Gov. Suswan’s Burden

Comfort Obi

Gabriel Suswan, the governor of Benue State must be cursing the day he was picked by the national leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to be the Chairman of the Committee which, on September 28, conducted the ward delegate congress of Anambra State chapter of the party.
For starters, he would go down as conducting one of the worst state delegate congresses ever. He knows it. After giving himself a pass mark, he descended on the politicians in the state, dismissing them as people without character. But 36 out of the 47 governorship aspirants collectively holds him responsible for the mess. In a statement, they stopped short of calling him cheap and corrupt. “Governor Suswan is a sell-out,” they chorused.
Truth is, considering the bloody violence that accompanied the congress, it is difficult to agree with Suswan’s self- apportioned pass mark. Here was a situation where people carried all kinds of dangerous weapons. Guns boomed, and widespread rigging held sway. There was unpararelled thuggery. Ballot boxes and election materials were snatched brazenly. In most parts of the state, elections did not take place. Yet, Suswan boasts that it was “successful by any standard.” Which standard?
I’m not sure Suswan believes himself. For proof, I intend to quote him copiously. Suswan: "... Anambra people have no shame. We were overwhelmed by what we saw. Anambra is a different issue altogether. They don’t want sanity to prevail or anything genuine. The first ugly experience was that some aspirants would offer you anything, any amount of money. One even offered to give me one billion naira cash that evening. I declined, and even felt angry at such desperation."
I will take Suswan up on some of his comments. But it is important to also quote what some of the aspirants think of him. In a statement issued by Collins Steve Ugwu, the media co-ordinator of the Campaign Directors of 36 of the 47 governorship aspirants, Suswan’s handling of the election was rated worse than a combination of all elections so far conducted by INEC under Professor Maurice Iwu. I will also quote copiously from it. Ugwu: “It is regrettable that the fangs of vultures were here again to ruin the most expensive and most extensive PDP organised state congress ever in the history of the country. Against the tide of expectation generated by the enthusiasm that external candidates, insulated from group allegiance, Suswan assembled a truly elected ward congress delegates, decapitated it, and traded it off to Chris Uba, to impose hand-picked associates, and checked out richer and fulfilled.
“How can the Suswan committee explain the fact that after collecting illegal levy per ward from aspirants, amounting to N250 million, he brazenly substituted candidates that were elected with characters that never contested. And when we surveyed the slant of those being imposed, we arrived at the inescapable conclusion that there was a predetermined bargain, offer, purchase and delivery.
“It amounts to a severe hypnotic and cultic subservience, if not crass financial buy-over, for elements in the National Working Committee, through their evangelist, Suswan, to dance so naked to the ruinous script of their Chief Priest, and godfather, Chris Uba, and to summate to consummate this poisonous mix, it does not matter if the state and their stretched people go up in flames again in their natural tradition..."
I pity Anambra State. Since the exit of the military in 1999, the state has been in chaos. Until the coming of Governor Peter Obi, there was no development. The state was run like a 419 business. Its first governor, elected in 1999, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju, brought it to its knees. The next one, Dr. Chris Ngige, who now parades as a democrat, was an impostor. Yet, he stayed put for three years, wasting time and money in courts, until the Appeal Court gave him the marching order. During his illegal tenure, the state was reduced to a theatre of the absurd. On one occasion, he appeared before the fetish Okija shrine. On another, he was abducted, allegedly, by his godfather. The semblance of peace, which has ushered in unprecedented development and responsible financial management came with Obi. Yet, everything has been done to frustrate him. That he is neither embezzling the state’s money, nor distributing it to idlers and godfathers, is a minus for him, instead of a plus. Even a faction of his party, APGA, headed by Chekwas Okorie, is dancing naked in the market square, ignoring court orders, and inexplicably insisting on doing away with the only governor APGA boasts of for now.
I weep for this state. This is a state which attracted people to its market, Otu Onitsha, from all over West Africa. Now, nobody dares for fear of being killed or kidnapped – a situation which some useless politicians reduced it to. This is a state which has produced some of the best in the world in every field. Yet it is the state where some scoundrels in order to embarrass the Igbo, and Obi’s government, would try to kidnap the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, one of the most respected traditional rulers in Nigeria. Would anybody dare plan this abomination against the Sultan of Sokoto, the Oba of Benin, the Ooni of Ife, the Alaafin of Oyo, the Obong of Calabar or the Oba of Lagos?
But back to Suswan. Who was the aspirant who offered him one billion naira cash? Did he recommend his disqualification? Did he call the police or the EFCC? Who was his witness? Why didn’t he publicly name the aspirant? If he did, he would have helped sanitise the polity. That aspirant is an armed robber, and would steal the state blind. And what is Suswan’s answer to the allegations raised by the 37 aspirants? Did his committee illegally collect N250 million from delegate-aspirants? A PDP stalwart, a few days ago, described the state as PDP's oil well. Was the N250 million part of the oily profit? His committee has been accused of 'selling' to the highest bidder. True or false? These are strong allegations. They need answers. Otherwise, any day the filth that has become the PDP in Anambra State will be written, Suswan would attract an ignoble mention. For a young man, that will be sad.