Imo Opposition And Its Fruitless Attacks On The State Government: Time To Stop!

CAJETAN DUKE

There is no gainsaying the fact that there is time for everything in human endeavor. Even the holy Bible in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3: 1-8 states, and I quote: “There is time for everything under the heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to heal…”It is an evident and time tested truth, that any human endeavor deployed contrary to its  natural time and season is tantamount to effort in futility and a confrontation against natural law of time and season. 

The reality of this natural sequence is not lost in our contemporary activities, even in our political enterprise and engagements. We have periodic democratic elections, with various tenured political offices. We have time for political campaigns, we have time for elections and time for governance. Once campaigns and elections are over, politicians and supporters should allow the wheel of governance to roll smoothly without unnecessary political distractions. The inability of our political actors to understand, appreciate and abide by the law of time and season in their political lives, no doubt has continued to constitute a log on our wheel of democratic journey and a threat to good governance. 
Inasmuch as one appreciates the strategic role of opposition in our democratic processes, deliberate fabrication of malicious falsehood and concocted press releases by the opposition to discredit and arm twist the government in power cannot take the place of constructive criticisms for which a responsible and responsive oppositional political organization is known for.

In Imo today, frustration, desperation and politics of bitterness have eaten deep into the fabrics of Imo political system, that constructive and engaging political opposition for which the Heartland state was known has been sacrificed at the alter of political mercantilism.

The proclivity at which Imo political opposition fabricates provocative, malicious and misleading falsehood against the policies and programmes of the APC led Uzodinma’s government of shared prosperity, one is left to wonder if truly they are interested in the welfare of the people, or their obsessive and inordinate quest for political power. 

Certainly, we do not expect the opposition to cheer the government in power, it is expected that opposition compliments government in power through constructive criticisms and proffering of alternative solutions to solving societal problems, thereby putting government on its toes to deliver good governance and dividends of democracy to the people.

It is disheartening to note that in Imo State, in a bid to frustrate and discredit every genuine efforts of government, the opposition PDP is blindly criticising government even for the continuation of projects inherited from it. Ordinarily, in a normal circumstance, the Imo PDP should be grateful to the Governor for his political maturity in sustaining almost all inherited projects initiated by the short-lived Ihedioha led administration.Uzodinma also allowed all panels and commissions of inquiry set up by the PDP government to continue with their responsibilities. It is an unprecedented magnanimity in our political clime. Even PDP would never be such magnanimous in victory. 

Every discerning Imolites will agree with me that the ongoing pensions crisis, for which the opposition has turned into an instrument of political campaign, was an inherited soar from the same PDP. We have not forgotten that Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha in one of his addresses to Imo stakeholders decried the high level of irregularities, financial malfeasance and alarming fraud in the pension system. This alarming discoveries, led to the pension verification exercise by Ihedioha led administration. Granted that the administration was short-lived, and Uzodinma on assumption of office vindicated Ihedioha’s claim of endemic corruption in the system and insisted on thorough verification and cleaning of the place to enable government meet up with it’s obligations to retired senior citizens. Instead of the opposition PDP to appreciate governor Uzodinma for his determination to solve a problem it identified, the reverse is the case. 

In this pensions matter, Imo PDP and their political collaborators in the past few weeks had employed all media arsenal at their disposal to undermine the laudable efforts of APC led government. There is nothing on earth, they have not accused Uzodinma if, just sustaining the pension verification exercise they had celebrated as an achievement, even when the exercise was not completed.

When the Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Honourable Declan Emelumba, in one of his media engagements hinted on the discovery of certain individuals earning far above their due, the opposition PDP challenged the government to unmask the identities of the alleged perpetrators. As a responsive government, the list was made public by the governor himself in a meeting with the state leadership of National Union of Pensioners (NUP), Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) etc.

Barely one week of exposing these facts by Governor Hope Uzodinma, the same opposition Imo PDP having been indicted by that revelation took to the media to call the list fictitious and a bid to guilt trip the shared Prosperity government in the state.

It is shocking and at the same time worrisome how opposition Imo PDP could speak from both sides of their mouths by shamelessly and recklessly defending the individuals whose names appeared on the list published by Governor Hope Uzodinma which hitherto they had termed to be fake. This act alone shows the level of insincerity, frustration and desperation of  opposition Imo PDP.

It is therefore pertinent to remind Imo PDP and especially their media hirelings that all of us,  irrespective of our different political persuasions are all stakeholders of Imo project and as such should be mindful of our actions in order not to undermine the development of our dear state in the name of partisan politics. It is important also to remind us that in everything, including but limited to our quest for political powers, there is time for everything. A time for campaign, and a time for governance. A time to win and a time to lose. A loser today, should not destroy the arena, for tomorrow he could be the winner!! In politics, as in everything, there is no champion for life. Even permanent secretary, is not a permanent position.

Cajetan Duke writes from Owerri, Imo State.