Between Disruptive Governance and Political IOUs in Enugu State
Oguejiofo Ujam advises the Governor-elect of Enugu State, Dr Peter Mbah, to be wary of the antics of political jobbers in the Coal City State as he hits the ground running after inauguration on May 29, 2023.
After the main battle for the governorship seat of Enugu State, there are still two other contests awaiting the victorious gladiators. One is how to settle down and deliver on the mandate received, while the other relates to the demands of political actors that have various IOUs (I Owe You).
For those who may not be conversant, IOUs are often generated through concessions and promises to stakeholders in the course of the bargaining for votes. Consequently, in Enugu State, the two scenarios are currently weighing heavily on the minds of the incoming administration of Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah and Barrister Ifeanyi Ossai. As major political concessions, they both hold the ambitious promise of massive infrastructure development in different parts of Enugu State.
But, what makes the burdens very unusual is that unlike in the past when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had a retinue of elected officials or was in control of the Federal Government, it is no longer so.
As things stand in the state, which has been a traditional base of PDP, apart from one Senator-elect, one member of the House of Representatives-elect, and 10 members-elect for the state House of Assembly, the party now depends on the incoming governor for political ventilation. Before now PDP boasted of control of the Federal Government from which such things like membership and headship of boards of agencies and parastatals were appointed. But, as the curtain falls on the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi administration and another All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government is about to take office, the challenges for the incoming Dr. Peter Mbah executive in Enugu State are enormous.
What seemed to compound the situation in Enugu State is that the incoming Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration has been made to look like old maids by the advent of Labour Party (LP) young naïve and confused maidens. These untested and inexperienced upstarts, who boast only of their youth and fresh faces in politics and administration are stomping the place with a mistaken entitlement mentality.
Based on the insurgent emotional politics that defined the 2023 elections in the Southeast, especially in Enugu State, the state legislature has been robbed of the unanimity that has always characterized the Coal City State House of Assembly since 1999. For instance, despite the Labour Party faulty and disputed victories, some of these nubile maidens sheepishly muster the courage to even interrogate the rules of engagement in the emergent House of Assembly ahead of their inauguration.
Add to that the distracting influence of the Governorship Election Petition filed by the Labour Party and its candidate in the last governorship election, Mr. Chijioke Edeoga, who tends to whip the erroneous sentiment of a stolen mandate. It is obvious that the incoming Mbah administration is confronted with a myriad of concerns.