By Chuks Iloegbunam
The electioneering campaigns in Anambra State are
grounding to a halt, making way for the governorship ballot of November 18,
2017. It is necessary to review the road since travelled, and project on
expected outcomes. For those with an ear to the ground, the campaigns
unofficially started when, a year after he got into office, Governor Obiano
made it clear that he was not interested in being anyone’s stooge.
Now everything
is coming to a dazzling conclusion. The campaign convoys are backing out of
streets and squares and veering into parking lots. Loudhailers are coming
unstuck from sundry lips, stopping the torrents of flowery promises. Those that
have screamed their vocal cords sore can now race to “chemist” shops for
lozenges. Branded T-shirts and ankara wrappers
will thenceforth constitute little other than fashion statements and bed sheets.
*Gov Obiano |
It has been a
stretched season of sometimes bewildering political punditry. Some of the
louder political players were presented as capable of scattering the ground.
But, ultimately, not one thing was turned upside down, none inside out. A lot
of the dramatis personae did not heed Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s counsel on the
futility of dancing well before the first throbs of the drums. Not
surprisingly, they danced themselves so lame that, in the currency of pulsating
music, they are AWOL. Those with healthy feet are now weaving intricate
Atilogwu and Mkpokiti dance sequences to voters’ delight.
The temptation
is strong to phone Oseloka Obaze and ask, “How market?” Professor Chukwuma
Charles Soludo had said that, under Governor Obiano, Anambra State
was in safe hands. “If it isn’t broken, why mend it?” He had asked. But Mr.
Obaze pointed to broken china in the sun. When asked how and why he planned a
pastiche of Anambra’s wholesome political dispensation, he turned to Peter Obi,
his godfather, for answers. Thus, it’s been a sorry spectacle of ex-Governor
Obi leading Obaze from pillar to post, spewing discordant figures of the
fabulous billions he left behind. But people preferred to hear it from Obaze.
They never did. Which prompts this question: what does Obaze stands for?
Still, Obaze’s
PDP had other than identity problems. In terms of landmass, Anambra is one of
the two smallest Nigerian states. Yet, the PDP train couldn’t manage a tour of
all the 21 local government areas. A touch of the absurd even set in, a case of
using the mouth that called a woman barren to later ask after her children’s
welfare! At campaign rallies PDP stalwarts busied themselves distributing bags
of the Anambra Rice they previously claimed was nonexistent. Strangely, and
like people of scraped eyebrows, they never bothered to first scrape the image
of Obiano and the Anambra Rice letterings on the bags. That could pass for
desperation.
But what does
one make of reports that Obaze often went into frenzy, complaining that Mr. Obi
wasn’t religiously turning in funds from campaign donors? And what does one
also make of reports that Obaze’s godfather lately developed a penchant for
phoning Tony Nwoye, to aver that PDP’s entire hoopla was designed to make him
the tenant of Government House, Awka? Insofar as the November 18 ballot is
concerned, the PDP has hit Point Nunc Dimittis.
The APC’s case
is even more pathetic. Anambra is NOT an APC state. As a matter of fact, the
party is rootless in the Igbo country. Whenever it comes up for mention, the
images of Igbo youth drowned in mire are invoked; the images of the others
downed by gunfire are evoked. When Boko Haram went wild, they warned President
Jonathan that attacks on the terrorists amounted to attacks on the north. When
the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) reacted to the nullification of MKO Abiola’s
presidential election victory and his subsequent liquidation in prison, the
Yoruba got compensated with the Obasanjo presidency. When the Niger Delta
militants rose in promotion of resource control, they got general amnesty and
scholarships. But Igbo youths merely waved Biafran flags and asked for
self-determination, only to be felled in large numbers. That is why Ndi Anambra
are certain that an APC government in Awka can only fly on the wings of a
stolen mandate.
There are
other parties, of course, that are in the running, including the PPA, UPP, DSS,
ECN, UTC, UAC, SPC, USB, ETC, and many more. But – no harm meant – most of them
belong to the category of “also rans”. The good thing about their participation
in the political exercise is its coincidence with the finest of democratic principles.
It brings
everything down to the Willie Obiano Appeal. There is no Nigerian Governor as
abused as he is. If the lies against him were fused into a bomb and detonated, Hiroshima and Nagasaki
could be reenacted. To recall some the lies and contradictions of anti-Obiano
forces. They claimed that, since inception, the Obiano administration has not
completed a single road project. Yet, they lie that, in nepotism, Obiano had
constructed all of 35 roads in his Aguleri hometown! They have lied through two
years that the three flyovers Obiano constructed in Awka are “sinking” and
“collapsing”. Yet, the edifices stand unshakeable like the Rock of Gibraltar!
Peter Obi’s campaign train often cruised on them. Tony Nwoye’s campaign train
often cruised on them. Is it rational for the sane to ply dangerous routes?
Some of the
liars collected pictures of Governor Obiano from his Media Team and doctored
them with Photoshop to transmit derogatory messages. They embossed on imported
wine bottles the picture of Governor Obiano and announced to their ilk that the
Meredith Akinloye era was back. They even said that Obiano had imported a gold
bed for $50 million or N17.5 billion, a commentary on the grotesqueries of
these times.
To continue,
they dismissed as insignificant the fact Governor Obiano owes no salaries, owes
no pensions and owes no gratuities. If the prompt payment of salaries and
allowances is no big deal, why does the APC Federal Government owe civil
servants a colossal N290 billion in promotion arrears? Why does the APC Kogi
State Government owe 15 months in unpaid salaries? Why have APC governments in
Kwara and Osun State not paid their civil servants in
one year? Why have Federal financial bailouts failed to ameliorate the
deadweight of unpaid salaries and perquisites in APC states?
Governor
Willie Obiano is like the eagle; insults hurled at him are like rainfall that
baths the king of birds! That is the meaning of staying power. It issues from
one’s personal appeal, charm, charisma and solid gubernatorial achievements.
Ndi Anambra will not deny General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. They cannot let
APGA, the only national political party indexed on the Igbo country, to go into
oblivion. They will return Willie Maduaboruchukwu Obiano for a second term of
Office.
*Chuks Iloegbunam is the Chairman of Governor Obiano’s Media Team.
No comments:
Post a Comment