The political value of Sen.Ifeanyi Araraume – By Onwuasoanya FCC Jones
Senator Ifeanyi Ararume is one of those politicians who are grossly over rated. And thse who rush to over rate them, are those who never really take out time to research on the background and antecedents of those we call our political leaders. In saner societies, where politics is left for the politic, Ararume and his gang won’t have any business being referred to as political leaders. Ararume is one of those politicians who go wherever the wind blows.
A brief peep into Ararume’s political trajectory will reveal to you, a man full of betrayals, greed, desperation and violence.
In 1999, Ararume sold out his Party, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (APP), whose State Chairman he was and sneaked into the PDP, where he literally ‘stole’ the senatorial ticket of the Party, few weeks into the general election. He cheated founding fathers of the Party like Chief Ikedi Ohakim the opportunity to go to the Senate. Ikedi Ohakim forgave him and threw all his support to him to guarantee his victory at the polls.
In 2003, Ararume was one of the beneficiaries of the massively rigged general elections which saw him return to the Senate for the second time. He was involved in the high level betrayals and sell-outs that saw to the ousting of several Southeast Senators, who were elected as Senate President. The fact that his colleagues at the Red Chamber never considered him for the position of the Senate presidency in the about four times that position was vacant, tells a lot about how his colleagues regarded him.
In 2007, he forced his way into the top position in the charade called PDP govenorship primaries, after he was accused by several people of playing a prominent role in disrupting the exercise, the first time. Having not secured the two third majority as required by the PDP Guidelines of those days, the Party invoked its supreme powers in matters of that nature and submitted the name of Engr. Charles Ugwu as its governorship candidate. Ararume did the unusual by dragging the Party to court. When he eventually secured victory on technical grounds, he still was not able to deliver victory to the Party as Chief Ikedi Ohakim, his kinsman and longtime friend, contesting under the platform of a new political Party, PPA, trounced him in the polls to emerge Governor. Ararume, notorious for his deficience in the spirit of sportsmanship, distracted Ohakim with lumped up litigation that were all dismissed for lacking in merit. When Ohakim finally joined the PDP, it was expected that Ararume would welcome his brother and work with him to develop Imo. The Isiebu born politician left the Party to join the ACN under which he ran an embarrassing campaign to be Governor in 2011. Ararume could not win any LGA as he only succeeded in splitting the votes of Ikedi Ohakim, thereby depriving Okigwe zone of the opportunity to enjoy a full eight year tenure.
This 2015, he rejoined the PDP, after an unsuccessful stint at the ACN, then, APC. He was alleged to have extracted the votes of some PDP delegates at the governorship primary through unconventional and I daresay diabolic strategies. In a primary election widely adjudged to be fraught with irregularities, Ararume instead of demanding for the primary to be cancelled and a fresh contest organized, he went to court seeking to be declared winner of a contest that he admitted was a sham.
Having seen the futility of his legal tussle, he quickly ran home, allegedly collected bribe from a sinking Governor Okorocha and has turned around to throw his support behind the same Governor, he severally castigated for poor performance, massive corruption and lack of the right ideas to transform Imo.
Chief Ararume must be thinking that his supporters are some bunch of idiots who do not have the brain to think, and those who join him in singing the Okorocha swansong certainly prove him right.
God willing, we shall discuss more on this after the election.
IMO GA ADI MMA OZO!