I refer to the recent public service announcement from Ebonyi State Government which was signed by Mr. Uchenna Orji, the Chief Propagandist of the Governor David Umahi dictatorship.
The announcement was nothing but a rehearsal of the APC Government’s determination to stamp out all forms of alternative views, opinions and ideas in the forthcoming 2023 general elections. The Government of David Umahi has never hidden its fear of the opposition.
Umahi had taken very bad steps in the recent past to squeeze and muzzle the opposition political parties and to possibly pressurize them to give up on their legitimate aspirations to contest the 2023 general elections. This is the first time an elected Governor in a democracy would be embarking on anti-democratic measures to prevent the opposition from taking part in elections.Umahi had used his agents to attack, abduct, humiliate, torture, harass and in some cases kill or liquidate opposition activists in the state. This is a very dangerous political juncture in our democratic evolution and Umahi must be held responsible/ accountable if the alleged killings continue in parts of the state. It was revealed a few days ago that over 120 persons were killed in Effium in renewed hostilities in the troubled community. The case of the five NELAG Engineers is yet to be resolved. They disappeared after a sharp disagreement with Umahi over the control of Contract funds. Umahi’s government is the most troubled regime since Ebonyi state was created in 1996.
In this latest announcement by Mr Uchenna Orji, the failed APC government of Umahi in the state pretended to have fined itself of the sum of N5m for defacing public utilities with posters of their candidates for the 2023 elections.
I see this as a mere ploy or decoy to destabilise the opposition parties. We do not believe in the deceitful gestures of the Umahi government nor do we take the threats from the government lightly. Umahi’s government had threatened to seal off the Campaign Offices of political parties if they paste posters on any of the public facilities in the state capital.
I have also gathered that the same Government has planted its foot soldiers to go and print posters of the targeted opposition parties with a view to pasting them on the public infrastructure so as to prepare the grounds for attacking the Campaign Offices of the targeted parties.
Gov Umahi lives in palpable fear. He is afraid of the unknown because of his failures in office as a Governor for 8 years. His Senatorial ambition is already marooned as his name has become a taboo amongst the constituents of the Senatorial district.
Umahi is very jittery because the atrocities of his 419 Government in Ebonyi state have been exposed. It had been made known that the Government of Umahi has accumulated a debt port-folio of #160 billion which he will bequeath to his successor. He had lost all the major constituencies of the state. His effort to impose Hon. Ogbonnia Nwifuru looks very bleak because nobody wants to hear Nwifuru’s name mentioned in any serious circle in the state. His name attracts sighs and regrets as we speak.
The Traders and Business men in Abakaliki perceive Umahi as the man who killed their fortunes. Same for civil or public servants, the Teachers, professionals, artisans, rice millers, farmers, quarry workers, Ebonyians in diaspora and other classes of people in the state.
Having failed woefully, Gov Umahi is fighting tooth and nail to wish away the opposition. But he can never succeed. The opposition is an integral component of democratic politics and nobody, no matter how powerful or corrupt can wish it away. Umahi may unavoidably run into trouble. The continued killings and communal disturbances in the state may become Gov Umahi’s nemesis. We gather that he has taken desperate measures to ensure that the killings are never reported in the mainstream media. But the security agencies are taking records of all these heinous crimes by the embattled Governor. There is the likelihood that a State of Emergency may soon be declared in Ebonyi. The other day, the Ebonyi State Caucus in the House of Representatives briefed the press and raised alarm in Abuja about the on-going killings in parts of the state. Umahi has become a total liability to himself, his Community, his state and indeed to his Nation, Nigeria.
By May Nweyeke