Face Governance Issues At Home – Group Cautions Umahi, Ebonyi Assemby

CHUKWUDUBEM K.

A group of young professionals under the aegis of South East Family Union (SEFU) has issued a warning to the Governor and people of Ebonyi State to face more challenging tasks at home and stop playing to the gallery over the naming of a street in Awka.

Rising from an emergency meeting at Enugu, the group said that they had “watched with deep anxiety as political leaders of Ebonyi State led by the Governor abandoned the serious issues of governance for cheap emotional showmanship to buy and manipulate the support of an increasingly suspicious electorate for the 2019 general elections.

“We are surprised that Ebonyi lawmakers could devote a whole plenary session to bellyache over the renaming of a street by a sister state. And we sincerely feel that the time has come for reason to prevail in Ebonyi State.

It was widely believed that Umahi is panicky that his reelection hopes were almost as good as slipping away from him to Gov Willie Obiano-led All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Governor Umahi has come under increasing criticism for eroding sister state relations by deliberately blowing a street naming out of proportion.

SEFU counseled Umahi to imbibe humility and learn from Obiano the art of love and service.

They described as the height of insolence, and insensitivity the so-called ultimatum of seven days that the Ebonyi State Assembly gave Governor Obiano to reverse  Club Road to Abakaliki Street.

“The ultimatum is a highly provocative act lacking logic and reason….”

The document which was signed by professionals from the five South East states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, said that Umahi failed in the leadership expected of him as the Chairman of the South East Governors Forum. “He would have simply put a telephone call through to Governor Obiano and talk things over as members of one family” the group said.

It noted that with this mindset it was left to one’s imagination how he pilots the affairs of the Governor’s forum which he has run aground.

The group therefore urged other governors to emulate Obiano’s blueprint. They cautioned Umahi to stop being a black sheep of the zone as his political antics would only count against him at the polls. “He should therefore retrace his steps from the ignoble path of dishonour he has erroneously chosen as it would do him no good”, they added.