Emeka Ihedioha though you weep today, you are not alone

By OBINNA EZUGWU

Your Excellency, Ihedioha, yesterday, following the Supreme Court verdict that nullified your victory and removed you as governor, I saw a picture of you trending online. In it, you sat on a seat with the seal of the executive governor of Imo State, bent down, downcast and obviously shedding tears. It was, I must say, painful to watch. Yesterday was a sad day for all of us, and a painful twist in our democratic journey.

I know you feel so hard done, but I feel it is important to tell you that you are not alone.

Dear governor, I still call you governor because Ndi Imo know who they braved the odds to elect to lead them, at least for the next four years. I know how much of a relief it was for millions of Imolites who celebrated in their homes, and for many of who took to the streets in wild jubilation when you were announced winner of the state’s governorship election last year. It was for many, a victory of light over darkness; an escape from Egypt to the promised land. To these many people, you remain, of course, in their hearts, a leader. And even though the thieves have come at night to steal and to destroy that victory, and that joy, and another person will now sit on that seat of Imo governor, you can go home, rest assured that you remain our hero. You may have lost a battle, but you will definitely win the war. Those who organised your downfall, I have no doubt, will realise sooner or later, that there is no joy to be derived by ‘imposing’ their will on the people.

Imo is like a woman who, having resisted the overtures of an unwanted man, was eventually ‘murdered’ by the same man just so he could have his way. The ‘destiny’ of Imo people may have, as your party said, ‘been stolen’. But the culprit will soon find out that there is no joy to be derived from laying a ‘corpse,’ for it would soon become cold and stiff. Those who stole your victory, Ihedioha, and violated Imo State and Ndigbo in general, will soon find out that sometimes what matters is not the sumptuous meat on the table, but the smile and happiness with which meals are eaten. They have driven you away from the table, but I doubt if they would find lasting peace sitting there.

But just in case Nigerians forgot, it was an election that witnessed the display of the federal might that now characterise election in this sad military democracy. But against all the odds, you polled 273 votes to beat, not the person who they have given victory, but Uche Nwosu who got 190,364 votes to come second, and indeed Ifeanyi Ararume who came third with 114,676 votes. But somehow, and for some interesting reasons, victory has been awarded to the person who came fourth with 96,486 votes in the excuse that his votes were not added. Meanwhile, total cancelled votes stood at 25,230, total votes accredited voters, 823,743; total votes cast, 739,585 and total valid votes, 714,355. I’m not a lawyer, I don’t know the legal reasons behind the decision. I have read lawyers argue for and against the judgement. I don’t know which is correct. But I leave Nigerians to do the mathematics of adding the total of the votes scored by the four candidates above, plus those of Ikedi Ohakim who got 6,846 and sundry other candidates who had few thousands, subtract with the valid votes and come out with their own results.

You fought a good fight, achieved a sound victory despite the odds, and although that victory has been ‘taken away’ by a what looks like a conspiracy of those who seem so determined to promote the worst of us with a view to keeping us perpetually down, hold your head high because you are the new hero of the eastern heartland. You are a new leader of Ndigbo. Until now, you were only the governor of Imo State, one of the five states in the Southeast zone. But I tell you today, you have been elevated beyond the confines of the Imo boundary to the leadership of the Igbo nation which stretches the entire Southeast and beyond. I can tell because I know how leaders emerge in the Igbo country. Leaders emerge out of adversity. The Igbo are a people who hate injustice, it is in the DNA of the average Igbo man and woman. And when any is the obvious victim of injustice, he is rallied behind in great solidarity.

I am not, unaware, of course, that the people who have meted out this apparent ‘injustice’ to you will soon have their own handful of praise singers. It is a country where for many hungry stomachs, what matters is food on the table. And whoever is able to provide that food, not minding the circumstances, will be their champion. So, of course, people will flock around the new occupant of the seat you have left, though with a bowed head, but with dignity. They would even, as has become the practice in this sorry excuse of a country, hire thousands of internet trolls to flood social media spaces to attack you and hail the injustice meted out to you. I must tell you that many a youth in this country has lost all sense of decency. There are many who will very easily justify murder or even the rape of their own mothers just for the peanuts. Again, that cannot be surprising in a country that has now become the poverty capital of the world; a country where, according to the World Bank, over 90 million of the estimated 180 million people, live in extreme poverty. For many therefore, anything, not minding how ignoble, can be done provided there is food on the table.

Indeed, I have been told that a handful of people are celebrating, celebrated the ‘injustice’ meted out to you in the anticipation of the food that it would bring to their table. Such is Nigeria. But they are only a handful.

I am told that those who plotted your removal seek to establish a foothold in Igbo land for their would be “conquest” agenda. But what they do not know is that they have succeeded in driving a sword deep into the heart of every Igbo son and daughter whose paternity is not questionable. They have only succeeded in creating deep enmity between themselves and the Igbo nation. I know that the Igbo are a determined people, and it is difficult to “conquer” a people so determined. They will realise soon enough, that they have only achieved a Pyrrhic victory.

But I also feel very sorry for Imo State. How desperately the people had looked forward to a new leadership and a new direction after the experience of the last eight years. And how, indeed, they had breathed sighs of relief upon your emergence as governor. Let me not now be another prophet of doom. We already have a very prominent one and that’s more than enough.

Many people have sworn to me that the new man will be worse than the man you replaced as governor. They have their reasons, but I know that sometimes, salvation can come from the most unlikely places. We can all give him benefit of the doubt and hope he performs in the interest of Imo State. If he has any idea how the generality of the people across Igbo land feel about him, he would have no choice but to perform.

I am not from Imo. But I feel pained, like everyone else, about what happened to you. You must know that the tears you shed yesterday led to many tears across Igbo nation and beyond.

That yesterday, I received three phones calls that lasted for nearly 30 minutes each, and each caller had called to lament with me what happened to you and to Imo State. It might interest you to know that none of the callers are from Imo. They were from Enugu, Abia and Ebonyi states. I have an Imo neighbour who visited me last night, he was boiling the rage and was almost overcome by emotions.

Today, Ihedioha, Igbo land is mourning, and the Igbo nation is seething with rage. You may not yet realise how painful your removal is for every Igbo person, and indeed every Nigerian of good conscience. But it cuts deep, much like a knife.

Regardless, you must hold your head high, knowing, that as I emphasised earlier, you are our hero, you are my hero, and you are the new symbol of the Igbo resistance spirit. Ihedioha, you lost the war, but the battle, I am, certain, you will win.

In the meantime, however, everyone involved here is an Impolite. It is in the overall interest of the generality of the people that you all come together to build Imo State.