2015: Chime Plans Ahead To Undercut Political Foes

 Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu state, a few days ago, appointed 57 administrators to assist the elected 17 elected council chairmen in the state to achieve better results, but MIKE UBANI writes that the new appointees may be used as tools to solidify the governor’s stranglehold of the PDP structure in the state ahead of the 2015 general elections.

It was probably his first public outing in three months.  Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State, Wednesday, May 8, 2013, proved his detractors wrong when he boisterously stepped inside the sprawling Okpara Square, Independence Layout, Enugu, at about 2.20 p.m. to inaugurate the newly appointed administrators for the 57 development cenres in the state.   His presence at the occasion was instructive and a profound relief to his supporters, given his rumoured death in an Indian hospital on May 2, 2013, from cancer-related disease.

 “…You have been appointed to serve as tools in the hands of the local government chairmen to achieve better results in the administration of the local governments.  So, it behoves on each and every one of you to work very closely together with your council chairmen”, Governor Chime said, while addressing the newly appointed development centre administrators.

Not a few share the view that the administrators have been assembled to enhance administration at the grassroot level and indeed, speed up development in the council areas.  Rather, the consensus here is that Governor Chime will use the administrators to reinforce the structure of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, at the grassroot level ahead of the 2015 general elections.

The governor will leave office on May 29, 2015, after serving two terms of four years apiece.  Addressing journalists at Government Lodge, Enugu, in February after his return from a five-month medical sojourn in London, Governor Chime announced that his successor will come from within the PDP fold.

This is obvious against the backdrop that the existing opposition parties in the state lack the political sinew to mobilise the populace and thereafter, proceed to win elections.

So, the question since he made this pronouncement has been thus:  Who succeeds Governor Chime in 2015?  There have been speculations that the governor prefers his successor to come from the Nsukka cultural and political bloc officially known as the Enugu North senatorial zone.

The senatorial zone is yet to produce a governor since the inception of the present democratic dispensation in 1999. Former governor Chimaroke Nnamani, who ruled the state from May 29, 1999, to May 29, 2007, hails from Enugu East senatorial zone, while Chime, his successor and present governor of the state, comes from Enugu West senatorial zone.

Already, three notable politicians from Nsukka senatorial zone are allegedly warming up to take over the mantle of leadership of the state from the incumbent governor.  They are Eugene Odo, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Senator Ayogu Eze, chairman of the senate committee on works, and Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, member representing Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency in the House of Representatives.

Enugu state has a population of about 3.3 million going by the 2006 census figure, with Nsukka senatorial zone accounting for a large chunk of that population.  What that means is that in a free and fair election, votes from the area will determine who holds the ace.

However,  some people close to the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, told LEADERSHIP that the senator is intensely interested in the plum job.  Ekweremadu, who comes from the same Enugu West senatorial zone as the incumbent governor, served in the administration of former governor Nnamani as chief of staff and secretary to the state government respectively.

He has since then acquired immense political clout and wealth – enough to singlehandedly run for the gubernatorial race without the support of the PDP-led government in the state.  In fact, when he established an FM radio station in the coal city some months ago, many concluded that he would use the outfit to pursue his alleged gubernatorial ambition.

Ekweremadu is said to be the eyes and ears of President Goodluck Jonathan in the South-East geo-political zone,   a development which may put him in good stead if he eventually decides to run. “The 2015 gubernatorial ticket of the PDP in Enugu State is already in Ekweremadu’s pocket”, a source close to the presidency was quoted as saying.

It is this kind of mindset that probably galvanised governor Chime to inaugurate the 57 administrators to ostensibly assist the local government chairmen, “to achieve better results in the running of the local governments”.

The thinking of the government is that the administrators will work in tandem concert with both the council and ward chairmen to forestall any attempt from outside to influence the choice of the party’s candidates for the 2015 general elections.

But how far can the state government go to choose candidates for the next general elections?  Senator Ekweremadu has a large followership at the grassroots level, many of whom receive monthly stipends.  He is said to have bought bicycles and motorcycles for many of his foot soldiers at the grassroot level, probably to continue to have them at his beck and call.  But now that governor Chime has given  each administrator a brand new Kia salon car, Senator Ekweremadu may decide to match the governor car-for-car.

He has no choice but to struggle to remain politically relevant beyond 2015.  Already, the state chapter of the PDP has understandably zoned the senatorial ticket for Enugu West to the Udi/Ezeagu axis of the senatorial district.  The deputy senate president comes from Aninri political block of Enugu West senatorial zone.  The implication is that his chances of returning to the senate in 2015 have been foreclosed.

Despite his alleged closeness to the presidency, he may find it difficult to clinch the PDP gubernatorial ticket in the state.  A source close to the Nkanu political elite told LEADERSHIP that Ekweremadu’s gubernatorial ambition would likely hit the rocks following the decision of the group to support a candidate from Nsukka cultural/political zone.

 “It is the turn of the Nsukka people to produce the next governor, so the Nkanu people will support an Nsukka man to become governor in 2015. In the spirit of fairness and justice”, the source told LEADERSHIP. Nkanuland is home to the former governor of old Anambra state, Chief Jim Nwobodo, former senate president, Senator Ken Nnamani, and immediate past governor of the state, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani.

The picture on the ground shows that the prime elective positions in the state may have been shared ahead of the 2015 general elections.  A source close to the state’s party secretariat hinted that the senatorial ticket for Enugu West has been reserved for Governor Chime in the event that he wants to remain in partisan politics beyond 2015.

Also, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Mrs. Ifeoma Nwobodo, may likely clinch the ticket for Enugu East senatorial zone.  A chartered accountant, the chief of staff is seen as an industrious and innovative administrator – in fact the engine room of the Chime administration.

Though she had at various times, dismissed insinuations that she has a political ambition, indications are that she would in 2015 and beyond, play a major role in Enugu politics.  She represented the governor during the recent May Day rally held at Okpara Square; the first time in the history of the state that a chief of staff would play that vital political cum administrative role.

Mrs. Nwobodo’s  rumoured senatorial ambition has left Prince Gil Emeka Nnaji sulking.  Nnaji is the senator representing Enugu East senatorial district in the upper legislative chamber.  He has in the past few months been trying hard to spruce his image.  For instance, he has mounted several billboards in strategic locations in Enugu metropolis, with each billboard emblazoned with his picture depicting him as “the Pride of the East”.  But quite inexplicably, each billboard reads thus:  People Democratic Party instead of People’s Democratic Party – creating an erroneous impression of the existence of another party within the PDP.

 Eze is likely to return to the senate in 2015 if he fails to be the next tenant of Lion Building, Enugu, the governor’s official residence.  A vibrant journalist and politician, he has touched the lives of his people in a most uncommon way through the provision of dividends of democracy.  As chairman of the senate committee on works, he is instrumental to the reconstruction of some dilapidated federal roads in the South-East.

Enugu has been one of the PDP’s strongholds since 1999.  It will remain so in the weeks and months leading to the commencement of election campaigns for the 2015 general elections if the party speaks with one voice regarding its candidates for the elections.  But an implosion is inevitable if there are dissenting voices, no matter how feeble. Then, this is where the new administrators would flex their muscles, and ultimately become useful to the man who appointed them.

source: leadership