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THE GODS ARE CRAZY AGAIN IN ANAMBRA STATE
- By Henry Onukwuba -
Food given to a slave is not to assuage hunger but to keep him
alive for the services of the master
Again Anambra State is in the news. Again for the wrong reasons!
The latest impeachment saga in Anambra State deserves a place in
The Guinness Book of Records as the most unpopular and most
irrationally contrived impeachment exercise in modern day
Democracy! It is disgusting. It is insulting to the mentalities
of the right thinking people of Anambra State and Nigerians at
large. However, when personal aggrandizement and spurious glory
rather than common sense and good judgment are the motivating
factors, then rationality and accountability can take the back
seat.
More than anything else, this latest bad news from the notorious
Anambra State, unfortunately my state, has once more brought to
the fore the damaging effect of election rigging and
manipulation to our nascent democracy. Do you wonder why despite
the all round public opinion against the impeachment moves,
coming from traditional rulers, religious leaders, elders of the
state including the former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, the
Ohaneze Ndigbo and even such federal government ministers as Oby
Ezekwesili, a worthy daughter of Anambra State, these eighteen
pro-impeachment legislators have refused to sheathe their
swords. Wonder no more. The simple reason is that these
honourable members with dishonourable intentions are not the
true representatives of their people. They do not owe the people
any allegiance because they were not elected by them Period.
They were part of the Chris Uba rape on democracy in Anambra
State, with the active support of another Uba in Aso Rock.
The 2003 elections in Anambra State were contested mainly on
party lines. For most of the seats, there were little or no
campaigning by the contestants; the electorates did not know the
candidates until after the elections. A good case was the three
Anambra senatorial seats which were won by the PDP, but nobody
knew who actually contested the elections; only after the
elections did the fight for who to represent the State in the
Senate start. If we did not know who contested the senatorial
elections how much more the House of Assembly elections? Many of
these Honourable members were hand picked by Chris Uba and his
band and foisted on the good people of the State. Given that The
Enugu Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the 2003 Anambra
gubernatorial elections were roundly rigged in favour of Ngige
and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and that the All
Progressive Peoples Alliance (APGA) of Peter Obi truly won the
elections; since, as earlier pointed out, many voted for parties
rather than individuals, we can therefore conclude that not only
Ngige was rigged into office, most (if not all) these PDP
legislators were also rigged into office.
Despite the publicly expressed displeasure of the PDP hierarchy
on the impeachment move and the visit of the PDP National
Chairman, Senator Ahmadu Alli to the legislators’ hideout in
Asaba, Delta State, Aso Rock must do more to convince Nigerians
that this is not another Ekiti in the works. There is a very
strong suspicion that this is nothing but a grand design to
draft in Andy Uba, Obasanjo’s Senior Special Assistant on
Special Duties/Domestic Affairs as Governor of Anambra State.
Before now, there have been reported clandestine visits to Abuja
by the Anambra House members. During the recent President’s
visit to Anambra State, the House held a special session with
both the President and Governor Obi in attendance, in which it,
of all serious legislative functions, unanimously adopted a
motion requesting the President to release Andy Uba to enable
him contest the Anambra State gubernatorial election. The motion
was moved by the Majority Leader, Hon Humphrey Nsofor
representing Ekwusigo State Constituency and seconded by Hon Ben
Obidigbo representing Oyi Constituency.
The legislators have also attributed all the federal presence to
the influence of Andy Uba on the presidency. Bravo! To whom do
we attribute the neglect of the Onitsha – Enugu Federal
Expressway, the yet-to-be-constructed second Onitsha head bridge
despite the overwhelming need; or the seemingly endless
dualisation of the Onitsha – Owerri road which has turned the
road to a nightmarish experience for travellers. Where was Andy
Uba when his brother Chris set Anambra State over N30 billion
back by his wanton destruction of public institutions and
properties including the Government House, Awka and the Anambra
State Broadcasting Service, ABS, Onitsha?
The plot, according to reliable sources including some of the
other PDP gubernatorial aspirants is to impeach both Obi and his
deputy, Dame Virginia Etiaba, thereby ending APGA’s hold on the
state; Speaker Mike Balonwu would be sworn in as acting governor
pending election of a substantive governor. Within three months,
Andy Uba would be released by the Presidency to contest the Anambra gubernatorial seat in a bye-election, with Speaker
Balonwu as his deputy. Once beaten twice shy, the PDP would this
time make sure nothing goes wrong in its claim to the Anambra
Government House. Uba would then employ all the incumbency might
to ensure that he returns himself and the party to power in
2007.
It is very clear that the impeachment charges are trumped up.
One of the charges is that Obi reconstructed the Anambra State
Government House damaged by Ngige and Chris Uba’s in their
moment of madness without due process. Obi has since responded
that the contract for the rebuilding of the Government House was
awarded by Ngige before he left office for over N240 million,
but he got it rebuilt with just N31 million! I had seen the
government house before its reconstruction; I have also seen it
after its reconstruction. If indeed Obi did that job with N31
million, he deserves a special commendation by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). If the destroyer was not
impeached, why is the rebuilder being punished?
Another allegation is that Obi keeps the State’s money in
Fidelity Bank where he was Chairman before his election as
governor. Obi’s defence is that the State keeps her money in
eleven other banks of which Fidelity is one, and that the
account has actually been operated by his predecessor in one of
the banks which became part of Fidelity Bank after the
consolidation.
The other is the state of emergency and shoot at sight order in
Onitsha and other parts of the state during the Bakassi
disturbances. I thought this was with the approval of the
Federal Government? How else do you respond to a situation where
army armoured vehicles and police stations are set ablaze by
hoodlums, and prison yards invaded and prisoners set free?
Obi is one of the few governors given a clean bill of health by
Nuru Ribadu of the EFCC in his recent revelations in the Senate.
If Obasanjo allows Obi to go then he can as well forget his
fight against corruption in Anambra State.
Anambra State is in dire need of responsible governance; Obi
seems closest to offering that. Since swearing in six months
ago, Governor Peter Obi has been governing Anambra State in a
very unusual manner. Gone are the generosity and sometimes
recklessness of the previous governments. Everyone around him is
complaining, but for the wrong reasons. Obi is so tight fisted
and prudent that he is unpopular among those around the
corridors of power, not in the least the honourable members, who
are used to the largesse and dole outs of the previous
governments. It is said that Obi would go on official trips, not
with a thirty-man entourage but with one or two. He would book
his own hotel room and would not spend a night outside the State
longer than necessary. One of the jokes going the round is that
Obi once instructed his aide to ‘settle’ one of the big time
professional government hangers-on who was singing his praise.
The aide wanted to know by how many thousands of Naira, Governor
Obi replied N200. Obi would normally drive to work from Onitsha
to Awka siren-less, would stop to intervene where a law
enforcement agent becomes brutal in his law enforcement duties.
Some even accuse him of bringing down the prestige of the
governorship seat by his over-simplicity, whatever that means.
Anambra State has not witnessed this kind for a very long time,
and many are still trying to come to terms with his style of
governorship.
“If a man does not know where he is going to he should at least
know where he is coming from.” For Honourable Speaker Mike
Balonwu, a friend and a young, quiet man from a good home who
had given serious thoughts to a life in the monastery before his
adventure into politics, remember that when one excretes on the
path he is traveling, on returning he will be greeted by flies.
The Onitsha people whom you represent in the House are not with
you on this. The Obi of Onitsha, His Royal Majesty, Igwe Alfred
Achebe, Agbogidi, is not in support. The Onitsha Improvement
Union has written against this. As a matter of fact, Onitsha
people have not seen any gains from your speakership of the
House. Onitsha does not have pipe-born water for the past
decade. Onitsha roads are non-existent. The Ngige government
despite its legendary road reconstruction did not deem it fit to
repair the popular and ever busy Awka Road that passes through
your father’s compound and links Onitsha with the other parts of
the state. Traders going home from work are trapped on that road
for hours deep into the night everyday. It took the President’s
visit for Governor Obi to give the road a facelift. You and your
honourable friends should not allow yourselves to be used once
again to drag Anambra State to the mud. History will not be kind
to you if you sell the soul of Anambra State for a plate of
porridge.
For Governor Obi who is a strong believer in God, my advice is
do not fear the one who can destroy the body but not the soul,
rather fear him that can destroy both body and soul. No matter
the severity of the storm a calabash in the river cannot sink.
No matter how long the night, dawn will eventually come. Long
live Anambra State! Long live Democracy! Long live Nigeria!
Henry Onukwuba is a consultant, author and public commentator,
he writes from Lagos.
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