Abia State chapter of APC wants Buhari to drop Enelamah because he is a technocrat and not a party man

MEMBERS of the All Progressives Congress (APC)  in Abia State have asked President Muhammadu Buhari not to re-appoint their representative on the federal cabinet trade an investment minister Dr Okechukwu Enelamah because he is interested in helping the party.

Originally trained as a medical doctor, Dr Enelamah has an MBA from Harvard University and has worked for the likes of Arthur Anderson, now KPMG Professional Services and Goldman Sachs. In 2015, he was appointed to the cabinet as the representative of Abia State, although more as a technocrat than a politician.

With the APC having won the February 2019 elections and due to commence a second term in office on May 29, the party's local representatives in Abia State have asked President Buhari to drop Dr Enelamah from the new cabinet. According to Benedict Godson, the publicity secretary of the Abia State chapter of the APC, Dr Enelamah did very little to help the party during the last elections.

He vowed that the leadership of the party in the state will resist any move to reappoint Dr Enelamah in the second cabinet of President Buhari. According to Mr Godson, the party does not support ongoing plans to reappoint Dr Enelamah as he was not committed to the growth of the party in Abia State.

Mr Godson called on President Buhari and the APC national chairman Adams Oshiomhole to ensure that Abia gets a committed minister who is interested in the growth and development of the party and Abia State. He claimed that Dr Enelamah’s non-commitment and lackadaisical approach to party matters, contributed to most of the problems faced by the party in the state during the just concluded 2019 general elections in the state.

“We have a minister on paper but nobody feels his impact and throughout the campaigns, he showed no interest. He is supposed to help in the building of this party but he has remained unconcerned and lackadaisical to the interest of APC.

"He’s practically not an APC member and now, he is being projected again to return as a minister which should not be so. We disown him because, he is a saboteur to our party here in Abia and his attitude is serving the interest of the opposition.

“As for the plan of reappointing him, we wish to tell the presidency that APC is too big with so many qualified members for us to be appointing non-members. Dr Enelamah is not a member of our party and should not be appointed as a minister again, as no APC member in Abia knows his whereabouts, he has never attended any APC meeting and he kept saying he is a technocrat and not a politician but the issue here is if people didn’t bring out themselves to work, campaign and mobilise for the APC, would he be waiting for appointment now?" Mr Godson added.

Adding that it is not right to  reap where you did not sow, Mr Godson said Dr Enelamah should be replaced with a real APC man who believes in the interest of the party and has worked for the growth of the APC. In addition, he pointed out that the minister is also from the same constituency with Nigeria’s ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, Dr Elizabeth Emenike, who also does not do anything for the party.