I knew from the outset that it was only a question of time before the governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Umahi, defects to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Anyone who is surprised by this inevitable and unstoppable defection is obviously not a keen observer of our political trajectory and its unique circumstantial throw-ups.
Umahi’s body language had always pigeon-holed that inalienable right. Issuing from this standpoint, he should not be apologetic about it in his consequential justificatory interventions. The jaundiced insistence by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike that Umahi’s defection is preparatory to his presidential ambition is simply mischievous to all intents and purposes!
It is scandalous that a weekend newspaper editor, a fortnight ago, criminalized Umahi simply for defecting to another party. The country’s 1979 Constitution (as amended) allows for freedom of association. In any case, Umahi is not the first politician to defect, just as he would not be the last. Traducing him on grounds of defection smacks of juvenility! In the past, we have had politicians engaging in serial defections. If Umahi’s hypercritics have other grouses about him, they should find another pedestal to demonize him—not defection.
Even obstreperous detractors and eclipsing oppositional elements to this latest defector know full well his illimitable political value hence they are always afraid of his domineering tendencies and overbearing inclinations. Umahi’s robust pedigree and profundity of prospects cannot be ignored by anyone or group. I read offline last night a few mischievous, malicious, vicious and pernicious insinuations that Umahi most likely joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) to escape EFCC inquisition after his tenure when immunity expires. How can some people be so daft and shallow to the point of stupidity?
For purposes of argument, if Umahi had wanted to explore any unlikely leverage by the APC in his presidential quest, why did he not join the party long before now? Those who communicate for public consumption, especially in the social media, should show some measure of cerebral attainment so as to foreclose opprobrium from the majority who know the narrative better. You cannot come to a public platform to misinform people when you are odiously a stark ignoramus about a man’s personal decision!
The perverse and permissive gossip that Umahi wants to escape possible post-tenure trial by the EFCC on grounds of his deft political move is an unfounded and calumnious balderdash!
Everyone knows that Umahi’s entrenchment in the APC will, first and foremost, reinvigorate the life of the party in Ebonyi State, particularly and South East and South South generally ahead of 2023 when the party is expected to take over the remnant states from the disintegrating PDP. Umahi’s clout and antecedents in the zone will go a long way in positioning APC in these areas. There is no doubt that Umahi has the capacity and instrumentalities to turn around the fortunes of the APC in the two geopolitical zones. Beyond this, he sees his auspicious move as a mechanism to continue his widely-acclaimed service to the people. Unlike most other politicians, Umahi came into politics not as a pauper but an accomplished global engineering entrepreneur.
Undoubtedly, as Umahi had noted last Tuesday, it would be difficult marketing the APC in the South East because of weird misconceptions about the party and the inexplicable obsession of the Igbo with the PDP in its heyday. Umahi’s prodigious diligence in political re-engineering and philanthropic superfluity will manifest shortly in the revitalization of the APC in the two geo-polities.
Governor Wike should know that in politics, there will always be disagreements, agreements, alignments, realignments, defections, garrulity, antagonisms, gobbledygook, combativeness, rancour, reunions, friendships, unity and divisions, enmities, misquotations, squabbles, pugilism, rambunctiousness, betrayals, treachery, fixations, suspicions, distrusts, fisticuffs, backbiting, backstabbing, ingratitude, hatred, love, denials, rebuttals, fatalities, fatalistic tendencies and other innumerable untoward and unwholesome manifestations.
Pre-eminently, Umahi is a nationally-known pan-Nigerian with friends and associates across all the country’s six geopolitical zones: he is at home in all places. No apologies for this. In any case, the opponents and potential critics to Umahi’s latest deft move should be educated on the norms of democracy to wit that there are no more associational Berlin Walls or ideological rigidities/obstinacies in politics globally. The current trend is that it is a thin line between one party and the other. What matter most are the people—not the platforms. And this explains why the Constitution allows defections and political party mergers. In fact, if there was independent candidacy, Umahi would be in the forefront.
No person has the right or freedom to challenge, question or misinterpret any part of the Constitution no matter the grounds or subject. The moment we allow this kind of subjective effrontery and political rascality, the society becomes irredeemably endangered, if not doomed. If anyone is disenchanted with the laws of the land, there are cumbersome constitutional methodologies for amendments and reviews. Nothing else is acceptable!
At the risk of overemphasis, Umahi is one of the few political assets in Nigeria that is grossly misunderstood, most mismanaged, rabidly maligned, viciously mud-slung and ruthlessly misperceived to the hilt! His political sagacity, clout, envious entrepreneurship, local famousness and international popularity have combined to be his antithesis where his jealous hypercritics tread vanishingly!
In rounding off, my gladness, always, is that Umahi incontrovertibly has more inestimable political (and economic) value than all his opponents in PDP put together! The national leadership of the party is conscious and cautious of this irrevocable fact and unimpeachable point! And the rich history of the party’s early beginnings is not lost on them, too—the futility of amnesic recreations and disruptive emergence of transient power drunks who satiate in pre-occupational blame-game and buck-passing arising from bohemianism notwithstanding!
With Gov. Umahi now in the APC, the ruling party will soon reaffirm that the eagle has landed with an Iroko joining them.
It should be pointed out that Umahi did not join the APC because his former party denied him 2023 presidential ticket. The fact of the matter is that the APC has not zoned its 2023 presidential ticket to the South East. In other words, that could not have been the reason for Umahi to defect. This needs to be underscored in the months ahead as people continue in their defection post-mortem interrogations.
As I had always pointed out serially, the PDP had been a disaster to the South East in the past 20 years. Anyone in doubt should go and read my past articles on this zonal ruination by an indifferent party that will never change! This is the main reason Gov. Umahi had to quit. Any other explanation is mere conjecture! Others will soon join him on the basis of his rethink.
The South East must be liberated at all costs whether the Wikes like it or not!