Enugu in the Claws of Dictatorship?

0 0
Spread the love
Read Time:5 Minute, 35 Second

The ordeal of the Deputy Governor of Enugu State, Mr Sunday Onyebuchi once more portrays the claws of tyranny into which Enugu has found itself.

While other governors preoccupy themselves with war against Ebola Virus Disease, Governor Sullivan Chime is busy prosecuting the impeachment of his deputy for the most ridiculous of reasons. Chime declared recently: “I am tired of working with him.” The more Onyebuchi tried far beyond imagination to ingratiate himself to Chime with unmatched humility, loyalty, patience, and tolerance in service, hoping that beauty could ride a tiger, the more Chime allegedly empowers his Chief of Staff, Deaconess Ifeoma Nwobodo, to met out to him the worst treatment so far to a Deputy Governor.

The psychological violence and trauma meted to Onyebuchi by Chime and his aides were such that on sighting Mrs Nwobodo arrive with the State Attorney General, Mr Anthony Anih, for interrogations at the impeachment panel last week, his blood pressure allegedly dropped astronomically and he collapsed in the court room. The most inhuman part of the manhunt is that Onyebuchi’s failing health was allegedly toasted at the Government House.
Ironically, when in 20O7, Chime was elected as the Governor of Enugu State, it was jubilation galore. Shortly after, the ugly side of Chime started rearing its head. The first was a less than contempt for the reputed father of Enugu State, Chief C C Onoh, the former governor of the old Anambra State. The disdain with which he related with the icon while he was alive, accounted in part for the rejection of the support from the Enugu State Government by Onoh family, towards his burial in 2009. The next on the hit-line was the former governor of the old Enugu State, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo. As the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr Nwodo, an outstanding political gladiator, quickly understood the Chime complex. He therefore tried as hard as he could, to massage the ego of Chime to no avail. Nwodo narrates how, as a PDP boss and a former governor, Chime would leave him in a waiting room for hours.  The climax was that Chime allegedly connived with his fellow governors to ensure that Nwodo was ousted as the PDP boss.
To Chief Jim Nwobodo, the kind-hearted charismatic former governor of the old Anambra state, Chime allegedly menacingly revoked his land of over forty years and allegedly re-allocated same to members of the Enugu community. For the Enugu love for Nwobodo, it was difficult to fly. The story between Mr Chime and his godfather and friend of over forty years, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, the former governor of Enugu State is now narrative in betrayal and annihilation.

There was also the case of the amiable Clara Chime, the former First Lady of Enugu State. Clara was soon to realise the cruelty in Chime and tolerated unprintable inhuman treatments from Chime including alleged imprisonment and torture in a cell in the government house, Enugu.
Like a Bull in a China shop, the latest of the Chime’s fight has allegedly shifted to Senator Ike Ekweremadu, the Deputy Senate President. Even the least charitable among the Ekweremadu’s detractors acknowledge his profound humility, compassion, equanimity and fear of God. Ekweremadu, like others mentioned above, had on several occasions allegedly intervened to save Chime from a political whirlwind that would have blown him into oblivion. But Chime, like a lion who tried to devour a monkey with whose tail it clawed out of the dingy pit, has now decided to do what is believed to be his last political fight with Ekweremadu.
The bone of contention is that the governor in dictatorship candour decreed that all the members of the National Assembly from Enugu State, who are serving more two terms upwards, would not go back to the National Assembly. Ekweremadu and many others contend that in a democracy, aspirants should be allowed to contest for positions of their choice and that power resides, not in the governor, but in the people. Most people from the Enugu West Senatorial District argue that because of the ranking in the Senate, it will be fool-hardy to trade in a performing Deputy Senate President and the Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament for a fresher, Chime. In addition, unlike the office of the executive governor, the senate requires sagacity, charisma, sound human relations, and bodily presence, all which Ekweremadu possesses.

The knowledge of mythologies, history and holy books helps us in several ways. It equips us intellectually with a compass to navigate complex situations as well as a crystal ball to predict events using inferences from literatures. In the first place, wickedness serves the purpose of throwing the scoundrel up for an ultimate public opprobrium. The common trajectory of Atila the Khan of the Huns, Emperor Nero of Rome, Pharaoh Ramses of Egypt, Adolf Hitler of Germany, Joseph Stalin, Justin Bierber, Osama Bin Laden, Saddan Hussein, Idi Amin and a host of other men of cruelty shows that those who have used power in negative ways or played god had often ended in both tragedy and shame. This is an immutable law.
For instance, in the Greek mythology, Ares is regarded as the wickedest of all the Greek gods. Ares had a very difficult character, which made it practically impossible to get on with other Greek gods. We are told that during the Trojan War, other Greek gods preoccupied themselves at the war-front against the Troy, but Areswas busy having an amorous affair with Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. Ares no longer attends to the needs of humanity, for he was blinded to other issues except, as his mistress would direct. Ares chose to hate and deal with mankind most ruthlessly.

Ares met his waterloo when all the Greek Titans suddenly realised that the evil gods thrive because the good gods go to sleep.  On a day, the gods held a meeting and set out to cut Ares to size.  In a frenzy of instant justice, they caught Ares with Aphrodite red-handed in their perverse sexuality. We are told that the street of Greece went agog. His mistress in a futile attempt to escape was apprehended, tortured and dispossessed of all the gold and silver she had expropriated from the State.
Those who understand the politics of Enugu, know that the quietness of the people in the face of the unrepentant acts of impunity are probably predicted on the fact that they know that their chi (God) has a way of fighting for them, cutting those who play God to size, ultimately.

Oleka writes from Enugu

Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %

Facebook Comments

Previous post NIGERIA: The Man Benue Needs in 2015
Next post ‘APC About to Collapse in Kogi Under Audu’

Average Rating

5 Star
0%
4 Star
0%
3 Star
0%
2 Star
0%
1 Star
0%

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.