It is becoming increasingly dispiriting that, over a year since the senator representing Imo North in the National Assembly, Ben Uwajumogu, died, and almost two months after a by-election to fill the slot was held on December 5 last year, the zone has continued to be shortchanged without a substantive senator. While we wait, the rot continues and the implication of this huge loss is incalculable.
Sadly, it seems we shot ourselves in the leg due to politics of brinksmanship being played in the zone, where some old warhorse has held down the zone because of inflamed ambition. Unfortunately, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fell for the trap and became complicit in robbing the people of representation when it fatuously failed to announce a winner in the election that a clear winner had emerged.
The electoral umpire chose to confuse itself, citing court rulings despite that the winner, Sir Frank Ibezim, had a superior court’s backing. The matter is still in court but we need to draw the attention of Imo North indigenes to the losses, hoping that the lessons must be learnt. It is also to expose INEC for its inept decision because it has never been the business of the courts to pick candidates for political parties, it has always been the prerogative of the parties to choose candidates and submit the names to INEC, as was done in the case under reference.
Nevertheless, Imo North has every confidence in the judiciary to rise to the occasion once again though the wheel of justice churns slowly in our clime. Hence the concern that the zone is being shortchanged for no fault of hers and we hope that court processes be concluded soon.
There are many lessons to learn from this electoral debacle, first of which is to ask, why always Imo North? It would be recalled that this same annihilist politics enthroned Athan Achonu and then dethroned him unceremoniously for the late Uwajumogu to emerge. Now death has conspired with the elements and thrown the zone back to square one.
In the race to fill the vacant spot, all manner of shenanigans sprouted to stymie the ‘proper’ candidate by enemies of the zone. To God be the glory, Ibezim, a godly man, who never ceases to praise his Maker, still dusted off every trap on his way and emerged victorious from a very fractious party primary. He was also able to detonate all the legal mines strewn on his path like the trojan he is.
At this last stage of the battle, and like in all the previous battles, Ibezim is primed to triumph yet again, not by his might but by truth and the mercy of God, his Driver, and because of whom he intends to serve his people.
Service to the people indeed is all that motivates this former Imo State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources. His simplicity and accessibility kind of became an albatross on his neck for a people hitherto unknown to such down-to-earthness. People had been used to political aloofness that only wilts every four years, when next votes are required. Even at that, it was only to the extent that miserly crumbs are shared out of humongous loot lying fallow under some quilted mattresses. But here comes Ibezim, audaciously different, traversing the nooks and crannies of the constituency, selling himself, party and ideals.
Is he really a politician or a front? That was how the enemies began to insultingly moil vacuous tales of him being an ‘unpopular proxy’. They seemed to forget that, for someone that had served in diverse high political offices, going to the Senate is not such a big deal after all. Yet, they declared him unqualified, even as testimonies of his scholarship abound everywhere. Everything was geared to stop him at all cost, but fail they must.
All lovers of Imo North must be prayerful that Ibezim scales through, as his loss would be a monumental loss for the zone. He has laudable remedial plans for the zone, some of which he has started implementing already, such as the rice meal and rural electricity scheme.
Ibezim’s main opponent is his partyman, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, a been-to, if you get my drift. He was a two-term senator without any visible legacy to show for eight wasted years, thus making discerning constituents wonder whatever he forgot in the Red Chamber to warrant this journey to nowhere. Does he think it is like the joke on former President Goodluck Jonathan that anyone that fails an exam should resit? That is not acceptable in Imo North that is in a hurry to move up.
It jangles to reason that Imo North remains the only one throughout Nigeria that has no representative in the Senate. Consequently, developmental projects have eluded the zone for over a year and some of the projects initiated by Uwajumogu stalled. Even the 2021 budget has been passed without input from the zone, yet some people remain apathetic.
Of course, for them, all is about their selfish interests. Does it not make sense that only an insider would be able to still squeeze something out of the ugly situation? How is it possible for an opposition lawmaker to achieve that under the circumstances? And how can somebody at daggers drawn with his state governor and the only minister from the state and a core Buharist achieve anything except to collect his pay and go to sleep? You can never judge a book by its cover; the same way we cannot judge a wakabout politician by his promises, especially when he has taken us for a ride before.
In fact, this melodrama in Imo North has taken a tinge of hilarity. Even the loser, Chief Emmauel Okewulonu, is scheming to reap where he did not sow; this is quite uncharitable. If that is the surprise ‘Surpriser’ wants to spring on Imo North, it is dead on arrival and does not do him any credit either. Shamelessly claiming victory in his loss simply because two brothers are having misunderstanding in-house is laughable. Unfortunately, that is what Araraume seems to be angling for; my way or the highway. This is unfair, unacceptable and detrimental to Imo North.
Over the years, the zone has been held down by an amalgam of villainous forces whose stock in trade is overlordship over the common destinies of the people. The zone has become a marketplace for dubitable tradesmen, who bring nothing or so little to the table despite their voracious appetites that grub so much, and unconscionably raid and rape the common till to massage their lust and greed. It is time we counted the cost of the thumping harm these men have been doing to us and say, never again.
That is why we need people of integrity without any cluttered baggage. Of the trio still in contention for the Imo North senatorial seat, only Ibezim, despite uncouth blackmail, mirrors the very ethos we seek to hoist on the horizon of our beleaguered Imo North. Sadly, we are in a clime where truth is seldom told. However, we wait in hope that when the noble court soon speaks, wayomen shall be eclipsed; Sir Frank Ibezim has put the final nail in the coffin of political trickery.