Sometime in April 2021, some stakeholders from Nkanu East local government area converged somewhere in Enugu to bemoan their political misfortune, decay in infrastructure, lack of government presence, abject abandonment and near political obscurity in power-sharing formula and allocation of development-driven-resources in a state they all loved, sacrificed immensely to build, and still willing to identify with.
The aim of the meeting was to attract the attention of well-meaning Nigerians, and indeed, the government and people of Enugu state to their deplorable state of affairs. This situation is alarming and heart-wrenching that some communities with thousands of population are cut off from civilisation and basic needs for human subsistence. In a normal case, to access the local government headquarters, because of the dilapidation and rot infrastructure, certain communities in Nkanu East have to travel through 4 different local government areas. Simple.
By this, sympathy, based on facts and ascertainable state of things, would be drawn to the most backward local government in the history of Enugu state. Past and present governors of the state have, on different occasions, bewailed the inhuman conditions in the municipality. It’s these prevailing conditions that had driven the people to call on the governor of the state, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, to beam his searchlight towards the area in his quest to choose a competent, competitive, technologically-driven and innovative impresario as his successor.
The meeting was held in the open. Different media outlets were invited, and the communique issued by the conveners of the meeting was aired. The agenda was clear: Nkanu East deserves to be considered in the scheme of things. The local government has competent and competitive hands who can drive the state’s economy beyond reliance on federal allocation, petro-monolithic income to technologically enhanced economy where the state can operate from digital amphitheater, and engage the teeming youths who are currently prowling the streets in a hopeless search for jobs.
The state is in need of someone from the private sector to turn things around. Nkanu East has got many of them. And astute manager of the economy who will create enabling business-friendly environment, resuscitate dead industries and inspire creativity in the youth.
It was, therefore, surprising to hear some disgruntled and hostile noises springing up surprises where there shouldn’t be any. These frustrated voices were mainly permeating the wave from Isi Uzo axis. Ordinarily, one could have ignored them as infantile and juvenile behaviour from pack of exuberant brats, however, that decision will only serve to gratify their sponsored co-travelers.
In their various puerile write-ups literally littered across the social media, and mostly annoyingly displayed as junks, these boys launched unprintable attacks on the people of Nkanu East local government. They spewed lies, and even threatened to rain down fire against a people for crying against political marginalization and near zero development in their area. Should the people of Nkanu East remain quiet in the face of a troubling disquiet that can lead to holistic annihilation? The people of Isi Uzo gave a constricted tolerability to the above question. Quietness, in the face of deafening injustice, is all they wanted from a people already forgotten on the platter of political contestation and decision making.
Interestingly, it never occurred to the people of Nkanu East that their presumed friends, who, out of a conspiratorial search for what was never lost, and in their desperate attempts to eat from both sides of their mouths, turned themselves into political androgynous, have nurtured deep-rooted hatred for them. Their serpentine political treachery of wanting to belong to Nsukka and at the same time, Nkanu, has led to the confusion as to their identity. As the hybrid of political biology will call it: the Isi Uzo people are now tread-milling as political hermaphrodites even when it’s clear that they are, historically, politically and culturally, of Nsukka enclave.
The Isi-Uzo media goons and their co-travelers who are bent on inciting animosity in the state should take their pills and allow peace to reign. Their unscrupulous plan to blackmail the governor into submitting to their clandestine agenda was long foiled, and is dead on arrival. Justice must be done. The governor has, over the years, and even while subtly appreciating the extent of the blood and political ties the people of Isi-Uzo shared with the old Nsukka zone, has extended the benevolence of his development strides to that area.
A visit to Isi-Uzo local government area reveals that the governor has done more projects in the local government than any other local government in Enugu East senatorial zone. Besides, there are deliberate infrastructural links between the entire Nsukka axis with Isi-Uzo towns. Yet, these people have displayed haughty spirit of ingratitude and aloofness as a result of few individuals driven by inordinate ambition from that area.
The above notwithstanding, a ticket to an Isi-Uzo man in 2023 to vie for the position of governor will trail down to an “accidental candidate” as none of the persons rearing their heads for the top job is competent to do it. None has a history of leadership, administrative or entrepreneurial foundation and breakthrough that can drive the state beyond mismanagement and prolificacy. In a simple term: Governor Ugwuany’s shoes will not only be bigger for them to fit in, they’ll make mockery of Ugwuanyi’s legacies. The governor must watch his steps and refuse to be cajoled or blackmailed into decision that will be antithetical to history and justice.
In our subsequent work, attempt shall be made to correct the shallow position held by the Isi-Uzo people and their barefaced falsehood. Spewing falsehood and maligning the people of Nkanu East as a calculated chicanery to blackmail the governor or to dissuade him from taking the path of honour, equity and justice won’t work. Like the late Sule Maitama of the Northern Elders Forum once said: justice demands that the right thing is done irrespective of people from the other end. The people of Nkanu East couldn’t have had any cultural or religious affiliation with Nsukka where the present governor came from, but justice demands his consideration should be dispassionate and beyond blood, cultural and social ties.
It’s pertinent to sound this note of admonition to the people of Isi-Uzo and the power mongers talking these youths into confusion and misadventures that Nkanu East is known for peace and never in war with anyone. If the desperate power mongers are aggrieved about the common front and prevailing political peace in Nkanu East, they should as well put their house in order, call their own meeting, invite pressmen, organise a solidarity walk for Isi-Uzo to Government House. Nobody is stopping them.
However, in all this, they should remember that governor Ugwuanyi has done well in their local government. They should remember governor Ugwuanyi has done better than any other past governors for them. They should remember governor Ugwuanyi has opened the local government to a thriving economic route. They should remember governor Ugwuanyi has done marvelously great for them. Except they want to deny the massive and positive impacts of the governor in their local government area. Isi Uzo is a major beneficiary of Governor Ugwuanyi’s acts of benevolence in governance today. They should deny it. In terms of human empowerment, the governor has extended his tentacle of good governance. In terms of development and infrastructure, the governor has given them reasons to be indebted.
Like Ogechukwu Nnamene recently noted in a certain forum: the people of Isi-Uzo should allow Nkanu East to “…cry their cries….” In 2023, it is our belief that governor Ugwuanyi will do justice by choosing his successor from Nkanu East area. Nkanu East is only asking for a governor who will be an Enugu Governor for all from the area.
