ENUGU STATE LG POLL CRISIS!

THE STAGE is getting set for another council election in Enugu State as the chairman of the Enugu state Independent Electoral Commission ENSIEC, Mr. Boniface Eneh, recently rolled out an election time table that will guide the conduct of party primaries, scheduled for next month while the inter party election proper will hold on November 2, 2013.
Enugu state is among the states of the federation that has consistently enhanced the conduct of council elections so as to allow a democratically elected structure to be enthroned as the managers of the 3rd tier of government in the state, as provided in the nation’s constitution.
The council elections in Enugu state going by the laws of the state comes up every two years to elect new council chairmen in the 17 council areas of the state and a Councilor in each of the 260 wards in the state.
However, the laws of the state as made by the state house of assembly permits for a maximum two terms of two years, totaling four years for any of the Council chairmen who is adjudged to have preformed creditably well and supposedly returned by his or her people.
However, it is a known fact that other human factors like the issue of political god-fatherism, influence or dictates of the chief executive of the state to the state party structure on who is the government candidate etc, quite often are alleged to be the determinant factor. To that extent, the vote of the masses and their social civic responsibility to choose who shall be leader are very often shortchanged or mortgaged.
Still the persuasion for our democracy to thrive or as often said is on trial, is used to cover up. Many political pundits have pointed and punctured the development as the leprous political cancer bedeviling the state and have continued to remain the bane of social infrastructural development of the state’s rural communities.
It is widely alleged that these political godfathers, and others who influenced the making of a council boss, are always rewarded monthly from the monthly federal allocation accruing from the federation account. The state chief executive in his own strategic style through his close aides in the state administration, devices conduit pipe of siphoning the local government funds through the joint account system and partnership projects.
The above ugly and dirty deal of usurping local council funds in Enugu state were largely reported to be rampant during the Eight year tenure of Senator Chimaroke Nnamani led civilian administration in the state. At the tail end of the administration, it was revealed that his administration has sucked the 17 local governments in the state very dry, through the joint account system with the state government. At the last count, the then commissioner for local government, Chief Sam Ejiofor, who was also a brain box of the Governor Chime administration, was standing trial by the Economic and Financial crimes commission EFCC, to have illegally siphoned over 5.5 billion naira from the accounts of the 17 local councils’ administration in the state.
The implication is the fact that the 17 council administration’s developmental pace and initiatives were debased with the socio economic negative effect and consequence that a lot of the indigents, especially those of them living in the rural areas, were thrown into abject poverty. So far, there has not been proved facts to buttress such insinuations and allegation that the present state administration is looting or tampering unlawfully with the local government funds. The message and song everywhere is that the partnership projects in the state are being executed at the rate of sixty and forty percent by the state and local government respectively.
The People’s Democratic party, PDP which produced the current chairmen in all the 17 council areas and the 260 wards in the state is warming up to maintain the record. But just 12 out of the 17 will be seeking reelection based on the fact that they have only completed the first two years of their service to their people while the five that have completed two years for two terms are automatically thrown out of the race.
A guide line released at the Enugu state secretariat of the party last week as announced by the state chairman of the party, Engineer Vita Abba stated that the PDP party primaries will be conducted on September 10 and 14, to elect candidates that will fly the party’s banner in the November 2, 2013 council elections, as scheduled by ENSIEC.
Engineer Vita Abba, the state chairman of the party, at the meeting stressed in view of the fact that the election time table as released by ENSIEC is coming one month earlier than the previous state elections, which previously were held in the month of December, the party has to strategise so as to maintain its control of the state.
Nigerian Pilot investigations revealed that going by both the political weight and financial muscle of the PDP in the state, the election can be said to have been won and lost, and the PDP retaining its absolute control of the state. This is predicated on the fact that the party machinery is well funded from the purse of the state government, and no other party in the state enjoys that privileged since none of them have produced any political office holder, neither in the state nor at the National assembly.
Again, the 12 local government chairmen that are qualified to seek for a second term obviously have enough funds in their councils to prosecute their campaigns, more than ordinary contenders or aspirants from other parties, if any. In addition, there are complaints and allegations, among intending aspirants from other parties, that ENSIEC administration, is an extension of Enugu state government house, that the idea of pegging the sum of two hundred thousand naira and Fifty thousand nomination fees on Chairmanship aspirants and councilorship aspirants by the organisation, is just to weaken candidates outside PDP, who have grass root goodwill and support but are poor from joining the race.
The chairman of ENSIEC, Mr. Boniface Eneh has always buttressed that there are no iota of truth in the allegation and no facts to buttress it, as the commission is committed to conducting a free and fair election.
But in as much as the opposition party’s aspirants hold this view, there are still growing fears among the PDP aspirants especially among the 12 serving chairmen who will be seeking re election for a second term. There are insinuations making round in the state that some of them are likely to be dropped on the orders of the powers that control the machinery of PDP in the state. Not on the ground that they have not performed creditably well in their first tenure, or no longer the choice of their people or do not possess the wherewithal to project and prosecute their elections.

Nigerian Pilot gathered that some of them may likely to be dropped based on the current cold war and power play among the PDP party major stake holders in the state. We further gathered from a unanimous source that any of the serving local government chairman in Enugu state, who does not reject his political godfather or mentor, not minding how highly placed or connected his mentor is in the nation’s political circle, and rededicate absolute loyalty to governor Chime, is likely to be denied his ticket.
So far, the state PDP chairman, Engineer Vita Abba, says there is no automatic ticket for anybody, even those who are serving their first term. Pundits see it as the ploy and strategy to off load internal opposition against the incumbent leadership of the party in the state.