… The joke is on the average sycophantic youth!
I have tried to focus more on my Personal Development Goals than dissipate energy on speaking about the parlous state of governance that has bedevilled Nigeria in general and my dear Ebonyi State in particular.
However, some of those in government especially people we thought should know better having been with some of us in opposition politics since a decade and half would intermittently choose to wake you up from your slumber with their jaundiced and politically-motivated sycophantic epistles.
So it was this morning when my quondam friend, Jude Chikadibia Okpor who held sway as Ebonyi’s Commissioner for Information till recently when he was redeployed to the Ministry of Rural Development tagged me in a Facebook post wherein he suggested we build a tent in heaven for his principal for merely fulfilling the words, spirits and letters of our hallowed constitution, specifically in Section 190(1) which provides that a governor shall transmit power to his Deputy while proceeding on vacation.
THE BACKGROUND:
It’s good to trace the historical background of his specific call-out of me to a conversation we had in the residence of Chief Michael N Udenwe at the 2025 Ojiji Izhi festival which held last month. There, while merrying and dinning with friends, a conversation about the fact that Gov. Nwifuru Francis didn’t handover before traveling had cropped up and I dared the Commissioner that same him held Senator Engineer David Nweze Umahi, CON by the balls with a Facebook post which Mark had also reminded us in his memory.
In the said post, Jude Okpor had sternly criticized Umahi for not handing over power to his Deputy Governor while on a vacation. I had to remind him that his Nwifuru-led government has equally acted lawlessly like the immediate past emperor of Ebonyi politics, Umahi.
He replied that the Governor had done the right thing by asking his Deputy to take over the reigns of power. I queried if there was a letter to the State’s House of Assembly to the effect and he argued it mustn’t have been- inferring that it was implied!
I quickly disagreed with him and so did his close associate, Richard Inya who argued that it was not a ‘poem’ that the Governor failed to act right in the very circumstance. We held other conversations on accountability in governance and an old time friend, Otsu Michael Nkwegu echoed that the views some of us have expressed as per the performance of the government should be commended,not condemned.
At the end, we all dispersed and thanked Obinna Udenwe for the opportunity, even though I yet expressed my profound regrets that a platform like the Accountability for Good Governance, AGG that afforded then like minds like Prince Uche Ega Ali , Oguzorkanu Offia-Nwali , Okenwa Uka , Chris Nnanna Ogba Jp and other Comrades the voice to hold the previous Umahi government to account has been rendered redundant and literally abandoned.
NO FAVOUR, WHATSOEVER…
I wish to urge Ebonyians to put a halt to the hailing of Nwifuru for handing over he reigns of power to his Deputy as though it is now a fulfilment of one of the “People’s Charter of Needs” mantra of the administration.
In terms of accountability, Nwifuru and his appointees are still in the lowest nadir of meeting even the basic areas of needs and critical sectors of governance and no sycophantic obsequious conformity, including some innate charlatans trekking from Mount Kilimanjaro to Abakaliki will vitiate this fact.
Ebonyi has had and endured what is in it’s chequered history the most unaccountable government in its history and it has achieved nothing but drawing the retired and tired political renegades into one common platform for the sharing of the meagre State’s cake.
For a few emphasis…
1. TRANSPORTATION :
Ebonyi, whose some of it’s government appointees now point fingers at Enugu ‘s Governor, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah who even has evidences on ground was the first to tinker acquiring and floating an airline. Today, Enugu Air is already flying while Ebonyi airport is temporarily shut down.
In the same vein, Ebonyi government under Nwifuru quickly purchased and commissioned Hiliux vans for taxis at exhorbitant rates that the masses will never afford. Today, we only sight the vehicles parked at their station somewhere near Spera-In-Deo junction.
2. EDUCATION:
Ebonyi has been unable to make who is awarded what contract Public in the erection of school buildings projects. All we hear and know is the fact that many politicians (not contractors) have received funds and failed to mobilize to the sites, seeing the hundreds of millions paid into their accounts some of which are private as their own ‘settlements for immediate and even future supports’ to the Governor.
In Enugu, at least we know that Sojimoto is being held for failing to deliver the Smart School contracts awarded to him. One cannot even compare the State of the remodeled GTC, Enugu (opposite ShopRite) to our own GTC beside Abakaliki Township stadium. The list is endless!
Yes, I know you will come to me with claims of awarding foreign and local scholarships to indigent students. Know it now that even the First Class Graduates who were awarded scholarship are at the verge of dropping out because nobody can account for what happened to the school fees promised and released by the government to them for payments.
As I write, they are stranded and have a tight deadline to beat. Yes, the government is that lousy and unaccountable and it’s shocking that most of the beneficiaries are even from Izhi.
3. HEALTH:
This important sector received boosts through provision of vehicles and drugs. But till date, Ebonyians still travel from their villages to AE-FUTHA for the slightest medical emergencies. Whatever happened to the resources spent on the 13 General Hospitals, I, Charles Nwa Otu Mkpodu does not know!
In Enugu, I sighted a well-built and tastefully furnished general hospital at Enugu-Ezike near the home/village of the CNS.
The only area Nwifuru deserves our applause is the peace in some (not every part of the State) that the government has used to bring everyone under the same umbrella, sorry, compound broom to come, shop and be merry while the common man groan.
To my dear brother and namesake, Charles Ogbu , if Enugu people borrows us Peter Mbah, we would appreciate because he won’t even see businesses to tax in Ebonyi 🤔🤣
To my sister, the okpirikpi Deputy Governor, now Governor of Ebonyi State, @Onyemachi Obila, please use this period to fix the electricity issue that has bothered my Afikpo community for nearly a double decade! Remember we will remind you about this opportunity that doesn’t come often!
© Charles Otu, only remains committed to leaving no turn unstoned, all for the good and benefit of a better Ebonyi State and Nigeria
