sent to Dr. Ajih by the National Chairman through his personal aid.

Sadly, Ugo Agballa and his executives are planning to announce the suspension of Dr Ajih bases on a report that she congratulated the winner of the election. Remember this is an election both Ugo Agballa led State Executive and the national leadership of the party abandoned. This was an election that was born out of judicial determination of violation of Electoral Act following the lawsuit instituted by Dr Ajih.

My advise is suspend Dr. Oby Ajih if you really want to make her very popular. In the end Ebeaneje will remain a journey without political Compass.

Dr. Mrs. Susan Akor writing from Abuja.

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