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What Obi’s Impeachment In Not About By Ifedigbo Nze Sylva
For weeks now we have been treated to yet another impeachment drama, this time from the now perpetually troubled Anambra state and despite everything that has been said about it including the public outcry against it by the people of the state even the Oha na eze ndi Igbo, one can not help but habour some fears about Governor Peter Obi’s fate especially after considering the fact that from experience, the people’s opinion has never influenced the out come of political events in the country, not even elections.
While proponents of the impeachment move brandish so many wonderfully articulated arguments to justify their impending political dance of the dead, I feel it is important that we note what exactly the impeachment plot against governor Obi’s not about.
The impeachment is not about the re-structuring of Onitsha which has been variously described as a failed city into a truly Nigerian commercial city. It has nothing to do with the hips of refuse, the heights of which almost challenge the pyramids of Egypt which are ubiquitous in Onitsha and environs. The impeachment definitely does not care about the retinue of bad/ inmotorable roads in Anambra which are about to be reconstructed, nor does it have anything to do with the construction of a Stock exchange building in Onitsha a commercial nerve center.
The impeachment plot has nothing to do with the welfare of the civil servants of Anambra who saw hell during the Mbadinuju era and who now enjoy an increase in their “talk home” plus assurance of prompt payment. Obviously it also has nothing to do with plans to industrialize Anambra nor the granting of micro credit loan facilities to empower citizens of the state to create wealth.
Proponents of the impeachment have never mentioned the need to bring electrical power to the teeming population of rural dwellers nor the need to construct access roads to this villages to better the lots of these people. We have not heard them talk about providing cheap and affordable health care facilities to the people nor how to revamp our fallen educational standards.
The impeachment is not about the increasing fall in male enrollment in schools in Anambra and the overwhelming need to check the trend. It is not about expanding facilities in the state owned institutions of learning so as to better the quality of education.
We are yet to be told that the impeachment has anything to do with the monstrously advancing gully erosion in most parts of the state that is threatening the very existence of the people in their own ancestral home, nor are we aware of it having anything to do with making the state safer by chasing out hoodlums under various group names who have held sway in the state far so long that they have become almost legitimate inhabitants.
Governor Obi’s impeachment has nothing to do with the need to cut down on government expenditure and father Christmas-like disposition. It has nothing to do with the proper collection and channeling of internally generated revenue into development efforts. The move is not about the need to check looting of the government treasury, which had always been the order nor is it about awarding contracts at rates far below the amounts initially budgeted and approved for it by an impeachment obsessed House.
The impeachment has nothing to do with efforts to give back life to the now forgotten great men from the state like Prof. Chike Obi who have been left to grieve in their senility, Nor is it about giving the state a complete overhaul to befit the status of such great men as ZIK, Achebe, Okadigbo, Orizu, Ekwueme, Ojukwu, V.C. Ike, Ezeife, Emeguali, e.t.c who hail from the state.
The only thing the impeachment is about is greed, unquenchable thirst for power and an attempt by some renegades most of who are illiterate money bags to perpetually wield power in the state, enjoy unhindered access to the treasury and continue to sink the state deeper into the cold mud of backwardness and underdevelopment. Some times one begins to wonder if Balonwu and his cohorts including those to whose play of the drum they are dancing to, are really from Anambra state. If they really love this state, they wouldn’t be doing this.
For the majority of us who are passionate about the development and progress of Anambra state, which Peter Obi has clearly demonstrated is possible without the sad issues of god fatherism and over bloated government structure orchestrated by an ever present praise singing rented crowd, we can only continue to speak out and hope for the best. One thing is how ever certain no matter how uncertain the situation might appear to be and it is that Anambra would never be the same again because Peter Obi governed us.
IFEDIGBO NZE SYLVA Faculty of Veterinary Medicine UNN
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