The Resurfacing Shadows of the Ebeano Dynasty in Enugu Politics: Ndị Enugu About to Dance with a Venomous Snake Again? -By Odo Christian Obinna 

One cannot open the history pages of Enugu politics, development, and growth without encountering broad pages engraved with the name of the state’s former executive governor, His Excellency, Sen. Chimaroke Nnamani. His Excellency tried to wheel Enugu State onto the proper pedestal of development. Whether his attempts were worthy the efforts or not is a topic for another day. However, what is certain is that his successor, His Excellency, Barr. Sullivan Chime, did fair enough to catapult Enugu State to its current status. It is unfortunate, however, that the current fat Orba trader masquerading as an administrator has, without breaking a sweat, set the state back decades with his gross incompetence.

But the main point of this piece is not to bemoan the mistakes of the 2015 governorship elections, but to call our attention to another possible mistake, come the 2023 governorship elections in the state; a dangerous fog that is becoming a reality in Enugu politics— Chimaroke’s shadow or the popular morally degenerative Ebeano dynasty is resurfacing back into our political life.
But why should anyone care about this? While Chimaroke was a relatively effective governor, his popular style of governance left every Ndi Enugu with a bitter political experience that no amount of historical revision could erase.The Ebeano dynasty, which held Enugu state in a tight, lethal grip at the start of the fourth republic or the new millennium, was marked by broken bones, spilled blood, and wasted lives. Enugu was a desolate wasteland for dissenting voices and anyone deemed a threat to the dynasty’s free flourishing—a brutal coven of state-sponsored marauding hitmen, cultists, and lethal thugs.

When I was a kid, the name “Chimaroke” was a household name, not because of the name’s administrative success, but because of the looming threat of death.My distant experience with the name and its operating style provided me and other children with our first political orientation, which took us many years to change—governance necessarily meant bloodshed, violence, and witch-hunting.

But, once again, why should anyone care about this? One might wonder, and rightly so, how this name has anything to do with the state’s upcoming governorship elections. The face and name behind the Ebeano dynasty has reappeared, this time in the form of PDP gubernatorial candidate Barr. Peter Mba. I only know him as a cabinet member of the then-old Ebeano dynasty. As a result, making a negative claim about his ability to lead the political capital powerhouse of eastern Nigeria, Enugu state, would be treasonous.

While there is some ambiguity here, one thing is clear and should give any good student of history pause: the power behind the tunes he grooves to; the old, familiar hand playing the piper and dictating the direction his dancing feet sway to. It’s the same Chimaroke who gave his name to the once-dead but now rapidly resurrecting Ebeano dynasty. The foreshadowing of what may become our reality, with the Ebeano cabal fully hijacking the state’s power structures by 2023 if not checked, has already occurred. We saw this during the primaries, when the primaries were brutally hijacked and highly monetized at the last minute to pave the way for a man whose only administrative relevance if elected governor of the state will be ceremonial. Entrusting the fate of an entire state to a government that lacks a mind of its own or does not carry its name with sacrosanctic grace is always a dangerous dance towards a tragic end. It’s a non-negotiable risk, a potentially self-inflicted destructive volcano.

Some of the indomie generation ecstatically yelling “ashua azumama in Enugu politics” at the emergence of Barr. Peter Mba as PDP gubernatorial candidate were most likely not born in the early 2000s, when the Ebeano dynasty ruled the roost.

What sucks more is not the undiluted ignorance being peddled by this indomie generation about the old stories of uninhabitable Enugu that are about to be retold in the state by the same actors from the shadowy background, but how our indomie generation is applauding and praising the hijacking of the Peoples Democratic Party primaries in the state by Ebeano irredentists.

It’s a classic case of Stockholm syndrome, in which the victims, the age-old prisoners, sing praises to their fate grabbers and hijackers on an empty stomach—and for what? For a successful trade, an auction of their common patrimony in the Lion Building by a few with the poster face of the fat Orba trader and bought by fellow masquerading merchants and expansionists.

That “ashua azumama,” or people’s common patrimony, has been auctioned off to the highest bidders is no longer news or a novel experience for Ndi Enugu, given that the current media governor, who is making mockery of everything good governance, emerged in a similar manner. However, What is strange is that some people seem to be genetically predisposed to reject learning from experience. These people, blinded by a confluence of sentiments, ignorance, and possibly mischief, are not only preparing to fully resurrect the Ebeano dynasty, but are also working tirelessly to repeat the 2015 error, which has trajected the state to a rapid course of retrogression and degeneration by 2023.

True, you have the right to join the depraved, merchandising lot in raising a glass to a successful auction in the Lion Building, and you are even willing to stick out your neck for the cabal trading in your common patrimony, but keep in mind that a leopard does not shed its skin. A vulture will always be a hideous, dirty-looking creature feeding on both kindred and non-kindred animal entrails in the open market, no matter how much eyewash it receives!

“Ashua azumama” in Enugu state, and the feast for the spoils is fierce. While it’s tempting to jump on board and get lost in the orgy of drink baths, don’t forget to ask yourself who pays. You have not only given encouraging, friendly taps on the shoulders of your violators for plundering your patrimony; you have also, for a morsel or nothing, enlisted yourself into the machinery being assembled by the Ebeano cabal to drag Enugu state to the old era of cracked bones, broken jaws, spilled blood, and wasted lives, all sponsored by the state!

Odo Christian Obinna, a student journalist, writes from the University of Ibadan. thegreatcitizen1997@gmail.com