Wednesday

Waiting for Governor Dave Umahi

From EMMANUEL UZOR, Onitsha
INDEED, a revolution is coming, a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough but a revolution is coming whether we will accept it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability. The revolution is here now and it's politically inclined. It is a silent one that is devoid of all alternatives.
The deep rottenness of Ebonyi political system threatens all the economic gains this giant state has made.  In its position as the food basket of the nation or the salt of the nation as the case maybe and of course one of the most populous states in Nigeria also ranks high among the states in terms of both human and natural resources, which, if put to maximum use and well harnessed and processed, Ebonyi state would have by now, asserted its rightful position among the super states in Nigeria.
Ebonyi state problems are indeed complex and multifaceted and that constitute the major stumbling block on the path of the state progress in many ways and sectors of development. As a result of these cumulative problems over the years, the state has become very difficult to rule or control, as many people have for long indulged in un patriotic habits, on which they are addicted as their ways of earning a living, at the expense of million others.

The administration of Chief Martin N Elechi in no small measures contributed to these unpatriotic lives of Ebonyians. Reasons being that under his watch, poverty asserted itself and reigned supreme and the entire state witnessed a retrogressive development as it was under the administration before him.
In the same vein, as Ebonyi state unfortunately wallow along its growing problems over the years, it is also left lagging behind other states that were hitherto either trailing the state from behind or at the same par with it economically or otherwise. This is our present condition, which warrants the intervention of a savior in the scene, hence the emergence of Chief Dave Nweze Umahi.
Such a savior can be in a metaphorical form of either in the entrenchment of a viable socio-political system which is also being dedicatedly practiced or the emergence of a set of responsible and responsive leader and leadership that would deliver this state to the proverbial promised land of advancement and glory.
This cannot just happen in a dream, but it would have to be worked out through a communal effort of action and willing by plan and design, not just by accident but requires the concerted efforts of Ndi Ebonyi to not just accept Chief Dave Umahi and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP but to protect these values and influence of this change.
In fact today's generation of  Ebonyi state is left with no any other legacy but remembrance of the old good days of  development both in infrastructure and human development that contrast sharply with the present situation, in terms of general comfort, adequate and efficient supply of basic necessities of life and infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, roads, pipe-borne water, electricity and even the commercial services and marketing conducts of those glorious days despite the huge sums of tax payers money sunk into these projects by the outgoing administration. These basic things were more reliable and free of fraud and cheat. 
Come to think of major economic sectors that were neatly and rightly put in place by the former administration before Governor Elechi came on board such as the agricultural services, the transportation services, affordable education in line with the blueprint for the silent revolution in the state, having identified that education was the only solution to our backwardness.
Imagine Ebonyi state under the outgoing administration in the obvious biting effect of poverty and still paying an unnecessary exorbitant school fees. Likewise other vital sectors like Health care are not exception. Today, all these sectors are down and what remains of them is only the name, as all the ministries are lacking the essential infrastructures and the machineries to carry out their functions properly. Rather than Government schools possessing better teachers and learning environment, it is the private school of a Commissioner or a Director of Education that possesses those vital things.
Also, the personal farm of a Commissioner or a Director of Agriculture possesses the best breed of livestock and best specie of grains and the likes.
We gradually found ourselves slipping away from rendering public services to rendering private services for money in turn. That is to say, we are sub-consciously turning to individualistic and selfish lifestyle. I knew that Ebonyi state will change this government and reject its appurtenances including its self styled neo colonialism in the name of mass movement to other political party with the same rotten eggs without solving the intrinsic problems that marred the outgoing administration under Governor Elechi.
Not change for change's sake, but change to preserve Ebonyi ideals of life, liberty, the pursuit of common happiness and living together without rancor or a situation where the government would side with the weak to send the powerful away from their inhabitation as the case of Ezza in Ezillo. This unresolved case should as a matter of fact be revisited by Governor Dave Umahi because, Governor Elechi may have had his short comings as I don’t want to believe that he did what he did to Ezza people living in Ezillo out of hatred he has for the entire Ezza nation.
Though we march to the music of our time, our mission is timeless. Each generation of Ebonyi state must define what it means to be an Ebonyian. We know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps above our adversity and name calling. But we have not done so. Instead, we have drifted, and that drifting has eroded our political resources, fractured our economy, and shaken our confidence in each other, resulted in wasting of lives and other valuables. 
Though our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. And Ndi Ebonyi has ever been a restless, questing, hopeful people. We must bring to our task today the vision and the will of those who led this state. Our democracy must not only be the envy of other states but the engine of our own renewal.
There is nothing wrong with Ebonyi that cannot be fixed by what is right with the state. And so today, we must pledge an end to the era of political deadlock and democratic drift, a new season of Ebonyi renewal has begun. To renew this state, we must be bold. We must do what no generation has done before. We must invest more in our own people, in their jobs, in their future, and at the same time cut our massive debt.
There should be relentless exposure of every evil man, whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, business, or social life. The liar is not better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth. An epidemic of indiscriminate assault upon character does no good, but very great harm. The soul of every scoundrel is gladdened whenever an honest man is assailed, or even when a scoundrel is untruthfully assailed.
Even though there is no specific or universally accepted definition of 'democracy, there are two principles that any definition of democracy must have which includes, equality and freedom. These principles are reflected by all citizens being equal before the law, and having equal access to power as the case of the promise made by His Excellency, the outgoing Governor to hand over power to our brothers and sisters in the Southern part of Ebonyi state.
To renege on this, I believe amounts to irresponsibility on the side of the opposing political party without a definite agenda for Ndi Ebonyi. I think this doesn't exist in Ebonyi context.
A third common principle, though less measurable, is that all citizens are promised certain legitimized freedoms and liberties, which are generally protected by a constitution, alas Nigeria judiciary is corroded. But today in Ebonyi state so unfortunately, the outgoing administration had chosen to deny some citizens of the state this freedom, by incarcerating them without reasons. Over 100 Ezzas are still behind bars over the last Ezza-Ezillo communal war which I believe they knew nothing about except that they are Ezza people.
This, Governor Dave Umahi must change to give equal rights to every Ebonyi man irrespective of his colour, language or clan as against the perceived hatred the out-going administration had for a particular clan.
However, it will not be easy for Dave Umahi especially in the face of obvious internal sabotage from his boss and his appendages in Labour Party, LP but it will require heroic sacrifice. It can be done, and done fairly, not choosing the sacrifice for its own sake, but for our own sake. We must provide for our dear state the way a family provides for its children. If we don't lead today, nobody will follow us tomorrow. Our Founding fathers like the late Ezeogo Akanu Ibiam, Senator Ofia Nwali and even the out-going Governor Martin Elechi saw themselves in the light of posterity. Governor Dave can do no less.
I believe that Dave Umahi has the same courage they had then to steer the wheels of change and development through the troubled and turbulent transitional waters in Ebonyi state. Anyone who has ever watched a child's eyes wander into sleep knows what posterity is. Posterity is the world to come - the world for which we hold our ideals, from which we have borrowed our planet, and to whom we bear sacred responsibility.  
Governor Dave must do what America does best; offer more opportunity to all according to their talents and demand more responsibility of all. It is time to break the bad habit of expecting something for nothing, from our government or from each other. Let us all take more responsibility, not only for ourselves and for our families but for our communities, for our state and for our country.
To renew Ebonyi state and save her from this bondage theoutgoing administration had led it into, we must revitalize our democracy and evolve a certain consciousness that in Dave, there is a seeming light at the end of the tunnel especially for some of us that live in strange lands that Governor Elechi saw as lesser humans.
The road that leads to my community in Inikiri-Umuezeoka-Effium had remained a death trap. In fact in one of my discussions with a close ally of Governor Elechi, he told me pop and plain that the Governor was not thinking of locating any developmental project in my community because according to him, we didn’t vote for him rather we voted for his closest political enemy, Senator Julius Ucha in 2011. What an illogical reasoning from a revered father. Assuming but not conceding that we didn’t vote for him, how come, he became the Governor of our dear state?
This is a mind bugging jigsaws that face the new administration. The same out-going administration denied every Ezza man political appointments just because they are not resident in either Ezza North or Ezza South local government areas. In fact, the same government went out of its way to sack my uncle, Mr. Peter Nwakpa for attending job interview with the federal government after severally denying him the position of a Permanent Secretary at his level in civil service.
Governor Dave Umahi must know that Ndi Ebonyi deserve better, and in our state today, there are people who want to do better. Let us resolve to reform our politics, so that power and privilege no longer shout down the voice of the people as it was under the outgoing administration. Let us put aside personal advantage so that we can feel the pain and see the promise of Ebonyi state.
Certainly, Ebonyi difficulties seem to have arisen from lack of control and supervision by the present administration and this had plunged us into perpetual slavery of debt. Ebonyi state to say the least is the highest indebted state in Nigeria which unfortunately contradicts the visible development that warranted this debts abinitio.
To ensure truthful delivery of services and fair distribution of resources, Governor Dave must create a departure from his boss’s postulation especially in a situation whereby a teacher in government school is also allowed or forced by circumstance to own and operate a private school or a Medical Doctor in a government hospital is left to, or forced by need to open his private clinic, definitely, the public schools and hospitals stand to fail in their service delivery and efficiency.
I think this is the main reason why even the government officials themselves lack any confidence and trust in government services and corporations. One could ask the question why then, if they have confidence in government corporations and services, they themselves build schools and hospitals or renovate them, as it is mostly happening nowadays, but the end up enrolling their children in private schools and patronizing private doctors and hospitals?   
This I must say has been the order of the day in Ebonyi state. Count how many Commissioners under the administration of Governor Elechi that do not have private schools. Even his lieutenants now operate private schools and the unity schools of Elechi remained only but a mirage. Tell me how you want the state education system to grow when even the Commissioner in charge of education operates a private school and runs magic exam centres. Indeed, I weep for thee, my dear state.
In fact, this attitude of individualism has aggravated to that level today, an ideal household has to provide exclusive water and electricity sources for the family, as well as hire a private security outfit to guard his house, since no one seems to have any more confidence in all such services provided by the government, either because of the issue of corruption or inefficiency in service delivery.
The usual, easy route is to advocate putting up with the charade, not rocking the boat, yet billions of Ebonyi money had been sunk into these projects. No one seems to ask question concerning the money being speculated to have been put into the Ezillo and Oferekpe water schemes, yet, the same man wanted to put a successor who has refused to complete a gigantic project entrusted on him by the state or federal government as the case may be. Nobody asks questions on why the said International Trade fair Centre at Presco junction is yet to be completed, yet, we even thought, we had found a Messiah in a person that Elechi presented to us.
It is high time we came together irrespective of our cultural, sectional differences, to obliterate the cog in the wheel of our progress which has kept dividing us in our quest to have a lone commonality for Ebonyi state reconstruction in the past. Governor Dave must know that to whom much is given, much is expected. He must understand and trade with caution in the lonely path his boss traded without caution. The lesson of Elechi’s mistakes should present a fresh focus to Governor Dave to know that power is transitory and that no one is an island.
He should not arrogate to himself, the names and semblance his boss arrogated to himself. And this brings me to say like legendary literary icon, late Prof Chinua Achebe in Things fall Apart that “he whose palm-nut is cracked by a benevolent spirit must learn to be humble”. There should be no need for Governor Dave Nweze Umahi to equate himself with God as his boss did. He would need not to tell us that he is the political pontiff of Ebonyi state because we already know that by the virtue of his position as the Governor of the state, he is already a pontiff, reminder would amount to boring us with the obvious.
There are solemn duties of His Excellency, Chief Dave Umahi which he must accomplish if he wants to write his name on the sand of time. This includes mainly but not limited to erasing our name from the list of indebted states in the country. He must strive harder to encourage industrialization of the state and checkmate the leakage in the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR which will help him generate funds for the running of the state.
Returning or running to the federal government for bonds should be completely exterminated from his dictionary. Knowing that his boss had done many damage to both political and corporate image of the state. He should encourage private sectors assuming great position in job creation.
There is need for him to re-visit the quagmire his boss created over the revitalization of the Nkalagu Nigercem cement industry by encouraging the investor, Chief Cletus Ibeto who is also an Igbo man to revive the cement factory and create jobs for our teaming graduates whom his boss failed to assimilate in job creation for eight years.
Next on the line is the complete re-visitation of the Ezza-Ezillo communal war with a view to completely nipping in the bud the salient and root cause of the war as his boss failed to do. The Ezzas currently languishing in prison over something they knew nothing about should be granted their freedom. With this, he would be sure of Ezza votes in bloc.
With this agenda, Governor Umhi must abolish this already existing disparity between the government and Ezza nation by appointing them into positions of authority as against his boss’ postulation where a handful of perceived charlatans from Ezza nation were empowered with total views to fight against their own clan.
Those appointed by his boss had a definite assignment to thwart the sanctity and unity of Ezza nation as well served the interest of the few anti-Ezza elements within the corridors of power. This, Governor Umahi must consider that there are great and responsible and qualified Ezza people to be entrusted with very big responsibilities.
Governor Dave must make good his promise to construct the Ring road which was abandoned by his boss as well construct the road that leads to Inikiri-Umuezeoka-Effium if not for anything because that is the food basket of the state.
Governor Umahi must above all be magnanimous in victory as well respect the strength and weaknesses of his opponents as in this game; there is no clear winner and clear loser. Take them along and respect their constructive criticisms.
Ends
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