By Ethelbert Okere
Those who query former governor of Imo state, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, for failing to publicly “condemn” the ongoing attacks on security personnel and police facilities didn’t need, in my opinion, bother at all. The rather reticent, though ruthless and “foxy” politician, is not known for feigning what he is not or taking interest in what he does not believe in.
For a fellow like Ihedioha who does not suffer fools gladly, a condemnation of the attacks would have meant a pretended solidarity with the state government and the administration of Governor Hope Uzodimma in particular.
In any case, the Imo state branch of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which he leads, has openly made its position known on the matter.
From the contents of its public statement a couple of days ago, the PDP in Imo state did not “condemn” the spate of killings and destructions in the state. It merely claimed to be “alarmed and worried” and then went ahead to rationalize it by attributing it to “the uncanny imposition of Senator Hope Uzodimma as governor of Imo state by the Supreme Court…”
It is quite tempting to conclude that the party’s attitude to the current trend of events, as captured in its statement referred to above, reflects the views of Ihedioha, given his preeminent position in the party but I rather we do not because it will enable Governor Ihedioha to plead alibi in future when the story of the current saga is finally told.
Therefore, if Imolites generally insist on hearing from Ihedioha – whether it would make a difference or not – let them keep to that. This is not a contradiction to my earlier assertion because as an Imolite myself, his party’s outing a few days ago does not meet the expectations of the people.
Agreed, some people might, rightly or wrongly, be skeptical over the handling of the situation by the state government but the PDP’s response, via its statements, further heightens their fears and resignation to fate.
The party’s official claim that the current insecurity in the state “must” have been caused by Governor Uzodimma’s ascendency to office is too cheap to reflect the views of even its own members and supporters. The statement lacks logic and rigor and inadvertently portrays Imolites as generally cowardly and opportunistic.
This is how I knew. The Supreme Court ruling that made way for Governor Uzodimma’s assumption of office in January 2020 was given seventeen months ago. Admitted that the judgment was not altogether popular – at least among the PDP faithful – not a single public protest was recorded. Rather, Imolites, including PDP members and supporters, took it in total equanimity and, being generally law-abiding and peace-loving, rallied round the new governor and moved on as a people.
In the process of settling down, there were challenges – COVID-19, unpaid salaries and pensions, bad roads etc. But despite the avalanche of vituperative and inciting utterances by hirelings of the party and some of its media handlers, the state remained generally calm.
With a vivid demonstration of an uncommon capacity and courage to tackle the challenges of infrastructure, salaries, pensions, stolen assets etc. on the part of the Uzodimma administration, the people reciprocated by an unflinching support to the government’s resolve to retrieve all assets stripped of their collective patrimony by previous governors and their collaborators. But what they heard next was the “I Am Richer Than The State” mantra from some of the quarters being investigated.
Yet, until Thursday June 3, 2021, when the Imo PDP released its statement under reference, indeed more than four months after that mockery was made of the entire state and its people, the “opposition” party never lifted a finger. Not a sentence was written by its social media buffs that hitherto inundated the space with fake news and hyperboles, in a pretence at providing the “much needed” opposition.
As a matter of fact, not many realized that the “I am richer than the state” bluff got impetus from earlier statements by some officials of the party (PDP) in the state claiming that the moves by the Uzodimma administration to recover stolen assets was targeted at Ihedioha. Indeed, in a reckless bid to get even with Uzodimma for cutting short the Ihedioha reign, some PDP officials and media handlers expressed outright sympathy for what some enterprising, though rascally, social media activists codified as “Richest”. As far as I am concerned, that was the time the PDP in Imo state repudiated it claims to being an “opposition” party, in the sense that it is known in democratic parlance and beyond throwing personal insults at government officials, thanks to the free and unregulated social media.
In an article entitled “Imo And the Metaphor Of A Roman Mob”, I pointed at the disservice, perfidy and disappointment inherent in the tendency of some PDP officials to become knee jerked and nervous over a matter that was initiated by its own administration.
What happened a few days ago, via the ill-fated press statement under reference, was the final sympathetic undertaking of the party’s pretences at the rhetoric of “the credible alternative”. Some people see the party’s (PDP) call, a few days ago, for the resignation of Governor Uzodimma as its most reckless outing. But I personally do not. The party sang it own Nunc dimittis several months ago as already seen. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the call as “childish, laughable and delusional” and an admission that it (the PDP) has a hand in the crisis because of its lingering angst over the Supreme Court ruling of January 14, 2020.
These are plausible arguments but perhaps even more appropriate is that the call is hypothetical and as such, does not suggest that the party and its leadership have a good grasp of both the issue at hand and the practicable potentials of Imolites, as whole, to find a solution to the current problem.
Differently put, the call makes a mockery of Imolites because those making it know that it is not targeted at finding a solution to the current problem but a mere resort to political Njakiri. Given that it would be practically impossible for the governor to resign, the party is merely toying with the emotions of the people by making hackneyed and trite allusions that do not offer Imolites any meaningful insights.
In the statement, the Imo PDP failed to explain how the ruling and subsequent coming of Governor Uzodimma created the security problems. As I noted earlier, Imolites had completely adjusted to the new situation until the “Richer Than The State”, theory.
Therefore, to refer them back to that ruling and, in effect, a thing they had evidently put behind, is an affront to their collective psyche and integrity. Or, have the authors of that statement not noticed that even the party’s Facebook hirelings have since dropped their past time, “Supreme Court Governor”; after noticing that the people on the whole never subscribed to such meaningless allusions?
It is, therefore, in the context of this failure by the Imo PDP, the so-called leading opposition party, to be with the people when they most needed it, that His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, may have to repudiate some of his personal proclivities in order to rescue the image of his party. He may, for once, have to pretend to be who he is not to overcome the paranoia of being tagged a sympathizer of the status quo.