Enugu, like lambs to the slaughter

The significance of Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s weekend public declaration is that, suddenly, Enugu voters are no longer looking like lambs to the slaughter. That single action – boldly stepping out to say that he will contest the governorship of Enugu State – has suddenly made Enugu a democratic state.

While I was in Lagos, my colleagues used to tease me that Enugu, politically speaking, is the land of sheep. By this, they meant that godfathers easily cowed and intimidated everyone into running away while they grabbed the governorship position. To an extent, my friends were right about the intimidation which began long before 1999. We only had a brief respite when Gov. Sullivan Chime brought cold water into Enugu by focusing on governance rather than politics. Today, many miss the Sullivan touch of inclusive governance. His administration sowed the seeds of stability and growth by making efforts to solicit citizens’ input and providing services to all of the constituents equally.

After Chime, the intimidation is gone but has sadly been replaced by something more pernicious and retrogressive. The people appear to have been herded like chickens into pens in a political poultry farm. In this farmhouse, Enugu politicos clucked and scratched in the dirt while waiting for the farm owner to occasionally enter with a bowl of corn.

The result is there to see. Less than six months to the beginning of party primaries, no Enugu politician has publicly declared an intention to succeed Gov. Ugwuanyi. Politicians in both the ruling PDP and the opposition APC in Enugu State are in a state of nervousness. None has the liver to declare an intention to run. These are the effects of godfathers’ subtle intimidation, the systematic impoverishment of the people, and the total emasculation of the opposition in the state.

Everywhere in the world, godfathers aim to close the democratic space and so it is with Enugu. The godfathers have served a warning, asking everyone to stay away because the governor will handpick his successor. Governor Chimaroke Nnamani proudly speaks of how he singlehandedly handpicked a successor. Sullivan Chime is more restrained – he speaks about how the governorship went to the northern district for the sake of equity and fairness. Chime is to be commended because his decision did not lead to a fait accompli. Instead, there was a healthy internal battle for the ticket between two northern district warriors – Rep. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and my friend, Sen. Ayogu Eze.

Sadly, things have changed for the worse. Before this time in 2014, Gov. Chime had made clear his preference over where the governorship slot should go, and why. He preferred the northern district in order to achieve fairness and balance among the senatorial districts. By not speaking to the people to let them know what is fair and just in deciding their next governor, our tenant at the Lion Building has turned the state into a huge playground for divisive gossip and political gamesmanship.

Today, the noise of marginalization, zoning, rotation, micro-zoning and whatnots echoes in an intentional leadership silence chamber. This time around, the expectation from politicos caged in the farmhouse is no longer for the “owner” to arrive whenever he pleases with the usual bowl of cornmeal. Each occupant in their local government pens hopes to be the one to be let out of the cage and handed the bowl to continue with the task of feeding others still trapped in the farmhouse

This animal farm in a nutshell is what the Enugu godfathers describe as “political tradition” in the State. As a very prominent godfather explained it, the tenant that Enugu people put in Lion Building should become the landlord. As landlord, he will determine the next tenant, who in turn will become the landlord to determine the next tenant, and so on, ad infinitum. When you think about it, this is what a “political structure” like Ebeano seeks to achieve in Enugu. It created a cabal of politicos that determines who should manage the people’s barn every four years.

The people have been told that the governor will choose his successor and whoever he chooses becomes governor. As far as Enugu is concerned, the issue of competence and experience do not count. Of course, this means that the primaries and delegates system will be rigged to favor whoever the governor selects. In the elections, the choice of the people is of no importance as it aims to install a government of the people by a Cabal for the Cabal.

But for Ike Ekweremadu, the Enugu Cabal is guaranteed easy passage because the opposition was emasculated. Even with a new helmsman, the APC could not muster a single council seat out of the 260-plus that were at stake in the February 2022 local government elections. With Sen. Ekweremadu’s declaration, Enugu people no longer look like lambs to the slaughter.

At this stage, I am not concerned about the Senator’s qualifications for the job or indeed whether he will win or lose. Neither is this about whether or not the so-called zoning favors him. Indeed, the argument about whether he should not have aimed for a higher position is also muted. What is important is that he has rescued Enugu from the dirty image of a people that do not know what they want when it comes to leadership selection. Without his intervention, Enugu politicos will still be sitting in their cages waiting for a godfather anointing.

Our mumu don do.

Let other politicians emerge and throw their hats in the ring. Enugu State is not the private property of Governors Chimaroke Nnamani and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. They were and are our servants. We elected them to take care of our affairs, to help organize things so that our youths will have jobs, Enugu residents will have peace, and life will be made easier for people in the villages whose votes gave each of them 8-year tenancy at the Lion Building. They cannot turn around to choose those to replace them as tenants in a house that belongs to the people. In choice of a new tenant at Lion Building, they have only two votes between them and we the people have the rest. This is the time that people power counts. Their two votes cannot make anybody governor. How godfathers manage to deceive people into believing that they hold the knife and the yam during elections beats me.

Enugu used to be a vibrant political setting. I witnessed the tail end of the First Republic as a child. My father told me stories of the grandmasters of the game from Wawaland, the likes of Chief Christian C. Onoh, Igwes Charles Abangwu, Dennis N. Chukwu, Basil C. Okwu. In the First Republic, for instance, NCNC had a run for its money when they passed over D.N. Chukwu to select another to run for House of Representatives for old Awgu Division. Denchukwu, as he then was, decided to run as an independent candidate, from where he bested the NCNC. Zik was so impressed that he quickly made peace. His colleagues nicknamed him “hurricane,” and oku n’agba ozara (harmatan fire) in the House.

I also recall the yeoman battles that the proponents of Wawa State put up that led to the creation of Enugu from old Anambra State. And, before then, the titanic battles between C.C. Onoh and Zik over who governs old Anambra State, with Chief Jim Nwobodo as Zik’s protégée. Chief Onoh, Aninefungwu, was not daunted as he used federal machinery of the ruling National Party (NPN) to crush Zik and his political godson, Nwobodo. It was a spectacle watching our beloved Jim, “a sitting governor,” crying like a baby on television. Where did the warriors disappear to? Why should we accept the threats that a governor should choose who to succeed him, as if they are with the power or the right to choose?

I was outside Enugu for much of the time during the Second and Third Republics and a good part of this Republic. Still, my heart swelled with pride at the exploits of Enugu inheritor politicians, the firebrands who gave godfathers a run for their money. The names that jump to mind at this time are Gbazuagu Nweke Gbazuagu and Ugochukwu Agballa from the West. What about the gladiators from the northern district, radicals such as Barrister Okey Ezea and Peter Okonkwo, as well as Chief Fidel Ayogu. Even Chimaroke, as dreaded as he then was, could not halt the surge of his deputy, Ezenwata Okechukwu Itanyi, from pushing for the prize which is every qualified person’s right to aim for. These are folks with the heart of a lion, going by what we saw them do.

Although I was one of the top officials of Enugu State Government during the 2019 electoral battle, I was very glad that my friend and brother, Chief Ayogu Eze, left the PDP to save Enugu from this growing image of a sheepish state. He may have lost the battle gallantly, but he made our people proud of the fact that Enugu can be counted among the states where democracy lives and breathes. It is this same warm sentiment that I now extend to brother Ekweremadu over his governorship declaration. You have made a loud statement that rescues the growing image of Enugu people, as like lambs to the slaughter, politically speaking. Enugu should vote for, not anoint, a new governor for 2023. And before this happens, our people should be given the opportunity to hear from prospective tenants at Lion Building, to choose the best estate  manager for the job.

Chickens in the farmhouse can continue clucking and scratching the dirt as they wait for their owner to arrive and magnanimously hand over the bowl of corn. They will join the lions to meet the people of Enugu State whose votes determine the next tenant to occupy the Lion Building.