By Jacob Ugwu
In the last few weeks, Enugu’s political environment has been polluted by some sort of maniacal provincialism, where those who ought to know better have otherwise sought to revile our peace and drag the state to the lowliness of their anachronistic dreams. Prof. Barth Nnaji, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, Chiefs Jim Nwobodo and Ken Nnamani literally descended from their Olympian heights to such primordial levels of hypocrisy and self-indictment. In various media appearances, they all claimed that Nkanu East, a local government in the Enugu East senatorial zone, is under-developed, without any conceivable government presence and, therefore, deserved the pre-eminent right to produce the next governor of the state! Given that all these men have at one time or the other held very pre-eminent government platforms that would have been employed to develop this particular local government, nothing best exemplifies an unforced error of self-probe and indictment.
As minister of the very powerful Ministry of Power, Prof. Nnaji was not known to have initiated any developmental efforts in this local government he now seeks to liberate. As governor of Enugu State (1999 to 2007), Chimaroke Nnamani could not look beyond the prism of Agbani, his hometown, as the extent and limit of Nkanuland. For instance, the Nigerian Law School Campus, the Air Force Comprehensive School, his private Renaissance University, Mea Mater Elizabeth High School, Special Science School for Boys and the one for girls, ESUT permanent site, etcetera, were all considered fit to be located only in Agbani, his hometown! Even as a senator, the six boreholes he attracted as constituency project in 2009 were all located in Agbani!
Ken Nnamani who, as Senate President, wielded enormous powers, cannot also point at any developmental project his elevated office attracted to his constituency, including Nkanu East. So, in trying to pass the buck to those who have failed to develop Nkanu East, and indeed Nkanuland as a whole, these men should kindly look in the mirror! It is perhaps not lost on anyone that all this amounts to cheap blackmail on the White Lion, His Excellency, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, without whose kind gestures they would all have remained in the cesspit of history, forgotten and forsaken. History is indeed replete with examples of the fidelity of dogs than of the so-called friends!
Although the American idiom “it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease” seems to have increasingly assumed the defining currency in the brinkmanship seen in our politics, and that agitations and clamourings have been known to yield power at some periods in Nigerian history, but there are certain roles reserved for certain categories of people in society. It is perhaps disheartening to observe a seemingly recumbent timidity among the Igbo political elite. In this season where the Yoruba are so determined to clinch the presidency once again after President Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight solid years, and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s eight solid years as Vice-President, most Igbo elite with supposedly veritable voices are all running away from the centre and rather timorously working to disrupt the peace in their various states. Conscientious Igbo are constantly assailed by the utter fecklessness of our political class. While the likes of Prof. Nnaji have all busied themselves with the unsolicited task of directing Gov. Ugwuanyi on where he should find his successor, it has to be noted that they have not similarly lent their voices to the increasing clamour for Igbo presidency. Why on earth should the likes of Senators Chimaroke Nnamani, Ken Nnamani and Jim Nwobodo be stridently running away from engaging in the national political discourse but rather surreptitiously working to disrupt the peace that exists in their state? Why would an Ike Ekweremadu, after holding such a high national office of the Deputy Senate President for 12 solid years, consider himself only fit to be governor of Enugu State, willy-nilly? Why have the Igbo suddenly become too timorous? Just nine years after the civil war, the likes of Alex Ekwueme were able to muster such gravitas that earned the Igbo the vice-presidential place in the Second Republic.
It is barely a hidden fact that some of these latter-day saints are otherwise seriously pursuing a personal agenda, to either position themselves for the gubernatorial office or their protégé. Yet it beckons to reckon once again that those who are greedy for applause would hardly give a cheer to their contemporaries. Chimaroke Nnamani, in 2007, publicly proclaimed that the politics of the state revolved around him and himself alone. And although he was soon to discover that no one is equipped to write history in a hurry, the fact still remains that nobody sought to direct his attention to wherever he wished the pendulum would swing. Interestingly, some of his accomplices in the current hypocrisy were either exiled from the state or too emasculated to offer any opinion.
It indeed smacks of doublespeak that this former governor who had in 2018 noted openly that the choice of who eventually emerges as the state’s helmsman was at the discretion of the incumbent governor, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, would so brazenly be attempting to install his lackey. Such was clearly inconceivable while he held sway, as there was no room for any dissenting voice, no matter how rational. How else can one describe this supine indiscretion other than that it seems like an ill-considered slight on Gov. Ugwuanyi, and an attempt to take his peaceful disposition for granted? Similarly, it is utterly disappointing that an accomplished technocrat with national and global renown like Prof. Nnaji has, wittingly or unwittingly, lent his voice to an orchestrated attempt to inveigle the public with claims that his local government area (Nkanu East) has suffered political marginalization and should, therefore, be conceded the right to produce the next governor. But if the former minister of power’s demands were truly driven by a sense of justice, and not sheer provincial instincts, he should be looking in the direction of Isi Uzo Local Government Area, which, as fate would have it, has never produced a governor, a deputy, minister or even a senator!
Enugu East senatorial zone is composed of six local government areas and each is as qualified as the other to contend for the Lion Building. Given the delicate level of our development, any effort at trying to micro-zone the governorship ticket could present more problems than solutions. Even if you choose one local government in the so-called Nkanu heathland as a case study, there would be bound to be contended with the nagging issue of family genealogies. What we all should rather bear in mind is that the world is in constant transition, and even more so the Nigerian environment. The economic mainstay, oil, that hitherto made political offices attractive, is fast drying up, and so the demands for it. The last eight years have tasked all those occupying such offices as governors of the states so much that it is all evident that it cannot continue to be business and usual. The office of the governor requires someone who can appreciate the burden of governance beyond the warped prism of a godfather, cast a consummate vision and spark hope in the largely despondent populace. Attempting to shut anyone out will only result in a feeling of alienation, a sentiment capable of causing widespread disunity among a people who share a common socio-cultural heritage. But we must insist on someone who has institutional experience; and it abounds in all the six local government areas.
•Ugwu writes from Enugu