2023: Why Other Contenders Are Jittery About Chief Charles Ahize’s Candidacy In Orlu Senatorial District

For Saudi Arabia to have defeated star-studded Argentina by 2- 1 in the first leg of their group stage match; Morocco holding Croatia to a goalless draw;  and Japan beating Germany to a 2- 1 standstill victory, is a pointer that nobody remains a champion forever and a new normal is possible, in the words of Prof. Nnamdi Obiaraeri; Imo erudite scholar and Professor of Law.

In recent times, I have had discussions with select critical leaders and prominent political stakeholders from Imo West extraction popularly known as Orlu Zone, to guage their opinions with regards to the 2023 general elections, where the rave of the moment, Mr. Peter Obi, presidential candidate of Labour Party, has taken Nigeria’s political landscape and leadership discuss by storm. Many of them have opined that what is happening now is extraordinary and unprecedented.

Suffice it to say that; “Just like the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar, where less rated football nations in the class of Saudi Arabia and Japan defeated world giants like Argentina and Germany, a rather less predicted presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, has surprised the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party within three months of launching himself into the  Third Force to rescue a beleaguered and collapsed Nigeria’s economy through the ballot box as he enjoys a cult-like followership across party lines   geopolitical zones, ethnicity and religion. More importantly, indications and impeccable sources have it that the  diaspora and international community are tilting towards his candidacy as a man who has the political and leadership magic wand to fix Nigeria! Peter Obi is simply a revolutionary idea whose time has come.

In Imo State, the candidate of Labour Party for Imo West Senatorial District, Chief Charles Ugochukwu Ahize -Chukwu, in less than three months of joining the race for the soul of Orlu Senatorial seat, has become a phenomenon of sort. From a first- timer to a front- liner as he keeps basking in the euphoria of the massive support and show of solidarity he enjoys while transversing the length and breadth of Nkwerre, Isu, Nwangele, Njaba, Orlu,  Ideato North, Ideato South, Oru West, Oru East, Orsu, Oguta, Ohaji/Egbema, consulting the leaders and critical stakeholders before inaugurating LGA officers and Ward coordinators of his campaign organization.

This reporter is convinced that Chief Charles Ahize, in his sober or reflective moments, will be surprised at his  growing trajectory and meteoric rise in the Imo West Senatorial District’s political firmament. Not as a political neophyte though as Charley Akpuruka has been around, but as a state actor and participant in the electoral process for the first time.

Never in the history of Orlu Senate contest has a first- timer dominated the political stage as Chief Charles Ahize has done since he resigned from the ruling All Progressives Congress despite Governor Hope Uzodimma’s pleading to remain in the party after imposing Osita Izunaso on the rest of the contenders in an alleged most shrouded primary election.  Charley Akpuruka left the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for good! He left to join hands with his brother, Peter Obi, in the Labour Party to salvage the country and rescue Orlu zone from its current state of quagmire. His movement to the Labour Party, analysts and keen observers of Orlu politics have argued, is even of greater moment and best decision ever taken by the Ihioma-Orlu born Billionaire businessman turned politician. It remains, perhaps, the most timely,  strategic and important political move he has ever made in this election cycle given Orlu people’s reservations about the mismanagement of the security issue in Imo State by the the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) under whose platform Chief Osita Izunaso is contesting the Senate. That may explain why he cannot freely travel to his own  village, LGA, and other parts of Orlu zone for political campaign because of people’s growing hatred for his party logo. Those who argue otherwise lie to themselves, which does not in any way nullify the truth.

To understand the raging Charles Ahize phenomenon and his Labour Party in Orlu zone, one needs to appreciate that what is gravitating and driving this force is the people. It is a mass movement. The people are really fed up with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) having mismanaged the affairs of the country  for more than 23 years of holding sway. The lingering and unabated security challenge in Orlu zone, which has   caused the people untold hardship as most of them have deserted their homes for a more greener pasture in other cities or overseas, for those who can afford it. This is what informed Chief Charles Ahize’s decision in rolling  out his political master plan of ‘Orlu Recovery  Project’ as encapsulated in his campaign manifesto. Yes, he came at the right time. A time when the outgoing serving Senator,  Owelle Rochas Okorocha, is not standing for a re -election. 2023 general elections is between Nigerians and PDAPC. And it will take many by surprise.

The people have suffered enough and can no longer take it from those who weaponised poverty in order to perpetually keep them in bondage. Opinion polls have reported that the electorate will act and decisively too, as they will not look the way of APC and PDP in the general elections but  massively vote for the  presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi,  and all its National Assembly candidates during the ballot box revolution. Ndi Orlu zone have vowed to get it right this time. They may have finally arrived at that juncture, driven by the sheer impishness of the political elite. For once, they are uncharacteristically provoked, having been grossly dehumanized by their leaders who held them in absolute contempt over the years and those who once represented them in both Houses; Senate and House of Representatives.

Expectedly, this time around, Orlu people will no longer look at those with baby faces and those who dance in churches and at public functions, as they are poised to do something rather than sitting down and complaining. They are prepared to take political action to remedy the situation. The people  had once tested the APC senatorial candidate, Chief Osita Izunaso, whose performance was colourless and not impressive. Also, the PDP senatorial candidate, Rt. Hon. Jones Onyereri, who lost to the outgoing legislator, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, in the 2019 general elections. The people are better judges than this reporter.

However, this time, they wish to try a breath of fresh air in the offing, Chief Charles Ahize, of Labour Party; who shares the same transformational leadership vision of national productivity, new orientation and youth development with Peter Obi.

As the rest of the contenders for Orlu Senate seat may be surprised and remained askance at the growing political trajectory of Chief Charles Ahize of Labour Party, keen observers see it as a historic movement and that is why it is  resonating in all nooks and crannies of Imo West Senatorial District; a revolutionary idea whose time has come. Yet, it is not about Charles Ahize, but about the long-suffering Orlu people who seem to have finally woken up from their lethargic slumber. It is about the jobless graduates in Nkwerre, Isu, Nwangele, Njaba, Oguta, Oru East, roaming aimlessly after  graduation 🎓. It is about our aged parents and pregnant women in the village who do not have access to well equipped hospitals or maternity homes after years of representation in the Senate by previous occupiers. It’s about our farmers who cannot enter their farmlands in Orlu due to insecurity. It’s totally about a people looking for an alternative to the status quo that has impoverished them and left Orlu zone deserted.

Chief Charles Ahize, a strong voice and God’s weapon of warfare for emancipation and Orlu Recovery is here to fill that gap as the political Egyptians they saw in the 7th, 8th and 9th National Assembly, they would see them no more as Chief Ahize joins forces with Peter Obi to form the New Nigeria Administration.

Funny enough, the rapacious already jittery political elite through their paid keyboard warriors have resorted to their old methodology of elusive experience counts and ranking matters for the Senate Presidency; when we all know the colorless performances of previous occupiers of that exalted seat. While they have failed, propaganda and  blackmail become the Plan B as they play on people’s primordial sentiments. Good a thing, the people seem to be wiser because the awareness that suffering has no brother, friend, political party or even religion has dawned on them.

Ndi Orlu and Nigerian masses are angry; and they are earnestly craving for a new leadership direction and true change. Yes, they are sufficiently angry, the kind of rage that morphs into revolutionary activism capable of overthrowing an   inhumane leadership and asphyxiating status quo which the likes of Chief Osita Izunaso and his contemporaries in the old political order represent  thus, the need to enthrone a new leadership with human face, an accessible Orlu Senator, most friendly but outspoken, a purpose -driven Senator, not those who spent  75% of their days in the National Assembly living in luxuries and relating only with fellow elite and business class instead of coming down home to know the  yearnings and outcries  of the poor masses who voted them into power.

Those old dark political days and era are gone! Behold, God is doing a new thing!