Legislators should get ready for war

By IKENNA EMEWU (ikeroyal@yahoo.co.uk)
Saturday, October 28, 2006


Lagos-based lawyer and social critic, Chief Azubuike Obiekwe is one of the Anambra citizens that is agitated by the unpopular plot of the members of the state Assembly to impeach Governor Peter Obi. He has therefore, charged the legislators in an interview with Saturday Sun to get ready for war with the people unless they beat a retreat in their bid.

“A promise they must not take for granted is that unless they drop the impeachment move, they must envisage a situation where the people of Anambra State will chase them in the streets of Onitsha, Awka, Nnewi, Ekwulobia and in fact all the villages of Anambra because they are betrayers and enemies of progress of their people.
Let us get this message across to them very clear that we still believe in ‘Ani’, and the soil of the Igbo nation will uproot them because we know the plans they have.

That plan is to make sure the Governor and his Deputy are removed so that the Speaker of the House will take over and through that pave the way for the same PDP cabal that has messed up the state to hijack the allocation and revenue meant for the development of Anambra to prosecute their rigging next year. All these are for the selfish interest of a family that has turned a problem who came to negative limelight from nowhere because the system has created avenues for people of questionable identity to have the ears of the people in power in Abuja”.

How wrong is Obi?
Is it wrong to for a governor to handle a project at lesser cost and save a state so much money? We all want to know how impeachable it is that a governor deposited money in a particular bank known by the Central Bank of Nigeria and not under any threat of distress. And the money was deposited through the normal statutory processes. It is also not yet clear to us why it should be an offence, morally or legally, for a man to renovate the Government House at a cost ten times less than what the legislators budgeted or to earmark Onitsha, a prominent city for renovation.
These are posers that nag the minds of many Anambra State citizens who still wonder what error Governor Peter Obi has committed to necessitate his impeachment as threatened by the members of the state Assembly.

“The facts are available that the House approved over N340 million for the renovation, but Obi executed the project at about N32m, and better result achieved, so if he is accused of impropriety, that means prudence is now an offence in Nigeria. It is only a people with mindset for corruption that will fight a governor under the circumstances, and it proves to watchers that there are more reasons than meet the eye, which the legislators have not told us that is at the back of their mind. Maybe Obi did not allow them plunder the state through inflation of contract sums.

“The other laughable instance they cite is that Governor Obi awarded the contract for the renovation to his political associate. We don’t know when that became an infraction of the law. It is not unconstitutional. It is not illegal. It is not wrong and it is not immoral to do that. What matters is that the job has been done. Come to think of it, should Obi have given the job to his enemy or one he can’t vouch for his reputation to do the job so that through the negligence of the contractor he would play into the hands of the legislators when the person does not perform?

Questionable lawmakers
The reputation of most of the members of the House is what most of the people of Anambra can’t attest to. Many of them were not known for any reputation before PDP and the culture of rigging imposed them on us. We all knew Hon. Ben Nwosu, a lawyer who had a good practise here in Lagos before going to the House, and some few others of his ilk who made good names for themselves prior to becoming legislators. Apart from this few who we also know their truthful stand in this matter many others are people we can’t situate anywhere for doing anything to demonstrate their love for their state....................read more below:

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpage...0-2006-001.htm