- By Eni Kalu, PhD
John C. Maxwell once said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Leadership is not about revenge or settling political scores. It is about fairness, patience, wisdom and the ability to bring people with different interests together.
Chijioke Chukwu must now wake up to the responsibility of party leadership. It is time for him to realise that he is leading a political party made up of people with different political interests and aspirations, not an organisation created to protect the interest of one man.
Leading the Abia State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the mindset of protecting or advancing the interest of Benjamin Kalu above every other interest in the party will only keep the Abia APC divided. If Chukwu cannot bring the different leaders, groups and interests together, then perhaps it is time for him to resign. A leader who cannot unite his people has a serious problem.
If he believes that leadership is about using his position to prove a point, settle political scores or embark on a revenge mission because of his electoral loss in 2023, then he is making a big political mistake ahead of 2027. There is nothing to revenge. Politics moves on. A leader cannot continue to fight yesterday’s battles while preparing for tomorrow’s election.
Chijioke Chukwu should also be prepared to face opposition if things continue this way, including the emergence of another faction as Reality Organisation has threatened. A good leader should be fair to everybody. He should not use his office to take sides in every disagreement within the party. After all, Abia APC will not be the first political party in Nigeria to have factions because leaders failed to manage internal disagreements.
Other leaders agreed that there should be peace in the Abia APC and accepted a harmonisation process that produced Chijioke Chukwu as chairman. That should not be taken for granted. People made sacrifices and compromises for peace. The Greek word sophrosyne speaks about moderation, self-control and good judgement. These are qualities every political leader needs. When people make concessions for peace, the person who benefits from that arrangement has a greater responsibility to be fair to everyone.
Unfortunately, under Chukwu’s watch, we now have different groups pursuing different interests. Some appear interested only in the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Other groups are working separately for candidates of their choice in the National Assembly elections. Another group appears focused mainly on the governorship candidate, while many House of Assembly candidates are left behind and confused. There is clearly a lack of unity and coordination.
Even the governorship candidate remains largely unknown to many people. Those around him appear to be shielding him from the public, either because they see him as a trophy they have already won or as a political conduit that nobody outside their circle should come close to. This is strange for a party preparing to challenge an incumbent governor.
A candidate is not a museum piece to be hidden from the public. Politics requires visibility. It requires meeting people, speaking to them, listening to them and convincing them. A governorship candidate hoping to defeat an incumbent must be introduced and projected across the state. People must know him, hear him and understand what he wants to do differently.
Under Chijioke Chukwu’s leadership, APC members in Abia are badly divided, with some already pitching their tents with candidates of other political parties. What we are seeing is what I would call the politics of rice and beans: people belonging to the same political family but eating from different political plates.
Chukwu has also failed to bring the major leaders of the party together or properly manage disagreements arising from the decisions of the National Working Committee concerning the party primaries. Other leaders who could not secure tickets for their preferred candidates have moved on. That is what party politics requires. The same rules must apply to everybody. They cannot be important when they favour one group and suddenly become unacceptable when they favour another.
Another concern is the attitude of some of Chijioke Chukwu’s political associates, many of whom came from the PDP and are relatively new to the APC. Some of them are the same political actors who praised the Ikpeazu administration and the then PDP leadership even when it was becoming obvious that the party was losing political ground. They must understand that APC is not PDP.
Any attempt to sow seeds of division for selfish political interests will naturally meet resistance. There is a Greek word, hubris, which simply means excessive pride or arrogance. Politics has repeatedly shown that people can make serious mistakes when they begin to mistake temporary control of party structures for permanent ownership of a political party. Chijioke Chukwu must therefore sit up.
His responsibility is to bring the different political interests together and build a strong APC where President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the governorship candidate, the three senatorial candidates, all House of Representatives candidates and all House of Assembly candidates can campaign together and have a good chance of winning their elections.
Giving one leader an advantage while trying to sideline, provoke or weaken others will hurt the party and eventually damage Chukwu’s own leadership. You do not prepare to win an election by reducing the number of people willing to work with you.
A leader should listen, observe, understand the problem and look for solutions. When a prominent member of the party makes a prediction that does not favour the party, the first response should not always be threats, anger or disciplinary action. A wise leader should first ask: why did he make this prediction? What are the problems he is seeing? What can we do to change the situation? That is leadership.
If Senator Orji Uzor Kalu predicts that Governor Alex Otti presently has a good chance of winning the 2027 governorship election, the sensible political response is to look at the reasons behind that prediction and work to change them. A prediction is not an endorsement. Neither is it a final result. Political situations change, and parties can improve their chances when they recognise their weaknesses and correct them.
Yes, Otti is working, and any serious opposition party must recognise the political advantage that comes with performance, incumbency and public perception. But a united APC also has a good chance. What the party cannot afford is to enter such an important election divided, suspicious of one another and fighting itself.
Abraham Lincoln’s famous words remain relevant: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” You cannot divide your own political house through your actions and then expect people to make positive predictions about its chances. If you want people to believe that the party can win, give them reasons to believe it.
There must therefore be metanoia, a Greek word that simply means a change of mind or direction, within the leadership of the Abia APC. The politics of exclusion should give way to inclusion. Personal disagreements should not be placed above the interest of the party. The endless struggle over who controls what should give way to the bigger task of building a party capable of winning elections across Abia State.
The task before Chijioke Chukwu is simple: bring everybody together. Listen to all the leaders. Be fair to the different groups. Respect genuine differences. Support every candidate carrying the APC flag. Stop creating the impression that some people are more APC than others.
Above all, he must remember that the chairman of a political party is supposed to be chairman of the whole party, not chairman of one faction.
There is still time to change course before 2027, but that time will not be there forever.
A word is enough for the wise.
Eni Kalu, PhD
