There is not a single one of the opposition candidates in the last governorship election in Imo State who didn’t know he was going to lose the election, and I can tell you that there is none among the key contestants; Athan Achonu and Samuel Anyanwu, who wouldn’t have supported Governor Uzodimma’s re-election bid if they weren’t on the ballot. Two of them have and probably still enjoy very close political, social, and business affinity with the governor.
In contrast to what some of us believed, both of them were not even relying on any luck to propel them to victory, but they were in the race for the fun of it and for the satisfaction of being addressed, though, wrongly, as “Your Excellency” and to put it on their CV that they had been governorship candidates of major political Parties.
For Samdaddy, especially, the key interest was to stop Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha from flying the PDP flag a third time and probably, raising funds from his friends and PDP governors to resurrect his struggling business empires and potentially strengthen his chances to contest against 2027, when there would be a proper vacancy in Douglas House.
Though a very proud man, Senator Athan Achonu also knew he wasn’t going to win, but the reality of registering his presence as a governorship candidate in the 27 LGAs of the State, for the very first time, was a humongous achievement and giving him the kind of egoistic satisfaction one could get, maybe, from going on a boat cruise or enjoying a party on a yacht.
While anyone with the means should enjoy the right to fritter away his resources however he wishes, just like Stockton Rush, Nageoleth, the Dawoods, and Hamish Harding frittered away billions of Naira just to be among the few individuals to join the Titan submersible cruise on an expedition many thousands miles in the depth of the sea, there are thousands of people embarking on such expeditions just for fun and to quench their thirst for adventures.
Some people are not very wealthy, but would rather sell off their life investments and plow their earnings into such expeditions. For instance, many people bought into Life at Sea cruises, which promised to help people sail away from their life troubles by living at sea for three years, cruising around the world for about 38,000 Dollars per year. Unfortunately, this cruise never happened as the organisers had to call it off because they couldn’t get a ship.
While there is nothing wrong with people trying to use their personal resources to live out their fantasies, there is everything wrong when someone tries to deceive the populace while living their personal fantasies. Senators Athan Achonu and Samuel Anyanwu could have taken a speedboat on a cruise across the Atlantic and I would celebrate them, even if they drown like the Titanic Submersible 5, but when they embark on some fun-seeking voyage while deceiving the people that they are on a mission of service to them, it becomes immoral, and our responsibility to call them out, and even tell them how best they could have spent that money.
Since both men never really imagined themselves winning the governorship, there is absolutely no justification for the amount of money and time they squandered on that voyage of disgrace. It rather exposed them as very selfish and manipulative individuals who wouldn’t mind using ordinary people as fodders for their personal fun. They raised the hopes of their scanty real followers and a few of them might have invested their little resources into a project that was billed for the bricks, while also upending the lives and careers of some of the bright youths they recruited as media hands-on pittance.
Neither Athan Achonu nor Samuel Anyanwu spent less than One billion Naira in that voyage of disgrace they embarked on, and I can tell you that 50% of that money would have gone a long way in making the lives of at least a thousand Imo youths better.
If they were development-minded and had the slightest interest of the people at heart, they could have used just 50% of that money they spent on “nothing” to reduce the spate of insecurity and poverty in the State, by selecting just 100 skilled and business-oriented youths from Imo State and pumping, some reasonable amount into their dreams.
Should they invest in the right youths, they could, in the next four years, have a more realistic path to the governorship, as these youths would not only be able to canvas support for them by that time but could also modestly fund their campaigns.
Assuming they embark on that comical frolic in honest misjudgment, let me help them by advising them this time around to channel the resources they would be paid to lawyers and judicial staff for bound-to-fail litigation at the tribunal, up till the Supreme Court. To mount any kind of effective challenge in a governorship election petition tribunal, up until the appeal court, one would have to budget, at least 200 Million Naira.
The duo of Athan Achonu and Samuel Anyanwu should prove my judgment of them as selfish manipulators wrong, by using half of that money to empower and economically liberate some skilled and adequately prepared business-oriented youths around them, even if it is just those social media hands who took bullets for them and fired missiles on their behalf during the campaigns.
Read Also: How Imo Opposition Aided Uzodimma’s Landslide Victory
Anything other than this would clear every doubt that they do not care about Imo, but are deceitful and selfish leaders who prefer to ride roughshod on the people’s dreams than doing little within their capacity to ease their pains.
IMO MUST THRIVE!
- Script Credit: ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES
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