By Mbadiwe Okwor
Enugu, Dec. 21, 2022 – Recent tirades by persons or pseudo-persons known to be Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s lackeys against the people of Enugu North Senatorial Zone are, to say the least, unfortunate.
One of such was an article by one Charles Okonkwo in which he alleged that the elites in the zone had ganged up against the governor.
He alleged that the elites had indulged in a ”choreographed gang up” typical of the ”hypocrisy that underlines Nigerian politics”.
He also said that the elites had made ”hate-filled publications” with ”palpable indignation and bitterness” as if anyone had taken their personal belongings.
He went ahead to list highly respected people from the zone as his targets of attack.
Of note, he named former Minister of Information, Nnia Nwodo, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, Senatorial candidate of Labour Party, Okey Ezea, and two former members in Ugwuanyi’s cabinet, Chijioke Edoga and Emeka Mama, as some of the persons involved in the gang up.
At best, it is preposterous of the governor to think that all the people who matter in the Nsukka cultural zone will gang up against him in the manner he had conjectured.
What an illusion? If anything at all, such conceitedness derives from the governor’s morbid fear of outright rejection by the people of the zone.
He appears to have seen the handwriting on the wall that his senatorial ambition in the 2023 general elections may lead to his early retirement from politics.
Or how else can one explain that a sitting governor with state apparatuses is shivering about a so-called gang up by his peers in the realm of politics?
When Gov. Ugwuanyi ascended to power in 2015, the people in the marginalized zone thought their time had come. After all they gave him overwhelming support during the campaign and subsequent election.
In fairness to him, he started well by bringing to standard a few urban roads in Nsukka, the major town in the zone. The Opi-Nsukka road, which was earlier sand-filled by former Gov. Chimaroke Nnamani with deafening propaganda, got a good touch of reconstruction with good drains.
Alas! That was the end of the good news for the people of the zone and indeed Enugu State. With the work accomplished in the first two years of his first tenure, Gov. Ugwuanyi literally went to sleep and has not woken up ever since.
The people of the zone, including their elite, were not only disappointed by this ineptitude, they were thoroughly embarrassed. For a people who had reeled in the subjective benevolence of administrators from other zones, it was a lost chance too many.
Many followers of events in Enugu State believe that under Gov. Ugwuanyi, the state has seen unprecedented retrogression. Following on the heels of Gov. Sullivan Chime’s administration, political pundits believe that Ugwuanyi’s is a catastrophic failure.
While not trying to eulogize any administration over another, a comparative analysis of the two administrations vis a viz their work output will suffice.
While Chime laid a solid foundation for progress in the state, Ugwuanyi opted to return to the dark days of the Chimaroke Nnamani administration when Enugu decayed beyond imagination.
Chime renewed Enugu city with new roads, resurfaced existing ones, introduced new taxis, upgraded the traditional institution and mobilized public secondary schools with new buses, among others.
He stopped the menace of commercial motorcyclists in an unprecedented manner and controlled the influx of commercial buses to maintain decorum.
This is in addition to the shortcuts he made in many places to decongest existing roads and save manhours in traffic snarls.
Conversely, Ugwuanyi preoccupied himself with the recycling of people discredited in the infamous Nnamani administration. He opted for mediocrity rather than meritocracy. No wonder he is fingered in the numerous land-grab allegations in the state.
Less than six months to the end of his second and final tenure as governor, Ugwuanyi is yet to bequeath Enugu State with any meaningful project or program to be identified with. So where lies the gang up against him by the people of Enugu North?
For the avoidance of doubt, this piece is not at the instance of anybody. I take full responsibility for it. I am from Enugu North and therefore a concerned citizen. (vinokwor@yahoo.com) (GBN)
