The return of Anambra political godfather By Madu Ifeduche
Saturday, March 10, 2007

SIR Emeka Offor! Remember him? He it was who took the art of political godfatherism to an extreme dimension in Anambra State shortly after the return to democratic governance in 1999.

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A knight of the Anglican Communion who hails from Oraifite in Ekwusigo Local Government area of Anambra State, Ofor came to limelight during the late General Sanni Abacha regime and was further propelled to national reckoning when the General Abdulsalami Abubakar regime, against reasonable expectation, chose his firm, Chrome Oil Services to effect a whooping USD 300 million Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) on the Port Harcourt refinery in 1999 shortly before the advent of the Obasanjo administration.

With so much dollars in his kitty, he turned out to be one of the remarkable donors to the campaign pool of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1999 at both the state and national levels. Before then, he was known to maintain a robust relationship with men in and outside of power notable among whom were the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Gidado Idris and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, now vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. To enunciate his awesome links in the corridors of power, the photographs of these powerful citizens adorn vantage positions at his firm’s Lagos Island office alongside those of Generals’ Abacha, Abubakar and President Obasanjo.

An apparent shoddy execution of the TAM contract, that resulted to consistent failure of the refinery shortly after completion despite the huge amount sunk, put him on collision course with the Obasanjo administration in its early days.

To worsen his travails, his determined attempt to teleguide the then Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju administration eventually hit the rocks after a spate of initial distractions that made it almost impossible for the Odera administration to constitute its executive cabinet following disagreement over the appointment of commissioners. The Association of Anambra State Development Unions in Lagos (AASDU), under the leadership of Chief Arthur Mbanefo (Odu of Onitsha), finally intervened and brokered peace.

Observers believe that it was a combination of his role in the Port Harcourt Refinery and his overbearing attitude on the loathed Mbadinuju administration as well as the ignoble role he played in the collapse of African Express Bank (Afex) that catapulted him into political limbo until Aso Rock decided to rehabilitate him once again following reconciliatory moves believed to have been initiated by him and which brought pressure to bear on Abuja through a long standing powerful African Head of State.

Thus his economic and political reinvention began with a juicy oil deal in the Sao–Tome and Principe/ Nigeria joint venture. Before now, it was rumored that he was ordered by the powers-that-be to steer clear of politics. Until the countdown to the PDP primaries for the 2007 general elections commenced, he appeared to have kept faith with the directive and was seldomly heard nor noticed in the political arena, especially in his home state-Anambra.

However, at the height of the crisis of confidence that rocked the PDP and with the attendant battle for the soul of the party between President Obasanjo and his estranged deputy, Atiku Abubakar, the ban appeared to have been lifted with ‘Sir E’, as he is fondly called, understandably pitching his tent in Obasanjo’s political camp thus temporarily abandoning his known ally and benefactor, the vice president.

It is this newly acquired impetus that the once very powerful political godfather is now deploying in Anambra State to once again breed confusion, bad blood and unhealthy rivalry among PDP candidates for various positions and his strategy has not changed. For him, imposition remains the name of the game but the snag this time is that his party, the PDP, may be forced to stew in its own vomit if his activities are not promptly curtailed.

True lovers of the party in the state have consistently questioned his true motive with some insisting that it may not be entirely out of place that he was planted in the party by external forces to do the hatchet man’s job.

This suspicion has been heightened by the alleged replacement of popular candidates who emerged from the recent PDP primaries in the state with questionable and unpopular characters who either lost out at the primaries or did not participate at all in the process.