11 Governors Bent on Imposing Candidate For 2015 PDP Primaries (2)

Sullivan Chime/Enugu State & Theodore Orji/Abia State
 It is no longer news that the just concluded PDP Delegate Elections left a stalemate in many states across Nigeria and as the race towards 2015 gathers momentum, many incumbent governors are either running for Senate or trying to impose favoured politicians to succeed them.

It is now an open secret that 11 governors today have caused battles as they attempt to dictate who steps into one political office or not. Here is a window to what is going on in these states.
(3) Sullivan Chime/Enugu State

Like Akpabio, Governor Sullivan Chime is facing serious headwinds, not only in his bid to handpick his successor, but also his desire to have him and his sister, Ifeoma Nwobodo, who was his chief of staff, go to the Senate. Already, he has unveiled his preferred successor, Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and even mobilized for the controversial emergence of Ugwuanyi as consensus candidate. In his own senatorial quest, Chime has a formidable opponent to contend with - the deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekeremadu, who is currently occupying the Enugu West senatorial seat on the platform of PDP. In a bid to realize his senatorial dream and that of his former chief of staff, Chime directed that none of the old senators who had served more than one term should return to the National Assembly. Both actions have polarized the state PDP , as the party is now broken into camps of members loyal to the governor and the deputy senate president. Even the consensus arrangement which apparently threw Ugwuanyi up does not seem to stand again as the speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Eugen Odo, has denied that he was a party to the arrangement and has gone ahead pick PDP gubernatorial nomination form. Currently, the state PDP does not have a generally recongnised and acceptable leadership.

Meanwhile, despite his health challenges, Chime is believed to have performed well, but his desire to have him and his sister as senators, at the same time handpick a governor for Enugu State, is facing serious headwinds, if not thunderstorms.

(4) Theodore Orji/Abia State

The Abia State governor, Chief Theodore Orji, nurses the ambition of going to the senate at the end of his tenure next year. He also plans to install his son, Chinedu Orji, as Speaker as a checkmate to his favourite governorship nominee, Okezie Ipkeazu, the man in charge of refuse disposal. But Governor Orji's nominee is facing formidable heavyweights, many of who are also backed by former governor Orji Kalu, who is also a senatorial aspirant. They include former MD of Diamond Bank, Alex Otti, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Senator Nkechi Nwaogu and President of Masters Energy, Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah. Orji has not openly disclosed his favourite for the governorship, though he backs the zoning of the post to Abia South senatorial district. This zoning arrangement has been stretched to mean that the next governor of the state should come from the Ukwa/Ngwa area, and it is on this basis that Nwaogu is nursing a governorship ambition.

Orji also appears not to have a good relationship with Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, one of the key governorship aspirants from Abia South, though, this has been denied by both men. Many expected the governor to back Abaribe, but such support does not seem to be coming.

The governor is believed to be cautious to avoid any backlash against his senatorial ambition.

Meanwhile, Orji's senatorial ambition could sail through if he concedes the governorship ticket.