“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.” ― Oscar Wilde.
Was Oscar Wilde referring to Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe? We shall find out.
Loading ...The recent nomination of Mr Donatus Nwankpa as the commissioner designate from Abia State into the board of NDDC didn’t come to those of us who knows him as a surprise. This was because he is very roundly qualified and a well-tested team player, who has so much to offer the commission as well as Abains.
The surprise, rather arose when some Abians led by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, representing Abia South in the Senate did not only express his displeasure with the appointment but went ahead to state a mundane reason to why Mr. Donatus Nwankpa should not be screened to fill Abia State slot in the NDDC Board.
His reason was that the appointment of a candidate outside the oil producing area of the state was against the law and asked the President to replace the nominee with somebody from Ukwa West Local Council, which he said, is the only oil producing area in Abia State for now.
It surprises my imagination on how our lawmakers are bent on quoting and misinterpreting the law in order to suit their political maneuvering and personal gain.
I have taken my time to read through the laws setting up and guiding the commission and can only find where it is clearly stated that a member must be from an oil producing state, without particular reference to being an Indigene of a producing community.
Furthermore, the first Chairman of NDDC, Chief Onyema Ugochuchikwu, was an Umuahia man, though an Abian to head the office but was not from an oil producing community of the state.
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe cannot suddenly become a champion of fairness and equity when after two tenures of eight years as Senator representing Abia South muzzled himself back to the senate when he sought and failed to secure the governorship seat of Abia State. Senator Abaribe in the spirit of fairness and equity was supposed to relinquish the senate seat to Chief Chris Nkwonta, an oil magnate and political heavy weight from Ukwa; major sub ethnic block in the much touted Ukwa/Ngwa cultural and political union since both Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu and Sen.Enyinnaya Abaribe himself came from the same local govt and almost from the same community.
It is very clear to me that Senator Abaribe wants to nominate his loyalist and candidate for this position for obvious reasons of cornering anything and everything to his control and this unfair and unacceptable; which reason I find it rather nauseating, to hear so loudly, the cry for fairness laced in hypocrisy, after Senator Abaribe has comfortably secured himself at the Senate.
I am therefore calling on the Senate President to go ahead and screen Mr . Donatus Nwankpa.and clear him as nominated, based on his merit and recommendations of the law and not with considerations for any mundane reasons.
Nwadike, a Public Affairs Analyst, wrote in from Aba
