Column

Ichele Agulu mourns Nwobu-Alor, calls him political mentor

TRIBUTE TO MY POLITICAL MENTOR

Apart from my knowledge of Chief Hon Sylvester Nwobu Alor as a great politician, when i was a kid, he used to visit my father Late Chief Christopher Chikwelu and also my father’s cousin, more especially during his tenure as the President General of Agulu Peoples Union (Nig).Whenever he was around, as a child, i would always wanted to have a hand shake with him just to keep the memory of two things; one- when i was a toddler, his house of assembly election campaign slogan was one of the songs that aided my understanding of Igbo language., two was to prove a point that i was fearless because a lot of people were always defeated by the aura in him whenever he was seen laded in white which was his choice of colour.After my secondary education, we were not seeing because as at then Gen Ibrahim Babangida has stepped aside. Later on 1998, during the transition period of Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, i came down from University of Nigeria with a message of PDP in other to assist Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu in his House of Representatives election, i was told that Chief Hon Nwobu Alor and Dr Austin Enendu and some others were already deep in the process to ensure PDP gets to every nook and cranny in Anaocha LGA.I now went to Hon Nwobu Alor and re-introduced myself; he was very happy and surprised seeing the son of his friend already making moves politically, from there activities towards the 1999 elections commenced. He was so encouraged with my activities because i was attending and mobilizing for every function despite my academic activities.About a year after the inauguration of elected officials, some of the expectations of politicians were not actually met; some people started dispersing to form new alliances and political associations. Then in early 2001, my humble self and my friend Onyeka Ibeneme met HE Mr Peter Obi at Suite 1A Zodiac Hotels Enugu, where he informed me of his gubernatorial ambition, from there other things started taking shape because as at then the leader of our IGBO YOUTH ALLIANCE Mazi Okechukwu Nwokoye has led us to join Chief Chekwas Okorie to form UPGA which was later changed to APGA during the registration at INEC in June 2002.Each week, once HE Mr Peter Obi was back to East, my humble self, HE Peter Obi, Chidi Agbapuonwu, Sen Victor Umeh, Chief Ben Mbuze Obi, Late Chief Ofili Nwosu, Sunny Obi will be on the road for consultations, we did it for more than one year before we finally came home to Anambra for full scale operations, because as a young graduate, i was full of activism and vigour.It was at this point that HE Peter Obi took me to see Hon Nwobu Alor, he asked me to join Hon Nwobu Alor to open and run a campaign office at Amawbia (as at then HE Peter Obi did not know that Hon Nwobu Alor knew me), so after the introduction, Hon Nwobu Alor laughed and said to HE Peter Obi that nwataa fu bu fuu engine room na politics, that was making reference to me. Two of us worked closely like father and son without having any misunderstanding or misgivings for eight years, he took me as his trusted political son. Chief Hon Nwobu Alor was a man of confidence and strategy in all his political dealings, so far he is involved in anything, consider the task accomplished.He exhibited his strategy to the fullest after the April 19th 2003 gubernatorial elections because the declaration was different from the figures got from the polls. That was the time he sat me down and said that we must go to work, from there, i deployed my tact, with the help of other party faithful, i went round the state gathered the FORM EC8A results, worked day and night and success was achieved.Chief Nwobu Alor was a saint, i did not know where to start to describe him because he lived for people, this was a man which even if you report to him that someone stole his belongings, the only thing you will hear from him was “rapu nwataa fu na o bu fuu agu na agu ya”I cannot forget you because even at my trying moments, Hon Nwobu Alor stood firm and maintained his stand for justice and equity, however, it is only God that rewards.It was very hard for me to say good bye, the only consolation was the fact you lived a very remarkable life.Your Political SonChief Sir Chris Chikwelu Jr, KSP, FC

By Ifeizu Joe

Ifeizu is a seasoned journalist and Managing Editor of TheRazor. He has wide knowledge of Anambra State and has reported the state objectively for over a decade.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button
%d bloggers like this: