Nnamani was said to have lobbied for the position contrary to the wishes of the South-East APC, which had been promised the National Secretary slot. It is considered to be a strong position that will benefit the region and give the party a base there.
SaharaRepuorters has gathered that the former Senate President, Ken Nnamani traded the zoning of the coveted position of the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-East for his personal ambition of becoming the Deputy National Chairman of the party.
Nnamani was said to have lobbied for the position contrary to the wishes of the South-East APC, which had been promised the National Secretary slot. It is considered to be a strong position that will benefit the region and give the party a base there.
Findings revealed that Nnamani fought and worked against zoning the National Secretary position to the region with the support of Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, with the assumption that giving the region a weak position in the party will strengthen his (Umahi's) ambitions to be the Presidential candidate of the party.
It was also gathered that at an Enugu APC stakeholders' meeting, Nnamani initiated and signed a zoning formula agreement that zoned any National Working Committee (NWC) position allocated to the state to Enugu North Senatorial Zone but later went against the same agreement by going for the position meant for Enugu State. Nnamani hailed from Enugu East Senatorial district.
The situation has upset the zoning calculations in Enugu APC thereby causing disaffection in the party in the state.
Sources who spoke to SaharaReporters
revealed that the Enugu State Governor has been using Nnamani to hold down the growth of the APC in the state for the benefit of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Nnamani had actively supported and worked for Ugwuanyi in the 2019 governorship election against his party's candidate. It was learnt that even though he negotiated a 25 percent vote for Muhammadu Buhari, the governor reneged on their agreement because he felt he had already sufficiently repaid Nnamani for his support.
A source who is familiar with the developments in the region told SaharaReporters on condition of anonymity, "I wonder why a man that has been a respected Senate President would downgrade himself to the position of Deputy National Chairman while denying the zone of the coveted powerful National Secretary post."
The source further said, "I felt he should have aspired for the position of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which the entire Igbo race has been canvassing for, not the Deputy National Chairmanship position of a party. At Nnamani's age, he should have have allowed a younger person to go for the National Secretary instead of insisting on removing all important post from his zone."
Further investigation by SaharaReporters revealed that Nnamani's ambition is being largely sponsored by two non-APC members — popular businessman Emeka Offor and Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State.
One of the sources close to Offor revealed to SaharaReporters that Offor has been using Nnamani to gain access to the president for business purposes but he still worked against Buhari in the build-up to the 2019 general elections.
He further stated, "This time around, Emeka Offor wants to install Nnamani as the DNC of the APC to hold down the South-East APC for political trading purposes while our Governor Ugwuanyi who is of the PDP on his part has been using him also to hold down the growth of APC in Enugu State. Ken actively supported and worked for Gburugburu in the 2019 elections against his APC's candidate in the state."
Some sources close to APC leaders told SaharaReporters that Nnamani conspired with some of his colleagues in the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) to smuggle his name into a list that was purportedly endorsed by President Buhari, naming him as the preferred candidate for the Deputy National Chairman (DNC South).
The president has since denied this claim. In fact other inside sources say that though Ken has gone to the President to kneel and beg for this position several times, the President has been non committal because the President had earlier offered him the position of Ambassador to the United States of America before, a position he felt was befitting of Nnamani's stature but he turned it down.
Ahead of March 26th national convention of the party, some stakeholders had rejected the purported endorsement of former governor of Nasarawa state, Senator Abdullahi Adamu and Ken Nnamani as chairman and deputy chairman South, respectively.
The stakeholders’ forum also vowed to reject the inclusion of former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, as a member of the Media Committee for the forthcoming national convention.