Those calling for the head of Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi over his utterances on the choice of former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi as running mate to Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, should tarry for a while.
For, it appears the euphoria that usually greets such appointments is about to blur whatever point there is in the reservations of some southeast leaders as presented by Umahi. This should not be surprising given the high wire politics that usually surrounds which part of the nation’s geo-political divide that clinches the position.
Given this, comments with prospects of narrowing the chances of the zone or even working against it in producing the number two citizen are bound to ruffle public sensibilities. The peculiarity of the southeast within the nation’s political matrix since the return to democracy in 1999, further reinforces such feelings.
So it was when after a meeting of southeast governors of the PDP and some leaders, Umahi addressed the press repudiating an earlier statement by his media aide congratulating Obi on his nomination. “I am shocked over the choice of former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi as the running mate to the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar without consulting with the leaders of the zone. The earlier statement quoting me as congratulating Peter Obi was never to my knowledge and I dissociate myself from the statement” Umahi said.
A barrage of attacks has been hurled at Umahi and the leaders on whose behest he spoke. Most of the views lampooned the governor for daring question the choice of Obi who in their view is eminently suitable and very qualified for the position. Umahi has been called all sorts of names with his promptings subjected to all manner of speculations. Some have even gone further to reel out Obi’s credentials all in an effort to rubbish whatever reservations might have informed the position of the southeast leaders. There are others who feel the governors should not have come public with such reservation as it tends to conform to the usual blackmail that the zone cannot agree on anything. For this group, Umahi’s comments could be capitalized upon by those against the progress of the zone to further divide and deny them their rights.
The controversy is in part, self-inflicted. That Umahi issued a statement congratulating Obi on his nomination only to repudiate same shortly after is enough to raise eyebrows. It is immaterial whether the first statement was brought to his knowledge by his media aide or not. The fact that such a sensitive message went public without his endorsement also spoke volumes on the kind of administration he runs.
It is curious that the governor, after issuing the congratulatory message turned full circle to express shock at the nomination on the grounds that the southeast was not consulted? Or put differently, were there no other available avenues to ventilate such grievances even in the seeming predicament he found himself?
Having issued the first statement, one had thought that further developments on the matter should have been taken up privately. The retraction and the manner Umahi spoke conveyed the unmistakable impression that the southeast PDP governors were against the nomination of Obi. That is the general reading of the message. The governors are entitled to their position but as events have since shown, their strategy ended up producing direct opposite results.
Apparently reeling on the sheer weight of these attacks, Umahi has made last ditch efforts to clarify his position. In an interview with journalists in Abakiliki, he explained he was not against the nomination of Obi but the process leading to it. His grouse was that people from other zones met and took a decision that affected the southeast without the single input of any person from the area. “We have never said that Peter Obi is not good for us, we have nothing against Obi. But we want when decisions that concern us are being taken, we want to be part of that decision”, he said.
He also picked holes with the manner in which the five names in the list were picked from three states in the zone to the exclusion of Ebonyi and Imo. He saw this as an attempt at marginalization contending that one of the reasons the Ebonyi man is not too comfortable with the idea of regions is that they are afraid of further marginalization.
There are three issues raised in Umahi’s clarification. The first was that they were not carried along while decision on the nomination of the vice presidential candidate of the party was being deliberated upon by leaders from other zones. If people of other zones came together to consider the said list, it was only proper that the southeast should have had its representation irrespective of where the slot fell. This will make for equity and fairness and does not in any way compromise the right of Atiku to his choice of running mate.
Umahi alluded to this in his earlier statement when he said if Atiku had just picked Obi without consultation with other regions; the southeast would not have raised eyebrows. But since he found it expedient to consult other regions, the exclusion of the southeast amounted to an error of judgment. We cannot agree any less with this view more so when the position was zoned to the region. Faulting that procedural error does not amount to a rejection of Obi’s candidacy as some are inclined to.
It would then be improper to view that observation as evidence of schism within the ranks of the leadership of the zone. It is not. Neither should the lure of securing the vice presidential slot bar the leaders from making genuine observations on issues that affect them. After all, what is really there in the position and how does it remedy the precarious position of the southeast that we should be falling against each other? The slot is just one political post like many others that may end up not adding any real value to the southeast. It may not even be worth the energy being dissipated on it.
There is the suggestion that PDP governors of the southeast did not support Atiku during the last convention of the party and that was why he did not consult them. This is neither here nor there since Atiku would still have to seek for votes in those states.
Umahi went off tangent when he insisted that the five nominees in the list of possible vice presidential candidates ought to have been picked one from each of the five states. That would amount to trivializing the matter. If the nomination is based on merit as one should expect, demanding its sharing among the five states makes little sense. If all the states are ranked and one produces the five best nominees, the best of them all should emerge. This has nothing to do with marginalization as the governor erroneously argued.
It was myopic for him to have alluded to this as some of the issues for which people of the state oppose the idea of regions copiously canvassed by proponents of restructuring. By extrapolation, he is saying that people of the area now known as Ebonyi were marginalized in the former eastern region and a return to regions would further accentuate that.
The issue is not as simple as has been presented as whatever progress traceable to other sections of the zone are largely on account of individual efforts of those people depending on their competences, industry and hard work. And these vary from one area to the other. It was never a matter of deliberate government policy. Even then, Dr Akanu Francis Ibiam, the first governor of that region came from the present Ebonyi state. His position could have made all the difference in the lives of people of the area if all that was required for collective progress was ascendancy to high political office. Umahi must cure himself of such morbid prejudices if he must succeed in his current capacity.