Ebonyi: The immorality of Elechi’s political humiliation 2 BY OUR REPORTER ON DECEMBER 22, 2014TRENDING BY PLACID EZE More than any other time in its history, recent happenings in Ebonyi State have brought to the fore, the age-old disputa¬tion as to the place of morality in political behaviour. Historically, the chemistry of politics and power struggle is underpinned by betrayal and backstabbing. Because politics is often regarded as war by other means, politics and morality are often seen as strange bedfellows. Expectedly, the ap¬parent incongruity of politics and morality remains the subject of continuing disser¬tation. Simply put, morality refers to the principle governing right and wrong or good and bad behaviour. For the reason that the moral temper of a society is inversely proportional to its stability and overall social health, no nation aspiring to greatness can devalue the importance of ethical conduct in its social existence. The necessity of some ethical parametres informed the formulation of extant rules of engagement in social relations. The Geneva Convention, for instance, became the code of conduct governing war. Although every game has rules and there is honour even among thieves, many politicians still behave as if politics is devoid of ethical compass. With Nigeria not insulated from the miasma of political immortality, the ongoing political humiliation of Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may remain, for a long time to come, as the very emblem of political victimisation. For those not conversant with the politics of Ebonyi State and Elechi’s place in it, a syn¬optic rehash of some basic facts is apposite. Ebonyi was created in October 1996 from Abia and Enugu states with two main cultural blocs – Abakaliki and Afikpo. Of the 13 local government areas in the state, Abakaliki bloc has eight and Afikpo five, with the result that Abakaliki bloc can perpetually control the political destiny of the state. In 1999, Dr. Sam Egwu (from Ebonyi North Zone) became governor on the platform of the PDP and later handed over to Elechi (from Ebonyi Central Zone) in 2007 also on the platform of the PDP. Upon his re-election in 2011, Elechi declared his intention to cede power to Ebonyi South zone at the end of his tenure in the interest of equity. Disavow¬ing the governor’s plan, the Abakaliki bloc stressed that Afikpo bloc is educationally and economically more advanced and that they intended to maximise their numerical advan¬tage to control political power. As the current political transition and succession programme gathered momentum, the Deputy-Governor, Engr. Dave Umahi, mounted a rebellion against his boss on the choice of the former Minister of Health Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu (from Afikpo) to become the next governor. Prior to his rise to prominence, Umahi was a Port Harcourt-based contractor. He was a member of the then All Peoples Party (APP) along with his kinsman – the former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu – then the most influential politician from the area. Ambitious for political headship, Umahi fell out with Onu in the battle for political supremacy. The fierceness that defined the political struggle between Umahi and Onu led the Independent National Electoral Commis¬sion (INEC) in 2007 to cancel the polls in the entire Ohaozara LGA and declared the winner of the governorship election of that year based on results from 12 local government areas. Having emerged as governor and fol¬lowing representations from some quar¬ters, Elechi nominated Umahi as the new Caretaker Chairman of Ebonyi PDP and later the substantive chairman of the party. As the chairman, Umahi enjoyed unprecedented patronage from the state government through multi-billion naira contracts. With Elechi’s favourable disposition towards compensating Umahi (who lost valuable property during the confrontation with Onu), Umahi became the most influential contractor in the state and having made enough money, he began to target the gubernatorial throne. While many people were apprehensive of Umahi’s rising financial and political profile, Elechi’s love for his deputy disabled him from reading the handwriting on the wall. He was confident that his unflinching support for President Goodluck Jonathan (whom he always regarded as a victim of ethno-religious and political gang up) coupled with his numer¬ous contributions to the entrenchment of the PDP, would earn him the reward of producing his successor as promised by the party. As it turned out, Elechi’s confidence in the PDP to keep its pledge was acutely misplaced. When Umahi rebelled against his boss, he found a willing ally in another illustrious son of Ebonyi State – the Secretary to the Govern¬ment of the Federation, who was said not to have been consulted by Elechi before making his choice of successor. The burgeoning op¬position to Elechi received further boost when his predecessor, Dr. Sam Egwu, threw his hat in the ring, following Elechi’s unwillingness to support his senatorial bid. While many have charged Elechi with the sin of ingratitude towards Egwu, they forget that Elechi was in¬strumental to Egwu’s appointment as Minister of Education under the late Umar Yar’Adua and that Elechi spared neither effort nor expense in prosecuting Egwu’s ambition to be the National Chairman of PDP, among other favours. Additionally, Elechi was misled by the leadership of the PDP, which mooted the idea of returning, at least, two Senators per state to the Senate to stem the tide of rookie legislators, who throng the Red Chamber after every electoral cycle. With Senator Paulinus Igwenwagu, hav¬ing publicly declared his ambition to run for governor, Elechi was left with the choice of supporting Senators Sonni Ogbuoji and Chris Nwankwo to return to the Senate in keep¬ing with the PDP agenda – a situation that turned Egwu against Elechi. Furthermore, the Speaker of the State Assembly, Hon. Chukwuma Nwazunku, turned against Elechi for not supporting his House of Representa¬tives bid. Not a few Nigerians were shocked that Nwazunku joined Elechi’s traducers given that the governor single-handedly saved him from impeachment only two months earlier. With such high profile coalition of the aggrieved standing against Elechi, the national leadership of the PDP became his only hope of actualising his succession plan. The acid test came on November 1, 2014 when the ward delegates congress of the PDP held. In Ebonyi, the outcome was strenuously disputed between the Elechi and Umahi groups. As the dispute raged, the next exer¬cise being the local governments’ delegates congress was aborted. The House of Assem¬bly primaries followed. Elechi frantically ran to Abuja to protest the state of anomie in his state. At a meeting with the highest leadership of the PDP in Abuja on Thursday, November 27, 2014 a decision was taken to postpone the Assembly primaries in Ebonyi, Adamawa, Ondo and Taraba states, pending resolution of the disputes that trailed the earlier congresses. To the shock of all, the PDP dispatched an electoral panel headed by Senator Ben Collins-Ndu to conduct House of Assem¬bly primaries in Ebonyi State on Saturday, November 29. Basking in the assurance that the election was postponed, Elechi and his supporters refused to participate in what they thought was an illegal exercise. If Elechi and his supporters were shocked that the primaries held at all, they were completely numbed when two days later, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, told the nation that the House of As¬sembly primaries took place in Ebonyi State and that the results had been ratified by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. The following Monday, December 8, relying on Umahi’s ward congress list, the PDP conducted the governorship primaries in Ebonyi State at which Umahi expectedly won a landslide victory. With the conclusion of the primaries and selection of the party’s standard bearers for 2015 general election, the PDP supervised the political humiliation of one of its most pas¬sionate and committed stalwarts in Governor Martin Elechi. He failed to produce his preferred successor. His ambition to go to the Senate was aborted. He was not even allowed a say on who would represent him in the state House of Assembly. Worst of all, his traducers now want to impeach him. While Elechi’s supporters have moved on to the Labour Party, selecting Dr. Edward Nkwegu as its gubernatorial candidate, Elechi stayed put in the PDP, insisting that he is too old to be jumping from one platform to anoth¬er. It remains an index of Elechi’s long suffer¬ing endurance and rigid principles that in spite of his travails, he has now called on his sup¬porters and all Ebonyi people (notwithstand¬ing their political affiliations) to massively vote for President Goodluck Jonathan in next year’s election. While Governor Elechi licks the wounds of humiliation inflicted on him by the PDP, some nagging questions ensue: Are morality and politics mutually exclusive? Can any nation attain enduring greatness if its politics is devoid of ethical grounding? Did Elechi get a fair deal from his party? The fate of the elder statesman, Chief Martin Elechi, should serve as food for thought for all who are interested in the ethical rebirth of our great nation. Prof. Eze, a management consultant, wrote from Lagos.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 13:34:13 +0000
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