Lopsided Appointments Might Reduce APC’s Votes In 2027 – Ijeomah Arodiogbu

National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, South East, Dr Ijeomah Arodiogbu has come out to say that APC might lose voters to lopsided appointments.

He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, the ruling party might end up losing votes in 2027 because a lot of party supporters are not happy with the lopsided appointments, and some have even threatened to leave the party anytime now.

He added that the president has not been advised properly with his appointments since they do not support fairness.

His words, “There is much misplaced information on the South East Development Commission issue. First, the people linked to having sponsored the bill were not those who sponsored it. The bill for establishing the commission was originally sponsored in the 9th Assembly by Senator Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party. The bill went through the 1st and 2nd reading in the 9th Assembly but was not signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari. However, in this 10th Assembly, the late Senator Ifeayin Ubah moved the bill for approval by the National Assembly. He thereafter went with some of the assembly members from the South-East to the Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, who was also the Chairman of Progressive Governors, to present the bill officially to him as leader of the zone, so that the governor could appeal to the President to assent to the bill. Governor Uzodinma worked on it and the President signed the bill into law. The President also magnanimously wanted the commission to take off immediately, so he appointed the board and management almost within a few months of signing the bill.

The President made his consultation and made possible input. Then he asked the leaders of the zone to go ahead and consult other stakeholders in the region to have a spread in the board and management of the commission. There was a lot of consultation with all the leaders: myself as the zonal chairman; the APC Deputy National Chairman of the South, Chief Emma Eneukwu, the two governors from the region, the ministers, including the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, and the National Assembly members from the zone were all consulted. I remember that Governor Uzodinma also called the deputy speaker to give his input. We all met and agreed, and we were very careful to comply with the act establishing the commission.

The act states that the chairman of the commission will emerge from the state with the first alphabetical order; by extension, the chairman was zoned to Abia State. Also, the Act states that the Managing Director will come from the state with the next alphabetical order, Anambra State. The other chief executive should come from the other three states. All these provisions were complied with in the list we submitted. In line with that, we nominated Mike Okoye as Managing Director, Prince Obinna Obiekweihe as Executive Director Projects, Senator Anthony Agbo and Dr Daniel Ugwuja as Executive Directors, Corporate Services. For the board, we nominated Hon Emeka Atuma as chairman, and members were Ugochuckwu Agballah, Okey Ezenwa, Chief Hyacinth Ikpor, Donatus Nwankpa and Ifeanyi Agwu. That was very balanced across the southeastern states. We also consulted the other five geopolitical zones for their representation, and they gave us their nominations. The list was submitted with the signatures of Governor Hope Uzodinma; Governor Francis Nwifuru, Chief Emma Eneukwu and mine to the president. Within a month of submission, the president announced the board and members of the board and management of the commission. But less than 12 hours later, there was another list with a report that the first one announced by the president had been rejigged. We checked the list and noticed that a single person from the House of Representatives had inputted five of his aides into it.

This will affect the President because a lot of people in the zone are very unhappy. The truth is that we may lose most of our voters. Most of our party supporters are “boiling”. In fact, somebody who contested for House of Representatives in Anambra State was threatening to leave the party, because he was disappointed in what happened. The people are not happy. The major risk that it portends is that the money that will be voted for the commission will be taken by one man, and that is the major target. There will be no accountability because they will all be answerable to one individual. I am very worried about this level of interference. His chief of staff and four other aides, including the chief of staff to a former senate president were given appointment into the SEDC. As a party leader, I want fairness. The leaders have to have input. I think the president was not well-advised. The deputy speaker lied to him that he was not consulted. But one of our leaders said he was with the governor of Imo State when he called the deputy speaker. This level of arrogance or cockiness is not fair at all. It doesn’t appeal to any good reasoning.

The truth is that, in our environment, geographical spread is very important. The people we nominated originally are far more qualified than the people appointed now. Of course, someone who has worked all his life as an aide to a member of House of Representatives cannot be as qualified as somebody who has been all around. We nominated highly qualified people in education and other sectors. We considered all that before making the nomination. So, it is not a case of being more qualified. No! These people are less qualified; they were picked because they are serving one man. How do I expect accountability from such? I believe the best thing to do is to go back to the original list which was done with consultation of all the people not the deputy speakers’ list. He can look for where to put his aides if he is tired of them, not include them in a commission that is meant to serve the people. We need a lot of assistance in the South East with all the issues of bad road, water and insecurity. We cannot put the South East Development Commission in the pocket of one man. It is not fair. We appreciate that it is at the discretion of the president to appoint who he wants, but I know that he wouldn’t want to put the commission in the pocket of one man.”