Political Party Executives Should Be More Concerned About Victory For Party Candidates Than Converting Them To Automated Teller Machines.
In the course of my political engagements, I have had the privilege of serving in different capacities as a member of State Working Committees of some Political Parties.
In defunct United Nigeria Congress Party, UNCP, I was privileged to serve as;
(1) State Welfare Secretary,
(2) State Vice Chairman (Abia-South), and
(3) State Chairman.
Under Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, I had the opportunities of having served as;
(1) State Organizing-Secretary,
(2) State Financial Secretary, and
(3) State Publicity-Secretary.
Having so served and, of course, with honesty, dedication and diligence, I am in a position, if I watch the characteristic tendencies of any given set of Party Executive Committee, to predict if the Party will be able to record electoral successes or not.
To start with, the first step to ruin the electoral chances of a Political Party is to impose an Executive Committee populated by selfish, unconscionable, brutally greedy, pompous, and arrogant individuals on the Party. Any Political Party which State’s Working Committee, especially its Chairman, or even the National Working Committee, is only dubiously interested in exploiting, extorting, and unconscionably milking dry her Aspirants, leaving them with no money left to prosecute their campaigns and election expenses, only succeeds in laying a regrettable foundation for failures at the polls.
What happened in a particular Political Party in Abia State before, during and after her recent Primary Elections was a disastrous experience not worthy of the least imagination by any decent observer. Rogues, under the camouflage of being in charge of State Working Committee of the Party, were reported to have shamelessly and brutally subjected Aspirants to all manner of exploitation and debilitating financial extortion. It was alleged that they even insisted the money they demanded for must have to be paid in Dollars.
The worst aspect of the exploitation, as generally reported, was that some persons who parade themselves as leaders clandestinely used the Chairman of the Party as his conduit pipe to perfect monetary extortion of the worst order from the Aspirants ever witnessed in Abia State. The situation was so horrific that the Aspirant that eventually emerged as the Governorship Candidate of that Party was coerced into spending a whopping sum of ONE BILLION AND FIVE HUNDRED MILLION NAIRA. Yet, it is still alleged that he spent nothing.
In that Party, there was a very high probability that Aspirants from Ukwa/Ngwa area of Abia State were the target of the exploitation. It is estimated that Political Aspirants from Ukwa/Ngwa alone were extorted up to the tune of FOUR BILLION AND FIVE HUNDRED MILLION NAIRA.
From a critical analysis, as done by Equity Global Reporters Ltd, most of the Aspirants of the Party were so financially emasculated that by the time campaigns begin, they may find it very difficult to meet up with the demands of the campaigns. What a way to ruin the chances and future of a Political Party by a bunch of greedy Party Officials! In every thing that took place in that Party, it was entirely devoid of altruism. Every intent of the Party leadership was a hoax designed to deceive aspirants, hoodwink them and extort them. ‘Wayo Upon Wayo’!
In all my years as a Political Party Administrator, it never occurred to me that a Party leadership could be as unpatriotic, inconsiderate, insensitive and greedy as was observed in the recent times. These greedy tendencies are a dangerous threat to democracy in Abia State. If that Party fails abysmally in 2027 General Election, no body should ask why it happened. The answer is already clear, the glutenous leadership of the Party in Abia State ruined the Party’s electoral chances, deliberately in advance.
Sir Don Ubani is a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Abia State, and Publisher of Equity Global Reporters Ltd.
Tuesday (Afor) 18-08-2026.
