2023: Enugu State Equity and Integrity Assembly – A Disgruntled Group

When ducks suddenly become hawks, one must realise that in politics of wits and wisdom, all the glitter is not gold. This is a true reflection of Hon. Garry Ene’s recent metamorphosis and the birth of a gang of the disgruntled known as the “Enugu State Equity and Integrity Assembly.”

“Hon. Garry Eneh and Friends” should stop fomenting crises where there are none. His Excellencies, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Prof. Ike Ekweremadu are best of friends, with a cordiality of relationship that surpasses the wishful thinking of sand throwers. The next administration will build on where the current administration would have left off in 2023.

Hon Garry Ene was the same person who, not long ago, at Prof Sen. Ekweremadu’s Enugu residence, pledged Udi’s support for Prof Ekweremadu’s governorship aspiration and that of the Enugu West Zone. He insisted on competence, capacity, and equity as the reasons for his endorsement.

The turncoat process of Hon Garry started immediately after the failed attempt of Sen Ben Collins Ndu to hoodwink and mislead the people of Enugu West Zone through the auspices of his infamous and woeful “Ife-Emelu-Mma Rally”.

For Sen. Ben Collins, it was political PR to push for the settlement of claims of a largely unverified but huge amount that he claims as the indebtedness of the Enugu State government to him. Whether he succeeded in his PR trip or not, he came back from the “Ife Emelu Mma Rally” thoroughly humiliated, scoffed at, and covering his face in shame.

He spent so much time and financial resources on an inconsequential glory hunt only to have Sen. Hyde Onuguluchi emerge as the popular champion of truth and reality. It became an Onuaguchi show and prime time.

Now, what is Garry Ene up to? Is the Enugu State government owing him as well, or is he engineering a “political washy-washy”? Someone said he has an unquenchable appetite for land and housing estates, being a scion of a real estate mogul. Some months back, his company entered into an MoU with Enugu Housing parastatal for the development of a housing estate on his family land at Emene.

He is also pursuing a federal government compensatory payment over some parcels of “claimed” family land around Emene Airport, which he said was part of the land revoked to give way to the upgrade of Emene Airport to International Standard. We are aware that before such compensation is paid, there should be a sign-off on the land documents by the Enugu State Government.

His real estate interests have bulged into recreational parks in the Enugu metropolis. Recently, he was seen loitering around the Enugu State Government site, seeing at some of these parks.

The formation of the so-called “Enugu State Equity and Integrity Assembly” and their recent blabbing is another power move to deceive the Enugu State government and the people of the Enugu West Zone. Apart from copy-cat strategy of grandstanding for attention, what new ideas or narratives have Hon. Garry Ene and his group brought to the political discourse of Enugu State? None! Their narrative on the zoning of Enugu State’s governorship is very pedestrian and not worth wasting time on responding to.

History has its eyes on Enugu State in 2023. Our regeneration or rest is not only a moral opportunity and an existential one. Enugu remains  an idea—a stronger idea than poverty, more powerful than micro-cultural and zoning identities—an idea of a home for all Igbos, just like Lagos is home for all Yoruba people and Kaduna is home for all Hausa people. Enugu is an idea as alive and powerful today as it was when it was first founded. Our common humanity, shared experiences, and hope for a better future for all residents are the only sentiments on which our moral political system can be renewed.

There was never any true civilization that wasn’t prefaced by the revolution of the masses. While the disgruntled dwell on primitive zonig, Enugu State’s liberal progressives are focusing on ideas of a better future for all. How best should the masses speak to the urgent need to fix our stagnant infrastructure and social overhead?

How best should voters shackled by vicious reality and a gloomy future be free? Hon. Garry and his cohorts, who are now grandstanding for the status quo, are the same people who were pretending to stand for some of these liberal democratic ideals just a few days ago. When and where were they bitten by the bug of “turn-by-turn” democracy and settlement politics?

Going forward, we have all watched with utter dismay how issues that concern the common man in Enugu State have been relegated to remote ends in the emerging politics of the 2023 elections. This continuous relegation of concern for the masses can only be possible when everyday people are deceived by the rantings of the likes of Hon. Garry Ene and cohorts. They can only succeed if the electorate cannot come together in the collective realization that all their actions, no matter how small or how large, are powerful, worthwhile, and capable of lasting change.

Why are “Hon. Garry and friends” so deaf to the core issues that the masses care about? Is it not embarrassingly petty that what agitates the minds of Hon. Garry Eneh and his co-travellers to infamy is the inconsequential issue of zoning or power rotation? One wonders whether poverty, hunger, diseases, unemployment, etc. are zoned or subjected to the principles of governorship rotation.

There is nothing inherently noble about protecting a status quo that does not serve the needs of the masses. And when we talk about the relentless pursuit of a more perfect state, that in and of itself is a basic commandment to evolve as a state—to grow better and to be better, our eyes are on a governor of Enugu State for Enugu people and for common humanity, come 2023.

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