By Charles Igbo

If the absence of South East APC bigwigs at the official defection by Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, from the PDP to the APC is anything to go by, Umahi is not only walking a lonely path, but a rough path.

He may not be as welcome as he thinks into his new party. He may be alone, planning alone.

Proof: On the day he was welcomed into the party by the National body, Umahi was embarrassed by the absence of APC Leaders and high profile members from the Zone. Ordinarily, all of them would have been there.

Expected to have led the pack of the welcome party were Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma.

Kalu is the Chief Whip of the  APC in the Senate. In that position, he is the highest elected member of the APC from the Zone. But he shunned Umahi’s  official entry into the party.

Until Umahi, inexplicably, joined the APC, Uzodinma was the only APC Governor in the zone. So, ordinarily, one had expected him to be in Abakiliki to welcome Umahi. Indeed, Uzodinma had, a couple of days earlier,  seemed happy over the development. He had told Journalists, after a closed door meeting he had with the party leadership in Abuja, that Umahi was defecting, and would be followed by others. He said he would be on hand to welcome Umahi to the party.

But, surprisingly, on Thursday, when Umahi decamped, Uzodinma was conspicuously absent.

Another very conspicuous absence was the cerebral Minister for Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu. Onu is a founding member of the APC, and serving his second term as Buhari’s Minister. Both Onu and Umahi are from the same state. So, he ought to have been happy that the APC has become the ruling party in his state, no longer an opposition party.  But he pointedly shunned Umahi’s “welcome party”

And there are many more.

Senator Rochas Okorocha.

Senator Osita Izunaso, and all the who is who in the South-east.

In deed, the Speaker of the Ebonyi House of Assembly, Hon. Francis Nwaituru was, also, absent, along with most members of the House  of Assembly. Their absence put a lie to Umahi’s claim that he was moving with everybody, almost, and that Ebonyi had become 99 per cent APC.

No member of the National Assembly joined him. They told him he was on his own.

The only APC leader from the South-east who was present was former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, and that’s because, Nnamani is a member of the National Caretaker Committee of the Party, headed by Kebbi State Governor. The Committee were in Abakiliki to welcome  him.

So, why were the South-East Leaders absent?

This magazine can tell you, for free, that most of them are not  comfortable with Umahi’s presence in the party. They may patch-up later, but it will remain what it is: patch-patch relationship.

The magazine gathered that what they see in Umahi, they  don’t like. They are suspicious of him, and of his agenda. His claim that his defection to the APC will mark a positive turn-around for the party, stung them like a bee. Said one of them who pleaded anonymity, “It is like we are doing no work for the party. He is the one now coming to do it.”

Another, from Ebonyi, told The Source that there will be a run in the party. “Umahi is authoritarian. He is dictatorial. Some of us cannot cope with his style. Mark my word, his entrance will trigger a run in the party.”  Already, the State APC Publicity Secretary has quit the party. He said he could not work with the Governor.

Many expect that his former boss, Martin Ekechi, whose Deputy Governor he was, but  who he, allegedly,  pushed out of the PDP, and who, thereafter, defected to the APC, could be on his way back to the PDP.

Most important, however, is that the Leaders of the APC in the State insist Umahi is coming to eat where he did not sow. “We built the party, he comes in, and wants the lion share,” an angry party leader told The Source.

In deed, the impression that Governor Umahi wants to eat where he did not sow is the crux of the matter.

According to the APC constitution, the Governor is the leader of the party. Meaning, that he has pushed  others behind. He has become their leader.

But the main crux is 2023.

Even though Umahi said he would quit politics in 2023, they neither took his word seriously, nor trust him. They believe he has an interest in either the Presidency or the Vice Presidency in 2023.

They have their reason.

Umahi has never hidden his interest in any of the two offices. In 2015, when the PDP Presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar chose Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State, as his running mate, Umahi was livid with anger. He hit the roof. Not a few people believed he wanted that position. They also believe he worked against  the ticket. And they believe that if he had succeeded in stampeding the PDP into agreeing that  the party would zone the Presidency to the South-east, as he tried to do, perhaps, he would have stayed back in the PDP, and decamped at the last minute  if he was denied the ticket.

APC  Leaders in the South are positive Umahi has an eye on the Presidency or Vice Presidency. A few of them, including former Governors, now Senators Orji Kalu and Rochas Okorocha are interested in those offices if, and when, the APC zones any of them to the South-east. They have a strong feeling that he must  have got, perhaps, a firm promise from President Muhammadu Buhari, who Umahi, has for years, been giving maximum support, before he defected. Even though Okorocha says, Umahi’s entry into APC does nothing to his ambition, he is ready to battle him.

That, a number of them feel, is the reason why Umahi, allegedly, did not bother to carry them along, fully, before he decamped.

They are waiting for him as 2023 gradually, but surely, draws near.