WRITTEN BY HON. PASCHAL AGBODIKE
When electioneering is on, candidates, their supporters and political parties say all manner of things against their opponents. It is understandable. But once the election is over, the defeated candidates are expected to congratulate the winner and cooperate with the new government or arm of government for the benefit of the larger society. The defeated ones may even win the next round of election. President Muhammadu Buhari, for instance, won the 2015 vote after attempting many times.
Anambra State has, since 2017, been exemplary in democratic governance. Candidates of the major parties defeated by Governor Willie Obiano in the November 18, 2017, gubernatorial vote wasted no time in publicly congratulating him over his overwhelming victory in each of the 21 local government areas of the state which earned him the sobriquet of “21 over 21 Governor”. This was quite remarkable in a state notorious for election litigation, sometimes up to the Ecowas Court.
It is wonderful that Anambra has changed. The state was easily the most peaceful throughout the 2019 general election. But there are, unfortunately, a handful of elements still steeped in the old order of extreme bitterness and bickering long after an election is over.
A few days ago, a group posted a fake news item claiming that Governor Obiano has followed in the footsteps of the Imo State outgoing governor, Rochas Okorocha, by defecting from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
This same fake news was posted the first time during the 2019 electioneering. The report, which went viral, no sooner than it was posted, was roundly denounced. Why should the same fake news recently be resurrected when the election is all over in the state? Why are these characters unable to reconcile themselves to APGA’s preeminence in the state as typified by the party winning 24 out of the 30 seats in contest in the March House of Assembly election? Worse, the same group notorious for forgeries and fake news over the years has even gone to the extent of attempting to scandalize the Anambra State legislature by alleging that the 2019 Anambra State budget estimate was not properly passed.
Unable to get a mainstream media to publish its allegation on grounds of an awful lack of credibility, it sponsored the poorly written report in an obscure online newspaper for an incredibly amount of money. This group and their sponsor must realize that the election is over. It is now time for governance. History will be harsh on such petty-minded persons who, in their myopia, think they are sabotaging only the current administration in the state.
There is something to learn from Obiano’s constructive engagement policy. This is a policy which makes us recognize the limits of party politics. It makes us acknowledge that, even though our people belong to different political tendencies, we are all brothers and sisters who should, at the end of it all, be preoccupied with the rapid development of our homeland and the enhancement of the people’s living standards
There is mass poverty in the land owing to decades of refusal to do the right thing. Unemployment is alarming. Education is in shambles. Electric power is a mirage. Basic infrastructure is in a sorry state. Industries are collapsing. International investor confidence is far from what it should be. Science, technology and engineering, which are the bedrock of modern economic development, are in a mess. Our values are at an all-time low.
In Anambra, we are faced with the challenge of being the first state to start paying the new national minimum wage of N30, 000 which will balloon the wage by N1.4billion monthly. There are about 120 active road sites plus bridges in the state—and the number is increasing. Huge investments are needed in agriculture, security, technology, social services, etcetera.
Instead of thinking of how to find a solution to any of these huge challenges, some persons are more concerned with how to publish fake news on the social media against Anambra State, in the name of party politics. Ndi Anambra would wish that the money expended on this terrible enterprise had been spent on helping the poor or empowering the less privileged in our midst! The Nigerian class should bring to an end the culture of endless politicking. They should be rather concerned with the country’s transformation, as we have seen in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and other Southeast Asian places
Governor Obiano is an admirer of the rapid transformation of these nations and we can see the effect in Anambra State today.
For those politicians who are yet to reconcile themselves to the reality that the 2019 general election is over, it is proper to bring their attention to the wise saying in chapter three of the Book of Ecclesiastes, which says: “For everything under the sun, there is a time… There is a time to sow and a time to reap”. For Anambra State, this is time for serious business. It is the time for governance. All arms of the State government are ready.
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