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Running with the hare, dodging the assassins
By Levi Obijiofor
BARELY two weeks ago, Anambra State Deputy Governor Ugochukwu Nwankwo revealed details of an alleged plot to assassinate principal officers of the state, including Governor Chris Ngige, the Speaker of the state House of Assembly and Ugochukwu himself. When the allegation was published in major national newspapers, many people laughed it off as one of those baseless statements designed to draw further sympathy and attention to Ngige and his government. After the events in Awka this week, no one is taking the allegations lightly anymore. Ngige and his principal officers are dead men walking the streets of Awka.
For how long shall Ngige and his government continue to sleep with one eye shut like a guard dog? For how long shall Ngige continue to attempt to balance and appease all kinds of forces in Abuja and Awka? In Abuja, the federal authorities offer him peace, protection, reconciliation and all that jazz. On the home front, Ngige and his principal officers continue to dodge the assassins' bullets, living the life of guerrillas on a war front. Someone is playing games with Ngige and the people of Anambra State. Dishonesty in politics is truly alive in Nigeria.
This week the drama in Anambra was elevated from the platform of speculation to the podium of reality. As if on auto-cue, the convoy of Governor Ngige was targeted and shot at many times on Monday. But the diminutive bearded governor escaped the assassination attempt through divine intervention. In Anambra this week, there are two cries of two kinds emanating from two different groups. Ngige's supporters are crying and shedding tears of joy, offering thanks to God for protecting their political gem from the valley of death. The assassins and their sponsors are crying and shedding tears and regretting that their quarry managed to escape from the innumerable bullets fired in his direction. Ngige's political enemies truly believe that the problems in Anambra would end if they succeed in eliminating the man through the barrel of the gun. They are wrong in their calculations. If they eliminate Ngige through violence, the political problems in the state would exacerbate.
The battle between Ngige and his enemies must not be perceived as a localised contest between two power hungry political groups. If Ngige is eliminated through violence, the battlefront and the strategies would shift from the hot spots in Awka to hand-to-hand fights between people in the communities and local governments where the principal actors enjoy popular support. No community would like to lose a valued son. No local government would like to lose a man who contributes to the development of the area. It would be such a terrible war. A state of emergency will not quench that kind of political fire. A war between communities and local governments would pulverize the entire state, eliminating the long-held notion of unity in Igbo land. It is a tragedy that both sides in the dispute are not thinking of this larger picture. For now, they are driven by the desire to achieve their selfish interests and share the spoils of political office.
President Obasanjo, who is preaching morality while flouting the basic rules of moral suasion, is not mindful of the larger implications of his involvement in the dispute in Anambra State. Because of his personal interests in the political crisis in Anambra, Obasanjo is not a fit and proper person to talk about morality. In Anambra politics, Obasanjo must admit that he lacks the credibility and the detachment of an unbiased umpire. Obasanjo should take his gospel of morality elsewhere. He is the president of Nigeria but he is not the president of moral talks.
The attack on Ngige's convoy this week was bizarre and daring. The attack was bizarre because it occurred when two different fact-finding teams were visiting the state, searching for peace in haystack full of hedgehogs. The so-called presidential peace delegation and the visiting three-member Senate Committee on the Anambra Crisis were in Awka at the time. The attackers and their sponsors wanted to convey a simple message to the visiting delegations: they will never stop or surrender until Ngige vacates the office of governor. These guys are residing in the cyberspace. They really believe that intimidation and scare tactic would soften Ngige to the point where he would wake up one day, announce his resignation and check out of the governor's lodge. Such things don't happen often in politics, not when there are two sworn, headstrong enemies in this dispute.
It is a measure of how daring and determined the assassins and their sponsors must be. They did not consider the wisdom of abandoning or delaying their evil plans, even after those plans had been publicized in the newspapers, and even after the plot had been made known to the potential targets. These assassins and their sponsors are definitely above the law. They operate with the brazen audacity of armed robbers backed with superior firepower. They announce their plans to their victims. They leave trails of evidence behind, realizing fully that the disreputable police in Anambra, led by an equally incompetent police commissioner, are incapable of pulling off a hair.
Ngige's enemies continue to make elementary mistakes about how to fight and win in politics. In politics, particularly in a state as volatile as Anambra, you must never under-estimate your enemies. Each time the forces of darkness think they have cornered the embattled governor and members of his government, the entire plans skid off the track. Which is why Ngige appears to be invincible. Ngige may not have the kind of money his enemies have. Ngige may not be blessed with the physiognomy of a bullfighter or a wrestler, as some of his enemies are. Ngige may not possess a huge head and large brain skull as some of his enemies. However, scientific evidence informs us that human intelligence is not measured by the size of the human head or the size of someone's biceps. What Ngige lacks in size and wealth he more than makes up in smartness. Ngige is a mystery to his enemies. He is also as slippery as an eel. They can't catch him asleep or awake. They under-estimate the survival instincts and foresight of the diminutive governor.
Ngige might be relatively new in politics but he has proved to be a fast learner too. Consider this. When Moshood Abiola left the country briefly in 1993 following growing uncertainty about the outcome of the uncompleted and disputed presidential election results, some of his lily-livered supporters began to suggest that he acted unwisely by leaving the country. Within weeks Abiola returned to face his enemies and fretful supporters. When he was asked whether it was an act of cowardice for him to have left his supporters and his country behind to face an uncertain fate, Abiola adopted an inspirational and classical proverb to justify his temporary exit. He said that when an evil wind blows, smart politicians stoop to let the fiery wind pass over them but the foolish politicians remain upright and get carried by the wind. The implication of the proverb is clear: it is not weakness for a politician to fight and escape to live another day. In Nigeria political battles last long. Ngige is engaged in one such unending battle. His enemies see things through a tunnel vision - a linear approach to political governance.
The attack on Ngige was useful on one count to the people of Anambra and the Nigerian public. It pulled the gloss off the public relations messages put out by the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and President Olusegun Obasanjo to underplay the severity of the political crisis in Anambra. Obasanjo and the PDP leaders insist the crisis in Anambra is an in-house power play. But they don't know how to resolve that perceivably simple "family" misunderstanding. All these have rendered untenable the promises and assurances of peace and protection given to Ngige in Abuja.
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