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Intricate Political Case In Enugu State.
By Peter Claver Oparah.
The judicial annulment of the Enugu State
Gubernatorial election, which threw up Governor Sullivan Chime, marked the
second phase of the bold judicial effort to deconstruct the tower of fraud,
which the Maurice Iwu-led INEC, in cahoots with the PDP and the Obasanjo
presidency, built in April. That the voiding of the Chime mandate was because
of noticeable irregularities observed in the purported polls, serves sufficient
notice to Iwu and other governors that are basking in the vain hope that
somehow, this charade, like the ones before it would be shoveled under and they
would be allowed to enjoy the fruits of their nefarious efforts. It
sufficiently alerts reprobates and scammers that their commission is a
temporary mandate and that rustication awaits them in the end. Nothing could be
more refreshing especially in the light of the antics of Iwu and his colony of
desperate yarn spinners he has of late unleashed in the media for the purpose of
inventing spurious fallacies in a bid to turn black into white and bail him
from the criminal culpability in an act he deliberately committed. We shall
come to that at a later date.
But one must acknowledge that the parody of
April threw up some unintended positive characters that would make positive
impressions on governance if they were not encumbered by their illegitimate
mandates. These remain what they really are; unintended throw-ups of a reckless
conspiracy to shackle democracy and make it amenable to the whims and caprices
of a deadly cult that do not desire the growth of the country and its
democracy.
It should be stated that Enugu State,
as it is now, presents a delicate political case that must be handled with full
dexterity. It presents a hard choice between the triumph of a godless political
godfather, his army of warring eunuchs and the vindication of an estranged
godson who elected to chart his own rancour-free way and not be burdened by the
many liabilities of his godfather. It is not for nothing that more than any of
the states whose governorship has been annulled, Enugu is rife now with many
plots, intrigues, schemes, alignments and realignments, all tending towards
controlling the state.
Since he was thrust upon the governorship of Enugu State,
Chime had been embroiled in a bitter battle with the remnants of the Ebeano
political group of Chimaroke Nnamani. He had been assailed and buffeted on all
sides by those who do not see the reason why he should abandon the narrow paths
charted by the exclusivism of Nnamani and embrace a broader worldview that had
brought for him so many supporters. Chime’s principal fault and why he plunged
into intractable quarrel with Chimaroke and his Ebeano people is that he did
not want to inherit the many enemies of Nnamani. He chose to distance himself
from the pettiness and the contrivances that made Nnamani’s government a case
study in conflict generation while it lasted. He decided to do away with the
cultic filiality and the obsessive narcissism with which Nnanami and his people
approached governance. He would rather he embraced and cultivated a broader
worldview and a seamless government where every Enugu man and woman is a stakeholder. He
wanted to chart a course of reconciliation that would see him mend the deep
fractures and interpersonal frictions Nnamani provoked as a creed of
governance. Not for Chime is the deadly effusions, the atmosphere of fear and
death that stalked Enugu
State as Nnamani’s reign
lasted. This was why Enugu
remained an endless killing field while Nnamani lorded over the state. It was
this time, marked by the most diabolical and vile contamination of power that
such high profile murders as those of Sunday Ugwu, Victor Nwankwo, brother to
the unflagging pro-democrat, Arthur Nwankwo, Chimere Ikoku, former Vice
Chancellor of the University of Nigeria among so many others, happened. It was
during this era Chime strived to distance himself from that the Adoration
Tragedy that involved the yet-unexplained murder of many followers of the irrepressible
cleric, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, perhaps one of the greatest critics of Nnamani’s
misrule happened.
What more, Chimaroke Nnamani, who rode
holistically on the back of Jim Nwobodo to power deemed the deconstruction of
the political machinery of his godfather as the primal task of his governance.
He succeeded in turning Enugu into a one-man show where his only idiosyncrasies
reigned and woe betide you if you dare question this demagogue, so ensconced in
narcissism and other wild self-glorification fantasies. Thus, all leading
political figures in Enugu ranging from the predominant Catholic Church to
C.C.Onoh to Jim Nwobodo, to the Nwodos, to Ken Nnamani, to Enechi Onyia, to
Dubem Onyia, were, by the nihilistic proclamation of Chimaroke Nnamani, made
enemies of Enugu State and a state war was launched on them for the period
Nnamani was on the throne. Drawing generously from the mischievous beneficiary
of his earthly god, Olusegun Obasanjo, at whose pleasure he practically
existed, Nnamani got away with any misdemeanor his erratic mindset deigned to
commit. This bred a portent opposition that condensed into the Enugu Democratic
Coalition, which seized the sentiment of the average Enugu indigene and disavowed the continued
sustenance of Nnamani and his Ebeano remnants.
When Chime came, riding on the crest of the
Ebeano hegemonic group, many thought he would continue on the trails of Nnamani
but he demonstrated the wisest and most apt political wisdom when he chose to
unite the Enugu
people and court the vital stakeholders and people for a much more inclusive
government. He did away with the atavistic tendencies of Nnamani and this was
to set him on a collision course with Nnamani and what remains of his political
grouping, who saw no wisdom in Chime jettisoning the rancorous legacy of
Nnamani because that restricted prism limits the partakers in the wealth of
Enugu State. As the flaks from Nnamani and his people grew, Chime gained
tremendous support from other Enugu
people who approve of his broader perspective of governance. The tense, deadly
suffocation that stifled life out of Enugu
during the Nnamani hegemony relaxed and those who have been shut out from
making input into the governance of Enugu
were courted and embraced and a pro-people atmosphere was cultivated.
Now that Chime’s illegitimate mandate has been legally
removed, it behoves the people of Enugu to work on what is surely a very
delicate situation that stands the chance of returning the state into the war
zone of the last eight years. It was reported that supporters of Nnamani openly
mounted celebrations the day Chime’s mandate was voided, which warns all to
ensure that that victory does not in any way, translate to a future victory for
Nnamani and his cohorts any day a fresh election is held in Enugu. It is certain that this group that had
been slighted would fight bloody to infiltrate any of the formidable groups and
parties in Enugu with the hope of forging an alliance that would see Chime out
and possibly reflate the sagged strength of the Ebeano group.
Considering that those that battled Chime did so basically
because of the Nnamani content in his mandate, it would amount to cutting our
nose to spite our faces if any of the leading opponents in the Enugu
gubernatorial tussle honours any alliance that would resurrect the deadly
legacies of Nnamani in Enugu.
I believe that Dubem Onyia, Ugochukwu Agballah, Okey Ezea, Oscar Egwuonwu know
where their political interests and those of Ndi Enugu are best served between
the political camps of Nnamani and Chime. Ditto for Enugu Democratic Coalition,
the most potent political force in Enugu
presently. So all these should sit down with Chime and decide on what is best
for Enugu people, even if it is to retrieve a little chunk of the years eaten
by moths and irreverent locusts. Chime himself should be humble enough to
acknowledge this precarious scenario; made precarious not only to his political
interests than to those of Enugu people. He should know that his political
fortunes are more decided outside the PDP than in the PDP and should
de-emphasize the importance of the PDP in the new calculation. He should sit
down with these forces and take radical decisions to not only drive the nails
to the coffin of Ebeano political group and its many nuisance values but also take Enugu back to the
people, a task he had started irrespective of his illegal mandate. He needs to
re-examine some of the actions he took while wielding his illegitimate mandate
that were not deemed politically correct, especially as they concern sidelining
the Nsukka people. He needs to give them a redoubtable assurance that their
interests would be made paramount in whatever will be the reaction to the
present political situation thrown by his ouster. I believe that is what Enugu
requires now as the drums for another gubernatorial contest, gathers momentum.
Peter Claver Oparah.
Ikeja, Lagos.
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Authors 
Posted by Robot| 24.04.2008 04:43