The shame and achievements of Aninri Legislative Chamber in 15 months

Last year, when member of Aninri Legislative Chamber unanimously impeached it’s leader Philip Igwe the people were genuinely thrilled.

For a man who stayed the whole time in the council’s darkest days – Bennett Ajah’s tenure – and who actively supported the “Babylonian King”, Hon. Igwe fitted into a good image of a dirty villain in the eyes of the public.

His removal was, in fact, due and was hailed as a fresh start of legislative vibrancy. People also like Igwe’s replacement, Hon. Ajah, the councillor representing Okpanku ward.

• Why APC e-membership registration is “failing” in Aninri

However, more than a year after the “fresh start” under Ajah the chamber is yet to start. According to impeccable sources, there are only four bills which have been introduced in Aninri Legislative House since October 2024. Ajah himself introduced three of those bills, and the councillor of Oduma ward 3 introduced one. Shockingly, all these bills are still at their introductory stages, and the Enugu State agencies responsible for land use are kicking to kill one the bills for “lacking in importance”.

Taken literally, Aninri lawmakers have not made even one law since 2024.

“Do you blame them? Most is them were handpicked for reasons apart from merit,” James Ajah, a trader who have resided at Ndeabor for more than 25 years told InfoWarsHQ.

At the time when Governor Peter Mbah is in need to plant ‘new’ All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu, those who should inherently be his foot soldiers are now proven to be grossly incapable. As at today, it were merely 3,402 people who agreed to registered as APC members in Aninri – in a zone that boasts of approximately 20,000 voters.

“Our people are no longer fools. We’ve been fooled many times. They shared rice, fertiliser and give money to their families and to their friends. But nothing for us. Why should we follow them? Are these people leaders?” Chidi Nwanyanwu from Mmafu village in Oduma said.

There has never been any real political contest in Aninri since 1999. Thinking that they own the council, the privileged few had sat at the common resources, enriching their pockets while all the while trampling on the silent majority.

Also, since 1999, all the councillors – most of whom pure idiots and illiterates – are handpicked simply to fill slots. What else, if not confusion and incompetence, would keep a whole 10 lawmakers from making a single law in nearly two years?

Why APC e-membership registration is “failing” in Aninri

Despite big efforts and massive publicity outreach the All Progressives Congress (APC) is still being rejected in Aninri at the moment.

According to a report released this evening by Joshua Ogbonna, Aninri party youths leader who is charged to lead the “mass” recruitment, only 3,402 have registered in the 10 political wards in the council.

Oduma ward 4, area of council chairman, is still leading with 584 while the Commissioner for Youths and Sports’ ward trails it with 266 registered members. Nenwe ward 2, Ndeabor and Okpanku indicate worst case scenarios, with 189, 193 and 192 respectively.

Joshua said the figures were culled directly from the database at exactly 4.50pm on Wednesday. He posted it at 5.09pm.

“Something is wrong, I must tell you, Jude,” a party stalwart in the zone said, added that APC would not make the 2027 elections in Aninri. While this man is right that something is wrong, he is wrong that APC candidates would not be declared winners in the elections.

Aninri politicians, most of whom loudmouth self-acclaimed grassroots organisers are just what they are – talkatives! Forming and joining countless support groups during campaign periods, they boast and sell lies to candidates that they’re “men of the people” in their places.

But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which stayed in power for almost 30 years in Aninri, had never won a single election in the local government area. It had “structures”, fake structures that were never in touch with the real voters. Cabals simply sat together, wrote elections results and defended them.

Today, circumstances are exposing these politicians and their wretched weaknesses as Governor Peter Mbah is under fire to please the president and also get himself reelected under APC in 2027.

Is anything really wrong in Aninri? Administration after administration had failed to address core issues that would make any party in Aninri a grassroots movement, all the time sidestepping real voters to serve political patronage.

“They [Aninri council chairmen] focus on paying the VIPs, their friends and their families. They don’t know anything about the concerns of the common man,” Comr. Julius Okorie, analyst from neighbouring Awgu council area said.

For example, in May 2022, the Federal Government gave about 10,000 bags of rice to Aninri. It strictly said the “palliative” was for the “poorest of the poor”. But “stakeholders”, instead of the poor in Aninri villages, came and took the rice for themselves. All the 10 councillors took about 5 bags for him or herself. Then they went to their villages, gathered the people, shared half bags among the teaming populace before photographing the scene and sharing them as pieces of evidence of “reaching the grassroots”.

• 2 richest men in Aninri join APC, declare support for Nwanjoku, Gov Mbah

Then in 2023, Peter Obi came with his tsunami, and number of so-called grassroots organisers were roundly defeated in open contest in their polling units. For decades, the poor and the real voters are being trampled upon, as each chairman dutifully took what belong to the people and share them to the rich. This is the Aninri tradition.

PDP couldn’t go out for any free and fair election. Can APC?

Aninri council boss Prince Ugochukwu Nwanjoku, today the leader of APC in the zone, is an able man. But unfortunately, a lot of people who don’t understand grassroots movement have his ears. So whether or not APC will succeed in Aninri depends entirely on his willingness to refocus on who is more important in electoral victory – the people or the “stakeholders”. That’s, the empty stakeholders.