By Maxwell Nwadike
“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked
and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.” ― Oscar Wilde.
Was Oscar Wilde referring to Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe? We shall find out.
The recent nomination of Mr Donatus Nwankpa as the commissioner designate
from Abia State into the board of NDDC didn’t come to those of us who
knows him as a surprise. This was because he is very roundly qualified and
a well-tested team player, who has so much to offer the commission as well
as Abains.
The surprise, rather arose when some Abians led by Senator Enyinnaya
Abaribe, representing Abia South in the Senate did not only express his
displeasure with the appointment but went ahead to state a mundane reason
to why Mr. Donatus Nwankpa should not be screened to fill Abia State slot
in the NDDC Board.
His reason was that the appointment of a candidate outside the oil
producing area of the state was against the law and asked the President to
replace the nominee with somebody from Ukwa West Local Council, which he
said, is the only oil producing area in Abia State for now.
It surprises my imagination on how our lawmakers are bent on quoting and
misinterpreting the law in order to suit their political maneuvering and
personal gain.
I have taken my time to read through the laws setting up and guiding the
commission and can only find where it is clearly stated that a member must
be from an oil producing state, without particular reference to being an
Indigene of a producing community.
Furthermore, the first Chairman of NDDC, Chief Onyema Ugochuchikwu, was an
Umuahia man, though an Abian to head the office but was not from an oil
producing community of the state.
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe cannot suddenly become a champion of fairness
and equity when after two tenures of eight years as Senator representing
Abia South muzzled himself back to the senate when he sought and failed to
secure the governorship seat of Abia State. Senator Abaribe in the spirit
of fairness and equity was supposed to relinquish the senate seat to Chief
Chris Nkwonta, an oil magnate and political heavy weight from Ukwa; major
sub ethnic block in the much touted Ukwa/Ngwa cultural and political union
since both Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu and Sen.Enyinnaya Abaribe himself came from
the same local govt and almost from the same community.
It is very clear to me that Senator Abaribe wants to nominate his loyalist
and candidate for this position for obvious reasons of cornering anything
and everything to his control and this unfair and unacceptable; which
reason I find it rather nauseating, to hear so loudly, the cry for
fairness laced in hypocrisy, after Senator Abaribe has comfortably secured
himself at the Senate.
I am therefore calling on the Senate President to go ahead and screen Mr .
Donatus Nwankpa.and clear him as nominated, based on his merit and
recommendations of the law and not with considerations for any mundane
reasons.
Nwadike, a commentator on public affairs, wrote in from Aba