By Chimaeze Ebubedike
On Saturday, the 22nd of February 2014, commercial activities came to a standstill in Owerri, the capital city of Imo State as the state PDP hosted President Goodluck Jonathan to what can be properly called the “mother of all rallies”. From the Sam Mbakwe Airport through the Owerri/Aba Federal highway to the Dan Anyiam Stadium and the entire city centre, there was standing room only for pedestrians and no room at all for vehicular traffic. The green, white, red colours and the famous umbrella of the PDP dominated the city in billboards, banners, posters and flags, all welcoming a happy and excited president and celebrating the rebirth, revival and reawakening of the hitherto comatose party. To call the event a success is to understate the obvious. It was a show stopper, an all time record breaker.
The organizers of the event called it a sensitization rally, others say it was a grand reception for high profile returnees to the party like Achike. Udenwa and others, but for all practical purposes, last Saturday’s event was the climax, the culmination and the grand finale of nine months of consistent and purpose driven grassroots mobilization, sensitization and reconciliation rallies embarked upon by the Jerry Chukwueke contact and mobilization committee of Imo PDP. The excitement, the boisterous passion and razzmatazz exhibited on Saturday was just a manifestation of the fire of re-awakening and revival which the Jerry Chukwueke committee has spread through out Imo PDP beginning from Nkwerre Local government in May 2013 and running through the entire state.
When Imo PDP set up the contact and mobilization committee amongst other committees, it made all political aspirants automatic members because of the enormity of the committee’s task and to enable all aspirants contribute to the strengthening of the party. But because the committee’s mandate was seen as mission impossible then, given the expensive nature of the project, the poor financial state of the party and the hostility of the incumbent government, almost all other aspirants conveniently stayed away from the committee, preferring to build their own individual structures instead of reviving a comatose party, abandoned by it’s own stakeholders and bereft of funds.
But undaunted by these severe limitations, with his personal funds and logistics and hounded by a vicious incumbent governor, Jerry Chukwueke hit the road with his courageous team of party faithful drawn from all local government areas of the state. Wherever he went, he preached the political gospel of reconciliation and unity. with uncommon courage and boldness, he unmasked the Okorocha administration, Itemizing with facts and figures the deceit, corruption and incompetence that has characterized the government of Rochas Okorocha and urging the party faithful not to be swayed by the government’s propaganda but to remain faithful to the ideals of the PDP.
He enunciated the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan especially as they affect the South East. As a result of the Jerry Chukwueke rallies, even illiterate party members from remote wards and villages are now conversant with the
Federal Government’s Transformation Agenda and it’s benefits in Agriculture, railways, road infrastructure, education, power and energy etc. They also know, through Jerry Chukwueke, that President Jonathan has reintegrated the Igbo nation to the mainstream of Nigerian politics and economy by way of strategic appointments like the Chief of Army Staff, key ministerial positions and infrastructural development like the internationalization of the Enugu Airport and award of contract for the design and construction of the second Niger Bridge. A summary of his mobilization message is captured in a pamphlet titled “Mobilize The People” over five hundred thousand copies of which have been distributed throughout the state.
With his oratorical skills, he took the party’s message to the people reassuring old, returning and new members that the mistakes of the past will not recur, that there will be internal democracy and no imposition of candidates. He assured them that a PDP government will liberate them from the clutches of poverty, create wealth and economic opportunities and return power to the people.
From the first rally at Nkwerre LGA, the momentum continued to build with each LGA trying to out do the other in mobilization, sensitization and fanfare. At every LGA, the team would first pay a courtesy call on party elders and stakeholders, urging, persuading and convincing them to join hands in rebuilding the PDP. With this approach, Chukwueke was able to draw party elders like Chief I.D Nwoga to the rally at Ahiazu Mbaise, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu at Ikeduru, Nze Umunna and Chief Peter Mgbemelu at Oru West, while the rally at Owerri North LGA was graced by the likes of Prince Lemmy Akakem and Sir Ambrose Ejiogu. At Okigwe, former deputy governor Ebere Udoagu hosted the team in his country home. With these party elders joining the women and youth, the LGA and Ward Executive and members, the party structure was complete at every LGA and the PDP once again acted as one political family under one umbrella. Apart from Chukwueke’s mobilization message, the fanfare, the music and dance at the rallies also attracted the youth, the general public and even the opposition. Midway into the rallies, the party began to reap a harvest of returnees and decampees from APC, APGA and other political parties. Imo PDP was back to life, revitalized, rebranded and repositioned for victory.
So, what happened during the presidential rally was a replication of the mobilization exercise that had taken place in all the local government areas of Imo State under the able and dynamic leadership of Jerry Chukwueke. This replication was possible and easy, because the party in it’s wisdom chose the same Jerry Chukwueke who has mobilized the State PDP to head the contact and mobilization subcommittee for the President’s visit and Chukwueke lived up to his billing as the mobilizer of the people.
So the party faithful who trooped to Dan Anyiam Stadium on Saturday were not mobilized during the five days of preparation for the- president’s visit, they were already mobilized by the Jerry Chukwueke committee. They did not just come to see Mr. President, they came to confirm what Jerry Chukwueke has been telling them about the President and his Transformation Agenda, they came to confirm that there will be no imposition of candidates and that there will be internal democracy. And from the address of Mr. President and the National Chairman of the party, the people got the assurances they sought.
But as I observed the event at the stadium that Saturday afternoon I did not see Jerry Chukwueke the mobilizer at the VIP stand, or amongst the party bigwig or near Mr. President. I searched for him until a colleague of mine pointed him out somewhere in the crowd, still mobilizing controlling and organizing. Characteristically, he was more interested in the success on the event than in sharing the limelight and the spotlight. But apart from the fact that he was not visible at the event, Jerry Chukwueke’s voice was also not heard neither was his name nor his committee mentioned throughout the event, except by the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu who said he wanted the peoples’ voices heard in Awaka (Jerry Chukwueke’s home), as they shouted “Power to the People”.
Whether the omission of Chukwueke’s name was deliberate or co-incidental, it detracted from the grand success of the rally. From my observation I noticed that scores of people from the LGAs expressed concern that the man who has been mobilizing them and who mobilized them for the presidential rally was neither seen nor heard at the grand rally, while some aspirants who did not even attend the mobilization rally in their own LGAs took the limelight and the spotlight. In fact some of the party faithful from remote LGAs taught it was another LGA mobilization rally where Jerry Chukwueke would tell them the latest from the Federal Government and so they were disappointed when they did not hear the mobilization voice that they’ve become-used to.
However, when some journalists cornered him somewhere in the stadium and asked him how he felt about the non recognition of his committee by the organizers of the event, he responded that he was more concerned with the success of the event than personal recognition. He said that the best recognition is recognition by the people and that Imolites know who mobilized them and would say so at the right time.
