ENUGU POLITICS: TACKLING THE RANTING OF ABUJA-BASED POLITICLANS
There is no doubt that the Executive Governor of Enugu State, Barrister Sullivan Iheanacho Chime is the most vilified governor in Nigeria. His vilification is however not coming from the masses, but from the few Abuja-based politicians who wants everybody in the state to work at their beck and call as well as bow to their selfish and narrow minded political interest! They deploy all the negative political weapons at their disposal to attacking, denigrating and portraying the performing people's governor in bad lights, simply because he told them the gospel truth about 2015 general elections which are in tandem with the principles of justice and equity.
Who is not aware of an existing triangular equilibrium in the politics of the coal city? In Enugu State, there are three Senatorial Districts. These are; Enugu East, Enugu West and Enugu North Senatorial Districts. Out of the three, two have produced governor. The two are; Enugu East which produced former governor Chimaroke Nnamani who ruled the state for 8 years. The second is Enugu West which produced the incumbent governor Sullivan Iheanacho Chime who will be completing his 8 years next year. The remaining Senatorial District which is Enugu North is the zone that has not produced any governor since the return of democracy in 1999. So, when Chime stated that, the next governor of the state will come from the remaining Senatorial zone that have not produced any governor, he drew the ire of those who thinks that the state belongs to them and as a result, they must always have their way in the affairs of our beloved state. To do this, they embarked on
surreptitious moves to scuttle the governor's arrangement and started introducing their selfish agenda in the coal city state!
Another reason that made the Abuja-based political cabals to declare Governor Chime as their enemy is because he told them that any elected official from the state who have served for two term of 8 years should give way for others, so as to create the needed room for the injection of new transformative ideas in to governance in line with the global clamour for generational change!
It will be recalled that when some of the current elected officials were going for their second term of office in 2011, they all agreed with the governor because they desperately needed his assistance to get re-elected, but, on getting to Abuja in their chameleonic cloths, they decided to renegade on the gentleman agreement they had with His Excellency. So, seeing that, the governor still holds the ace to their political success in 2015 and is determined to enforcing the terms of agreement they had, they decided to use every weapon in their armoury including the use of media to level all manner of unfounded and frivolous allegations on him on him so as to score cheap political points.
They employ a communication theory known as “Status conferral” in launching their vitriolic attacks against the people's governor. Status conferral is a theory that stated that “If the media says a man is bad, the people will start seeing him as a bad man and if the media says a man is good, the people will start seeing him as a good man”. This is the strategy these Abuja-based political cabals and their vuvuzelas are using to poison the mindset of the people against the governor.
The question any rational and objective thinker must therefore ask is, why are they cowardly using the media to incite the people against governor Chime? Of cause, the answer is very simple! It is because they have seen that the governor is performing and as a result the people will follow any direction their darling governor takes in 2015. So, they believe that there is no other way they can fight him other than to negatively deploy the media in perpetuating their satanic acts on the state!
They erroneously believe that, by using the media to fight the governor, they will succeed in giving him a bad name and as well succeed in distracting him from delivering democratic dividends to the people; but to their greatest chagrin, despite all the insults, vituperations and scandalous name calling, the governor has remained unperturbed as he is resolutely implementing his four points agenda for the state. And this is why the people have formed shields around him a head of any political direction he decides to take in 2015.
Similarly, when the governor first started with urban renewal, like the Pharisees who will never see anything good in Jesus Christ, they started accusing him of only concentrating developments in Enugu metropolis, but, when the governor embarked on rural developments, they have no other thing to hold on in continuing with their inglorious and shambolic vilification of the governor, so, they resorted to levelling unfounded and spurious allegations on him!
As of today, there is no community out of the 260 wards in the state that does not boast of constant water supply, electricity, well equipped health care centre, good road among other dividends of democracy. The construction of virgin roads in areas that where hitherto very un-motorable is most commendable! Most motorists coming from Abuja, Kogi, Benue among other states no longer pass through the popular Obollo-9th Mile-Enugu road, instead, there are now passing through the Nsukka-Trans-ekulu road constructed by the Chime lead administration in the state. But, the Abuja-based politicians are not happy with this development, because it diminishes their chances in 2015.
Nonetheless, it is however on records that Governor Chime is the only governor that is not tampering with the Local Governments Allocation in the state, yet development is going on at an unprecedented level. While some states are rushing to the capital market to raise bond to finance developments in their cities, Enugu state even with little allocation from the Federation Account is not lagging behind in terms development, as governor Chime is among the best performing governors in Nigeria!
Instead of joining hands with the governor to develop the state to an enviable height, the political cabals in Abuja are busy conspiring to discredit the monumental achievements of the governor just because he told them the gospel truth, that Enugu North, popularly known as Nsukka zone should produce the next governor in the state as well as asking public office holders from the state to give way for the injection of new ideas in to governance.
Over the years, some of us who are from the state have been standing idly-by watching the ranting of these men in Abuja who thinks that, the affairs of Enugu begins and ends with them launching unprovoked, unwarranted, irrational and sentimental media blitz on the government and people of Enugu State going unanswered. That we are silent does not mean we are indifference! And like Edmund Burke rightly said “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”. Hence, from now henceforth the good men of Enugu State will be tackling the ranting of these self-centred Abuja-based politicians who wants everybody in the state to cringe and sheepishly follow their blind directions!
Comrade Edwin Uhara is an Activist and Public Affairs Commentator, and writes from Abuja. Reach him on 07065862479 or [email protected]