Politics
How APC guber candidate who stakes N4.5b of state’s monthly IGR to get billionaire bankroll campaign breezes ahead
As the odds appear stacked in favour of Hon Tony Nwoye of the APC in the coming Anambra guber election, the state might have entered some kind of serfdom. Billionaire Arthur Eze will be pocketing N4.5 billion monthly from the state’s coffer—in addition to cherry-picking 10 commissioners for the APC government.
Leaked documents have exposed Nwoye the candidate entering an agreement with Eze the moneybag who will bankroll all the campaign expenses for the November election.
The payback: Nwoye agreed to kick back 30 percent of the state’s internally generated revenue to Eze. Luckily, Anambra’s IGP has been on the up. It stood at N14.79 billion in 2015, up from N7.60 billion three years before.
Nwoye also added a deal sweetener: the sponsor will control about 50 percent of the governor’s cabinet by jobbing 10 of the 21 commissioners in the government.
The APC candidate has been a go-go guy all along—from his day as the SUG president of the Federal University of Nigeria, Nsukka, through the National Association of Nigerian Students to state chairman of his former party PDP, which he dumped for the APC last December.
He was elected to the House of Reps in 2015.
Added to Nwoye’s rising profile is the just concluded APC primary election where he scored 2146 to floor eight other candidates, including party hopper Andy Uba, George Moghalu, and others.
But his sell-out to Eze will surprise many who have believed the ruling APC has brought change it promised to electioneering and governance in Nigeria.
According to the documents, the agreement was signed in Enugu on the 14th of last December at Akpabio Str., GRA, Enugu.
The covenant was witnessed by lawyer Godwin Ikeh and businessman Emeka Okereke.
It was signed, sealed, and delivered by Nwoye and Eze.
Eze, the chairman of Atlas Petroleum Company, has been a past master in money politics around the southeast. He was part of the late President Sani Abacha infantrymen that fixed the dictator’s self-succession bid then. He also played a role in financing Abia Gov. Victor Ikpeazu’s election—though the deal went sour.
Eze also featured in former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, making donations running into billions for projects dear to Jonathan.
The oil tycoon was among the first to visit President-elect Muhammadu Buhari after defeating Jonathan in 2015, and there are speculations the present administration has traced some shady deals to Eze.
But this Eze-Nwoye sweetheart deal might have won a new friend for the APC seeking a foothold in the southeast against the 2019 election.
After all, many Nigerians believe any alleged sleazeball that hops into the ruling party from the PDP is already beatified.
No official statement from the APC denying or discrediting the leak has been issued.