2015: Bianca, Uwazuruike may lead Jonathan’s campaign in S’East

Even as the North and South-East continue to lay claim to the 2015 presidency, there are indications that Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, wife of the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, and the leader of Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Ralph Uwazuruike, may be leading the campaign for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 in the South East.

Our sources disclosed that Bianca’s new role in Jonathan’s 2015 campaign prompted her latest bid to reconcile the warring camps in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which her late husband led until his death on November 26, 2011.

Mrs. Ojukwu who at the inception of the crisis took sides with Governor Peter Obi against APGA National Chairman, Victor Umeh, extended an invitation to both of them to attend a ceremony marking the end of the traditional mourning for her late husband.

Both Ojukwu and Umeh were in attendance at the ceremony where Uwazuruike and members of his MASSOB were very visible.

Obi was believed to have started pushing for Umeh’s removal because of his comment that APGA would field a candidate in the 2015 presidential election. APGA did not field a candidate in 2011, but rather adopted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Goodluck Jonathan who eventually won the election.

The adoption of Jonathan by APGA was largely responsible for the massive vote he got from the South-East in the last presidential election. Jonathan rewarded APGA immediately with an ambassadorial appointment for Bianca and later, a full military burial for Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who was denied a state burial by the National Assembly.

Although, the President has not publicly declared his intention to run in 2015, our sources disclosed that Bianca and Uwazuruike have been given a presidential mandate to lead the Jonathan campaign in the South-East.

Bianca reportedly took the MASSOB leader to the presidency recently where a deal was brokered. The former secessionist leader reportedly added some new luxurious Jeeps to his convoy of vehicles when he returned from the Abuja trip.

Our sources disclosed that Mrs. Ojukwu’s new disposition to reconciliation in APGA was a covert bid to keep the party together, to ensure that  Jonathan gets bloc vote from South-East in 2011.

“You will agree with me that the South-East voted massively for Jonathan in 2011 because APGA did not field a candidate. So, the calculation in the presidency now is that it will not be in the interest of the President for APGA to field a candidate when the President is running in 2015, with the ongoing alliance talks between South-West dominated Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Northern dominated Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).  So, they want to use Bianca in stopping APGA in fielding a candidate. They also want to use Uwazuruike to secure massive support for the President from South-East,” an APGA chieftain told Saturday Independent in Enugu.

However, both Bianca and Uwazuruike could not be reached as at press time.

Source: Daily Independent