EXCERPTS: The first time the public was to know that all was not well in the relationship between the deputy governor and his principal was when in December last year, Onyebuchi literarily reported himself to the world by advertising how he had flagrantly disobeyed the directives of the governor, conveyed through a letter to him, to relocate a commercial poultry which he was operating at his official quarters at the Government House to another and safer place. The deputy governor had flagrantly refused to meet the governor to discuss the issue and had instead gone ahead to disregard a reminder, leading to the poultry which was said to have constituted a menace and health hazard being removed by the relevant organs of the state. Rather than admit that he had flagrantly fallen foul of the law of the state which he was well aware, he had gathered the members of the media to lament to them how he was being victimized by an aide of the governor, thus, upping the decibels of what would have been parched up as a minor incident. That event raised many eyebrows and led many people, including this reporter, to start making inquiries. Investigations, thereafter, showed that Governor Chime had been suffering secretly under the obvious uncooperative acts of his deputy, who might have, from the very beginning been imagining that Chime did not qualify to become a governor better than himself, as he must have reasoned, that both of them were, after all, commissioners under the Chimaroke Nnamani administration. But many people also feel that rather than belly ache over his position, he should have been grateful to the governor and God. It is said that Onyebuchi was not initially slated to be the deputy to Chime, but when Sam Ejiofor, the favorite for the position was grounded by some problems with the EFCC, Chime had picked Onyebuchi instead. It was also said that for reasons best known to him, Onyebuchi had approached the governor towards the end of their first tenure and had informed him that he would not be interested in pairing with him for the second tenure. Instead of suspecting disloyalty, Chime was said to have believed that his deputy was misguided and being misadvised by some political enemies and when it became obvious that he was about to pick the party’s ticket for the second term, he was said to have invited Sunday Onyebuchi to inform him that he was ready to still carry him along. It was a very grateful Onyebuchi, who, in tears effusively thanked his principal, according to my sources. It was believed that their second and last term would roll to an end without incidents. But that was not to be. Soon after the commencement of the current and last term, Governor Chime took ill and traveled to Europe for medical attention. From there, he was running the state as smoothly as if he was physically around, thanks to a crop of dedicated, competent and loyal aides and commissioners who kept in constant contact by phone with their ever alert principal. The strongest link was said to be Mrs. Ifeoma Nwobodo, the chief of staff and a woman whose capacity for hard work and dedication to duty defy classification. But according to reports, things started to unravel following the visit of the deputy governor to the governor, after which the deputy might have imagined that Chime’s case was beyond redemption evidenced by what happened after his return. There are many well-heeled people in Enugu State who suggested to this reporter that Onyebuchi might have started nursing intentions to oust the governor from his seat. For example, it was reported that Onyebuchi started prevailing on the chief of staff to allow him an unbridled access to the security vote, the request Mrs. Nwobodo was said to have staunchly refused saying that she had to be instructed by her boss in writing before such could happen, reminding the deputy governor that she was a personal staff of the governor. Many observers insist that if he had got the funds he needed, he might have easily oiled his machinations for the removal of the governor, the onslaught against whom only started and ended with noisy and frantic postings on the social media. It would even amounted to political suicide for anybody to have tried a frontal attempt at the removal of the governor as government activities were in full swing, the many roads under construction were proceeding apiece. All through the past seven and half years, the popular support for the governor has never swayed. In fact, Chime’s presence was everywhere, as if he was physically present. It was further reported that having failed to woo the governors’ aides to his side, he allegedly launched attempts to remove them especially Mrs. Nwobodo. It was said that he started harassing the convalescing governor with tales that the chief of staff was plotting to get him impeached. Suspecting that if he left the potentially destabilizing stories to continue, his state might run into trouble; the governor rushed home to stabilize things and save the state from political crisis which had been alien to it. It was even reported that when the governor came back, his deputy was the first to inform him that the state was calm and that all those stories that had been peddled were only figments of some people’s imagination! Things would have remained in a placid situation till the end of their tenure, had the deputy governor, according to widespread reports, not upped his acts of disloyalty which were said to have suggested unconcealed disrespect to the constituted authority and disregard for the mainstream party camp in the state. It was widely rumoured that Onyebchi had started identifying openly with and attending meetings with Senator Ike Ekweremadu and former Governor Nnamani camps which are visibly not in agreement with the governor’s. Because politicians are not known for tolerating traitors in their ranks, many observers believe that it was foolish of Onyebuchi not have resigned to properly secure his alliance with the opponents of the governor. That he did not do, but might have unwisely stayed on, hoping to upturn the applecart from the inside. His methods are even unwiser, as observers noted. Even though his major grouse has been with the governor who he openly disrespected without much reason or justification, he has decided to hang all his political woes on the neck of the governor’s aide who he has touted as the beginning and end of his problems. Yet, political observers in the state see that as a clear case of inferiority complex and an acceptance of defeat by the woman who is widely touted as also eying the senatorial seat of Enugu East – the same seat that might have been promised Onyebuchi by his new political masters in Abuja. Unfortunately, apart from having fouled his political chances on the ground through his unprincipled fight against the governor, the woman he is contending with is said to have drilled deep into the grassroots. The latest series of political rascality on the side of the deputy governor was his arrant refusal to represent the state at the recent meeting of the South East Governors being hosted by the state, when Governor Chime was on a vacation abroad, last month. In spite of being expressly directed to do so by his principal, the South East governors were said to have been embarrassed by Onyebuchi’s unexplained absence, necessitating the drafting of the SSG by the chairman, Governor Theodore Orji of Abia. When the governor on his return asked why, Onyebuchi was said to have nothing tangible in response. As if that was not bad enough, a few days after the governor’s return, the deputy governor was said to have gone to him requesting permission to travel abroad to shop for kitchen utensils for his wife. When the governor reportedly asked him to say ‘one reason why the request should be granted’, the deputy governor was said to have haughtily retorted, asking the governor, ‘to say one reason why the requested should not be granted’. It was at that point that the governor reportedly told his deputy that it looked obvious that he had got tired of the job, but had also, according to the reports, advised him that it would have been better for him to leave more honourably. At that stage, the political sharks at the state legislature and the party smelled blood and went in for a kill. And instead of Onyebuchi going back to his soft-minded principal to appeal for forgiveness and talk over any misgivings, it was to Abuja, where he believed he had backers that he ran. But then, any backers he must have counted on are astute political minds who could not openly condone such foolish shows of insubordination and flagrant display of political immaturity. For Onyebuchi, it was too late. The PDP caucus members in the state met and even those who might have harboured sympathy for him could longer express it in the face of what they would have seen as clear cases of political stupidity. When that caucus rose two weeks ago, it was obvious that the days of Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi as the deputy governor of Enugu State had come to an eclipse. That would have been the right time for Onyebuchi to resign and leave with what was left of his tattered integrity. But that was not the way the deputy governor saw it, even when it has become obvious to even a child in Enugu State and beyond that his is not the way to be a deputy governor. Maybe, when he gets impeached this week, Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi would have learnt the hard way. But the greater realization would be that it is ice cold out there, where nobody identifies with a failure – especially those who inflicted the failure on themselves. READ IN FULL HERE: southeastnigeria/enugu-how-not-to-be-a-deputy-governor-by-uche-ezechukwu/
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 09:21:57 +0000
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