Effects of Economic Determinism on Political Power Play
With the build-up to the 2023 general elections on a speed gear, and the coasts becoming clearer over the most probable candidate that will emerge victorious in the race for the Enugu state’s Governorship seat, it beats every ingenuity how the controversial and arrogant Isi-Uzo-born Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party, widely known and ceaselessly pilloried for his perfidy, shitty lifestyles, political trollopy and betrayal of trust, match the stellar management, academic, and investment glitz of Mr Peter Mba of the People’s Democratic Party. This is more so as Mr Mba, in all ramifications of fairness, has presented a more appealing issues-based manifesto to the admiration of Ndi Enugu. Mba’s wide acceptance by the people is a testament to his certifiably ingenious track record in Enugu politics and governance since 1999.
The power-thirsty Chijioke Edeoga, who, ironically is on record as the worst-performing Commissioner of Environment Enugu state has ever had, with zero impact as the state’s environs recorded the lowest ebb of cleanliness in recent memory under his watch irrespective of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwanyi’s heavy injections into the ministry, is today being paraded by an infinitesimal group of malcontent and eccentric characters from Nsukka zone as their next governor, and not that of Enugu State. Mr Edeoga and his co-travellers having offered nothing in the form of reasonable action plans to convince the Coal City electorates that they are equal to the task of governance have resorted to engaging in a rather scandalous media war with everyone who tried to put them on their toes on topical campaigns.
Basking on the paroxysmal influence of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, Chijioke Edeoga and his cohorts lost sight of the interpretation, implication and application of Mr Obi’s axiomatic statement that the 2023 elections will be based on Competence, Capacity and Character. These traits, Edeoga, judging by his political and social life antecedents, is bereft of any. How then can he survive in the contest even in the face of the more robust and equipped competitors in the race to the ‘Lion Building’? The answer to this poser is the reason for his almost zero followership presently, his supporters deserting him in their numbers and leaving him clutching on every straw like a drowning man.
To further dissect Chijioke Edeoga’s cluelessness and poor mastery of the modern-day electioneering strategies, while he was busy dissipating his energy trying to convince the gullible ones mostly from his Nsukka corner, Mr Mba, in far away Lagos State, took the Nigerian economy by storm with exoticism. Mr Mba and the Unveiling of his Pinnacle Oil’s largest West African Petroleum product Tank Farm, not only became one of the most trending headlines but was applauded by analysts as one of the foremost avant-garde 21st-century innovations capable of enabling the survival of the ailing Nigerian economy through the oil and gas sector. Mba’s investment flair, especially his timely unveiling of his new and breathtaking idea in the oil tank farm, is a mind game that represents a shrewd adjustment in his political calculations to win the Enugu governorship seat with greater ease. Peter Mba, by his ephemeral sidestepping from campaigning to venture into the economy, and leading the most influential personalities in Nigeria and beyond, including the Nigerian president, General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to flag off that maverick of a project, showcased his high-end ascendancy of the indivisible connections between the polity and the economy.
Mr Mba’s earnest understanding of the analytical approach to the class struggle and the conflicts of capitalism and the capitalist mode of production, rather than a prediction of communism’s potential future forms, elevating economics as the main force that shaped civilization, is top-notch.
Unlike Edeoga and his empty-headed approach to politics, Mba understands clearly that society took its shape or was determined by the specific economic structures and connections in place. He understands that economics defined not just the workplace, but also politics, religion, family, law, and every other component of life at a particular time; hence, his unparalleled giant strides to positively influence the Nigerian economy.
In light of these inseparable relationships between the economy and politics, coupled with the citizenry’s increasing demand for good governance, one would be right to say that Chijioke Edeoga and his likes’ overly fixation on hackneyed and cheap political propaganda, campaign of calumny and show of disproportionate desperation to take power by all subterfuge, without a commensurate and action-backed approach to redirect the economy to the path of holistic development, is the bane of Nigeria’s political economy configuration, and is also gradually being rejected by the increasingly informed electorates. I, therefore, find it very disturbing and laughable how clueless politicians like Chijioke Edeoga, who have recorded consistent failure in public offices and had never triggered any form of noticeable developmental plans through individual capacity, still waste their time trying to win the elections in a democracy.
Considering Chijioke Edeoga’s seemingly dwindling emotional energy orchestrated by his failure in speculative politics, it is, therefore, better for him to retract his footsteps by making a sober and quick return back to the PDP where he will be further mentored, lest, the likelihood of plunging himself into political oblivion is very high after the 2023 general election.
Whereas Mr Peter Mba is enjoying the positive effects of economic determinism predicated upon his track record of sharp-witted investments in infrastructural development, both hard and soft, Edeoga, having been caught in the web of his obsolete egocentric political strategies, is now wallowing with a plummeting support base.
Enugu is Patiently waiting to be repleted with the Pinnacle miracle.
Sam Nnamani, a public affairs analyst, is the Deputy Director, Information, Peter Mba Campaign Council, Nkanu-west.
