Life is replete with many choices to draw from. The choice of which route to take in life is yours, and the destination to which the route takes you, you have got to accept. How can one see a route less travelled by and take a journey on it? What would you call that but what we in Nsukka dialect call 'mur' enya n'ishi ah'uzo'? They have eyes, but do not see is the translation. And this is an apt description of Enugu opposition politics.
The tree that would be swirled by the cyclone never sees it form in the horizon. How would anyone see the multitudinous crowd the PDP pulls at its rallies, and still thinks anything else besides the PDP is capable of happening in the state. Optimism may be good, but when stretched to the end of improbability, opposition then is drawn to share border with foolishness, as it is anchored on a glaringly hopeless situation. Whoever did not hear the din of Nwadimogoro, did the elephant stamp on their eardrums? If you have not seen, have you also not heard that Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, the governorship candidate of the PDP in Enugu State, is taking over the governance of Enugu State from Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on May 29th, 2023? Did you not hear the echo that reverberates from Okpara Square to every nook and cranny of Enugu State?
The people of Enugu State have made a bold statement; that Peter Mbah is a gift to the state; that his candidacy is unrivalled; that his manifesto is inimitable; that his character, capacity and competence remain unequalled; that the values he proposes with clear roadmap and financial models capable of taking Enugu State to permanent economic prosperity with the attendant $30 billion size economy and zero percent poverty headcount index, arouse great hopes given his antecedents. All these are clear signs to whoever stands on the way of the people that they are pricking their fingers on thorns. Peter has opened a great and effectual door to exponential growth of Enugu State on all fours. The adversaries playing opposition to the good on the way of the people shall utterly be crushed.
Is there anyone who has yet to know the opposition has failed woefully in Enugu State? Their propaganda, defamation, vilification, fictions, lies and many campaigns of calumny and make believe tales have all been frustrated. Woke Soyinka's poem, "Abiku" in lines one and seven captures the futility of theIr shenanigans. It reads "In vain cast your bangles/ Yams do not sprout on amulets.' Everything has failed them: EFCC, FBI, plea bargain, Ego Ndi Enugu, NYSC certificate forgery. In vain have they laboured and cast their bangles. Yams do not sprout on the amulet. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah is a hard nut to crack. He is invulnerable to already frustrated token of liars. He is ordained to be governor and governor he must be willy nilly.
The irony of it is that the more the opposition weaves damaging lies against Peter Mbah, the more he soars like an eagle, in popularity, love of the people, goodwill and acceptance.
While they had thought to diminish the popularity and goodwill Mbah commands with the idiotic allegation of NYSC certificate forgery, the supporters of Mbah organized an unprecedented two million man march. They occupied Enugu as locust would the surface of the earth. A sea of heads surged through the streets of Enugu and it was like Binan wood had come to Dusinane, as we read in Shakespearean Macbeth.That was a signpost to what is coming. Is it not clear enough the journey the opposition has embarked on is a culdesac? It leads to nowhere.
The opposition has foolishly stopped at nothing to vilify Peter Mbah.They have resorted to wasting the scarce time of the court by filing frivolous cases against the people's choice. One wonders from where such lawyers as accepted such briefs studied Law when clear cases on similar issues that confer the right to sue on pre-election matters to members of the political party who are aspirants. Well, the court shall trash such frivolous suits in due course. Peter remains unfazed.
The latest fancy of the opposition is plan to go with some camera men to the headquarters of Pinnacle Oil in Lagos and position some persons who would purport as customers of Pinnacle claiming they paid for products but they were not delivered to them. The idea is meant to create the impression Peter is not a good leader. The information has it that they want to use Channels Television. One is bound to ask like we did in our previous essay: why do the heathens rage and imagine vain things? Is the opposition peopled by the likes of Uche Nnaji, Ugo Agballa, Chijioke Edeoga and Frank Nweke Jnr so frustrated they would go wayward in their vain attempt to malign Peter Mbah? It is a shame!
The fact is that PDP was careful to choose quality candidates for the 2023 general elections. Besides the indomitable and credible Mbah/Ossai ticket, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is quite another. Of all the riffraff seeking to rival Ugwuanyi in the race, none of them is worth Ugwuanyi's finger in quality of experience, capacity, competence and acceptability. Why would Enugu North Senatorial Zone leave Ugwuanyi to attend to the senile Okey Ezea or any other nondescript politically obscure fellow for that matter? One must commend the PDP for the quality of candidates presented to the people. Those who now claim opposition failed at the PDP primaries and coalesced into the ragtag lacklustre lowly political ebb called Enugu Labour Party, thinking they can deceive the people with Peter Obi's name and goodwill, forgetting that the Enugu electorate is wise.Chijioke Edeoga has yet to confirm his candidacy of the Labour Party as Odengene is poised to twist it off his shaky hand at the Supreme Court. Even if Chijioke is confirmed the candidate, Enugu knows he knows nothing about governance. He has no manifesto and all he does is throw tantrums here and there, whipping sentiments of phantom past. The APC, on the other hand, is dead in Ugo Agballa's hand. The party is deserted by its stakeholder, and its governorship candidate has sold himself to the shame of battering a woman, besides his poor character and alleged drug dealings. Such a person with questionable character is a misfit for the governorship seat of Enugu State. The people know the grains and the chaff. On election day, they shall pick the grains and winnow off the chaff.
If you have anyone who is with the opposition in the state, whisper into their ears that they have taken a journey on Robert Frost's "The Road Less Travelled by", a culdesac, descending down the hill they cannot climb back yet again. It is irredeemable fall into a pit. The choice, however, is theirs.
