OPINION: Nigeria’s Life-Term Governor

By Emmanuel Aziken

He was named David, apparently after the humble but successful King of Israel. However, humility with power seems to be strange to Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State.

Governor Umahi’s live broadcast earlier this week, where he announced the life ban on two journalists, might have spurred many people towards the absurdity of power in the hands of some Nigerian politicians.

If he took this action to the extreme, it was, however, not shocking given his use of state power since his advent as governor of Ebonyi State.

The decision to ban the correspondents of Vanguard and Sun newspapers for life from Government activities is perhaps the nadir for the Ebonyi governor. However, he has over his nearly five years in office wielded power in a way that none of his predecessors could ever have imagined.

Remarkably, the governor failed to address the issues raised in the reports, to wit that his citizens were dying of Lassa Fever and alleged being killed by security forces.

When outrage greeted his latest effort, the resort for Apostle Umahi was to deny and pass the buck that his words had been doctored. But Ebonyians are not shocked.

It has been the policy and pattern for the present government in Ebonyi to pass the buck through aides.

During the same broadcast, the governor also announced the sack of the state Commissioner for Solid Minerals, Mr. Jonah Egba, and three other aides for allegedly failing to adequately mobilize their communities to stop coronavirus from getting to them. Last September, apparently peeved by darts from the Independent People Of Biafra, IPOB, the governor sacked the state’s commissioner for information, Mr. Ken Uhuo.

The government’s terse statement sacking him read in part: “He has been removed for lack of commitment to the responsibilities of his office. It is a fact that he is a quiet, good person, but he does not fit into the responsibility of the office.”

A month later, Uhuo was recalled and made permanent secretary in the same ministry he had served as commissioner!

The Ebonyi governor arguably holds the unique distinction as the most intemperate governor in the sustenance of aides with subordinates being sacked now and then, here and there.

This conduct is despite his esteemed position in the House of God.

Until recently, when sycophantic aides started hailing him as an apostle, he had been known as a deacon in Christ Embassy, a church whose leader, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, is one not beholden to titles.

Associates and followers of Pastor Chris would, as such, be shocked to find that one of the brethren has taken the title of the apostle to himself while the leader of the church goes with the title of pastor.

Umahi’s eccentricity is not restricted to aides and journalists. On the political terrain, his weird political proclivities have made his future political trajectory the subject of much speculation.

A google search of “Umahi set to defect to APC” would show forth a rich thread of stories that border on the political fidelity of the governor.

He admitted as much at the beginning of the year when he acknowledged that he was both PDP and APC.

“I am the only person that does anti-party, and nothing will happen. Any other person that does anti-party is gone,” the governor told some PDP members unabashedly last January.

“So, I am representing you in APC while you all stay in PDP. If you like, go and write it on social media.”

Two weeks later, the governor wounded the hearts of PDP members in Edo State when wives of southern governors called on him. Addressing the wife of the Edo State governor, Mrs. Betsy Obaseki, he said that the agitation to remove her husband would come to nothing.

The assertion inevitably earned him a stinging rebuke from the immediate past chairman of the PDP in Edo State, Chief Dan Orbih. The former PDP state chairman put aside their past relationship as fellow state chairmen in the PDP to flay Umahi’s desecration of the party flag.

Ahead of the 2019 elections, there was much speculation as to where Umahi belonged given his open frolic with the APC. It got to a stage that his perceived inclinations towards the APC raised apprehension within the state chapter of the APC.

The gist in some circles is that he has been penciled down for political ascendancy in the APC for 2023.

It is a thought that sends shudders into the hearts of democracy enthusiasts. If without the legal control of the security forces, the governor could so blatantly ban journalists for life, what he would do as commander-in-chief can only be imagined.

Umahi is, however, not without his positives, the most profound being the physical development of the state capital, Abakaliki. The state capital has been completely reset in a way that would be difficult to recognize before his advent.

Ebonyi may in terms of resources and infrastructure be better off with Umahi, but a good name is better than riches. He would also know that the life ban he imposed can only be sustained by a life term governor!

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