By using our website, you agree to the use of our cookies.

Advertisement

2023 GOVERNORSHIP AND
STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS

  • days
  • Hours
  • Minutes
  • Seconds
🇳🇬 👍 🇳🇬
Enugu State 2023: Of Facts and Fats
Opinion

Enugu State 2023: Of Facts and Fats

Advertisement

By M.O. Ene

The quest for political power in a presidential democracy is not for the fainthearted. To win, opponents sow seeds of doubts, but lies convert to campaigns of calumny. Fat and fact-free fabrications drag harsh winds that nurture a tsunami of hate. It is okay to take sides in elections, but it is crass to degrade people who seek to serve.

Advertisement

The gubernatorial candidate of PDP, Peter Mbah, has been at the receiving end of concocted calumny and desperate demarketing. The pushback was strong. Still, the Internet regurgitates preposterous postings and their tall tales that tend to trend.

During a Zoom interactive interview with the diaspora community on November 6, 2022, Mbah stated: “In the run up to the primaries, there was a lot of misinformation that was peddled. People vilified others. There was politics of calumny. One was maligned, scorned, and all that. Even though I knew when I took the decision that I was going to be exposed to all sorts, I underrated the extent to which people would entertain themselves and stretch their imagination in concocting falsehoods.”

The paucity of professional practitioners of journalism and mass communication in Enugu State has not helped. Not many people knew of the amazing accomplishments of oil-and-gas magnate Mbah—a manager of men and an innovative pacesetter, though he had served the state as both a chief of staff and commissioner for finance.

Advertisement

It does not take digging deep to demolish the falsehoods. For example, Mbah was studying overseas and wrapping up his law school during the 1999-2003 period. His involvement in politics was accidental. He served briefly and went back to his thriving business. Twice.

On the EFCC muddle, Mbah has revealed that the commission did not invite him: he volunteered to help with the investigations. After months of fishing for faults, nothing popped up to charge him. Mbah explained: “I was never a party to any plea bargain. I have never been convicted before in [or] by any court. I have never faced any criminal charges.”

He further asserted: “Indeed, if there is a shred of evidence, I challenge anyone, just a modicum of evidence to show that I was part of a plea bargain or that I was convicted by any court of law for any charge whatsoever.”

To date, no one has contradicted him; yet the talks endure even among people who know better. Mbah concluded: “These were the things that existed in the imagination of some people, and I felt that they did politics with it. But the time of politics is over. We should face reality.”

Advertisement

Indeed, we should have faced reality, not romancing the falsehoods. No candidate has reviewed each other’s manifesto and argued proposals. PDP’s Mbah presented his manifesto quite early. APGA’s Frank Nweke followed. APC’s Uche Nnaji posted his piece much later. LP’s Chijioke Edeoga is yet to present a plan, let alone a manifesto. The essence of ‘emilokan’ endures!

Of all the fact-full and fat-free proposals, no one is talking about the facts. Instead, some citizens spend time picking pebbles off clean clothes.

With one week to go, we should focus on what the candidates want to do and how. The people of Enugu State should not be entertaining dangerous dichotomy and petty parochialism preached by supposed statesmen nor getting carried away by the emotions and euphoria of evolving events. Ndị Enugu cannot afford to make a mistake that will make the present pain a pediatric party. This is no child’s play: Anya sakwaa nụ!

Advertisement

#moe

@aladimma

3.3.23


Disclaimer

Contents provided and/or opinions expressed here do not reflect the opinions of The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine or any employee thereof.

Support The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

It takes a lot to get credible, true and reliable stories.

As a privately owned media outfit, we believe in setting the pace and leaving strides in time.

If you like what we do, you can donate a token to us here. Your support will ensure that the right news is put out there at all times, reaching an unlimited number of persons at no cost to them.

Related posts

Leave a Reply

Required fields are marked *