IN PRAISE OF ENUGU ELECTORATE
DONS EZE
We salute the resilience and doggedness of Enugu electorate. We salute them for their reawakening and self-consciousness as thinking beings. We salute them for shaking off their lethargic and apathetic past and their waking up from slumber. We salute them for their courage and determination to stand by what they believe. We salute them for refusing to be no longer led by the nose.
With the outcome of the February 25 election in Enugu State, the Enugu electorate are no longer mocked and said to be timid, follow-follow, Zombie, analogue and uncritical. They have asserted themselves as free citizens of Nigeria by doing what their minds had told them to do. The Enugu electorate no longer accept the package given to them by those in authority. They no longer look anybody in the eyes, no matter the position which one occupies, before doing whatever they want to do. They have indeed matured to be on their own. We salute them.
Enugu State, and perhaps, Abia State, are the only two states in the South East that have for long refused to kick out the contraption called the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since 1999. The two states are also the least developed among the five states in the South East. The reason is because there is no opposition, and no challenge to the status quo. Everybody closes his eyes and shuts his mouth to the impunity, arrogance and lackadaisical attitude of those in government in Enugu State.
That is why, in Enugu State, for the past eight years, nobody could credit the PDP administration with any signature project, and nobody raises any dust. There is no good road in both the urban and rural areas of Enugu State. There is no portable water and no rural electrification. Schools and hospitals are in dilapidated state.
Primary school teachers and local government workers are not paid the N30,000 national minimum wage. Civil servants are denied promotion and leave allowance; while retired workers are not paid pensions and gratuities. Unemployment is rife, while abandoned projects litter every corner of the state. Collapsed industries and commercial establishments have not been reactivated, etc.
Because the PDP administration in Enugu State has thousands of political thugs called appointees, clothed as SPAs, PAs, TAs, etc., which they hoped they would use to rig elections when the time comes, they never bothered to attend to the needs of the people they suprintend over their affairs. They were so confident that they would always win every election in the state. That is why they would arrogantly tell anybody they come across that “Enugu State is PDP, and PDP is Enugu State,” and that they would continue to rule Enugu State till thy kingdom come.
When, therefore, the results of the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections in Enugu State were announced, the PDP was in total shock, in bewilderment, in confusion and short of words. For more than 72 hours virtually all PDP related WatsAAp platforms were dead as dodo. Nobody wrote anything.
We thank the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for introducing the Biomedal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine, which ended the impunity of the PDP in Enugu State, such as the stuffing of ballot boxes with ballot papers, the carrying of ballot boxes, and the writing of fake results.
On February 25, even though INEC had in some areas played hanky panky with BVAS, the result available showed that the so-called popularity of PDP in Enugu State is simply a fluke. It equally showed that the Enugu electorate had overwhelmingly cast a vote of no confidence on the PDP and its government in Enugu State.
On Saturday, March 11, the Enugu electorate will equally be on duty, to elect the governor and members of the state House of Assembly. It will be another opportunity to confirm their rejection of the Peoples Democratic Party, which for 24 years, has taken them for a ride.
