By Linus Aleke
The Senator representing Enugu North Senatorial District at the red chamber of the National Assembly, Sen. Okey Ezea invited constituents, political associates, traditional rulers and his colleague senators serving and retired to St Theresa Catholic Cathedral Nsukka, for a thanksgiving service to God for his one year in office as a law maker.
The gratitude to God by the senator was not out of place, as that was his first ever electoral victory outside the university environment.This is so because his political history is punctuated with electoral failures at the poll. This explains his penchant for jumping from one political party to the other before now.
Meanwhile, thanks to the ban wagon effect that characterized the 2023 general election in the southeast, where Obi factor, rather than the pedigree of individual politicians had the upper hand at the poll. So, beyond thanksgiving to God, Ezea should also appreciate Peter Obi, whose good name and political clout played significant role in his victory at the poll.
Interestingly, invited guests and constituents whose secondary mission in the Church was to listen to the Catholic Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, Prof. Godfrey Igwebuike Onah, whose eloquent and double edged homily pierces every contrite heart that encounters it.
The constituents also thronged the venue of the grand reception to have a hand shake with their senator. Regrettably, the mouthed peoples senator had no cheering news for the constituents. It was likely that Ezea and his handlers did not give serious thought to the fact that those he invited for hand shake would ask him about his achievements, one year after, before organizing the ecclesiastical fanfare.
Alas, his numerous but ill experienced media handlers could not also see beyond shadows of their nose, to articulate one single thing within the period under review that qualifies as an achievement. Rather, they were preoccupied with campaign of calumny against political leaders, senior citizens, Catholic clergymen in the state and the constituents as well. If it is not that the clergymen in the state are absconding from their callings and meddling into politics, it would be that all the past and present leaders in the state, except Ezea are thieves and mandate robbers or that the constituents lacked the knowledge of the duties of a law maker and therefore, harbouring unrealistic expectations.
The Senator needs to review the kind of characters he appointed as media handlers before they ruin his political career, as their appetite for vile and gutter language is second to none in the country.
Nevertheless, when the reality was down on the celebrant that the occasion presents a veritable platform for stocktaking, he decided to count his chicks before they are hatched, a practice that contravene ancient wisdom. But before going into the chickens counted before they are hatched, it is imperative to examine the conversation around the Senators outreach to hospitals and orphanages within Nsukka metropolitan areas, before the thanksgiving proper.
His media aides swiftly went to town with the figure of few hundreds of thousand he paid for patients who were unable to pay their bills at the two hospitals owned by Catholic and Anglican missions in Nsukka. In fact they noted that the Senator visited the two primary health facilities in Nsukka, as part of activities line up for his thanksgiving service.
Also, pictures of the Senator, the orphanage officials and his friends with few cartons of idomine noodles, rolls of tissue paper and other toiletries flooded the cyber space shortly after the visit. Little did his anachronistic media aides who perforated the internet with such inglorious images, envisaged the backlash it will eventually orchestrate on the social media space.
Ezema Clement, a social media user and a constituent, asked if Nsukka metropolitan areas now constitutes Enugu North Senatorial District?
He said: “When Ezea was looking for our votes, he remembered that we existed and are part of the area called Enugu North, but now that it is time to pay hospital bills and donate few cartons of indomine to orphanages, it can only be done in Nsukka local metropolitan areas. We are watching but he should be advised by his legislative aides that when next he organizes such fanfare disguised as thanksgiving and grand reception, he should remember other local government areas in the zone, with special focus on those living remote areas”.
Also reacting to the pre-thanksgiving philanthropic gesture, a constituent in a closed WhatsApp group, expressed displeasure over donation of not more than one million, and few cartons of idomine noodles and toiletries to the two orphanages in Nsukka.
According to him, “This man called Sen. Okey Ezea obviously has no shame. A serving senator posing for picture for these half – pint gift is the greatest undoing to the sensibility of our people. I decided to come out of my quiet zone to react to this public attack on the reasoning of our people because this habit is gradually turning into a norm. And yet the gulliAndroid minds are still echoing the rings of congratulations and commendations. It will soon be clear even to the blind that Okey Ezea is bad choice”.
His supporters however praised him to high heavens for what other constituents describe as an insult on the sensibility of the people.
On his achievements within the period under review, one of his media aide, Martins Chimguzorom Ezugwu,
quoted him as saying that construction works will begin at the site of an annex of the National Orthopaedic Hospital at Aku, in Igbo-Etiti LGA of Enugu State, this year. Ton Ezea’s media handlers, a project, whose groundbreaking ceremony is yet to take place is already been counted as an achievement. What then are we going to call it when eventually it is completed?
Noting that Ezea, gave this hint in his address at the occasion of a thanksgiving and grand reception held in his honour in Nsukka, the aide further quoted him as saying that the annex and other projects have been captured in the 2024 budget. I would however, not be tempted to believe that a Senator would celebrate a project simply because it was captured in the budget of the 2024 fiscal year, even when he is not sure of cash backing and releases from the Federal Ministry of Finance, in Abuja.
Counting another chick before it is hatched, Sen. Ezea, according to his aide, said that solar-powered boreholes and solar street lights will be installed in several communities in Nsukka zone, including the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, this year. I am again compelled to ask if these things are achievements or fresh campaign promises? When all the achievements are still in the womb, how are we sure they would not all end up as still born.
Still on speculative achievements, Ezea was quoted to have said that his interactions with his colleagues and members of the federal executive have produced good fruit, as evident in the ongoing reconstruction of the dilapidated Makurdi–Obollo–Opi–Ninth Mile expressway as well as three rural roads at Uzo-Uwani LGA that he inherited from Senator Chukwuka Utazi of the Ninth Senate. The media aide are also shamelessly counting Utazi’s legacies as Ezea’s achievements.
He also called for unity in the senatorial district for more invisible progress and prosperity of constituents.
I would however, not be tempted to believe that Sen Ezea do not know the difference between campaign promise and scorecard. He is not just a law maker but a trained lawyer. To that end, I dare say that his supporters are ignorantly allocating non existent projects to him as achievements and his silence on the matter is ignoble.
I will not be tired of drawing the attention of Sen. Ezea to the right things he ought to do for our people as a Senator, as I did in one of my previous intervention which of course led to the appointment of legislative and constituency aides. It is however, regrettable that he had not acted on my advise for him to open a functional constituency office in all the six local government areas that constitute Enugu North Senatorial District.
While, we patiently wait for his implementation of the above counsel, we appeal to him to expedite action on attracting verifiable projects that will improve the living conditions of constituents and not the invisible achievements in the wombs of non existent mother, that his aides are trumpeting.
In conclusion, your sincerely confidently posits that Sen. Ezea Knows the difference between I will do and I am doing or I had done and therefore cannot commit such blunder.
Aleke writes from Nsukka
