By Maxwell Nwadike<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked
\nand being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.\u201d\u00a0 \u2015 Oscar Wilde.<\/p>\n
Was Oscar Wilde referring to Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe? We shall find out.<\/p>\n
The recent nomination of Mr Donatus Nwankpa as the commissioner designate
\nfrom Abia State into the board of NDDC didn\u2019t come to those of us who
\nknows him as a surprise. This was because he is very roundly qualified and
\na well-tested team player, who has so much to offer the commission as well
\nas Abains.<\/p>\n
The surprise, rather arose when some Abians led by Senator Enyinnaya
\nAbaribe, representing Abia South in the Senate did not only express his
\ndispleasure with the appointment but went ahead to state a mundane reason
\nto why Mr. Donatus Nwankpa should not be screened to fill Abia State slot
\nin the NDDC Board.<\/p>\n
His reason was that the appointment of a candidate outside the oil
\nproducing area of the state was against the law and asked the President to
\nreplace the nominee with somebody from Ukwa West Local Council, which he
\nsaid, is the only oil producing area in Abia State for now.<\/p>\n
It surprises my imagination on how our lawmakers are bent on quoting and
\nmisinterpreting the law in order to suit their political maneuvering and
\npersonal gain.<\/p>\n
I have taken my time to read through the laws setting up and guiding the
\ncommission and can only find where it is clearly stated that a member must
\nbe from an oil producing state, without particular reference to being an
\nIndigene of a producing community.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the first Chairman of NDDC, Chief Onyema Ugochuchikwu, was an
\nUmuahia man, though an Abian to head the office but was not from an oil
\nproducing community of the state.<\/p>\n
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe cannot suddenly become a champion of fairness
\nand equity when after two tenures of eight years as Senator representing
\nAbia South muzzled himself back to the senate when he sought and failed to
\nsecure the governorship seat of Abia State. Senator Abaribe in the spirit
\nof fairness and equity was supposed to relinquish the senate seat to Chief
\nChris Nkwonta, an oil magnate and political heavy weight from Ukwa; major
\nsub ethnic block in the much touted Ukwa\/Ngwa cultural and political union
\nsince both Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu and Sen.Enyinnaya Abaribe himself came from
\nthe same local govt and almost from the same community.<\/p>\n
It is very clear to me that Senator Abaribe wants to nominate his loyalist
\nand candidate for this position for obvious reasons of cornering anything
\nand everything to his control and this unfair and unacceptable; which
\nreason I find it rather nauseating, to hear so loudly, the cry for
\nfairness laced in hypocrisy, after Senator Abaribe has comfortably secured
\nhimself at the Senate.<\/p>\n
I am therefore calling on the Senate President to go ahead and screen Mr .
\nDonatus Nwankpa.and clear him as nominated, based on his merit and
\nrecommendations of the law and not with considerations for any mundane
\nreasons.
\nNwadike, a commentator on public affairs, wrote in from Aba<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Maxwell Nwadike \u201cI hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.\u201d\u00a0 \u2015 Oscar Wilde.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n