By Asadu Idika
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!In Enugu’s Peoples Democratic Party today, it is dog-eat-dog politics. The agenda of ruthlessness is enthroned. It is a do-or-die affair. Driven by the motive to sacrifice the blood of innocent people of the state on the altar of their inordinate ambitions, whatever it would take, they are ready to give. They care less whether Enugu and its people burn to death insofar as Ndi Enugu’s blood will enable their selfish ends. Indeed, the attempt to pick and stitch together the pieces of the wrecked party has yet again met its untimely and sad end, as disparate interests, driven by selfishness and desperation, continue tearing themselves apart.
To state the least, Enugu PDP is swimming in confusion. Different interests within the party are prosecuting a war of displacement. For them, it is not about the collective interests of the people, but interests and motives targeted at enslaving the people of Enugu State. Their mission is clear and the agenda conspicuously defined – the hijack of state power where notorious cabals from other states, in the name of political godfathers, would call the shots and dictate to the good people of Enugu who rules them, and where the commonwealth of the state should domicile.
The warning signs emerged conspicuously early. The PDP, having been outrightly rejected in time past by the Enugu electorate, has been surreptitiously but faintly resurrected by external political forces sworn to hold the state to ransom and shackle it with the slavery of loot, plundering, spoils of war, and the extension of personal estates. They deceptively repackaged the party like a Trojan Horse, pulled the wool over Ndi Enugu’s eyes, and sold it as the messiah.
Yet, the political vultures and hyenas prowling within the party are consuming themselves and turning the state into a theatre of war motivated by personal interests. Their history is replete with chilling evidence of crimes, fraud, corruption, and incompetence. Today, these manifestations are becoming too deafening to ignore. A few youths have been compromised into making saints out of individuals with records steeped in scoundrelly conduct. They now present them as the alpha and omega, yet it is public knowledge that they belong in perpetual incarceration in a country where the justice system is effective, proactive, and accountable.
The strange bedfellows claiming the messianic title in Enugu PDP were once bluntly sacked by the federal government over their irredeemable criminal records and gross incompetence in office. And the question every sane mind should often ask is: how did we get here, where criminals are celebrated and people destroying the future of youths through hard drugs are hailed as heroes? They are raised shoulder-high even when the stench of their own misdeeds has refused to leave them.
Almost everyone parading as PDP’s redeemer today held one office or another in the past with nothing — not even a modicum of achievement — to show for their stewardship. Yet they are being sponsored and piloted by opportunistic, self-serving political overlords who want to maintain Enugu as their heritage, where the allocation of the state would be divided to service their insatiable personal desires while leaving the people to suffer.
This has prompted the recent storm blowing across the party in the state, where forces outside Enugu are commanding and controlling its activities. The rule of the jungle now applies. It is an era of suspension and counter-suspension. This morning, one press statement is released; hours later, another counters it. The craze has become an endless homily of horror without repentance. The only repentance in their holy book of politics is to maim, displace, kill, prey, and destroy just to become the face of the party. The spillover effect is imminent if Ndi Enugu do not rise up and reject them now. Enugu State cannot look on while people and parties already rejected by the people set the state ablaze.
Even as the confusion rages, with the war of attrition threatening to lead the party into the anticipated implosion, Ndi Enugu must stand up and take a strong stand against those bent on destabilising the state. Parents must not allow their children to be used as thugs for politicians whose own children are living lavish lives outside the country. The only way to end this confusion and restore peace is by outrightly rejecting the PDP and all those heating up our society. Yet again, reject the certificate forger before they forge away our only state.
Idika writes from the University Town, Nsukka.