By Fidelis Ugwuagu
Above is the headline of the fictious, imaginary, circumlocutory and fabricated story written and peddled by few Nsukka displaced politicians led by a former Minister, who have been ranting and fuming on social media against Ugwuanyi and PDP for not electing their preferred aspirant, Bar. Chijioke Edeoga as PDP governorship candidate.
The pen name Chimex Bright writing from Lagos is a decoy to divert attention and make the fabricated fiction look non-fictitious.
Nothing has fallen apart in Enugu PDP and nothing is making Gov. Ugwuanyi and PDP members in Enugu to be jittery ahead of the 2023 elections as erroneously and mischievously written by the fictitious writer. PDP is united and strong in Enugu. It is and has remained the dominant party in Enugu since 1999 till date and nothing will be different in 2023. PDP has never lost any election under Ugwuanyi’s administration. Ugwuanyi’s reelection with 94.5 percent votes in 2019 is a referendum on his performance and testament of PDP’s presence and strength in the state.
The emergence of Bar. Chijioke Edeoga, who served as Commissioner in Gov. Ugwuanyi’s government and lost in the PDP governorship primaries as an aspirant is no threat to the popularity, acceptance, structure and presence of PDP in Enugu State.
PDP is Enugu and Enugu is PDP. The social media razzmatazz and fanfare that trailed Edeoga’s afterthought emergence as Labour Party governorship candidate after accepting the outcome of the PDP primaries, meeting with PDP governorship candidate, Mr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah and pledging to work with him as a loyal party man has died down and at the same time raised fundamental question on the true character, loyalty, sincerity and integrity of Edeoga.
On the choice of Bar. Ifeanyi Ossai as Deputy Governor, that is the decision of the PDP in the state and its governorship candidate. As a party decision, it is supreme and binding on all committed and loyal party members. This is because party is supreme.
Besides, Ossai is overqualified for the position. His choice is not undemocratic or unconstitutional. It is in line with the zoning principle in the state that ceded the Deputy Governorship position to Enugu North Senatorial zone, where Ossai hails from. Nothing says that a Deputy Governor cannot come from the same local government with the outgoing governor.
That Udenu LGA where Ossai and Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi hail from has 10 wards does not make it less in terms of voting population. Voting population has nothing to do with number of wards in a local government.
It is on record that Udenu LGA produced the second highest number of votes in Enugu state in 2015 and 2019 trailing behind Nsukka LGA with the highest voting population in the state. This is verifiable and factual.
On those who contested PDP primaries and failed, claiming that they contested on Ugwuanyi’s promptings without stating how is good as being economical with the truth. What do they expect from Governor Ugwuanyi when they have made up their minds to seek for PDP nomination and only come to inform Gov. Ugwuanyi of their decisions to seek nominations.
As we are aware, there are people and PDP members who are very close and loyal to Governor Ugwuanyi, who didn’t purchase PDP forms to contest the primaries.
It is evident that if Ugwuanyi has stopped these aspirants from seeking nominations at the PDP primaries, they would have complained that Governor Ugwuanyi killed their political ambitions. Those who tried their luck in the primaries and lost should not blame Gov. Ugwuanyi. Politics is like Naija bet, you win some and lose some.
A good politician and loyal party member should not expect to win party primaries at all times. There are other positions to benefit from in the government and party apart from elective positions. The hullabaloo, name calling, blame game and aggressions over losing in the PDP primaries is needless and uncalled for.
Loyal party members don’t leave their parties because they lost in the party primaries. It is wrong, ridiculous and bad for few loyal PDP members to threaten to leave the party, because they lost in the primaries. It simply means that their loyalty to PDP from onset is shaky and questionable.
On the allegations that Gov. Ugwuanyi is planning to appoint 1700 executive assistants across the 17 council areas because of fear over Edeoga’s emergence is laughable and preposterous.
This is because it is within the prerogative and purview of Gov. Ugwuanyi to make appointments where he deemed it necessary, just like he appointed Edeoga Commissioner for seven years, which Edeoga resigned, contested PDP primaries and failed. It would be recalled that Governor Ugwuanyi appointed executive assistants across the local government areas in the state during his first term when Labour Party was in limbo and Edeoga was Commissioner in charge of Local Government.
There is nothing unconstitutional or wrong for Gov. Ugwuanyi to appoints executive assistants in his second term if he deems it necessary to give more party members opportunity to serve. Party members deserve to be carried along and appreciated in a government they formed.
After all, the essence of party politics is to win election and provide good governance using the party members that made victory possible for the government in power.
Fidelis Ugwuagu is a public affairs analyst based in Eha-Amufu Town, Isi Uzo Local Government Area.
