Fear Grips Dora Akunyili, Dumps Senatorial Ambition

The much anticipated senatorial contest by the Minister of Information and Communication, Dora Akunyili, may afterall not happen. Ukpaka reports reliably gathered that Dora has developed cold feet on account of the huge obstacles on her way. The biggest obstacle is that Dora cannot see how she can win the primary election (get the nomination) either in PDP or in APGA. Many in her Ward (Agulu) have also advised her that she will have difficulty winning in her ward let alone winning a senatorial election.

Dora Akunyili leaves office in May 2011, and since she realized that Jonathan or any other President may not reappoint her, she has been desperately looking for another Government job to do. After she lobbied and lost the positions of INEC chairmanship and High Commissioner for London, she has settled to contest for the Senatorial seat in the Anambra Central District.

Her first option was to contest under the PDP, but she realized that with the heavy weights like the current senator, Annie Okonkwo, Hon. Chudi Offodile, Chief Mrs Christy Okoye in the race, she would have no chance at the primaries. Then she began to lobby APGA chieftains to 'give' her the ticket of the party. She was reported to have lobbied many prominent Anambra people including Prince Arthur Eze to help her lobby the state Governor, Peter Obi to support her ambition. As she was busy lobbying APGA chieftains, she was also telling people that APGA wants her to contest under it. This was said to have infuriated APGA bigwigs who now told her to go and contest the primaries with other APGA contestants. Already the senatorial contest for Anambra Central District under APGA is crowded with heavy weights like Prof. Peter Nwangwu, Hon. Aja Aja Nze; Hon Chike Nwabuikwu, and others. Sources close to Dora informed us that a committee was set up to explore her chances, and after weeks of tour and hard work, the committee advised her that she should forget the dream. The other aspirants in both parties were said to be 'waiting for her' to come and test her actual popularity with the masses, and not newspaper propaganda.

People from her ward said that Dora is not new to the game anyway. During the military's experiment under the 'no-party' elections, Dora contested for councillorship and lost. She felt humiliated, but used her connections to get appointed as the Supervisory Councillor for health in the local government. This was her first political appointment, to compensate for the loss of councillorship election. The ghost of the councillorship election and loss still haunt her. That is why she does not even want to attempt competing at the primaries and losing. Her friends advise her that it would be more humiliating. Because of this, her only option to contest is if any of the parties would simply 'give' her the ticket without primary. As she was lobbying for 'ticket' from APGA, the news was said to have reached the first lady, Dame Patience, who was displeased at the effrontery.

The final straw to Dora's ambition was when she learnt that Dr. Chris Ngige was getting ready to also contest for the same senatorial seat. It clearly became obvious to her that it was a tall dream. For now she is contented to search for other appointive positions she can get.

Originating at www.ukpakareports.com