Portent of that Enugu
tribunal ruling for PDP in South-East
By Pastor Uche Ezenwa and Ifeanyi
Agbo
Sunday, January 27,
2008
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•Chime
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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The judgment delivered on Friday January 18, 2008 in Enugu
in which the state election petitions tribunal under the chairmanship
of Justice Samuel Otta nullified Governor Sullivan Chime’s
election was received with mixed reactions. Those who were
in support of Chime worked and prayed for the validation of
the governor’s mandate while those opposed to him made
several predictions about his eventual fall.
Last week’s verdict seems to have favoured the latter.
Hence, the jubilation and excitement noticed in their camp.With
that annulment, Chime has joined some other colleagues such
as Governors of Kebbi, Kogi, Adamawa and Rivers States whose
electoral mandates have been upturned by election tribunals.
If other zones may view these incessant cancellations with
amusement, the South-East should not.
True, it is a healthy development for our democracy to have
elections characterized by irregularities and violence invalidated,
and fresh ones conducted. But with that Enugu governorship
annulment, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) can only
boast of one full state, Ebonyi in the whole zone.
Consider this scenario. After the May 29, 2007 inauguration
of new governments across the nation, PDP candidates managed
to become Governors of 3 states in the South-East, namely:
Enugu, Ebonyi and Anambra. This, of course, was not a bad
development considering that out of 5 states in the entire
zone, PDP was able to secure 3, which is slightly above average.
For core party loyalists like us, it was not something to
cheer about when it is viewed against the situation in 1999
when all of the five South-East States were ruled by the PDP.
Yet, lamentably, one by one, the PDP like a jinxed parent
has lost 2 out of the 3 remaining offspring in the zone. Anambra
had gone earlier through the unanimous verdict by Supreme
Court judges restoring Mr. Peter Obi of APGA to office. Now
PDP in Enugu has lost to the opponents at the election tribunal.
The party in the state may have to work very hard to inch
its way back to power owing to its peculiar circumstance when
a fresh election is conducted.
Now, the only state in which PDP has won fair and square in
the South-East is Ebonyi. Even before the elections, pundits
were agreed that the only state in the South-East where the
ruling party’s victory would not be controversial is
Ebonyi. And now, sadly that unfavourable prediction has come
true. All hopes, nonetheless, are not lost for the party in
the zone. But if it must recover what it has lost in the recent
past, it needs to adopt the Ebonyi formula.
Why is it that Ebonyi State has remained a patent PDP state
all these years? The answer might lie in its focused and people-oriented
leadership which ensures that the party acts with common purpose
and goal. And ironically, Ebonyi is the youngest state in
the South-East. But before our very eyes, the last has become
the first. Is it not marvelous in our sight?
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