Ngige, Please
I don’t know what pushes some Nigerian politicians. They play politics with everything. Death.

Comfort Obi

People’s misfortunes. People’s lives. And all, in a bid to get noticed. It is forgivable when an ignorant person does that. But when an educated person, especially, one who claims to be a leader, descends to that gutter level, it makes one sick.
I like Dr. Chris Ngige, the former illegal governor of Anambra State, now the legal governorship candidate of the Action Congress (AC). But all through his illegal occupation of the Government House, Awka, I yearned that he gives back Peter Obi his office. I hate injustice with a passion. And the case between him and Governor Obi was that, and more. For 30 months, Ngige sat pretty as a governor, even though he knew in his heart that he did not win any election. When he lost at the state electoral tribunal, he proceeded to the Appeal Court, instead of gracefully bowing out. And even when his enstranged political godfather, Chief Chris Uba, admitted before him, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, that he, Uba, rigged him into office, and apologised to Anambra people, Ngige sat still, until the court finally threw him out. Yet, I admired his courage then.
I liked his stubbornness. I know I loathed him for agreeing to stand naked before the fetish Okija shrine. I know I loathed him when I watched the video where he resigned his appointment as a governor, inside a toilet at the Hilton Hotel, Abuja. I was sick to my stomach, wondering how, at both Okija and the toilet, he allowed himself to be videoed. He was as frightened as a rat. I know I loathed him when he granted an interview, revealiing how he was slapped around as a governor by Uba’s henchmen. But later, when the s..t finally hit the fan between him and Uba, I was happy that he gathered whatever remained of his manhood together, and began to fight back. I began to sympathise with his situation. With time, the sympathy transformed to admiration. I liked it that he, at last, began to stand up to Uba. I liked his populist appeal. And even though I realised that he had become a master of propaganda, and had mastered the art of playing to the gallery, I admired him all the same. However, when he was thrown out of office by the Appeal Court, my reaction was: Good for him, he is an impostor. Yet, with what he went through in the hands of Uba and co., I felt that he left office with his head held high. Uba did not defeat him. For the period he was in office, Uba missed out on his "investment."
But out of office, Ngige has become something else. He feels he has become larger-than-life in the politics of Anambra State. He has forgotten that he connived with the corrupt contraption that brought him into office. And he has forgotten that his purported victory is null and void. My first disappointment was that, as educated and exposed as Ngige is, he continues to ridiculously prefix his name with the title, His Excellency. My second disappointment came the day Ngige went on an inspection of contracts awarded by Obi, criticising, and issuing instructions to contractors. The contract was not his. He did not award it. I felt that was cheap. He was playing to the gallery. The climax of my disappointments was when he granted an interview to a national daily, shamelessly accusing Obi of not paying him his pension; of not sponsoring and picking his medical bills abroad; of not paying his cooks, stewards and guards. My questions then were: For what? As what? Here is a man who usurped an office, an impostor. To allow him enjoy privileges due to former governors, to me, amounts to endorsing an illegality.
For sometime after that interview, Ngige was quiet. He kept himself busy by being in the company of some of those who usually are in the news for seeing no good in any government unless they are involved. Amazingly, Ngige is now, atimes, cited as a democrat, a progressive. How? What is the yardstick? He is now condemning rigging and injustice. Yet, for 30 months, he was a beneficiary of both rigging and injustice. But, perhaps, he has repented. Having illegally tasted power, he now wants the real thing. He wants to be a legitimate governor. To achieve that, he has picked the governorship ticket of the AC for the election which will take place in February 2010. And, he is campaigning. In the Nigerian context, nothing is wrong with that. Except that he is, again, not only playing to the gallery, he is playing politics with an unfortunate tragedy which befell his fellow human beings.
Penultimate week, a terrible accident happened in the state, sending several people to untimely deaths. It was an accident that tugged at the heart. So you would expect sympathies and condolences. Ngige did that, condoling with the families of the dead. But spoilt it by politicising the unfortunate incident.
In a most unbecoming manner, he attributed the accident to Obi’s government, which he alleged neglected that road. Interpretation: Obi's government is responsible for the accident, and the loss of lives. True? Patently false. The road is a federal road, and had nothing to do with Obi’s government. So, why should Ngige, or anybody, deliberately play politics with that tragedy? No reason. Except that Anambra State is a state like no other.
Politicians, especially, of Ngige’s ilk have ruined it. They provoke people everyday with gutter behaviour and pronouncements. They want the state to be on fire because that is when they thrive best. So, they talk nonsense and/or provoke decent people. Ngige’s provocative atitude does not end with what he says. It stretches to what he does. Like inspecting projects which he has no right to do. Or, consider even this.
Recently, Ngige was driving through Abagana where Obi was on a working visit. Seeing that Obi was addressing the people, he stopped, wound down his car window, and childishly began to wave at the crowd. That was provocative. But I guess Ngige was lucky that it was Obi’s crowd, and Obi’s security people. My advice: He should not try it with a PDP crowd.
In more civilized countries, having knowingly been a beneficiary of corruption, he would never be allowed to hold any political office again. But more important: Ngige should talk and behave with more decorum than he is doing. Having been a governor before, he should be mindful of what he does, and says. Especially, if he expects respect from his former “subjects.”