Senator Ifeanyi Ararume’s NNPC Board Chairmanship Ordeal: A Dangerous Political Technical Knock-Out Without Pity

NJOKU MACDONALD OBINNA

In Nigeria political space, State Governors use their immunity and Federal might as veritable weapons to dictate the direction of events, luckily, whereof the State Governor is enjoying such  privilege of having his fellow party man at Aso Rock, as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander- in- Chief of the Armed Forces. 

However, while patiently reading Chief Sam Onwuemedo’s long chronicle titled: ”Senator Ifeanyi Ararume and loss of NNPC Board Chairmanship: Why Imo?”, I only read about the political genealogy and trajectory of the man ‘Sen. Ifeanyi Ararume.’  As curious as I was, I had wanted to see the salient points he raised, his line of argument, superior argument perhaps, but found none except towards the end of his submission where he sounded rather too pious than being critical and objective as a veteran Journalist. The truth remains that, politics is no church: in Christian communism, Christian socialism, Christian anarchism, Christian libertarianism and Christian democracy. You dare not  dance with a presumed devil!  You don’t treat your sworn  political enemy with laxity. It is dangerous! You don’t also economically empower your opponents least they take the shine off you. This is called Machiavellian Approach – Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian politician (1469-1527), who explained in his book ‘The Prince’,  that it was often necessary for rulers to use immoral method in order to achieve power and success.  

Beyond the above political postulation, nobody has presented an evidence to link the Imo State Government or Senator Hope Uzodimma to the political ordeal of Sen. Ifeanyi Ararume’s unfortunate withdrawal as the board chairman of NNPC. While the Imo State Governor may not be completely innocent from  all the insinuations and accusations by the opposition and conservative Imo people, but that remains insinuations and mere speculations. Is there any evidence? The answer is an emphatic No! But, what happened? Sen. Ifeanyi Ararume’s ordeal might have started the moment his supporters, loyalists, political allies and hangers-on went haywire to euluogize  him immediately after his nomination by President Muhammadu Buhari as Chairman of a very juicy Federal Government corporation, an oil -money- making NNPC Board. Political jobbers and Government  contractors flooded all the national and Imo State based  newspapers with congratulatory messages. He was reported to have been receiving approximately 300 calls per day; which some callers spent not less than 1 hour on the phone discussing business proposals, others, on how to oust the sitting Governor out of power.

A reliable source disclosed to the writer that a number of Imo APC Chieftains and Government functionaries, who are no longer in tune with the Governor’s poor reward system and style of governance, were clandestinely rooting for Sen. Ifeanyi Ararume if he had eventually settled down to work. Loyalty was on the verge of drifting.  Of course, that would have spelt some  doom for the Shared Prosperity Administration under Sen. Hope Uzodimma given Ararume’s political sagacity, financial capacity, leadership dexterity, formidable structure and far reaching contacts across party lines. Sen. Ifeanyi Ararume is a political institution at least, he proved that in the 2019 elections under APGA.  Imagine Imo State with a political warlord like Sen. Ifeanyi Araraume as Chairman of NNPC Board! Fear gripped them!

Immediately, the State government’s sponsored writers  unleashed their media arsenal and mayhem on the nomination of Sen. Ifeanyi Ararume; all in attempts to cajole and discredit it. Some of the online media urchins, of course, faceless pseudo Facebook account operators through their puerile and atavistic write-ups were telling  the Presidency that Ararume cannot be trusted with power, they even suggested that the Presidency  should find out from Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. No thanks to the mischievous petition writers who orchestrated this.  

Nevertheless, those who share the sentiments of Sam Onwuemedo see Sen. Ifeanyi Ararume ‘s nullified nomination of his plumb job as NNPC Board Chairman from the angle of sheer sentiments. In their arguments, Imo State lost!  The State lost possible job opportunities and empowerment of Imo sons and daughters; their relations, friends and political allies in that Federal corporation or through the referral of the Board Chairman. Of course, when two elephants are fighting the grasses suffer.  In the light of the above, a general fighting a war must constantly search for an advantage over the opponent. The greatest advantage comes from the element of surprise, from hitting the enemies with strategies that are novel, outside experience, beyond their expectations and completely unconventional.  

Just like in a typical boxing ring championship, those who hit Sen. Ifeanyi Araraume gave him a dangerous uppercut; a technical knockout without pity! They won him during the Imo North Senatorial District by-election, won him at the Court after an intense legal fireworks, now allegedly engineered his removal as NNPC Board Chairman. 

   – Njoku MacDonald Obinna Publisher,4thestatereporters