By Ejiofor Agada
Some happenings in Enugu state lately, especially as it has to do with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and their cult of professional politicians aka Ebeano group, is as repugnant as it is undemocratic and outrightly silly. Their activities have been brought to the public domain as the group led by Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, his former opponent and successor, Sullivan Chime and the current governor, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, were said to have reconciled and positioned their group to ‘select the next governor’ of Enugu state.
On face value, one would just say that it is the right of every and any individual or group to dream and be ambitious. In politics, alignments and realignments are very normal and I wouldn’t begrudge the so-called Ebeano group of their constitutional right to association or their political ambition. However it is somehow awkward that the group will be pandering to raw nerves by claiming to stand on the demonstration of voters’ superiority as exhibited in the just concluded Edo State guber elections where an incumbent retained his position even without the support of his erstwhile party, to claim that their motive is for the people of the state. What effrontery!
I need to approach my distaste and that of millions of Enugu State citizens, to the wanton disregard of their right to really choose their leaders and even Governors of the state, from two very broad perspectives.
The first is the fact that the desire of the group to yet again, impose a Governor on the people of the state was not borne out of any proven developmental strides by the ones it has previously installed. From the ignoble reign of terror of the Chimaroke Nnamani era, to the weekly Abuja parties era of Sullivan Chime and the outright clueless administration under Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, pray tell, what legacies has the so-called Ebeano group ever bequeathed Enugu state as a whole to warrant their desire to continue to mortgage the aspirations of the the citizen of the state?
Politics on its own is a tool used by the discerning few to influence the polity for the greater good of the majority. On the part of the Ebeano group and by extension PDP, political power is just another way to enslave people and decimate the resources of the state. The experience of what happened in Edo state should be a pointer to how a people can collectively remove the shackles of enslavement once and for all. That is the overall importance of democracy – when the majority take their destiny in the own hands!
Enugu state has unfortunately never been able to do that since just after its creation, as she has always relied on some political scavengers to call the shots and give us the short end of the stick in governance. These same scavengers hide under all manner of identities just like the Ebeano group, to foist on the people horrible leaders that have so far made the state to be lesser in status and development to almost all the other south eastern states. A school of thought might come up with the argument that poor leadership can only be imposed on a willing followership. To an extent that might be true, but for Enugu state it takes a whole different meaning.
Undoubtedly our state is predominantly rural in structure and political ignorance is rife. Such situation benefits the politicians in the state as they continue to feed the ignorance of the people using distractions and monetary inducements. Where those two don’t work, they resort to violence and arson as exhibited during the Chimaroke Nnamani era and even in the last general elections in the state. Buying over political opponents is a norm even across party structures in the State, so the ‘willingness’ of the citizenry to encourage bad leadership can be excused in Enugu state.
What we have in Enugu state is a political class that is comfortable using ignorance of the people to advance their own corrupt agenda. It is on record that all the political appointees that graduated from the Chimaroke Nnamani political structure and occupying various political positions in the state and federal levels, have almost all been indicted in one corruption case or the other including the corruption bazaar indictment of their leader Chimaroke Nnamani. So that is the legacy they want to perpetuate in Enugu State – corruption and sleaze? God forbid.
Secondly, the rest of the state that are not under the hypnosis of Ebeano and Chimaroke Nnamani and his friends (and we are in the majority), believe that the era of imposition is coming to an end in this country. With the Edo and Benue tate examples still very fresh in our minds, the political atmosphere of arm-twisting, graft and thuggery which are the hallmarks of Ebeano politics, is nearer its end than ever before. The practice of a sitting governor and few of his friends dictating to 5 million people who should govern them after his tenure, is over. With the awareness coming into view in the state and young men and women seeing the bleak scenario of decay and neglect every election cycle, its obvious that a lot will be said about the brazen effrontery of Chimaroke Nnamani to try and subjugate the soul of the state once again.
Also prominent personalities with integrity in the state across political and tribal divides have been meeting to fashion out a level playing field that is guaranteed under the law of the land, and encourage people that have the zeal to develop our state to come out and seek the mandate from the citizens without fear of intimidation. That is what progressively minded people do and not clandestine meetings to impose politicians without conscience on the state yet again. Allowing people, no matter where they come from in the state, to test their popularity on the citizens, is the hallmark that defines core democratic principles. Ebeano group is a complete negation of those values and must be sent to the dustbin of ignoble history where they rightfully belong.
As luck will have it, Nigeria is currently blessed with a democrat as President who has demonstrated on several occasions (Edo being the latest) that he’ll never use under hand tactics to undermine public will in an election even to the detriment of his own party. Enugu State will use that encouraging action to propel towards its freedom from the shackles of the political vultures as represented by Ebeano group. As more and more people of like minds speak up against the anti-democratic elements represented by that group, very soon the irrelevance of their folly will surely force them to have a rethink and remove their lecherous fingers from the political pie of Enugu state for good. If they don’t, we’ll still send them to political retirement with our PVCs once and for all.
Ejiofor Agada is a political and social commentator from Enugu State.