2015: Choices That Will Make Or Mar Nigeria – Daily Sun

the good people of Imo State are watching with horror the role Chief Martin Agbaso has assigned himself in the drama in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as the November 18 gubernatorial election in Anambra State approaches, we cannot but continue to thank the Almighty that this fellow did not become the Imo State governor in 2007. Indeed, God does work in mysterious ways. Can we imagine for a moment if Agbaso had been our governor even for a week? Imo would now have been history.

Many of us rooted for him when he ran for the Imo governorship 10 years ago for two major reasons. The first was that he belonged to the right party, that is, APGA. We believed—and still do—that it is the only party which would bring about rapid economic development in the South East. After all, the APGA government in neighbouring Anambra State has been exemplary for several years, whereas Imo State under other parties has not been lucky. The second reason we supported Agbaso was that we trusted him because of his supposed association with certain personages. Agbaso used to tell us that one of his greatest supporters was the highly respected Archbishop of Owerri, an outstanding intellectual and man of the people. With the benefit of hindsight, it is doubtful that the Archbishop supported Agbaso. In other words, Agbaso may have been dropping the archbishop’s name in critical circles. In fact, on one occasion at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Agbaso, whom we fondly call Ochudo, informed a renown female magazine publisher (names withheld by this writer) and my humble self that it was the same Archbishop who asked him to contest for the governorship and actually chose APGA for him as the right party. If the archbishop did persuade Agbaso, chances are that he must have long regretted his decision. The Archbishop must have been misled by the politician’s external attributes like oratorical skills.

Agbaso was looking set to win the APGA primaries in 2011 and subsequently the gubernatorial election. All of us had begun to address him as “His Excellency”. Then, all of a sudden, magic happened. Agbaso stepped down for Owelle Rochas Okorocha. Before we could recover from the shock, news began to spread in all nooks and crannies of the state that Rochas, a very wealthy man who does not know how to spare any amount of money when it comes to politics, had “settled” with Agbaso. Before he could explain to supporters why he stepped down for Rochas, who later became the governor by defeating the incumbent, Agbaso publicly endorsed Rochas. And before we could say “Jack Robinson”, Rochas announced that he had picked Agbaso’s younger brother, Jude Agbaso, as his running mate.