GOVERNOR PETER MBAH: A GIANT LEAP OR A LEAP OF FAITH

In 1999, Ndiigbo voted overwhelmingly for the PDP, and President Obasanjo was elected.  In 2003, despite having an illustrious Igbo son contesting, Ndiigbo voted for the PDP and reelected OBJ.  Ndiigbo stayed with PDP and elected President Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan till 2015.  In 2019, Ndiigbo massively voted for PDP again and for VP Atiku Abubakar.  However, in 2023, Ndiigbo decided that it was the turn of the South East, and they supported their own son, Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party.  

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One of the few PDP candidates who survived the 2023 PO tsunami is the Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency Dr. Peter Mbah.  Mbah was the best candidate who managed to squeeze out victory from the jaws of defeat.  Upon assuming office, he went to work and began implementing proposals. As of today, he is ranked among the best Governors in Nigeria with verifiable infrastructure developments scattered throughout Enugu State.  

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However, as Gov. Mbah’s profile rose, his party, the PDP’s declined to an almost ghost of its old self.  PDP has been bleeding for months, losing big names like former VP Atiku Abubakar, who pitched a tent with a new coalition party, ADC.   Speculation was rife as to what direction Gov. Mbah would take. Some insist he stayed put and saved his party, relying on his stellar performance to earn him reelection.  Others would have preferred him to decamp to a more tolerable party instead of joining the APC, the most stable but roundly rejected party by Ndiigbo since 2015.  The question in many minds is whether Gov Mbah is doing the right thing for his people and his political ambition.  Or whether he is actually taking a giant political leap or just a tepid leap of faith into the APC.  

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The APC led administration of President Buhari rose to power in 2015 with lukewarm support of Ndiigbo.  Buhari’s key promises were to deal with insecurity, curb corruption, and fix the economy.  Under his watch, corruption was normalized, the economy tanked, crowning Nigeria the poverty capital of the world as insecurity consumed millions of Nigerians.  Buhari left office with a miserable scorecard laced with blatant anti-Igbo policies, extraordinary rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and ethnic irredentism crowned by the Fulanization of Nigeria.    

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After the conduct of the worst election in the annals of Nigeria, President Buhari handed over to the INEC-declared APC candidate, His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.  The new administration has not done much than bring Nigeria back into the frying pan from the fire Buhari left them.  Tinubu embarked on economic reform, removed the so-called fuel subsidy, and floated the Naira. While President Tinubu distanced himself from some of the economic policies of the past, he wholeheartedly embraced Buhari’s penchant for anti-Igbo policies and ethnic irredentism as he introduced Yorubanization of Nigeria.  

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To drive home his intentions, President Tinubu surrounded his administration with numerous Igbophobes and haters, driving his anti-Igbo policies at the federal level, while at the state level, his handpicked Gov. Sanwolu has taken vengeful spectacles to a dizzying height with incessant demolition of  properties belonging to mostly Ndiigbo in Lagos. The social media space is filled with recruited ethnic irredentists and jingoists openly spewing hate against Ndiigbo.

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Perhaps, this is part of President Tinubu’s retaliation and retribution against Ndiigbo for thoroughly rejecting him at the polls in 2023, especially in Enugu State, where the APC got a paltry 4772 votes.  Or is it because Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate, woefully trounced the APC in Lagos, the home state of Mr. President?  Many are surprised that the so called master strategist of Nigeria politics should tow such a perfidious path.  Even Chief Awolowo of blessed memory did not go this ugly.  Despite being stoned in 1957 and 1979 in Aba during electioneering campaigns in the first and second republics, Pa Awolowo was quoted to have said that the Yoruba people should continue to work with Ndiigbo for their common good.  Guess President Tinubu did not get this memo.

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Of the five Governors in the South East, two worst performing were elected under the platform of APC.  Gov. Uzodinma of Imo State came to power under the most controversial of any politician.  From lowly 4th position, he claimed power through judicial pronouncement. Since his election, Imo State has not been the same, as he operates from Abuja as an absentee Governor.  The man in Ebonyi was handpicked by former Gov. Umahi who abandoned poverty reduction to construction of flyovers nobody uses. Much is not heard of the performance of Gov. Nwifuru except for celebrating victory at Adoration Grounds, wearing his Catholic faith on his sleeves. APC has not been good news to Ndiigbo.

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The other three Governors of Abia, Anambra, and Enugu are of the Labor Party, APGA, and PDP, respectively.  Like Gov. Mbah, Govs Otti and Soludo have performed creditably well to deserve reelection.  However, what is most baffling is the unceremonious antics of these performing Governors towards the architect of anti-Igbo policies and hate brewing, especially in Lagos. Apart from Gov Soludo’s premature endorsement of President Tinubu for a second term, Gov. Otti is seen growling all over for President Tinubu to come and commission projects in his state, while Gov. Mbah, the best among them, is at the finishing touch of a giant leap or a tepid leap of faith into APC.

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Interestingly, democracy as we know it is the rule of the people by the people who voluntarily and willingly elect their leaders.  The leaders are expected to lead with the collective interest of the people at heart.  Since 2015, APC administrations have not fared well in the South East.  Some have characterized APC as a Boko Haram party, and the disdain was obvious in the results of successive elections.

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Sadly, our South East Governors seem to have abandoned the collective interest and embraced  their personal political ambition.  They shunned Igbo collective interest, which, among others, is to be treated equally in Nigeria and not be relegated to second-class citizens by anti-Igbo policies and hate. The perception in some quarters is that our Igbo Governors are selfish and lack courage in the face of Tinubu’s onslaught against Ndiigbo.  The Governors are seen as cowards running towards a perceived safe haven for fraudulent and rigged reelection.  Such actions solidify the notion that the election is nothing but a sham in Nigeria and a charade, as people are completely irrelevant to the electoral process.

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Closer examination of why Gov. Mbah is making this political move brings us to an interview he granted at the Diaspora Zoom Meeting, a gathering of Enugu State indigenes to rub minds with their candidates before the 2023 election.  The moderator posed a hypothetical question in which Mbah was asked to set aside his party, the PDP, and imagine himself in the fierce wrestling march as in Things Fall Apart between Amalinze the cat and Okonkwo.  Mbah was asked who he would be in that contest.  

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Mbah calmly stated, “Our democracy is not to the level where a person can stand as an independent candidate on the strength of what they have done  in the USA.  Candidates are sponsored by political parties, and those parties are real.  If you have incumbent parties in our country, and you want to win the election.  The first step is to identify one of the incumbent parties, win the hearts of the leadership of that party.  If you fail to achieve that, you have to think sophisticatedly to figure out the reality”.  

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Mbah continued, “As much as we feel so sentimental about it, we have to recognize the reality of our society. We are a heterogeneous society.  If you are in politics, you must be able to play politics to understand how to do it. If you notice, for us as Ndiigbo, I’m not sure we have shown sophistication in politics like we have done in other spheres. It appears that other tribes are ahead of us when it comes to playing politics.  We need to understand how these things work”.

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A critical review of Mbah’s responses provides a glimmer of hope and a better understanding of his reasons for embarking on this journey to APC.  It is obvious Mbah knows his onions as he is  moving Ndi-Enugu to the center, similar to where they were from 1999 to 2015.  He is embracing the incumbent party, APC, in the way politics is played in Nigeria.  On the other hand, APC leadership is not asleep as they’ve cleared the deck for things to unfold. To trigger the political odyssey, they clandestinely did the ground work to attract him by mysteriously denying  him his choice of National Secretary of PDP.  They did more.

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In what seems like a domino effect the last vestige of impediment came crashing down with the resignation of the former Minister, Hon. Nnaji followed quickly with the dissolution of APC Enugu State EXCO at both ward and local government levels, and the appointment of Dr. Nwoye, former APC Chairman, Enugu, who crossed party lines to endorse Gov Mbah in 2023, as APC Caretaker Committee for Enugu State. .

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It seems that in Mbah’s words, he is indeed cannibalizing the obstacles as he heads into APC through the front door to take his supporters from 260 councillors, 17 local government chairmen, state executives, special advisers, and assistants to the center of a renewed hope agenda.  The move to APC has gone beyond defection and has grown to a mass movement of the entire Enugu State PDP apparatus collapsing into APC.  In fact, it has every coloration of a giant political leap. But not so fast.

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For the giant leap to materialize, Gov Mbah should privately inform President Tinubu that Ndiigbo are not happy with him.  Persuade Mr. President to order a halt to the incessant demolition of Igbo properties in Lagos.  Advise him to release Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally.  Tell him he cannot cower Ndiigbo. Remind him that if the twenty-pound handout after the war did not stop Ndiigbo, the anti-Igbo policy of the day would not. Gov. Mbah should remind Mr. President that his anti-Igbo policies and rabid haters lurking in his administration are only leading him down the gully path to a term as President.

 

While the entire escapade appears to be a sure bet for Gov. Mbah and Enugu State PDP, it is too early to determine.  There are lots of loose ends to tight.  There are plenty of unknowns.  Observers will be watching if Gov. Mbah retains the same momentum in infrastructural development and good governance, or will he folds up in the mold of other APC nonperforming Governors in the South East.  Ndiigbo will keenly watch to see if Tinubu’s  policies change for the better for Ndiigbo.  If not,  the move will only dim the shine of Mbah as he will become part of the problem.  Ndiigbo do have elephant brains. They paid Pa Awolowo in his own coin in the 1979 election, and they will not forget Tinubu’s war against Igbo properties in Lagos in a hurry.

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Nevertheless, if the ADC coalition sets aside vaulting personal ambitions and embrace the overriding interests of Nigerians and coalesces around an enigmatic figure like Mr. Peter Obi, Gov Mbah will be in real trouble in the Obi vs. Tinubu race.  In fact, the battle for his reelection will be made more difficult as the tsunami of 2027 will be far more deadlier than in 2023 and could sweep away any and all traces of APC in the South East as the anger and bitterness of over 12 years of APC and Tinubu’s anti-Igbo policies will resurface to dim the light of Gov Mbah despite his stellar performance.  As predicted by one of the political tea leaves readers on X, the next Governor of Enugu state will be neither APC nor PDP.  

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Therefore, it is difficult to tell emphatically if the mass movement is indeed a giant political leap after all.  Rather, it feels more like a leap of faith into APC.  Either way, we wish Gov. Mbah the best of luck as he traverses the murky political waters of Nigeria. His work is cut out for him, and he must walk the walk. He must not allow them to dim his shine. Above all, no matter the political party, we have high hopes in His Excellency Dr. Peter Ndubisi Mbah, the Executive Governor of Enugu State and we hope he does not let us down. As in our street parlance, we say, Don’t mind the body, mind the engine. Forget what is written on the vehicle and hop on for the driver knows your  destination.

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