2027: Ugwuanyi's reckless ambition and the lesson from Fujumori

2027: UGWUANYI'S RECKLESS AMBITION AND THE LESSON FROM FUJUMORI 

By Emma Ogbonna

Did someone say; former Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi intends to re-contest the Enugu North Senatorial seat in 2027 or one of the jokes of the new year? It's not looking like a joke, as the disgraced former governor, it's reported,  has set machinery in motion towards realizing the ambition despite  massive rejection for the same office barely 9 months ago. But how? 

One of the positive steps already taken by the former Chief Executive was the inauguration of a free medical outreach in some parts of the senatorial zone as well as the institution  of a propaganda team to peddle lies against the incumbent Senator, Chief Okey Ezea, with a view to painting him black before the electorate. The ragtag media team , ostensibly peopled by persons of insufficient education who neither have regard for etiquette nor rules of journalism practice, is fingerd to be  behind the recent disinformation  against the distinguished Senator and which has been put to rest by the federal government's clarification that at no time did it send food items or palliatives through any Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. When the false information was  disinherited  by the government,  everyone waited for a reaction from the rascals but nothing has been heard ever since. This speaks volumes about the quality of people Ugwuanyi hires to attack Senator Ezea and what more to expect from them. 

Now, back to the former governor's  ludicrous ambition. Has he the right to aspire to any political office of his choice, vote and be voted for under the constitution? Certainly yes. Should failure to get elected at the first attempt discourage anyone from further attempts? If no, why is Ugwuanyi's case  regarded as a huge joke by commentators? 

The former governor fully understands why his ambition is being diametrically derided but chooses to wish it away or bank on his  looted funds or the 'Naija' way, after all, the governor he managed to install was not  voted by Enugu people, yet he got declared winner and when challenged in court, won up to the Supreme Court. What then makes anyone think that if the 'Naija' way didn't work for Ugwuanyi in 2023, it will  not work at any other time? 

Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi's case is deep seated and far from  ordinary. A pariah he has become, ought to know that generational isolation may not be enough to propitiate or atone for the  sin of criminal betrayal of  one's own people and that no perfume of Arabia will be efficacious enough to deodorize his stench  within this generation.  Given the riotous but bellied quest for vengeance in an average Enugu North person, it will amount to a surprise if a major political party decided to waste its ticket on Ugwuanyi. For many, he's a closed, stinking chapter no one has appetite to reopen.

If Ugwuanyi understood neither history nor current affairs, the story of his fellow pariahs in other parts of the world   might be of help. Ferdinand Marcos as Philipino military dictator between 1965 and 1986, enslaved, tortured and brutalized his people, banishing human rights from the country's landscape. He was also known as one of the world's most hardened kleptocrats of his time. It took the people's revolution of 1986 to force him into exile where he later died. After his death,  the people of Philippines, through their succeeding government, took their hatred to his powerful  first lady Emeda Marcos, culminating in her trial and imprisonment.   The name Marcos became a national taboo while no member of the Marcos family needed to be lectured to understand that his  family had been rejected for life.

Nonetheless, Ferdinand Marcos junior the son of the late dictator, understanding fully the mood of his people, despite his education and qualification, waited for 35 years to beg  Philipinos to forgive his family. He waited for so long to enable passion to cool and for the people to become convinced, through his own records that he's not a replica of his father. When he declared his intention to contest the presidential election of 2022,  he  pleaded with his people to judge him based on his own sins, if any, and not those of his father. 

Despite the campaign of calumny harshly mounted against him by political opponents, as a Marcos, the people of Philippines felt that the family had been isolated enough and that Ferdinand Marcos junior had a sound track record of service to humanity as opposed to that of his father.  They voted him and he's now their President. 

While the Philippines forgave the Marcos family after 35 years,  the Fujumoris of Peru have not been as lucky. Alberto Fujumori, a contemporary of Ferdinand Marcos and brutal dictator, was also overthrown and put in prison. His daughter Keiko, not as  patient to wait for passion to cool,  jumped into politics but has yet to make any progress after several attempts. In fact, she came so close to winning the presidency five years ago but was defeated in a run- off election when many people suddenly realized that she was a Fujumori who took so much after her father. 

From the Marcos and Fujumori stories above, only children of pariahs attempt to rewrite their families history and not they themselves. It could however be argued on behalf of Ugwuanyi that he was neither a Head of state nor  a dictator while in office. That will not hold water because a pariah is pariah no matter the office held while  the sin of  betrayal of one's own people has greater effect. 

Someone has suggested that the best thing Nyesom Wike could through Tinubu  do for his friend Ugwuanyi,  is to send him away as an ambassador to any country to enable Enugu North people see and hear less of him at least in the next two decades. That way, a new set of voters who did not witness his betrayal  could consider his children in future.

Until that advice is heeded, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi wants to break a record of being the first world pariah who returned to politics when the heart of his people are still heavy and boiling for revenge. Time will tell.